Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C255 255 Interior Decoration
With all their equipment in perfect working order, there wasn't a lot for the crew to do until they reached their next port of call. But laziness brings sluggishness when it is time to fight, so Max began to make up a schedule for training that would keep everyone in good shape while they were in transit.
The Kepler Military had a training regimen, but it was rudimentary at best, and barely maintained the physique of most Pilots. It wouldn't be hard to top that, and in fact, Max had been working with a much better plan than the default one the military provided ever since he first left Kepler Terminus.
[Mandatory group training from 0800 to 1200 beginning tomorrow.] Max informed the rest of the First Battalion, then started in on the planning.
They didn't have many VR simulators on board, only a handful from the maintenance team for troubleshooting, so their efforts would have to be in the hangar and not in virtual space. They had been with him long enough now that their hand-to-hand combat skills were getting better, and it wouldn't take long to build an obstacle course. Add those to the exercise equipment that was already set up and they should be able to keep the Battalion in top shape.
The Martial Arts training was very popular with the Pilots, giving them something other than simple exercises to work on their dexterity and speed, areas where most Pilots were lacking. Like Max, the majority had a Strength Primary thanks to their system, which was great until they hit diminishing returns at about 150 percent over the base.
That made the Alpha Ranked Systems physically extremely strong, on par with a combat Cyborg, but their flexibility often suffered from neglect, other than their fingers, which most remembered to train for control speed.
In theory that was enough to improve their piloting skills, but Max had realized that being able to move more than your hands quickly was a great benefit and did much more to improve your reaction speeds.
Being used to moving the whole body more quickly trained the mind to move the mecha more quickly and process complex movement routines more naturally, which improved firing accuracy while on the move.
There wasn't much he could add to the routine, it was pretty well optimized already, so he started looking for more ways to pass the time.
The cockpit of the Enduring Rage was still pretty plain, so that became his next project. They spend almost all their time in the Mecha, so Max thought that it would be a nice little surprise to personalize the space before Nico returned from her assignment on the bridge of the Dutchman.
What could he do though? Max had never once in his life tried to decorate a room, much less decorate a room to suit him and Nico at the same time. He could maybe change the color of the walls. That might make it feel more like home, or give it a more relaxing feeling.
Max pulled up articles on color theory, and decoration, trying to decide what to do with the space that they had.
PubFuture Video Beach 4 28s
Ads by Pubfuture
According to the article, green was for calm, and yellow was for positivity. But the walls were already a drab shade of yellowish green. That didn't help him at all, since the official advice was absolutely hideous.
Even if it was the most efficient, it was still ugly.
He didn't have anything to hang on the walls to "Make it His Own" like the article suggested, so that was out as well. He also wasn't going to arrange dozens of throw pillows and knickknacks around the Mecha. He wouldn't even do that to his own room, though Mooney had a bunch of stuff around her room and it definitely suited her personality.
After an hour of reading the articles, Max was starting to think that whoever wrote this drivel was an absolute moron.
It was when he gave up on changing the room and decided to do a physical check of the systems that the idea came to him. The wall looked pretty cool with the panel removed, showing off the gears and hydraulics of the arm assembly that were behind it.
That was highly unsafe during operation, but a single panel replaced with clear aluminum might make for a suitable accent window. Max sent the order to the material printer in their bay and climbed down to go collect his updated part, then added a magnetic hanging rod and two pieces of cloth to the order.
Twenty minutes later, and after a bit of tinkering with the lighting, Max had a backlit window in the food preparation area, overlooking the arm mechanics, with a pair of curtains tied off at the sides.
Now it felt more like the kitchen at Dave's house, whose window overlooked the brick of the building next to them. That was a huge change to the feeling of the room. It went from an enclosed box with a large screen on the wall to a studio apartment with a crappy view.
With the two piloting seats moved out of the way and rotated back to face the main area of the cockpit, it felt even more like an apartment, and Max began to see the potential.
[When you get back to the barracks, bring me two seat covers for the Enduring Rage. You can pick the patterns.] Max messaged Nico, knowing that she should be back soon.
She didn't message back, but Nico never missed messages, so she would have the seat covers for him when she got here, he was certain.
She did one better than he had requested and even brought a rug for the floor, which would attach to the cargo securement loops, so it wouldn't move while in motion.
The seat covers that she picked were black and soft, with their names stitched into the headrests while the Carpet was a collection of gray shades that went well with the military drab of the walls, at least in Max's estimation.
"I like it, the window is a nice touch, feels more like home that way." Nico commended him as he finished setting up the room.
"Yeah, it feels less like a box and more like a room now. The lights behind the window were just the thing, and the viewport is actually functional since it lets you see the state of the right arm mechanisms without having to leave the cockpit." Max agreed.
Nico snapped a photo of the room from the side access door and smiled at Max. "I should show Klinger. He was going on earlier about how he was changing his cockpit to be less drab."
The other Colonel messaged back seconds later, raving about the window in the food preparation area and asking for design plans. It was only one replacement clear panel and a set of curtains, so Klinger was off to make a replacement right away.
He had already repainted the interior in sand and sky blue, making his cockpit feel more like a beach, in his opinion, and the window was the final touch it needed. Klinger didn't leave the mechanisms behind the panel open though, he built a small diorama and placed it behind the glass, making it look like you were actually looking outside.
The Crusader Class Pilots all thought they were a bit odd, but it was definitely a better environment than the default interior had been. Plus, it was all within regulation, so they wouldn't need to change it back after this deployment when they would presumably be inspected by another ship's maintenance staff.
