Chapter 601 601 What About A Hiking Trip?
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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While the first round of guests finished their journey to the surface with slightly, or majorly, increased luggage, Max got a rather intriguing proposition from the Envoys. They wanted to accompany the research teams of the Hunters to a site closest to the city so that they could get a full picture of what the hiking experience would be like for the guests who wanted to brave the great outdoors.
Nobody had told them that there were basically no animals in this world. They had only introduced a bare minimum to begin forming the ecosystems so that they could populate the world naturally over the next few years or decades.
They were also deliberately not near the city or any of the historical sites that had been identified. They hadn't even introduced relatively cute things like squirrels, as they were natural predators to some of the floral species, and their digging activities might disrupt the ruins if they decided to make a nest there.
Knowing how things were supposed to be placed was just as important to the Hunters as finding them intact, and the site that they wanted to visit had been partially excavated by the terraforming devices already to grant them access, but nothing had been moved from its original location.
[So, will you come to the surface with us? The envoys need data to send back on the completion of the Terraforming, as well as the ruins, and I think a few hours of staring at alien relics could be a good time to relax after the stress of dealing with people all day.] The envoy of the Hunters suggested.
The Dryad wasn't leaving anything to chance. She had decided that Max was good luck since his ship could keep a World Tree growing smoothly, so she harassed the staff until they sent someone to get him and bring him to her for the trip.
[I'm on my way with the Dryad. We will meet you at the landing bays on the lower floor of the city in thirty minutes unless you want to come back to Terminus and join the other Enovys in my shuttle.] Max suggested.
[Ours has all the tools in it, so we will take it straight to the dig site, but I will join you on Terminus and go down with the others. It should be fun, like a class field trip.]
It might actually be like a class field trip from the new Academy aboard Terminus, given the variety of species that they had represented, but they were still in the early days of the first Semester and weren't ready to be heading out on planetary excursions this early in the year.
The sports leagues seemed to be well underway, though. The Hoops Field was busy nearly every time he checked in on the cameras, and so were the running tracks. He didn't bother checking the inside of the Academy, they would let him know if there was an issue that they needed assistance with, and they had their own security on staff.
"Greetings Envoy. I see you brought friends with you." Max welcomed the reclusive Dryad once he reached the hangar bay where she was waiting, running a gentle hand through the branches of one of their Shin botanists.
"Your staff has been incredibly welcoming, for sure. Will it be a problem if I bring him to the surface with us? He wants to see the plants that you introduced to the surface as much as I do, and I know the others will have an escort with them." She asked.
That was true. They would have at least one assistant and a pair of bodyguards each, so the Dryad, who was travelling alone, wasn't overreaching to bring a single companion, even if it was a member of the staff here aboard the ship.
"That shouldn't be a problem, as long as he has gotten someone to cover his shifts while he is away." Max agreed with a wink at the Shin.
While he couldn't guarantee that there was anything going on between the two, the gentle way that the Dryad was stroking his branches certainly implied that they were more than casual acquaintances. He was going to deliberately avoid going into their memories to understand how that worked exactly.
The other envoys, including the Huntress, met them at the hangar bay where Nico had brought them over the new model of the experimental shuttle for the trip to the surface. It was supposed to be the smoothest flight of anything that they had, and it was larger than the old twenty-person shuttles, which wouldn't comfortably fit this group.
There was definitely a gap in their fleet between shuttles and Cutters, but such large surface missions that didn't involve combat or transferring large amounts of goods simply didn't happen often enough that they needed a specific vessel for them before now.
Maybe he would have to keep one of the Yachts around for such diplomatic events. They were overkill for most practical uses, and they couldn't carry Mecha or Gear efficiently, but it would be awesome for impressing the dignitaries.
[Nico, bump the two landing craft for the planet, plus a Command Yacht, to the top of the production list. We need a better vessel for ferrying around dignitaries, and I want my Cutters back. Huntress Khan's thoughts say that she's coming to visit you now that we're all leaving you unattended.] Max informed his second in command.
[I will get right on it. We just need to make a delivery of the custom order that is in the bay right now. Working with live clients isn't a factory line, and there is a lot of sitting time while they make up their minds, and it's been cluttering the bay.]
[They paid a lot of money to use that bay, though, so we can't be too mad. Just be sure they're happy with their end product, and pick a new bay if you absolutely must, but I want those planetary transporters finished asap.]
Chapter 602 602 Understanding The Envoys
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Nico's thoughts said that she was already moving stuff between bays so that she could make the new ships since the client that had ordered the yacht in their current bay wasn't here yet to pick it up. He was on his way, but with all of the incoming visitors, he wouldn't arrive for a day or two, depending on what system he was coming from.
The Envoys were all gushing over the innovations of the new shuttle, how innovative it was, and how unique to human culture such a design was. Many other species used fluid shapes or organic inspirations, but only the Hunters used Biomechanical space vessels.
Now that he was inside, Max noticed this vessel was much more insidious than he had thought. While it looked harmless and welcoming to the untrained eye, Max could easily pick out where Nico had meshed Hunter's design philosophy with Klem morphology to create a uniquely capable vessel.
Both designs had survived thousands or millions of years of evolution, trial and error, so the philosophy was correct, but looking at an interior hatchway that vaguely resembled the protective structure of a Klem underground nesting area was vaguely unsettling.
The overall design, though, there was no mistaking it. She had totally based the default shape settings on old human movie versions of alien spaceships.
[Seriously, Nico, a flying saucer?] He thought at her.
[Hey, it is perfectly valid, and the Alliance uses it as a shuttle shape. Just wait until you see the Dragoon Attack Fighter setting] She thought back, laughing in her mind as she waited for him to see it.
The Dragoon Attack Fighter was a primary unit of a video game villain species, and the design resembled nothing more than a rocket-propelled horse phallus. Officially it was supposed to be the remains of a mystical tree, but that wasn't what anyone saw when they looked at it. It even had an external shield matrix that looked like veins and not bark. It was a running joke in the gaming community but well within the adjustability of the shuttle's outer hull.
