Chapter 571 571 Agreement Made
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"While we all wait for the experts to get back to us about the changes to the agreements, I have a fine selection of foods and liquors as recommended by the data we have obtained on your species. I know that the Hunters are a big fan of the Reaver Rum, so I will prepare a few bottles at the end of the meeting to send back to you for later consumption."
The Huntress laughed at that and drew a dagger from her storage to slice a chunk off of the pile of roasted meats that had been placed on the table.
The other envoys looked a bit scandalized at the action, given that it was a very large combat knife and they were in the middle of a negotiation about peaceful interaction, but that was just how Hunters were, and the humans didn't seem to be bothered by it.
The blue-skinned envoy sniffed at the bottle of Rum and then poured himself a shot glass full of it before wheezing and coughing, then pouring himself another.
"That is incredible. I have tried many replicated alcohols, but none have preserved that unique aged flavour that this Rum has. I should go easy though. My species is not well known for its ability to handle its liquor.
If you happen to meet the Han at some point in the future, be sure to share this with them as well. They hold all of their negotiations after a night of drinking, with the logic that all ideas must sound good both drunk and sober or they are not worth agreeing to."
Max smiled at the short man's honesty and made a note to find out who the Han were and what sort of deal they might want to make with the Reavers. They sounded like the sort of people that would be easy to get along with.
Even the Volga representative seemed to be enjoying himself, but it seemed that they had no intention of coming up with a new offer at this point in time. That was no real loss though, they could always come back later when they had a more reasonable mindset instead of trying to force them into making a proper deal while they were mostly just tagging along with the Alliance envoys.
The experts had returned their opinions by the time the group was done eating, finding no flaws with the new deals, so the two agreements were signed and finalized with only an hour-long meeting.
That had to be some sort of new record for intergalactic negotiations, and it seemed that the Alliance envoys weren't prepared for it.
Even after it was signed, they seemed unsure of what was going on, and unprepared for what was to come next.
"If anyone would like to stay here aboard Terminus a little longer, we have some fine suites reserved for visiting dignitaries in the Cruise Ship portion of our vessel. You are welcome to them if you like." Nico suggested, then brought up a hologram of the accommodations on offer.
"Yes, that would be excellent. Like the Innu, my species has an affinity for water. It is most of the reason that we keep our environmental suits on, our skin dries out very quickly when we are out of water." The blue-skinned envoy replied.
"In that case, you will want the units on level three. The humidity is kept high there, but more importantly, we can turn a mist spray on in the hallways as well as the rooms if you like, and the water park there has a perpetual mist, requested by the Innu for fellow amphibious species.
"You would put a mist spray inside a suite?" The Giant asked.
"We have waterproof versions of everything already in our programs, designed for aquatic use. I can't personally vouch for their comfort, but I am told that they are sufficient for regular use by humans and Innu." Nico replied with a shrug.
The blue-skinned envoy made a purring noise before speaking again. "Simply keeping the humidity up is enough inside the room. The water parks sound amazing though. Were the gravity slides I have heard so much about an Innu innovation?"
"Quite the opposite. They were the attraction that convinced the first group to stay on with us. We designed them as a recreational feature, but they have quickly turned into the most popular mode of transportation inside the vessel.
It led to a distinct change in fashion sensibilities as well, since everyone began to expect to be constantly wet, swim shorts and quick-drying shirts have become the normal fashion for most guests, though some do still prefer to use gravity control or the elevators to get around between floors." Nico explained.
"I too will stay. If I bring back Reaver Rum, my crew will never want to leave, and we are only here to verify the contents of the deals you were making with the others, we can't stay long." The Huntress sighed.
"Are you sure? We are not far from the nearest Klem-infested Star System. Huntress Khan could give you directions and you could stop for a short Hunt on your way home. They aren't sentient, but they're a wickedly smart and deadly prey species." Nico offered while Max flipped through the available rooms with the Valkia envoy.
"If I do that, they really won't want to leave, and they will only whine and complain at the next destination that we are sent to. Political duty is seen as more of a punishment detail by our species, so you can imagine how it would be to get a small reprieve and then have to return to the daily drudgery of negotiating with people you are not allowed to stab."
Most of the room shook their head at her strange logic, but Nico nodded in understanding. "Life is full of difficulties. But if you change your mind and want to give them a bit of hope that political duty might not be all bad, we are available anytime, and we have a fairly detailed list of likely hunting spots."
Chapter 572 572 Goodbye And Good Riddance
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"I am afraid that I have other business to attend to than the aquatic pastimes of an emerging species, so I will excuse myself and return back to my vessel." The Volga envoy informed them in a dignified voice.
"But of course. I do hope that the next time we meet, we might come to an understanding, but such things cannot be rushed. In the grand scheme of things, even a few centuries is not such a long time if it leads to the outcome that is best for everyone involved." Max agreed.
The colour guard was still stationed all down the hallway as Max escorted him back to the Alliance shuttle that had brought everyone here. They had clearly been informed of the situation, as they were waiting outside the doors of the shuttle with only the Volga flag hung for the envoy's arrival, and he entered without any fanfare or even another word to Max.
Once the shuttle was back out of the bay, Max could finally breathe a sigh of relief that the one annoyance of the day was gone and focus on building up the relationship with their new allies. Just being able to purchase goods from the Alliance would be a huge change for humanity, which was still far behind them in many ways, but he didn't want to stifle innovation, so the first few orders would be for Rae 5, to give to the researchers so that they could try to engineer something totally new out of them that the Humans could call their own.
It had worked for Warp Drives, Replicators, Materials Printers, and storage devices, so there was no good reason that humans couldn't come up with their own version of other things as well if they were given time and the basic knowledge required to begin the journey.
With that in mind, Max forwarded the Agreement to a supply house in Innu space, verifying that Humans were now allowed access to technology not restricted for military or police use, and ordered fifteen thousand copies of the learning headsets for the Academy, the crew and some for Uncle Lu and his team.
He wasn't sure if it was just a programming issue, where they could potentially add the learning applications to their existing virtual reality technology, or if they would need major changes, but Uncle Lu could figure it out once he had a copy of his own.
