Chapter 661 661Corporate Reps
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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"How much will it cost to get this product added to my personal replicator aboard the Envoy ship?" She sighed, looking at the raspberry latte that had become the new favourite beverage of the entire Innu contingent aboard the ship.
"One second, I can access that data. A single unit, non-transferable license for non-commercial purposes is two hundred credits by the Alliance standard pricing scheme for custom food products. I would hold off, though, because I think that the Envoy will be obtaining a vessel-wide version before she returns. I can't see her allowing herself to be light years away from her new favourite beverage.
The assistant smirked when Max finished this sentence. "It will be an uphill battle. The others are working to prevent her from doing just exactly that, using the misappropriation of public funds rules. But she is incredibly wealthy in her own right, so they're not going to delay her for long once she decides to do it with her own money."
The assistant's amusement was apparent, but she was holding back something.
"Go ahead and say it. Unlike the Innu, I have a hard time picking out the background thoughts." He requested.
"We determined what caused the reaction, where she becomes insufferably hyperactive. It is a result of the raspberry juice combined with the coffee beans. The combination has medicinal properties, at least for Innu, and she is particularly susceptible to it. The two combined in her System to form a powerful stimulant, as opposed to the normal level of stimulation that other Innu experience."
The rest of the Innu were bad enough with coffee alone, but so far, Max had only noticed the one extreme reaction, though it was hard to tell since most of them drank coffee not because they were tired but because they liked coffee, so the extra energy was utterly unnecessary.
Chasing the activists away only bought Max a few minutes of peace before the corporate sorts were brave enough to come forward with presentations that they thought the humans would be interested in.
These weren't the "You should be grateful for our offer" exploitative sorts that others had presented in the past, they were legitimate corporate collaboration offers, so Max thought he should at least consider them when the representatives came forward.
For once, being able to read minds became less of a hassle, and more of a time saver, since he could sort out the ones whose proposals were interesting sounding without having to listen to them all or even know who the person was.
"You, you and you four. Would you like to join us for a coffee?" He asked a group of corporate reps who were all working on space vessel development.
"Certainly, Commander. Thank you for this opportunity." They all replied, out of sync with each other.
When they stepped forward under the envious gazes of the other reps, they instantly realized what he had done. He had picked everyone who had a similar proposal to come to see him at the same time. They couldn't present their offers in isolation and make themselves look good. The others at the table were their direct competition and would surely try to drag them down.
The assistant realized that as well and made a gesture to the shopkeeper to bring another round of drinks and some snacks, with absolute certainty in her mind that this was going to be entertaining.
Not only were they competitors, but they were all designing new World Ship technology, which meant that the Terminus Trading Company was also their direct competitor and the human group had a head start on developing whatever production method Absolution had been created with.
It wasn't common knowledge yet of how it was made, and everyone was having issues trying to understand what it was even made out of. The frustration was palpable in the background of their thoughts, and they were all after the same thing, a deal that would give them production rights for vessels using this new technology.
They had been observing Terminus for over a month, posing as vacationers, and there had been no warning that a new ship was coming to them. It just suddenly appeared, which gave them the impression that it had actually been made in an incredible hurry somewhere with some unknown technology.
Max split his attention so that most of his thoughts could go to analyzing battle data, and sensor inputs, to give targeting data to the Mecha on the ground, while the smaller part would deal with the negotiations over ship technology.
They weren't going to share the details with anyone, much less offer it up for a production deal that would inevitably lead to a trade war somewhere in the Alliance and a drawn-out legal battle as the technology was used beyond the parameters of the agreement or by unauthorized parties.
The Klem had lost over half of the world already, and the Mecha Regiments were beginning to link up in the less densely infested areas to push the Klem back into pockets where they could be thoroughly purged, so Cleansing Light wasn't needed on the battlefield right now, but Max did briefly consider recalling Nico to make her take care of this.
"So, gentlemen. What would you like to present to me today? If I'm not wrong, you should all be shipbuilders who are looking to revitalize your product offerings, correct?" Max asked.
The Innu assistant hid a giggle as they all panicked at being seen through so quickly. It wasn't common knowledge in the corporate world that Max could read minds, only among the government, and none of them had expected him to know so much about them and their companies at this point.
Only one of them recovered quickly, a slender man with a scarred face and a third eye on his forehead. His thoughts were mostly incomprehensible, being in his own language, and he spoke in broken Alliance Common, but the System was quickly adapting and providing Max with basic translations.
"I am Farseer Ernie of the Farsight Yacht Company. It is foretold that our Alliance would be beneficial to the company, as we are attempting to enter the small private yacht niche that Terminus Trading Company currently develops conventional vessels for." The man introduced himself.
He wasn't joking, either. His species believed that they could see flashes of the future, and Max wasn't willing to call it impossible since they had a rather high accuracy rate when they did have a vision.
Max brought up the basic brochure for their conventional private yachts. "This line of affordable warp-capable vessels, in the sub-seventy-five-meter category, featuring luxury interiors and the option for a private portal generator?"
The man's third eye flashed with bright golden light as he nodded happily. "Exactly those ones. My superiors analyzed the data and determined that if they could procure your development tools, we could produce and market your designs at a sixty-five percent discount over our current rates, which would put us in contention within the budget solar yacht market.
As you no doubt already know, the market is quite scarce in that niche since most companies deemed it unaffordable to market to, but I believe that the demand is there, just not at the rates that last generation's vessels commanded."
He had to dig through his bag to find the proposal since this was the fourth item on their request list should everything else fall through, but at the moment, it seemed like the most likely offer to be accepted, and his foresight told him that he would be politely rejected if he made any of the other proposals.
Maybe he really could see the future. That was exactly Max's plan when he called this group to sit with him.
Chapter 662 662 Rejected
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Max gave his best professional smile to Farseer Ernie.
"You have a keen eye, but at the moment, those are the only non-military vessels we produce. As you said, it is a niche market, so it may not be in our interest to increase the number made when we would only be getting copyright income from the vessels you make."