Max laid down for a nap, catching up on sleep before training in the morning, ship time, and woke up to the smell of coffee and bacon filling the cockpit.
"Oh, now that is just torture. That had better be for me." Max muttered as he sat up in bed and looked over at the other side of the cockpit, where Nico was making food in nothing but an apron.
"What exactly are you wearing?" He stammered as Nico danced to the low music she had playing over the speakers.
"An apron. I didn't want to get greasy, I just washed. Here, drink the coffee and the food will be ready in a few seconds." Nico laughed, handing him a mug.
Looking more closely, the meal was the Bacon and Egg omelet ration pack, but she had pulled it out of its pouch before frying it in a pan with a can of boiled potatoes that she had spiced up to what he hoped was edibility.
"Very domestic. I am impressed. You even make good coffee, but where did you get the spices?" Max asked.
"I grabbed them from the kitchens aboard Abraham Kepler before we left. They were better stocked than what we took with us. The pilots officially request that we find real food on the next battlefield by the way. The Battalion Kitchen is pretty good, but as you know, the meals are on a two-week rotation, and everyone has them memorized." Nico informed him.
"One thing at a time. We need to get everyone back to daily training first and take their minds off the boredom. Once they have things to do they won't focus so much on memorizing the kitchen menu."
They had to skirt the edge of Kepler space, then turn to the Galactic west and pass a few small nations and a section of empty space near the Rae System to get to their destination and it would still be almost a week before they arrived.
Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C256 256 Border Running
The food was better than Max had expected, but also very spicy, to the point Max was glad he had the coffee to soothe his tongue.
That was still better than the perpetually bland taste of the ration packs, which were designed to be easy to digest and edible by as many planet's soldiers as possible.
At home, he had always liked spicy foods, especially the hot wings that his father kept in the freezer to fry during sporting events. This spice was a different story of heat though, it crept up on his taste buds, so he was halfway through breakfast before it felt like his head was on fire.
Nico was properly dressed again by the time he finished and they descended on the winch line mounted beside the cockpit door to go lead the daily training session for the First Battalion.
Most of the soldiers were already waiting when they arrived, despite the early hour, which Max took as a good sign. Enthusiasm for training meant that the unit was getting along, and that morale was at least average, both of which were ongoing goals for every Commander.
They all knew the routine, so they split into two groups of roughly equal size as soon as he arrived, and began their pre-workout stretches.
Max was an hour into leading his half of the training when he realized that they had guests waiting by the Mess Hall. General Yaakov was waiting for him, accompanied by a ginger-haired young man holding a data tablet and wearing an oversized white hoodie.
"General Yaakov, to what do we owe the pleasure?" Max called out over the noise of the training and motioned for his team to keep going while he was gone.
Max jogged up the stairs to the General, who handed over a data tablet for him to examine. On it was a sensor log of what appeared to be a colony ship, but partially destroyed and floating dead in space.
There was no way to know how long it had been that way, but colony ships usually had an immense amount of useful material aboard, in addition to their terraforming technology.
That could be an excellent chance to stock up, as well as a chance to make a name for themselves if there was anyone to rescue.
"I think it should be fine. The scan shows it is still mostly intact. We can send in Pilots using Mobile Suits and likely some of the Corvette Class units as well. The corridors in a colony ship are made for heavy equipment." Max agreed, seeing that the General wanted to divert their course to explore it.
"It is across a border, and that system isn't friendly with Kepler, so they might not be on good terms with Kepler-born Reavers either. The other Battalion Commanders expressed some concerns about starting an incident." Yaakov explained.
"Feth them if they can't take a joke. We've got twenty Super Heavy Mecha aboard, we could probably take out their nation's entire fleet if they want to try us.
Don't think as a Kepler Officer, or a Noble, but as a Reaver. It would be more suspicious if we didn't take the bait and go check it out." Max told him.
"So, you agree that it is a trap. I thought the same, but the others didn't see it. You have a point though, we have the firepower and the X137 model has decent zero-gravity capability. The X109 should be a capable breaching unit if we are attacked as well.
It is decided then. Have everyone on standby in 90 minutes and we will run the border to go take a look."
Max returned to the training area with a big smile on his face.
"Good news everyone, training is over for the day. We have found a derelict colony ship and we are going to take a little cross-border excursion to go explore it.
In case it is under guard, be prepared for a fight. The nation closest to the wreck isn't a major power, but it might also be guarded by other Mercenaries or Pirates.
You know your jobs, when the call comes, move all personnel to areas with secondary atmospheric containment.
Got it? Good. You are Dismissed."
The First Battalion was in a much better mood now, and everyone raced to get cleaned up and get their Mecha ready for action, eagerly anticipating a field trip to a Colony ship.
The Dutchman was built for this sort of mission, and had a low emission setting on its engines, cutting speed to a Warp factor of only 1.2 but making them much harder to track. It was the interstellar equivalent of sneaking up on the target, and Admiral Drake brought them in as cautiously as possible.
"Three Light Cutters in the vicinity. Pirate markings on all three. The colony ship is dead in space, but the design isn't one recorded in our computers." Admiral Drake reported.
The vessel's flowing organic lines weren't anything Max recalled from either of his lives. Nico looked intrigued, but she didn't seem to recognize the design either, and she had run it through every database they had available.
