Chapter 300 300 Smells Like Home
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[Supply staff of the First Battalion, please bring in the rations synthesized by the food processors from Terminus and the water barrels. Get these people fed and watered as quickly as we can, I don't think they've eaten in days, packed in that tiny hold.] Max ordered as they walked.
Nico got off the ramp at the third level and turned to walk through the crowd, much less tightly packed on this level than the first two had been, stopping only when she reached a middle-aged woman with a stroller.
"Commander Keres, meet Sasha, Sandy, Sara, and Sal." Nico introduced the four children, two sets of twins, to Max once they arrived.
"Hello, little ones." Max greeted them, and the four children waved happily at him snacking on shared portions of a protein bar that their caretaker had given them.
Two were boys and two were girls, but all had blonde hair, and the older sisters had a very familiar style of ringlets curled into hers.
"Are these who I think they are?" Max asked.
"They are. Meet Miss Molly, an adoption agent from Kepler Terminus. When the evacuations began, the foster parents returned the children to the system, so when Miss Molly took them and bought passage off the planet, it was back under the Max surname, and I noticed them immediately.
In fact, I would have even if I didn't have their names, since they look so much like you used to." Nico told him with a smile.
"Pardon, but can someone explain?" The adoption worker asked.
"Commander Keres is Keres Max, formerly Samantha Max of Kepler Terminus, and the older brother of these four children," Nico explained, and the woman's eyes went wide in shock.
"You were supposed to be dead, killed along with the entire crew of Abraham Kepler after turning Traitor to the Empire." The woman informed him.
"False on all accounts. I am not dead, or a traitor, and I clearly am not aboard Abraham Kepler, which as of the last message that we received, has not been destroyed." Max informed her.
"Well, it is good to know that they have someone in this world, even if you are a Reaver now. Do you think that there will be real food soon? The trip was only supposed to be two days, but we have been almost a week now, looking for a safe port that will accept us." Miss Molly explained.
"There will be tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches soon. It's the easiest to produce items for our nutrition supply processors to come up with in such large quantities, so that's what everyone is getting." Max informed the lady, while the kids cheered.
Dave had the same response when he found out that was what they had made from the Food Replicators as well.
Max decided that he had a new job for the old veteran. He was an official Government babysitter for Max, even if it was undercover, and he would do a great job again, especially with help.
Reincarnation might have changed everything about Max from his potential to his genetic code, but he still felt a sibling fondness for these four children and hoped that they could be safely settled down on Rae 5 once they returned. But in the meantime, he could move them out of the refugee area and into a spare room in the First Battalion quarters.
There were a lot of mouths to feed, but the sandwich production had been improved so that they could be directly produced wrapped in paper, and the soup came out hot in a sealed tub with a spoon attached to the lid, so cart after cart was sent to the floors to distribute food.
There was a lot of cheering from the children and laughing from the adults, but everyone seemed happy to at least have gotten food.
[There will be a proper meal this evening, ship time, but we thought you could use something to eat in the meantime. We weren't expecting so many to have fit in that tiny ship, so extra rations are being prepared, and we will be heading to your new home right away.] Max informed everyone, using the intercom in the storage bay.
He took the lead, while Nico took up the rear and they headed out of the bay before flagging down a transport cart to take everyone to the Aft crew quarters.
"There are a few spare rooms near my quarters. They're not perfect, since they were intended for enlisted soldiers, but they should do well enough for these purposes." Max informed them.
"He must really be our brother, he's way nicer than that foster family." One of the twin daughters informed Miss Molly.
"I even found a friend from back home to help watch you until you get off the ship. Do you remember Dave, or were you too little?" Max asked.
"I don't know anyone from where our biological parents lived. We weren't even two yet when we were sepum-rated." The little girl stumbled over the big word.
"That's fine. He's a good friend of mine, and he might remember you, so I will ask him to help Miss Molly for the next few days. He even has access to the good snacks." Max told the girl with a wink, unable to tell them apart with a glance.
Dave met them at the door, with a wet cloth in hand and four sets of pajamas ready, two for boys and two for girls.
"I suspect that soup and sandwiches were messy, so I came prepared. But who is this lovely lady? You didn't tell me that you had captured an angel." Dave greeted them, giving Miss Molly his very best smile.
"Smooth, but you'll have to do better soldier boy." Molly laughed.
"I've got all day to work on it. Come in, the bunks are ready, and I prepared them with retainers so the little ones don't roll out. I wasn't sure if the boys were walking yet." Dave replied, rolling himself backward to let them into the ten-bunk communal dorm room.
"This is all for us?" Molly asked, looking at the plush couches, television, holoprojector, and fully stocked kitchen, with synthetic versions of the fancy dishes that the Nobles preferred.
"This is what we have. It is meant for a wing of Light Mecha Pilots, but we didn't have enough to fill all the rooms, so you can use this one until we reach the planet unless you're captured by Mary Tarith, who has entirely too many boys of her own, and loves little girls." Max laughed.
"That Mary Tarith? Her family donates a lot of money to children's causes, and she was all over the news when the fighting broke out." Molly told him.
"Oh, trust us, we know. She's here on board right now, and I'm going to guess that she's bored and upset that she didn't have anything do to this time, since it didn't require an outside specialist." Nico told Molly with a wink.
"If you say that the news is wrong, I will believe you. You're here after all." Molly agreed, then sighed as the girls began running around the living room examining everything.
"Pick your rooms for the trip girls. I will bring your bags." Dave called.
That should keep them busy for a while. The rooms were all absolutely identical.
Chapter 301 301 More Family
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The selection of rooms took exactly as long as Dave had suspected. The moment one twin chose a room, the other demanded that they get the room because it was clearly the best one, and they should get equal rooms. Then different rooms were selected, and they were still somehow unequal.
In the end, Miss Molly ended up with a tape measure, checking the distance to the fridge, snack cabinets, and showers to provide a perfectly balanced set of distances between both selections, which naturally put them side by side in the center of the group of bunks.
The infant twin boys stayed next to Molly, who took a room at the end, and Dave took the far side so that nobody could escape out that end to wander the ship unattended.
They had already tried, assuming that they could find a better room if they just looked hard enough.
That was likely true, at least in their minds. The technicians and logistics staff had a number of odd characters in their ranks who would be highly entertaining to a pair of small children who were bored from days and days of being cramped into a cargo hold where they couldn't even sit down properly.
They had just had soup and sandwiches, but the dinner meal would be served soon, getting everyone back on schedule with the ship and past the initial food scare which led to refugees hoarding and fighting over supplies in cases where they thought they might be limited.
None of the officers wanted to deal with that here, so they planned two meals back to back, and they would be placing the meal plans and times for the rest of the journey up on the wall once the buffet was set up.
Feeding a small city's worth of refugees was no small task either, even if they had the technology on Terminus to do it, they still needed hundreds of staff to keep the lines moving and get everyone fed. Five floors, with roughly eight thousand people per floor, now that they had realized that there was more space at the top and spread out, meant that each Battalion's logistics staff would need to make over two tonnes of food for every meal.
