Chapter 651 651 New Bait
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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While the Hunters made for the Locust, Max focused his fire on the other Behemoths, who were spreading out to avoid getting caught in the same attack.
The advancements that the Androids were making were becoming apparent in the state of the battle, though, and no longer was the Super Heavy Mecha contingent confined to just the bombardment. They were also turning their primary weapons on the Behemoths, sending bursts from the Ion Bombard Arrays into the larger Klem and reducing the pressure on the Light Mecha.
They even managed to spare a few shots for the Behemoths, though they knew that Max would deal with them.
It was much better than they had done on the default settings when they landed, and the Klem tide looked like it might not reach them at all, despite how spread out the unit was by their attempt to guard the colonists.
Max put a Disruptor blast into one of the beetle-shaped Behemoths, bursting it all over the Warriors around it and melting them with the corrosive goo. While they shrieked in pain and rage, Max focused his fire on the other uninjured leader of this attack force, gravely injuring it and making the creature begin to flee.
That was usually a good sign when fighting the Klem. If the Behemoth fled, the others would usually follow in only a few seconds, giving your position time to breathe and regroup.
It was exactly the outcome that Max had been hoping for right now, but even when the last of the Behemoths had fallen to the Thunder Pattern Mecha and the Hunters, the rest of the attacking force was undeterred.
Something else was driving them forward, either a hidden Behemoth or one of the elusive Klem Queens that usually only appeared in the inner reaches of Klem space.
That would be a nightmare for his troops, making them fight every wave until the very end, but they could learn a lot about advanced Klem tactics from this battle if there really were a Queen here.
Max moved to the Hunters and drew his sword to give them a salute, then moved toward a group of Rippers and sounded his war horn.
The deep sound of the alarm grabbed their attention immediately, and they reared back in a challenge, the same as they always did when Nico challenged them.
It was an instinctive action, and Max took advantage to blast three of them with his Disruptors before charging the remainder.
[Now that's just unsportsmanlike. You shouldn't shoot them after you challenge them to a duel.] One of the Hunters laughed over the radio.
She was only half serious. Against a game species, there were no rules, but if it was a proper duel between Mecha, then it would be seen as incredibly insulting.
[All is fair in love and war.] Max replied as he decapitated a Warrior with his blade on the upswing toward one of the Rippers.
[If we told our men that, I suspect that they would cry and hide.] The Huntress laughed as her group spread out and engaged the nearest groups of Klem, tearing through them at a walking pace while they searched for their next targets.
[Commander, we have everything loaded into the ship and are ready to depart.] The leader of the colonists informed Max, clearly panting with exertion.
[Got it. Good luck, colonist, and I will see you back in orbit once we are finished here on the surface.]
Max switched channels to a locked frequency and hailed the ship. [Scan everything that they brought back on board. The Klem are particularly aggressive and persistent in this attack, and I want to make sure that they haven't brought something that they shouldn't have.]
It took a few seconds for the Ship's Pilot to answer, but he brought good news.
[Every container and Mecha that they brought on board has been checked. There is no sign of Klem biomass, no gene-altering equipment, and nothing on the contraband list. I do have an observation for you, though.
They are using a form of biodiesel to power their equipment, and the Klem Warriors stop to lick at the fallen industrial Mecha on the battlefield. It is possible that the residue from the fuel, or the fuel itself, is working like a form of bait that draws them in.] The Pilot observed.
That was something that Max hadn't noticed, as busy as he was with the battle, but it was definitely worth verifying.
[I need one Corvette Class Mecha to grab a fuel container from within the compound and throw it in front of the lines.] He ordered, eager to test the theory.
Hunting with bait was always easier than searching for your targets.
A few seconds later, a can of fuel came flying over the lines, bursting open on the ground in front of the Klem, but they seemed uninterested in the spill and just passed by.
[I need that fuel spill to be on fire. I want to see if the residue is what is attracting the Klem.] Max ordered.
A short puff of fire from a Fast Attack Crusader created a roaring fire where the leaking fuel container had been, and all the advancing warriors began to snap and lunge at the flames but passed by once they decided that they couldn't get whatever it was that they wanted.
That was enough evidence for him, so he spread the word to all the units on the surface.
[Be advised the residue from the burning of the biodiesel that the locals have been using works as Klem bait. They are naturally attracted to it, so all former colony facilities can be expected to have an increased Klem presence, and any remaining stores of the fuel can be ignited and used to draw them in.]
A chorus of affirmations from the Drone Pilots and observers, as well as the Battalion Command Androids, followed, and the Absolution fleet began to alter their priorities in order to eliminate the maximum number of Klem from the surface of the planet.
Chapter 652 652 Next Point
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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With the new knowledge of how to bait the Klem, and the colonists evacuated from the surface aboard one of the Cutters, Max could focus on eliminating as many of the creatures as possible.
Using the Disruptors on higher output levels would leave large amounts of radiation in the air and soil, much like a nuclear explosion, but it decayed within hours, leaving very minimal lasting damage except on animals and the targets it hit. Max was considering doing precisely that and clearing the area down to bare soil, but the Klem wave was already thinning out in his area.
They were out of reinforcements that could be sent over, and both his sensors and the scans of the Drones showed that there wasn't another Klem to be found within fifty kilometres other than the ones that they were fighting here.
The Battalions were doing an excellent job of cleaning up the stragglers, so Max engaged his thrusters and jumped back behind the lines to regroup and check the status of the other Mecha Battalions in their vicinity.
Most of them had taken some sort of losses, but none appeared to be significant. With over ninety percent of their units remaining functional, they were in a solid position for their next deployments, which most should be ready for in the next few hours.
There were a number of units further away that needed assistance, and the Central Command Pilots that he had left behind were already preparing to send down more Battalions to fill in heavy loss areas and assist in the removal of entrenched forces.
What Max didn't see was any sign of the Queen or other particularly strange behaviour on the part of the Klem, other than the persistence that they were showing in their attacks.
That could be a biological evolution, recognizing that being routed actually cost them more forces than it saved, so Max kept it in mind but didn't let the oddity affect his judgements other than in how many Mecha it would take to eliminate a force that wouldn't retreat.
