Max had expected them to bring more with them, but perhaps they would transfer their personal belongings later. Or maybe it was custom that Mercenaries didn't keep more than that one duffle bag, given the cramped quarters of their old home.
Compared to that, these new Cutters were running a Skeleton Crew and would have to recruit more members as they went.
Being assigned to a brand new ship was an honor, no matter how low your position aboard was, so Max was certain that Commander Arnold wasn't going to get any complaints from those he transferred, even if they didn't have any spare hands around to allow them to take days off at the moment.
"Let's head to the far left vessel. If my guess is right, it should be called Pride of Emmaline, after my Daughter, the Captain." Commander Arnold replied.
The woman who had led the team inside didn't look any younger than the Commander, but with the variety of life-extending drugs and cosmetic surgeries available to even the most common of folk, that could just mean that they were both reaching the age where the drugs no longer worked as well and that they had multiple generations of offspring in the fleet.
When a long-lived Mercenary could reach two hundred years old, but they commonly began families in their teens, wanting to have children before they died in a very dangerous occupation, the Elders would have quite a lot of extended family.
Max led Commander Arnold inside, where Emmaline, the Captain of this vessel, was waiting for them while the rest of the crew had spread out to check every nook and cranny of the vessel.
"Welcome to the Pride of Emmaline" She welcomed them with a grand gesture.
"This is quite the vessel. Seeing the specs and the VR simulation doesn't do it justice. The Reavers deliberately obscured some details, I believe. Perhaps as a security measure against obtaining too much detail of a customer's vessel." Commander Arnold replied.
The Cargo bay looked cavernous to Max, being a full twenty meters longer than the hold on his own Cutters and still having Mecha hangars in front of it, near the center of the ship.
In this design, they could deploy from the top of the ship as well as the rear doors so that they could deploy even if the cargo hold were packed full. It left an enormous space for cargo, and the Mercenaries were eyeing it as a training ground and relaxation area.
They would take trade orders now that they had the perfect ship for it, but they were still Mercenaries at heart.
"The cargo bay is nothing. Come look at these new Mecha. You're going to have to order some for yourself." Emmaline told the Commander.
"We just ordered the full loadout special, which they offered to us with a discount, so I haven't seen any of the specifics yet, other than the ship, which had a full VR walkthrough available." Commander Arnold explained.
"In that case, I will make sure you have training simulators on board. These Mecha aren't like the ones you are used to, even if they have neural links instead of manual controls." Nico assured him.
Max hoped they were neural controls since pilots without a system would struggle to deal with the manual controls that Kepler Pilots excelled with. The fine control was better with the manual controls since distractions could distort the mental controls in combat, but if you didn't have an enhanced body, there was no way you could physically accomplish the task.
They stepped into the Mecha bay, where the new units were secured to their storage racks, row upon row, and both Mercenaries gasped in awe while most of the crew was simply standing in front of them, staring at the glorious war machines, painted in the Silver and black livery of the Exterminators.
"So this is how it feels to live life without the threat of an embargo. This one ship has almost as many Heavy Mecha as the rest of the fleet does. We are going to need a lot of training." Emmaline sighed.
Max looked around and saw a room to one side marked training. "That should be the VR simulators. I don't know which ones they installed, but we have very good ones available." Max informed them.
"These should be the Cygnus standard since they used the Cygnus neural link for all of these Mecha." Nico clarified, taking her hand off the closest Crusader.
"You got details of our delivery?" Commander Arnold asked.
"No, I have a technology-related System Function. With a single touch, I can learn an immense amount of data about a machine, and I am already familiar with these since they're nearly the same as the ones that we use on Terminus." Nico clarified.
"That's just cheating. But I am glad that someone knows how to use these things. We might have to send you messages later if we run into dead ends with our training." Captain Emmaline informed her.
"They installed the melee combat training module that I created, as well as a number of targeting simulations based on Commander Keres' missions, so you should learn how to operate them quickly enough. The true challenge will be in your deployment orders and commands, but a Mercenary Captain has their own style, and I am sure you can adapt to having a plethora of Heavy Mecha quickly enough." Nico shrugged.
"So Terminus was the beta test for these Mecha?" Commander Arnold asked.
"From the very beginning of the design phase. We have been with them since they were drawings in a VR simulation." Max informed him.
"Then my little girl is in good hands." Commander Arnold chuckled.
"Aren't you going to upgrade your flagship? I had thought that the first order of business would be to upgrade your own vessel." Max asked.
"I have a custom Warp Drive coming. They agreed to ship it to our home base, where my flagship is currently in dry dock after a battle with the Magno. I might have lost the entire ship and crew that day if the Demons hadn't shown up." Commander Arnold told them quietly.
"Demons? I don't recall there being any Vampire forces in this region of space." Max asked, assuming that the Commander was using a common slur for the species.
"Oh, not them. Real Demons. Ten meters tall, as tough as Mecha, but they bleed when they are cut. They look almost like a human but with golden masks for faces and dreadlocks that have deadly spikes." Commander Arnold explained.
The Magno was a species of heat-loving six-legged aliens, sentient but even more violent than the Klem if that was possible. They killed everything that they came across until they were the only animal species left on the planets that they took over, then recreated the plant life to better suit their needs.
"I think you mean the Hunters. Did they look like this?" Nico asked and put up a still from the fight she had with their leader.
"Yes, that's them, but they seemed smaller than that one. And what is that fighting them? Is that some new Super Heavy Mecha that I've never seen before?" Commander Arnold asked.
"That is Shattered Pride, my personal Mecha. She is twenty meters tall, give or take, so yes, the leader is twice the size of the others. But those aren't their actual bodies. They are biomechanical combat suits. They must not have deemed you impressive enough to talk with, but if your new ships run into them, they might interact, so please warn your crews to be prepared and polite. They love a good fight, and you won't win if you pick one with them." Nico explained.
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