[I wonder who the first person to discover it will be?] He replied, receiving only more laughter in response.
The crew had sent them a pilot in case the shuttle had to be sent back to the ship, and they seemed much more interested in making a good impression on the big boss and the guests than making adjustments to the default hull shape, so it might not be on this trip, but eventually, someone would find the option, and then it would show up with alarming regularity afterward.
That was just human nature.
A crew member passed around drinks while the shuttle gently glided out of the bay, giving no hint of motion until a slight vibration started as they began to enter the atmosphere.
"At this point, I would like to ask all passengers to either secure themselves to one of the provided handles or a chair for entry into the atmosphere. Turbulence can be somewhat unpredictable, and the gravity systems are not guaranteed to eliminate all external forces." The flight Hostess informed everyone politely.
The Huntress moved to stand beside Max, who had leaned against the wall, holding one of the embedded grips, while the rest of the guests took their seats for the next few minutes, staring out the windows as they realized how far they had gone in the short time that they had been admiring the ship.
"I like human ships. Making an entry on your own feet is so much better than being locked into a chair. But what do you do in case of a crash landing?" The Huntress asked.
"There is a safety net built into the hull. If the gravitational forces exceed what is likely to cause injury, airbags will be deployed along the walls, along with a secondary gravity field, to prevent injuries to the occupants.
It is standard in most human vessels because it also comes in handy if the ship is attacked. We heal fairly easily though, so a little jostling won't set them off. I don't think any of the species that are present are exceedingly fragile though, so I haven't adjusted it." He explained.
The vibration turned to a proper shaking as they passed through a dense storm cloud in one of the areas that were still being terraformed and then smoothed back to the unnoticeable standard once they were in the lower atmosphere and closer to the target.
"Human ships are more advanced by the day. I have seen the footage from your last generation shuttle when it was first launched, and it certainly wasn't this smooth. Even my cousin's yacht, purchased from you, isn't this smooth, and it has been overengineered for luxury. No wonder the major corporations are all in a full-out panic about your species joining the marketplace." The Giant Envoy commended the trip as the hangars came into sight.
"Market disruptions are a source of both opportunity and crushing downfall, depending on your own ability to adapt. Without adaptation, forest life goes extinct, and so should corporations." The Dryad Envoy agreed.
"You know, that was shockingly profound market advice. I got the impression that your species didn't care much for such things?" Max asked.
"We don't care for them, but that doesn't mean we don't understand them. We prefer the laws of nature, much like the Hunters do, though we don't deliberately come in and unbalance them for our own entertainment." She shrugged.
"The Dryads believe that all Patents should end with the death of the Patent holder, as would seem natural to their species." The Giant's Lawyer added so Max would understand.
"Which most species fear would lead to the patent holders of basically every important product being assassinated and a successor filing a new patent until nobody dared to either kill the patent holder or file for that patent again." Max guessed.
"Your species wouldn't do it?" The Dryad asked curiously.
Max gave him a rueful smile before responding. "My species quite regularly kill corporate competitors, even though the patents won't change hands. What use is holding a patent on a good if nobody is alive to make it? We prefer to make new things of our own, not take over others' accomplishments, at least as much as possible."
"Like a Drake taking over a Bear's territory. He has no use for a bear's den." The Dryad nodded in understanding.
"You know, for such a peace-loving species, you have a strong grasp of natural brutality," Max replied with a smile.
"We love nature, not peace. There's a difference. It's just that fighting between sentient species isn't natural, so we don't practice it."
Chapter 603 603 Long Walks In The Sun
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The shuttle glided into the hangar at the base of the city just as smoothly as it left Terminus, only alerting the occupants that it had landed when the interior lights changed colour to light green, indicating that it was safe to disembark.
"Well, that was even more pleasant than expected, and we all learned more about each other. Tell me, Commander, how far is it from here to the worksite where the Hunters are digging up the ancient relics?" The Valkia asked.
"We will transfer to a ground-based transport here, and it will be about fifteen minutes for us to make the thirty kilometres to the site. Of course, we can also take time to enjoy the sights, or if you are capable of making it on your own, you are free to. The air here should be completely free of contaminants and other unwanted elements, so a bit of exercise wouldn't be out of place." Max offered.
The Giant shook his head, not in the mood to go for a run, but the Valkia looked intrigued by the offer, despite the distance.
The Dryad just shook her head. "We are not fast-moving creatures. I will just hang my head out the window instead."
Max could sense that she wasn't actually claustrophobic, but she would happily tell others she was if it meant that she could stick her head out the window to enjoy the breeze.
"Could you make it in that time?" The Valkia envoy asked as Max, and the others began to climb into the hover limo that had been prepared for them.
"Not quite. I would take about twice that time. Sixty kilometres an hour is roughly my top sustained speed." Max informed him.
"So you can attain a higher speed than that?" The younger assistant to the Valkia asked in awe.
"Yes, for a shorter burst, roughly twice that."
The young Valkia looked curious, then tapped his chin while he thought. "Are your people perhaps evolved from Persistence Hunters then?"
"That's the theory, though, as our actual homeworld is lost to history, and none of the planets that claim to be the real human homeworld actually have evolutionary evidence on them, we can't prove it." Max agreed.
"How do you lose track of your homeworld?" The young Valkia asked.
"If we knew that, we wouldn't have forgotten where it was, would we?"
That made the Envoys laugh a bit harder than they expected to, and everyone but the Valkia took their seats.
"We can sustain nearly a hundred kilometres an hour flying in an atmosphere and gravity like this, so we will stretch our wings. We have all been aboard a ship too long, and even short flights between floors aren't enough to really exercise." The Envoy decided.
"Understandable. Do try to keep in sight so we know if you need a break. Even on a ship as large as yours, it is never really made for high-speed flight. There is always another facility that needs the space." Max agreed, waving to them as the Dryad hung half her body out the sunroof and spread her arms to take in the sun.
Any human who saw them would think they were a bunch of weirdos, but the Envoys were happy, and that was the part that truly mattered as they began to make their way out of the city's docking spire and over the wild grasses between the spires and overhead walkways where a million vacationers were soon to be settled in for their stay.