[How would you like those delivered?] The retailer asked once the payment from their Alliance reserves was confirmed.
[Do you have a designated location for precision portals? Or should I send a Shuttle?] Max replied.
He had no idea that his response would create chaos among the Innu of the design department of that company. He only wanted to get his goods, but the thought of opening a small intergalactic portal, then sending a precision portal through it to pick up goods was a totally alien concept to them and not compatible with the way that their transport devices operated.
As such, they believed, somewhat correctly, that humans could precision portal across Galaxies with only a few minutes' notice, and the thirst for knowledge was driving them into a frenzy of development and theoretical talks.
[A shuttle is fine. We have sufficient inventory at our orbital warehouse to fill your order right now, so you may arrive whenever you like.] The customer service representative responded, just as confused about the question but less eager to find the answer since she had no idea how the portals worked to begin with, only that they did. Her interests lay in the field of communications.
[Who is on duty? Send a shuttle to this location and pick up our order of fifteen thousand learning headsets. They should be preloaded with the full Innu course guide up through university, and we need them for basically everyone.] Max asked the pilot's dispatch.
[First Battalion is on right now. I will have them send out a vessel right away. We will be ready to open the portal in thirty seconds.]
The warning of a portal opening was broadcast to all the vessels in the area and immediately responded to by the Volga vessel requesting to piggyback and use it to get to Alliance space. That wasn't a problem, as they would be keeping it open until the shuttle returned with their goods, and it would both get the Volga out of their hair and save them the energy cost of getting most of the way home.
One of these days he would sell more human vessels to the Alliance, with the energy capacity to portal themselves around the Universe. Their line of Luxury Yachts could already do it, but they were still in the final stages of approval for public use in the Alliance and couldn't be resold by their initial buyers, so very few actually had access to them yet, except the few customers who had purchased them directly from the Reavers, and no shipyard was approved to make them on their behalf.
The owners seemed very happy with them though, and Max had noticed a few came back to them during the student enrollment day, proving that they were functional enough that the owners had made them their primary vessel unless they were just showing off by bringing it for that specific occasion, which was quite possible as well.
[Are you about done in there? The Huntress wants a proper drinking partner, and I don't count.] Nico asked as Max watched the portal open and a large cargo shuttle dip through, followed by the Volga ship.
[Just making sure our least favourite new friends have left the area. I will be back in just a few seconds. Where are you?]
[The tiki bars on level three. Bring a swimsuit, we've got the spray cranked to the max, and it's basically raining in here. Surprisingly, the Valkia love it. They're huge clean freaks, and they say it's like a constant freshwater shower while they drink and relax.]
Max laughed at the thought of a whole group of dignitaries drinking in the shower together and stepped back out into the hall to dismiss the guards.
"That's everyone who is leaving today. Good work everyone, enjoy your evening."
Chapter 573 573 What Are You Doing Here?
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Max joined the Envoys and their followers at the pools on level three, where a veritable party had broken out after the Huntress prepaid a huge tab for the entire bar that evening. She had spent more than the bar's average weekly earnings and encouraged them to find as many people who enjoyed the misty aquatic environment as they could so that she didn't have to drink alone.
The Bartender had put it in the public announcements for the Cruise Ship, and it had brought nearly a thousand people to the floor, spreading not only through that bar, but the others in the area, who were happy to link their inventory reports and keep one running tab for the entire floor.
It would get out of hand later, but that was normal for the ship since many of their guests paid for a VIP package, which included all their food and drinks during their stay. The human staff was very good at rounding up drunks and getting them back to their rooms in the early hours of the morning, and they were getting enough practice at it that they were almost smooth enough that nobody noticed the drunkest among them disappearing.
"Do you think that it would be possible to see the Academy grounds while we are here? I understand if much of the interior is off-limits during class. Still, I would like to see what sort of standards a Human educational facility that employs Alliance teachers is at." The Valkia envoy asked as he finished a steaming mug of chocolate cream liqueur.
It wasn't particularly strong stuff, but he might as well have been holding an entire bottle of wine in his hand, given the amount of alcohol in a full mug.
"Of course. A few dignitaries with a full escort will help motivate the students to focus well in class, and as long as you're all well-behaved, there is no reason you can't come and see the Academy for a little while before we show you to your rooms. Or, if you would prefer to enjoy the evening to the fullest, I can arrange a tour tomorrow during classes so that you can see the Academy in action instead of touring an empty building later in the evening." Max suggested.
"That's even better. I have heard that you found some excellent teachers, but our databases don't have any data on human educational facilities that aren't military oriented. The only ones that we have recorded were the Military Academies of Kepler and Cygnus, as they seemed the most relevant to our interactions in the past and were a strong indicator of the trajectory of your species before this current Trade Alliance Revolution." The Valkia agreed, then ducked as a very drunk assistant nearly dive-bombed him on a wobbly flight path from the fourth-floor gravity slide exit to the hot tubs on the third floor.
"Perhaps I should bring him to his room before he hurts himself." The envoy sighed.
"I think he will be fine. He's in the hot tub now, and security is keeping an eye on him, so he doesn't drown if he happens to pass out." Nico replied from a few meters away, where she was playing drinking games with the blue-skinned envoy, who was drinking fruit juice to keep himself in a fit state to enjoy the party.
The Giant had made fast friends with the Canis girls. They found his lack of a tail and tiny round ears somewhat disappointing, but his feats of strength and surprisingly muscled body were nearly enough to make up for the lack.
The Giants were also very literal and not at all prone to deception or pranks, which was a quality that the Canis admired nearly as much as a good fluffy tail. So, he had been inducted into their group and assigned to the guys' team to help even out a tug-of-war match being played on smooth wet marble, creating a spectacle nearly as comical as playing it in the nearby sand.
Everything was going smoothly until a new group of Valkia from the upper floors flew down to join them, and an enraged bellow came from the assistant of the Valkia envoy.
"You little shit. Get your ass over here right this instant before I have to go up there and get you." The voice echoed through the misty party, clear enough to hear from across the floor, even with the music playing.
