Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C263 263 Make Yourself At Home
[Unfortunately, the Navigation and Control Systems haven't been translated yet, but I can control them from here, and I have a full bridge suite of data available. Just give me a heading and I will serve as helmsman for the day.] Nico informed General Yaakov.
They had been working on the ship for thirty straight hours, and they were ready to start making way, but the controls on the Colony Ship weren't usable by just anyone, as the language wasn't intelligible, so a System Function that could bypass the need to translate was needed.
[Set a course along the Kepler border. Keep an eye out for threats, and those Klem Pods. I think that someone is about to make a big move once the Klem landing has distracted the Emperor. The Sector that the pods are going to land in is the same one that is chasing us, so their defense forces are almost all gone to Tapani right now, and we have no way to know if they are returning since we lost access to Kepler Military Communications.
I have some connections among the unaligned systems, and if you have any more, let me know and we can pick up supplies. Trading some of the destroyed Corvette's hull sections should be enough credit to at least get us topped off on fresh foods and clothing creation supplies.]
[Setting the course now. Our total travel speed is still unknown and might take some adjustment to get right. It is an alien ship after all.] Nico informed him, then started tapping at the control panel.
As she did, the ship began to come to life, all of the unused systems were brought online and a gentle hissing filled the ship.
"What is that noise?" Max asked, trying to find the source.
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"The ship wants the atmosphere balanced in the control area before the engines engage. There is probably an override somewhere, but I haven't found it yet, so we will be able to take off the suits in a few minutes." Nico explained.
"I am sure everyone will appreciate being able to move about without suits on. It's a long walk back to the Dutchman to take a break and remove the helmet." Max agreed with a sigh of relief.
The three-kilometer hike from the engineering bay to the ship every time he wanted a bite to eat was a pain in the neck, and Max would be more than a little happy not to have to do that again.
"There it is, engineering has an atmosphere, pressure nominal, the default setting is ten percent above standard, but the elemental balance is nearly identical to Kepler Terminus, with its slightly elevated Oxygen levels. You can remove your helmet now, the hallways outside are pressurizing right now, and the doors to unpressurized areas are hard locked." Nico informed him.
"Oh thank you. It is so good to get the helmet off." Max said, pressing the button to retract his helmet shell back into the armored suit. At least now his vision wasn't limited and the claustrophobic dome was gone.
[Were you planning to pressurize the hold with the Dutchman in it any time soon? We are locked in.] Major Miller asked over the radio, sounding more than a little grumpy.
He had been running the logistics for the First Battalion since they arrived, and Max suspected that he hadn't slept at all in the last thirty hours.
[Go to bed. The ship will be pressurized in a few hours, but first, we are going to try to engage the warp drive.] Max informed him.
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[Good idea, I will be in my bunk. If this relic blows up when you try to take it to Warp I would rather not find out.] Major Miller's nihilism made more than a few Pilots laugh, but he had a point. If you were sleeping when the ship blew up, you would never know it.
It took fifteen minutes to get the ship to agree that it was in a fit state to attempt to power up the engines. They had been inspected for damages inside and out, with over a dozen techs using System Functions to make sure there were no hidden defects over the last day.
The whole engineering bay glowed in bright blue as light flowed through the crystals at the core of the Warp Drive, then the displays showed the familiar graphic of a bubble forming around the hull and the engines shuddered gently before becoming smooth again.
"Well feth, what went wrong? I thought we were on the right path." Max complained, looking at the glowing engine core, which looked perfectly functional.
"Nothing is wrong. The warp bubble has fully formed, engines are at seventy percent output, and we are sustaining a warp factor of two point five." Nico shrugged.
"That was a translation? What utter bullshit have the Kepler Drive engineers been doing when this was an option?" Max asked rhetorically, but Nico answered anyhow.
"They used power relays and a phase modifier to engage the bubble, while this system filters everything through those perfectly tuned crystals. I don't think it was usually this smooth, but the engines are running perfectly today, and better than expected. Even at seventy percent power, which is optimal cruising speed according to the computer, we are twenty-five percent above the previously recorded maximum speed."
[Well she might not be a warship, but we are at warp, and all systems show stable. Pick us a destination General, I think the crew would appreciate some fresh food and a nice restocking stop.] Max called over the general Channel.
[That had to be the smoothest translation I have ever felt. It was barely a shiver of vibration through the ship as the engines engaged. You two are officially on maintenance duty the next time one of our ships needs engine repairs.] General Yaakov laughed, then sent a destination that was near the border, and only a few days away at their current speed.