The Valkia dipped and raced around, playing tag in the air for a while while the limo glided above the untouched wilderness.
"I am glad you decided to go with flying transports. The grass here smells wonderful. It would be a shame to build a conventional city." The Dryad sighed, then squeaked in shock and looked above her head with wide-open eyes.
The holograms from the crystal spires were in full action again as the midday sun hit them, and the glowing images of small flying creatures had joined the Valkia in their game of tag, swirling through the air.
The joy of not only the Dryad and the Valkia but of a huge number of locals watching the scene play out as they travelled past the city seemed to change the whole feeling of the place, and more images were appearing every second, all over the city, not just around the tower they were nearest to.
The Illithid might have a point about these towers being psychoactive. The images did seem to change as soon as everyone noticed the Valkia playing. It was incredible, unspeakably beautiful, and a bit creepy to think that the residents of the city were subconsciously creating this image by unwilling cooperation.
They did slow the transport so that the Valkia could keep up and not have to simply fly by all of the incredible sights as well. They were gathering lots of important data for them. Things like the maneuverability of the images, how fast they could change form and the fact that they weren't solid, but they were apparently warm to the touch like they were a condensed light reflection, the same as you would get through a magnifying glass, but appearing in great detail and in mid-air.
It was all noted in Max's logs so that he could inform the Illithid, who was waiting on his friends before he took time off to come down here and see it with them.
They ended up taking half an hour to get to the site, and the Valkia was exhausted from playing in the sky, but it was one hundred percent worth it for the sights that they got to see and the show that they got to put on for the local residents and the newly arrived vacationers.
"So, what is there to see of this dig so far? I believe that they just started it today, correct?" The Giant Envoy asked.
"That is correct. They started digging today, looking for traces of ancient civilization since there were other historical relics recovered from this world, but we couldn't match them to any known species, much one that belonged in this area at the time." Max explained, leaving out the bits about what they had removed in advance and what the Hunters thought it might mean.
Chapter 604 604 The Big Dig
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"So, what have you found in this pile of rubble so far?" The Lawyer from the Giants team asked once they were unloaded at the ruins, standing out in the scorching tropical afternoon sun.
"Surprisingly, a lot. We found the ruins of a city and indications that it might have once been quite advanced. Of course, since it has been over a hundred thousand years abandoned, there isn't much left here, but check these walls. What do you see?" A young Huntress in a long white coat made of thin fabric asked.
"Evenly spaced, uniform brickwork. They were made from the same mould or on a factory floor." The lawyer responded, not impressed.
"They have been hollowed for conduits, and there is an empty power node near the bottom of each wall. Also, there is still structurally intact mortar between those blocks a hundred thousand years later." The Valkia Envoy added.
"Exactly. It's not a big deal for us to make degradation stable mortar and brickwork, but at the time, it should have been all but unheard of. The signs of power distribution within the residential unit that this appears to have been used for also indicate that it wasn't a primitive culture that stumbled upon a lucky combination of local materials." The archaeologist agreed.
"How advanced do we mean, though? Dryads used plant life to communicate, and the ruins on our world are quite similar, as that is where the roots would enter the rooms to link us all together." The Dryad representative pointed out.
"We can't say yet, we just got here today, but it is a promising start that we could find something interesting in this strange galaxy."
The group chatted as they searched the area until the Dryad stumbled across a misplaced stone on what would have been the road outside the house Hunter's team had first unearthed.
It was a flat piece of rock, heavily weathered and worn nearly round on the top, but when her toe knocked it over, the other side was exposed, showing the crudely drawn penis.
"Yes! First Dick of the dig. There are always sex organs in the ruins. We just need to find the surviving graffiti to guess what species it is. Does anyone recognize this dick?" The Archaeologist from Hunter's team asked.
"I mean, not personally. But you know, what species would that be?"
Max was laughing so hard at her stumbling over her words that he didn't answer at first. The drawing was clearly a human organ, or very close to it, but the poor drawing made it hard to tell.
"There are seventeen species the drawing is close enough to be attributed to. Hunters might not be aware, but the design is extremely common among mammalian and amphibious bipeds." The Giant Envoy informed her, making Max laugh even harder.
"Is this a human joke that I don't get?" The Giant asked.
"Yes, probably. But it just occurred to me that the only way to know for sure if it is such a common evolution was to get a size reference."
The Giant facepalmed as he realized just how useless one single piece of graffiti was in narrowing down the options, but the Hunters looked excited.
"By our count, it is actually eighty-four possibilities out of over six hundred thousand sentient species who could have been depicted by this image, not including species that went extinct before we recorded them. It's not definitive evidence, but it really does narrow down what we can expect to find here." The Huntress Envoy informed them, then gave Max a look that meant she was also including the legendary ancient species in this category.
"Alright, sorry for the interruption. I will try to be serious again. I wasn't expecting that particular bit of graffiti to be the first real discovery on this site. My hope is that we can find something similar with surviving writing, which would give us a much more clear guess of their species and development." He finally managed.
He was usually in his office these days or in a Mecha when something shocked him. He really needed to remember not to laugh at inappropriate things when he was around foreign dignitaries. They wouldn't all appreciate the same sort of humour as human soldiers and frat boys did.
Only it wasn't an isolated incident. As they cleared the first building, they found a piece of pottery that depicted dozens of mythical creatures again, including an angel, dragon, Gryphon, and more, and the angel was predictably nude.
It reminded Max of ancient human art, but it was here before there were ancient humans to make it, at least to the best of his knowledge.
When the piece of pottery was cleaned and removed, the broken piece below it brought everyone the biggest shock. There, staring back at them from the broken pottery, was the stylized visage of the God of War, the mythical construct of the lost civilization whose unknown material had brought them here.
Fortunately, nobody else in the room seemed to recognize it, and the Hunters' team quickly filed it away with the rest of the pottery from that particular pile and placed it in protective storage.
That was the evidence that they had been here for, signs that the local residents had been somewhat aware of the existence of the God of War, but from the thoughts of the dig team, it shouldn't have been here. The layers where they were finding the strange material that had images of it were on a much older layer, and this city had been built on ruins that were built on top of the ruins of the city where they had found the first bits that had been recovered.