Ernie nodded. "But they are also the oldest design that you have in current production, and you have developed two generations of more advanced hulls since they were placed on the market, so I believe that you will soon be transitioning to an ultra-modern yacht, either with the morphable hull or with the monomolecular design of your new World Ship.
If either of those comes to the market, this line of vessels will become functionally obsolete in your inventory, but there is still a strong but small market demand for such classically designed budget yachts. We would, of course, be willing to make direct examples of your design with the current credit scheme.
We would also not be the only ones that you have licensed for the production, and our analysts have noticed that while they are offered, your other partner has deprioritized their production, with wait times over two years before the hulls start down their line."
Max hadn't known that. But he had also never checked into how that deal was working out. They were supposed to be exclusive, but two years to start building the ship seemed excessive.
He made a note for the design department to look into it since the deal had been made with the help of Alliance lawyers to prevent the other party from holding onto the deal if they had functionally backed out of their side.
Max took the offer from the table and looked it over quickly to verify that it matched what was in the man's mind.
"Now isn't the time for a lengthy business deal, but I will schedule you a meeting with our negotiation and development team for sometime later this week after the battle on the surface is finished. I think we might be able to work something out." Max agreed.
The easy agreement seemed to embolden the others, who didn't see the deflection that the Farseer had done and assumed that his company only had small ambitions to be a budget yacht builder.
Not that there was anything wrong with that, but theirs were large corporations, and they were after generational Government Contracts. If they could land a deal to make even a half dozen world ships and a standard hundred-year maintenance contract, they would be set until the end of their lives.
World Ships was a massive investment, and while they didn't know how Absolution was made, they knew that it was something new and incredibly capable, which would make it easy to market. For that reason, they had prepared very reasonable conditional contracts that would provide Terminus Trading Company with a fortune in Royalties if they could secure a government procurement contract to build vessels built on Terminus Trading Company Technology.
The World Ships of the Alliance were the so-called "Invincible Ships" to the people of this Galaxy and were heavily armed and defended, so any deal to provide them would involve providing the involved companies with plans for all the associated technologies and weapons.
That wasn't going to happen, and the Farseer looked incredibly smug after his third eye flashed again, and Max saw a vision of the dejected representatives leaving the table.
They put their deals out on the table, then looked over each other, and quickly edited their own within the parameters that their company had allowed so that they could try to compete with each other.
"While I appreciate the effort that you all have put into your presentations, Terminus Trading Company is not in the market to distribute plans for military technology at this point in time. Should you be interested in another aspect of our business, I would be willing to entertain an offer, but the World Ships, with their unique capabilities, are not up for sale to any outside parties right now.
It's not a biased matter, no company would have done any better, and not even the other human Factions will be given access to this technology for the foreseeable future." Max explained, sliding the offers back toward the representatives.
"I see. My thanks for these moments of your limited time." The representative on his far left agreed, and they all stood to shake his hand and left with the same dejected looks that they had in the Farseer's vision.
Ernie stood a second after they left the table and shook Max's hand. "I will be in contact after the battle. I am booked on Terminus for another two weeks, so there is no particular rush should you have other pressing matters to deal with before getting back to trade agreements."
"It has been enlightening to meet you. Your insights are a unique ability."
Ernie gave him a graceful bow and turned to leave, but Max could see in his thoughts that he was detailing how the flashes were thought to work. His species believed that the third eye saw through time and not light, though they had no scientific proof.
The Alliance recordings said that they did much like Max or the Illithid and read the emitted bioelectric signals and brain waves of living creatures around them, then came up with a probable outcome instead of actually interpreting the thoughts they detected.
Without data, Max couldn't prove the answer either way, but for the first century or more after the System activated, humans couldn't scientifically explain the mental manipulation type System Functions either, so he was willing to be open-minded, and perhaps see if he could find someone from that species to bring on board Absolution.
Seeing the future might not be real, but if they had some innate ability to calculate outcomes, it would be very valuable in battle if they were used as advisors on strategy.
Chapter 663 663 Vacant World
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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For the next six hours, Max went through the various representatives that had been sent to meet with him. Very little of it was of any importance, and many of them were there mostly just to meet with him and get an impression of Terminus as a Company. Those ones were the easy ones.
The annoying ones were those who were sent to suck up in order to try to get some sort of deal with the Humans. Almost all of their bosses underestimated the species, and the battle raging on the planet below had thrown their entire plan into disarray, so they had no idea what they were actually supposed to be doing now that they got a chance to meet with Max.
In a way, that was an improvement. It got them to speak, give him their business info, and then politely back away without wasting a lot of his time. There were so many people gathered that if he spent more than a few minutes with each, he would never get through them all in the course of one single morning.
By the time the Envoys returned to the Café to meet Max after lunch, the Alliance Government ships had been joined by nearly a thousand corporate vessels in orbit around the planet. Max had subtly moved Absolution to keep her directly over top of Nico's unit so that she couldn't be as easily ambushed should some of these companies prove hostile.
It certainly wouldn't be the first time, but now that they had a World Ship on their side, it would take much more force for anyone to challenge them, assuming they were willing to risk the Central Government's wrath to do so.
The Envoys looked much better now, but it was clear that the assistants had taken the brunt of the excess incoming messages once the Envoys took their break. They looked just as rough as the Envoys had earlier, so Max decided to change the order of operations.
"How about instead of touring Absolution, we start with the important talks, and we can tour the first few areas of the World Ship on our way to dinner later?" He suggested.
"Oh, that is a wonderful idea. Please set up a notification that we are in a closed-door negotiation and then disable all outside communications once the meetings start. Operational security is of the utmost importance to these talks since they are about delicate military intelligence matters." The Giant Envoy decreed.
"Then, follow me, and I will bring you to my new office aboard Absolution. You won't get to see too much of the ship since Terminus is docked right under the center of the main inhabitance right now, but you will get to see a bit during the ride since the secured operations areas are on the second floor, located a thousand meters above the city, separated by a structural bulkhead." Max explained before passing around a set of drinks for everyone to finish on the way.
"There will be food once we arrive since I'm assuming nobody has had time to eat with all the meetings. Give it ten minutes, and we will be at our destination. There are secure areas for the assistants as well since we don't expect all negotiations to be finished within a single day."