If they didn't already have experienced staff who had dealt with Infantry Regiments before, it could have been a disaster.
Back in the First Battalion dorms, Dave had a great idea to keep the kids entertained. "Why don't we go have lunch with all the Reavers in this section? They're having the same thing that the people you traveled with will be having, but I'll bet they will be lots more fun, and they haven't seen a kid as cute as you are in a while."
Molly smiled at that joke. Kids on a Reaver vessel? That was actually extremely common, but to see kids who didn't grow up with space travel and violence was a rare thing.
"Or they could come to eat with the rest of the Family? We have our own section in the middle of the ship, set aside for passengers." Mary Tarith suggested, walking in through the open door.
"Mary Tarith, meet Miss Molly, an adoption worker from Kepler Terminus." Dave introduced them.
"Oh, I remember, you were the coordinator for the new food bank drive just before things started to get messy back home." Mary declared, looking at Molly.
"I am honestly shocked you remember me. I mean, you're practically a trillionaire, from what I've heard, so why would you remember someone like me, who only organized one event?" Molly asked, then covered her mouth, not having intended to say some of that out loud.
"I always remember competent people. If things had gone better and the planetary government hadn't managed to shut us out of the news media, I would have likely taken you on as an employee. We're not as rich as you think though, we just give the entire family's charity spending through one organization.
There were hundreds of us on the planet, with many different businesses, so it adds up, even if each one only gives a few thousand to a cause." Mary Tarith explained.
That was how she had organized things in the Family. Instead of doing things personally, which could draw attention to a number of questionable business practices or to the Reaver branches of the family, who weren't directly involved with the planetary branch, Mary Tarith made a separate foundation to do all the charity work, and she became the spokesperson for it.
That led to a number of rumors going around about their hidden power and wealth, but that was always the way with old-money families. Their power was buried deep, though this time it had turned out to be too shallow to keep things under control when the planet's government had sided with the Rebels.
"We might as well go to them, or they will come to us. Mary here is pushing hard for Commander Keres to become her son-in-law, so I'm sure she won't pass up a chance to befriend his remaining family." Dave smirked.
"If only that daughter of mine hadn't made it so hard. I mean, between becoming a full conversion Cyborg, and his closest confidant and combat partner? I don't need to pull them together, I need to shift their dynamic apart enough that they can see each other as potential romantic partners and not battle brothers." Mary sighed.
"If they're that close, do they need to get married at all? They sound like they're practically family already." Molly asked.
"See, Nico is supposed to take over the Family, as the oldest child of the current leader. That might not happen, since she loves Mecha too much to sit at home and do paperwork, but if she's married then we can have them adopt a few kids, or gene sequence some from the pair of them, and continue the bloodline that way, skipping a generation to give the lead to my grandchildren." Mary explained.
"That sounds like a lot of pressure for a young couple." Dave pointed out, making both women laugh.
"Sure, fighting to the death in a Reaver ship is no big deal, but committing to a relationship? Now that's the real hurdle in the mind of a veteran." Molly laughed, making Dave chuckle and pick up the twin girls to set them on his lap as he wheeled himself toward the door.
"Shall we go then? Young Ladies, your chariot awaits."Chapter 302 302 Family Dinners Are Stressful
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Dave rolled his wheel chair over and placed the twins in the back of the cargo shuttle before lifting himself and his chair up onto the deck, while Molly lifted the boys in their stroller beside them. Mary joined them all in the back, then thumped the roof for the driver to return to the Tarith Family dining rooms.
Along the way, she told the kids a wonderful story about how a heroic Mecha pilot held a planet all by himself, fighting off evil enemies until finally a rescue came for him and took back the planet. That was the child's version of the Kepler 142 resistance story, and the girls loved it, demanding more and more details as Mary told the tale.
Fortunately, it was a historical event, and she knew all the details, so she could indulge every question that they wanted the answers to.
"You're good with kids," Molly observed, having not seen Mary Tarith interact with children before since their event was mostly for donors and such the day that the two of them met.
"I have three hundred nieces and nephews at the moment, and they're all aboard this ship. In our family, you get very used to having kids around, since we all like spending time together." Mary explained.
"So are you staying on this ship? Traveling as a family?" Molly asked.
"No, once we get to Rae 5 we will be departing, along with all the refugees. The Reavers are currently building cities on the formerly uninhabited planet, and we are looking forward to having a stable population.
The Reaver ships are short on craftsmen, laborers, and general service workers all the time, so having so many Refugees filling up a Capital city will be a good start for us. You can rebuild your lives, and the Reavers will supply the products to get you started.
It might mean that those who want to start a business take on some debt if they didn't have anything to bring with them, but it will be a good deal with the Reavers since they need the manpower. I think a lot of them plan to keep the businesses in the Companies, but they will still need employees to sell their goods, so there are going to be jobs for everyone to go to, as well as homes."
Molly was stunned to silence, while the kids didn't really understand what was going on.
"A newly built, modern city, with jobs for everyone, selling products and services for the Reavers? That sounds a bit too exciting." Molly pointed out.
"Think of it more like living on a resort planet. Everyone will come there to trade and relax, while the more sensitive and bulk goods will be sold in the Space Stations in the system that are manned by Reaver Company staff.
The planet is supposed to be a homeworld for them, so a lot of young families with children will be transferred to the surface instead of remaining on their vessels." Mary explained it a bit more clearly.
"Oh, that makes sense now. It sounded a bit like a huge black market venue the first time." Molly chuckled while Dave did his best to hide his smile.
It wasn't that far from the truth, but it wouldn't be some seedy underworld place where they had to hide from the law and do their business without being noticed. Here they could do whatever they agreed was within the bounds of good taste.
Reavers allowed many things, but certain drugs were off limits for being too damaging to their users, classified information couldn't be sold openly, as it caused too many problems for the people, and Human Trafficking usually led to a very painful death, because so many Reavers started out as slaves in foreign lands who were either bought or freed by force by the Companies that they now worked for.
Dave had forgotten how much stuff the Tarith Family had brought aboard when they left the planet. This dining hall was pure luxury for a thousand guests or more, with real leather chairs for the heads of family groups, and an actual golden throne at the head of the main table.
"Seriously? A golden throne? I didn't take you for the melodramatic type." Dave laughed.
"Oh, that's not my seat, I sit to the right of it. The throne is for the oldest living member of the family present at a meal. It's an old tradition from before we started passing down the reigns of the family before the existing leader died.
Today, that seat will be occupied by my grandmother."
Mary Tarith pointed to where an ancient woman was being held upright by a small Cyborg with jet-black hair.
"Good Morning Dave. Did you see Max on the way in? He's late for dinner." Nico called across the room while helping her great-grandmother to her seat at the main table.