The group of young Valkia decided that discretion was the better part of valour. They immediately turned tail to run away, racing back up toward the top floors with the assistant envoy in hot pursuit.
The lead envoy and the Giant both burst out laughing, pointing at the sky where the youngsters had been caught and were being pulled by an ear back down to ground level.
"So this is what you are actually doing when you told your mother that you were on an educational trip to the Innu Hollow Moons? Let's see how smart you are when I lock down your accounts and ground you until the Semester is over." He told them in a voice usually reserved for a Company Commander greeting drunk Pilots returning late from shore leave.
"His son and nephews. They were all supposed to be on a school field trip together, but they ditched. We got the message from the school before we left, but we didn't know where they had gone. Their mothers were in charge of tracking their movements since we had to work." The Giant explained.
"Oh, they've got it bad. First, they get it here, then they'll get it again when they get home, then a third time when they get back to school, and the Headmistress wants to talk to them about skipping a school trip." Nico laughed.
"You have no idea. Their Grandmother is the Headmistress of their Academy, and she is not known for her mercy. She's possibly the most overprotective mother that anyone could have ever had, and she doesn't even go easy on her grandchildren. I had my first dessert treat after I transferred from the junior Academy to the Middle grades, where we were in the Dorms and not home for every meal." The Valkia Envoy agreed.
Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.
Chapter 574 574 Great Ideas And Bad Alarm Clocks
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"At least she let you have dessert at the Academy." Max offered, but the man only shook his head.
"She informed the staff that I was not allowed to have them, and they refused to serve them to me, so I had a friend who was in their good books sneak me an extra serving sometimes when she wasn't supervising the cafeteria."
"Well, I will have you know that our Academy is somewhat less strict on the dietary restrictions. Instead of prohibition, we have a collection of sugar-free and low-carb sweets from around the universe. That way, the kids can enjoy dessert while maintaining a nutritionally balanced meal plan, carefully designed for the various species by our own in-house nutritionists." Nico informed him proudly.
"You even brought in specialist nutritionists to make meal plans by species? Now that is impressive. My school was all Valkia, so we didn't have to worry about it. What about sports? Do you have hoops?" He asked.
Nico looked confused, but Max saw the images of the flying sport using the hoops that they had built into the outdoor facilities.
"We do. And it's set up for both the noncontact and professional versions. We even adapted human children's toys to make soft clubs for practice so that they didn't have to hold back. You can still knock someone out of the sky with them and knock the ball free, but they don't cause any serious bruising or broken bones, and there is a protective gravity field over the grass, so nobody will crash down with any serious force." He explained.
"I was a wonderful goalie back in the day. Good enough that I made the starting line all the way through university. But professional sports weren't for me. I was picked early for a career in politics instead." The Envoy sighed.
Max could sense the disappointment, and it was a familiar emotion. He had seen it many times before, with old soldiers, washed-up old drunks in the projects who went on about the glory days, and many others who lamented not following their dreams.
In practice, the Valkia had all that one could ask for, but not being able to become a professional athlete would always be a regret, no matter how far up the political ladder he climbed.
"I doubt that we will be able to form a proper league since we only have the one Academy with students who can fly, but if we introduce the Archangel Exoskeletons, I think we could form a couple of recreational teams using the wingless species," Nico suggested, finally understanding what sport they were talking about.
"The wings are essential, though. They're part of the strategy, so having a wingless competitor would give them an unfair advantage." The Giant pointed out as a fan of the sport.
"The originals had weaponized metallic wings, but I am sure that we could adapt them to an animatronic feathered wing easily enough so that all the players would be on an even playing field. The suit might not be as agile as the Valkia are, though. That assistant Envoy has some pretty good moves." Nico laughed.
"He is pretty agile in the air, isn't he? It's impressive every time I see it, and I've always thought he would have been better suited to a job in law enforcement or something where he could put his athleticism to better use. But like our Giant friend here, he prefers to work a job in politics and make a hobby out of his physical training." The Envoy shrugged.
"Well, I will let you get back to the party, and I will see you in the morning. We have a few things to take care of tonight, so I must also steal my second in command." Max replied, giving the Valkia envoy a wink and wrapping an arm around Nico to lead her back to his room before the train of thought she and the Huntress were on turned into a new extreme sport.
They could do that later, and not when there were so many dignitaries on the ship, all half drunk.
As they walked, Max could tell that he was already too late. The Huntress had a plan to "improve" the game of Rings, where instead of five players with wooden clubs and an inflatable ball that was thrown through varying-sized rings for points, they would instead use stun batons, and two smaller metal balls would be added, to give the game a projectile weapon.
The thought of players hurling solid metal balls at each other while carrying stun batons to club each other out of the sky was a very Hunter sort of sport. Still, since the Humans had the anti-gravity exoskeletons, it was perfectly viable on the existing infrastructure and would be accessible to all species, not just the winged ones.
Convincing the Academy staff to let anyone actually play it was another matter.
Max woke up to ice-cold hands on his skin the next morning as Nico dropped the temperature of her outer shell enough to shock him out of a deep slumber. It was both the most effective and most horribly cruel alarm clock he had ever considered. He always swore to himself at the end of the night that he would wake up first to prevent her from doing it, but every time, she would be up before him and would find a way to shock him awake before the alarm went off.
Not that all of them were unpleasant, but that was not the point. One of these days, he was going to be the first one up, and he would get his revenge.
"Good morning, sleepyhead. It is now six-fifty in the morning. We have a breakfast appointment with the Envoys at eight, an Academy tour at nine, and you have to oversee a court case at noon. It's been a long time since there was a high crime that needed your attention, but protocol says that you have to be here for this one."
"What happened? Everything seemed to be fairly well under control when we went to sleep." Max asked.
"The accusation is an attempt to start a mutiny."
Chapter 575 575 Preparing For A Trial
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With such a heavy accusation hanging in the air, the Envoys had no qualms about Max cancelling his participation in the day's planned events and assigning someone else to take over in his place.
The tour of the Academy was to be done by Headmistress Medusa herself, with the assistance of a few of her office staff. Meanwhile, the tours of the ship were guided by the Illithid, who was more than capable of sensing everything that happened aboard Terminus, so he wouldn't be missing out on anything, even if he weren't physically present.
