ALL NOVEL We're Here For The Broadsword
"So! What specifications are you looking for, dear customer?" Felicia asked, her eyes practically shining.
I was prepared for this so I tapped on my Codex, bringing up the notes that I had written to send it over to her.
She opened the note I sent her and quickly glanced through my request.
I had already let everyone else add their own request to the note so that note contained everyone's expectation of the new ship.
Which, honestly, wasn't a lot anyway.
Amber pretty much only had one request which was to make sure the bed in the Captain's room is big enough to accommodate several people.
Lea, unsurprisingly, was only concerned about having space for her hydroponics garden and whether amenities could be arranged to make one of the rooms available to be converted to such a purpose. Partly because we don't think these people would be able to prepare a garden up to our standards and also because Lea wants to do it herself.
As for Ries, she only wanted the one thing I promised her, which was to set aside a workshop for her. It shouldn't even be that big of a problem because when I went to look at the layout of the base ship, there was already a maintenance room that could fit her requirements.
Our sales rep slowly lowered her personal terminal after reading through it, "So the main thing I can see is that you wish to convert two of the cargo holds into ship hangers and there's specific modifications you would like to make to the living quarters?"
I nodded, "Is everything in there doable?"
"Give me a moment…"
She started tapping on her personal terminal, her fingers flying across the screen at an inhuman speed as she seemed to be making some calculations on her terminal.
In less than a minute, she finished typing on her personal terminal and I could see that her face was scrunched up slightly.
She sucked in a breath before looking up at me, "Dear customer, the price of these modifications would be quite significant. May I ask what your budget might be?"
"One hundred and eighty million Credits," I answered her easily, having already discussed and agreed on this amount with the girls ahead of time.
Her demeanour changed almost immediately, "Oh! Please forget I said anything, dear customer! I would need to discuss this with one of our engineers, do you mind if I bring one of them into our discussion?"
I nodded to allow her to proceed and I was expecting her to leave the room to get the engineer here but instead, she pressed a button on her table which prompted a hologram of the words "Connecting" to appear beside her.
It took a few seconds before the words changed into a hologram of a bearded man who nodded in greeting, "This is engineer Barak, what can I do to help?"
Felicia swiped her terminal's screen in his direction, "We have a custom order, Barak. Can you take a look and see if it's doable?"
The bearded man looked down, presumably to read the note that Felicia had sent him.
It took him a longer time to finish reading it than Felicia did and he lifted his head to look at us with an eye, "This would be a pretty big order…"
"Money is not an issue," Felicia immediately answered him in our stead.
Despite being a holographic projection, I could tell that his eyes also lit up like Felicia's did when he heard those words.
He looked back down again, "So the order is for a custom Broadsword Combat Freighter with two cargo bays converted to ship hangers. Could I ask if you are intending for the ship to see combat?"
I nodded, "We're Mercs so yes. It would serve as our mobile base and also a combat asset."
"In that case… Is it alright if we make use of the heavy assault variant of this model as the base? It would have more turret slots and heavier armour plating and shield capacity at a slightly higher price."
I gave him a look, "As long as it's within budget."
"Hmm… I would need to do some calculations to make sure of that but I believe it would be doable within your budget. There's a few things I would like to confirm with you as well."
"What is it?"
"For one of the rooms, you asked to have a swimming pool installed, yes?"
"That's right, is that possible?"
"For the pipes to move that much water, we would need to get a specific class of water pumps which is only made in the inner colonies and that would take at least a few months to be delivered here. Are you ok with that waiting time?"
A few months?! Fuck no!
I grimaced, "Scrap the swimming pool request then. What about the bath one?"
I had listed on the note that if the swimming pool request was too expensive or impossible to be fulfilled, my second choice would be for them to install a large bath instead.
Thankfully, engineer Barak nodded, "This one would be possible with the pumps we have on hand."
"Perfect, let's go with that then."
"Would you also be outfitting the weapons on the new ship with us as well? Or would you be engaging another party to arm it instead?" He asked.
I turned to look at Lea and Ries.
I have already told them that in a combat scenario, they would most likely be the ones piloting and controlling the weapons on this ship while Amber and I deploy our own ships to fight whatever threat we were facing. Thus, they should be the ones to decide how the ship is armed.
Unexpectedly, Lea and Ries seemed to have discussed with each other and listed down the weapons they wanted because Lea immediately sent a note from her personal terminal to him.
"Do you have these weapons in stock?"
The engineer took a moment to look through the list the Alv had sent him and whistled, "You girls really know your guns I see. Damn, even the SN-one railgun? That's something that most people don't even know exists. Yeah, we have them, except for a few but those can be ordered and delivered within three days so that's not a problem."
"Would we still be within budget though?" Ries asked, looking quite worried.
Barak seemed to take a moment to think for a moment before turning to me, "I can send you a menu on what you have requested for and whether you would like for additional modules to be installed. You would be able to see the price for yourself there."
My Codex then beeped from receiving a new message and I tapped on it to open it.
A screen popped up and I realised it was sort of like the game's interface where you could outfit and make changes to your ship.
I'm surprised that something like this exists with such uncanny resemblance to the game.
Heck, there was even a colour menu where I could change the ship's colours and even add designs on it just like the game.
I quickly looked through the options while Amber, Lea and Ries looked over my shoulder to look at the screen.
I had to ask Ries and Lea on where they wanted to position each turret and weapons but the rest of the ship's customization was left up to me.
The total came up to a hundred and sixty five million Credits which was surprisingly cheaper than what I had feared it might cost.
I was just about to confirm the order when I noticed an additional module I could add to the converted hangar of our new ship.
"Err… Sorry but… What's an Exo-Knight hangar?"
Barak gave me a weird look, "Exactly what it is? A hangar to store an Exo-Knight? The converted hangar would have space big enough to store a B Class ship alongside an Exo-Knight if you wish for it."
No, no, what I am more curious about is what even an Exo-Knight is.
Wait… Don't tell me…
I tapped on my Codex to bring up the GalNet, using it to access the galactic search engine before I slowly typed in 'Exo-Knight' into the search bar.
Several pictures popped up and I could feel my body tense up from the sight of what was displayed in front of me.
No way… These exist in this universe? They don't exist in the game at all!
If you were wondering what I saw, I only have two words to describe what I was looking at. Mobile and suits.
Holy crap, you mean I could be piloting a mech that is designed for space combat? This is way, way better than just having a power armour!
"Do you sell Exo-Knights?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm, hoping that my remaining fund could actually get me one.
"We don't."
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.