"We didn't. Your mother came to collect us, so we didn't walk all the way down the ship." Dave explained, then spotted the blonde hair coming reluctantly down the hall.
Max was dreading this family dinner. The Tarith Family was way too friendly, and loud, and had no idea what the words personal space meant, at least in Max's opinion. Plus, they were pushing way too hard for him to get with Nico.
"You going to tell them boy, or should I?" Dave asked as Max walked up and patted him on the shoulder, not having expected the kids and him to be there to rescue him from awkward conversations.
"Oh, I'm going to tell them. But I'm not sure they're going to listen. Just look at them, it's like they're some fundamentalist cult that worships childbirth. Have you ever seen so many kids in one spot?" Max asked, making the crippled veteran laugh.
"You forget, your own family had five children in total. But they do have a lot of them for sure, and that's just the ones too young to have gone to the academy." Dave agreed.
"That reminds me, did we ever track down the ship that took the Cadets off-world? I bet they wouldn't mind a small change of venue for their education now that Kepler Terminus is in the middle of a mess." Max asked.
"Not yet, but we're working on it. The more we can find the better, especially trained pilots." Nico informed him, then turned to Dave with a smile.
"I have good news for you though. I made some time with the Tarith Family Doctors. They can see you tomorrow and start patching you up a little. Just tell them what you're after at the consultation and we will see what we can do with the supplies that we have on board Terminus."
Dave's eyes glistened with unshed tears, and even Max felt himself getting a bit misty. He knew that there were no Cyborg parts in stock on the ship yesterday, though they had a number of specialist surgeons in the Tarith Family, so Nico must have arranged time with the materials printers as well to make this gift happen.
Even when everything else was chaos, trying to deal with an influx of refugees, Nico somehow still managed to keep her own plans on track to look after others.Chapter 303 303 Very Stressful
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Max found himself seated between Nico and her mother for dinner, at the head table, while Dave laughed at him from the next table over, seated between Molly and Max's little sisters. On the other side of Nico sat Generals Yaakov and Ming, with a woman in her late thirties sitting between them flirting with General Yaakov.
The General looked quite smitten with his much younger suitor, but given that Max could tell that they both had rather powerful systems, they didn't look too different in age and could have many decades or even a century together before old age overcame them.
Neither were Alpha Ranked for System Compatibility, so multiple centuries might be asking too much, but they could certainly make it to at least a hundred and fifty before they started looking and feeling truly elderly.
That was the paradox of Military life. Your body was still technically quite young, based on its maximum, but after fifty or sixty years at war, you were ready to retire, call it quits and never hold a rifle or wear a uniform again.
General Yaakov had been at that point before they had even taken on the mission to test the experimental Mecha, and was supposed to be using it as a final commendation to cap off his career.
General Ming was no younger, but he enjoyed his work and hadn't often been on the front lines of combat, as the Inquisitors worked mostly behind the scenes. That had left him mentally fit for many more years of duty, and looking forward to all of them.
Max wondered how he would be in fifty more years as a Mecha Pilot. These first few were pretty crazy with civil war and Rebellion spreading through the Empire. Still, there was a chance things would either calm down later or break down so much that a decades-long ceasefire would be declared to let everyone get themselves reorganized again.
"So, Max, what are your plans once you have dropped off the family and the refugees on Rae 5?" Mary Tarith asked.
"You know I'm just the figurehead, General Yaakov makes all the big decisions in committee with his Command staff," Max replied, not wanting to undermine the General in any official capacity when he was sitting only two chairs away.
"Oh, you didn't hear? I suppose they're too busy flirting for their thoughts to be on anything long-term right now." Mary laughed, catching the attention of General Yaakov and his suitor.
"Madam Tarith, I believe I heard my name." The General asked, leaning forward so he could see her more easily.
"You did. It seems you haven't shared the news with your staff yet." Mary answered, and Max saw the truth in General Yaakov's thoughts.
"I was saving it for tomorrow's staff meeting. The paperwork has been done for months, there was just not a suitable spot for it." The General answered with dignity.
His retirement was already official, to become effective the moment that he left active duty of his own volition. He had chosen to depart Terminus along with Gwen Tarith, the woman next to him when they reached Rae 5, and use his savings along with hers to set up a restaurant in the newly established Captial.
By Kepler Military Doctrine, the Colonel in charge of the First Battalion took over a Regiment that lost its leader without an official replacement, so unless Max declined the honor, the role would go to him. Their ties to the Empire were becoming a bit tenuous, given the situation, but Max was still a proper Colonel, and this was still a proper Mecha Regiment, even if they were somewhat unorthodox.
In Max's past life, such units were much more common. The Mecha pilots were lauded as heroes, and given all sorts of perks and benefits befitting the highest in society. That meant that opulent rooms, nonexistent discipline, and groupies were the standard, not Military regulations and strictly tiered Unit assignments.
In fact, every Mecha in Max's past life, as far as he could remember, was personalized. A one-off unit that was built for a specific person, who then passed them down through their family or through the prodigies that they trained.
He had experience dealing with those sorts, and getting them to work together, and his memories had almost all returned, except a small portion that was still locked away for some reason, but it was enough to give him the confidence that he could be a good leader to this unit as long as they remained together.
"With the General retiring, that might shake things up a little, wouldn't it? Maybe encourage some rapid decisions, and move things along to the next step?" Mary asked Max suggestively.
"Mother, I already told you, you have to wait if you want us married. It's not the time for that yet, no matter how much you want grandchildren." Nico reminded her.
Max sighed and rubbed his temples. This was why he was dreading coming here. Mary Tarith had no filter, or at least she refused to use the one she had, and she really, really wanted grandchildren, even before her youngest was old enough to have joined the academy.
"If you were in such a hurry to have grandchildren, perhaps you shouldn't have waited a decade between the first and second attempts at children. You could have increased the odds much earlier." Max pointed out.
"Bah, don't you think I tried? That husband of mine is sneaky, he would find excuses to be out of town on my fertile days so that he, and I quote, wasn't drowned in children." Mary grumbled, making a man sitting across from Dave laugh.
Max hadn't noticed, but it was Nico's elusive father. Max had no idea what the man actually did for a living, only that he was very good at making himself inconspicuous, even to Max, who could read the thoughts of everyone around him. Right now, the man was entirely focused on dinner and talking to Dave, with no hint of other thoughts in his mind.
That was entirely too suspicious. He had just been called out for his behavior, surely it would cross his mind for more than a moment, but as far as Max could tell it didn't. He would have to ask Nico about it later.
Chapter 304 304 The Big Announcement
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Despite Max's suspicions about the true role of Nico's father in the family, and even in the Kepler Empire, the dinner went fairly smoothly, with only minimal commentary on his relationship status, thanks to the revelation of General Yaakov's upcoming retirement and marriage.
Because the news was leaked at dinner, General Yaakov decided to move up the morning briefing to right after the meal, calling every member of the Command Staff to his office so that he could tell everyone in person. Since he told them that it was very important, everyone brought their Adjutant and Technician, assuming that it was related to a large-scale Regimental Operation.