It was clearly ancient though, with layers of impact damage on the hull from an extended time in space. Given the damage, it looked as if they had come across a rogue meteor, and it had taken out the ship's engines.
[Tarith, you are up. We are in communications range, please say hello for us.] General Yaakov ordered, winking at Nico over the video link.
Nico thought for a moment, then sent a contact signal to the Pirate vessels. Seconds later three annoyed-looking men appeared on the main screen in Enduring Rage and Nico began to speak.
[Good morning ladies. How incredibly kind of you to look after this salvage case for us. But since we are here now you are free to leave.]
Max could only imagine the response of the other Kepler Commanders to her words, but he had to maintain a straight face since he was on camera, sitting beside her in the Mecha.
The Pirate Captains weren't impressed, and all began to speak at once before one of them silenced the other two.
[Who do you think that you are to take a prize from the entire fleet of the Golden Hand?] The Captain demanded, tapping his golden mechanical hand on the control panel in front of him.
[Insolent Peasants, did I not give you enough of a warning? I told you, the Terminus Trading Company has come for our salvage rights, now leave.] Nico replied in a very soft and dismissive tone as if they were beneath her concern, flicking her fingers in a shooing motion to emphasize her point.
The Pirate ships began to move and Max sent the signal for his Battalion to be ready to move on an instant's notice.
[Let's see how smart you are when we burn that relic of a ghost ship out from under you.] The Pirate leader declared, then cut the video link.
Contact - ToS
Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C257 257 Pirates
As soon as negotiations failed, Yaakov sent the signal for Third through Fifth Battalion to send out their Super Heavy Mecha, with the X137 units anchoring themselves to the exterior hull of the Dutchman for stability.
The cargo bays have a protective force field around them that allows for the transfer of goods from unsafe environments, but from what Max could see, the Pirates forgot about that, or simply didn't expect them to have Mecha on board, because they made no move to evade until the X109 Fast Attack Mecha activated their thrusters and raced towards them.
The ships were under five kilometers apart, close on a space battle scale, but it would still take some time for the Heavy Mecha to reach their targets.
The Super Heavy Mecha's Ion Bombard Array had no such issues with the distance, and a barrage of white energy balls from a dozen Mecha flew toward the three ships just as their shields powered up.
The repeated impacts made the entire barrier glow, a sign that these shields were not at the level where they could take a sustained Bombardment from Four Super Heavy Mecha each.
They were light attack ships, suitable for targeting lightly armed merchants and for scavenging the remains of a battle. They weren't designed to be front-line forces in a Mecha-based space battle.
The majority of their power was going to keep their shields active as the mighty siege weapons battered their defenses, leaving the ships still immobile when the X109 group arrived.
[Breach in the forward shielding] Colonel Klinger reported, sending extra fire toward the nose of his unit's victim.
Fires burst all over the Pirate ship's hull as energy relays overloaded, and the Fast Attack Crusaders moved in for the kill, using the Fusion Flamers to breach Airlock doors and windows.
00:01
00:31
Ads by Pubfuture
Those were the two most vulnerable spots on the vessel, but they were still careful not to cause indiscriminate damage. These Pirates hadn't done anything to them personally, and they might still surrender.
Not every group thought that far ahead though, and when one of the Warp Drive housings was damaged by the Third Battalion, a chain reaction spread through the ship, shredding half the structure before the emergency bulkheads held and stopped the explosion from completely destroying the vessel.
[Mercy, I beg you, Mercy.] The Captain of the stricken vessel pleaded as he struggled to keep his ship from exploding entirely, using the last of their power to keep the atmosphere intact and the bulkhead shielding active.
[Power down your ship and prepare to evacuate. There is an inhabited system within range of your lifeboats. Any ship still active in thirty seconds will be fired upon.] Nico demanded, highlighting the fact that they had the ability to destroy all three vessels on a whim.
Max counted the seconds, expecting to see one last stand and an attempt to flee, which they might have actually managed if they had done it from the start instead of trying to absorb the incoming Mecha fire with their shields.
At the count of twenty-eight, the other two shields came down, and the ship's power systems went to standby.
There were no more radio signals, likely because everyone was rushing to gather valuables before they fled for the relative safety of the nearby planet.
Max was beginning to run out of patience, and about to ask Nico to send them another message when the first lifeboat, a small cargo shuttle from the disabled ship, launched.
A few minutes later, a second one from the same ship, then one each from the others set everyone aboard the Dutchman's mind at ease.
Four more shuttles left in the next half hour before General Tenant decided that the Pirates were all gone. The scan didn't show any more life signs or energy instability aboard the three vessels, so he had one of the X109 units approach the cargo bays of each ship and force them open.
The vessels were abandoned, and clearly stolen from a military force, but they didn't find any signs of sabotage, which gave General Yaakov the impression that they were going to come back to them once the Dutchman had left.
They didn't have any need for the extra ships, and there wasn't much worth taking, so the logic was good, he really did intend to leave them there to be recovered by whoever wanted a heavily damaged Attack vessel.
[First and Second Battalions, head to the Colony Ship. Your Command Assets can go in Mobile Suits to navigate the smaller corridors. See what state the interior is in and report back to me.] The General ordered.
That meant max needed to leave his cockpit and go to the storage area to grab an Armored suit, but it was a good excuse to see the interior of the derelict vessel and try to recover some usable goods.
[Fast Attack units, give your Commanders a ride over and you can patrol the exterior. Corvettes, check the main corridors.] Max ordered.