"Once we clear the upper layers of the dirt and debris, there are a number of buildings that are near the surface and can be exposed as a tourist location within the next few months if we want to allow people here while it's still an active working site." The lead archaeologist suggested.
"I am sure the guests would love that. It's a nice short trip from the city, and taking a few busloads of people here a day should be manageable. I will refer you to the Planetary Governor for details." Max agreed, glad that none of the other Envoys had noticed the strange find of an ancient alien, possibly Mecha construct.
Chapter 605 605 Let Them Be
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After touring under the sun for a few hours, the Envoys' curiosity was mostly slaked for the day, and they were ready to return to the city and see what it was like on the inside. The outside had been incredible, and the fresh air and waving grass of the dig site were comfortable enough that the Dryad and the Shin were unwilling to leave, but they also weren't willing to be left outside overnight since there were no other trees in the area, and sleeping in the grass would inevitably lead to being invaded by hostile alien insects.
How hostile was the question, since the insects here were mostly only the ones necessary to facilitate composting, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't be a real nuisance to plant-based species far more than they were to the Hunters, who would be sleeping in their shuttle.
The sun was beginning to move far enough from its peak that the day was becoming comfortable, and a bit of cloud cover was beginning to form when they reached the city spires again, moving much faster with the Valkia inside the car.
They parked in the hangar and took the elevators up to the spire reserved for staff and dignitaries, where there should still be some free villas, but the sights that they passed were far different than the parties which were thrown aboard Terminus. The elevator faced out over the open common areas of the floors as it ran up the outer wall, so they could view many floors at once, as well as the view through the outer windows, though each floor was blocked from seeing what was going on with the surrounding residents through clever architecture that prevented reflections.
It seemed that the Alliance citizens held themselves back somewhat while aboard the human ship, and the parties had all been tame by human standards, but what they passed on the thirty-seventh floor could only be described as a wine-soaked orgy.
The Dryad looked at the Valkia in shock, as it was mostly his people present, and he just shrugged. "Today is Saint Bacchus Day. The Patron Saint of Wine and Merriment. We celebrate it that way every year. Just usually not in public, and not with so many other species involved."
"I, for once, approve of your people's traditions. That looks like a lot of fun." The Huntress consoled the Envoy, who looked a bit unnerved to find out that his people had chosen to celebrate in such a public manner.
Of course, for those who were listening in on the thoughts, it was very clear that the Humans had enthusiastically helped with preparations once they found out what the celebration was all about. There was an ancient human culture that celebrated something similar, and Max could see that some of those traditions had made their way into the party, with staff covered in gold body paint and wearing togas, or even less, while posing as statues or serving food and drinks.
"This day is never going to be forgotten. I hope you understand that." Max laughed.
"They're not breaking any laws, are they? I never thought to check." The Valkia Envoy asked.
"Probably not. Humans are very good at making exceptions to rules if they think it will be fun, and I can see that they have locked all underage guests out of the floor. That's really our only hard and fast rule on the matter. At least the rest of the floors seem to be normal." Max sighed.
They were passing the fortieth floor now, ascending through the spire hosting the five hundred floors of hot springs. Only one floor appeared to be vastly out of the ordinary, with most floors having guests lounging on the sand or on heated rocks, and one even being covered in snow, with a frigid outside temperature all around the hot water.
That one fascinated the Dryad, who thought that a hot spring in the winter would be an incredible feeling, so Max made sure to show her how to mark it as a location in her Terminus-provided smartwatch, so she could find her way back again.
Looking out the other side, a kilometre-wide walkway led to another spire on the two-hundredth floor, filled with shops and hosting an old-fashioned gondola ride near the roof for a slow and scenic trip across the city.
"It's like Every Era is represented here, but it has all been reconstructed in the same graceful theme as the city. It's incredible and disorienting at the same time." The Innu Envoy praised the sights around them.
That was how the original city was as well. It was timeless, nothing in the city seemed to belong to the era you were in, but it all did, somehow. There was no good way to describe the original City of Spirits other than as itself, and Nico had captured that feeling perfectly with her replica.
One thing he did notice that he didn't recall being present in the original was the holograms inside the building. He recalled them only forming in the air outside, but some of them would flutter in the windows here and then vanish once they passed through a shadow, only to sometimes reappear somewhere else, still on their course.
"We have to tell the Fae. They will never forgive the Dryads if we don't tell them." The Envoy informed the group with a smile as the figure of a small owl circled her head for a moment, then flew away.
The phenomenon only lasted a few minutes while the sun was at the perfect angle to send the reflection of the top of the spires through the walkway, but it was enough for the crowd.
"Elevator, pause. Open doors for winged species." The Valkia's assistant announced suddenly just past the two hundredth floor.
"Elevator Paused." The robotic voice of the elevator was Nico's Sultry Voice setting, and it sent a bit of a shiver up Max's spine every time he heard it.
One day he would have to remember to have her stop programming her own voice into everything. She was becoming the voice of the Humans' Computer Systems in the minds of basically everyone, which was a bit odd when he knew the actual living person. Not that she actually used that voice setting with anyone but him, so the rest of the crew wouldn't notice much more than that it was similar to her augmented voice.
The Assistant called out to someone playing an aerial game down below them and hopped out of the door that had opened on the viewing side of the elevator, waving goodbye to the group and promising to come to check in later.
"They're young. Let them play." The Envoy shrugged, turning their attention back to the view as the Elevator continued its ascent.
Chapter 606 606 Catching Up
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General Tennant was waiting for them when they arrived at the isolated top section of the spire that served as the secluded living area for dignitaries who shouldn't be mingling with the general population, either for safety or because they weren't trusted to be unattended.
In this case, it was all the first, though Max did have some thoughts about how long it would take to find the Dryad again if they left her unattended on the lower floors, with millions of square meters of vegetation planted within the city.
