Nico stepped toward the Terraforming device with a flourish, holding a data chip in her hand and a huge smile on her face.
With her input, the spherical mock space station was lowered to the ground and rolled to the side of the room, where the Technicians blocked it into another zero gravity chamber and started it spinning again as a display piece in the lab.
Then she inserted the data chip and brought up another set of schematics, pressing start before waving her hands to the side like a game show assistant doing a big prize reveal.
"Welcome to the one and only Miniature Terraforming Assistant, Tarith Nico edition. It comes with a full control panel, bipedal drive system, and state-of-the-art localized terraforming tools." She announced as the machine created a much smaller object inside the anti-gravity zone.
No matter how Max looked at it, that was a knockoff of the standard Kepler Pattern Line Mecha with a Plasma Cannon in its hands. Even when he looked at the diagnostic screen showing the data from the current build, he couldn't see anything but the Mecha components that he had once memorized in the Military Academy, but with the venerable fuel-powered drive system replaced with a bioelectrical energy pack series.
"That, my friend, is the greatest terraforming tool known to humanity, now available with a more environmentally friendly power source. Careful data analysis that I have conveniently made up on the spot shows that more cubic meters of soil have been reconfigured by units of similar design than any other single tool known to humanity. Not even the classic spade shovel has rearranged so many planets." Nico announced in her best showbiz voice, a digital mimicry of a famous idol.
"Tell me you didn't register a Line Mecha with a shovel as a Terraforming tool in the schematics."
Nico looked away and whistled, but her thoughts were clear. Line Mecha with shovels and tow-behind plows were totally part of the available options in the programming.
"Is this what a tractor looks like in your brain?" Max asked, looking at all the small modifications that she had made to the Mecha so that it only superficially resembled the Kepler Mecha that he was familiar with.
"Of course not. A tractor needs a utility hitch. This is the hostile environment pest control model, without the additional fittings, available to be added separately, but with the high-efficiency rodent removal package."
The Innu were in tears laughing at their exchange by this point, so Max relented.
"Alright, so if the sphere was fifty meters tall, then we can print even Super Heavy Mecha if we have enough raw material available in this Alpha version of the printer?" Max asked.
"Exactly correct. I still need to add the software after the printing, but the machine can do that automatically, and the energy packs and weapon capacitors are uncharged, so they will need a tremendous amount of energy to get ready for use after creation, but that's also within the realm of normal energy usage for a Mecha Battalion." Nico agreed.
"Under a minute to create a fully assembled Mecha, ready for programming and charging? That is beyond impressive. I can only imagine the horror of being an enemy that is facing a force with this level of tech. The assault forces would never end, and initial scans would show zero defensive forces in the area since they could be held as raw materials until needed." Max realized.
"I thought you would appreciate the subtleties of the new technology. Once we are ready to distribute this technology to our allies, anyone on a fully upgraded Reaver Standard ship will be capable of deploying as many Mecha as they can find pilots for. They could even deploy them as drones if they had the raw materials and energy to spare for the inevitable destruction since drones are so easy to trick."
"How many other vehicles are included in the planetary terraforming software that you sold to the Alliance buyers?" Max asked.
"Four vehicles and an assortment of tools. A passenger bus, a cargo transport, and a hovercycle, all with anti-gravity flight. Then there is a large tractor, like a real one, with four tracks. They didn't get any Mecha designs but a modified Line Mecha without armor or built-in weapons because we didn't want to cause any accusations of selling war implements.
The combination Replicator and Materials printer, residential version, is a licensed by creation downloadable content for the terraforming machine." One of the Innu Technicians informed him.
"Microtransactions embedded into a terraformed world? You lot truly have learned the dark side of humanity." Max sighed.
"Oh, no. That's standard procedure for Innu technologies. We have great reverence for innovators, so the payment for intellectual property is a standard part of most creation plans. The fact that we included public and private transport, plus a farm tractor with unlimited on-planet free-use licenses, will be a huge thing once the buyers discover them.
The Line Mecha derivative is a license-by-use item, but they are all branded as Terminus Trading Company products." She told him proudly.
Now Max was really sure they weren't the galactic good guys. They were official purveyors of software with mandatory microtransactions to unlock all of the top-tier content.
"Well, now that we've covered that, why did you need a full cargo bay again? If this is modular, then don't you only need to do virtual testing?" Max asked.
"On the contrary, we need intense practical testing to ensure there are no compatibility glitches when working with overlapping fields. They might be linked as one, but they are actually a lot of smaller units working together, and the planetary version includes mobility drones that we didn't use here, to expand the area to a planetary scale without excessive resource expenditure."
She showed Max the plan, which was to mount these units on hover drones and have them fly at one thousand meters over the surface in a grid pattern, remaking the planet to a depth of one hundred meters. For an M Class planet, one that would have gravity close to human standards, the whole process would take about a year with the full package.
Not the fastest, but fast enough to be impressive, even if it was mostly a surface remake and would require a basically compatible world beneath the terraforming. It included a nuclear fusion subsurface torpedo design as well, though, which could reheat a planetary core and begin molten core circulation if fired in the proper pattern and timing.
That would create a temperature-stable world out of most planetoids in the habitable zone, as well as many moons. The thought was surreal to Max. Large moons with their own atmosphere and molten core but low natural gravity due to their size. Was that what a private island looked like when you had an amount of wealth that was far beyond anything average humans considered comprehensible?
Now that he thought about it, the idea was actually pretty cool. But how would you top giving a moon as a gift? That was the endgame. If you ever messed up in the future, there was nothing you could do to top it.
No amount of flowers, cars, vacations, or other gifts would ever top the time that you gave them a terraformed moon as a gift, so buying your way out of trouble would no longer be a viable option for anyone who made that particular mistake.
"What will you be working on in the new bay? We do have one to assign you for your research, but I would like to know what you have planned. I am not actually a fan of surprises, despite the amount that Nico likes to spring them on me." Max explained.
The group all looked to Nico to answer, assuming that she had the extra sway to get them the toys that they desired. "We wanted to make some of the new high warp capable cutters that our nearby Mercenary Company customers had ordered, but for that, we will need an entire bay equipped with linked devices. The actual creation of a planetary terraforming array would take up over two-thirds of the cargo space aboard Terminus."
"Fine, I will assign the bay. I look forward to the good news that the array design is complete and tested, but right now, I have thousands of travel requests to sort through from company representatives that are concerned about the implications of our technology and the free distribution of our IP for licensing by their competitors."
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