[And be sure to double-check the sensors before opening any doors. If there is still atmosphere in any of the spaces we absolutely do not want to vent it. There might still be live plants or colonists in there, Colony Ships are designed to have a very durable inner structure.] Nico added, including the entire Regiment in her communications.
That hadn't occurred to most of the soldiers, but since most Colony vessels traveled with only a few crew active and the rest in stasis, it was possible that they were hiding in the core, using what power reserves they had to survive.
Major Miller was the ride for Max and Nico, who had attached the Tech Adept Harness to her exosuit. The extra articulated arms and tools would be a huge benefit but among the technicians, only she had the system functions that would allow her to control them from inside a mobile suit.
Building a few of the harnesses into atmospheric suits for hazardous conditions operations was quickly added to the Battalion's requisitions list when the repair staff saw her come out wearing the setup. Using tools through an atmospheric suit was awkward at best, and they had all gotten used to the luxury of the Tech Adept Harness since it was introduced.
If only they still had the Research team with them. They could have had one designed and a prototype built before the exploration team even returned.
[First Battalion, move out.] Max ordered, latching on to the arm of Major Miller's X109 pattern Mecha so he was out of the line of fire of the thrusters mounted on its back.
Contact - ToS
Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C258 258 That's Not Human
After a short flight, Major Miller deposited Max and Nico near a large airlock on the colony ship. Using the articulated arms on the Tech Adept Harness, Nico secured herself and put power to the touch panel beside the entrance.
It glowed a light blue before the airlock softly slid open, showing a well-preserved interior twelve meters in height. That was a tight fit for the Crusader Class chassis, but it could fit, so Major Miller followed them in while slightly crouching to give himself a bit more headroom.
The airlock itself, and then the hallway beyond it showed signs of much use, but not much age degradation, and the atmosphere had been evacuated, either by intent or because of a breach somewhere else in this zone.
"If nobody else is going to mention it, I will. The touch pads are all three meters up the door frames." Major Miller pointed out as Nico unlocked another one with a touch of the arms on the Tech Adept Harness.
"At least there isn't any gravity plating active or that could be a real pain for the other teams." Max agreed.
Nico snorted in amusement, but only her thoughts gave away her opinion on the likeliness of the other teams actually powering up and unlocking the doors instead of just using the Mecha to force them.
[This is very strange, Colonel. We have been patrolling the exterior, and there are no signs of actual breaches in the hull, only surface damage. Even the area where the Pirates were working isn't breached.] Major Petrova, the leader of Max's Charlie Company reported.
[How is the interior condition in your zone?] Max asked.
[Interior Condition? None of us have managed to get inside yet. Short of blasting the doors apart, I don't think we actually could. As I said, the hull is intact. How did you get in?] Petrova responded.
[Major Nico powered up the door panel and hacked it. The door swung open without any issues.] Max responded.
[You heard that, Technician teams. This is your time to shine.] Petrova sighed.
For a regular technician, hacking an alien door security system wasn't an easy matter. It was only Nico who could actually get them to function for her.
"Max, we found something. I think it is a laboratory." Nico reported, drawing Max's attention to where she was standing.
The wall had windows all around, and a collection of instruments and screens inside, untouched by time.
"Good call. How is the condition inside?" he asked.
00:07
00:31
Ads by Pubfuture
"Purged of atmosphere, but otherwise it looks intact," Nico informed him.
Max checked the area to see if there were other similar rooms around, but they all seemed to have the same curved organic walls, with unknown markings on them that seemed somewhat familiar to Max, a vague memory of his past life that he couldn't quite place.
Then he noticed that all the doors that they had passed through were closed again. That shouldn't surprise Max, it was standard that doors on a spaceship had some sort of emergency system that kept them closed in the case of power loss, keeping the crew safe, but it still felt strange like they weren't alone here.
"Pop the door and let's see what is inside. When you get a chance, power up the electronics and see what we can learn." Max ordered.
[All Units, do not damage the ship any further. If you can't hack in, wait on my orders outside. I believe we may have found an interior lab area that will fulfill the mission objectives.] Max directed the rest of the First Battalion.
While Nico worked at the door which lit up red, indicating to Max that it was locked and not just closed, Max examined the next door in the row. Reaching up, he touched the screen by the door to clear the light layer of dust so he could read the writing, or at least record it for their records.
The screen lit up green when his suit-encased hand touched it, and the door, previously flush with the wall, swung into the wall, leaving a five-meter-tall entrance.
"Hey Nico, did you power up the whole hallway?" Max called, alarmed.
"Maybe? I don't know what is on what circuit, but I've got this panel powered up." She confirmed.
"Major Miller, keep an arm in this door so it doesn't lock me inside. I've noticed that they are closing on a timer. I want to see inside this room." Max ordered.
The room was almost completely empty, which was unusual on a Colony ship, where every square meter was precious storage for their next homeworld.
There were still a few neatly stacked boxes in one corner though, and once Major Miller was in place, Max stepped over his arm and went to examine them.
"I have some sort of technological device in a case. The case appears to be Gold plated, perhaps for corrosion resistance. Case contains, one device, six rolls of cloth, and some unidentified liquid." The red markings on the top seem somehow familiar. I suspect that these are First Aid Kits. Recovering one for future study." Max reported for his mission recording, narrating his actions as he removed the storage bag from the compartment on his Mobile Suit and placed one of the suspected First Aid kits inside.
"We are in Colonel," Nico reported happily as the door she was working on finally opened to her hacking skills.