They would be clearing the continent by the hex grid, and Max's appeared to be clear already since the Klem had been so intent on coming to him. Once the Mecha Battalions in the grids around him were close to finished, he would prepare to move out and take another grid location, but for the moment, he had time to eat and see how the Hunters were enjoying their vacation.
"Ladies, how are you enjoying the battle against this particularly aggressive version of the Klem?" He asked once they joined him behind the lines.
"This is wonderful. We saw what you did with the bait as well. That will make future fights much easier. In fact, we could start a fire and simply have all the Mecha walk over it to get coated in the fumes, and they would automatically draw the game to their location. It would be like hunting Dire Bears with a juicy steak around your neck." The Huntress replied in appreciation.
"The area appears to be clear now, so we are just waiting on the reports from other units in the area so that we can move out to where we are needed and then begin clearing another grid. Will you be remaining with us?" Max asked.
"We will stay with your second in command. It is a Hunter tradition to follow the strongest female in a group when joining a hunt. I'm sure you understand." The Huntress replied.
Max smiled and shook his head, though they couldn't see his reaction. He should have expected that response from them.
"Understood. Happy Hunting, I will update you with coordinates once we know what regions need special attention from the Command units."
Nico joined them only a few minutes later, with her Mecha covered in Klem blood and pure happiness in her thoughts.
Max checked her computer logs quickly and saw that she hadn't taken enough damage to drop her shields, so the blood on her Mecha had to be a deliberate act. Curious, he searched her surface thoughts and found that the blood served as camouflage for the Mecha. It made her smell like part of the Klem force, and both the size and number of weaponized limbs were roughly right for a Ripper, so by the time the Klem realized that she was a Mecha, it was too late for them to run away from her.
Max hadn't had that problem, the Klem was more than happy to engage him in melee combat, but in her memories, Nico had to do a lot of chasing at first because the Klem thought she only had melee weapons and tried to keep a distance from her, forcing her to use her Disruptors, which only made the Klem back away even more.
The intimidating design of her Mecha worked wonderfully on human and humanoid targets, but it seemed to have the opposite effect on the Klem that any other Mecha did.
The Battalions fell in close to the former colony site as the Klem were eliminated, and Max checked his battle data one more time before updating the unit orders. Only one unit in their cluster was still in combat, but the unit beside them would help them clean up on the way past, and they would all be moving to another cluster of grid points.
This time, Max had his unit clearing a section of forest while Nico and the Hunters were moved to a river valley, where they were more likely to find something of interest.
With less pressure on his unit, Max could put more effort into targeting enhancements for the rest of the Mecha on the planet, as well as the Drones, and he could plan further in advance for the next movement.
The first round of targets was supposed to be the densest clusters of Klem, according to orbital scans, and it should be all push and clear from here out. The only concerns he really had were for a portion of the map that was marked as being primarily limestone bedrock.
Limestone was known to develop caves, and if they used the Fusion Flamers on it, it burned entirely too well and would leave a much larger region than a single mountain burned out, as it had the last time he used that tactic.
Chapter 653 653 Suspiciously Empty
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Max saw that the other units were nearly cleaned up, which meant it was time for his and Nico's squads to move forward, setting themselves up for the next stage in their battles.
[Sector 1, all units that have confirmed the clearance of their zone, move forward to the following location designated on your map. Units passing through zones with ongoing combat will assist until that zone is clear.] Max ordered.
His path would lead him straight to the forest without passing through combat, but Nico would cross over a unit that was having issues with Klem that didn't want to stay in the battle and kept retreating underground in a deadly game of hide and seek.
If they couldn't be brought under control, he would authorize the use of heavier orbital munitions to collapse the tunnels and crush them, but so far, the Fusion Flamers were doing the job and forcing the Klem back up to the surface.
They were using them quite a bit, and Max could hear the sizzle and pop of burning Klem every time the Unit's leader reported in. It was probably a good thing that they had Androids for that job, as the noise was sure to make more than a few human pilots squeamish, and the smell would be horrendous to any infantry unit that they had in the area.
They were far from the only ones on the planet that had been forced to resort to the tactic, just the only ones in his immediate sector who were having that particular problem. The Klem force was unprepared for a battle on this scale, with so many different tactics in use at the same time.
Their group consciousness wasn't able to adapt to them all at the same time, leaving certain units in excellent positions against their robotic opponents, but others utterly annihilated due to using the same tactic against a unit that was prepared for it.
It could be a limit of the Klem Queens, but Max was beginning to think that there wasn't a fully developed leader here. Perhaps an immature one, but an actual Klem Queen was supposed to have no problem coordinating a planetary battle while this one was clearly struggling.
It was good news, and his arrival at the next destination brought even more good news to Max and his Unit. The heavy Klem biomass presence that they had detected in the area seemed to be entirely made up of Klem pods which hadn't hatched yet.
[Spread out and destroy every pod and possible Klem hatchling you encounter. Fusion Flamers, don't be afraid to start a forest fire. It is more important that the Klem hatchlings are all eliminated before they can pose a real danger to our troops.
Finding the enemy's reserves early on was always a bonus, and the pods were very much like the reserves for the Klem force. All that mattered was that they never got the chance to hatch and that he found them all before the Klem Swarm or other small creatures could relocate them.
Fortunately, between the Disruptors and the Fusion Flamers, the Battalions could walk across the designated zone with full coverage, leaving nothing alive. Of course, that meant there would be no trees, grass, or anything else left in their zone, but it wasn't the worst thing possible, and it would help draw out any hidden forces that the Klem had in the area.
They were always protective of the pods and put them somewhere that they considered relatively safe, like nestled under the canopies of this dense forest or in caverns. The orbital scans didn't detect any caverns in this region, but he would double check, in case the Klem had done something sneaky, like fill the caves where they were hiding their extra pods up with something that would show as a solid on the scans.
Even filling them with water could fool the scans into thinking that it was a natural body of groundwater, like an aquifer, so he could never be too careful. The one thing that they would always have in common was the need for an above-ground entrance so that the freshly hatched could get out and so that the units sent to trigger their awakening could get in.
The Mecha were all on the lookout for any hidden entrances to tunnels, but so far, there was no sign of any such thing in this zone, which was almost entirely razed to the ground within the hour. All that was left was to check the bottom of a small lake, and he would be ready to move to another grid and assist the teams which had encountered real resistance.
