251 251 To Derrax
The two officers motioned for the welcoming committee to follow them toward the bridge and Inquisitor Ming filled the others in on a few of the extra details. During the day that they were in Derrax, they would expect one more guest, an informant from Kepler Intelligence who would report directly to him. If any of them noticed the person, they were to tell him as the Informant was still training to be an Inquisitor and being noticed as a spy was a potentially deadly failure of his mission.
The second was that he would be leaving the ship at some point during their mission, most likely during the battles against the Klem, and he would require a specially modified Drone Fighter for the purpose.
It would blend in with the rest of their Drones, so none of the Tapani should be alerted. If he returned, he returned, if not, they weren’t to wait on him.
Max nodded solemnly at that revelation, understanding that the danger level of the Inquisitor General’s mission was extremely high and couldn’t be accomplished with help, even from a supposed Mercenary Group.
The two officers were the last thing that they were waiting for, so the Dutchman signed out of the base and lifted off in the direction of Derrax.
Compared to the Faster Than Light transition aboard Abraham Kepler, the engines of the Dutchman were both incredibly harsh and much faster to activate. It threw many of the troops off balance and made many more nauseous, but this version was much kinder to Max than the drawn-out version had been.
[Reminder to all units. Absolutely NO uniforms are to be worn until further notice. Clearance is given to create one civilian outfit to supplement your current wardrobe.]
General Yaakov’s announcement was well received by the Regiment. This time they had their entire wardrobe with them, but a traveling soldier didn’t keep much, and they weren’t about to turn down the chance to make something fashionable.
Max had no need for any such thing. He had too many clothes, to begin with. He just had to pick out a few outfits from his collection that would fit in with the Aesthetic. Or so he thought until he saw everyone else.
From flowered shirts to Leisure suits, to plaid shirts and jeans, the look of the crew perfectly matched their tastes and didn’t try to be anything that they weren’t other than civilians.
Given a few days, they would settle into a comfortable wardrobe and start to match with their units for the most part, with only a few lively characters really standing out.
Cassanova was one of them, and Nico was another, but surprisingly, so was General Yaakov. The man looked like he had just come from meeting the Emperor himself. The Noble was totally at ease in a burgundy velvet jacket trimmed with white lace, making for quite the spectacle against the mostly working-class Pilots surrounding him.
Max had accepted the General’s invitation to have dinner in the Officer’s mess near the bridge of the ship tonight, along with the Inquisitor, the admiral, and Nico.
Max briefly wondered who was piloting and watching for asteroids and other such hazards, as they didn’t have an actual crew, so he ducked his head into the bridge, where three men from the maintenance team were seated, watching screens.
They all seemed to know what they were doing, so Max assumed that they had some training on ship systems, which was a great relief.
Making his way through the halls, Max met up with Admiral Drake, who was slower moving than most, and openly wearing a leg brace now that there was no reason to hide it under his uniform. It was clear that the leg only took up half of the space inside his pant leg, so the damage must have been extremely heavy, but the older man was right, given time he would be good as new again.
That was an option Nico didn’t have. Even with an Alpha-ranked System Compatibility, it would have taken multiple years for her body to regenerate the damage that had been done to it, and there was no guarantee that she would have come out at anywhere near peak performance.
She seemed happier this way though and had changed her appearance back to having one mechanical arm, though she kept her own face this time. She had picked a puffy red princess dress for the formal dinner and was laughing with General Yaakov when Max and Drake walked into the room.
Inquisitor Ming was seated at the table, watching the two of them making a mockery of formality with an amused look on his face and a drink in his hand.
“It’s cheap, but it is plentiful. Feel free to pour a glass.” General Yaakov welcomed the last two guests, before pulling out Nico’s seat for her and getting her settled at the table on his left.
He wasn’t lying, the Rum was definitely not the good stuff, but it did the job of taking off a bit of the day’s stress before the dinner came out.
As he sat, Max thought it was odd that the other Battalion Commanders weren’t here, as they all held equal rank to him and higher than Nico. Going by General Yaakov’s behavior though, he was in character, as a Noble explorer, which meant it made sense that he invited only those with noble heritage to have dinner with him.
Until they finished the mission, they would have to practice their roles, so that nobody screwed it up at a critical moment and exposed them to the galaxy as Kepler Military forces.
Beyond that, everyone avoided dinners with the General anyhow, so Max shouldn’t have been shocked that the others didn’t volunteer to come to have dinner here with an Inquisitor and their Commanding Officer.
The Inquisitors had a lot of power, and with that came a rather dangerous reputation. Max recalled that way back when they first left Kepler Terminus there was a rumor that an Inquisitor had been turned by the rebels, and the thought in everyone’s mind was that such a feat was nearly impossible, not to mention the sort of punishment you would get if you tried and failed.
To the minds of the Academy staff, such a fate was worse than death.