As soon as she was in, Nico blocked the door with one mechanical arm, then turned to the screen by the door and started to work, bringing the whole room to life in a few seconds.
"How is your suit's power capacity?" Max asked, watching her work.
"All good, I am using my internal generator for this. The draw is remarkably low." She reported, then began tapping happily at the keyboard, changing the screen in front of her from a plain design to a series of data sets.
"You can read that?" Major Miller asked, shocked that she was messing with the alien technology.
"I don't have to, my System Function translates and tells me what key to press. The ship is shut down, but there are still fairly significant power reserves if we want to bring the lights online and let the others inside. I don't have any more data on the survivors or supplies yet, but give me ten minutes to work through all this technical data to find it." Nico reported.
Max was about to answer when an emergency message flashed to his wrist device, relayed by the Communications system of the Dutchman.
[Commander Terminus,
It is with great regret that I have to report that the recent raid on the facility has resulted in a total loss of relevant data for your project. Sector Command apologizes for the inconvenience and informs you that they will be meeting with Abraham Kepler in the Tapani System on schedule to obtain their copy of the data. Compensation will be made for the delays.
With Apologies,
Researcher Chen Lu, Comor technology development and entertainment division]
"What the hell is that all about? We aren't aboard the Abraham Kepler anymore, and Uncle Lu knows that." Max muttered, then read the message again.
The Lab had been raided, and the Mecha research data was destroyed, so Sector Command was looking for Abraham Kepler to get their hands on the real thing, or perhaps the research team, which had all conveniently been transferred out of the lab, leaving nobody with any knowledge of the project to be interrogated.
[General Yaakov, did you see this?] Max asked, not elaborating.
[Confirmed Colonel. Standby while I contact Imperial Command.] The General responded grimly.
Max didn't see any way that the message from Uncle Lu was not a warning that the Rebels were hunting them and the research team, but at least it looked like they didn't know that they had changed identities yet.
Max waited while Nico examined the ship's systems, and General Yaakov tried to contact Imperial Command for a few minutes before an update finally came from Inquisitor Ming, who Max wasn't expecting to be in the loop so fast.
[Sector Command is spreading the news that Abraham Kepler and her crew have gone rogue and defected to Tapani. The propaganda is everywhere in the sector and a compliance fleet from the sector Inquisitors is on its way with a battle fleet to apprehend them.
Imperial Inquisition is aware of the situation and assures me that Abraham Kepler isn't headed for the Tapani Sector. They only had one other message before they cut the link though. "Upgrade Security by one rank". I wasn't made fully aware of your situation, where does that bring your security?] The Inquisitor General told them.
[We were already at Vermillion. All units, as of now, this mission has gone dark. No communications with Kepler, her allies, or any other nation are to be made without double confirmation. Complete your exploration of the colony vessel and we will proceed on mission.] General Yaakov ordered.
Contact - ToS
Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C259 259 They Come In Peace
After ten minutes of tinkering with the computer, Nico had a layout of the Colony ship brought up on her screen for Max to examine.
"What's with this color coding? It is all various shades of purple" Max complained as he examined the layout.
At three kilometers long, the vessel was enormous, and from the translations that Nico had made, it was capable of easily terraforming most suitably sized planets to be friendly to life. It even had what Nico had translated as a Planetary Core Drill and Reactor, which he could only guess was intended to reheat the core mass of a planet that had cooled too much to sustain liquid water.
It was currently unknown if that bit of technology was still on board or functional, but the location that it should be in was clearly marked.
Most of his men and all of the Second Battalion were currently exploring the exterior of the vessel, making notes and trying to hack their way into the airlocks, so it was up to Max to go explore anything that looked interesting.
That was still inconvenient since he couldn't split his team up. If they came across any locked doors he would need Nico to open them, and if they came across danger, they were relying on Major Miller to take care of it for them, since they didn't grab weapons to go with the mobile suit, other than the basic sidearm and some tools that could be used to bludgeon.
"Is there any sign of where we might find the settlers? If they are still on board, that is the first place we should check." Max asked while Nico brought up a map.
"They should all be in this one internal section. There are gene labs in that area too, so I am assuming that they were intending to make more settlers when they arrived, and tailor them to their environment.
00:00
00:31
Ads by Pubfuture
It's a very planet-friendly approach, and suitable to arrival on a planet that already has life forms present." Nico elaborated.
"So they're not inherently bad people is what you're saying? Got it." Major Miller agreed from outside the room.
"It's about a kilometer from here, but straight down this main corridor, so it shouldn't take us long to get there if the bulkhead doors aren't locked." Nico directed, taking off at a jog.
That was a slow walk for the Crusader Class Mecha, so Max matched their pace, keeping his eyes open for anything moving or suspicious since he didn't trust the translated internal scans to tell them everything that they needed to know about this ship in just one sitting.
It was never that easy. If you could just sit down at a console and find out everything, operational security wouldn't mean a thing. Data was always divided between multiple systems on an interstellar ship of any sort, especially a colony ship, where redundant systems were absolutely vital to their survival.
Nico was getting the hang of the doors as they went, accessing them remotely so that they would open before the group arrived, letting them keep their pace down the corridor.
"You know, it would have been easier if we had just turned on all the power in the ship, and not just a little bit for the corridors we were using." Major Miller lamented, looking down a darkened side corridor.