In a way it was, but not quite the way that they expected.
"Welcome everyone. I would like to introduce you to Miss Gwen Tarith. An exceptional structural engineer, and my bride-to-be. We have decided to make Rae 5 my last official stop as an active duty General in the Kepler Fleet, and I will be retiring as soon as we have disembarked.
The wedding will be on the planet, and open to everyone who wishes to be present.
After the wedding, we will be setting up a restaurant, selling the diverse delicacies of the Kepler Empire, and enjoying our time together." General Yaakov explained.
The Command Staff burst into applause for him and his new bride, and someone brought out a bottle of high-quality Cognac, passing it around in the bottle for the group to celebrate.
"I'm glad you found someone General." Nico congratulated him.
Max looked into the General's thoughts, certain that he had once mentioned a close family, not just an extended one, and found a predictable sadness in his recent memories. He did indeed have a wife before this until his trusted subordinates determined that she had been turning his household to the Rebel faction.
But that was something that he had in common with Gwen Tarith, who had assassinated her own husband at the start of the civil war on Kepler Terminus. In a twisted way, the two grieving widows were an amazing match, and Max could see that their personalities instantly meshed when they met, this wasn't just a marriage of convenience or a rushed rebound relationship.
It might be both of those things, but not just them. Though Max wondered how the General was going to react to her views on family. He had a number of children of his own, all grown now and married themselves, but she did not, and Gwen felt a lot like Mary Tarith about children. The more the merrier. Though she did temper herself somewhat and her thoughts showed Max that she would be happy with just four or five.
"But now that we've made our way through a bottle of the good stuff, we should get down to business. By regulation, Colonel Max will become the interim Regimental leader until such time as the Emperor sees fit to make a permanent assignment. If anyone has an issue with that, please speak now." General Yaakov instructed them.
"I don't see an issue. He's the best choice as a face for the Regiment, and I am NOT getting involved in the Imperial Politics involved in Regimental Command." Colonel Klinger, the most experienced among them declared.
That was a sentiment that most of them shared. Battalion Commanders were as high as most Pilots wanted to ascend. Beyond that, you would most likely never see combat inside a Mecha again, as you would have too many other responsibilities to take care of to be on the front lines unless you were a Super Heavy Mecha pilot.
They all were at the moment, but that was only due to the unique nature of their Regiment, and still General Yaakov wasn't a Pilot, at least not anymore.
So, they were happy to let Max take over the duty, and he could deal with the Imperial Court and their demands once this mission was over and they were back in regular contact with the Empire, assuming that their tour of duty wasn't over by then.
Most of them already planned to retire and keep this lovely Colony Ship, after hearing Max and Nico joking about it, so they honestly hoped that their redeployment orders didn't come too quickly, or that they would at least allow them to keep this cover story up and not rejoin a regular regiment with old pattern mecha.
There hadn't been any word of new pattern machines on the battlefield, and they all knew about the message that General Chen Lu had sent, announcing that all data relating to their project had been destroyed to keep it out of rebel hands, so it was likely that there wouldn't be any more Regiments like theirs for the time being.
That was both a good thing and a bad thing. It meant that the Rebels wouldn't have easily produced Super Heavy Mecha, since the old patterns were strictly guarded top secret information they would have to manually scan and compile to make a full one with a standard Material Printer, but it also meant that trying to crush the Rebellion would be even harder since the Kepler Fleet wouldn't have the new Mecha either.
"For now, we keep this among us. Once we get to Rae 5 I will make all the official announcements and turn over control of the Regiment. Then I hope you will all stay until the wedding." General Yaakov finished.
"Remember, we still need to deploy our residents and possibly build them an entire city, since we don't know how the progress on the planet is coming. Then we will need to be on location while the initial stages of the Orbital base are completed until it is a habitable space for the workers to live in while they finish mining the asteroid hollow and building the base. At my best guess, we will need at least a month before we go anywhere unless there is an emergency." Max reminded everyone.
That was a lot of things to do, but unless they volunteered to help with their Mecha, none of those things were for them personally to do, so they could be spending a lot of time on the ship practicing their piloting skills in the limited number of training simulators that they had available.
Max saw those thoughts in their minds and sent a memo to both Nico and Major Miller so that they could requisition time to build more training units. Enough for the Regiment, but also enough that they could take in trainees at a later date and expand their capabilities with new pilots.
You never knew when an opportunity would present itself after all, and there were a lot of refugees in the galaxy with military training.Chapter 305 305 Planetary Swag
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As Terminus approached the Rae 5 solar system they could immediately see the scale of the improvements that had been made. Dozens of partially complete space stations were arranged through the system, and the main planet now showed signs of habitation.
The machinery sent by the other Tarith Reavers had been busy and three cities were already visible. One in the middle of a fertile plain, one on the ocean, and one in the mountains, near where the Regiment's first misadventure here had found numerous mineral deposits that weren't easily mined from asteroids.
That was an excellent start, even if the planet didn't have any cities on its other side yet.
Not much had been done on the moon base, but they were waiting for the large-scale equipment aboard Terminus to get started on that particular project.
Now that they were back, they could start filling the city with people and getting essential services set up. Structurally it had everything a city could need, it just didn't have anyone to operate it at the moment.
"We've got thousands of farmers on board now and almost no commercial fishermen or miners, so how do you feel about settling in the grassland?" Max asked Mary Tarith as they checked the notes about the refugees they had taken on board.
"A capital city in the open is a good idea, it gives more room to expand later and easier access to food supplies." The Tarith family leader agreed.
"Then we will begin preparing Terminus for landfall. It won't be easy on the old ship, but with so many people it would take four or five round trips to move everyone with The Dutchman, and then, even more, to bring down all the equipment.
The shielding has been upgraded, so we should be fine on that account, it's just the gravitational forces that we are concerned with." Max informed her.
"What are the chances of structural failure?"
Max shrugged. "Less than one percent, but stress fractures might require repair before we leave again. Nothing that puts us in the severe risk category, just a small delay."
"That should be fine then. There are plenty of resources already on the planet to finish the repair without depleting the storage on Terminus. If you can set us down outside the city, we will take over the organization from there, and get everyone settled." Mary agreed.
They couldn't land too close to the city with a five-kilometer-long Colony Ship, but the passengers shouldn't mind a little walk if the city didn't have transport vehicles yet.
"I will relay the message to the Admiral and we can find a good landing spot."
Max sent out all the directions, and the Admiral found them a proper landing site where they wouldn't sink the enormous vessel, which had limited anti-gravity capabilities while the main engines were offline for safety checks after landing.
[Prepare for orbital insertion in 30 minutes. Please secure all loose items and be prepared for turbulence while entering the atmosphere.] The Admiral's voice informed the ship.