[Head there. It is a neutral system, protected by Kepler, and my family has a trading post there. I will send a Cargo requisition, hiring us to move the supplies that we need. Nobody will ever know the difference.] The General informed them, and Nico updated the navigation coordinates.
"Now, how about we find a nice spot to sleep? There are engineering team quarters here, and they should be warmed up and ready by now. I set the temperature high in them so that they would be more comfortable after being in that suit for so long." Nico told Max with a wink.
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Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C264 264 Bargain Bin Shopping
Once the atmosphere inside the Colony ship was deemed safe throughout the whole vessel the Regiment started doing a room-to-room search to see what might have been left behind. There was a surprising amount of supplies left behind by the Colonists when they transferred ships, presumably because the other vessel was already fully loaded and there simply wasn't anywhere to put them.
There weren't any sorts of weapons, and most of the agricultural plus all the terraforming technology were taken with them, but they still left many things behind for the Kepler forces to find. The most notable of which was the Stasis pods themselves.
The technology was impressive and took a different approach to Kepler's designs that were designed to extend one's life. These ones were believed to have the capability to reverse physical aging, while Kepler's technology could only slow it to roughly a quarter of its original rate.
The search was taking some time though, due to the size of the vessel. There were well over a thousand soldiers searching the ship, but it seemed that despite the presence of stasis pods, the ship had been intended to serve as a permanent residence for somewhere around a hundred thousand people.
Many facilities that they searched were too large for humans to conveniently use them, but it would make moving through the vessel with Mecha much more convenient if they were ever boarded.
They did discover the origin of the ship's uniquely organic curved structure while they were searching the engineering lab though. It was based on the hive of an underground burrowing species on the aliens' homeworld. The creatures excreted a unique concrete-like substance that made the underground structures nearly indestructible.
So, when they set out to the stars, they used an example from nature, and build the walls in a way that they knew would absorb incredibly high shock loads, as well as being difficult to damage with impacts, due to the curved surface deflecting objects to mitigate impacts.
Kepler did something similar with the design of the Redemption Pattern Crusaders like Stalwart. The upper shell and shoulder pads were based on the form of a species of local Turtle and deflected impacts to protect the main structure of the Mecha.
That design philosophy gave way to angular surfaces to defeat sensors when they were designing the newer Mecha, but the theory was solid.
The Colony ship had just passed an uninhabited system when they got a message from a Merchant Group, asking if they needed anything.
[We are a bit low on fresh foodstuffs and clothing polymers for the Materials Printers if you have either. We can trade structural alloys.] Nico offered, taking up the role of the ship's spokesperson.
Using any nation's credits here would be done at a heavy loss on the exchange, due to the inconvenience of an independent or Rogue merchant needing to have them exchanged back, but structural alloy was always in demand since it could be put through the Materials Printer to make repairs all over the ship.
[Drop us out of Warp but be prepared for an ambush. Patrol duty to the ready at the airlocks in preparation for defensive action.] The General ordered, and Max tapped the commands that would bring them to a gentle halt near the merchants while Nico got ready to go meet the visitors.
The Merchant's vessel was a fairly modern design, produced in Tapani Territory, and they offered a wide selection of seeds and plant cuttings when General Yaakov told them that the ship's hydroponics bay had sustained a serious mishap and cost them their entire crop. They had some material for clothing as well and offered to send both in a shuttle.
The dismantled Pirate Cutter was no longer recognizable and was in a hangar bay of its own, so she ordered the shuttle there to meet with Max and his Battalion's representatives.
"Don't bring any mecha into sight of the bay, but keep them close in case there is trouble. We will use the loaders that were left behind in the bay, as well as the cranes to do the offload. I trust we are all vaguely familiar with them by now?" Max asked the Company leaders in a group video chat.
"We are. The disassembly time wasn't wasted, we're right up on the use of the loaders. No need to worry about us, just keep up your cover story and we're good to go." Major Ivanov agreed.
Max climbed into a Mobile Suit and grabbed a rifle to accompany Nico as she spoke to the visitors. In their cover story, Max was the actual Commander, but Nico was their designated spokesperson, while Max hid his face behind a mask so he wasn't recognized. It was a bit of a pain, but they had started it that way, and there was a chance that these merchants were actually Tapani soldiers in disguise the same way they were.
"Greetings from the Terminus Trading Company. You may call me Rage, and that is Commander Keres. He doesn't like idle conversation, so I will be taking care of today's dealings if that's fine by everyone involved?" Nico asked.