"We don't know what systems are damaged, and the basic functions are still working. It's best not to take any risks until we can search the ship and make our way to the engineering department to do a full scan." Max disagreed.
He was also curious about what was down the corridors that they were passing, but they could wait until the ship had at least been searched for survivors.
"Here we are. Stasis pod room one of four. There are double doors to this area, with a sanitizing system and the interior still has an atmosphere, quality unknown, the walls are interfering with my scans.
If you two want to wait out here, I will search the room and report back. The fewer people we send inside the easier it will be on the ship's remaining power supply." Nico suggested.
"Works for me. Make sure you record it all for the mission report." Max instructed her, then turned to inspect the other doors in the area.
The walls were smooth, and slightly curved, made of a silvery substance that Max's suit determined wasn't metallic, but it couldn't name the alloy or polymer that they were constructed of. It seemed to be dozens of different materials all bonded together into one block, like the layered composite armor of a Mecha, but at a molecular level.
It would take some time for his Suit to fully scan these walls, which were different from the plain silver ones that made up the rest of the ship so far.
This must be the aliens' version of security material, and knowing what it was could either be a huge benefit to the Kepler force or tell them a lot about the technological level of the people who built this ship.
The construction method was very advanced, but that didn't always translate into more durable or higher quality construction, only a very different culture doing the building.
"Max, the room is empty, but they left a note on the wall. Give me a second and I will have it translated." Nico informed him a few minutes after entering the stasis room.
[Ship engines offline. No source of Dilithium Crystals was found within the navigable area. The crew has been evacuated to the Colony Ship Hope along with essential materials. Pray to the Gods that we find a peaceful new home, free from conflict and the brutal species.]
Nico sent the translation and Major Miller burst into laughter.
"Wow did they ever come to the wrong fething Galaxy. This whole place is a warzone, and that's without counting the petty stuff, like the species that just want to eat everything that they see." He chuckled.
Not the most glowing recommendation of their home galaxy, but the Major wasn't wrong. This wasn't what a colony ship would hope for if they wanted a peaceful home.
Contact - ToS
Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C260 260 And We Are Peace
"I have more data for you, Colonel. I have biological data from the stasis pods, about their last occupants." Nico informed him.
That was the sort of breakthrough that they were hoping to find. With that they could know exactly who the colonists were, and where they might have gone, assuming that they had survived to become a known species of the Galaxy.
Nico sent over a wave of data, and at first, Max thought that it was from a number of different species, because the genetic diversity and appearances were so widely varied. But after looking more closely, they were all one group, just different lineages.
They were bipedal, like humans, but had a total of six limbs. For some that meant a set of wings, for some it was a second set of arms. There were large ones and small ones, but for the most part, they were just over three meters tall.
If it weren't for that, he would have thought that they were the ancestors of the Narsians.
Though, given that Nico mentioned that they had gene modification bays, they actually might have been, if this ship had arrived in the system early enough.
"Nico, what is the age of the message? How long ago did they leave, can you tell?" Max asked.
00:03
00:31
Ads by Pubfuture
"According to the timer on their computers, they left about 2600 Kepler standard years ago. The Navigation data isn't available though, so I have no idea where they came from or where they intended to go." Nico informed him.
That was too recent to be any of the major races in the Galaxy, but maybe they did find a peaceful sector of the Galaxy to call home. Until they had more data, there was always hope.
"Check all the stasis bays while Major Miller and I check out the area for any other interesting items left behind for us to find. If they transferred to another Colony ship, they must have been short on space, so there is bound to be something left behind." Max told her, then turned to shine his light down a darkened corridor.
[We have more information from Imperial Command. Sector Command doesn't know that you have left Abraham Kepler, and the Tapani have canceled their request for aid. That seemed suspicious to the Emperor, so he ordered a sensor sweep of the area and found that the incoming Klem pods are not going to strike Tapani space, but fly right by them and into Kepler space.] Inquisitor Ming reported.
That wasn't good news. Kepler Terminus, Max's homeworld, was one of the closest Kepler planets to that border, and from what he could tell, the majority of the Sector Defense fleet was currently headed to Tapani territory looking for the experimental Mecha.
[Do we have any additional orders or just a partial situation update?] Max asked.
[No new orders, and I don't expect any. At the moment, we don't officially exist, and the Emperor himself will deny that any such experimental Mecha Force was created. Until proven otherwise, the Rebels are wasting Kepler's resources on a witch hunt over an incident that only occurred in their imagination and proving themselves unfit to be allowed to return to their positions of power.] General Yaakov reported.
[I know it is a selfish request, but if those Klem pods are headed for Kepler Terminus, I would like to divert there, in our capacity as the Terminus Trading Company.] Max asked General Yaakov.
[Current trajectory shows that your homeworld is safe from the Klem, but all the way out here, we can't get much data, only the bit that Imperial Command made available to the other frontier planets.] The General informed him with a sigh.
They had gotten used to sending any and all annoying matters to the layer of command above themselves, now that it was gone and they were out of contact, they would have to start making their own calls, based on the data that they could collect themselves.
[All the pods are gone, as are the stored genetic material and the entire contents of the Gene sequencing lab. Most of the Terraforming equipment is still in the storage bays, and I've got the cameras online now. This station has enough clearance to verify that it is safe to turn on the lights if you would like.] Nico reported.
[Do it, and if you can search for escape pods or shuttles of some sort, that would be great. I want to know as much about their technology as possible before we have to go.] Max suggested.