"I think we will retire to our rooms for the evening. Our vessel is running on a very different schedule than the city, and it is late at night for us. Perhaps you would like to meet in ten hours for a bit of breakfast? Is there somewhere serving breakfast at that time of the morning nearby?" The Giant Envoy asked.
"There is a brunch spot in this tower, on level 481, only a few minutes by elevator and right near the elevated walkway. I suspect it might be a bit busy tonight, even at two in the morning, local time, since it has a view of the stars, but there is a Kepler Starred chef there. They're using replicated ingredients, but it's all cooked fresh, so you get to enjoy the personal touch of a skilled human chef.
I know that's something that Terminus doesn't really have on board since all but one of their restaurants uses replicated meals, but I think you will enjoy the new experience." General Tennant suggested.
"That sounds marvellous. Do they take reservations?" The envoy asked.
"They do not. It is part of his business philosophy that those who are truly hungry will show up, so his business is first come, first served." The General answered with a smile.
The Valkia nodded his agreement with that. "I like that level of dedication to one's ideals. Appointments build exclusivity, but if you know you're the best, you can open up to anyone who walks in and make a great impression. We will meet you both there in the morning, I hope. Please direct my wayward assistant back to his room once he is finished playing."
"The directions have been sent to him."
The envoys headed to the Villas reserved for them, and Max followed General Tennant to the Planetary Governor's house, a top-floor mansion that was clearly made as a spot for political negotiations, with ostentatious gardens all around, over a dozen hover limos in underground parking, and the best views in the city.
"I didn't have a hand in the design, but when I arrived, I was directed here by the city's computer. It appears that this is my spot, and there are similar ones in other spires for other senior city officials, as well as the family of former Governors.
I haven't really had time to go through everything yet, there is too much in an entire city to get fully familiar with it in one sitting, but the designers did an incredible job. I am told it was designed entirely by the staff aboard your vessel, and I watched as the Terraforming Devices built it. Who would have guessed back when you were in the Academy that humans would come so far, so fast?
Do you recall the story of the Industrial Revolution that brought humans into the modern age? In a century, we were said to have come from peasant farmers using horses to our first space flights. This feels like that legend is playing out all over."
The General was clearly a bit overwhelmed by the change in station and living conditions, but the myth was one that Max knew, even if he found it a bit embellished to think that human culture could change so much in a hundred years.
The thought of being alive at the start and end of that process was just mind-boggling.
But then, he knew the stories of how Mecha changed warfare as well, and he had seen firsthand how fast a Colony could change when granted advanced technologies, so perhaps all it took was a few key innovations to trigger a whole chain of events that would change everything.
That was their goal, in a way. To set off a series of changes that would reshape humanity into a more functional model.
The wars were beginning to die back on the homeworlds, but they still needed that particular something, the big trigger that would kick them from armistice into a cultural revolution, and he didn't think he had found it yet.
The General noticed Max was lost in his thoughts for a moment and led him inside a sitting room. "Why don't we relax with a bottle of Rum and have a good chat about everything that has happened while I was away?"
"Why don't you start with this battle that left you alone on a derelict ship? Did you volunteer to be the last man aboard as the Captain of the vessel and go down with it as tradition demands after Abraham Kepler was crippled trying to block for the God Class Mecha?" Max asked.
"Indeed I did, but in order to tell you that story and have it make sense, I need to go over the last bit of our trip through human space and how we ended up there with our troops and the design team from Comor fully engaged with the Rebels in the first place."
That was no short conversation, and they were still at it in the small hours of the morning when the General's alarm went off, reminding them that they had forty-five minutes before the meeting with the Envoys at the brunch spot.
"The design of the Planetary Governor's mansion is actually a genius bit of design. Follow me. We have our own private elevator. It runs inside a structural beam and will let us out one floor away from the spot we need. From there, we can take the moving sidewalk or one of the travel discs." General Tennat suggested, just as eager as anyone else to get to try out all of the amenities of the city.
Chapter 607 607 With Tech Too
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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The elevator did indeed lead them out into the city, only one floor below their destination, and there was a tall escalator between the floors only a few blocks away. Max and the General could make that in a minute or less, so instead of trying the various fast travel methods today, they just went for a jog in their flamboyant outfits.
Compared to the subdued look that Max usually went for, General Tennant had gone all in on the Reaver fashion when he had stopped being an officer for an Empire that no longer existed. He had paired black and gray serpent-skin pants with black cowboy boots and a mint green silk shirt with no buttons, held closed only by the fact that it was tucked into his pants at the bottom.
Gold chains dangled across his chest, and a knee-length Kepler Officer's trenchcoat in regulation black synth leather completed the look.
On the scale of one to "Most gaudy Planetary Governor that Max had ever seen," General Tennant looked more like the bookie at an illegal gambling establishment on a Reaver-run space station than a planetary Governor.
"We need to work on your fashion sense." Max laughed as they jogged through the city toward the escalator.
"I don't know about that. I think it's a hit with the ladies my age. You young folk do your thing, and I will go after the ladies a century older." The General laughed, gesturing to the nearly business-suit ensemble that Max had picked to go for breakfast.
"Honestly, I rarely pick these myself. If I need to impress someone, Nico sets out clothes for me, and I only alter the options when she goes overboard and picks me out a cape or something." He laughed.
"So, you are still close then, despite her renovations?"
That topic hadn't come up, as they had been talking about the past and various innovations all evening, so the deeper personal connections hadn't made it into the conversation so far.
"Closer than ever. Her system has been letting her adjust her body, as she showed you when you first arrived. But you likely didn't notice that she's even soft again. That's the Kepler Military's Non-Newtonian shell, altered by her System Functions to have exactly the texture and feel that she wants it to at any given point in time.
If you didn't know that she was a Cyborg, I think that a lot of people would miss it at this point since she has changed herself so far from what we understand the word to mean. Most of the improvement comes from meeting the Hunters. They use Biomechanical armour and Mecha, and Nico has incorporated a lot of their tech into herself as she went.
I don't know or understand all the changes, so you will have to go to her or the design team to get the deeper details, but I will say that she can do a wonderful impression of an organic human already, in every way imaginable."