Max took Cleansing Light down into the depths of the lake, checking for any hidden tunnels, caves or Klem pods, but found the region suspiciously clear. Every other likely spot in the zone had been full of pods, but there wasn't a single one in the lake at all.
The question was, where did they go?
With the assistance of sonar and a pair of drones, he had the whole lake bed checked for ground density, thinking that a filled tunnel would have a different density than solid rock. Even if it was full of water, they should detect it, but he didn't find anything at all.
His instincts told him that he was missing something, but he just couldn't figure out what it was that he was missing.
They were just finishing up the zone when it occurred to him. There likely were pods there, at least before he arrived. They didn't leave over the ground since the traces would have been detected, but if a swimming Klem or a small one walking along the river bottom had carried them out underwater, the flow would have hidden all traces of them, not even leaving behind the telltale traces of birthing slime that Klem pods usually carried with them.
A quick check of the map showed that the river ran to another lake, a much larger one than the one in his zone, and it was in the fourth round of zones marked for exploration. If it was left undisturbed that long, the pods could very well be hatched and spawn a massive Klem force to fight an unsuspecting Mecha Battalion, which had been lulled into a sense of complacency by the lack of enemies.
Or did that even happen to Androids? Not being able to read their minds was inconvenient, but for most of his career, he hadn't had the range to read other Pilots' minds while he was fighting anyhow, so he should really be used to it by now.
[Unit, prioritize assistance from lowest progress to highest until all zones in this cluster are cleared. I will proceed to the lake at the other end of this river in an attempt to find the missing pods.] Max informed his Battalion.
He was an addendum to the standard Battalion anyhow. They could function without him for a few hours. Plus, they would be headed closer to Nico, and she would keep them out of trouble even without his instructions. She had been keeping a close eye on the progress of the Android army, which she saw as her creations, despite the fact they were literally clones of an alien android that she had imprisoned and reprogrammed.
Chapter 654 654 Klem Breeding Ground
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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With the unit departing to assist their neighbours, Max began to make his way up the river, checking his sensors constantly for signs of danger or traps since this zone that he was entering had not had any attempt to clear it yet.
The river itself was clear of any sign of Klem for the first few hundred meters, as were the surrounding woods, but as he progressed, there were still some signs of pod slime on the riverbed, and finally, the last of the Klem workers that were transporting the precious cargo came up on his sensors.
The lake in front of him appeared to be full of Klem, as were the woods all around it and the air above the forests on the far side.
That explained why the units were having such an easy time in this region. All of the Klem had gathered in one spot. From his position, Max had a very different view of the Klem than the satellites did, and what they had taken as a moderate Klem presence was, in fact, three layers deep and had dozens of Behemoths hidden among the trees.
He didn't see any of the Locust-type Behemoths who had adapted to block the Disruptors, but the pure numbers would make for a good fight.
[Huntress. I have found another very dense cluster if you wish to join me. I will hold my position for two minutes before I engage.] Max informed their allies.
[Understood, Commander. Unfortunately, we are in the middle of a hunt for a group of six Locusts and will not be able to join your joyous hunt. Best of luck taking a suitable trophy.] The Huntress responded.
While disappointing, it was not unexpected. They wouldn't just drop a hunt in order to join another hunt. That made no sense, and they would stand a chance of not getting the killing blow on either target if they switched halfway through.
That meant Max needed to make a proper plan to deal with this infestation before it began to spread out. The flying Klem would make a bombing run difficult, and they were avoiding Orbital Lances, so that was out, but he could still fly up and use a lower output version to clear the area if he needed to.
It seemed like the best idea. There were simply too many of them to be efficiently cleared without using extreme measures or a lot of bombers.
On second thought, he would use both.
[Bomber Squadron requested. Dispatch three wings accompanied by Orbital Interceptors to my location. It will be a full bombardment of a severe Klem infestation and breeding ground, both above and below ground.] Max messaged the Drone Pilots.
[Incoming in forty-five seconds, Commander.]
At the thirty-second mark, Max fired his thrusters to push Cleansing Light into the air and fired the Disruptors on long-range, sustained beam mode to clear out as many of the flying creatures as he could before the bombers arrived.
That sent every Behemoth and Ripper in the area rushing in his direction, but the Bombers were almost on him already, and the river valley was already echoing with the first of the explosions.
A thousand strong, the drones flew overhead, shooting at anything that moved and carpeting the area in Burner Bombs, a crude combination of thermite and napalm that burned extremely hot and stuck to anything that it touched.
Max was sure that the Alliance ships which had arrived after the battle started were suitably horrified by the concept of carpet bombing on this scale, but he would deal with them once he was done here on the surface.
According to the satellite data, there were over fifty Alliance Government ships in orbit over the planet, taking notes and making videos of the Human Military, as they designated the Terminus Trading Company, while Max and his unit cleared an aggressive invasive species from one of their colony worlds.
The bombs were doing a great job of clearing the surface, but Max was still getting underground signals from the Klem, so they had almost certainly dug tunnels to protect their reinforcements.
He really only had one choice to deal with them, and that was a ground-penetrating strike. It had to sink deep into the ground, with a significant explosion that would level all of the tunnels in the region, or it would need to be easily repeatable so that he could make a grid and ensure that all the tunnels collapsed.
He was seriously tempted to use the Antimatter Cannon that Nico had built for him, but an antimatter explosion inside a planet's mantle or lower crust would cause way more damage than it did in space since it would cause a short-term sustained fission reaction that would spread out from the point of impact.
Nuking the planet into oblivion as a side effect wasn't an exactly great military strategy, so instead, he tweaked the settings for his Disruptors Orbital Lance settings.
Normally they would cause a massive explosion on impact and send down a thick beam of energy, but this time, he would concentrate them, cause the explosion two hundred metres underground, and then repeat it thirty-six times to ensure that there were no tunnels in the area that could possibly contain Klem.
When he moved to ten thousand meters in the air to prepare for the attack, Max could hear the concern in the Alliance messages about what sort of insanity he was going to attempt. The Envoys knew about Orbital Lances, but the majority of Government forces did not.