This should be an interesting trip. The outer hull of Terminus was rounded and well-designed for landing, but it was truly ancient. Even after their best analysis, the ship's durability and performance were only theoretical and they wouldn't know until the first time they made an entry if they were correct in their estimations of its structural integrity.
The vessel began to shudder and vibrate as they reached the atmosphere, but the effect was more gentle than in a modern Kepler lander.
Max checked all the available diagnostics himself, then signaled Nico to give him a report.
"The ship's structural integrity is holding at one hundred percent. Terminus is making the entry like a champ. Weather is optimal, minimal turbulence detected, and we should be down in twelve minutes.
Retro thrusters are active and our speed is in the expected range. " She narrated as she went through the diagnostics.
[Landing Legs deployed, prepare for impact.]
The warning alarmed the refugees much more than the crew had expected, and panic began to spread until the gentle thud of the ship meeting the ground resounded through the hull, and Terminus came to rest on the surface of Rae 5.
"You all suck. I thought we were going to crash and die." Someone shouted and the cargo hold full of civilians began to fill with relieved chatter.
[Please wait for an escort to lead you from the ship. Current hull temperatures are too high for an unprotected departure.
Once you arrive in the city, arrangements will be made for employment, housing, and provisions to get you settled in here on Rae 5, the first sanctioned Reaver-maintained Star System.] The Admiral's voice informed them politely.
The general feeling was somewhat dubious about those claims, but even the hope of a normal life again was enough to keep most of them going.
Once the ship had cooled enough to safely open the cargo bay doors, the first of the Reaver welcoming party approached. Not just from the Tarith Reavers who were in charge of planetary operations, but also from the other Companies that were setting up businesses on the planet.
This was the Reavers first hiring fair, possibly ever, and they all wanted to snag a variety of skilled workers. Not just from the trades, the act of selling to and entertaining Reavers and Mercenaries was an art form of its own that couldn't be overlooked.
An inexperienced waitress left to work alone would probably never show up to a second shift around such a rowdy and crude group, so if they didn't come from the Companies, then they needed extensive training to work hospitality jobs.
"That city is nuts. Did your family have some highly skilled architects on staff that nobody else knew about? And if so, why weren't they working on Kepler Terminus?" Max asked Mary Tarith as the elegantly curved skyscrapers of the new city came into view on their sensors.
The buildings were connected by walkways covered in plant life on multiple levels and clearly designed to be friendly to vehicle-free travel while still allowing for easy cargo movement.
"Apparently the plan came from Nico, out of the database aboard Terminus. This is what the ship's original owners intended to build, a fully self-sustaining city.
The material of the windows is actually a highly efficient solar collection array, and everything but the manufacturing district could operate without a separate power plant.
If we can find the aliens' plans, we might even find more efficient ways to manufacture Mecha and general goods than the materials printers. But that might be hopeless, they don't seem to be in the system, only the basic city was in the ship's terraforming data.
"So the others are the same?" Max asked.
"Modified for terrain, but yes. All three cities are the same, and then there are plans to have different styles on the other continents, for variety." Mary informed him.
This empty planet was starting to show a lot of potential. Max just needed to find a way to get it filled since this single city could hold far more people than even the combined Reaver and refugee efforts had supplied.Chapter 306 306 Reaver Job Fair
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"Welcome everyone to the first-ever Reaver Job Fair. Here in this park, we have employers looking for workers, as well as the city administration office which will be registering public workers and available to any settlers who want to farm the open plains." The guide announced as they reached the edge of the city, where a large landscaped park, filled with exotic fruit and nut trees was filled with Reavers.
"Come one, come all, and get your applications in, many great bonuses await the right workers." A Reaver was calling over a megaphone when the first load of refugees arrived in the city.
There were already people there, from the other ships in the system, many of whom had also picked up passengers, but not in such high numbers as Terminus.
The signage in the park was very clear about the various jobs, but some of the refugees weren't sure what sort of job they would even be suited for in this world, having done something specialized, or even nothing at all back on Kepler Terminus.
"I was a homemaker back on Kepler Terminus, but my Husband didn't leave with me and the kids were all at the academy." One woman explained to the organizer.
"If you're not looking for a new husband, then we have housekeeping, city park maintenance, and various cooking jobs. Do you have an active system?" The guide asked.
"Rank D Minus. I flunked out of the academy, even the infantry didn't want me. But I'm a pretty good cook." The woman shrugged.
"Then try over there with the restaurant workers. They will be testing the applicants inside a VR simulation, so everyone has a chance to prove themselves." The guide informed her, then sent the woman on her way and greeted the next troubled arrival.
"I haven't worked since I retired from the military. PTSD they said when they locked me up." The man informed her. He still looked rather young, so he likely wasn't retired for long after his ten years in the infantry.
"What did you do in the infantry?" The guide asked, preparing to find a spot to send him.
"Regimental Logistics Sergeant."
That was an easy one to work with. "Head to the city section, and tell them your skill set. Logistics skills are always in need, and they can place you either with the city or refer you to a transport company scheduling deliveries or something." She informed the veteran, who nodded happily.
More than a few fights broke out during the job fair, for a wide variety of reasons, but overall it was going better than expected.
None of the sections were extremely short on people, and after dealing with the drunken bystanders who had accompanied the Reaver Recruiters for a few minutes the Hospitality sector was no longer flooded with applicants.
There was still some resistance from the more prudish refugees about what all classified as hospitality though. Anything that the workers were willing to offer, as long as it didn't harm anyone, was fair game.
But, to some of the refugees, openly recruiting topless servers and prostitutes in public was a step too far.
Max watched the chaos from a feed Nico had patched into the city's security cameras, while she was laughing at the chaos, and pointing out random entertaining bits.
"Oh, check out the cooks." She laughed, rewinding it a bit.
A recruiter was telling two cooks that couldn't seem to get along to either solve it between themselves or go find another company's line to take their test results to, while the servers told them both to get lost.
It was a huge argument, right up until the housewife who had been asking for directions earlier grabbed them by their ears and forcibly dragged them out of line, then sent them in their way with a kick to the backside.
"That's the can-do attitude we need around here." The recruiter cheered, but she only stared him down for a few seconds.
"I expect you'll keep better discipline with the ones you actually hire." She insisted.
"Oh, I like this one. Hey girlie, want a job with special benefits?" Another Reaver from the Company asked, giving a lewd hip thrust.
She looked down at his waist and laughed. "Little boy, don't flatter yourself, that's neither special nor a benefit."
The recruiter snorted in amusement and thumped his compatriot on the head. "You know what Lady, you're hired. Pick your kitchen staff from the applicants."
Max shook his head at the chaos. How they expected anyone to work in those conditions was beyond him, but most of the retail and factory jobs seemed to be pretty normal and laid back, it was just the hospitality jobs that were so rowdy.
The farmers were the exact opposite. The recruiters and applicants were having some sort of nerd out, comparing seeds and crop rotation diagrams while gesturing at the biodomes built into the city for the purpose of local food production.