Max and Nico sat side by side at a small round table, accompanied by Colonel Klinger, who had reported the incident, as well as a group of legal experts sent by the Reavers and the Giant Envoy, who requested to be present as a monitor, in the name of impartial justice.
Having an unrelated judge and jury during incidents aboard a ship wasn't always feasible, but an outside monitor was how the Alliance helped ensure impartiality during the hearings.
"Alright, Klinger, tell me how this all started. From the very beginning of what alerted you that there might be something amiss among the crew." Max ordered.
"I was doing the weekly Battalion inventory review, and I had selected the munitions stores, the bedding stocks and the raw ore piles for manual verification. Bedding stocks came back normal, but raw ore came up nearly a tonne short of the reported usage, so I requested DiFranco from the Fourth Battalion to double-check my work and usage charts, as per regulations.
It was during his check that we discovered that the missing material had been transferred to the Holy Light under Marcus Blaze, so we moved our search there, under the excuse of being a performance review committee, and found a great deal of resentment that he had been picked over others who had joined at the same time and had more prestigious families back home.
Once that was established, it wasn't hard to convince them to admit what had taken place and to find the weapons that they had made, and then attempted to erase the logs from the Materials Printers.
I have here documents that we collected during our investigation, and they name seventeen crew members of the Cruiser Holy Light, along with four staff members aboard Terminus, outlining a plan to overthrow the ship and go independent the first time they were sent on a mission outside of the weapons range of Terminus and her Mecha Battalions.
Among them are all four of the Company Commanders sent from Rae 5, but not the chosen Battalion Commander, who appears to remain loyal to Captain Blaze and the Terminus Trading Company."
The room went silent as Max and the others looked over the documents that had been collected, verifying their last dates of modification and the users whose biometrics had been logged into them, and then had Nico and one of the Innu Tech Nomads verify that they were not tampered with to implicate an uninvolved party before the contents were read.
The device was intended to self-destruct when an unauthorized party touched it. But unfortunately for them, they didn't have the ability to override Colonel Klinger's authority, and he had been the first and only one to physically touch the data tablet.
The evidence inside was fairly damning, as it outlined the basics of their plan and was intended to serve as an override during the mutiny by falsely reporting certain members' locations and status. That alone wasn't enough for a conviction, but this was only the first piece of collected evidence. There was a long list of other data, including who made the unauthorized weapons, who accessed the room they were stored in after they were created, and how they were related before arriving at the Terminus Trading Company. They even went into what sort of status their family held within the Reavers.
The next part of the evidence check, after the first batch had been deemed admissible, was the interrogation of the prisoners by the two senior officers. Most of them predictable denied all knowledge since the Pilots wouldn't physically rough them up at that point in the interrogation, but a few believed that they had not committed a crime. With cause, a mutiny against a criminal or incompetent commander who had clearly violated the Reaver Code was justifiable. It wouldn't lead to the mutineers' expulsion or any sort of charges against them.
For example, if the Commander had deliberately betrayed the Reavers, it could be deemed justifiable to overthrow them, and it seemed that was the defence that they were going with in this case.
Their argument was that by going with what they viewed as an unqualified Captain from a lesser Reaver family and by fraternizing with the Alliance members, who were not officially members of their Trade Group, and only had the most basic of agreements with the Reavers, that Max had betrayed them, the Reavers and the Commander's oath of loyalty and protection.
It was a very long shot of an argument, but they would be allowed to present evidence of it at the trial once it started, assuming that they had any.
Of course, since the ship had never actually gone anywhere, taken any casualties, or even issued an order beyond the basic daily routine, it would be a very big stretch to justify their mutiny against their Captain, but they would be allowed to.
Captain Marcus Blaze of the Holy Light was the next one to present evidence. The Captain looked a little sheepish as he bowed politely to Max and with good cause.
He had failed to notice a mutiny beginning on his ship, which was his first Command, and before he had ever even been on a single mission. It wasn't exactly a glowing review of his capabilities as Captain, but he had prepared a number of documents for Max to read.
"Alright, Captain Blaze, you are free to start your presentation. Hopefully, you have a very good explanation for what exactly is going on aboard your ship." Nico greeted him as he sat across the round table from the group reviewing his evidence.
Chapter 576 576 Preparing For A Trial, PT 2
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Captain Blaze spoke slowly, his artificial voicebox carefully neutral as he presented his documents. "I am afraid that no excuse could cover for my failure, but I have prepared detailed documentation of the situation aboard Holy Light. While the staff were hand-picked by the Reavers to join the crew of Terminus Trading Company, nearly every single member was selected as a double agent for their family or faction.
While each of them is eminently capable on paper, the infighting and clan politics they have brought have made it nearly impossible to function as a unit. After I blocked all communications from the ship to outside locations, I believed that I had the worst of it under control, and the crew was beginning to work together toward becoming a cohesive unit.
The training reports are in there and have shown great improvements over the first few days after their arrival.
For that reason, I thought the double agents were willing to bide their time and wait until the communication barrier was lowered to send their collected data back to their sponsors. Such things are fairly standard for a newly founded Reaver ship, and communicating ship data to outside sources would most commonly only lead to a demotion and a public lashing, so there are always a few willing to risk it for the rewards that they or their family will be given by their sponsors.
In addition to what Klinger and DiFranco found among the crew quarters, I also found a few well-disguised communication logs. They begin on page seven of the documents I have presented."
Most of the first six pages were just standard Reaver family drama, the sort of thing you would never get rid of when families had thousands of years of history with each other. But page seven of the records he presented painted a very different picture.
The transmissions were encrypted with an unknown algorithm, but that was no real hindrance to Nico or the Innu, and they had both cracked it independently within a few seconds.
From the first transmission, it was a big shock.
[Keegith, we have only forty-five days before the voting for Rae 5 Commandant. If we aren't going to let that bitch Mary take total control of the planet, you need to act now. Her pet Trading Company needs to be so thoroughly discredited that she will never recover from it.
