Chapter 88: Preparations
After seeing the letter from Central Command, Max headed straight for the mecha hangers to see what, if anything had been done to the Stalwart while he was away.
So far they haven't done much, only swapped the barrel of his Battle Cannon out for a regulation model with no blades welded to it. Even if Command had approved his modification of it, that wouldn't be surprising, since the old barrel had taken some battle damage over the course of their mission.
Nobody is currently working on his unit, so Max climbs the gantry and hops inside, powering up the Stalwart to check the functionality and optimize the battle Cannon for the new barrel. Everything looks fully functional, but as Max goes through the structure with his [Optimization] Skill, he notices that everything feels really sluggish.
Checking again shows that everything is at the very peak of spec performance, and Max pauses in confusion for a moment, wondering what went wrong. Then it occurs to him, that his mecha is fully optimized, but it hasn't been modified by Nico for higher performance. After nearly a thousand rounds out of the old Battle Cannon, going back to a bone stock one is just painfully slow, so Max sends a text alert to his second in command to come to fix his new artillery piece as soon as she has time.
The big question tonight is what colors should he go with for the unit? Realistically, the Crusaders will never be able to blend into their surroundings, unless they pretend to be trees in a forest., and even that would require the observer to be at least half blind. But highlighting their presence from a distance is also not a great idea. So he needs something that will blend in with most surroundings, while still being unique enough to make them stand out from the standard-issue troops.
Max looks over the uniforms for the incoming recruits, to see if they will be any different from the 42nd Armored that is retiring, and finds that they are similar, but not quite identical. The new units will be olive green with bronze trim, and the infantry will wear blue berets with their unit insignia on them.
None of them really know what they will be assigned to do after recruitment, with all the talk of political uprisings, but Max found that after a while, churned dark brown dirt and gray stone dust were the most common colors on the two battlefields that he has served on.
Brown and Gray is a pretty lousy mecha scheme though, looking dingy at all times. Pilots take great pride in their Mecha, so something with a bit of flash is the standard, with the green of the mecha that originate on Kepler 111 being the outlier.
Max plays around a while and decides that a bone-colored armor with bronze trim and red unit markings is his favorite of all the color schemes that he has come up with so far. In battle, it will make them stand out, but not enough that they will be overly highlighted against the skyline. Meanwhile, on parade, it will look noble and powerful. That should make the pilots happy.
Special Tactics units often disguise their mecha for missions anyhow, either for the locale, or to imitate the target units, so the main scheme won't always be on them, and almost never on the specialty units like the Mobile Suits and Powered Armor.
Max returns to his room, where he pulls the color scheme up on all of the units that they are likely to be using and sends a copy to Nico. She can give her opinion on that in the morning once she has time to really go over it and make a decision on how she likes it. If she has a color scheme in mind that he likes better, Max will consider changing it, so he doesn't send the final orders through to the hangers yet, and simply settles into bed for the evening.
Fortunately, Nico doesn't have any objections to the new color scheme, so Max puts the details into the Unit's data before breakfast and heads to the training grounds to see how the three new officers are progressing. The presence of so many soldiers for the combat training is doing them a world of good, not only do they have multiple partners to choose to spar with, they are all at different training and physical ability levels.
They are still working on unarmed combat, but with the recent practice, Max can start to step up their skills, from basic throws to combinations and defensive grabs. If progress keeps going this way, they shouldn't have any issues once they get to the recruitment grounds to pick up the new unit.
Two days later, the first round of requisition orders arrives in Max's inbox. Their total Mecha count has been finalized, with five Crusaders, Thirty Light Mecha, all Corvette Class, and one company of infantry.
The provisioning will mostly be done after they arrive, but the color scheme has been approved by Central Command, as have the Light Mecha requisitions and the Crusader assignments. But what Max needs to know, is what patterns will he be ordering? The Corvette Class Mecha can have a variety of equipment, but there isn't enough budget to get all of them at once, especially not if he is going to order the specialized equipment he knows that the unit is going to need.
Not having a unit on board to discuss everything with is becoming a real headache for him, and even the General doesn't have much experience with provisioning a Special Tactics unit. He does turn out to be a wealth of knowledge about the actual tactics though, which indirectly gives Max a better idea of what they're actually going to need and what it is just frivolous spending.
Once he finishes meeting with General Tennant, Max calls the three new officers to a spare meeting room for what might be the most important meeting of their career, other than the trial that landed them in jail that is.
[Ari, Paul, Vincente, report to Meeting room R13 in 30 minutes] he sends to their wrist devices, pulling the three officers out of bed in a hurry.
They see him every day at the training grounds anyhow, and it's not even breakfast yet, so whatever he has to talk to them about must be important. They're all hoping that they are going to learn about their new Crusader Class Mecha today since they are almost halfway to their destination now. None of them thinks that it is likely that they will get any sort of choice, given their military records, but the mere fact that they are going to be back in one of the giant mechas again is a blessing.
"Welcome, you're right on time." Max greets them, three file folders sitting face down on the desk in front of him when the officers come running in.
"I have the Crusader assignments here in front of me, as you might have guessed. The decisions have been made by Central Command, so I had no say in what you will be getting, but the Central Computers should have picked them based on your skills assessments." Max begins as the three of them stand in front of him, too nervous to sit.
"First up is the Bulwark. Crusader Class, equipped with an Ion Destroyer and Gauntlet. It even comes with a matching Combat shield. Ari, Central Command has assigned the Bulwark to you. Conveniently, it is the same basic pattern as Tarith's Rage, so you can ask Major Nico if you have any questions about tips and tricks for the optimal use of the design." Max says with a grin, making the tall blonde laugh.
"Next up is the Ferrus. Crusader Class, long-range spec, equipped with an Ion Destroyer and Heavy Laser Cannon. Paul, Central Command has assigned the Ferrus to you. Take good care of her, that heavy Laser is going to come in very handy for breaching armor and reinforced buildings." Paul picks up his folder with a big smile, looking over the details and specs of his new unit without a work spoken.
"Last up is the Morning Glory. Vincente, Command has decided that the optimal pattern for you is a Battle Cannon and a Rending Claw. That should come in handy to support the infantry since the central plasma torch can be used as a flamethrower." Vincente nods, not entirely happy with the choice of the claw over the Gauntlet, but beggars can't be choosers, and in a Special Tactics team, there is a chance that his equipment can be changed in the future to better balance the squad.
Max contemplates the crew he has been given. In total, they have two fully long-ranged mecha in Stalwart and Ferrus. They have two that are capable of artillery bombardment when necessary, and they have three that are capable of close combat, including one that has reinforced armor and a custom Combat Shield. That seems to be properly versatile and well-rounded, so at least it doesn't obviously look like Central Command is discriminating against the pilots that were denied pardons.
That might only be because of intervention on his and Nico's behalf, but Max is thankful for whatever caused Command to decide to give them not only five Crusaders for their team but five that should work very well together.
The three Captains have finally taken a seat, engrossed in reading the history and details of their mecha, so Max sends them a silent message to skip morning training and report after lunch, giving them a little over four hours to celebrate before he pulls them back to work. It's not like the units are on board yet anyhow.