The assistants smiled at that. They correctly assumed that Max had prepared sleeping quarters for them in the secure area for the meeting, and they could relax as soon as the meeting started since the Envoys wouldn't need them for this part of their business.
It was all about how to deal with the Klem, and the information on their intelligence as a species, which they were still hoping that the Hunters had more data on since they had captured what was assumed to be the leader of that attacking fleet, which was the most coordinated Klem attack that existed in the human records.
Once they left Terminus, they entered one of the high-speed pods, a combination of a gravity train car and a Gondola, since it followed a single thread of overhead track, which served as a warning to flying species and vehicles to avoid the public transit routes. It was also sized for no more than two dozen people to occupy comfortably, though you could pack fifty inside if they were human-sized.
For the first few seconds, the view outside was dark as they passed between levels and through the lower service areas of the ship, but then they passed out into the city from a large fountain lit with underwater strobe lights and spraying water up in a rhythmic pattern.
"We thought that a regular passageway was too boring, so the transports to the service level all pass through here. I'm told that it can get quite crowded at times but that the decorative design of the pods makes them part of the display instead of detracting from it.
I haven't personally had a chance to see it from the outside yet." Max explained.
The pod raced over the city, and in only a few minutes, it began to spiral upward toward the next level, passing through the artificial clouds and past the holographic sky to reach the bulkhead between floors and enter the much more utilitarian areas of the ship.
"We intend to upgrade this eventually, but for now, it's just the basic structures, and they're completely unoccupied since we are the only official political entities aboard the world ship at the moment."
"I think you greatly underestimated the number of occupants that is appropriate for a ship this size." The Valkia laughed.
"The data said that two million should be enough core staff, but the ship feels incredibly empty with them all in one dense city in the middle. Only one floor is fully completed with plants and buildings. This level of the ship is pretty much empty other than the shells of buildings in this immediate area.
It was always going to be one of the last ones finished, but hundreds of kilometres of nothing at all still feel extremely strange, and we just don't have a source for millions of new occupants that wouldn't cause mass unemployment and cultural chaos.
Colony Ships among the Reavers usually grow over generations, so we will take in more people as it is convenient until we have the full ship utilized."
The Valkia was trying very hard not to laugh at his estimation. It was like saying you would just pick up hitchhikers until you filled a country. Even if you discounted the industrial areas, Absolution had more usable space than an average continent on an M Class habitable planet.
Chapter 664 664 Android Workers
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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The pod stopped in front of a tall office tower, designed to look like a tree made of white marble, and seemingly all one piece, where an android was waiting in a smart skirt suit to escort them inside.
There were dozens more workers inside the building, mostly waiting at desks or processing message requests and day-to-day data that would be pure drudgery for a human to do. They had actually hired people to do those jobs, so Max checked his crew information quickly and saw that all of the data entry technicians had been promoted by one grade and were now junior managers of the Data Entry departments, with five androids working under each of them.
None of the humans were in this building, as the entire sector was dedicated to political meetings, and the active operations centers were on the lower floor, but there was at least someone here to greet them and escort them to an immaculately clean office, with what looked like natural sunlight streaming in the windows from the artificial sky outside.
The Dryad looked around the office building, impressed by the tree-themed architecture, even though it was made of the same nearly indestructible material as the ship's hull.
"I like it. They kept the theme alive, even though it is made of the strongest available materials for the security of the Envoys and Emissaries present. If you add some carpets and chandeliers, as well as curtains, I think it would be very luxurious looking instead of bare as it is now." She suggested.
"It seems that I have a lot of work left to do to get the ship ready." Max sighed but added the idea to his notes and forwarded them to the android working at the front desk for processing by the logistics staff.
They would likely only take a day or two to get around to doing the upgrades, and for now, it wouldn't matter, as Max knew that the office they were headed to was fully furnished.
"You should create a water floor. I know you want to keep the first human world ship a human world ship, but I'll be honest with you. At this point, there is no way that you're getting rid of the Innu. They will flock to you from all over the galaxy simply because you're the species that is most attuned to their desire to develop new things simply to see what happens when they exist." The Innu Envoy suggested.
"The way she phrases that disturbs me, like they're innately treating society as a video game and throwing random items into it to see what the inhabitants do with it. But she has a point. Even in the Central Government meeting halls, the Innu are a very strong voice for humans.
Strangely, so is the Myceloid Ambassador, which is unexpected, given your propensity for violence and its peaceful nature. Perhaps it is simply because you are so open to new things, where most species have an innate bias toward them due to the fact that they reproduce by spores."
Max and the Innu Envoy both chuckled at that, and the Valkia looked a bit confused.
"He has a huge crush on the headmistress of Terminus Academy, and his clone heir is a student there," Max explained.
"How could I have forgotten that? Of course, he is on your side. You made it possible for his heir to get closer to the perpetual object of his affection. He's been at it for generations. The crush started with her mother, who engineered a daughter to look exactly like she did. The Myceloid are considered nearly immortal, but that's because they clone themselves with a core of their own memories. This heir is the fourth body that has been after her tentacles."
"Hey, I don't judge. Okay, I judge a little. But it's a harmless infatuation, and it hasn't crossed the line into stalking." Max shrugged.
"Your meeting room is here, Commander and Envoys. Please enjoy your meeting." The Receptionist informed them as she opened one of the doors near the end of the hallway.
The androids in the building were all identical. 170cm tall, female in form and face, with matching skirt suits and sensible wide-heeled shoes. It was obvious that Nico designed the android staff here because the uniforms were exactly the same as her mother's secretary wore to work every day. The androids even looked a little like her and were the same size.
It was as if Nico had decided what the exact correct appearance for every job position should be and simply assigned it to all of the Androids that she created for the position. The ones in the Hangar were the same, but they had all been modified to match the boss, so it was possible that the original idea to make them all the same instead of randomized was his, but the uniform was certainly done by Nico.
When they stepped inside, there was a single Android in a butler's outfit waiting with a tray of coffee and snacks, with beverages placed around the round table already and nameplates in the same order as how they were seated in the coffee shop.