The General laughed and gestured to the side. This is our spot. We're a few minutes early, so let's get a table. Good thing they're nearly empty at this time, or we could have been out of luck.
The staff gave them a warm greeting as they approached. Everyone knew the General, as he had organized their colonization effort and brought them here to a much better situation than they had ever dreamed of. Colonists usually had to bring everything from zero, but in the eyes of the colonists, it was the General's connections that had snagged them a fully built and amazing city with a built-in tourism industry and all the latest, greatest gadgets.
They were even getting so far ahead of the curve that the Alliance visitors called the amenities in the Villas "Rustic" and not primitive, like going to a deliberately minimalist resort, which had the essentials, but stripped out the little luxuries of home to encourage you to enjoy nature.
"Did we get any big complaints yesterday? Or pick up on anything that we should really invest in importing?" The General asked their host, all business for a moment before the Envoys showed up.
"Nothing too major. There was some confusion about the in-room amenities, as they were all made for humanoid species, and the specialized versions some species use aren't available. That's just tourists that haven't been out in the rest of the Alliance yet to get used to the standardized models.
The Valkia guests did complain a little about the lack of what is called a Feather Fluff in the room, as it's not something they pack, and apparently, it's usually built into the shower. They didn't speak of it to the staff, but I heard them talking about it."
"Good work. It's the little things that we don't know about that will need to be imported to make it perfect for guests. I am guessing it's like the air dry mode on the shower, but if it's a brand name, it might have a specific process everyone is used to." The General agreed.
"For how many?"
"At least twenty-five. Assuming that none of them have brought additional guests that didn't arrive with us. Can you make space?" Max answered.
"Of course, the restaurant is fairly large. But at this hour, only the sous chef is on duty, so I can't guarantee the presence or personal touch of the boss." The host answered.
"That's fine. We're just gathered for breakfast, not a formal event. And there they are." Max told him, indicating the large group walking down the street with their eyes glued to the incoming rain storm through the outer windows of the spire.
"This way. I will bring the rest to you."
As soon as they took their seats, the General looked up what a Feather Fluff was and determined that it was an air dryer with a protective mist for Valkia and other flying species feathers that gave them a short-term waterproofing, as well as a long-lasting scent. There was nothing quite like it in human technology, just a basic fluff dry to get their feathers safely dry.
"So, it's like they're showering without conditioner. I get it now. I will order a number of them since it looks like they are modular and can be integrated into the existing drying functions." The General said, showing Max what the term meant and that it was indeed a trademarked brand name product with its own exclusive line of sprays.
"Sometimes, you can't go full local, I guess. I am sure there will be more over the next few weeks that we just don't know about yet. Running a whole planet, even if it's just got one city on it so far, isn't going to be an easy task." Max replied with a smile.
"Just wait. I am going to put these cities all over the bloody planet, and we will be the largest tourist trap for supernatural phenomenon fans in the known universe." Tennant replied, then stood to greet their guests.
"Envoys, I hope you found your way here without issues. We are about to see our first thunderstorm here, and I think it will be quite the sight. But first, let's eat."
Chapter 608 608 Thunder Dance
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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"Governor Tennant, it is an honour to meet you here so early in the morning. I know how much work you have to do to keep a city running, especially under these circumstances when so many foreign guests have just arrived for the first time.
It is a rather intense stress test for the entire colony, but I must say, they seem to be handling it admirably." The Giant Envoy greeted him.
"All the adult colonists were from Reaver Companies to begin with, so none of them were inexperienced with intense pressure at work, and I think it really helped out in this situation. Their job experience is coming in handy, and it seems that the Alliance visitors have no problems bartering and making deals in the same way that the Reavers do." General Tennant agreed.
"Yes, we would normally warn people about that, some tourists can be quite intense with their desire to get a good deal, and they will show all sorts of unseemly antics in order to get what they want, but it seems that your people have seen it all before." The Envoy agreed.
"There is very little that they haven't seen before, that's for sure. Even if some individual members are still young enough to be fairly inexperienced, they have good, solid mentors with them to show them the ropes.
Perhaps it's actually better this way. They will learn firsthand everything that they need to do to keep customers happy, and they will get used to the maximum workload right from the start, so once the guests begin to settle in and enjoy the city at a more leisurely pace, the job will seem easier by the day."
"I can't argue with that logic. What is good here?" The envoy asked, looking over the menu.
"If I recall your preferences correctly, I would get a double order of the number three combo, the eggs benedict, and then add the hashbrowns and a side of fruit to both orders." The General suggested.
The waiter nodded from his spot off to the side, indicating that he had the order, and the rest of the Envoys placed their menus down.
"If we all get the same thing, we can compare notes on how each of us reacts to the same human foods." The Valkia suggested.
"Well, that's easy. I'm sure they are more than capable of thirty orders of eggs benedict." Max chuckled while the waiter looked a bit concerned that he was going to be the one to tell the chef that their first table of the hour ordered thirty full breakfasts at the same time.
They were open because tourists on random schedules would show up at any hour of the day, and they didn't have a good reference yet of what species were nocturnal and how many of each species were staying here in the city. Once things settled out a little, they might not pick a twenty-four-hour schedule, but from the number of people in the street, they wouldn't be losing money by staying open.
Of course, bringing in all the Envoys was also drawing tourists to the shop, eager to eat in the same place and get a discrete selfie with the powerful politicians.
Max doubted that most of them had any clue who these people were, but they were all wearing official pins or uniforms, so it was virtually impossible for the Alliance guests not to notice them.
The attention didn't bother them, though, as the tourists were mostly respectful and took their pictures from a distance, while the staff kept them from directly bothering the other guests.
The food had just come out when the first strikes of thunder began in the night sky, sending echoes through the open areas of the city and lighting up the sky with flashes of light that caused shadowy figures to dance in the sky outside the towers, looking to Max like fairies dancing in the rain.
The sight caught the attention of everyone who was currently awake in the city, and the steady drum of rain on the windows made a soothing counterpoint to the random flashes of dancing figures in the sky.
It was like nothing that Max had ever seen before, but he could sense that there was something else out in the darkness that certainly wasn't a flash of light from the reflections on the city's spires.
