458 458 Can't Be Hungover If You Are Still Drunk
Nico and Max led the Mercenaries to the Cruise Ship area, and the Station staff, who had been here last night, took it upon themselves to explain all the cool things they had seen along the way.
“Why do we need to change anyhow?” One of the Captains asked when the Station staff stopped everyone at the first Kiosk that they came across.
“Do you not know what a Tiki bar is? It’s on the beach, so relaxing in the loungers in the water with a margarita is a given. There are hot tubs as well as holographic dancing girls. I asked about real ones, but it seems that they are too short-staffed to have real dancers everywhere.” The Station Commander replied.
“I asked the ladies if they wanted to dance for a living, but they got a bit stabby about it.” Nico joked.
The Mercenary Captains shuddered at the thought. The women in their Companies were violent enough. They didn’t need to risk death by trying to convince the Reaver’s Mecha Pilots to change careers.
Max left the Mercenaries to their own devices for the evening and headed back to his office to ensure that everything was going smoothly with the production of the Replicators and the Materials Printers that had been ordered.
[Sir, we have a private communication from Commander Arnold. He would like to have four new Cutters delivered here to Black Wolf Station directly if possible. He has arranged payment with Rae 5, and they have his order in stock.] A communications officer informed Max.
That wasn’t the sort of thing that he would have wanted to say in front of all the other Captains, who mostly only had Cutter and Cruiser-sized ships of a much older vintage. It would make his allies look bad if he was flaunting his wealth in front of them, so he had done it afterward when everyone had settled in their rooms for an hour before they were going to meet for food and drinks.
[Inform him that I will have them brought through after the Ships going for engine retrofit pass through the portals tomorrow. Also, inform Rae 5 of our intentions so that they can have them ready with a few tugs to make the delivery.] Max replied.
[On it, Commander. I will make sure it is all organized and ready in the morning.]
Most Mercenary Commanders in the Death Wind Territory didn’t demand payment immediately from the Reavers when they worked for them. Instead, they would keep an account open with the Reaver Company in question and use it to purchase goods and services as they needed them.
With old, established Families like the Tarith Reavers, the two groups could have had such relations for centuries, so in the case of the Exterminators, it was surprising, but not entirely inconceivable that they could have had enough cash stored with the various Reavers Companies to outright purchase four new ships for blockade running.
The Border Nations weren’t going to know what hit them, and they didn’t have anything fast enough to intercept, should the Exterminators decide it wasn’t even worth their trouble to hide. All they could do was swear or try to retaliate against their slower-moving or planetary assets, and that assumed that they could determine who was in the ship, to begin with.
p-A- n-d-A-n-0-v-e-1、(c)om Since these ones were in a brand new Reaver pattern, they wouldn’t be able to tell if it was a Mercenary Company or a Reaver Company that had run their embargo, and not one of them was brave enough to go to war with the Reavers, who were much more organized than the Mercenaries had ever been.
Max kept watch on the tiki bar area until late in the evening as he organized the delivery of the order that they were making, as well as the installation of the Replicator aboard the station, which his crew had started in the middle of the night so that it would be ready before breakfast for the staff to try.
At five in the morning, he woke up and made his way to the Cruise Ship, where there were still Mercenaries partying. The orders were all ready to go out now, though he expected that they would have to wait until later in the day, given the situation.
“Where is Tarith?” Max asked one of the staff members, who was assembling a platter of breakfast burritos and tequila for the Mercenaries on the beach.
“She took Commander Arnold up to the gym on the next floor so that they could have a sparring match. They spent hours discussing cybernetic enhancements, and he didn’t believe us when we told him that Nico was a monster in human form.” The woman laughed, pointing out the Gym in question.
“Well, his order is ready, so when you see them again, let them know,” Max told her.
He turned to the beach and raised his voice to address the group that was still in party mode. “Your orders are ready. Who wants them delivered to your ship by the Station Staff, and who wants to send their own crew for it?”
“Let the Station do it. My boys aren’t going to be up to do anything this early in the morning.” One of the Captains laughed, seconded by almost all of the others.
“Then page your security team and tell them to expect a delivery within the hour,” Max informed them, getting back a series of sloppy salutes that ended as soon as the food arrived.
“I don’t think we’re going anywhere today. It will be noon before they pass out and night before they regain consciousness.” The man cleaning empty bottles and trash off the beach laughed, watching the Captains unwind with their friends.
“That might be for the best. We can collect the orders that are coming from Rae 5 while they are all passed out and deal with the questions about them later.”
If they docked the Cutters with the Station, the Exterminators could transfer their new crews over directly and without having to do it in the open where everyone else was watching. They might have also ordered more items to go with the Cutters, which would be delivered in their holds, and this would give them a chance to transfer everything in one convenient spot.