Whatever it takes, you need to get it done.]
The message came from the leader of one of the largest Reaver Families, who had always been antagonistic to the Tarith Family, but the response was enough to end his career as the leader of his family.
[Lord Mori, I have the plan well underway. The mutiny can begin the moment that I receive independent confirmation that you have released my children from your custody.]
The man named Keegith was one of the conspirators identified as a possible leader in the other documents, and he had been the one that had created the unauthorized weapons, while Lord Mori was one of the leading contenders for the position of Ambassador for the Reavers among the Trade Alliance.
"It seems that there is much more than a simple mutiny here. Ransoming family members, political corruption, extortion to commit mutiny, the list is rather extensive. What do humans do when there is such a large conspiracy and problem afoot?" The Giant observer asked.
"We will hold a trial here for the members of our Company who are involved. We will also forward the documents and all evidence to the Reaver Council, every Council Member, at once so that they can begin their own investigation and trials.
While the Mori family is powerful, the leader could well be stripped of his rank or executed for attempting to start a mutiny among another Company. The Reavers count it much like declaring open war on another Family if you are caught in this level of corruption, and like the Alliance, the Reavers don't take that lightly." Max explained.
"The question remains, what convinced the others to go along with such an insane plan? Most of them don't have any connection to the Mori Family, and some don't even have a particular connection to the Blaze Family." Klinger asked.
"That's what the trial is for. Right now, we are only examining evidence to determine if it's real and admissible." Max shrugged.
He nodded at Nico, who sent all of the documents they had collected so far to the Reaver Company Commanders gathered around Rae 5 and returned a dozen messages an instant later.
"We have more evidence. It seems that Lord Mori wasn't as stealthy as he thought, and the other Companies have been watching him." Nico explained and put all of the new data into the data storage of the meeting table for everyone to pull up as they wished.
It detailed a power mad Company Commander who thought he alone deserved to be the Emperor of Mankind and his efforts to undermine the Trade Alliance and put himself into a position where he would have complete control of the assembled forces of humanity.
"Wow, that is a lot of evidence against him. No fewer than fifteen different major Reaver Families have found him guilty of attempting to cause mutinies or assassinate their leaders. Make that sixteen if his involvement here is found to be true.
It doesn't change the guilt of the patsies that he hired or the ones who willingly went along with the attempt to start a mutiny, though. In fact, we should thank him in a way. We wouldn't know that so many traitors are in our midst without his hard work.
We should see how Divine Tribulation is doing under Luke Tarith. If the Mori Family is going after the Tarith Family, there might be a major incident there." DiFranco suggested.
"Luke Tarith is a bit more ruthless than Marcus Blaze is. I've seen multiple reports of severe punishments under his command, so I believe that they tried the same there but might not have gotten far enough to call it a proper conspiracy. We will pull up all the data we can, and I will order the Second Battalion to flip bunks and confiscate any and all contraband they find right now." Max decided.
If he was going to clean up the Company, it was best not to give anyone the time to react.
Chapter 577 577 Clean Sweep
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Within thirty minutes of the orders being given, the Second Battalion was everywhere. They Checked dorms, workstations, computer logs, storage rooms and everything in between.
The sheer volume of contraband they found was staggering but not entirely unexpected. Most of it was just alcohol and porn in workstations where it wasn't supposed to be, and hardly a cause for concern, but they did find a few more egregious violations that they would actually have to write people up for.
Aboard Terminus herself, the infractions were nothing out of the ordinary, with one notable exception. One logistics staff member was found in the middle of a frantic call to an outside location that showed up as an unaligned mercenary group. That was definitely off-limits without clearance. Interstellar communications all required permissions, and the communications team would connect you and log the call.
The purpose was exactly what they were working on today, preventing infiltration and plotting by outside forces.
A harsh and thorough investigation of sensor logs was conducted, only to find that his crime was completely different than they had expected. He wasn't in on the mutiny. He was trying to obtain a questionably consenting, questionably legal mail order bride to be delivered to Terminus.
That was a whole new problem, so he was remanded into custody until they could deal with him, and the search continued without pause.
Aboard the Divine Tribulation, the findings were much more interesting. The Captain had indeed thwarted the attempts to recruit his staff for a mutiny, but that didn't mean that things weren't chaotic aboard the Cruiser anyhow.
At first, everything seemed to be squared away, with only a few usual violations, but the Company Commander in charge of the dorms noticed a strange pattern. Nearly every bunk in the Mecha Battalion had a picture of Nico somewhere within their personal space.
Not necessarily Nico herself, but often one of the Mecha that she was Piloting was in a printed screenshot. Now, there was no rule against having a crush on your commanding officers, but for an entire Battalion to do it was kind of creepy, so they looked deeper into the matter and questioned the Pilots, who were found to have formed an informal cult around the Second in Command.
They were convinced that she was a reincarnation of their home planet's God of Battle and that worshipping her would bring them luck in combat. They trained with her simulations and training programs, followed the regimens that she had left programmed into the computers, and did their best to emulate her combat style.
The final note was made that no violation was found in their behaviour. Still, they recommended that it be monitored in case it led to a subversion of the Commander's Authority in an incident involving both Max and Nico.
Max saw that bit come up and sighed. Nico was sitting right next to him, trying not to laugh, meaning it was too late to hide the data and prevent her personal cult from inflating her ego for the day.
"Look at it this way. They're super loyal to the Company. They would never betray their goddess that way." She gloated.
"If you start calling yourself Goddess in public, I am going to instruct the Innu to make a mute function for your voice box," Max warned her.
Nico stuck her tongue out at him and sent out a drone to take selfies of herself that she fully intended to edit into posters to send to the Battalion.
"Oh, don't look so cranky. It could be worse. Did you hear about the guy in Logistics?" She asked.
"Yes, and I've confirmed that he is staying in custody until we find out the details of this bride he was trying to arrange." Max sighed and turned his attention back to the screens.
With Divine Tribulation all but sorted out, Max turned his attention to the two Companies that were doing a blitz of Holy Light. They hadn't been warned yet that there was a trial coming about the Mutiny in an attempt to gather more information, but the chances that any of the main players didn't know yet after the first few were grabbed were pretty low.