The Butler bowed and remained silent, standing by the wall, until the Innu Envoy turned toward the snacks.
"If you would like to take a seat, Envoy, your preferred beverage has been prepared, and I will deliver the appetizers."
The android had a very familiar voice, and Max did his best not to smirk at him. She had used Dave's imitation of what a posh butler should sound like, instead of her own family's actual Butler, as the voice of the android.
Max would be in this room whenever it was in use, so it was clearly for his amusement, but it helped him relax and feel more at home in the unfamiliar room.
"For the assistants, there are refreshments in the side room, as well as a number of bunks, should you require rest." The Butler informed them with a kind smile that made the Dryad shudder.
"My species is very in tune with emotional states, so the smiling without any emotion behind it is just creepy." She explained.
"Noted. I will add it to my reference material that a smile does not set the Dryads at ease." The Butler replied, returning to professional neutrality.
"They might be newly created, but I must say human technology has created a marvellous base program for the Androids." The Giant Envoy added.
"Thank you, Envoy. It was compiled from seventeen different artificial intelligence and digital assistant models to create a well-rounded personality program. Please do let me know if you need anything else."
Chapter 665 665 Elimination Options
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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With everyone settled into their chairs, Max got to business.
"So, what is our first topic of conversation? Will it be how to deal with the Klem, where we all know the answer already and only need to develop a politically palatable version to give to the masses? Or should it be about the new developments in human spacecraft?
That seemed to be a popular topic among the gathered corporate suits who had requested your presence.
Or perhaps, we should start with the critical matters?" Max asked.
The Innu envoy took out a data tablet and placed it on the table. "Let's get the important stuff out of the way first so that I can focus. I have a proposal to add a variety of roasted coffee beans and coffee-based beverages to all Alliance Central Government vessels' replicator systems."
The rest of the team groaned at her diversion, but Max noted that they were all drinking coffee right now, so it would probably be the most important part of their dealings today.
He looked over the deal and then input the standard rates that the Innu Tech Nomads had explained to him ages ago and found that they were asking for a price equal to ten thousand units to gain the right to replicate coffee throughout the entire government for the next decade.
He wasn't planning to say no. They had added so many alien foods to their own system just by scanning dishes that visitors had brought that he really didn't have a legal or moral standing to deny the Alliance their coffee fix. But they loved their paperwork, so he signed the document as soon as he finished verifying the contents for anything that didn't belong in a coffee deal.
The document was verified by the automated systems aboard Absolution, which quickly interpreted every paragraph and clause for relevance and summarized it all nicely to ensure that what he understood was the same as what was written in the document.
"See, now I can relax. So, let's get to work. Do you have a listing of the minimally environmentally damaging methods of eliminating the Klem?" The Innu Envoy asked.
"Indeed, I do. Starting with the most obvious matter of not allowing them to land on a planet at all, which seemed to have some opponents among the animal rights crowd, we can move on to containment measures using three-dimensional shielding barriers."
That idea was a joke that one of the Cygnus officers had come up with centuries ago, and it had become a running gag among their officers when a bad idea was presented. "Just put it in a barrier and forget about it until it goes away." They would say.
But to the Alliance, it was a somewhat serious proposal. They were seriously considering the logistics and moral implications on survivors trapped inside the barrier without relief forces, should a barrier that trapped them both from moving above and below ground be deployed.
Once they had read it through and made some notes, Max moved on. "After that, we move into elimination methods. I looked into it and found that most of your planets don't have a standing army, so it would have to be a police cordon until the actual military arrived from the nearest star base.
Given a lag time for a response to be scrambled after a request is made of twelve hours, I estimate that a force of fifty thousand Valkia police, using the technology that I have seen your security officers wearing, should suffer between twenty-five and forty percent casualties in that amount of time."
The Valkia looked like he was going to vomit, so Max held off on using the holographic projector to replay the simulations that they had run or display the exact numbers. The Giant wasn't going to be that easy to satisfy, though.
"Do we have more data on this technique? Most planets will have some vehicles and mobile barriers for riot control available. Did you factor that into your estimates?" He asked.
"I will pull them up on the holographic display, and you can pick any of the hundred simulations that we ran on the topic for more detailed viewing," Max informed him and reluctantly brought the results up on the table's projector.
The Giant happily scrolled through them and then picked two to display at the same time. The highest and lowest casualty rate scenarios. The lowest had the Klem pods land in a desert, and a police force flew in to contain them in an isolated area, with minimal spawning of larger Klem species before the reinforcements arrived twelve hours later.
The highest had the pods land half in an oceanfront megalopolis, and half in the ocean, with amphibious Behemoths arriving before the military and over fifty million dead.
"Well, that was a bit horrific. I hadn't considered that they could survive when landing in the water, but your estimate is correct. We do not have the resources on most terrestrial planets to deal with that. If it was an Innu world, it wouldn't be as bad since they are also amphibious and have a lot of capabilities for underwater peacekeeping and hostile species containment." The Giant responded in a monotone as he made notes.
His mind said that he wasn't really affected by the results and viewed them as hypothetical, while the Valkia Envoy took the sight very personally since it was designed to have the peacekeepers all be of his species.
"So, since that method clearly won't go over well with the general population, what is your next proposal." The Valkia asked.
"The first is an innovative measure. I suggest militarizing a terraforming array to be portal transferred to the site of an infestation. Once there, it would convert all Klem biomass in the area back to natural elements, rebuilding the area back to its previous pristine state using sampled local plants. As you can see, the upfront cost would be astronomical, but it would only affect the Klem, so it would be safe to use anywhere."
The data went up on the projector for them to scroll through, and they looked intrigued, but their thoughts clearly said that the animal rights activists would not go for this. It could be forced through, but unless it was a last resort, terraforming an inhabited planet, even a small portion of it, would require a huge amount of government paperwork and oversight, making the practical deployment of the array nearly impossible.
"Still too many issues. What else do you have?" The Giant sighed.
Chapter 666 666 A Giant's Woes
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Max smirked as he saw the next so-called solution on his list. It was Nico's personal contribution to the matter, and it was so simple that it only took one single page to go through all the details.