The sheltered nature of most of the visiting bureaucrats was almost funny in a twisted way. But it was pleasant to think that one day, humanity might enjoy such security that they could forget about constant threats from aggressive species.
This would be their first exposure to the advanced weapons of a Titan Class Mecha, and for once, it might actually look less dangerous than usual. The fact that he was going to do it three dozen times might not set their minds at ease, but the destruction should be limited to just this one grid location and largely underground.
The settings were complete, and [Optimize] had determined that they couldn't get any better for his purpose, so Max began his bombardment, shaking the ground all through the region and setting off seismic sensors on the Mecha in nearby zones.
By the twelfth attack, it was clear that the impact had destroyed the tunnels, and the whole region had sunk dozens of meters, but there were still Klem life signs down there somewhere.
Max paused to pinpoint them with his sensors, just in case they were at a depth that he hadn't calculated for, but they were above ground.
The lake had sheltered a number of pods from the bombing run, despite having most of its water boiled off. One surface configuration Orbital Lance took care of that as well as any lingering Klem presence in the region and silenced the Alliance communications for almost an entire minute while their researchers worked to process what exactly had happened here.
Max hovered above the destroyed forest and scanned the sensor logs for more similar regions, which might be hiding massive Klem breeding grounds in a way that the orbital scans wouldn't detect.
The most likely option was a mountain range a thousand kilometres away and a volcanic region on another continent. He would leave the second for the units assigned to the area, but he did note the possibility that the scans might have underestimated the defences in the region before he took off for the mountain range in the hope of finding another Klem nursery.
Chapter 655 655 More Klem Incoming
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Max was on his way to the Mountain range when an emergency call from Absolution came across his intercom.
[Commander, we have a Klem fleet, actual Klem ships incoming. Numbers appear to be equivalent to ten standard pod waves, and sizes cannot be determined, but their trajectory changed without outside gravitational interference.] Admiral Penner reported.
That fell under the category of very not good, but it wasn't something that Absolution couldn't deal with on its own. For the first fight, it was likely better than he was in orbit, though. For one, he was the only one available who had orbital combat experience, and for two, they would need his targeting data to properly deal with a fast-moving group of Klem pods or vessels.
[Scramble the reserves which aren't scheduled for a drop to the surface to positions between Absolution and the fleet. Then request that the Alliance vessels move clear of the battle for their own safety, and I will join you in orbit.]
That should pretty much do it, Max thought. But better safe than sorry.
[If you have any spare drones, send them out as well.]
The arrival of a fleet of Klem that shouldn't be seen outside their core worlds was a pretty solid sign that something very strange was going on in this star system, and Max could only hope that there was some sort of sign as to what it was.
If they were just trying to bait the humans in, it was no big deal. But if the Klem had found something that was precious enough to send that sort of reinforcement to the region, then they could be in real trouble when it was revealed.
Max tapped at the troop deployments on his screen and sent the message that he would be diverted and not taking care of the mountain region, then updated his estimates on the enemies that were likely to be in the area for the unit that did take it on.
That was enough to clear up pressing matters on the surface, as two units near the mountain range had just finished clearing their zones and rerouted to take care of it as a priority.
He activated the thrusters on Cleansing Light and was almost into orbit when he received a priority message from Nico.
[Don't forget there are only one hundred rounds in your new gun.]
With over a dozen Mecha Regiments in space around the ship, there should be roughly sixty Super Heavy Mecha, all equipped with Antimatter Charges for their Thunder Guns. They weren't as heavy as the rounds for his weapon, but with their firing rate and explosive radius, there shouldn't be any issues.
Max joined the defensive line, and Admiral Penner made an announcement that actually managed to startle him.
[Giving them the warning now.]
Absolution fired a single Antimatter Torpedo at the incoming Klem fleet, letting it detonate a hundred thousand Kilometres in front of them. If they weren't set on hostilities, that should be enough warning to chase them away from the region. Even the most zealous of sentient species would avoid an explosion of that magnitude, but the Klem only responded with bursts of spikes fired at the defenders.
They were approaching at roughly five percent of the speed of light, relative to Absolution, so those spikes were going to do some serious damage to anything that they hit. Even the shields of the World Ship would have to work to deal with the storm of chitin that was coming for them.
The Klem fleet's aim was quite impressive as well. It might appear to be somewhat random and scattered, but Max could see that the majority was coming for the ships in the system, with the rest headed for the Mecha and their locations should they activate standard evasion patterns at any of the ten standard timing points.
The Klem had definitely learned from the Mecha fleets in that regard. It wasn't the first time, either. Even their three-tiered attacking strategy was suspected of mimicking the Line, Corvette and Crusader Class Mecha deployments that the humans used, as they were the most effective enemy that the species had faced.
If they were here to test a new advancement that they thought would work against the humans, it was best to start with old and predictable strategies. They would reveal new reactions to the old techniques if they had them, and it would tell Max a lot about their capabilities.
[Super Heavy Units, fire a barrage with your Ion Bombard Arrays, standard direct fire pattern.] Max ordered while providing them with the necessary targeting data.
A normal Klem wave would simply get hit by the barrage, which was why Max had chosen it as the test, but this fleet immediately began to spread out, and Max saw energy signatures emitted from the larger objects that looked a lot like a gravity beam.
[Absolution, did you get a recording of that? I think they have found a way to adjust the trajectory of their pods with some sort of gravity manipulation.] Max asked the Admiral.
[We are calculating the details now, but it does appear that way. The pattern looks familiar as well. Ah, there it is. That Gravity beam isn't a new Klem technology, it is a Tapani Gravity Beam, and I am picking up the unique signature of the emissions array. I suspect that one of those objects is actually an infested ship that they have commandeered.] She replied.
There were a lot of human technologies that the Klem couldn't use well, including Mecha, but there was a significant overlap between the smartest Klem and the dumbest humans, so many simple-to-operate computer systems could be accessed by their smarter members.
Max hadn't seen proof that they could actually read before, but if they could aim the beam to grab all the pods that were accompanying them, it was pretty good proof that they could. Hopefully, it wasn't enough to get the Alliance to decide they were a sentient species in need of protection.
They probably hadn't noticed the fact that there was a captured human ship encased in one of those shells, but the Hunters would have. It was an ideal hunting ground for them, easy to navigate, in a standardized pattern, but full of enemies.
