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The next morning brought the alarm bells that signaled the exit of Abraham Kepler from its berth at Comor Station. No official announcement had been made yet as to what their destination was, only that once everyone was aboard they would be going to pick up the rest of the required resources for the testing.

In the Kepler Empire, that didn’t really narrow down their destination by much. Other than the actually inhabited planets, there were countless mining and manufacturing outposts placed within asteroid fields and Nebulae with the needed natural resources for the products that they were making.

Not every Empire did it this way, many of them sent bulk freighters to go recover the resources and bring them to the manufacturing site for safety and ease of access, or in the case of some smaller nations, safety during manufacturing. Leaving your most important facilities exposed near the resources that your neighbors would definitely want was a risky proposition when your Nation wasn’t large enough to fully surround it.

[All Personnel, please prepare for the transition to faster than light travel.] The announcement from the ship’s intercom called out into every room and corridor. For Max that was easy, preparation within your room only meant laying down and waiting. Every room on the ship was set up with one side of the bed facing the rearmost wall, so even if the transition was rough and you got thrown backward, you probably wouldn’t fall out of bed.

Today’s transition gave a sinking sensation instead of the stomach-twisting feeling that Abraham Kepler used to give Max, and he wondered exactly what they had done during the overhaul, and just how worn and damaged the engines were before to warrant such a difference with optimal operation. That definitely wasn’t a complaint about the current transition though, he would take this version over the old one any day.

With the transition over, Max headed to the closest Mess Hall to grab some breakfast, finding it full of curious researchers who had never been stationed on a ship of the fleet before.

“Max, we’re at the usual table.” He heard Nico call, then saw her waving and seated next to Mooney and Sister Lilith.

Both of the girls looked exhausted, but he knew that they went to bed early last night, so he wasn’t sure what the trouble was. In this crowd, it was hard to pick out individual thoughts, so Max got in line to wait his turn.

“You might as well go to the front. None of us know what is good, so it takes them forever to decide.” One of the researchers laughed, motioning Max forward.

The kitchen staff was exactly the same crew members as before, but now with a much happier look on their faces, in their freshly refurbished kitchen, which was no longer painted in the military pale green. Instead, it was a more pleasant sand color, though that was still a military standard paint.

“The departure special is up today, the Menu 13 breakfast.” The cook called to Max when he finally saw a familiar face.

That meal was a stack of French toast, with eggs and sausages, served with a large amount of syrup on top, and a side of fruit. Definitely not one of the healthier options, but one of the best.

“I will take it. And a glass of juice, give me a day before I dive back into cafeteria coffee.” Max replied with a laugh.

“You don’t know how good you had it Major. We’ve been renovating the ship for months, and only got a single week aboard the station to enjoy the good life. But they found us a couple of new chefs, and they updated the meal plans, so I can guarantee that this here will be the finest Mess Hall on the ship.” The cook told him proudly.

It was fairly common for the different regiments aboard to get different menus to match their individual tastes, at least when they weren’t all eating standard ration packs, so a new chef might be just the thing that this place needed to become more than tolerable.

With the cook’s recommendation, the researchers started getting more adventurous and ordering random meal sets to see what they liked, while Max took his place next to Nico since Moonie and Lilith were sitting side by side.

“We got our assignments today. Me and Moonie here are both going to be in the lab doing data analysis for the combat trials. I don’t know when the decision was made, but it looks like they have a pool of extra pilots who have repair functions that the Super Heavy Pilots will get to choose from.” Lilith told Max before he could start eating.

“Strange, usually the orders come all at once, and I haven’t gotten anything yet,” Max told her with a frown.

“General Tennant was by earlier, while I was in the Gym with these two, getting them back in shape. None of the Mecha crew will get an assignment until tomorrow, but the research teams will be getting theirs today once the Team Leaders pick their members.” Nico explained.

“That makes sense. So, are you leading a team again Lilith?” Max asked, wondering how things were going to be organized.

“Not just one of them. They put me in charge of Data Compilation and official reports, so I get to be the evil older sister who drives everyone to get their work done on time. That’s why I’m stealing Moonie back. I need a friendly face to keep them from whining and arguing.

“Maybe we can get you a nice hairy fellow like Russo to cuddle with,” Nico suggested with an evil smirk.

“The cockpit must have a weight limit. With both me and him in there we would barely have room to move.” Max replied, making Lilith laugh.

“You know, that did come up during the design phase, and they determined that it was just within the acceptable comfort range for use by two maximum size pilots.” Sister Lilith pointed out, having done some of the calculations and simulations herself.

“See, as I said, it would be cozy. Then I could find myself another Pilot from Kepler 142 and we could treat the cockpit like a hotel suite.” Nico laughed, knowing that like her family, most of the planet was much shorter than average, small enough that most of their women couldn’t be pilots because they didn’t meet the minimum height requirements. Nico herself was within 1cm of being too small before her conversion.

[Next transition will be in 13 hours and 7 minutes. All Crew, prepare for docking after the transition to sub light speed travel.]