[Why should we leave at all? We've got a mighty fine colony ship here, plus two and a half cutters. If there is any empty storage we can move the Pirate ships inside the Colony ship and drag the whole fething thing with us.] Major Miller joked.
[No, you have a point, Major. Once First Battalion has finished searching their current location, move to the aft of the ship and inspect the engines. It sounded like the problem was a lack of resources to repair engine damage. If we can fix that, we can take the whole thing intact.
I don't know if Imperial Command will count it as war spoils, but a Colony Ship of unknown origin has to be worth something, right? If nothing else, I will take it home with me and dock it at my family's spaceport.] General Yaakov ordered.
Now he was starting to think outside the box. The rebels were looking for Abraham Kepler right now, but if they got enough data they would be looking for the Dutchman, but nobody would be looking for a pair of Pirate Cutters operating from a battered alien Colony ship.
They wouldn't even be the only ones. Discarded Colony ships were once a popular home for Mercenary groups. That reached its peak a few thousand years ago, when the last colonization wave ended, but there were still a number of archaic vessels floating around like drifting cities in space, home to all sorts of folk who didn't really fit in with regular society.
Contact - ToS
Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C261 261 We Can Do This
"You heard the man, we are finished here in the empty stasis quarters, let's go explore the engine compartments." Nico declared, far too happily for Max's peace of mind.
He didn't need to be a mind reader to know that she was intending to find a way to get the engines of the Colony ship back online so that they could travel through space in style.
"You're thinking of something strange aren't you?" Major Miller asked, thinking the same thing as Max.
"Define strange? It just occurred to me that if we are still on this mission and haven't officially turned in the Colony ship when our tour of duty ends, legally we are allowed to keep it." Nico suggested with a slight giggle.
"See, now that's what most people would call odd. A proper soldier of the Empire is not supposed to make plans to inhabit a captured Colony Ship and explore the Galaxy selling trade goods to species that most of the Kepler territory doesn't even know exist." Major Miller pointed out.
"So you're in?" Nico joked.
"Fair shares for the whole crew though. I have heard some of the work contracts are pretty brutal." He told her, leading the way to the aft of the ship with his X109 Crusader.
Max watched the Mecha leave and decided that they really needed a proper name for the new Mecha. It was distinct from the standard Crusaders, both in mobility and firepower, despite sharing most of the same basic chassis, so it certainly should be defined as a distinct pattern.
[While you lot are waiting outside for the hackers to do their work, why don't you come up with a new name for the X109 Fast Attack Crusaders? I will be accepting suggestions until we come up with a good enough one for all the Battalion Commanders to agree on it.] Max suggested over the radio.
[Now we're talking. The new patterns have earned something after taking out a pair of fething spaceships.] Ivanov replied.
[Yeah, and we should likely stop using the official designation in communications, just in case.] Pippin agreed.
It only took them a few minutes to get to the aft of the ship and find the Engineering bay where all the Engine controls were. The problem that forced the crew to abandon the ship was immediately obvious as soon as they entered the bay.
The engines used a Crystal Matrix to generate the Warp Field that allowed faster-than-light travel. Something had overloaded the engine, most likely the asteroid impacts and the Captain maximizing shielding output to avoid having the entire vessel destroyed.
Without the Crystals, they were dead in the water, and Max didn't recognize the structure as anything from this Galaxy.
"What do you see Nico? My System Optimization says to replace the Crystals before proceeding, which isn't useful when I have no idea what they're made of or where they come from."
"They are just cracked, and it destabilized the Matrix that let the energy to shape the Warp Field flow through them. My sensors say that there is another set in the radiation-shielded storage room over there, so they must have destroyed both their main propulsion matrix and the backup set.
Give me a little while and I think I can do something with this. My function allows the Nanobots to attempt repairs if they can determine what they are working with. Since they are all broken in different spots, I have all the data that I need." Nico confirmed.
"So what you're saying is…" Major Miller asked.
"I am totally stealing a Colony ship," Nico confirmed, making Max constrain the urge to smack her on the head and tell her to focus.
She stuck both hands of her Mobile Suit into the containment field around the crystals, grabbing them in her hands and standing stock still for ten whole minutes before backing up.
"This is where Max comes in. I have the repairs done, but this system is stupidly finicky, and I'm not sure that I can get it to actually work properly with the Functions that I have. But Max can optimize them, so as soon as I bring them online, he should be able to tweak the positioning using this control panel here and make them functional." Nico explained.
Max spared a thought about how ironic the situation was. The ship was battered but holding together, but it was stopped dead by something that was a fifteen-minute repair for the Nanomachines that the entire population of Kepler had.
Of course, at the time, they hadn't been deliberately spread through the population yet and were still confined to only Kepler Terminus, but on a galactic scale, they were very close to a location that could have actually fixed their ship and gotten them going again.
Assuming that the humans didn't just kill and rob them, that is.
The array began to glow as Nico interacted with the computer, and Max moved to the control panel, activating his [Unit Optimization] Skill.
[Make the following changes to bring the engines to optimal performance]
[Make the following changes to bring the control system online]
Make the following changes to bring the power systems online]
…
There were hundreds of lines of directives from the system for things that needed to be done to make the ship's systems optimized, but he started with the engines, tweaking them until the System told him he had it right. Then he brought the control systems back online, as they had only been manually disabled.
Max suspected that was the equivalent of a mechanic's lockout so that nobody messed with the settings or powered anything up while they were working.
"Nico, bring the main power back online and run a system diagnostic. I want to know if there are any holes in my ship?" Max ordered.
