The food was better than Max had expected, but also very spicy, to the point Max was glad he had the coffee to soothe his tongue.
That was still better than the perpetually bland taste of the ration packs, which were designed to be easy to digest and edible by as many planet’s soldiers as possible.
At home, he had always liked spicy foods, especially the hot wings that his father kept in the freezer to fry during sporting events. This spice was a different story of heat though, it crept up on his taste buds, so he was halfway through breakfast before it felt like his head was on fire.
Nico was properly dressed again by the time he finished and they descended on the winch line mounted beside the cockpit door to go lead the daily training session for the First Battalion.
Most of the soldiers were already waiting when they arrived, despite the early hour, which Max took as a good sign. Enthusiasm for training meant that the unit was getting along, and that morale was at least average, both of which were ongoing goals for every Commander.
They all knew the routine, so they split into two groups of roughly equal size as soon as he arrived, and began their pre-workout stretches.
Max was an hour into leading his half of the training when he realized that they had guests waiting by the Mess Hall. General Yaakov was waiting for him, accompanied by a ginger-haired young man holding a data tablet and wearing an oversized white hoodie.
“General Yaakov, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Max called out over the noise of the training and motioned for his team to keep going while he was gone.
Max jogged up the stairs to the General, who handed over a data tablet for him to examine. On it was a sensor log of what appeared to be a colony ship, but partially destroyed and floating dead in space.
There was no way to know how long it had been that way, but colony ships usually had an immense amount of useful material aboard, in addition to their terraforming technology.
That could be an excellent chance to stock up, as well as a chance to make a name for themselves if there was anyone to rescue.
“I think it should be fine. The scan shows it is still mostly intact. We can send in Pilots using Mobile Suits and likely some of the Corvette Class units as well. The corridors in a colony ship are made for heavy equipment.” Max agreed, seeing that the General wanted to divert their course to explore it.
“It is across a border, and that system isn’t friendly with Kepler, so they might not be on good terms with Kepler-born Reavers either. The other Battalion Commanders expressed some concerns about starting an incident.” Yaakov explained.
“Feth them if they can’t take a joke. We’ve got twenty Super Heavy Mecha aboard, we could probably take out their nation’s entire fleet if they want to try us.
Don’t think as a Kepler Officer, or a Noble, but as a Reaver. It would be more suspicious if we didn’t take the bait and go check it out.” Max told him.
“So, you agree that it is a trap. I thought the same, but the others didn’t see it. You have a point though, we have the firepower and the X137 model has decent zero-gravity capability. The X109 should be a capable breaching unit if we are attacked as well.
It is decided then. Have everyone on standby in 90 minutes and we will run the border to go take a look.”
Max returned to the training area with a big smile on his face.
“Good news everyone, training is over for the day. We have found a derelict colony ship and we are going to take a little cross-border excursion to go explore it.
In case it is under guard, be prepared for a fight. The nation closest to the wreck isn’t a major power, but it might also be guarded by other Mercenaries or Pirates.
You know your jobs, when the call comes, move all personnel to areas with secondary atmospheric containment.
Got it? Good. You are Dismissed.”
The First Battalion was in a much better mood now, and everyone raced to get cleaned up and get their Mecha ready for action, eagerly anticipating a field trip to a Colony ship.
The Dutchman was built for this sort of mission, and had a low emission setting on its engines, cutting speed to a Warp factor of only 1.2 but making them much harder to track. It was the interstellar equivalent of sneaking up on the target, and Admiral Drake brought them in as cautiously as possible.
“Three Light Cutters in the vicinity. Pirate markings on all three. The colony ship is dead in space, but the design isn’t one recorded in our computers.” Admiral Drake reported.
The vessel’s flowing organic lines weren’t anything Max recalled from either of his lives. Nico looked intrigued, but she didn’t seem to recognize the design either, and she had run it through every database they had available.
It was clearly ancient though, with layers of impact damage on the hull from an extended time in space. Given the damage, it looked as if they had come across a rogue meteor, and it had taken out the ship’s engines.
[Tarith, you are up. We are in communications range, please say hello for us.] General Yaakov ordered, winking at Nico over the video link.
Nico thought for a moment, then sent a contact signal to the Pirate vessels. Seconds later three annoyed-looking men appeared on the main screen in Enduring Rage and Nico began to speak.
[Good morning ladies. How incredibly kind of you to look after this salvage case for us. But since we are here now you are free to leave.]
Max could only imagine the response of the other Kepler Commanders to her words, but he had to maintain a straight face since he was on camera, sitting beside her in the Mecha.
The Pirate Captains weren’t impressed, and all began to speak at once before one of them silenced the other two.
[Who do you think that you are to take a prize from the entire fleet of the Golden Hand?] The Captain demanded, tapping his golden mechanical hand on the control panel in front of him.
[Insolent Peasants, did I not give you enough of a warning? I told you, the Terminus Trading Company has come for our salvage rights, now leave.] Nico replied in a very soft and dismissive tone as if they were beneath her concern, flicking her fingers in a shooing motion to emphasize her point.
The Pirate ships began to move and Max sent the signal for his Battalion to be ready to move on an instant’s notice.
[Let’s see how smart you are when we burn that relic of a ghost ship out from under you.] The Pirate leader declared, then cut the video link.