Inquisitor General Ming arrived back aboard Abraham Kepler with an assortment of Rum and Cigars, as well as his personal favorite, a thirty-year-old Rye Whiskey that was made on his family’s estate. No matter how many worlds he visited, or how far he traveled, that whiskey always reminded him of home.
“Gentlemen, I see our Mercenary friends got a touch impatient while I was away. But, all is well that ends well, so I brought along a bottle of the good stuff to celebrate a world cleared of hostile aliens.” The inquisitor greeted the other Generals as he entered the Command room.
“Excellent choice. As the Mecha forces have burned almost all the bodies on the planet, we have begun a biological scan from orbit, and we will be sending various units to check the Klem signatures and either burn them or eliminate any survivors that might be found.
There aren’t many of them, though they are most prevalent in the area around the Mercenary base camp. It looks like they had a rather hard-fought battle before we arrived, despite appearing to still be near full strength.” General Tennant agreed.
The orders were relayed to the surface, setting everyone in motion. The infantry loaded themselves into hover vehicles so that they could make decent time to their destinations, while the Mecha squads immediately split off.
Time was always of the essence against Klem, so no unit dared to delay their missions, even the ‘Mercenary’ forces under Max had eagerly agreed to help clean up the area, so they could send the Kepler Fleet on their way.
Scouring the mountains for signs of Klem blood and body parts was a simple task, and the Fast Attack Mecha could quickly burn anything that they found, declaring the area sanitized and then moving on to the next point.
In this way, the mountains themselves were cleared in only a few hours, and by dawn the next morning, forces had scattered all over the region, searching for the last few signatures that were detected.
A few turned out to be buried eggs, waiting for the threats to leave so that they could safely hatch, but for the most part, it was just body parts and blood that were showing up on the sensors of the ships in orbit.
[Rage, now that we’re all finished up here, how about you and me spend a little time together? Get to know each other better? I’m a good judge of character and nobody with that voice could be a bad person.] One of the Heavy Mecha Company Commanders from the Kepler fleet messaged Nico, shooting his shot while he had a chance.
[Oh, a nice intimate evening? I’m game, but I must warn you, I only top.] Nico responded, making the Mecha give a series of lewd-looking hip thrusts in the direction of the allied Commander’s Mecha.
[Why so quiet? Don’t tell me our romantic evening has been prevented by a communications system failure?] Nico asked, the false sincerity clear in her voice.
[How about we take a raincheck on that? I, uh, just got notified of a thing I have to do.] He replied, making the pilots of both units, who could hear the conversation on the general channel, burst into laughter.
[She is taken anyhow, Major. Don’t take it too personally, it takes a special sort of man to tame a woman like that.] Klinger laughed.
[All points clear. Klem infestation is verified removed from the planet. Please standby for orders.]
The message from Central Command broke up their joking and marked their last viable excuse to hide inside the Mecha.
It was customary for the leaders of a Reaver or Mercenary squad to shake hands with their allies in person to mark the completion of a deal, so it would be very strange and rude for Max and Nico at the very least not to exit their Mecha and visit with the other Regiment and Battalion Commanders.
This would be the greatest test of the unit’s deception. If the Kepler Mecha force could be sent back to their ship without anyone realizing who they were dealing with, the operation had been successful. The Commanders had already seen them, but a video feed could be altered to show what you wanted it to. That is why Mercenaries did things face to face, where they could personally verify the identity of their employers and customers.
The opposite was true as well, and it led to a level of mutual trust being necessary for doing business, keeping slipshod operators and sketchy employers out of the loop.
Before they could assemble to finalize everything, a single shuttle was seen entering the atmosphere. It had come from one of the ships overhead, and the unannounced vessel made everyone a bit nervous.
Max and his unit feared that they had been made, while the Kepler forces feared that the Mercenaries would think they had been double-crossed. That might be the case on occasion, but today they had a significant advantage in firepower.
[General Ming and General Yaakov are incoming to your position for the final ceremony and data collection for the archives.] General Tennant informed them, only a few minutes too late.
The shuttle was on a shallow approach though, racing around the planet while slowly burning off speed, a technique that was highly unorthodox in this day and age, better suited to a sightseeing tour than a military insertion.
Though, it did make sense if they were trying to subtly search the planet for additional hidden threats, like a hidden Mercenary base, or additional Klem landfall sites.
