Max greeted the next morning with an uncharacteristic wave of enthusiasm, despite the monumental hangover brought about by a night of drinking and gambling at the Games Room. Today, he was scheduled to begin work on the new Heavy Mecha Project X137.

Though perhaps it would better be called a Super Heavy Mecha, given the size of the weapons that Max had seen prepared for it. He hadn’t seen the design specs on the new Mecha yet, but it had to be a pretty substantial frame if it was going to take the beating of six Battle Cannons rapid firing from its back. He didn’t even know what the Main Armament was supposed to be for it yet.

Given the estimated size, the Phalanx Class main weapons were all going to be viable options, or perhaps the Lab had prepared something unique for it. They did say that they were making progress on the Fusion Flamer, so the x137 Might be getting close quarters infantry suppression as well as Artillery capabilities.

“Ready to get back into a Mecha simulator?” Nico asked, walking in his door like she owned the place.

“More than you could possibly know. The controls on an Orbital fighter are so simplistic I wouldn’t be surprised if you could manage them with your [Drone Controller] Ability.” Max agreed.

Nico was looking much more subdued than usual today, wearing one of the oversized hoodie and tights outfits that were popular among the majority of female researchers for the ease with which they could be changed out for work. They weren’t even brightly colored, just a gray hoodie and black pants. It was a bit odd to see her that way like she was wearing camouflage or something.

“Alright, let’s get a move on, so we can beat the lineup at the entrance,” Max told her, grabbing his hoverboard on the way out the door.

Now that they were settled into a routine, they didn’t race along like they did the first few days, instead, they slowed down some to wave at and catcall friends from work. Many of them catcalled back, envious of the transportation the two Majors brought with them.

Most of the staff got no warning at all before they were transferred in, so they didn’t bring anything with them other than the standard military kit. The hab dome sold anti-gravity boots that were fairly fast, but more like ice skates, in that they only hovered a meter or less off the ground. So while they could fly down empty streets, they couldn’t compete with the hoverboards for versatility.

Much to Max’s surprise, a number of workers from the structural design labs were already in line at this entrance today. He knew that a lot of them lived in this zone, but they didn’t have to change before their shift, so they usually showed up at least half an hour later than the Testing Lab workers did.

“You’re Major Max, right? I’m Lilith, head of the X137 design team.” A tall and curvy blonde greeted Max the moment he landed at the back of the line.

“Then it sounds like I will be the first of your digital testers. It’s good to meet you, Lilith.” Max answered politely and the woman got an intrigued look on her face that Max wouldn’t quite place, but he was almost certain that it spelled trouble for him.

“We’re all from the same team, we came in early today so that we could get a fresh start on the project and not waste half the morning getting set up. Apparently, they changed the design parameters twice in the last month, and the Coding team was going insane trying to get everything that the Structural team demanded to function.” A smaller blonde with bright green eyes declared much too happily for the sentiment behind her words.

She had an aura about her like she just wanted someone to be kind to her. Kind of like a puppy that was meeting new people, and it was impossible for Max not to want to pat her head and tell her she was a good girl.

That might be very odd to actually do though, given that he was likely five years younger than most of the staff here, but Max was sure he would not have a hard time making friends on this team.

“I see you’ve met Moonie. Be nice, she’s a fragile little flower, who had never had her blossom picked.” One of the other researchers teased, making the smaller woman blush and the rest of the team laugh.

“No blossom picking until she’s at least 40 years old. We all know our precious little flower is only interested in wholesome things like Plasma Flux Capacitors and servo actuators.” Lilith admonished the team, which only intensified the laughter.

“Wholesome is the true path.” Nico agreed, making Moonie giggle.

“I wouldn’t call your obsession with mecha wholesome though.” Max pointed out and Nico just shrugged.historical

“You love mecha too? Have you seen the new designs for the new Comor Pattern Fusion Plasma Reactors?” Moonie asked, making Nico smile.

“They won’t let me play in the reactor design team yet, since I’m still new. I’m on the X109 Fast Attack Crusader project now.” Nico clarified, making Moonie sigh.

“That’s a shame. It’s such an amazing breakthrough, but only so many people get to be on the design team. They’re using it in the X137 though, so I managed to get in here, and get my chance to examine it close up.” Moonie explained.

“I’d say to tell me all the juicy details, but we both know that’s not allowed.” Nico winked, then stepped forward to check herself into work for the day.

She hung around to the side for a moment until Lilith got through the checkpoint, then whispered something in her ear before waving and going to the changing room. The tall blonde gave Max an even more intense version of the intrigued look that she had given him the first time they met, and Max began to worry about what Nico had told the woman. It was definitely about him, but the look he was getting was a mixture of playful and something else that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.