[Once a Klem wave is detected on a planetary surface, an Orbital Lance-equipped Heavy Cruiser would be deployed to neutralize the infestation before it could hatch and expand. Should population issues become an issue, the Terraforming device can be deployed to create a new population with stored memories based on the most recent neural backup stored in the Alliance Online Virtual Reality Servers]
That was the whole summary, and below it was a list of estimated death benefits for the millions of people who would likely be vaporized in the resulting blast and the ranges of payments based on the location where the pods landed.
The Envoys all stared at it in shock for a moment before the Dryad began to laugh and snapped a photo of it to send to her ship. She frowned when she realized that she had no data connection in here, as the room was secured to prevent anyone from spying on them, but her laughter continued even with the annoyed look on her face.
"Just, NO. I am like 99 percent sure that is a sentient species rights violation, even before you use the limited stored data in the network to attempt to clone their memories. That's just not right. You can't just orbitally bombard cities." The Giant insisted.
"Shouldn't. Because clearly, we can. Your point is taken, but it is one of the solutions that we came up with, and in a very sparsely populated area, it is fiscally the most efficient option, as the loss is even lower than using a containment barrier to stop them." Max agreed, as the Envoys slowly realized that it wasn't a serious suggestion, except for Nico, who really didn't see the problem.
They had millions upon millions of planets in the Alliance. What loss was one city on one planet? Negligible. Even human forces had often sacrificed the population of a city to save the rest of the planet in the past.
The part she had failed to comprehend was that for the Alliance, brutal necessity was such a distant and vague concept that they would never consider it.
That was the largest part of their issue. They were so caught up in the ways to deal with the Klem that didn't involve killing them or allowing anything else to be killed that they hadn't considered that there might not be an effective way to do it.
That line of thought brought them to Max's next suggestion. Individual barriers to have the Klem captured and relocated to a fully infested planet, which could be designated as a sanctuary until such time as they devoured the plant life that remained and started to spread again.
That only put the problem a few years in the future, but once the immediate threat to the civilian population was solved, the Klem could be quietly dealt with, or an orbital shield array deployed around the sanctuary planet, preventing them from sending out pods.
Max could see in their thoughts that many high-value planets had such an array, but the power usage during a heavy attack made them highly impractical, and the cost to deploy one was astronomical. Only the most valuable of sites would be granted such a request, and a wildlife preserve certainly wasn't going to get approval for that kind of spending.
"For now, that's what the Humans have come up with for non-military options. If you have other ideas, we have an advanced database with their capabilities, and I can run an analysis for you to present to your bosses." Max finished.
"We could orbital strike the animal rights activists instead." The Valkia muttered, not pleased with any of the options they were presented.
"I have data for that. The ones here to protest come from three hundred and seven different worlds, and while the bombardment of that many planets would be costly, it is plausible." The Dryad joked.
"Not funny. Tempting, but not funny." The Envoy sighed, shaking out his wings in a show of annoyance with the whole situation.
"So, what do we tell everyone that we came up with in this meeting?" The Innu Envoy asked while she signalled for another coffee.
"We still need to come up with fully fledged proposals for all of the solutions that might be acceptable, including the hug a killer bug solution, and present them to the Foreign Relations Council. Then we need to come up with a detailed analysis of the capabilities of the Klem to support our position that they are not actually sentient. Once we have those done, we can start on all of the corporate requests.
I swear, they should just post us here permanently to deal with the mess that having humans around creates. I don't know what went wrong with your species' development, but that level of nihilism can't be natural." The Giant informed the room.
The Huntress chuckled, making her presence known for the first time this meeting, and the Giant's thoughts turned to annoyance.
[The Curiosity of the Innu, the logical mind of the Giants and the violence of the Hunters. Once we are back, I am definitely starting a commission to look into whether the Human species was genetically engineered just to make my life difficult.] He thought, making Max laugh.
"Nothing personal, just a bit frustrated with the whole process." The Giant apologized when he realized that Max had heard that thought.
"It's far from the worst thing I've heard said about us. In fact, it's a bit flattering, in a way. We really have taken on the best aspects of many species and combined them into one cultural package." Max replied.
There was definite doubt in the Giant's mind at the word "Best," but he let it slide. Max's hint was enough for the others to realize what they were talking about, and they all knew the Giant Envoy's personality well enough to realize that dealing with humans would be highly stressful for his species.
They were always coming up with legal loopholes and new creations that pushed boundaries, and as the logic-minded ones in the group, it was his team's job to analyze it all.
Chapter 667 667 Happy Nico
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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While Max was busy with politics on the ship, Nico was busy with the Hunters on the surface. They had found a lovely new group of Behemoths to hunt, and these three were particularly agile, able to flee from their fiery affections time and time again as the small group pursued them across three zones.
The Behemoths were in full survival mode at this point. After watching the group annihilate everything that they had come across for the last six hours, their imperative to survive and spawn more Klem was all that they could think of, but they simply couldn't escape their pursuers.
"Take the left ridgeline, and I will try to herd them up to you. The last three hundred meters are a clearing, so you should have time for a good shot." Nico informed her hunting partners.
They silently split off, using thrusters and gravity control to move silently through the woods. They had learned hours ago that the Klem had exceptional hearing, so they could likely still detect them, but not from as far away as when they were walking.
Nico was not trying to hide. She was crashing through the trees, using her extra limbs to climb the sturdier ones and throw herself forward toward her prey, attempting to chop them apart before they could make it to the tree line where the others were waiting in ambush.
One of the Behemoths got caught in the remains of a tunnel that had been collapsed by the unit which had cleared this zone and stumbled, taking two blades to the back and crippling it. The eight-legged creature howled a warning to its companions, sending them even faster away from the site as the downed Behemoth turned to face Nico so its companions could escape.
It wasn't going to last long, though. It was bleeding too heavily, and its back two legs were disabled after being broken by the hole in the ground.
Nico put it out of its misery in a flash and then continued behind the fleeing insects. They were almost out of the forest now and into sight of the ridge where the Hunters were waiting.