It was best to destroy it before they thought of that as well.
Chapter 656 656 Space Battle
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[That's our signal. Thunder Guns begin full bombardment with Antimatter munitions. Wide spacing, full pattern coverage. I do not want to see that fleet when you finish.] Max ordered.
Twenty Sets of Thunder Guns began lobbing shells across the expanse of space while the Alliance vessels watched in complete fascination, wondering what the Humans could do against a space-based fleet that could outmaneuver the standard artillery.
The new munitions were a very different thing than the old ones, though, and they would detonate on proximity, so even if the Klem managed to dodge them, they only had to get within the blast radius to deal damage.
The first few Klem ships proved incapable of evading the increased speed of these munitions and took direct hits, allowing the shells to punch through their outer chitin with pure brute force before the antimatter explosion tore them apart.
Klem vessels the size of a Destroyer exploded in an instant, torn to molecule-sized bits by the antimatter blast, and dozens more shells were incoming already.
Max moved above the line of fire to approach the incoming Klem fleet. A shorter range would make it even harder for them to evade and would give him a better chance to intercept retaliation before it came near his shiny new ship.
Absolution didn't have a mark on it, and he intended to keep it that way. He was here to clear the planet and show off their new toys to the Alliance Government ships, not to take damage to his World Ship.
The larger ships spread out as soon as they realized the danger that these new weapons represented, but they couldn't take the pods with them on such a hurried maneuver, and a series of explosions rocked the tightly clustered orbs of biomatter, followed by a second volley that very nearly eliminated them all.
For the first time, Max sensed real rage from the Klem. They always had a sense of urgency and self-preservation when you attacked them, but this was an actual emotion. There was a Klem Queen somewhere in that cluster, and if he got a chance, he might actually be able to read its mind to see what level of intelligence the species was capable of.
Mind-reading systems were rare, so there wasn't much data on the Klem Queens. It would be a great benefit not only to himself but to the whole human fleet to know what they were capable of.
With a bump in and out of Warp, Max was nearly on top of the Klem fleet, which was working to evade the incoming shells and defend one central vessel. It was the one that contained the captured human ship, which seemed curious to Max. He expected that it would be an expendable experiment, but it seemed that their Queen was somewhere inside that infested human ship.
He had seen signs that they were mind-controlling and taking over a human planet in the past, so it might be possible that wasn't the only experiment that they had done with human intelligence. If there was an assimilated human brain in there, it would explain the ship's functions being operational and the strange behaviour of the vessels.
While searching for signs of intelligence with his mind, Cleansing Light was also analyzing every signal that the ships were sending out, trying to determine how well they could communicate with the infestation on the ground. It was well known that they did, but solid data on how far away was scarce.
Perhaps humans had been too timid in the past. Getting up close and personal with a Klem attack fleet was proving to be very valuable for Intelligence Gathering, even if he had to constantly dodge plasma and spike attacks travelling at velocities that would punch through his shielding and Mecha in an instant.
More and more shells were missing the Klem as they desperately fought to evade, but that was no concern to the Androids. They were firing in a suppression pattern, forcing the remaining ships into a location where they could eliminate them once there was nowhere left for them to dodge.
His time was running short to get the data he needed from the Queen's ship unless he was willing to order the troops not to engage it and risk it getting away. It was unlikely that they could successfully and safely capture the vessel without destroying it and even less likely that the Klem would allow such a thing without self-destructing.
But when the fleet was down to less than ten percent of its original strength, he got a break. There was a signal, with a chittering Klem noise transmitting over it, and it was being emitted by the ship's broadcast tower.
He couldn't translate it yet, but he had a Nico for that, or he could ask the Hunters, who were very good with languages, to try it later. His sensors didn't detect any signs of human biomatter left on the ship, it had all been consumed or corrupted, but as he approached, he could sense a vague mental presence.
It was the one that he had sensed rage from earlier, and it was afraid.
[Commander Keres, have you detected what we have? There is a new type of Klem on that ship with emotions. One of our Hunters had an Illithid over for some extracurricular fun, and he sensed it. We want it.] The Huntress that had been left in charge of their ship insisted.
[I want the research data. I can sense its emotions, but I can't understand the language, and it doesn't really seem sentient, but if you research it, the data will be essential to humans.] Max replied.
[Agreed. We are sending a vessel now. Tell your Mecha to stand down on the target until we depart.]
It wasn't the perfect solution, but their agreement with the Hunters clearly allowed them to call dibs on a target when they wanted to hunt, and he hadn't called it first. It felt a bit like being a kid again, calling dibs, but this time, a lot of something was going to die in the process.
Most likely the Klem, but there was no guarantee that the Hunters wouldn't take casualties since they couldn't use their larger Hunter Suits inside a ship sized for humans.
Max sent over the data that he had on the ship now that Cleansing Light had identified it. Both the original layout and what he had detected now, including the likely location of the thought pattern and the locations of all transmission stations which could be sending the signal that he had detected.
[All Mecha, stand down until the Hunters finish their mission. I will contain the Klem fleet alone, for the sake of safety.] Max ordered as the Hunter shuttle left their mothership and headed his way.
[Understood, Commander. Happy Hunting.]
Chapter 657 657 Antimatter Matters
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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[Where did you learn that?] Max asked the Android, amused at the new slang they had picked up.
[We analyzed the battlefield transmissions used since the start of this engagement. Happy Hunting was, with over ninety percent certainty, the correct response for a unit going to fight in a smaller team on a specific mission.] The Android Pilot replied.
[Excellent analysis. Store it in your approved responses for future use.]
The Klem vessels were slowing down now, as the firing had stopped, and Max was at close range between them and the planet. If anything, they seemed confused by his actions and unsure how to respond to this unexpected blockade. But when the Hunter shuttle approached, they all turned to engage and began firing at their maximum rate.
An approaching enemy ship was a situation they were well prepared for, and they wouldn't let it reach their command vessel easily.
Unfortunately, the only one that could possibly pose a threat to the incoming shuttle was the very vessel that it was looking to board, and Max was ready with the Antimatter Shells to take out the last few vessels that still had the capability to fire on the Mecha Regiments.
