With all the footage that they could possibly need for their advertisements, the event organizers didn’t need to bother Max and Nico again before they reached the resort.
The others weren’t so lucky, the rest of the top ten had to do their advertisement spots both individually and sometimes together on the next day and they had been at it for almost fifteen hours before the filming was done.
Uncle Lu had gotten both Nico and Max an orbital transfer cube to use as luggage for the rest of their upcoming vacation. They fit perfectly in the lockers on a Lander, and a Major was allowed room for two of them plus their duffel on a combat mission, and more if they were transferring for a non-combat duty.
That triggered the thinning out of the donated clothing until they each had one cube worth to go with their duffel of personal effects that had been transferred from Abraham Kepler.
The luggage didn’t come with official orders, but all of their personal effects were now in their possession, except what had been left inside their Mecha. That amounted to a bit of bedding and a few photos, but they were safe right where they were. Nobody would tamper with a pilot’s cockpit.
The luggage transfer was rather concerning to Max, giving him the impression that the ship might be down for longer than expected, or that the level of casualties meant that the 43rd Armored was going to get reorganized.
Unlike his Mecha, Abraham Kepler wasn’t a Relic of a ship, it was only three tours from its commission date, or a little over thirty years old. It had taken quite a bit of damage since he arrived though, so it was possible they found hidden structural damage that would require a more extensive refit..
“We are all packed and ready to go,” Max called to Uncle Lu, who had promised them a lift to the resort so they didn’t have to fly commercial.
“Two bags each. How very military efficient of you. Alright, I will have the driver take us to the shuttle and we can fly over. They have a private landing pad there, so we won’t need a car at the other end.
I wish I could stay, but once I drop you off I need to get back to the lab and work on those ideas we thought up. The team thinks some of them are short-term viable.” Uncle Lu’s excitement was visible and Max felt bad about taking him away from his work.
Even if he was fun to hang out with, he was a top scientist with responsibilities as well as a member of the Ruling family of Comor. The fact he had taken this long off from his duties already was more than a little shocking.
“Since the shuttle is at the lab, why don’t we drop you at work and the pilot can bring the shuttle back when he’s done?” Max suggested.
“Would you mind? It would give me at least three extra hours in the lab today.” Uncle Lu asked.
“It is your shuttle, and you have already been very good to us. You can leave the last leg to the professionals.” Nico agreed, patting him on the back.
“That settles it then. Let’s get a move on. Things to do, people to see.”
On the way to the lab, Uncle Lu was already busy working, sending messages about structural alterations to the X109 and X137 designs. He had taken the talk about mass production efficiency to heart and was planning to fully alter the designs to make them more viable to produce in large quantities.
It was the final step that most scientists forgot, a mistake that relegated millions of brilliant ideas to obscurity or a purely theoretical existence.
The Comor lab would have access to the list of all materials that the various units were allocated for orbital insertion, and they could work from there to tweak their design to be more compatible with the existing materials stockpile and other commonly available materials that could logically be substituted without much inconvenience.
A half dozen of his researchers were waiting in the hangar with designs in their hands when the trio arrived at the lab. They were hasty modifications and combinations of existing proposals, a rough draft that would better match the new design priority. Everyone was so invested in their work that only a few words were exchanged before the whole group disappeared through the security doors to the lab.
“You get used to it, he’s always like that.” The shuttle pilot laughed, loading their luggage into the cargo hold of the versatile little ship.
“Don’t worry, we understand. He was the same way yesterday when we were brainstorming ideas to make the designs more viable and user-friendly.” Max agreed with a shrug before climbing the steps into the shuttle’s passenger compartment.
Max decided to check the news one last time before they entered the resort, where access by outsiders would be strictly controlled. With luck, the furor would have died down and things would be back to normal by the time they left next week.
That didn’t look too likely today, the footage from their battles was being used in the new military motivational videos, short pro-Kepler videos meant to give civilians a feeling of safety and national pride.
On top of that, Predatory Instinct was the biggest pop culture event of the month, possibly the year, with three hundred million users on pre-order for next week’s official release. The ads played every second commercial break, splashing their faces all over the data network.
“It is all your fault. Who told you to get all those thirsty young women pining for you in the Harkness cosplay?” Nico joked when the feed recommended a fan compilation of scenes of Max as their next video.
“That would be you. I distinctly recall you picking out the costume.” Max pointed out.
“Relax, it’s part of being famous. You should see the fan video feeds they made of me. Luckily for me, the default setting in the shuttle had the child safety on.” Nico laughed.
“There will be tons of bad art and amateur fan fiction created for any popular new game. The streamers use it to increase their viewership when they can become the face of a game community.” She added, dismissing Max’s embarrassment.
They watched a random episode of a comedy series for the rest of the flight, which extended to over an hour due to flight routing and speed limits over populated areas. Nobody was a fan of repeated sonic booms outside their hab dome after all.
The highlight of the whole flight was the landing. As soon as they entered the approach pattern, both Max and Nico realized that the resort used large, winged canines as part of their security patrol.
The look in Nico’s eyes was a dangerous one, so Max warned her in advance. “If you upset the security there is a very good chance you will get both of us thrown out before our vacation even starts.”
“Relax. I just want to pet the puppy. Even if they are large, these ones are trained, I am sure you can pet them.”
Her chance came as soon as they landed. A security guard with a canine companion came to check their shuttle for contraband, sniffing around outside before they were allowed to disembark, then waiting to the side to welcome them to the resort.
“Welcome to the… Lugo, no.” The guard started his spiel, then had to stop as his canine lunged at Nico.
It was fast, so much so that Max couldn’t intercept it in time, but it wasn’t aggressive, it was nuzzling and licking Nico as she rubbed its head. Max recoiled a little in shock, then checked Nico’s thoughts to see what she had done.
There was no way a trained security dog was that friendly, plus the handler panicked when it moved.
What Max found was that the guard animals all had cybernetic obedience implants to prevent them from attacking guests. Nico had hacked it to make herself the canine’s new best friend.
After a few seconds, she changed the settings back and the beast returned to its handler and stood at attention to memorize the scents of the guests the way it was trained to do.
“I am very sorry about that. It’s a side effect of one of my System Functions and not his fault at all.” Nico explained.
System Functions could be almost anything, and there was very little chance that they could prove she was lying, so the guard simply accepted the apology, but he did reprimand his partner for forgetting his training.
Since they arrived on a Chen family shuttle, that was the extent of the security measures for them, and the guard led them to the reception area where dozens of hosts were waiting to greet them and take care of anything they could possibly need while their luggage was sent to their room.
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