"Your ship?" She asked.
"I outrank you, therefore when we retire with the Colony ship, it is totally going to be my ship." Max laughed, seeing the mental image of Nico sticking out her tongue at him.
Contact - ToS
Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System
C262 262 Please, Do Come In
"Power is online. There are two areas where breaches are shown, due to damage, both are under ten centimeters in size and can be blocked with energy barriers. Would you like me to send a repair team from the Battalion to patch the holes in your ship?" Nico asked.
"Do it, they aren't doing anything important anyhow, and the Dutchman has enough materials on board to make a few small repairs so that we can get atmosphere back on the ship. Is there any in reserve or are we going to have to break down an asteroid to get what we need?" Max asked.
"They evacuated the atmosphere from the ship before they left, to put it into storage mode and reduce corrosion. Once we fix the holes and get everything else working, we can release it again." Nico informed him.
[General Yaakov, we have the ship's main engines online. There are a few small holes in the ship, if you could authorize a team to come to repair them, I will send you the data.
The Colony Ship has enough storage space to hold all four vessels in its hangar bays since the Colonists took all their shuttles and most of their materials with them.] Max informed the others over the Command Channel.
[That is excellent news. Take what you need and get the ship patched, then send the Admiral the destination coordinates so he can bring the Dutchman in.
Third, through Fifth Battalions, use your X109 units to maneuver the Pirate vessels into the cargo bays and out of sight. We will inspect them and get at least the two of them back online as we go.] General Yaakov ordered.
Nico unlocked the airlock doors for the First and Second Battalions, along with sending the location of the holes to the teams. The external hull was made of the same materials that the main bulkheads were, so there was a good chance that they could manage a temporary patch using the existing ship as the source of materials, saving the time of creating a compatible alloy with the materials printers and sending it over to them.
00:00
00:31
Ads by Pubfuture
They could repair the bulkheads at will, but the external hull repairs couldn't wait. At least not those two, since there were tens of thousands of other small damages that didn't compromise the structure littered all over the outside of the ship.
"Hey, Max, do you see what I see in these design specs?" Nico asked, drawing his attention to the screen that she had managed to get translated into Kepler Standard.
"Total Mass, power output, hydroponic bays, crew compliment. It all looks pretty normal to me."
"No, in the actual specs. This ship is only capable of a Warp Factor of two. It isn't running from pretty much anything. Plus, it isn't exactly stealthy. We might have to talk to the General about where exactly we can go that isn't going to get us attacked by idiots that think they can steal our new houseboat." Nico told him.
Each numerical increase in speed represented a square of the speed of the previous factor, so going down to a factor of two from the factor of six that the Dutchman could maintain was going to be painful.
"Even after the modifications that we both made?" Max asked.
"That I won't know until we actually try. It's probably better than the original, but looking at this, the ship was definitely a generational transport. Getting here could very well have taken them hundreds of years." Nico answered, unsure of the answer herself.
"Do we know where they came from?" Max asked her.
"Not yet. They deleted all the navigational and personal data from the systems, it was only because I could hack the pods that we even know what they looked like." Nico sighed.
They could have been from one of the Dwarf Galaxies that were relatively near their own, but Max didn't have enough information on them to know for sure if they had any advanced civilizations. Many of them were at the end of their probable life-supporting period, with their Stars moving into the Red Giant phase, so if they had civilization, it would have most likely come and gone billions of years before Humanity was born.
That thought was actually a little terrifying to Max. If there was still an intelligent species out there that had been evolving for a billion or more continuous years, what sort of being would they have evolved into? It was better not to think of that, all of the answers seemed terrifying.
The Pirate ships were slowly moving now, being maneuvered by battalions of Fast Attack Mecha, while Admiral Drake led the Dutchman to the large Cargo Bay near the front of the Port side.
The information they had said that it used to hold terraforming devices, so it was exceptionally large and had gantries and overhead cranes to facilitate both movements of materials and repairs.
There was a smaller version that the Pirate Cutters were brought to in order to be repaired, and the technicians were already beginning the system scans to determine if they could be properly brought back online with the materials on hand.
[General Yaakov, If we scavenge the third, mostly destroyed vessel, we can bring the other two back up to peak condition, and even increase their firepower with the Mecha technology that we have on hand.] The technicians determined a few hours later, after exploring the ships.
[Good. Get on it, and give them some defensive firepower worth mentioning. Then use some of the leftover ship to patch the more damaged areas on the hull of the Colony Ship. Make it obvious too. I don't want people to see a new fleet of colonists, I want them to see a repurposed Colony City, understand?]
[Yes Sir, we will get right at it.]
That had the Technicians busy for the foreseeable future, and now that they were all on board, General Yaakov wanted to get as far from here as he could.
The mission was a failure, and they had to hide somewhere, so he planned to continue on course, but not turn to head into Tapani Territory. Instead, he would head along the border with Kepler toward the Galactic Core, where very few inhabited star systems existed.
From there, they could skirt inhabited space and keep an eye on the Klem Pods. If they weren't intercepted and made landfall on an inhabited planet, they could offer to step in, and nobody would be any the wiser. They had a Colony ship now, so their technology could be attributed to anywhere in the Galaxy over the last two millennia.
Nobody expected cutting-edge technology aboard such a ship, but a large fleet of ancient and obsolete war machines retired by their home systems? That was how most Mercenary Forces were formed.
Contact - ToS