Max could hear from the communications between ships that the Alliance vessels, which had come to observe the new human World Ship in action, were freaking out right now, trying to decide if this was just the reserves of their fleet or if they were a specialized space combat unit.
They had analyzed the Mecha and couldn't find any differences between them, but they also didn't find any life signs, so they assumed that more information was being withheld from their sensors. Of course, it was because there were no life forms in the Mecha, and the Pilots were all Androids, but the misconception was feeding into the confusion, and nobody was sure how to report back to their employers other than to send them the video of the engagement without comment and let them decide for themselves.
Nobody would assume that the humans had hired outside mercenaries for the fight, as would be assumed of many other species that suddenly experienced a huge increase in firepower.
Nobody in the Alliance used that sort of munitions, at least not at the moment. They were horrifying to most species and could easily set off a chain reaction if they hit a warp drive of many common designs. The general consensus was that the humans had managed to weaponize something that was never meant to be weaponized.
The biggest question that most species had was how they managed to do it. A crystal-based Warp Drive didn't produce excess Antimatter to create weapons with, and the technology to create it outside of a laboratory environment was basically nonexistent.
There were patents for devices that produced industrial Antimatter, but no operational examples of those units could be found by any of the companies that were looking for them, so it didn't seem possible that the humans had gotten their hands on one.
What they didn't know was that it was nothing new to humans. Until only a few years before, they had used a wildly inefficient version of warp travel, which basically dumped Antimatter into a containment vessel and shaped the resulting explosion into a warp field. So, they had the technology to mass produce it available to every fleet as a necessity at every resupply station.
Nico had simply built one onboard Absolution and then mass-produced enough Antimatter to eliminate half a star system, just in case they needed it all.
The Hunters had made contact with their target and had breached an airlock door to send the team inside, but the shuttle wasn't retreating. Instead, it had chosen to remain locked against the hull of the larger vessel, either to preserve the atmosphere inside or for the rapid extraction of their team, should it prove necessary.
They weren't giving any updates, so Max focused on the responses of the Alliance Observers and, more specifically, the Illithid aboard their ships.
Having one on almost all Government ships made Max's life much easier. If he needed to know anything, he could just ask them, and they would most likely answer so that he didn't go digging through other peoples' minds.
[Have they figured out where we're getting all the Antimatter yet?] Max asked the Illithid on the Envoy's ship with amusement after they moved the ship back too far from the battle for him to hear the thoughts inside.
[I believe so. They have detected huge amounts of it in a containment vessel inside Absolution, and they are freaking out right now. It's pretty funny. They want to tell you to get rid of that storage tank, but they are too afraid that you'll give it to them for disposal to actually say anything.]
That was a wonderful idea. Give the Envoys all their unstable failed experiments for disposal, and then watch what they did to neutralize them. It would save so much time during the development process.
All of the Illithid began laughing as Max had that thought, and then their minds wandered off-topic as their crews began to question their behaviour. It wasn't often that they got so distracted, and the Hunters were capable of shielding their minds from the Illithid, so they couldn't possibly be watching the action inside the last remaining ship.
The amount of Antimatter that they had in storage was large, but by human standards, not completely unreasonable. It was enough to refuel ten Transport ships or Cruisers during their once-a-decade major overhaul. For a human space station, that wasn't a lot, and Absolution was much larger than any space station.
It was just that the Alliance had moved past such crude methods so many centuries ago that nobody recalled a technology that required it, and nobody on the human side had thought to mention it since they viewed it as so common.
[Commander, we have the suspected hybrid. It appears to be a modified human, as it was attached to an alcove grown in front of a control panel. We are bringing it back to the shuttle now and will have data for you within the week.] The Huntress announced without preamble.
A week was a long time to study a simple organism, but as specialists in bioengineering, maybe they had found something else that they wanted to study and had moved it down the to-do list. Since he couldn't read their minds, all Max could do was agree.
[Understood Huntress. Are we clear to eliminate the vessel once your team is clear?]
[Please allow an extra three minutes to get the team all the way back to the mothership. They obtained some sensitive samples that might be damaged by an antimatter blast in close proximity, even if the shields held.]
As he had suspected, they did find something else on that ship that he hadn't thought of or hadn't managed to detect.
Chapter 658 658 New Hangar
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Once the Hunters were safely back at their ship, Max unloaded a barrage of Antimatter shells at the final vessel of their fleet, leaving nothing that could potentially spawn more Klem or send back a message to the Klem homeworlds.
It was highly likely that they had already done that, and he would have to get Nico and the other language specialists to analyze that later, but for now, he had more annoying matters to deal with.
[Commander Keres. We have a significant number of questions about the new weapons that you have displayed here. The Alliance government is quite concerned about the potential of such weapons and requests you to schedule a meeting with the Envoys at your earliest convenience.]
The text reminded Max that he could never really be free of the duties of leading a Reaver Company now that he had started, no matter how hard he tried to pass the duties to someone else.
In the eyes of the Alliance and many others, only two people in a Reaver Company had high enough standing to negotiate, and that meant him and Nico, neither of whom were actually interested in politics as anything other than personal amusement.
[I will return to Terminus and pick the Envoys up as soon as I have finished relaying the targeting data for the next round of zone clearance events. Please ask them to prepare for a tour of Absolution as well.] Max replied, using a text message so that they couldn't see how annoyed he was at having to leave the battle early.
Of course, he could claim that he was needed on the surface for the battle, but that clearly wasn't true. His latest sensor sweep showed over a hundred groups of Hunters among his Mecha units and casualty rates that were still mostly under ten percent.
The reinforcements had arrived for the more damaged units, and the Mecha units that had joined the space battle were on standby outside the World Ship, awaiting orders.
[Units on standby outside Absolution, you may now return to your hangars and begin any necessary repair, maintenance and reloading procedures to return to readiness.] Max ordered.
The Mecha began to move immediately, and Max turned his attention to Nico and the Hunters, which she was fighting alongside. They had all chosen to allow their suits to be covered in Klem blood so that they would disguise the distinctive smell of Mecha, and they were carving a wide swathe through the zone that they had just entered, using the Super Heavy mecha to herd the Klem in front of them with a Thunder Gun barrage, and the Fast Attack Mecha to burn out any possible signs of pods or survivors.
