They hadn't made much progress when Sergeant Khalil was finally free of his training loop and returned to the Ship to rest. The excessive time dilation might seem like a dream that left behind clear knowledge to the human mind, but it took a toll on the brain, and all he could think about after such an extended period of training was to get as much sleep as possible.
That was fine by Max. They didn't need his data right away when they had this much work to do on the Line Mecha.
Before they knew it, they had worked through the night and into the next day. They would have kept at it, giving only a perfunctory nod to the Sergeant when he logged back into the training simulation to try to get his skills the rest of the way to the standard that Nico had set, but there was a message from Rae 5 waiting for them.
[I have been informed that you have made a breakthrough on the Mecha development front again. We will send replacement Mecha to your location in advance of the regular schedule to accompany the Destroyers who are to hold their positions with the Koleska.
You are not being recalled at this time, but you are relieved of defensive duties, except in the gravest of emergencies, beginning when the new Super Heavy Mecha arrive.]
The message from Uncle Lu's staff was simple and straightforward, without the eccentric designer's personal flair, so it was definitely not directly from him. But if the Reavers were sending an entire hundred Super Heavy Mecha, with all the newest technology, their two Mecha wouldn't really be needed much.
The message sender didn't seem to know that the Arisen had been encouraging the humans not to interfere with their battles lately and had stopped trying to get through the Anomaly after being intercepted by the Knife Ears.
They were likely in the distribution bureaucracy, not the design teams, so they weren't privy to the details of exactly what was going on here, only the forces which had been authorized to be sent to the region.
"Well, it looks like we get to do some full-time engineering," Max informed Nico once he had read the message.
"It certainly does. We should have brought one of our own ships on this mission. I mean, one bigger than Santa Maria. It would be best to do all of our development in a secure lab instead of inside a Cygnus destroyer where there are constant risks of data leaks even when I've got the sensor feeds on lockdown." Nico sighed.
Max shrugged. "It makes the Cygnus Fleet happy, though. They've been getting everything last all this time since it was all made by either Kepler Allies or Reavers and far from their territories. Having the chance to get the cool toys first for once will help their morale and remind everyone that the Trade Group is for all humans and not a new Monarchy in the making."
Max smiled as he listened to Nico's mind looking for a way to justify making a whole new Cruiser Class or larger Ship, but she wasn't finding a good one. Then she came across the perfect way to use Max's words against him.
"Well, if we make TWO new ships, we can give one to the Cygnus Fleet as a gift and keep the other one for ourselves. Then we will have all the room we need for development." She suggested.
"One thing at a time. Finish up the Line Mecha first, and get at least one Company worth of them in service for testing, and then we can start on a new project if you're that willing to let your new Personal Mecha wait."
He had her there, and he knew it. This Line Mecha was never the goal. It was just a scale prototype for her own new Mecha. Moving from that to making more ships would mean that she would get sidetracked, and there would be more questions about the ship and its creation and design.
If they started on that, she would never get the time to finish a replacement for Shattered Pride.
Since they were in a warzone, she couldn't just refurbish the one she had. It would cause too much downtime and loss of capability. She could make minor tweaks to the weapons, but the overhaul of the power system would require a full rebuild.
"Alright, I have a better idea. How about we have an extra cutter made aboard Absolution, and we bring over a design team in it to help us out? We could use more hands." Nico compromised.
If it was identical to the ones they had, there would be no questions about its design, as the Cygnus fleet could pull them all up out of the Trade Group's records on their own if they had the clearance. The design had been made public after Uncle Lu had gone over it, though the construction method hadn't, so at the moment, very few facilities were capable of even repairing one, much less making a new one.
"Let's just get back to work tweaking this thing." Max reminded her, then started pulling apart the Mecha to put in some new parts which he had identified as improvements on the originals.
That was how the next three weeks went for them.
Nico and Max made constant small modifications to the Mecha and then tested it in VR along with Sergeant Khalil, who still spent an hour a day in the training simulation, trying to get to the Special Forces standard that Nico had set.
He had been reluctant to go to the gym when he arrived, but now he was there just as much as Max, working on his strength and agility skills, so his body could keep up with the improved state of his mind, while Nico worked strictly speed and agility, to keep her neural links fresh and at peak reaction times.
Then finally, the two groups they were waiting for arrived.
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on f(r)e𝒆webn(o)vel.com