Reavers and Mercenaries were known for odd behavior, so the Commander not speaking to them personally wasn't a big shock, though it was considered a courtesy to them that he came in person to greet the shuttle Pilot with the trade goods.
The technicians verified the contents quickly, finding that the seeds were all in good condition, and the materials were the right ones.
"It's authentic." They called over to Nico, giving her the thumbs up, and she gestured back to load the alloy onto the shuttle.
This wasn't a high-value trade, more of the equivalent of a grocery shopping trip, where the price was pocket change to both parties involved, but as a first meeting, it was still an important one.
They had never done business with each other before, and the Merchants wanted to make a good first impression. The Colony Ship was huge and was assumed to have a lot of people on board, so it could become a valuable customer in the future if things went well today.
The whole exchange only took a few minutes, and the shuttle returned to the cargo vessel, which reactivated its engines right after and left the area.
"Don't you think that was a bit too small of a deal? A few hundred kilos of alloy in exchange for some seeds for the hydroponics bays?" One of the technicians asked.
"It was more important to get their secure channel codes so we could contact them later. Besides, we wanted fresh food, and this was dirt cheap. If we bought fresh food at a station, we would have paid fifty times as much." Nico explained.
"Now, who wants to get the hydroponic bays activated? They're all ready for seeds, and it looks like the aliens had a rather advanced fast-growing system." Max asked, making the technicians groan as they realized that they had just been volunteered for more work.
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Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C265 265 Sustainable Living
Chapter 265 Sustainable Living
Despite every soldier's aversion to additional work, the technicians who had been voluntold to go get the Hydroponics bays up and running were getting right to work. Not that they particularly wanted to do it, but the thought of fresh fruits and vegetables coming soon was enough for them to give their very best to the project.
The traders had only sent them seeds, and some small cuttings, so it would be some time before they would be able to harvest anything fresh, but that didn't matter. Once it was planted, someone would have to tend it and watch it grow every day, and that was one of the best duty rotations that the Technicians could apply for.
Not only was there very little heavy lifting, most days you were paid to literally watch the grass grow.
There were a large number of Kepler wheatgrass seeds in the shipment, a perpetually growing plant that could be cut down periodically, with the main stalk dried and ground into the finest of flour for baking. It was a simple luxury, but still a luxury for any spacefaring force.
Abraham Kepler had a supply on board as well, but it was mostly reserved for officers since the space on board was limited when they had two full-field armies of infantry plus a pair of Mecha Regiments on board.
The Dutchman had a very limited hydroponic bay, with nothing growing in it at the moment, but the Colony ship not only had a massive facility, but it had a transparent dome over it, so it could save power when they were near a star by strategically positioning the bay toward the light.
Max found that to be a bit odd, but the design of this ship was intended for much longer use than most. Either it was because they were expecting a century to cross between galaxies, or because they were going to keep using the ship after finding a new home.
That was different than Kepler, or most Human strategies. They often made the ships modular, so they could drop off all their supplies on the planet and use the containment as building materials for the first settlement, while the core of the ship was left in orbit for safety and as a possible emergency escape vessel.
[Ice-bearing asteroid found. Location incoming.] The staff on navigation duty called over the intercom. They could now do basic manual course adjustments, but it was still easier to have Nico or the Admiral, who also had a System Function for navigation and Computer Interaction, do the actual precision navigating.
[Course input. The Colony ship has a gravity capture system for asteroids, once we are in close proximity, I will bring us out of faster-than-light travel and pull the object aboard for processing.] Nico replied, letting everyone who was monitoring the Regiment's General Channel hear the conversation.
These asteroids weren't particularly uncommon, but they were highly valued for their ice content and heavy metal cores. Both were valuable materials, and with the Kepler Empire's technology, they could both be processed into usable forms within days.
As Nico brought up the details of the asteroid on the screen, Max realized they wouldn't be able to take it on board intact. It was over five hundred meters across, too large for any of the bays that they had available.
Even if they processed it, they didn't have room to store that much material in a single bay, but they could split it up and only fill about a third of the ship's total storage capacity.
It was a monumental find for them, even if the metallic core turned out to be mostly low-value metals and not something that could be used for militarized structures.
[Analysis complete
Total Weight: 517,047 tonnes
H20 Weight: Approximately 108,000 tonnes
Metallic and non-metallic contents are as follows:]
Max ignored the listing of the detailed materials but found that there were a number of Mecha structure metals included in the thousands of tonnes, enough to make dozens of Super Heavy Mecha or most of a Battalion worth of Heavy Mecha.