With all of the expertise both on the ground and in the air, he really was free to take the traditional position of a Company Commander as the organizational head of the battle.
Cleansing Light had a dedicated hangar assigned aboard Absolution as well, which Max hadn't yet had a chance to examine.
The technicians ran up as soon as he had landed and powered down the Mecha. One Human Technician was accompanied by twenty Androids, who all looked exactly like him. It was a bit creepy, and Max wondered whose idea that was.
The Human was giving directions, sending them to check every external system and component for damage or wear, when Max exited the Mecha with a smile for efficiency.
"Good Morning, Commander. I am Chief Technician Johan, in charge of Cleansing Light, as well as the Mecha Repair Androids. Miss Nico determined that it was unlikely that your Mecha would require full-time attention, so I was given a secondary task.
The Androids won't require much, either. They're supposed to be designed for a million-hour active life, but checking on them gives me something to do." The Technician greeted him.
"And whose idea was it to make them all look like you?"
The excitement in the man's mind made Max smile even before he started speaking. "It's brilliant, isn't it? They look just like me, so when the junior techs come by, they won't be able to tell if they're only looking at Androids or if there is a supervisor present that will be keeping an eye on them.
The Androids don't care for much outside their assigned duties unless it becomes a nuisance or hazard, so they're not good at reporting on staff performance, and it would waste limited computing power to have them add another additional task.
They seem quite advanced with their adaptive AI, but they are already approaching the limits of their computing power, so we had to limit their task lists to prevent crashes and hung operations.
Basically, if you tell them to do too much at once, the priority gets out of whack, and operations get put on hold, which leads to some very strange interactions. We were going to work on it, but Nico said it's not a bug but a feature.
Keeping them focused on their assigned tasks should help with the randomness usually associated with artificial intelligence since they're only computing things related to their work and are limited in capacity for new information."
That was actually a great idea. The AI would let them learn new things, but only inputting data from specific activities kept the data from adding irrelevant nonsense. Proper limits were the key to a well-functioning learning program, as Max had learned as a child.
His first attempt to create one that would learn to hack passwords more quickly was a colossal failure, and it got stuck in a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories since he didn't set proper limits on the data that it was taking in.
Max thought back to his past life and wondered if there was a better way to do it, but he didn't find anything particularly appealing. There were memories of AI species, but they were kept within boundaries by Religion, and he wasn't going there in this life. Too many humans already carried random superstitions from their home planets. He didn't need to start teaching them to the Androids.
It would also require multiple branches since the programming for the Pilots and the staff was so different. It seemed that they had it under control, though, and Max knew that Nico had built in a reset switch, where she could set every Android back to default databases in an instant if things went wrong.
Chapter 659 659 A Growing Problem
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Before Max left the hangar, he sent a message to the Enovys with the technical details of the new weapons, in case they hadn't already gotten a copy of them, as well as the humans' regulations on their use against populated planets.
There weren't actually any rules against using them on ships, but Max realized that the Alliance would certainly have something to say about that since they used a large number of vessels with populations in the millions, which a single antimatter missile could theoretically destroy.
This was far from the first time that he had been required to attend the "Humans did WHAT?" conversations, but they were never a lot of fun, and it was mostly technical matters that he really wasn't experienced in, so he was basically reading them to his audience as he learned them.
The Envoys were used to it as well since they knew absolutely nothing about Human Technological development other than what they had learned from meeting with Max, but they, too, were required to be here.
[Tell the Envoys that I will meet them at the Coffee Shop on Terminus, and I will escort them about Absolution from there. I have been in Combat all day, and this isn't happening without coffee.] Max informed the communications officers who would be in charge of passing the message.
[It is currently half past midnight ship time.] The messenger reminded him.
[Oh, thank feth. Send the message now and tell them that I will meet them in seven hours.]
That was enough time to get some sleep but not enough time that the other Alliance vessels in the system would start throwing a fit about him delaying.
It was common for ships to set their onboard time by the Capital of the planet that they were from or a unified time with their force so that all vessels that met would be on the same schedule, but Max had no idea what time the Alliance Government observers were on.
While he took the high-speed transport pod across the ship from his hangar to Terminus, opting to see a bit of Absolution on the way instead of using a precision portal, Max noticed that the sensors were detecting more and more ships in the system.
Not just Alliance Government ships, there were Shin, Dryad, Vampire, and dozens of others he didn't recognize, but they were all Capital Class ships, meaning Cruisers or larger, which were intended to represent their faction in negotiations or conflicts.
Tomorrow was going to be a huge mess, no matter how the battle on the planet went, and Max had a sneaking suspicion that there was some legal loophole that was going to be used to give him even more of a headache.
If it was as simple as demanding a sample to make sure that it didn't violate copyright, he could refer it back to the Envoys for closed-door investigations and avoid revealing anything to the public, but when was life ever that easy?
They had seen them fired, so they had at least a little bit of data on them, and there was no telling how well their scans had managed to penetrate the shielded outer shell of the weapons.
Max fell asleep in his room aboard Terminus and woke with a start when the alarm went off, warning him that he had thirty minutes until he had to meet the Envoys. Just enough time to shower, get dressed and jog across the ship to meet at the coffee shop.
From the look of them, he was the only one who got any sleep last night. They all looked worn out, and except the Innu Envoy, who was on her second triple shot Raspberry Latte of the morning, their minds were dragging just as badly.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, my apologies for the delay. You know how it is with Combat. I was in no shape to be holding any sort of meeting last night." Max greeted them.
The Valkia Envoy waved off his concern. "That's fine. It gave us time to meet up with all of the concerned parties and catch up on the situation. This time, it's not entirely the humans' new technology that has everyone's panties in a twist.
From what we can tell, an unknown malicious actor has managed to pull a Klem-infested world into the middle of Alliance Territory. Or perhaps they intercepted a wave and seeded it without us noticing.
But the fact remains that there are now six Klem-infested worlds in Alliance Territory, and nobody is quite sure how to respond. Everyone is sending people here to see how you deal with them and make their own judgements on the species since they don't accept the Hunters' determination of Game Species as a proper categorization.
But while they argue politics, the Klem that have appeared in the Alliance are spreading rapidly and onto populated worlds.