Their only advantages were that the disposal systems were locked down from the moment the find was made, and nobody had been allowed on or off of the ship.
They found many attempts to hide or destroy evidence, some more effective than others, and the same pictures in the Pilots' rooms, indicating that the following that Nico had developed was not an isolated incident.
"Find out if they were all recruited from the same planet," Max asked Nico while the Second Battalion searched the ship.
"Affirmative. Every Pilot except the senior officers on both vessels came from Kepler 7. If I recall correctly, we fought the Narsians with them." Nico clarified.
Max paused before answering because he could see that she was still digging up data on where the Pilots came from and why since it was much more relevant now than the original hiring reports that detailed their personal skills that the Rae 5 team had sent to them.
"The Command Officers are all political appointees, but the bulk of the force was in combat against Narsians when everything went to crap in the Kepler Empire. They just stayed put until the Cygnus fleet came to welcome the planet into the Trade Alliance. After that they were dispersed on Rae 5 to look for work until they saw the recruitment offer and signed up to be back under a Kepler Commander and back in Mecha instead of working civilian jobs.
Their old commanders were demoted, but it looks like they are still in the Battalions."
Max nodded in understanding and then asked the important question. "And how does this relate to them forming a Cult of Nico?"
"They were present when we assaulted the city. During my ethereal phase." Nico explained.
Her Ethereal phase? That was an interesting name for that period of time after her mortal body had been crippled while she was pretending to be her own ghost to freak out her allies and terrify the Narsians.
"I think it's time that some political appointees got a promotion, don't you? They are far too important and noble to be in intense combat, working as bodyguards for a cruise ship. Make it happen, and report back to me when you have new job assignments for them that won't be seen as a demotion." He ordered, then created a couple of aspirin from the Replicator to cure the seemingly ever-present stress headache that the past few days were giving him.
Chapter 578 578 Reorganization
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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"I can get on that right away. They are excellent Mecha Battalion Commanders, so it would be an insult to those who aren't involved in the mutiny to be reassigned right out of the Company. Others would view that sort of thing as insular like we didn't welcome anyone but our own people. So, I think that a side shuffle if we can't promote them would be a good call." Nico suggested.
"What did you have in mind?" Max asked.
"Move them from Battalion Commanders to a War Strategy council. It's technically a promotion, and raising their wages wouldn't be an issue. Plus, they would make good advisors when their entire duty is war strategy. There is no room on the battlefield for politics, and any such ideas they have would go against the interests of the others and get them called out immediately.
You would gain a number of very talented advisors. They would gain a promotion that moves them out of battle and conveniently out of command of the Mecha, where any suspect loyalties could become a real issue.
I think that it's a win-win sort of proposition, and we already know that we have qualified replacements who are loyal to their units aboard the Cruisers.
If you would like, I can draft up some nice promotion letters, as well as the transfer paperwork right now." Nico offered.
"Do it, but don't announce it publicly until after the trial is finished. Do let the two ship Commanders know, though." Max agreed.
[Sir, I know this might not be the time, but we have a message from your Uncle Lu. He has a parcel ready for delivery and says it will be shipping barebones in seven days.] Admiral Drake informed Max with a text message.
Just what he needed. Even more ships while he was working on solving a mutiny issue aboard one of the two that he had already received.
[Alright, tell him that we will be ready to receive them and that we will need to hold a hiring fair once they are ready.] Max agreed, then sighed and rested his head in his hands.
"Oh, can I invite some friends? I mean, now that the agreement with the Alliance is done, there is no good reason not to have Innu Technicians aboard your ships, and I know a bunch of other Tech Nomad groups who would gladly sign the same deal that we did, working and earning royalties to revamp their ships.
Working with humans is fun. You let us go with anything, and I'm sure they could make an improvement or two to your ships while they are at it." One of the Technicians suggested.
"She has a point. Innu Technicians are the golden standard for a competent crew. You could prohibit them from broadcasting aboard the ship, though, if you are worried about them giving away secrets or accidentally revealing the location of a combat vessel. They would forward their research to the mothership and receive their credit after it was verified and put up for sale." The Illithid suggested.
"Klinger, DiFranco, what do you think of the concept of multi-species crews? The current Battalion Commanders are next in line for ship command, so depending on the number of vessels, you two are likely to be organizing a crew of your own under our banner in only a few days." Max asked.
"I want Dryads. I stopped to have a coffee under the World Tree today and met the one that we have aboard as an ambassador, and he is great. Like the Shin in the love of plants, but more mellow and open-minded. I think they would make great botanists, and the self-sustaining plant life aboard the ships needs a supervisor." Klinger recommended.
His mind said that the Dryad had an incredible intoxicant herb with them that wore off after half an hour and had no lingering effects like the cotton mouth or that intoxicant hangover which humans so often suffered from. He was assured it was non-addictive and would pair well with Reaver Rum.
"I see what you're going for. As long as your crew keeps to the regulations on when they can get high, I don't see an issue with hiring Dryads. Since I am not hearing any objections to the Innu, I will assume that there are none?" Max asked.
"They're great, as long as you don't put them on the early morning shift. That is way too much energy to be dealing with at four in the morning." DiFranco agreed, making the technician giggle.
"The whole species is like that, full output all the time. You get used to us." She laughed.
"Anyone else that we should really look to actively recruit?"
The officers in the room thought for a moment, then Nico loaded a new data set onto the table's holographic projector.
"According to this data, we should have Innu and at least four female Valkia, one Giant and a plant-type species aboard every ship. I compiled the list from Alliance Envoy ship staffing and the flirtation data compiled by our crew's interactions aboard the Cruise Ship." She explained, bringing up the graphs to prove her point.
"What does the flirtation data have to do with anything?" The Technician asked, being less concerned about such matters than her innovations.
"It helps with morale in the long term. Who knows where romance might bloom? This data says that we have a representative bias toward the number of men who prefer strong, taller women. Perhaps a few Hunters or Canis would also go well in the crews if any are available." Nico told the Innu girl with a wink.
