577 577 Clean Sweep
pAnD a(-)n0ve1.com
The sheer volume of contraband they found was staggering but not entirely unexpected. Most of it was just alcohol and porn in workstations where it wasn’t supposed to be, and hardly a cause for concern, but they did find a few more egregious violations that they would actually have to write people up for.
Aboard Terminus herself, the infractions were nothing out of the ordinary, with one notable exception. One logistics staff member was found in the middle of a frantic call to an outside location that showed up as an unaligned mercenary group. That was definitely off-limits without clearance. Interstellar communications all required permissions, and the communications team would connect you and log the call.
The purpose was exactly what they were working on today, preventing infiltration and plotting by outside forces.
A harsh and thorough investigation of sensor logs was conducted, only to find that his crime was completely different than they had expected. He wasn’t in on the mutiny. He was trying to obtain a questionably consenting, questionably legal mail order bride to be delivered to Terminus.
That was a whole new problem, so he was remanded into custody until they could deal with him, and the search continued without pause.
Aboard the Divine Tribulation, the findings were much more interesting. The Captain had indeed thwarted the attempts to recruit his staff for a mutiny, but that didn’t mean that things weren’t chaotic aboard the Cruiser anyhow.
At first, everything seemed to be squared away, with only a few usual violations, but the Company Commander in charge of the dorms noticed a strange pattern. Nearly every bunk in the Mecha Battalion had a picture of Nico somewhere within their personal space.
Not necessarily Nico herself, but often one of the Mecha that she was Piloting was in a printed screenshot. Now, there was no rule against having a crush on your commanding officers, but for an entire Battalion to do it was kind of creepy, so they looked deeper into the matter and questioned the Pilots, who were found to have formed an informal cult around the Second in Command.
They were convinced that she was a reincarnation of their home planet’s God of Battle and that worshipping her would bring them luck in combat. They trained with her simulations and training programs, followed the regimens that she had left programmed into the computers, and did their best to emulate her combat style.
The final note was made that no violation was found in their behaviour. Still, they recommended that it be monitored in case it led to a subversion of the Commander’s Authority in an incident involving both Max and Nico.
Max saw that bit come up and sighed. Nico was sitting right next to him, trying not to laugh, meaning it was too late to hide the data and prevent her personal cult from inflating her ego for the day.
“Look at it this way. They’re super loyal to the Company. They would never betray their goddess that way.” She gloated.
“If you start calling yourself Goddess in public, I am going to instruct the Innu to make a mute function for your voice box,” Max warned her.
Nico stuck her tongue out at him and sent out a drone to take selfies of herself that she fully intended to edit into posters to send to the Battalion.
“Oh, don’t look so cranky. It could be worse. Did you hear about the guy in Logistics?” She asked.
“Yes, and I’ve confirmed that he is staying in custody until we find out the details of this bride he was trying to arrange.” Max sighed and turned his attention back to the screens.
With Divine Tribulation all but sorted out, Max turned his attention to the two Companies that were doing a blitz of Holy Light. They hadn’t been warned yet that there was a trial coming about the Mutiny in an attempt to gather more information, but the chances that any of the main players didn’t know yet after the first few were grabbed were pretty low.
Their only advantages were that the disposal systems were locked down from the moment the find was made, and nobody had been allowed on or off of the ship.
They found many attempts to hide or destroy evidence, some more effective than others, and the same pictures in the Pilots’ rooms, indicating that the following that Nico had developed was not an isolated incident.
“Find out if they were all recruited from the same planet,” Max asked Nico while the Second Battalion searched the ship.
“Affirmative. Every Pilot except the senior officers on both vessels came from Kepler 7. If I recall correctly, we fought the Narsians with them.” Nico clarified.
Max paused before answering because he could see that she was still digging up data on where the Pilots came from and why since it was much more relevant now than the original hiring reports that detailed their personal skills that the Rae 5 team had sent to them.
“The Command Officers are all political appointees, but the bulk of the force was in combat against Narsians when everything went to crap in the Kepler Empire. They just stayed put until the Cygnus fleet came to welcome the planet into the Trade Alliance. After that they were dispersed on Rae 5 to look for work until they saw the recruitment offer and signed up to be back under a Kepler Commander and back in Mecha instead of working civilian jobs.
Their old commanders were demoted, but it looks like they are still in the Battalions.”
Max nodded in understanding and then asked the important question. “And how does this relate to them forming a Cult of Nico?”
“They were present when we assaulted the city. During my ethereal phase.” Nico explained.
Her Ethereal phase? That was an interesting name for that period of time after her mortal body had been crippled while she was pretending to be her own ghost to freak out her allies and terrify the Narsians.
“I think it’s time that some political appointees got a promotion, don’t you? They are far too important and noble to be in intense combat, working as bodyguards for a cruise ship. Make it happen, and report back to me when you have new job assignments for them that won’t be seen as a demotion.” He ordered, then created a couple of aspirin from the Replicator to cure the seemingly ever-present stress headache that the past few days were giving him.