The loading of all the new Mecha that they had ordered was going well, and the Reavers were all eagerly awaiting the outcome of the first round of testing for the Samurai Pattern Line Mecha.
This would be the first new design produced within their territory, other than the ships, which were still being held as a national secret for now. The Line Mecha wasn't exactly a huge powerhouse on the battlefield, and every mercenary, trade, and Reaver group used some pattern of them. Even the farm worlds often used them in place of equipment for various jobs which needed more mobility.
So they had found a suitable proving ground for them. There was a small lunar outpost just past the borders of Kepler's territory in open space, where the locals declared that they were under attack by a Rebel force.
The Kepler Military couldn't deal with it right away, they were too busy cleaning up the mess on their own worlds, but the outpost produced valuable trade goods, The Reavers could make more than they stood to lose on the testing as a reward, which would go to Terminus Trading Company as payment, but would help the image of the Reavers as a whole.
The combined forces of the two sides of the conflict were reported to be under a Regiment, so even if it was a trap, there was a good chance that they would come out on top, after factoring in their orbital superiority.
[All units report status and prepare for liftoff.] Max ordered, going over everything that might be in the vicinity of Terminus so that they didn't damage anything on their way out.
The shuttle that the Academy students had arrived in had been moved to a storage bay, since they didn't want to sell it just yet, and Uncle Lu had determined that the hull was a good candidate for mid-Warp Speed experiments.
A new age of luxury travel, he had insisted.
If a shuttle-sized vessel could be pushed to Warp 3 or 4 then interstellar travel would become accessible to a wide variety of nobles and wealthy businessmen who could afford their own private yachts.
Currently, if they wanted to leave their own star system to go further than the next system over, they would take a larger transport, since like the small transport that the Cadets had arrived in, making Warp 1.5 was just a dream for most of their yachts.
He likely wouldn't end up using much of the shuttle's actual hull, but it would give him good data once he strapped a new drive in it and tried it out.
[All Units are present and secured. Area clear. We are ready for liftoff, Commander.] The Admiral reported.
[Take us up to the Lunar base. We need to trade this shuttle for our Cutters and drop off the last of the supplies that they requested.] Max ordered.
Terminus shook and shuddered as it left the surface, reluctant to return to space now that it had happily made landfall and completed its original mission. The ship didn't have a true AI in it, but Max was certain that he could feel the reluctance to abandon its mission and continue working at first until it broke the upper atmosphere and the coordinates were entered to reach the Moon Base.
They were too large to enter the primary hangars, but the station had been developed with them specifically in mind, and there were large enough bays at the surface of the station to accept even the mighty Colony Ship into their embrace.
The Cutters had already been moved into the one that Station Command directed them to, shining Bronze and red in the harsh artificial light of the base.
[Atmosphere Stable, prepare for unloading.] The base directed them, and the Admiral opened up the storage bay that had the shuttle and the raw materials loaded in it for their research purposes.
[This one's a beauty. Not a lick of damage on it, a bit of a shame to turn it over to Research and Development.] The crew lamented, watching the Academy's vessel being unloaded.
[But think what they can do with it once they have it. The Cutters are an incredible advancement, and we will all be rich if we can start selling luxury yachts to the Nobles.] One of his coworkers laughed.
A portion of the profit being shared among every worker involved in a facility's production was a normal thing for Reavers, a bit of encouragement to do the less desirable jobs. If they didn't do it, Max was pretty sure they wouldn't have had a single volunteer to work on the planet.
Loading the Cutters took a little longer since they had to be carefully maneuvered across the bay under their own power since the cranes didn't have the capacity to move a single object that heavy and Terminus was in the way of the heavy loaders being able to move them around the room.
Max napped while the work was being done until he felt a cool, metallic body slide into the bed next to him.
"Ah, there's my hugging pillow. We've got another hour before they're finished and then the Admiral has his departure instructions to start our transit toward the outpost." Nico informed him, drifting off to sleep.
Max was certain that she had not been this soft before. Her temperature control was still spot on, so she hadn't changed her structure in any fundamental way that he could tell, but the flexible metal of her shell felt almost spongy now like there was a layer of soft flesh over the hard metal.
He wasn't one to question a good thing though, so Max just returned to sleep and enjoyed the return of his favorite temperature control unit until the alarm signaling an imminent transition to Warp woke him up.
This would be the first one with the new Warp Drives for Terminus, and Max wanted to be awake for it so he could tell how it felt, and compare it to the previous trips.
Their speed only increased a little, due to the power needed to move such a large vessel, but now they could at least keep up with most of the ships they would encounter, as long as they weren't fast attack ships. The Transition had become even more smooth than before, barely noticeable, much like he had seen in the videos from the Cutters.
This was a much better mode of travel than Abraham Kepler and her stomach turning lurches to Warp Speed. A few more generations down this path of development and they might even be able to drop the warnings of transition entirely since the occupants of the ship would barely notice them at all.