"Oh, well yeah. I never thought of that. I mean, yeah."
Max laughed at the flustered technician as she realized what Nico was going for with the crew construction.
"Will the new Captains be bringing their old units with them?" Klinger asked.
"Nope. Terminus will appoint a new Battalion Leader from among your Company Commanders, with consideration for your recommendations, and a replacement for the new Leader's Company will be chosen by them. The additional ships will get all new crew, but after this, it should be the end of our fleet expansion for a while. We only have six possible ships to reclaim that we haven't sold off, so four more positions are open." Nico clarified.
Max looked at the stack of trial evidence in front of him and then back around the room. "Do we have any more evidence to vet before we begin the trial?"
Everyone shook their heads. It was all there, everything that they could get before the conspirators had time to destroy the rest.
"Alright, assemble everyone accused in the courtroom. Let's get this started."
Chapter 579 579 A Reaver Trial
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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"Are the guards not going to escort them to the trial as a group?" The Giant envoy asked as the assembled officers watched the camera feed of the hallway from the holding cells to the courtroom.
"No, it is a Reaver tradition. The accused is allowed to dress in their own clothes and walk themselves with dignity to the trial." Nico explained quietly.
"Still, there are no guards in that hallway, the accused appears to have a weapon, and there are two open side passages. Isn't this tradition too reckless for such a serious crime?" He continued.
"Just watch. This is a very important tradition; you will see why soon."
The first man walked with measured strides to the courtroom and took his seat with his chin up, not speaking a word. Once he was seated, his sidearm was taken by the security officers, who then returned to their positions along the wall.
The second man did not walk down the entire hallway. Instead, he turned into the first open side hallway and disappeared from view. A minute later, two guards entered behind him and left with a body bag.
The third defendant chose the second hallway, which led to an airlock and walked straight out, much to the horror of the assembled Alliance envoys.
"What in the name of all that is scientific are you allowing them to do?" The Giant asked.
"You see, if they are convicted of mutiny, it reflects badly on their family, and the Reavers will not soon forget that a traitor was convicted from among their direct ancestors. But if they should happen to meet with an unfortunate accident before the trial, they were never convicted of any crime, now were they?
Think of it kind of like a guilty plea and a posthumous pardon all in one." Nico explained.
"Well, that's just gruesome. Efficient but gruesome." The Valkia envoy interjected while the Dryad looked unconcerned.
"Did you know that many species willingly self-terminate if they are excluded from the group? I think it's a beautiful tradition, allowing them the choice to avoid humiliation and atone for their mistakes." The nature-loving tree man informed them.
That wasn't the response that Max had been expecting from him, but the logic was solid.
The group on trial was whittled down to nine members by the time everyone arrived at the courtroom. All of the suspected organizers were still there, including the four Company Commanders.
That was unfortunate for them, as they had tried to use their Mecha to send private messages to each other since they weren't connected to the ship's systems. They might be separate from the ship, but they also had an internal duplicate of all messages sent, a black box that the average user didn't bother to learn about.
The full message logs had been pulled from their Mecha, and it was enough to personally identify and damn all of them.
"Court is now in session. The accused here are charged with conspiracy to commit Mutiny without Cause. The assembled evidence will now be presented, and the accused may request a representative to organize their defence before they enter a plea." Max announced, his voice booming through the silent room.
The four Company Commanders stood as one, and the man on Max's right spoke on their behalf.
"We choose to self-represent and officially charge Commander Keres Max with dereliction of duty and treason against the Reavers."
"Understood. A third-party judge will be brought in." Max announced, then turned to Nico.
"Please open a portal to Rae 5 for a judge to be sent through to oversee the trial."
With an accusation against him, he couldn't oversee the trial, but he could have chosen either Nico or one of the ship Captains to hold the trial on his behalf. Instead, he would bring in someone unrelated and prove that he was an upright leader in the eyes of the Alliance.
Nico opened a small precision portal with a smile on her face and a song playing in her head that was preventing Max from looking in on her thoughts. He should have been paying more attention earlier, as he was sure this was all planned on her part, but the face that appeared through the portal shocked his brain back into momentary paralysis.
"Lord General Tennant of the Reavers, reporting for duty as Judge overseeing the Mutiny trial among the Terminus Trading Company.
My ship will be here soon. Please don't shoot at it. It's a bit antiquated and not at all up to taking a direct orbital lance."
Max couldn't believe his eyes. It really was General Tennant, and he was here claiming to be a Reaver with his own ship.
Seconds after he arrived, a portal from Rae 5 opened, and Abraham Kepler floated through in all her battle-scarred glory. The ship looked much worse for wear, with multiple patches on her hull, hasty repairs visible to her engines, and half her drop pod bays empty and open to the void.
The sight brought Max a nostalgic smile, and he rose from his seat to offer the position of Judge to his mentor.
"Lord General, seeing you alive after all this time is a pleasure. Please, review the evidence at your leisure, and take your seat." He greeted the old Pilot.
"The pleasure is all mine. I have been a bit busy of late, up near the Vampire border, but the Reaver Council brought me back a few weeks back to honour me with a new Mecha to replace my retired friend. Titan Class, can you believe it? But I digress. We have a trial to run, and your leadership seems to be in some question. Please take your seat in the boxes, and we will begin with the accused mutineers."
None of the defendants looked pleased to see the General here since his reputation as the incorruptible Phalanx Class Pilot from Kepler preceded him. Pretty words wouldn't sway him, and it would be very hard to convince him that their case that their Captain was incompetent was a valid one.
Chapter 580 580 Reaver Trial Pt2
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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The boxes were a separate room, isolated from the courtroom, for witnesses and accused who shouldn't be influenced by the proceedings in the main courtroom. That wouldn't stop Max from being able to hear the thoughts of the people in the next room, but the thought was there.
Listening to Nico's thoughts was much more entertaining, as she was taking the role of prosecutor as Second in Command of the Terminus Trading Company. She pulled no punches with her questioning, and their actions actually sounded worse coming from her deceptively innocent voice setting than when Max read them for himself.
