Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System



The group slowly made their way to the location where Santa Maria was docked, but there was no need to use a map of the station to find it. Even from hundreds of meters away, it was clear that there was a party going on, and their ship was the epicentre. 

There was singing and music playing, and more Innu than Max had expected this station to contain. 

Correction, more Innu than even the Black Market Boss had expected the station to contain. It seemed that an Innu-staffed ship had completely emptied to come here to the party, and they were taking shots of espresso like Rum. The mental overload warned Max of what he was about to walk into, but still, the level of hyperactivity was impressive. 

The Innu were bouncing around like it was a mosh pit, only instead of being in time to the music, it was in time to the conversations they had about the various inventions that they had seen aboard the ship when they came to visit. 

The group that had accompanied Max stopped a dozen meters away and started at the event in a mixture of horror and fascination. There was no way they were getting involved in that, but Nico had already disappeared into the crowd, and Max could sense that she was in deep conversation with a group of Technicians who were discussing the morphable hull design. 

"Well, it looks like I'm not leaving here anytime soon. Perhaps we could go back to the fights?" Max suggested, answering the Station Boss's desperate desire not to be here, where the near ultrasonic babble was hurting his ears. 

"Any station-wide state of emergency cancels the fights for the night. That way, nobody loses out on their bets if they have to return to their ships. 

That made sense. Without the live audience watching the fights, there was no way to guarantee that the footage wasn't rigged or altered, so they would have to be halted if a portion of the crowd had to leave the arena. 

It was also a secure area, so patrons couldn't just come and go as they pleased. The whole section of the station where the Black Market resided would likely be locked down until after the incident that caused the alert was dealt with, and the Boss determined that everything was safe again and their business wouldn't draw unwanted attention. 

This time the alert was outside the station, so there shouldn't be many investigators messing with their business, but in normal circumstances, such an alarm would mean days or even weeks without operations of their illicit businesses. 

"Perhaps we could head for the VIP lounge instead? It seems that your second in command will take good care of your young charge with the help of my staff." The Boss suggested instead. 

The VIP lounge was a private, invitation-only social club for the well-heeled and the largest suppliers of the Black Market to get to know each other and work on related business deals. Normally, someone like Max, who had only done one deal with them, would not be qualified for an invitation, but when the items that he supplied were considered, plus the events of the day, none of the staff found any reason that he shouldn't be there tonight. 

"Tell me, Commander. Do your people pair bond for life?" The Boss asked as they walked through the public areas of the station toward the lounge. 

"That is a tricky question with humans. We do pair bond, though not always for life or even long term. But on the other hand, it is not unknown for one of the partners to kill unfaithful partners or anyone who attempts to get in the way of a pair bond." Max explained. 

The Titans looked somewhat impressed by the fact, as their culture valued strength to an extreme degree, as well as loyalty. The Valkia was only a bit disturbed that the human species was so violent, but he got over it in a hurry since he had seen far worse from many of his own customers. 

The lounge turned out to be just as upscale as Max had expected of a gathering point for the VIP clientele of the Black Market. The Boss led them off to the side of the main entrance to his own private office and then gestured to the door to a closet. 

"You can change in there. There are no weapons or armour allowed inside the lounge, and all Flat Space and other storage devices must be put into locked mode. I'm not sure if we can properly detect the locked mode on yours since it is human-made and not compliant with any of the standards or copyrighted designs of the Alliance, so I thought I would save everyone the trouble and take care of the issue here. 

That made good sense, but the human-made version didn't lock. They are locked to a particular user, but not entirely. That should likely be close enough for the Station Boss, though. So, Max stepped into the changing room and switched into a pair of leather pants and a cream silk shirt, with a simple gold chain and his combination wrist device and flat space. That was classy enough for this place, he thought, then reconsidered and switched to a suit coat and matching pants, one of the only other outfits that had been prepared for the day. 

He knew he didn't pack them. The last items he had put in the device for clothing were a long leather coat and matching pants that he had worn for a meeting weeks ago. Nico must have updated his wardrobe when he wasn't paying attention, the same way that she liked to put out random outfits for him to wear in the mornings. 

Once Max put the suit on, he realized what Nico had done. The cloth of both the suit and the shirt was made of the same fibres as the flexible parts of the Augmentic Armour, and while it looked like a custom-tailored suit, it would actually take a direct hit from a Laser Pistol without burning. 

It wasn't so much a fashion statement as a product-testing mission. One that he had no intention of completing if it meant that he had to get shot to see if the suit actually did its job. 

With his armour safely stored and the Flat Space set to open only for him with mental access, using Nico's skill, he stepped back out to be inspected. 

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