Max didn't know much about the topic, but they looked like they were really into whatever they were talking about. The city designers from Comor would love them, he was sure.
This city wasn't built up in the air, but the high-density food production was very similar.
The last spot Max checked before returning to the drudgery of making sure the ship got safely and completely unloaded was the applicants for factory construction jobs.
That was the mainstay of the blue-collar Kepler citizen. They supervised an automated machine as it made parts, moved inventory around by forklift, or worked one of the many specialized assembly units.
Kepler Terminus preferred the final assembly of precision parts be done by humans where possible, then double-checked by both automated scans and an extra human so that no mistakes were made.
The AI loved to chastise them for making mistakes, so they got very good at their jobs, while not needing to make specialized jigs and machinery to do final assembly on special orders. That was the one great advantage humans had over a standard assembly robot. The ability to change patterns and tools in an instant.
The planet wasn't planning any large-scale manufactory work, but parts still needed to be produced on demand for customers who had damaged ships or needed spare parts, and the more skilled workers could branch out into other fields once the essential jobs were filled.
The only thing that they were really short on now was Mecha technicians who had experience with multiple nations' patterns of Mecha. Every Reaver company wanted them, and the stations around the planet needed them, but they weren't something you could just stumble across by accident.
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Chapter 307 307 Blessed Announcement
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According to all of the initial data that Max was getting back from Terminus's systems, the landing didn't actually cause any structural damage to the vessel. Given its tremendous size and weight, Max had expected some sort of structural stress fracturing, but it appeared that the ship's systems managed to prevent everything that he had feared.
Even the data on required power levels to get back to orbit all looked good, and they could return fully loaded without any issue, if there were materials on the surface that they needed to take back up with them.
As far as Max knew, everything that was needed in orbit was already there, so Terminus should be heading back up very light, but not for a few more days. They had the final checks to do before they moved again, but they also planned to wait for the Refugees to get settled into jobs on the surface and attend the wedding of General Yaakov and Gwen Tarith.
He was supposed to be making the official announcement soon, and Max was certain it would cause chaos throughout the entire Regiment.
Not only was it their Commanding Officer that was retiring, but he had also found love in the middle of a space voyage and not during his time off. In the minds of a lot of soldiers that was enviably good luck.
It was far from unheard of, though the Kepler Military didn't permit soldiers to marry until their term of service was complete, more than a few were long-term couples in most units.
[Attention all Personnel. Please be advised that as of 1200 ship time today, the Command of the Regiment is being passed to Colonel Keres Max, while I, General Abraham Yaakov will be retiring my commission and remaining here on Rae 5 with my bride-to-be, Gwen Tarith.
All members of the Regiment are invited to the Wedding, which will happen at 0630 tomorrow, making it a Noon ceremony by local time.
It has been an honor serving with you all.
Thank you, and good luck.]
The announcement had the effect that Max had anticipated, celebrations broke out all over the ship and all semblance of order and progress were abandoned in favor of cheering on the General and his new bride.
There wasn't much of importance going on, since the ship's scan showed no damage, so Max simply let them go, allowing Mecha Pilots and Mechanics to flood the passenger area, where Gwen and a few of the other Tarith Family members were still aboard.
The bride would be swarmed with well-wishers for hours, as would the General when the unit caught up with him, so Max kicked back in a chair at the command console in the Engineering bay and decided to relax for a while.
"Hey, Commander. I've got some interesting news for you. Our little refugee exchange seems to have inspired a few more of the large Reaver vessels, and some intrepid Merchants. There are four more large ships inbound, each with thirty thousand or more refugees aboard, all coming here to the capital.
But more importantly, one of them seems rather familiar." Nico greeted Max the moment she walked into Engineering.
"Oh, and what sort of familiar face might we have found out here in the middle of nowhere?" Max asked since Nico was deliberately not thinking about it so she wouldn't give herself away.
She tossed a data tablet at Max with a smile and sat down to wait for him to play the recorded message.
[This message is for Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company. Your dear Uncle requests a meeting in the Rae 5 System to discuss the settlement of refugees and a new business venture. Please Respond.]
The voice was clearly Lu Chen, or Uncle Lu, the head Mecha Technician from Comor. What he was doing out here with a ship full of refugees was anyone's guess, but it sounded like he had some sort of plan that would lead them to new toys.
"Did you already respond?" Max asked.
"But of course, I couldn't leave Uncle Lu hanging. He will be coming to the city in two days, and he will meet us here at Terminus once his ship has landed and unloaded its passengers." Nico informed him.
"What would he even be flying anyhow? I don't recall him having a warship in the Comor docks." Max asked.
"I think that he grabbed a load of refugees in the cargo hold of his yacht, but I can't be sure until they're in range of the System Scanners, he might be traveling in a Cargo vessel as well," Nico replied with a shrug.
"Well, that's one more VIP guest for the Wedding. I wonder who else we can get together on such short notice?" Max laughed.
"You would be surprised. I managed to get one more General that Yaakov used to work with to come our way for the wedding.
Officially he is on extended border patrol, searching the zone for escaping Rebels and any sign of Klem that went off course and landed on the uninhabited planets. Just because humans can't live on most of them doesn't always mean that the Klem won't survive." Nico replied.
Since most of the General's family had turned Rebel, his side of the aisle would be filled with his Regiment. It would be good to have at least one or two old friends there, who could fill the role of best man.
It was likely that General Ming had been asked to do the honors since Yaakov had known him for a while as well, but an old friend would be a welcome addition.
"Any other surprises that I should know about?" Max asked Nico before she could leave.
"Nope. That's about everything."
Her thoughts told a very different story though. She had spent most of the day today reprogramming the Food Replicator they had isolated for experiments. Soup and Sandwiches were no longer the only things it could do. Terminus could now produce a full three-course chicken or steak meal of officer's lounge quality, as well as a red wine of questionable vintage.
Max didn't think she had time to have anyone test the wine's flavor yet, but she had at least scanned it and found it was nontoxic and 12 percent alcohol. The soldiers would love her for that one since the replicators were so much easier to supply than the regular kitchens.
Chapter 308 308 Guests of Honor
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While Nico returned to the experimentation bay to keep working on more food products from the Replicator system to inflict on unsuspecting crew members, Max waited for the excitement to die down so that he could start arranging duty assignments with the Battalion Commanders.
There was some reorganization to be done, first and foremost, he would need to assign a new leader for the First Company now that the was moving to Regimental Command. The obvious choice was Major Miller, his adjutant, who already handled almost all of the Regiment's logistics and other business.
Then he would need to pick his Executive Officer, again an easy choice, since Nico was the one who kept him informed as often as the official chain of command did. But most importantly, they needed a new Mecha.
He had no intentions of giving up Enduring Rage without having a replacement ready, so the First Battalion would need a new Command Mecha or it was going to be shorthanded.
