Once they were safely docked and back at the office, Nico's father looked at them with a very serious expression and then sighed and handed the antsy-looking Nico a data stick.
"There, that's the full data suite for the God Class Mecha belonging to the former Kepler Royal Family. Technically, it's a Titan Class Mecha, not God Class, but it's the finest of its peers, and you will see why when you read the descriptions.
But that isn't what is important right now. There is a very serious situation that we need your assistance with. Well, you and your Mecha.
A spatial anomaly has opened within Cygnus, leading to an unexplored corner of the Universe that doesn't match any star charts that the Alliance has. It's a strange place, the void isn't empty like there is some monstrous nebula left over from the beginning of creation, and a battle is raging there which cannot be allowed to spread to our Galaxy.
The anomaly opened into the territory of the Koleska, an exoskeletal species that has an eerie resemblance to humanity in that their heads resemble bare human skulls. They are also Mecha users, in the same way, that the Hunters are, with Biomechanical Warframes, as they call them, and they are under attack, as is everyone else in that region, by the arisen.
From what we can tell, their technology appears to be autonomous drones of some sort. There is no computer, no discernable technology to them, but they are brutally fast and smart. The Koleska insist that they are piloted by arisen souls and that souls return to the void only to be reborn again when another Arisen Harbinger is created and sent out to attack.
The scale is within your capabilities, fifteen to fifty-meter units, with some infantry battles on the planets, but the Koleska has asked us for assistance by sending Void Combat capable units to their side, and in return, they are guarding the anomaly to keep the Arisen from finding it and sending an army through.
The scale of battle there is insane. Our initial report sighted a battle that appeared to stretch from one star to another, countless billions of Mecha facing off against each other."
Max just stared at him in awe for a moment.
"And you expect us to do what exactly in that scenario?"
"Honestly, not much. But you need to be visible, and you need to be lethal so that the Koleska will consider our side of the deal to be upheld. We can't send Androids. That was very clear in the deal. The Arisen will possess them and turn them against their allies. Everything needs to be living with no AI or computer control, so you can't even put your units on automatic standby while you're there, or you'll have to fight to regain control.
We are training a team of Titan Class Pilots right now. Five hundred units will be ready within the year, using the design that Cleansing Light was built.
Nico has informed me that there is very little of the Mecha that is still at that spec other than the Pilot's seat, but it was a very capable Titan by any standard, and our facilities are already set up to produce them.
You can bring your ship with you, but don't bring it near the battle. Well, perhaps with Nico's talents, you could bring it and not have it turn, but I wouldn't want to risk it.
What we're asking is that you fight there until you are relieved and that you gather all the information that you can about the Arisen, the Koleska, and any other forces that you encounter on that side of the anomaly."
Nico's thoughts said that she was all in on a year-long murderfest, but Max had a few more questions.
"You keep saying [we]. Who are the others, and how is it that your group knows about this and nobody else does?" Max asked.
"I guess I should introduce myself properly. I was born Perrin John Kepler, the youngest brother of the Emperor of Kepler. I am the leader of the Black Guard, the Emperor's personal assassins and the Empire's intelligence force.
We knew that the Princes were going to rebel, but the crackdown would have caused even more damage than letting things break apart would, in our estimation, so the Emperor took to the Pilot's seat of Glory of Sol before the assassination attempt, where one of his body doubles was killed, and one went into hiding.
Now, he is on Luminos with General Tennant, his dear friend and confidant."
His revelation caught both Nico and Max by surprise.
"That's why they sent the System AI with Mom when she left Kepler Terminus. Because you're the next in line with the Emperor missing and the Princes turned Traitor. The Reavers got the System because you married a Reaver. How crazy is that?" She rambled.
"Not as crazy as it seemed to my father when I proposed it all those years ago. Who knew that she was a baby-crazed woman who would never give me a moment of peace after the first four were born?" The affection in his voice was clear, but Max assumed that there was a good reason that he didn't want a huge number of children.
Now that he thought of it, all of his kids also had a somewhat legitimate claim to the leadership of Kepler when everything broke apart. It was definitely a good thing that he didn't tell anyone. Nico, with an honest chance of becoming Empress, would quickly become a genocide as she eliminated the challengers. She didn't seem to have noticed that yet, though she was still intently focused on the Mecha data, and it didn't seem to be impressing her.
"With the new Monoatomic Armor that I created for Cleansing Light, it's already above these specs. They're good, but not as great as I was hoping." She sighed.
"Hey, a few hundred years ago, it really seemed like it was. We couldn't even properly create some of the materials, and there were directions included in the data." Her father defended the Glory of Sol.
"We didn't even make it. It was found in ruins under a collapsed building undamaged. It does seem to have been human-made, though, since everything is sized and designed for us without a renovation. Well, maybe not for me, but for a human male anyhow. But more importantly, when are we leaving to go kill undead Mecha zombie bots?" She asked.
"Whenever you want. We've still got a month if we need it, and if you rejected the offer, we would have sent a few veteran Phalanx Class Pilots in Titan Class Mecha instead. But you are the best choice because I have faith that you can remain alive and will be able to repair your units with limited resources and overcome the unknown weapons that the enemy is going to use against you.
Some of them use a type of thermal lance, some use a Gauss weapon, and others prefer an energy-sheathed blade and close combat. It's just too varied, and we know nearly nothing about them."
Max nodded in acceptance. "We will do it. Give us the night to get everything prepared, and we will head out to the anomaly on a diplomatic mission to chat with the Cygnus leader in charge of the area."
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