The trade value of that was immense, but realistically, it was impossible for most merchants to move that much material in any sort of timely manner, so they would take only what they needed and thought they could successfully fence within the next few months or a year.
They weren't just a Mercenary force though, they had the capability to build entire state-of-the-art Mecha. With this asteroid aboard, they should be able to sustain significant damages and still be back at full capacity for the next battle as long as they didn't lose many Pilots.
That was their great limiter. The Mecha could be replaced, and Munitions restocked, but they had exactly zero spare Pilots and no ability to replace the ones that they had. At least not without discontinuing the birth control regimen and waiting a few decades.
Nobody was happier about the news of the asteroid than the hydroponics bay. The only water they had came from the ships they arrived on, the Colony ship's stocks had been removed by the previous occupants. With this influx, they could bring the entire facility online and start expanding their facilities at the maximum growth rates.
It wasn't like they actually had enough people to need all that food, but it could be processed and kept for trade goods. The Kepler Military looked favorably on such an initiative, and they would be rewarded for it if they ever turned it over to the authorities.
[We are in position, reducing speed now. Prepare for Transition.]
Again the transition was a barely noticeable shudder of the ship and the asteroid came into view on the screens in the Engineering bay where Max and Nico had taken up residence.
The rest of the First Battalion was working in this area as well, so it was no inconvenience for them and only a few minutes jog to the Battalion Mess Hall.
A light blue ball of ice grew larger on the screen until the sensors showed it within a few hundred meters of the ship and the relative speeds stabilized to have the two objects traveling through space in sync.
[Gravity Control activated, activating Mining Lasers] Nico reported.
"We have mining Lasers?" Max asked in shock.
"Of course, what sort of Colony Ship doesn't?" Nico replied with a smirk.
He really had to catch up on those ship schematic reports that the Battalions were reporting every few hours.
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Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C266 Processing a Trade Deal
Chapter 266 Processing a Trade Deal
The ship's lasers got to work right away, splitting apart the asteroid into manageable pieces, while Nico deftly used the Gravity Control to move them to the empty storage bays.
The Technicians were already hustling to get Materials Printers set up in the bays so that they could use them to process the raw ore into refined and usable raw materials for their Mecha and to create anything else that they needed.
The Materials Printer technology was a controlled Military Technology, far superior to the versions that were available on the Civilian markets, and capable of processing almost anything on a molecular level, as long as they had the base elements to work with. That gave them a huge advantage over other traders, in that they could directly refine the asteroid and not need to pay a mining facility with specialized tools to do it for them.
Cutting out even one level of middlemen in the processing stage doubled their profits immediately, and they were only two days out from the station that the General had recommended.
That wouldn't be enough time to actually process the entire asteroid, but even if they sold off a few hundred or a thousand tons of high-grade materials to the station they could get anything that they needed.
Max wasn't part of that process though, other than making sure his scheduled Battalion members showed up for their shifts, so he had a lot of time to kill. Most of the other Battalion Commanders were bogged down in logistics, keeping their units running, but Max had Major Miller for that, and he was so effective that even he seemed to have a large amount of free time to kill.
Even scheduling and discipline weren't brought to him unless things went very wrong, since Nico had automated the schedule the very first week the Battalion was formed. Her algorithm even processed leave applications and kept track of earned days off and total combat effectiveness without any additional human input. If there was an issue, he would get a notification.
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Capable subordinates really were a blessing.
So, Max was headed to a meeting with General Yaakov to work out what they were going to tell the station, and what they could ask for without seeming too suspicious.
They needed a number of materials for making more Thunder Gun ammunition. They had the casings covered after this asteroid, but the core elements of the explosives weren't included in its composition.
They weren't controlled substances, not at their most basic levels, so they could request them easily enough, but the Super Heavy Mecha went through an incredible amount of munitions in a sustained firefight against the Klem, and they were expecting to suffer such a fate again, even if it was because they volunteered this time.
"Good, you are right on time. The other Battalion leaders left this up to you and me, so we can work it out over coffee. There was a large supply of the good stuff left behind on the Pirate ships." General Yaakov greeted Max when he reached the assigned meeting room, near the cargo bay where the Dutchman was stored.
"Well, that's one way to save time. How much are you thinking we need to trade for?" Max asked.