They had the technology, and they could make another, but Max suspected that Uncle Lu might be able to talk him into trying something entirely new again. The old man was persuasive like that, and Max didn't want to build another Super Heavy Mecha, at a huge resource cost, and then end up making a new experimental unit with the Mecha-obsessed scientist anyhow.
That left all his important decisions made, and now he only needed to catch up on all the paperwork and Command Level details that the General had prepared for him before he finished his last shift.
That also meant that he would need to have a private briefing with Inquisitor General Ming, since most of what the Inquisitor had to say couldn't be put down in writing, for security reasons.
The Inquisitor was with the General at the moment though, and both were drinking happily, so no confidential meetings were going to happen today, and none tomorrow or the day after either.
With three days to catch up on the paperwork, Max was certain that he could get everything in order without any issues, even if his mind kept wandering to what a Steak Dinner made of recombined biomass would taste like.
The machine completely changed both the molecular and even atomic structure, but the crew had found that the most energy-efficient thing to feed it was a fast-growing algae since the base structures and elements were so close already to things that humans would be eating.
The slimy green plant was grown in the hydroponics bays of the ship, and if they didn't start actually using the Replicators on a regular basis, they were going to have so much of the stuff that they would never get the algae all cleaned up, it would just become a self-perpetuating loop of organic life feeding off itself and taking over a hydroponic bay.
Max spent three hours checking over Command information before he got bored and went to check on Nico and the Replicators, finding all of his young family members outside, waiting expectantly for something to happen.
"Dave, Ladies, what's up today? It looks like a special event." Max greeted them.
"The pretty robot lady is making ice cream, and we get to be the very first to try it." One of the twin girls informed Max happily.
Nico gave Max an innocent smile, and he saw that she had already taste tested and used her cyborg body to verify the safety of the Ice Cream sundaes that the team had programmed into the system, so the kids weren't experimental testers.
Knowing this bunch, nothing was impossible. Especially when it came to the Replicator.
They were also working on altering the base design to make an improved Materials Printer based on that technology, but that was a good bit further off since they didn't have the expertise to fully redesign such a complex machine on their own, even with their System Functions helping them along.
"Alright, everyone line up, Ladies first. We have Ice Cream Sundaes in three varieties. Chocolate, Caramel, and Mixed Berries. Which would you like?" Nico called out.
"Chocolate." The two little girls screamed in unison, and Max could see the Technicians cover their ears to stop the shrill scream from deafening their enhanced hearing.
It was cold, creamy, and definitely topped with chocolate sauce, everything that Max could have asked for in a dessert, and according to the data tablet that was sitting off to the side, creating it took very little energy, less than making an equivalent amount of hot food.
That was a nice little bonus for them, especially once they had taught this machine enough recipes that it could be viable to activate all through the ship.
Once that day came, Terminus might well be the best-supplied Reaver vessel in the entire quadrant of the Galaxy. The abundance of strange technology did make Max wonder if somewhere else in the Galaxy there was a more advanced version in use by the descendants of whoever arrived on this ship.
"What's the big plan for the new menus? They look a bit fancy, but not enough that it seems like you're going for the luxury passenger market." Max asked the lead Technician in charge of the project.
"Those are the meals for the General's wedding. We found out in advance from Gwen Tarith, and we've been working on it ever since because there are no steaks anywhere in this star system as far as we know. There are still plenty of chickens and frozen chickens, but we couldn't find any of the breeds of herd animals that Madam Tarith was hoping to have for her wedding options.
They're quite common on Kepler Terminus, but none of the Reaver ships have any in stock. Not even us, since the last planet we stocked on, didn't have any, and the Tarith Family had more important things to bring with them than cases of beef.
That was incredibly thoughtful of them and would make for an incredible wedding gift.
"Does she know yet? I wouldn't want you to have to argue with the caterers." Max asked.
"We sent her a message already and forwarded it to the Caterers so that they could pick up the meals here. It's going to clean out a good portion of our Algae stock though. We're expecting dinner for at least ten thousand once the Regiment, the Tarith Family, and the Reavers who want to come to the wedding are factored in." The technician laughed.
Good, they had entirely too much algae on this ship.
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Chapter 309 309 Pomp and Ceremony
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309 309 Pomp and Ceremony
"Just for the sake of curiosity, how long will it take the algae that we used today to regrow?" Max asked.
"About a week?" The technician shrugged, unsure of the exact number since that was the domain of the botanists, not the technicians.
Roughly two thousand people in the Regiment, and the current algae growth rate supported a banquet meal for ten thousand at a time? That should be one meal at this level per day for the entire crew. That wasn't as ridiculous as Max had thought, and he began to relax.
"I know the numbers you're doing, and they're wrong. If the stockpile wasn't so heavily depleted it would take much less time to regrow. They currently have enough that at full supply it could nearly cover all three meals a day for the entire crew.
That's why we're working so hard to get enough recipes in order that we can bring the rest of the units online.
If we can get the big ones in the kitchens going this week before the stockpile regrows, we should be able to sustain the kitchens indefinitely, as long as the waste recycling system holds out and we have a small supply of fertilizer to keep growth rates up." Nico explained.
"How did you?" Max began, but the technicians laughing interrupted him.
"I will give you one piece of advice Commander, if I may. If anyone ever asks you to play poker, send Nico. Every thought you have is clear as day on your face once we learned what to look for, that's how she always seems to know what you're thinking." One of the technicians replied.
Max hadn't considered that. Being Commander came with a lot of interactions, but he had always been wearing his mask so far, so it didn't become an issue. He might have to start working on his poker face though, just in case there came a time when he needed to lie to the crew to keep them from panicking.
"Noted, no poker games for me. Keep up the good work, and make sure you're on time for the ceremony. I'm sure the General would appreciate it if the entire Regiment was there to send him off, and we have a number of new allies to impress." Max reminded them.
The only people who would be left behind to guard the ship were a single Company from the First Battalion, who would make sure that nobody broke in or tampered with the ship while it was empty.
Once the wedding party left for the city, the Regiment would be the only ones left there, and that meant that they would only have to guard against threats from the outside again. Not that they had any trouble with either the Tarith family or the refugees, but it was always better to be over-cautious.
The wedding was scheduled to start with a parade of light Mecha carrying banners, accompanied by midday fireworks that would mark the official start of the wedding ceremony. As he was a retiring General, and he was marrying a Reaver's daughter, there would be two Super Heavy Mecha on guard, Enduring Rage, piloted by Nico, and one from the Tarith Family, which Max hadn't seen yet, as it had arrived with the Reavers from Gwen's side of the family.
By any normal standard, this would be a spectacular wedding, and if it wasn't for the limits of the venue that they had chosen, many more people would have chosen to attend.
That was why the wedding company would begin with a parade so that the whole city could join in on the celebration if they wanted.
Most of these people were either fresh from battle, or forced to flee their homeworlds, so a big fancy wedding might help things feel a bit more normal for them.
