Novel Full 371 371 Surreal Experience
Max smiled to himself as the soldiers of what was once General Tennant’s personal regiment, the way that Noctem Regiment was to General Mons and the Carpe Noctem. It was like having a little piece of him back, even if he was currently missing, on a secret mission somewhere across the Galaxy.
Most of the injuries that he could see weren’t as terrible as he had feared. There were a lot of gunshot wounds that had crippled limbs, and some broken backs that had led to paralysis, which couldn’t be fixed with the Station’s limited facilities but could be easily dealt with by the medical facilities aboard Terminus.
[All veterans listed as currently injured or disabled, please stand to the right for triage. Terminus has top-class medical facilities available, and will begin treatments immediately upon your arrival.] Nico’s voice informed everyone.
Nico herself seemed to be busy sorting their new arrivals, so Max assumed that she had sent the message to make her own life easier. The veterans were supposed to get settled into the holding bay, which would be their home until they passed final security checks, in case the Regiment had been corrupted and not reported.
Max didn’t sense any signs that the soldiers had joined the Rebellion, or any harmful intent toward Terminus though, only honest gratitude at the opportunity to get off of the overcrowded station and back to their duties.
[Check this out.] Was the whole content of the message that Nico sent Max a few minutes later, along with a video file that Max brought up to view on the visor of his armor.
The Mobile Suit was standard practice for him during meetings these days, in case their deals went sour and someone thought of targeting the Reaver Commander, so he brought the video up, watching the video replay a short battle between two ships, and the launch of a Lander. Then it cut to the Lander and followed it in fast forward to the station.
The battle was as they described it, but the important part was the vessel that had destroyed their transport. It was a Tapani ship, not a Kepler one, so it was quite clear that the occupants of the destroyed vessel were not on the side of the Rebels and their allies.
That went a long way to calming Max’s concerns. It was possible to be mistaken and give false evidence, or to believe a lie, which would make Max think he had heard the truth, but video evidence from the battle was pretty decisive.
[Where did you find that?] Max asked once he had viewed the video in full.
[The lander is trashed, but it is still on the station. I pulled it from the black box.] Nico replied.
Max had hacked the Station’s systems earlier and didn’t find anything, so he checked again, now that they were docked and close enough for a direct signal.
He still didn’t see the Lander, but after searching for half a minute he found what had alerted Nico. It wasn’t what she saw, but what she didn’t. There was a large cargo bay blocked off from the rest of the station’s mainframe, and all the cameras were off. Following Nico’s lead, he hacked in, finding that it held the Lander, the last few Soldiers who were helping the disabled members get moving, and a small supply of military equipment and rations.
That must be the ship’s most secure area, hidden so that the desperate refugees didn’t do what Max did and hack through to find the last of the food supplies, then riot to get to them.
pa(nd)a no vel Once everyone was on board, the Station staff prepared to close up their bay so that Terminus could dock, and the Governor of the Colony turned to Nico for her farewell speech.
“It has been a pleasure dealing with you all, and now that we can increase crop production, we can put a lot of our new arrivals to work, and let those on the station come down to the surface. The amount that we could afford to trade for might have everyone on half rations until the first crops are grown, but we are in a much better situation than we were before.”
Her gratitude was palpable, and the handshake she gave Nico was a friendly one, though she refused the customary sharing of liquor that most leaders partook in after a deal was done.
“Send another message to the Reavers if you have more to trade. There are a few other ships in the area still, and they could likely arrive within a few weeks.” Max informed her.
“Thank you. I just hope that this peace lasts. The Nobles have all gone insane lately. I am sure that one of your intelligence officers found this information already, but we had to purge the ones in our colony when the unrest began. That is why I am governor, and not some high-minded Marquis looking to expand his holdings.”
Max’s respect for the tired-looking woman grew in an instant. To think that they had simply purged the entire noble population of their planet for Sedition and appointed a civilian Governor. That was a rare thing in Kepler, where the Nobles were usually pretty entrenched through a bureaucracy that could stop any such revolt from taking hold.
Even on Kepler Terminus, the resistance had failed to eliminate the nobles’ bureaucracy before they could lock down communications and bring in reinforcements. The best they could do was get as many people as possible to safety. Kepler Terminus was a much more populated world though, with a much larger government, he supposed, so the difficulty level was incomparable, but it was still impressive, and an excellent proof of character.
“I will offer you improved trade terms with the Tarith Reavers. Take this card and contact them first when you need anything that you can’t find through the official channels. Tell them that Tarith Rage recommended you and they will understand.” Nico told the woman, then ushered her back to her shuttle, so that Terminus could leave the dock and get back on course.
This stop was fruitful for them, but hardly entertaining for a cruise ship. Excluding the Innu researchers of course. They were greatly entertained by the chance to study a human manufacturing colony’s infrastructure.