"If the material prices haven't changed much, and given our lack of reputation, I suspect that we will need at least five thousand tons of explosives per engagement. The raw materials are much less expensive than refined structural metals because only the military or specialized facilities can refine them from there." General Yaakov explained, pulling up the munitions usage data from their last battle.
"So, if we get ten thousand tons to start we should be off to a good start. Can we even transfer that much without pulling out the Dutchman?" Max asked.
"For a small fee, they will send it directly to us by barge, but the Station might let us actually dock with them. They are Reaver friendly, to an extent, so we can try that approach." Yaakov suggested.
"Just toss Nico out front as a shield and let her family name do the work. That's a bit risky." Max pointed out.
"Not out here it isn't. In Kepler, they are an ancient and Noble family. Out here they are the Tarith Reavers, and even if you attacked a ship that wasn't really theirs they would retaliate for the insult, and they have the power to back it up. Of course, we have enough firepower of our own that we shouldn't lose an engagement, but that's not the point. What I'm saying is that the chances of her being associated with herself are very slim." The General explained.
"Okay, I will buy that. She has done an exemplary job of being our public relations face so far. But now that our course has changed, what will your own story be? Will you still be posing as a Noble writing a documentary or are you coming up with something new?" Max asked.
"The story can stand. A little work using a noble's influence is common enough that it even has a defined value when bartering for passage. But we should see what we can trade off and what we need to reserve for our own usage."
What followed was two solid hours of balancing their supplies against their materials usage rates and determining what they could trade. Most surprisingly, what they had a huge excess of were actually the heavy ores used for Reactor Cores. Each Mecha only needed a few hundred grams, but they had over a thousand tons of them.
A planet on the outskirts of civilization would love to get its hands on that. Not only could it help build their military without alerting international authorities, but it would also help power their industrial facilities.
The ores were very rare to find, even when asteroid mining and General Yaakov was more than satisfied that they could build a reputation off of just this find.
"So, one Tonne should buy us thousand tons of explosives?" Max verified.
"Yes. They are mostly Carbon-based, and that is easy to come by anywhere, so it is dirt cheap, literally. The rest is a bit more expensive, but not by much and we have the more expensive metallic components already." General Yaakov agreed.
"Alright, I will have them prepare twelve tons of reactor ores to buy the explosives, and whatever personal effects that we might need." Max agreed.
"Be sure to add a lot of random items to the list. Clothing, soaps, toiletries, fresh fruits, the sort of thing that reminds soldiers of home. It's what every trading ship needs on top of their actual business dealings."
With that General Yakkov ended their meeting and Max returned to the Engineering bay to look over the storage bay cameras and make sure they had enough material processed.
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Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C267 267 Negotiations
From the inventory that the crews had produced, they had more than enough of the materials that they intended to trade already processed, so Max simply ordered the crews to prepare the required amounts for shipment, in preparation for their arrival at the space station.
That left him with only one more essential detail to plan. If the station didn't allow them to dock, they would need to use one of the Pirate vessels as a shuttle to bring the materials to the station, so they could have the barge bring their payment back to them.
But the ships were currently designated as Pirate Vessels, with communications systems that any respectable station would realize weren't legitimate even if they didn't recognize them as wanted Pirates right away.
That meant he would need to get all of the essential details changed within the next day so that they could safely venture out to meet with others and not risk being immediately arrested.
They had a couple of crew members on board who could accomplish the task, so Max decided to split the details between them. Most of the technicians would take one ship, pick a new name for it and change all the communications data, while Nico took the other.
She would likely be faster, so Max intended to tell her first so that the other team could follow her lead in doing the second ship and not have her spend all her time on one project while she was organizing the work schedules.
"What are we going to name the Colony Ship? The Pirate vessels that we confiscated should be marked as shuttles or defensive vessels for the mothership, but we haven't named the Colony ship yet.
"Do we have names in for the New Mecha yet? Maybe we could pick something from there and run it by the General?" Max asked, then shook his head.
"On second thought, simple is best. Is there another Colony ship named Terminus? We are the Terminus Trading Company, so it only makes sense that our mothership would be named Terminus." Max continued.
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"Most of the Colony Ship names are not in Kepler Standard, so even if one means the same thing, it shouldn't actually be called Terminus. Do you want me to use it as the basis for our communications? I have gotten far enough into the Colony Ship's systems now that I can set the identifiers for our new home. Then I will make the Cutters secondary to it, and we should be good before we are in communications range of the Station." Nico agreed.
"Please do. And then tell the other techs how to update the second Cutter so you don't have to do it yourself." Max suggested.