[Nico, check the vicinity of the city, Northeast, at roughly fifty degrees. I swear I see something out there.] He informed his second in command.
[Working on it. I haven't seen anything so far, but that doesn't mean that there isn't anything to see. Give me a few minutes to tweak our sensors, and I will be able to tell if we have an unexpected guest.]
That wasn't out of the question, as they had recently turned away an envoy on rather bad terms after embarrassing him in front of everyone else from the Alliance. If his people had come for some sort of retribution, it wouldn't have been a shock to anyone.
While Max enjoyed breakfast with the Envoys and the General, Nico and the development team were hard at work investigating the surface of the planet.
"I've found it. It is an alien craft of an unknown design, and they are in position following one of the Terraforming drones. I can almost guarantee that it is a case of industrial espionage." She told the Innu working beside her.
"I have reported it to the Alliance World Ship in orbit. They say that they will investigate. What step will you take next?" The researcher asked.
"I say we skip straight to the hostilities. Get me an Interceptor prepped while I convince Max that this way will be easier." She decided.
"On it. We have that one you custom designed ready to fly now." The researcher answered with a smile. It wasn't like they needed much to get ready. The interceptors were just sitting on standby in a bay, with a staff waiting to see if something happened, while they kept their skills sharp in a training pod.
[General Tennant, we have detected an unauthorized visitor who did not pass through planetary Immigration. Requesting permission to make landfall, as we are investigating them for possible Industrial Espionage.] Nico broadcast to both Max and General Tennant.
[Permission Granted. Please inform them that all vessels failing to report to Immigration may be subject to search and seizure should they be found harbouring undocumented arrivals or illegal substances.] General Tennant replied, glad to have the help with a problem that he hadn't even known that his planet was suffering from.
"The Illithid advisor aboard Terminus has informed me that the unknown vessel is following a Terraforming Drone, and they are currently cloaked. The Interceptors should take care of it in short order. They are quite good at their jobs." Max informed the Envoys, as the Innu had likely already read the message, and the Dryad could read it over General Tennant's shoulder.
"Ah, excellent then, nothing to be concerned about. The Frozen Gates will send a detainment crew should they be Alliance citizens in violation of immigration or industrial espionage laws." The Giant stated plainly, well used to this sort of thing.
"Assuming that there are survivors. Many stealth vessels believe that technology can save them, and Reaver Interceptors usually only give one warning." General Tennant reminded them.
That got the Giant all the way awake from his lethargic state, and he began frantically sending messages back to their ship, which responded with a confirmation that, indeed, it was within Alliance standard policies to shoot down any vessel refusing to report to immigration after entering the atmosphere. In fact, it was even their own vessel's standard procedure.
This was going to be a very interesting morning.
Chapter 609 609 Intercepted
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Once the clearance was given, Nico led a five-interceptor wing down to the surface. If the spies wanted to run once they caught sight of the attack vessels, she didn't want to risk that they would be more maneuverable than she was and get away before she could do anything.
With the extra four interceptors, they could make a proper containment pattern, and their weapons would have a much easier time getting a solid hit.
The Alliance had incredible vessels for their government forces, but the ones that most of the population used were not nearly as impressive, being made to a budget and often with outdated technology, thanks to millennia of peace giving them no reason to update defensive technologies beyond what was needed to handle in-flight threats like space debris.
That's the standard that Nico was hoping that this particular ship, which was shadowing their Terraforming drones, was on.
It didn't change course when they entered the atmosphere, and it didn't respond when they formed up around it, so Nico assumed that they must be quite confident in their cloaking technologies.
"Unknown vessel, you have failed to report to immigration after entering the atmosphere of an inhabited planet. Please disengage your stealth technology and follow us to the city for processing." She demanded, setting her radio to broadcast on a wide range of frequencies, both Human and Alliance.
There was no response, and the ship didn't seem to be responding in any way, not sending out any signals that they could detect, so she tried again.
"Unknown vessel, we have reason to believe that you are engaged in industrial espionage. Disengage your cloaking field now, or we will be forced to treat you as a hostile corporate force."
That seemed to get their attention, and the ship began to drift away from the terraforming drone.
[Hold your Position, I want to see what they do.] Nico ordered her wing as the ship gently glided through the air.
It stopped near another Terraforming Drone and took up the same position, following it around.
"Switching Drones to observe is not a form of compliance. Unknown vessel, lower your cloaking field, or we will take hostile action. This is your last warning." Nico reported.
She ordered her wing to surround the ship again, and this time they got a response, a strong power surge from the hidden vessel that compromised their cloaking field enough that even the most rudimentary of sensors could detect it.
But for the moment, Nico held off. If they were going to make a run for it, she could learn more about the ship's capabilities before they captured it.
It wasn't planning to run, though, and half a second later, a barrage of Lasers blasted out at the Interceptors, and the ship began standard pattern evasive maneuvers.
Unfortunately for them, they were from the most basic of Alliance training manuals, and Nico had long since memorized them. The Interceptors launched a return volley of Disruptor fire, and the ship went crashing to the surface, leaving a deep furrow in the freshly terraformed grassland.
"Hostile Force, surrender now, or you will be summarily eliminated," Nico announced, both over the radio and over the loudspeaker.
There was no response from inside the vessel, so she approached in her Interceptor, then exited the ship, wearing a Tech Adept Harness, and using the gravity control to gently lower herself to the ground before disabling the electronic locks and pulling the hatch open to reveal the interior of the ship.
[Nico to Planetary Command. The crash appears to have been more severe than anticipated. No survivors detected.] She reported as she looked a the mess inside the ship.
By her best guess, the ship didn't have military-grade shields, or they couldn't keep them up with their cloaking field because the Disruptors seemed to have passed right through to the crew of the ship while leaving the hull intact.
That meant the next order of business was twofold. First, find a water hose and clean this place up a bit. Second, start searching their computer records and see what they were up to. Most Alliance vessels would have known to simply comply, and then they could scan the terraforming drones while gathering much less interest.