Now that they had a head start, they didn't have to evade as much and were charging straight forward, fast enough that they didn't even notice the incoming energy attacks until scorching plasma tore their carapaces apart.
"That's one for me, one for Jeera, and who got the kill on the last one?" Nico asked.
"Apprentice Sandra got her first Behemoth kill of the battle." Huntress Jeera announced proudly.
Though Nico didn't know it, the apprentice was her daughter, and she was very proud of her ability to keep up with the much more experienced team, both in movement and in hunting skills. It was far from her first hunt, but it was her first time hunting properly large game, like these sixty-meter-long Behemoths.
"First kills are important. If you want to take a trophy, I will call a drone here to take it back to your shuttle so that you can have it mounted later as a memoir of your time here." Nico offered.
"These pincers would look good above my bed. Give me a moment, and I will have them removed." Apprentice Hunter Sandra agreed, sounding as cheerful as an Innu in a gravity slide.
"It looks like this zone was adequately cleared. Other than our prey, I didn't detect any other Klem presence in the area, and the drones are all doing well, so how about we take a moment and look for something unique?
We have had great luck with the Behemoths of the strength and agility types, and the ranged type was no real challenge, but soon enough, they should be adapting to fighting the android pilots, and we should start seeing even more new patterns, though they might not be as individually impressive." Nico suggested.
"Not a bad idea. The main force is doing an excellent job, and soon our hunt here will be finished, so we should look for one more worthy target before we go. The mothership suggested that there might be a hybrid or an immature queen here, but we haven't found either one of them yet, so the command structure of this planet should be intact unless your Commander blasted it to bits while he was collapsing tunnels."
That would be nearly a tragedy to them. None of them, not even Nico, had the chance to hunt a Klem Queen in the past. If they lost the opportunity because it picked a lousy hiding spot and got a mountain range collapsed on its head, it would be supremely disappointing.
The Hunters ate a quick meal while they searched to save themselves from having to take a break later, though they weren't at all hungry yet. You could never tell how long a hunt would take, so their protocol said to always eat before every target, even if it was only a little bit. That way, you could always be at your best in a long chase and not have your judgment clouded by biological necessities.
"I think I have it. Check this grid location, where the Mecha Battalions have converged on a fortified location. I think they are hiding their Commander in that region. It's the last significant cluster on the planet at this point, so if it is anywhere, it should be there." Huntress Jeera informed the group.
It did seem likely, and the units there would appreciate the assistance. It also wasn't too far away. One of the locations that Max had pointed out before he left was only a few hundred kilometres from there, and Nico had suspected that he might have found the Commander at that point, but it was all hatchlings and new pods when they arrived with the Battalions.
"One last push for glory, and we can return to our ships to craft the stories of our hunt." Nico agreed with a giggle that made all of the Hunters smile inside their suits.
Even though Nico was an experienced Hunter like themselves, she still had such a childlike joy every time they found something new to kill.
"How about we make a wager for the push to the Commander? We are all best with our melee weapons, so how about two points for a ranged kill and three for a ranged weapon kill from within five meters?"
Chapter 668 668 Meetings Finished
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
In the offices on Absolution, Max was nearly finished with the necessary paperwork for the Council when the message from Nico came to the receptionist's desk downstairs, who passed a note to the Butler for Max to read.
It was a bit of a convoluted path, but handwritten notes couldn't be intercepted by digital surveillance should there be a bug in the room, and when they were tossed into the replicator for recycling, there would be no traces of them left over.
The Druid was very impressed with the arrangement, as the species was very fond of physical notes instead of digital everything, but the rest of the Envoys found it to be a bit tedious and were much more used to having connectivity within their meeting rooms.
Max could sense their unease, so he decided to give them a ray of hope.
"There are other meeting rooms which are fully connected and can send direct messages, but if we went to one of them, you would all be bombarded by corporate messages and a thousand anxious bureaucrats. This room is specifically for this meeting so that we aren't disturbed while we are working and so that your assistants can get a bit of sleep today.
They look like they need it as much as you did this morning, so we might as well finish up here, then we can move on to the public areas of Absolution, and you can get swarmed by busybodies while we hold our tour."
"You have a good point. The passages between Terminus and Absolution are wide open, so the moment that we are spotted back out in public, they will come swarming to our location, hoping to overhear even the smallest of tidbits, and some of the political visitors have a high enough position that even we would have to give them the time to ask a few questions since a tour of the city isn't a priority event."
That was about what he expected, so Max decided to check in on the Mecha battle below them before they headed out. The Corporate meetings had been bumped for the day, due to scheduling conflicts, at least in the official records, since writing down that you weren't in the mood for their petty nonsense today was frowned upon, according to the legal team.
"The documents have all been sent out, sir. Would you like me to lift the restrictions on the room?" The Butler asked as a secretary returned with the data tablets.
The Envoys checked the logs on the tablet closely when they got them back, as the Secretary had taken them outside to send the messages, but only one access was logged, and all it had done was to send the message as prepared in advance.
That was the nice thing about the Android staff. There was no real risk of insubordination or moles in the team, as the entire team would verify each other's status constantly, and if one were tampered with or operating outside of the approved spec, they would be put on the maintenance roster and removed from duty until they were fixed, with an identical unit taking over.
The more Max interacted with them, the more he realized that the plan to have every job share a unique appearance was genius. He could tell exactly what position they held simply by looking at them, and they didn't even need a uniform. It was like learning two hundred new staff instead of twenty thousand individuals.
"Thank you. If that is everything, I think we can head out." The Innu Envoy replied to the Butler, who remembered not to smile this time and gave a polite bow instead so that he didn't creep out the Dryad.
"I guess we should wake the assistants. They will need to know what we were up to and straighten themselves out before we head out." The Valkia Envoy agreed.
They needed more than a little bit of straightening out, Max realized. Though the meetings had taken over four hours, they were still mostly exhausted, the wings of the Valkia had feathers pointed in every possible direction, and one of the Innu assistants even had her head tentacles twisted together in a braid that she had to straighten by hand before she regained her balance.
Max had seen their thoughts many times before, but seeing their morning rituals in action, or at least the public parts of it, was an interesting experience, and the only ones that had it easy were the Giants.