"I will get it. The Colony ship will take a few hours to update, but I can reprogram the Cutters in under a minute a piece since they don't need to be military-verified security codes and I can just make one up. Civilian and Reaver radio codes are much easier than Military." Nico informed him, then turned back to her work.
"Fine. Wake me up when you are done and I will get the cargo moved to one of the Cutters so that we are ready the moment that we make contact. Being in an alien Colony Ship they might not want us too close to their station for safety protocol. I remember that Comor did the same thing, and had certain vessels dock at secondary stations and take local shuttles to the main station." Max told her, receiving a thumbs up in reply.
It was just before lunch the next day, ship time when they finally made contact with the station.
[Gado Station, Gado Station. This is the Terminus, looking to trade.] Max announced over the radio as Nico and General Yaakov listened in.
Nico followed that up with a confirmation code for the Reavers, letting the Station know who and what they were so that they would respond to begin negotiations.
[Terminus, this Gado Station. I'm sorry to inform you, that due to oversupply, we are somewhat limited in the supplies that we can accept today, but if you have something worth trading we are open to negotiating.] The Station replied.
Max sent them an elemental analysis and a photo of one of the baskets of Reactor Material that they had set aside for trade.
[Now, why didn't you open with that? How might we help you, my new friend?] The Station representative asked.
[I will send over a list of the supplies that we need, and the trade goods that our customers have requested.] Max confirmed, letting Nico send the listing.
There was a few minutes' long pause before the Station replied again. [We have all of these materials in the quantity requested. It won't be cheap though, I will need at least 9 tonnes of processed metals for that much.]
Max looked over at General Yaakov in shock. That was much less than they had expected to pay, so even if the goods weren't perfect quality, they were still coming out ahead.
[9 tonnes including the containment cage and you have yourself a deal.] Max replied. The cage weighed a few hundred kilos, but it would allow the shipment to be immediately weighed if the cage was included in the trade weight.
[I am a reasonable man. Pending quality verification, I agree to your terms. Please proceed to docking spur number three.]
Being on the end of the station's dock would let them transfer their goods directly, and save the hassle of a shuttle, a perfect scenario for them.
"Bring the goods to the empty bay on the Port side and dock it to the station. We are on security rotation right now, so I will assign a Mecha detail outside the bay in case things go south." Max directed Nico, who started tapping orders into the computer before a pair of work drones picked up the shipment and weighed precisely nine tonnes, plus twenty kilos, in case the Station's scale was out of calibration.
[Charlie Company, send a team to Port Storage Bay 6. Remain outside as guards. Myself plus Nico will be going in to make the trade.] Max ordered his troops.
They wouldn't slack on the detail with their Commanders on the other side of the doors, which was a relief to Max, who was a bit nervous about making such a large and sensitive trade with people he had never met before in a nation he had never dealt with.
"Grab your Mobile Suit. I had it repainted in red and bone Reaver camouflage patterns, so they won't realize that it is anything but stolen or obsolete military tech." Nico told Max as he was about to leave the room.
That was better than the armored work suits that were hung by the storage bay doors by the teams that were working in them, and it gave him a bit more presence, due to the size of the suit.
"Good luck you two. Feel free to use my name if they give you too many problems, and I will deal with the fallout." General Yaakov instructed them before they left for the meeting.
Contact - ToS
Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C268 268 First Guests
While the Admiral carefully brought the Colony Ship into docking position so that the Station could access their cargo bay door, Max got everyone else into positions. Nico would be their front person, while Max stood beside her as their leader and gave any necessary permissions if the deal needed to be altered on the fly.
That did happen on occasion, either due to off-quality items, shortages, or a simple conversational mention that they had something else interesting available.
Max was hoping that none of that applied today, since it was their very first trade deal, but you could never know when a deal too good to pass up would become available, and they were trading with rare and valuable metals, so the Station might logically want to try to barter for more with the other items that they produced on the planet.
[Docking Successful. Seal integrity one hundred percent. Balancing Atmosphere.] The Admiral's notification marked the successful mating of the alien ship to the Station as smoothly as if they had done this a thousand times before.
If anyone had heard from the Pirates that they let go, they would assume that the ship was a trap all along and that the hapless group had simply been ambushed and robbed blind by the occupants of the Terminus.
That wasn't far from the truth, but they would be hard-pressed to make anyone believe it if the question was raised.
"Welcome to the Terminus ladies and gentlemen. You may call me Rage, and I will be your customer service liaison today. Beside me is Commander Keres, who has the authority of the group to finalize adjustments to the deal, should they prove necessary." Nico greeted them.