The patents were a matter of public record to Alliance citizens, but the exact construction method was not, which was the reason that everyone had assumed that they were competitors to begin with.
[Terminus Trading Company Interceptors. This is Constable Dookath of the Alliance law enforcement division. We are incoming with a police contingent to examine the origins of the intruding ship.] The smooth voice of a Valkia informed them over the radio.
[You are welcome to it, Constable. We are quite interested in the origin of this vessel since it's like nothing that we have on record, and there are no surviving crew members to tell us where they might have come from.] Nico replied while she downloaded the entire ship's computer into her Interceptor's storage space to peruse later at her leisure.
She did know a few things already, though. This was not an Alliance vessel, or at least it was not built with any Alliance patent information or a system of origin recorded in its logs.
The crew roster did show Alliance members, though, mostly from the Giant species, though the captain of the ship seemed to be a Volga, who was not an Alliance member, so the ship might be one of theirs.
[Sweet All Mother, what did you do to it? You didn't need to do whatever that was.] The Constable could be heard retching over the voice-activated communicator as he entered the ship.
[Our apologies Constable. It seems that our disruptor technology is incompatible with the shields on that vessel. When used against our own Mecha or ships, that would have only disabled the shields and possibly the drive systems to disable the ship.] She explained.
It wasn't quite a lie. Their own equipment was hardened against attacks by the Disruptor technology. But if they had used it against basically anything else, it would have ended exactly like this. She had even optimized the weapons to do their best to bypass Alliance standard shields.
[We will keep it in mind. Beginning crew identification and cleanup procedures, and then your border patrol may take the ship into quarantine to begin the discovery process on the data they had collected to determine if any crimes other than immigration violations had been committed before this tragic accident.] The Constable informed her with a grim tone.
Chapter 610 610 Investigation
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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The officers were not joking about their intentions to fully investigate what other crimes might have been committed while the unknown ship was committing its immigration violation. They had thirty officers aboard their shuttle, and they got to work the moment that the disabled foreign ship was brought to the basement hangar bays for investigation.
They went over every possible aspect and angle of the ship, and while most of the things that they found were not of any concern to the Terminus Trading Company, they found over fifty patent violations, where the designer had clearly used Alliance technologies in their own designs without permission.
They also found that the ship had been making detailed notes on the Terraforming Device, presumably for the same reasons, but had been unable to decipher the software before they were shot down, so the entire database that they had accumulated was on the design and analysis of the construction methods.
For a Terraforming Device, the software was just as important as the device itself, so they hadn't gotten too far into their examination, but it was enough to prove intent to violate patent laws, even without all of the clear violations that they found in the ship's design.
It was built by the Volga, according to the Alliance police force. They had seen the basic design before, though not this specific model and the ship's hull showed the signature markings of their Materials Printer technology, which left behind a unique Ion among certain alloys, thanks to incomplete remanufacturing.
That wouldn't go over well for them the next time they had to talk to Alliance dignitaries since the Police uploaded all of their collected data to the Central Law Enforcement mainframes as soon as they compiled it.
Supposedly that was for the integrity of the data so that the officers working the case couldn't tamper with evidence if it indicated that there was someone who shouldn't or couldn't be charged by the local Police responsible for a crime.
Bribery and using influence to get out of crime weren't unheard of within the Alliance, but being able to bribe a single low-level police officer to accomplish the task seemed to offend their sensibilities. If you wanted to bribe your way out of a conviction, you had to go to someone else who was powerful enough to bribe their way out of a conviction and convince them.
It was the ultimate old boys club, but in a way, it led to the upper-class Alliance citizens self-policing since you didn't only have to convince one of them. You had to convince everyone who had the political clout to gain access to the investigation data.
"So, it is the Volga who were trying to get a bit more data on our Terraforming efforts here? That's not too surprising, but I suspect that they will be less than impressed by the state of the crew that they sent." Max sighed as he sat with General Tennant to review the preliminary investigation data later that morning.
"It serves them right. If they had chosen any path but to attack the interceptors, they would have likely come out of it alive. It's fairly doubtful that anyone will claim responsibility for the actions, though. Even if we search their records for the owner of the ship, it will show some upstart company with no connections to the leadership or any company regularly doing business outside their borders." General Tennant replied, well aware of the basic measures that any Planetary Governor would take to cover their tracks and avoid responsibility for their actions.
He had seen it all before, and this was on the child's play level of interplanetary intrigue.
"You seem to be well versed in the matter." The Innu Envoy mentioned sipping on a raspberry Latte with five extra shots of espresso in it.
The sight of the drink made Max shudder in horror at the incoming mental barrage that he would suffer once her brain was hit with that massive dose of Caffeine, but the design team had sent her information on the augmentic suits, and she was eager to analyze it before she finished her tasks for the day.
In her mind, that meant mass doses of caffeine to get the multiple tracks of her mind all working at maximum output, but for the mind readers on the planet and in orbit, it was a nightmare.
With Alliance technology, they could make a suit just as good, and in fact, one that was much better than what Terminus had turned out, but on general principle, they wouldn't copy the fashion style, and that was the part that she liked the most about it.
Once she was home, she would show the others the marvel that was the helmet, but until the end of their tour, she had every intention of wearing the suit every single time there was an excuse to wear armour.
"You look somewhat unwell. Perhaps you could use a beverage? The coffee here seems to be quite impressive. They roast it in the store, so it's unique anywhere in the universe. The Alliance doesn't have this particular plant, but I can see that it will be quite popular once they learn of it." The Valkia Envoy suggested, looking at the way that the Innu Envoy was downing her steaming mug of caffeine and milk.
"The problem isn't my lack of drink. It is her abundance of drink. Innu minds go into overdrive when you give them caffeine, and it's a bit like having a hummingbird in my brain to be sitting next to her." Max explained.
"Oh, I never thought of that. So few species except the Illithid can read minds that I forgot a few humans could do it as well. Best of luck tuning her out, but I should really warn the rest of our staff if she is going to be more hyper than usual." The Valkia sighed, looking over at the one Envoy in their group who simply refused to go along with the standards and be the boring politician that she had been appointed to be.
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