[Understood General. We will be waiting for their arrival.] Max responded, getting ready to disembark.
Nico had made him a pair of black leather pants and a black military jacket with most of the patches removed, save for one that was modified with what Max recognized as Nico’s family heraldry. She paired it with a bright red button-down satin shirt and a collection of fake gold jewelry, making Max stand out, but still look somewhat like a competent Mecha Commander. For herself, she had chosen a Flamenco dress in matching black and red, worn with combat boots and her hair tied up in an elegant bun.
The visibly mechanical features of her disguise made the outfit seem somewhat incongruous to the setting, but when she added a leather belt around her waist holding a pistol and sword and a shortened military jacket that almost matched the slightly battered-looking one that Max received, it somehow worked.
It was like an outcast Pirate had done her best to dress to impress, but just couldn’t quite bring herself to leave her weapons behind, so she failed with a fashionable flair.
The other four Battalion Commanders joined them in the open field where one single tent had been set up for the meeting, each of them dressed wildly different, but all with the slightly militaristic style of the Reavers.
Nico must have been in contact with them, as they all had the same patch on their jackets that Max and Nico did, which was an ancient badge of the Tarith Family Reavers.
Outside of a few pre-Empire historians and the Reavers themselves, Max doubted that anyone alive would recognize the heraldry, but it was good to have everyone match so that the returning forces didn’t have more questions about the alliance between multiple Mercenary forces.
The shuttle touched down gently, a hundred meters from the Commanders standing near the tent, under the watchful gaze of twenty Super Heavy Mecha, piloted by the Company Commanders and the Technicians of the Battalion Commanders.
Max’s own unit seemed to have no trouble tracking the shuttle while keeping an eye on the others, thanks to Nico’s Technology Control abilities, so the immobile Mecha wouldn’t give itself away as unoccupied.
The two Generals stepped out, followed by a dozen men of Abraham Kepler’s staff. Notably absent were the two adjutants or assistants that most Generals never went anywhere without. The Generals approached on their own, while the staff guarded the ramp to the Shuttle, looking like the relaxed but ready veterans that they were.
“Greetings, Commander Keres, Miss Rage. I am General Ming of the Kepler Sector Defense fleet, as you no doubt already knew. This is General Yaakov of Central Command. We have the formal agreement documents on hand, as well as tokens of an alliance, signifying a successful alliance with the Kepler fleet. Feel free to use them in the future as proof of identity should you need to ally with the Fleet again.” General Ming introduced himself with a genuine-looking smile.
“You are too kind, General. As we said, this was a mutual interest.” Max deferred.
Nico gestured toward the tent, and the Commanders of both forces made their way inside to where the cooks of both forces had assembled a buffet and a long table so the two sides could sit across from each other.
Once they were seated, General Ming was the first to speak. “I would like to thank you all for your cooperation. The safety of the frontiers of the Kepler Empire is of paramount importance to all of us within both Sector Defense and Central Command. But I must say, that I never expected to see such a sight as what I found here on this remote world.
Not only the Mecha but to find so many impressive backgrounds assembled in one spot. Did you know that General Yaakov is one of the old Nobles, whose planetary rule predates the Empire? Of course, Miss Rage here is an impressive person herself, even if she chooses to keep quiet about it.” The General began, giving the badges on their jackets a pointed look.
“We can’t forget about Commander Keres either. Though you might not be as notoriously influential in Kepler, your infamy was well noted among the Cygnus population.” Max wasn’t sure what the General meant by that specifically, though he could guess that the man knew who he was.
Max hadn’t seen the Cygnus propaganda movies that senior Inquisition officials were privy to, so he didn’t realize how famous he really was at this point.
“It is always an honor to meet a Defense Official with such an incredible pedigree as yours. Your work during the reconstruction of Belmont was commendable.” Nico answered with a smile, while Max was looking for just the right thing to say, and reading the minds of the two Generals in front of him to see what they really knew.
General Ming almost choked on his drink at that but quickly recovered. The memory of him quietly purging traitors all over the planet flashed through his mind, along with bewilderment about how Nico could have known. In his mind, he used their real names, so there was no doubt that this Inquisitor knew who they were, but he also wasn’t going to say any more than he already had.
He simply wanted to establish dominance in the meeting, showing off his knowledge. A tactic that Nico absolutely crushed by mentioning Belmont.