All but the four Company Captains pled guilty and pleaded for leniency, asking to be dismissed and sent to Rae 5 for hard labour instead of given the death penalty as mutineers.
The four remaining defendants laid out their case to the best of their ability, with the advantage of General Tennant not being able to read their thoughts and realize that they had carefully scripted this performance at the behest of Lord Mori.
"We have here evidence that the Captain and Commander were consorting with enemies of the Reavers, disregarding their duties to protect the crew and the dignity of the Reavers as a whole in their search for wealth and fame." The spokesperson for the group was explaining.
General Tennant wasn't fully up to speed on the new deals that the Alliance and other species present had made with the Reavers until that moment when he reviewed the evidence that was supposed to be the defence of the Mutiny effort.
Most of it, predictably, relied on the presumption that Lord Mori was going to be the leader of the Reavers by the time they were discovered, and his intent was to exclude all other species from the Trade Agreement and keep human technology and advancements within the Trade Alliance, with himself set up as the supreme leader.
"I see only one major flaw with this argument. Lord Mori is ineligible to run for leadership, as she is only six years old right now." General Tennant informed them, and Max sensed that he was handing the documents back so they could reorganize their arguments.
"Please explain, Judge Tennant." The spokesperson asked in confusion.
"The previous Lord Mori was executed in an honour duel two hours ago after he was eliminated in the first round of nominations for leadership and challenged Lady Tarith for her position."
"That can't be possible." The Pilot gasped, and Max sensed the confusion and rage in his mind.
"I have the video, as I was also the referee for their duel." General Tennant informed him.
Calling that a duel was very generous. Max watched the video play in the minds of the attendees of the trial, and it was only about ten seconds long. Mary Tarith had chosen an unarmed duel as the mode of combat and shattered his fist with her first punch, going toe to toe with the man three times her size, and then promptly crushed his skull with a kick.
That wasn't really a shock to Max. That woman was just as scary as her daughter, but to the rest of the room, it was a bit of an incredible revelation. Mary Tarith had gotten an exemption from the off-planet draft to serve her decade of Military Service on Kepler Terminus, so everyone had assumed that she wasn't much of a fighter and didn't have a high-ranked system.
Clearly, that wasn't the case since she was stronger than her opponent, but for those who didn't know her personally, it was hard to reconcile with her very motherly appearance.
Nico was cheering and laughing as she watched her mother fight, adding cheers of "Grab the ear, grab the ear." to the recorded audience noise.
She had often been dragged across rooms by her ear after upsetting her mother and considered it her ultimate move, as it was one of the few that she didn't have a proper counter for.
"Would you like time to rebuild your defence? If you have it, you may present new evidence of your judgement that the Captain and Commander were acting against the Reavers." General Tennant informed them after the video of the duel had ended.
The four men spent a few moments considering their answer. Then the leader spoke up with his only option to avoid a guilty verdict.
"I challenge for leadership of the Terminus Trading Company." He spoke proudly.
"As per Reaver tradition, there will be two tests of your worthiness, with the Second in Command choosing a challenge as a tiebreaker should you fail one of the two.
The first trial is your fitness to Command. As you have previously Commanded a minor vessel of a Reaver Company, your qualifications are sufficient. The second is a vote by the members of the Terminus Trading Company. I will send the notifications now." General Tennant informed the room.
They didn't have to wait long. Over half of the Company had responded within a minute, rejecting his bid to take over.
"Now, the Second in Command will put a test to you to determine if you are worthy of taking up the mantle." General Tennant informed the room.
Letting the Second in Command choose the challenge made it either very easy or impossible for the challenger, depending on the mood of the Second. It was one of many reasons the position was for the most trusted friend of the Commander, but more often, they would be the one leading this challenge after a Commander had made a grave mistake and lost the trust of their crew, and the option would be selected by the third.
"Since Terminus is tasked with the negotiations between the Reavers and dozens of alien species, I will give you a challenge that is within the realm of what the Reaver Council has asked of us. You will challenge a Huntress for the right to negotiate a lifelong partnership. If successful, you will have proven yourself."
Nico's words were loaded in a way that nobody else in the room, except the Alliance Envoys and the Huntress, realized. Lifelong Partnership, in the Hunter language, meant a Marriage. Anything else was an alliance, a working arrangement, or a Hunting Party. Nico was eagerly anticipating having the man propose marriage to some random Huntress and watching him go down in flames. It was definitely cruel and unusual punishment, but that wasn't a restriction in a Reaver Trial. Unfortunately, she underestimated his lack of understanding, and he acted before anyone could explain the situation to him.
The Pilot walked proudly up to Huntress Khan and spoke in a clear and demanding voice. "We can solve this right now, then. You have long held to a working arrangement with the Terminus Trading Company, and I see no reason that we can't move forward from this point. Huntress Khan, will you join me in a lifelong partnership to lead the Terminus Trading Company to new heights?"
Max laughed so hard that he fell out of his chair, and he could sense that Nico had deactivated her motor functions to avoid doing the same herself.
When he recovered his senses, Max could hear someone shouting for a Medic to come to the courtroom quickly and Nico laughing in a way that sent chills up the spines of every male present in the room.
Huntress Khan had slapped the pilot so hard it had broken his jaw and neck.
It was the first step of the Hunters' mating ritual and was more commonly on the backside when a Huntress was flirting with her chosen partner. If you couldn't even take a hit, you couldn't possibly be worthy of marriage, and he had failed miserably. Of course, if she had been interested, she wouldn't have hit him nearly that hard, but ignorance was no excuse, at least not in a court of law.
The Giant was laughing himself into a bout of hiccups, and it took a few minutes for him to recover before General Tennant could restart the proceedings and find out what had just happened. The Dryad and Valkia silently uploaded the video of the incident to social media under the heading of "Trolling the Ignorant" while the humans in the room were doing their best to understand what had insulted her so much that she hit him.
"I will take that as negotiations failed. Magnificently failed, in fact. The challenge has been determined to have failed. Leniency is granted to the defendants, and they will be turned over to the Reaver Council for a life sentence of hard labour in a location to be determined by the Council." General Tennant declared, bringing the trial to a close.