Though the Envoy had well-styled hair, all of the assistants had either shaved their heads or cut their hair very short so that a splash of water and a quick comb was enough to straighten it out. Even the female assistants had hair not much longer than Max's and were ready for business in mere minutes, though their minds were groggy even while they lined up for the tour.
The shuttle pod was waiting for them when they left the building, ready to take them on a tour of the city, but Max had a better idea.
"Shuttle, take the scenic route over the city, then drop us in the entertainment district near Central Park." He instructed the vehicle's navigation system.
"Understood, Commander. Beginning the route now."
"This way, we can see the populated areas, as well as some of the fields and forests that have been prepared already, then we can stop in a busy shopping area so that all of the people who come to snoop and see if they can get your attention will be exposed to the sales pitches and unique entertainment offerings that Absolution has to offer," Max explained.
"About that water world, though. Do you think you could spare a floor for us aquatic sorts? I mean, you're barely using two of the twenty-some floors of this ship. There has to be space for the Innu to replicate their home world, right?" The Innu Envoy asked, remembering one of her major points at the very last moment.
"I will get Nico and her Research and Development team on it once the battle is over. They are moving to Absolution anyhow, so they can decorate the floor above the one we are on. I don't know how many Innu we will have on board, but I suspect that they will be pushing for the hiring of more Innu, Shin and Dryads anyhow, so we might as well prepare plenty of space for everyone to be comfortable." Max replied with a sense of impending headaches.
They had just finished a round of hiring, and if they did up a hundred thousand square kilometres of mostly aquatic space in the design that the Innu was thinking of, with small white sand beaches scattered through a shallow ocean, it was basically guaranteed that they would be getting millions more Innu in the near future.
This also meant that Max would have to deal with the staff requisition paperwork to get them all settled and employed. At least they wouldn't be short on IT staff. At least this time, he had much more staff to delegate the troublesome parts to instead of overworking the staff on Terminus.
Chapter 669 669 Candle Shop
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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The transport pod slowly brought them over to the city while the automated voice narrated all of the interesting features. The uniquely designed high-rise buildings, the forests split into representative biomes from various planets, the lakes and finally, the city itself, where the existing crew lived.
"Your ship really is empty. Hundreds of kilometres without even a single house. It's practically paradise to a Dryad, but we usually stay on planets, and not world ships, so this is a fairly new experience to me. You could split every inhabited floor into a different nation if you wanted. They're large enough." The Dryad Envoy giggled.
"That's just what I need. Nationalist conflicts aboard my ship." Max chuckled, making the Envoys smirk.
"It wouldn't be the strangest thing that we have seen humans do." The Valkia reminded him.
While that was true, when he put it like that, it almost sounded like an insult. His mind said that it wasn't intended to be one, only a reminder that they had seen humans do some incredibly strange things in the past, by Alliance standards, but Max could sense that separating the floors into separate nations would be a very bad idea, given how humans are, and the inevitable rivalries that would develop.
He would also have to work to avoid having certain floors end up with too heavy of distribution of certain categories of workers. Even though the replicators made life much easier, there were still bonuses to having a better job, and he didn't want to create entire floors who felt that living where they did was hindering their chance.
Even worse, if a floor got a reputation for raising low-wage workers, it really would hinder their chances since they would have their location code on all their identification and job applications.
He briefly wondered if General Tennant had felt like this when he first took over as Planetary Governor, trying to balance everything so he didn't create a dystopian nightmare for his residents. Then he remembered that this wasn't the General's first time serving as Planetary Governor, so the first time he had inherited what was likely already a dystopian nightmare, but a functional one.
Because the Kepler Empire could tolerate anything but dysfunction.
When they were over the city and the major landmarks had been pointed out, the pod began to descend toward a landing zone on top of a shopping center.
"I know it's not what you were expecting, but the restaurant that we want is right across the street. Reservations for a private room have been made, and we only need to pass through one building and across the street.
I'm sure there will be more than a few people already waiting for us, but it won't take much to get away from them." Max explained.
"Oh, is this another one that makes custom things with the Replicators? That's such a rare thing in most worlds that I almost forgot humans like their own personalized recipes." The assistant to the Valkia asked eagerly.
"It is. But first, I count just over one hundred corporate representatives headed for the area, so we should get moving so that we aren't trapped on the upper floors of the building. Once we get to the shops, a basic sense of decorum and the security forces will keep them from becoming a major nuisance. So, put on your best political faces and prepare to answer questions." Max informed them.
Most of the questions would fall to the assistants since the Envoys had such a high social status, but even Max wouldn't be immune to being swarmed since so many of the people already in the area were staff who had only met him once at an official announcement, if at all.
The human staff was pretty good about it, though, and treated him like a celebrity out shopping, simply snapping pictures or inviting him into their shops as the group passed.
"Wait, what is that shop? It smells divine." The Dryad asked and turned into a candle and potpourri shop.
"We've lost her." The Innu laughed as she followed the other Envoy into the small shop.
Her memories were showing Max an incident some time ago, where the Dryad had gotten immersed in a bath and body product shop for over an hour, checking out every scent until she found one she liked.
"Do you have any natural scents? I know I smell some that aren't chemical." The Dryad asked the woman at the counter, who was wearing a floral sundress with a flower braided into her hair at her temple.
The ship's hippies had found each other, and he certainly wasn't going to be able to separate them anytime soon.
"I replicate all the individual ingredients and make the candles myself with beeswax as a binder. I have a batch ready for processing if you would like a short workshop?" The hippie asked.
"Oh, that would be wonderful. I'm sure my companions can spare a few minutes." The Dryad agreed without hesitation while the Innu rolled her eyes.
Of the entire group, she had the shortest attention span and always needed to be doing something, so these little pauses were pure torture to her on the same level as doing paperwork.
"I think they will let you make a custom one if you ask. Think of it as a biochemical experiment to balance scent profiles into a pleasing combination." Max suggested.
"Please, I would love for you to join, Envoys." The shopkeeper agreed, then pressed a button under the counter that brought a teenage girl that looked like her daughter out from the back room.