Most of our worlds don't keep a standing army, so once the pods got past the defensive measures, which didn't fire because they weren't a recognized threat, they have been free to spread among a civilian population."
"Have you at least sent forces to prevent the spread?" Max asked, then sat down with his coffee to try to process the news.
He nearly choked when he realized that he had gotten the wrong beverage and handed the latte back to a very disgruntled-looking Innu, who was glaring at the black coffee in her hands.
With her fruity latte back, she was much more talkative. "We did. And for now, they have them contained, but even invasive species are entitled to consideration before extermination until a classification is made in the official records.
When we added the data about the humans and your galaxy, we didn't expect that it would become a problem within the Alliance in a matter of months, so it's all still sitting in a bureaucratic queue waiting for official researchers to verify our data.
Given average processing times, that should take less than a decade, but with Klem in the Alliance's core, we don't really have that long to get things sorted out."
Chapter 660 660 Overworked
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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The table fell silent for a moment while everyone's thoughts turned to the miracle that was coffee. It had a mental stimulant effect on them, though not as significant as it did on the Innu.
For that reason, procuring the data to replicate it was near the top of their task list, bumped down only due to the persistent presence of life-threatening situations.
After a few minutes of silence, as the coffee worked to bring everyone back to functional status, Max decided to address the elephant in the room.
"So, are we starting with your Klem issue, our weapons development, or the tour of Absolution?"
None of their minds seemed to have a clear answer for that, but one of the Giant's assistants had just come in, freshly rested and replacing one who had been on duty all night, and they were ready to provide the essential answers, based on Alliance Regulations.
"As it threatens a large number of Alliance lives, we should address the matter of the foreign invasive species first. We don't need to look into how they got there. Many other teams are searching for warp signatures, portal signs and any other clues that they can get. We just need to discuss how to deal with them." The assistant reminded his superior, who looked ready to pass out again.
"Understood. What is your standard negotiation tactic for making a deal with the invasive species known as Klem?" The Envoy asked, reading the line from a data tablet.
"You're looking at it down below us. That is as civil as they get. All attempts to communicate with them have been futile, and though some researchers suspected that they had discovered a Klem language, their efforts never led to any form of dialogue." Max replied.
There was a long pause as the Envoy nearly dozed off again while Max was answering, and the assistant sighed. "In the name of health and wellness, I request that this process continues without our envoy for the time being."
"Go ahead and take him to bed. Is there anyone here who is awake enough for a discussion? The rest can go to bed, and we will inform anyone who questions the matter that the negotiations and research are ongoing." Max suggested.
"In that case, I will record it as a six-hour data discovery break. Everyone, please report back before additional absence paperwork needs to be filed." The assistant informed the Envoys, who glared at him so hard that he hid behind his sleeping Envoy.
It was regulation, and the Envoys were very much like overworked civil servants in this case, but six hours would hardly put a dent in the sleep they needed after being kept awake the entire time since the battle started.
That was one problem solved, and he had bought himself six hours to take care of matters on the planet before he had to start with the meetings again, or so he thought.
As soon as the envoys were gone, the Alliance bureaucrats who were concerned about the matters involving the newly discovered Klem presence within their borders were right there to bombard him with questions.
"I am quite sorry, but until the matter is settled with the Envoys, I can't give you a definitive answer on what is or is not proper procedure under Alliance laws. While our laws are fairly compatible, when it comes to the Klem, Human law is quite clear, while Alliance law is not." Max was explaining.
"But my planet is right next to the most recently invaded one. We are in the same star system. Can't you at least sell me some of those anti-Klem missiles that you used against their fleet?" One of the Myceloid bureaucrats was begging.
"The use of Antimatter weapons against inhabited planets is strictly prohibited, and the dissemination of military technology is heavily restricted. But rest assured. They can be dealt with using conventional weapons in higher volumes." Max informed him.
"Fat lot of good that does us after they land." The Myceloid complained.
"If you don't want them to land, just get a World Ship to intercept the wave and deflect it off course with their shields. Most Klem expansions are a simple wave of pods, with their entire cargo in an embryonic stage. They can't react to outside stimulus, so you can just deflect them into a star and forget about them."
"Under section 216, part 420, subsection 9 paragraph 3, that might be a violation of the rights of the unborn, should the Klem be declared a sentient or endangered species." A Giant in the crowd informed them.
It was clear that the Alliance was in the middle of a legal crisis, where their convoluted laws had them stuck at a standstill while they were being invaded. Again, Max was reminded that most Alliance species weren't part of what was called the "Curious Species," so they likely had no preparatory measures against such an unlikely event at all.
"That is why the Envoys are here to take care of the matter. Unfortunately, your constant inquiries put them behind schedule, and they are off to research answers for the next six hours."
That seemed to be the magic word for dealing with bureaucrats. Accusing them of holding up the process was enough to horrify most of them, and Max could sense that most of their minds were already working on the way to help the Envoys with the process so that they weren't accused of being a hindrance to finding a solution once the matter was solved.
Max raised his voice to address the crowd. "If you would like to do your own analysis and bring it to me in five hours, I will present a limited number of opinions to the Envoys on your behalf. Priority will be given to planets most affected and groups with direct specialization in similar situations."
The fact was that most of these people were from environmental and animal rights groups, here to pressure for a particular outcome, so that meant that the very few who were from the small organizations who did specialize in interplanetary invasive species and the handful of representatives from nearby planets were quickly swarmed by activists as soon as Max told the crowd whose opinion he would be considering.
"You know, it's rude to lie to them." A soft voice from behind him whispered.
Max turned around to face the assistant to the Innu Envoy with a smile on his face. "I only said that I would present the opinions, not that we would actually consider them. I have already seen in their minds what most of them are thinking, so I have a pretty good idea what the presentations are going to say, and it's a whole lot of platitudes and no solutions."
The Innu considered that for a moment before a matching smile lit her face. "I have heard of this situation. What was the saying? Technically correct is the best sort of correct? No, not that one. A half-truth is still a truth. That's it."
"Not a bad saying. I like this one, though. There are three levels to every conversation. What you thought you said. What they heard you say, and what you actually said."
That one made the coffee shop operator laugh as he brought the assistant her order. An extra large raspberry latte, the bane of Max's mental health now that the Innu had discovered them.