Chapter 958 958 Expansion Plans
Once the locals were engrossed in looking over the food that had been brought in, the Hunters made a hasty retreat. Someone had sampled everything already, and there was no sign that it was actually toxic to them. Plus, the shuttle had finished its mission, so they intended to make a second pass by the quarantine array and back to the planet.
The situation with the Myceloids had stabilized, and now that they weren't under direct and constant threat, the Hunters had plans to explore more of the region around the anomaly.
There had to be something around here that hadn't been harvested by the Darklings when they came through. They were always quite particular about their targets, but none of the planets were giving off any sort of sign of life.
And that wasn't just interference from the space around them. The shuttle hadn't picked up anything either. Even on the long-range scans, they didn't detect any other inhabited planets, though they did detect a few that might have plant life on them or primitive animals.
Those ones were still of great interest to the Hunters, now that the Myceloids were clearly an intelligent species, and they couldn't keep lying about it to the Alliance. New Hunting grounds were vital to their entertainment, and they were the only reason that the Hunters had even agreed to help with the Anomaly in the first place.
Nico looked at Khan with a satisfied smile.
"So, what is first? Do we adapt some ships with the new ideas that we have gotten from those aliens, or do we just cloak them to get past the satellites and then go exploring?
Don't get me wrong, hanging out here with you is fun and all, but there is so much more out there to see, and I suspect that if we go a bit further, we will get out of the destruction area around the ancient battle site, and then we will stand a good chance of finding more familiar sights.
Without the interference of the disrupted space, I am pretty sure that we will be able to locate this region on a universal map, and that could help tie together all of the research that we have done on the last million years of history." Nico declared.
"And the real reason that you want to find new planets that nobody else has mapped?" Khan asked.
"It's not a war crime if there is no evidence that they ever existed. Think of all the cool things that we might find from an isolated intelligent species that has been at peace for over a million years."
Max shook his head in mild dismay. "You need to rephrase that. You used your inside words on the outside."
Khan and the others began to laugh at Max's admonishment. They were thinking somewhere near the same thing but with less intention of wiping out any species that they found. In Nico's mind, there were no non-hostile species. Only ones that weren't hostile yet.
Of course, with a Nico-approved level of rampant violence, they really couldn't blame every species she met if they did become hostile later. It was only fair, given her unique negotiation methods.
Khan considered their path forward for a few minutes, then sighed.
"We really should do some work on getting the new camo designs working. The genetic engineering that they used is fairly compatible with our biomechanical technology, so it should be fairly well suited to the outer armour of your new Mecha as well.
If we're going to be exploring new worlds, then we should do our best to blend in and hide our presence. That means more work for us, but it will be fairly quick work. Do you want to outsource yours to your design teams?" She asked Nico.
"No, I've already nearly got it worked out. My system decided that it was somewhat suitable for my own use, so I've been adapting it as a background process, and our Mecha shells are based on the same technology as my outer shell.
Between the two, I should be able to come up with something within the day, even if it is a paint coat and not an intrinsic feature."
Max smiled. "Work on that paint coat idea. That will come in very handy in the future since we can paint nearly anything, and an adaptive coloration scheme would be excellent for all sorts of infiltration missions."
"If I can make it into the paint, will you let me be the first to make contact with any intelligent species that we find?" Nico asked hopefully.
"You can make first contact with the first intelligent species that the two of us find. The offer doesn't extend to the species found by the Hunters, and it only begins once you've got the paint working well enough to deploy it to the Android Regiments." Max agreed.
Lilith smirked. "You know that she's going to have it done within the week at that rate, right?"
Max gave her a wink. "You know that the most powerful sensors in the Galaxy are controlled and monitored by the Hunters, right? If Nico is better at finding new species with your sensors than you are, then she deserves the honours."
The Huntress laughed at that and sent a message to the monitoring team that they had a challenger in the race to find a new intelligent species.
They loved a good challenge as much as the Myceloids loved a good fight, and it looked like they were going to have the perfect opportunity.
[The design team says 'challenge accepted.' They also offer the wager of one bottle of real Reaver Rum against one bottle of their unit's Melon Wine.]
Nico laughed at the response.
[Good, if you're actually working for it, I might not be bored. Don't worry. I have the finest of Reaver Rum available on the Cutter in Alliance Space. The real stuff, made on Rae 5 and not Replicated.]
Not that the Replicated was noticeably different from the handmade version, but the taste could be slightly different, given the artisan nature of small-batch liquors.
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