Chapter 503: 503 Test Flight Complete

"Might there be a smaller version of this design available at a later date? I love the design, but such a large vessel would be unseemly for one in my position. Frugality and appropriate government spending are important to the voters of my planet." A guest asked as the pilot prepared to engage the Warp Drives.

"At some point, we will be creating a smaller pleasure yacht version of this design in the fifty-meter range. Large enough to provide all the basic amenities for a traveling couple or small group." Max agreed since he had already seen the hull designs for a ship that size on the Innu Technician's minds.

It was the size of the vessel that the Tech Nomads traveled in, and while it was extremely expensive when new, it was small enough to become affordable after it had seen heavy use and was retired from general use.

"Oh, that would be lovely. Something reasonable, but with a high standard of luxury, in the billion credit range would be just the sort of thing I would take a long look at." The questioner responded, getting many agreeing nods from the crowd.

Now Max had a size and a price point that the Noble guests were likely to buy, so he could have the Innu start working on it as soon as they finished with this one.

Max would insist that they were kept in-house and exclusive, though. Perhaps only available to guests of the Terminus Trading Company. The yacht market for that size of vessel was especially vicious, from what Max could sense in the guests' thoughts, with each of them trying to find a gimmick and lock their competitors out of the market.

It wasn't a mass production area that he wanted to get involved in, but the Reavers were shipbuilders already, and humanity wasn't going to totally step back from any market, so he could start with exclusive and avoid the worst of the headaches.

Half of the ship didn't even notice when they went to Warp until they looked out the windows and noticed the distortion of the fast-moving ship.

"Oh, that was smooth. Even for a Cutter, that was to die for, and the gravity control is amazing. I haven't had to consciously tip my cup once this trip, even while we were going through the asteroid belt." Lord Governor Moop cheered when he realized that he had missed the event as well.

"I consider that test a success. If we can move to warp ten without anyone noticing that we have started to move, everything is working exactly as intended. You would not believe the harsh nature of warp travel in historic human vessels. The Warp Bubble engaged so unevenly that it was considered common and normal for the inexperienced to vomit or even pass out from the strain on their bodies." Nico laughed.

"Seriously? I had heard stories from the Hunters of species that brute forced their way to faster-than-light travel through various methods, but I had thought they were exaggerated." One of the engineers asked.

"Oh, they likely did not exaggerate at all. Forcing the process is the easiest way if you have an abundance of power available and minimal technology, but it is far from the most efficient or the most tolerable way to do it. This generation of Warp Drives is pure bliss in comparison." Max informed him, backing up Nico's explanation.

"You know, the humans really rather remind me of the Hunters. Both in technology and ideology. It is a shame that they are so focused on their own entertainment, or we could have had a wide variety of the unique ship designs that the Hunters produce distributed throughout the Alliance." Lord Governor Moop lamented.

"They certainly do have their own style. Especially that mothership with the arena for the challenge battles. I have never seen anything like it before." Max told him with a smile.

"Wait, you have seen a challenge? You simply must tell us all about it. Hunter Challenges are usually pay per view, and not every Alliance Member allows extreme sports to be broadcast. People have died in those challenges before, you know." A small, long-eared woman begged, standing barely waist high on Max, who wasn't particularly tall for humans, at under 180cm.

Nico smirked and stopped a server so she could take the entire tray of snacks from him before pulling a few other guests to the nearby couches to listen. The move started a trend, and soon every seat was filled, with more rapidly appearing from other rooms as the servants rushed to anticipate the guests' needs.

"Well, let's see, where do I start this story? Terminus had just finished an engagement with the Klem, a vicious species of insectoid that totally destroys and strips every planet that they land on of its resources and funnels them back to their major colonies when we encountered the Hunters for the first time.

No human had come across them before, as far as we know, as we had only just achieved our first Warp 10 flights, which was their guidepost for technological achievement worthy of interaction."

Most of the guests nodded at this, showing Max it was common knowledge that the Hunters didn't care about low-tech species unless they were especially good to hunt.

"They approached our vessel and issued a formal challenge, requesting our strongest female Mecha Pilot come to their ship to engage in a duel with their team leader, using Mecha of the twenty-meter height class.

Now, the Hunters' females are biologically far superior to the males in the physical combat aspects, while humans are the other way around, but with far less of a bias. Fortunately for us, we had a suitable pilot on board, as well as a unique Mecha known as Shattered Pride."

The whole crowd was engrossed in Max's story as he told how the two sides met, fought the challenge to the draw, and then worked out a cooperative agreement for hunting dangerous species within this galaxy, including a short vacation by the Hunter Group's leadership aboard Terminus, in some of the same rooms that the current crowd was occupying.

The nobles seemed to view the Hunters like Movie idols, which they somewhat were to the Alliance Nobles, who would likely never see them in person unless they held a planet close to the border.

The tale of fighting them to a draw was especially intriguing to them, and Max ended up showing them a few clips of the fight, to their delight, before returning everyone's attention to the test flight.

"One last question. This woman who can fight a Huntress Leader to a standstill, might we have a chance to meet her?" Lord Governor Moop asked with joy in his eyes.

"I would say so. She's sitting right next to you."