"Greetings I am Zorbo, the Foreign Business advisor of the Gado Station. I see you have the materials prepared, might we take a moment to verify quality before we proceed?" An amply-built older man with shockingly gold eyes responded politely.
Nico gestured grandly at the bin of materials and nodded, making the pudgy man smile and adjust his silk vest before motioning for the workers to go test the goods.
They had a scanner with them, and the whole process only took a few seconds while Max waited in silence for their verdict.
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"The scanner says 178 kilos light on the pure ore, 20 kilos over on the total weight. Military-grade refinement, no fillers, defective product, or other issues noted." The technician reported, making Nico smile.
"A trade station with a perfectly calibrated scale. I am starting to like you more and more." Nico told the Gado Station representative.
"With Military Grade reactor materials, you must have an easy time making friends. Could there be anything else that you require today? I am certain that the extra twenty kilograms could get your crew something nice." Zorbo suggested, and Nico turned to Max for an answer.
"If you have it, we could use a bit of Lithium and a generous supply of good quality Rum," Max responded, then had to turn down his comms so that the cheering o the crew wasn't screaming in his ear.
The lithium could be made into the crystals they needed by the Materials Printer, and then Nico's repair type System Function could adjust those crystals into the functional matrix for their engines instead of having to search the Galaxy for a compatible set or having the engineering staff learn a whole new Faster than light engine design theory to make the artificial ones work.
"We have both. How much of the Lithium did you need?" Zorbo asked politely.
The crystals weighed under a kilogram in total, but Max decided to err on the side of caution.
"Ten Kilos of Lithium and the rest in Rum should keep the crew happy for an evening." He answered with a smile, making the Gado Station crew laugh.
An entire barrel of good Rum went for less than what a hundred grams of Reactor Metals did. What Max had asked for was over a hundred and fifty barrels of rum, in addition to the Lithium that hadn't been on their list.
"We can have that here in a few minutes, both are in the storage on the station, since they are so commonly requested." Zorbo agreed.
"Then please, sit and rest your legs. We are out of the good stuff, but not all out of Rum." Nico told him, removing a flask and two shot glasses from her jacket pocket.
Zorbo smiled and pulled out his own flask and shot glass before sitting, and Max moved to watch the materials being loaded into their cargo bay as the reactor metals were taken out.
They had ordered a huge amount of food and other perishable goods, but it seemed that the Station crew had no problem moving the crates into the cold storage section of the bay for them without further instructions, just guided by the signs on the walls.
Max did appreciate a true professional, and they were making his life very easy today.
Nico and Zorbo poured each other a drink, a sign of trust between Reavers and Independent Merchants as Max understood from their thoughts, and downed them as the last of the supplies arrived.
If the Station Commander had been here, it would have been Max that was obligated to drink, but since it was the trade representative, the duties fell to Nico. It felt oddly familiar to Max, almost like the Military structure where similar levels of Command interacted with each other, but without all the regulations, and instead relying on ritual and tradition.
Unlike Comor Station, Gado Station was entirely a cargo facility. There were civilian stations in orbit around the planet, and Max had seen a few leisure shuttles headed to them as they approached, but a ship the size of the Terminus had no business docking at a station smaller than it was. Even the attempt would be enough to unbalance a small resort station, so today their crew would have to remain aboard.
They had more than enough to keep themselves busy now anyhow.
[There is an orbital freighter waiting off our stern. I believe that they delayed his arrival window for us to make this trade in person.] Admiral Drake informed Max over the radio.
"I do hope we don't seem rude, but our customer is in a hurry for some of these materials, so I do hope you will forgive us for leaving as soon as the cargo is verified," Nico informed Zorbo, who stretched out his arm for a handshake.
"Prompt, efficient, and considerate of others' time. Please, take this data chip, it has our direct contact information should you have more to trade in the future." Zorbo informed her with his best professional smile.
"I appreciate the offer. Our contact information is here, should you need to get ahold of us in a secure manner. I look forward to doing business with you again." Nico replied, handing him back another business card sized data chip.
With that, the Station staff retreated from the Terminus, and the airlock was purged of atmosphere before the magnetic docking clamps were released, letting the Admiral maneuver the enormous bulk of the Colony ship away from the station and into open space to make their translation back to faster than light travel.
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[Mess Hall officers, you have first priority of access, come get your supplies for the week. We have two weeks of fresh produce, and then we're back to shelf stable, but the good civilian stuff, not the packed by the lowest bidder version.] Max informed the Regiment as soon as they were back at warp.