"It had better be important. . . are those the Envoys? Here in our little shop?" The girl asked as she stomped in.
"It is, and they are. They want custom candles, so we are going to the back, and you need to watch the counter." The older woman explained.
Since they were tucked in the corner of an upper level of a mall, not many people were likely to know this shop existed yet, but Max suspected they would be very busy in about two minutes.
"If you have another assistant, you might want to call them. A lot of people are going to show up either to get something from a place where the Envoys shopped or to buy scents that they think the Dryad would like. She's a bit of a celebrity." Max whispered to the girl who had moved behind the counter.
She nodded vigorously, then began to panic as she realized that the shop wasn't big enough for them to have hired anyone else, so it was just her. They had come as the family of a sanitation engineer and used their savings to open a shop in the cheapest stall that they could find in the city. Hiring more staff wasn't high on their to-do list, especially after using so much of their energy ration to stock the shop.
Chapter 670 670 Out Of Stock
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Max remained in the shop near the counter, so he could block anyone who got ideas about barging into the back room to bother the Envoys, but that only made him a prime target for every curious shopper that made it into the shop.
The girl behind the counter began to panic as the shop became overcrowded, worried that rampant shoplifting would clean out their savings and stock, leaving them with nothing to pay the rental on the unit.
"Don't worry about it. You are using the approved store tags provided by Absolution. If an unpurchased item is removed from the store, their account will be directly debited for the full retail price of the item.
It was a request of the higher-end shops. Their shoppers don't care about price, and they don't want the hassle of a checkout counter." Max explained, and the girl visibly relaxed.
They were a bit more expensive, but the proximity tags had been her mom's idea to make them seem more official, not having to manually ring things up.
"Miss, do you think that the Dryads would like this scent? I'm not sure if you've heard, but they abhor all things made of artificially created chemical." A Myceloid in a short red dress asked, dropping a candle on the counter in her excitement to be among the first to the shop.
"All of our candles are made in-store out of beeswax and natural ingredients. I believe that the Dryad Envoy would love that scent since she is a fan of the forest, and that particular moss grows deep in the tropical forests of Endora, a human planet in the Cygnus Kingdom." The girl explained.
"How do we use them? Are they placed in hot water to release their scent?" The Myceloid asked.
"You can do that, or even over a dry heat source, but the candles are designed to be self-heating. If you light that central string on fire, it will produce a low light, a small amount of heat and release the signature scent for roughly twenty standard hours for that size of our candle line."
"You have exposed flames in your habitation units for pleasurable scents?" The Myceloid asked, slightly confused about the highly hazardous concept.
"The glass container keeps the melted wax and flames contained. Just refrain from touching it while it is lit, as it will get hot. A strong breeze will put it out when you are finished. Would you like a demonstration?"
"Is that permitted in public?" The shopper asked with great excitement while others gathered around.
"Of course. We also have products designed to release scented smoke when they burn. It is very popular with humans, but I suspect that it might not be for every species, as it is still smoke."
She took a lavender-scented candle from behind the counter and lit it for the shoppers to examine.
Max chuckled at the pure joy on the faces of the Myceloid shopper's entourage as they encountered a candle for the first time. Their faces were actually just a facsimile of the appendage that mammalian species had, and they didn't have traditional sight, but they were instantly in love.
They navigated by thermal detection, and the candle produced a directed heat source that lit up everything around them in their vision. They had never had the need for fire in their development and had used directed light for the same purpose, but the lights in a spaceship didn't give off any heat, so it didn't give them the same sense of directionality.
The small fire brought them all close to examine it, but not less than half a meter, which they viewed as the closest safe distance from a burning object.
"How did we put it out again?" She asked.
"If you can blow air, that is how humans do it. But a swift wave of an appendage nearby will do the same, like this." The shopkeeper explained before waving her hand over the candle.
"I will take one of every scent. I don't know what ones my family will like, but I have Alliance Credits to spare." She demanded, suddenly sounding much less entranced and much more bossy.
"Certainly. In fact, I actually have a prepacked option that is perfect for you. One candle in each scent that we have in stock and a sneak preview of our potpourri line, which isn't out yet. Those ones you place in water over a gentle heat source to release the scent.
In Alliance currency, it will be eight hundred credits for the whole selection."
She passed over the box of candles, and the register beeped happily as it recorded the payment. But that left the shopper in a conundrum. She was finished shopping, and there was a line, but she had actually wanted to see the Envoy before she got distracted by the candles.
"If you wait down the hall, away from the lineup, we will be out within the next hour and headed to the right of the door," Max suggested.
An hour holding a thirty-kilo box of candles would hopefully be too much for them, and they would give up, but he would at least give them a hint of where to stand so that they could see the Envoys on their way past.
"Thank you, Commander. I'm sure many others want to do actual business, so I will let them pass." The Myceloid replied, then led her group out so that a half dozen more people could enter.
Fifteen minutes later, the shelves were looking pretty bare, and the line wasn't getting any shorter. Someone had lit a censer full of incense on their way out, and it was drawing more people here, ones who didn't know the Envoys were inside and just wanted the incense.
Finding all the good shops in a new city took time, so you went to check out every promising lead that you found, or so Max believed, based on the thoughts that he could sense, but the shop was about to enter a minor crisis.
"If we can get the next group to wait for a few minutes, please, we need to restock the shelves before you enter." The girl behind the counter called out, to the annoyance of the shoppers who were really just looking to sneak a peek at the Envoys who could be seen behind Max, finishing their candles and placing them in a fridge to cool and harden.
But with Max there, they complied, and in no time, everything from the back room and behind the counter was out on the shelves, except for a stack of assortment boxes.
"We're all finished with the Candles. I made one that smells just like coffee and freshly baked pastries." The Innu Envoy declared proudly.
"I think I learned more than they did today. These Envoys have an incredible range of knowledge, including how to combine natural scents to create other perceived scents." The older hippie laughed from the back room.
"As long as you enjoyed yourselves, it was well worth the time. But we should get moving before we starve the assistants to death." Max joked.
It was a joke, they had actually eaten before they left the meeting room, but they had been here long enough, and the shop was running out of products to sell.