Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

The data that the mysterious man transferred turned out to be a remarkably intensive investigation into the origin of the Klem infestation. Surprisingly, the man had even included his actual personal details to get in contact with Max about the business deal, and it wasn't just a ploy to give him the data that his employers had gathered.

From what Max could tell, the man worked for a Mercenary group, or Private Investigators, as they called themselves, on behalf of a half dozen planetary agencies and biotech companies who had commissioned their work.

The fact that they were likely all paying for the same team was irrelevant, the group had put a lot of work in to deal with the issue, and from the look of it, they had deployed over a thousand separate agents to get all the data in a timely manner.

That was far more effective than the Government's efforts had been since they weren't bogged down by bureaucracy, and the data included everything from copied sensor logs, purchased information from merchant vessels who had moved Klem biomatter to a pair of labs belonging to the same company, data on the company who had broken into their labs to steal the research, and finally the part that Max was most eager to find, the source of the original Klem Pod infestation.

One of the merchant ships that had been hired to bring the Klem to the region had come under fire from a foreign force and had jettisoned their cargo to avoid an infestation when they lost power.

The Mercenary group had responded to the battle and had saved the crew and ship but had not learned of the contents of the jettisoned cargo until after it had collided with a nearby planet.

From there, the infestation spread quickly, and the routes by which it was delivered were most marked.

The only questions left unanswered in this data set were the two most recent planets, as the investigation had ended before they were infested, but going by the location of the research facilities, Max suspected that one or both had lost containment, and the Klem had taken over their worlds, but the incident hadn't been reported to the Alliance Government due to the nature of the issue.

"You look like you learned something important just now." The Station Boss whispered to Max.

"A message from the mothership. We have more data for our investigation, and I think I might know where the Klem infestation originated."

The Valkia man nodded, then tapped something into his wrist device. "I have set a bounty for confirmation of the source and its elimination. I suspect that it will be a messy affair since the Government isn't doing anything about it, so the fee will be quite worthwhile for the one who has the flexibility to take care of the situation."

"That is wonderful news. I take it your crew will need to leave right away, then?"

Max nodded. Fairly quickly, yes. But I think that we should give the Innu time to unwind before we leave. They've been bored out of their skulls since they can't celebrate their accomplishments with anyone outside of their social circle, and they needed this chance to unwind with new data."

Boss Archibald gave a rueful chuckle. "Well, that can't be helped now, can it? It's not like they can tell the world about all of the cool new illegal things they've discovered."

"It's hard to argue with your logic there. How about we spend a few minutes having a nice drink while they have fun? One more hour shouldn't hurt anything, and I can ask my Subcommander to get started on the research work."

It was work that would undoubtedly include many of the Innu who were gathered at Santa Maria for its stopover here at the station, which would help them calm down and feel useful at the same time.

Everyone on the station who knew about the situation was irate that someone had let an invasive species loose on their station twice, and very few of them believed that it was a coincidence or an accident. So, they would do their own work, hacking the Government's data networks to find out as much as they could about the locations that Max was headed for and what they might expect to meet along the way.

He had just settled into a comfortable chair next to the Myceloid Prince and the Station Boss when his wrist device dinged, giving him an update from Absolution.

The battle was proceeding better than expected, given his absence and the resulting reduction in targeting data, but the casualties were still very low among the human Pilots. The Envoys were looking for an update on his progress, but Major Miller had told them that Max was in negotiations with the Station Crew at the moment and couldn't reply until morning, so that could be delayed, and a series of seemingly unrelated transfers, all with the same Purchase Order on them had arrived, totalling five hundred billion Alliance Credits.

"Station Boss Archibald. If you could confirm your purchase order, I believe that we have your items in stock." Max told him with a smile.

"Excellent. Inform your staff that my team will be there for the introduction to the use of the device and to take delivery in twelve hours." He agreed, then placed his thumbprint on Max's Wrist device to let it be scanned.

The purchase order was a portion of the data for his thumbprint, encrypted with an eight-digit password, and both were necessary for the unlocking procedure. It was a bit overboard in Max's estimation since he was sitting right next to the man the entire time, but it was more likely for the other Black Market members that he worked with and for the businesses that had funnelled the money to Absolution to make the payment.

"It's really that easy?" The Myceloid Prince asked once he realized what sort of transaction had just occurred.

"If you have a planet already, it is. Did you have one in mind? I think we've still got another Array in stock?" Max asked.

They didn't, but they could make one in a matter of hours with the materials they had on board. An even trillion credits in business would look good on his mission report. It would give the World Ship the Gross Domestic Product of an average Colony World during its first generation, and since they didn't lack for much, it would let them leverage even more loans to other colonist groups and others who wished to make payments on purchased items.

Max caught a flash of surprise from the man hidden in the corner and realized why it was that he could hide his mind so well. That was an Illithid in an unconventional suit. Max hadn't even noticed that he was listening in, so the creature was incredibly skilled at his craft and had just now realized that the Terminus Trading Company was setting itself up to become an interstellar bank.

They were providing in-house financing and delivery for human-made goods and profiting off both the markup and the interest payments. It was a great money-making scheme, and it would give them an excuse to be in any corner of the Alliance at any given time—the perfect cover for Reavers who wanted to move goods without too many questions.