There would be free rounds at the city's newly established Taverns in the evening, a crash course in serving drinks for the freshly hired staff, who hadn't had a chance to prove themselves yet.
The ceremony would be officiated by General Ming, as agreed by both parties, making things easy on everyone else who was worried about differing customs between the two cultures.
Max dozed off to a short nap, mentally preparing for the day ahead, and was woken up by Nico sending him a message.
[One hour to get to the wedding hall. Just in case you were still napping. The parade is about to begin, and I've got Enduring Rage, as well as the wedding banner.]
Nico accompanied it with a photo that was clearly taken by a drone, of a large banner hung between the Mecha's outstretched Ion Bombard Arrays, declaring that this was a wedding between Duke Abraham Yaakov of Terminus Trading Company and Lady Gwen Tarith of the Tarith Reavers.
Max looked over the picture and noted that there were flower petals everywhere along the parade route in front of them.
[Where did you find that many flowers?] He sent back to her.
[We didn't find them, we made them. ten tonnes of them, to spread through the route and the venue. They calm the mind and increase dopamine output, so it should put the whole city in a happy wedding party sort of mood.
Don't worry, we're paying overtime for the city roads department to come to sweep them up tonight.]
Max thought that they might have gone a bit overboard, but he put on his best Reaver-appropriate suit and jogged out of the ship to head to the open field where the wedding would be held, surrounded by walls of flowers.
If he was right, this venue was actually a combat arena, but now that it was covered in flowers, with all the seating decorated, it made an excellent wedding venue.
As he reached the gates, all of Max's previous concerns about going overboard were nullified by the sight above him. The Tarith family had jettisoned thousands of tonnes of metallic scraps from their ships in low orbit, to make an incredible mid-day fireworks show that lit up the skies overhead with bright streaks of colored fire.
Then a pair of drones began deploying flare countermeasures in a heart-shaped pattern overhead, and Max saw the two Mecha, one of them Enduring Rage, the other an ancient pattern of Phalanx Class super heavy that made even the venerable Shining Darkness that General Tennant used to pilot seem shiny and new.
Chapter 310 310 Just in Time
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310 310 Just in Time
Max headed to his position in the waiting room, as he was part of the wedding party and would be standing beside General Yaakov's best man.
Nobody else was there except the bridesmaids when he arrived though, and Max began to worry. If the Kepler patrol ship which was carrying the best man was delayed it would be a real shame. He knew that they were cutting things very close to get everyone together for this event, but Max had really hoped this would work out perfectly.
Just before the party arrived, the scream of a shuttle on rapid approach filled the air, landing just outside the venue, and Max heard the laughter as something happened that amused the guards.
He ran to the back door to make sure that nothing was going wrong, only to find Uncle Lu and an old man in a Kepler General's uniform running across the field, putting on their tuxedos as they went.
[Someone, please send a vehicle to go get them, they're in the wedding party.] Max ordered, and a cargo cart raced out of the building toward them.
Once the cart arrived at the building, a big man with a completely bald, but heavily tattooed head jumped out in a Kepler Military Dress Uniform, covered in accolades.
"You throw a hell of a party here on Rae 5, don't you? We met up with this miscreant and his cargo ship on the way over, but we couldn't land for the last half hour because of the orbital fireworks. It's good to meet you, Commander Keres, I am General Pell of Kepler Imperial Command.
It seems that we were fated to meet eventually. Inquisitor Ming called me to this sector to help put down the Rebels and their dealings, then your staff contacted me about the General's wedding. We have been friends forever now, and it would have been a shame to miss the old man retiring and getting married."
Thinking that this huge tattooed man was a good friend of the Nobility-loving General Yaakov was a strange concept, but since he also knew Uncle Lu, who was so deeply classified within the Kepler hierarchy, he must be who he claimed to be.
"I'm glad you could make it on time. We didn't tell Yaakov that you were coming, just in case you couldn't make it on time. He will be overjoyed to know that you're here when he arrives." Max informed the General, who burst into laughter.
"He doesn't know? Oh, that's even better. I can't wait to see the look on his face." General Pell wheezed, as he tried to get his laughter under control.
"I see we weren't the only ones with that idea." An elderly woman's voice chuckled, and the trio of groomsmen turned to see who had spoken.
It was clearly a Tarith woman. That face and size couldn't be anyone else, but Max didn't recognize her.
"Isabella Tarith. The bride's great-grandmother. My ship arrived last night from a trading expedition into Death Wind Territory. She doesn't know that we are here yet, but her entire extended family is here, not just the few who were on vacation on Kepler Terminus during this last mission." The old woman explained.
That was even better. The tradition was that the couple would walk down the aisle together, under the crossed blades of a line of light mecha making an arched roof, so they would only see all of the newly arrived guests of honor once they made it to the pulpit where they would be saying their vows.
Molly came through the waiting room with Dave and the kids headed for their reserved seating in a box above the main hall, where the kids wouldn't get trampled or disturb the likely raucous revelry of the ceremony.
"Is it just me, or are there a lot of guns here for a wedding?" Molly asked Max with a very concerned look.
"It's tradition. The Military wears their sidearms, the Reavers all carry a ceremonial weapon of some sort as well, plus the Mecha that are here as part of the decorations. Nobody in their right mind would try to disrupt this sort of a wedding with anything less than a planetary invasion force." Max agreed.
"I've seen a lot of things over the years, dealing with foster kids, but this wedding is way above and beyond. Just the fireworks could have bought a hundred houses back on Kepler Terminus." She sighed with her eyes sparkling in envy.
"Well, let us know when you're ready to settle down and I will see what we can do." Max winked at the Social worker, who laughed off his offer and led the kids upstairs.
That was when Max realized that one very, very important thing had changed, and he had entirely missed it.
Dave walked in with the kids.
Dave hadn't walked since he left the Infantry.
"So it was successful?" Max asked, giving his old friend a hug to hide the happy tears in his eyes.
"Worked perfectly. I'm still having issues moving correctly, but Nico got me set up well enough that I can at least walk and sit today. She dragged the Doctors out of bed last night and moved the surgery forward so that I could be here for the wedding. The venue isn't wheelchair friendly, and I didn't want to have to ask someone to carry me up the stairs." Dave replied, stepping back to show off his new limbs.
They were biomechanical replacements and looked like the real thing, they even had natural flesh growing over them from what Max could see when Dave lifted his pant leg a little.
"How much did they have to do?" Max asked.
"Hip bones, legs, and a spine through ribs brace to deal with the added stress. Once I've built up muscle again by moving around it won't really be necessary, but it's implanted, so it won't hurt anything. The batteries in the legs should be good for a year before recharging, so there are no worries about my legs going dead in the middle of the day either, like with those cheap augments from the slums." Dave replied with a smile, very pleased with the quality of the work.
"It's time. They are almost here, we should head for the stage." Isabella Tarith reminded them, and Dave shook hands with Max, then headed up to meet with Molly and the kids.