He would never hear the end of it if he made the crew eat another freeze-dried and canned meal when they had literal tonnes of fresh food sitting in the cargo bay.
Since they needed the crew relatively sober, the General had decided to ration the Rum supply. One Barrel per Battalion per month. That worked out to roughly a bottle per person every month, or a shot a day, which gave them enough for celebrations, but not daily intoxication.
All of the officers expected their rationing to meet with at least some backlash, but the General had given them enough to quiet almost all the malcontents. What they had failed to account for was the sudden demand for aluminum through the smaller materials printers in the general quarters, as the soldiers who preferred a little nip every day ordered flasks to store their weekly ration.
Max headed to the First Battalion Mess Hall for dinner, to see what they made of the new supplies, and found a surprisingly simple meal on offer, but a very happy crew.
There was a chicken and dumpling stew, along with Toasted Tomato sandwiches and an assortment of fresh fruit laid out for the crew.
Max could smell that the bread was freshly baked, a distinct change from the hard biscuits which were the staple starch of the rations and long voyage kitchen packs.
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They had ordered a lot of raw flour and shelf-stable milk this time, which weren't on the military's usual procurement list since they avoided issues with lactose intolerance. The creamy stew and buttermilk biscuits that the small sandwiches were on seemed to be a hit though, so Max made a digital note to keep the ingredients in supply every time they picked up rations.
"This is amazing, but the real question is if there will be bacon." Major Petrova, the muscular woman who led Max's Charlie Company asked.
"Likely at breakfast. It stores for 90 days according to the ration guide, so we ordered enough to serve it at breakfast regularly for the next three months." Max informed her.
The look that she gave the kitchen staff promised violence if there was no bacon tomorrow, the good stuff, not the freeze-dried version that every military unit kept in stock for its high protein and fat contents.
With the lunch meal served, the work crews were off to the storage bay to move all the new materials back to their assigned Regiments. The idea was that if they took heavy fire and one area was heavily damaged or rendered inaccessible, they would still have raw materials in four others, so they could keep fighting and not be crippled by a lack of munitions and repair parts.
The Terminus seemed to have extremely impressive shielding though, and Max wondered what it took to put it into the state that they found it in. It was obvious that the ship's power supply was overloaded, but going by the data that Max had seen, they would have had to basically autopilot directly into an asteroid field for that to happen.
Which made him wonder if there was a problem with the navigation or sensors. A failure of either could be a disaster for the Regiment if they ran into the same issue that the Colonists did.
Max sent a report on the topic to all the Battalion Commanders, as well as engineering, Nico, and the General. He requested a meeting that evening, which would make the General happy. He always preferred to have dinner meetings now since he didn't have a staff of nobles to chatter idly and fill his quarters with noise anymore.
His first idea was to retrofit additional sensors to the ship while they tried to recover the logs that the Colonists had destroyed in their attempts to remove all traces of their identity.
The engineering teams had deciphered enough of the computer's programming now to work out how to add some sensor data to the ship's own information, and they had the technology to build a new sensor suite suitable to an interstellar ship.
The only issue was that at faster-than-light speeds, the energy of the warp field made it unsafe to work outside the ship, so they would have to wait until the next time that they stopped to do the actual retrofit.
For now, it looked like they were getting good data, but they couldn't be sure. In fact, they didn't even know if the majority of the damage had been done before or after the Colonists abandoned the ship. The reports that they had recovered named the lack of mobility as the reason for their leaving, but there weren't any more details.
Their next planned stop was a small Kepler zero gravity manufacturing facility, just outside the Empire's official borders and next to an asteroid mining facility. General Yaakov had been in contact with them already, and they had a need for some of the materials that Terminus had picked up, plus they could provide them with Kepler-approved trade goods that the Regiment could use as cover to enter back into Kepler space without drawing suspicion.
It wasn't illegal for a Reaver ship to enter Kepler space, they just had to prove that their trade goods weren't on the prohibited list.
As of that moment, the only shipments that Terminus had on board were from approved import nations and facilities, with the rest of the ship housing their mercenary force, which was only subject to regulations on its usage.
This was their new hide-in-plain-sight plan. They could trade their way across Kepler space much more easily in a Colony ship without raising suspicion, and they could disappear without a trace if they needed if they employed the assistance of Imperial Command and known loyalist forces.
As long as they weren't recognized they should be perfectly safe.
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