Jerry pulls up his notes and raises two fingers for attention.

"Next subject people. We've got our initial orders, and are making our first port call at Vucsa 5. We'll be there for a solid week or so to transfer cargo and people, take on recruits who want transit back to major Undaunted facilities or to join the ship's company and to basically play nice with the Duchess. We'll also be looking into rapid domestication for a local bird. We've got orders in the cloning tanks, and Wichen has fabrication orders for her small arms. I've given her the run of the armory and a few of the armorers to assist her, all in all it's proving to be a lucrative side business. Ship's company wise we're in good order, like you'd expect coming out of dry dock. We haven't managed to break anything yet, but I suppose that's just a matter of time. In the meantime we'll keep up on the drills and improving our ship handling skills across all departments, and increasing our margin of safety for the civilians."

Jerry turns towards Ghorza, all business now. "Ghorza, what's the status of the ship's embarked troops?"

Ghorza nods before tapping at her communicator, bringing up a display.

"We're probably 60% combat effective at the moment. The only element that's completely full up is the ACE (Aerospace Combat Element), but I'll leave that to Commander Sarkin. Ground forces wise; we're still integrating human Marines and various specialists into the normal rifle squads and beginning more advanced infantry training to make sure we all know how to fight Undaunted style. They're all doing fine but it takes a hot minute to get proper unit cohesion out of them, and my former mercs are still learning how to do things like Marines.”

A short video comes up of ongoing infantry training deep in the Tear’s hull as the regular infantry conduct aggressive force on force training. To the professionals in the group, the Marines were fighting well, but there were notable lags in coordination and movement. Seconds didn’t seem like much to some, but it was life and death in combat.

“So that's probably a 50% drop in total combat potential. If pressed we could shake some trained squads out of the various people throughout the battalion who could work together, and the rest would be an extremely dangerous mob. But that's not nearly what we want out of them, nor is it even vaguely acceptable for Marine infantry. We’ll be training aggressively till that problem is corrected."

The image shifts to display the unofficial company patch of the Mech unit. "On a positive note though, the mech suits are better off, nearly 100%. We haven't really put any humans into that unit yet, and those girls know their suits inside and out. We have a few detached to the Test and Evaluation unit, along with a few suits of power armor, but if the shit hits the fan, the suits and their owners can be back with their squad within five minutes depending on where the reaction unit is needed. So we can drop them at full strength if we need to."

Another click, and a shift over to the power armor unit's logo. The armored figure, what Ghorza had told him was a traditional Horchka armored warrior from when they were still planet bound, carrying a human assault rifle waving the troops ‘off screen’ behind her forward. The figure was superimposed over an outline of the Tear, and carried an Eagle Globe and Anchor symbol in the upper right. The bottom of the icon had a rocker with a slogan in Horchakasha that could be liberally translated as the ancient Marine Corps slogan ‘Gung ho’. Bastardized Chinese for ‘All together!’. Used in slang to label a Marine who was a Marine's Marine. Someone almost too in love with Mother Corps. Not quite a motard yet, but perilously close.

The mighty green beauty scrolls her data pad for a moment.

"The next lag point is in power armored troops. We were able to get a few suits, like for you sir, and for Top Ramos, but it's complex, expensive equipment, and the gear we do have is going to take time to get into service. We need to get people fitted, and their suits calibrated. I'll be scheduling you for a couple long sessions to cover that, so don't expect to get too much chair time the next couple weeks. Once your armor's been set up and ‘learns’ you once, you never have to do it again. Even on new armor if you can bring the data over on a chip or something, but that initial bit's a pain that even the Cannidor with all their experience can't skip."

The display switches to an image of profile pic of every member of the power armor company, to include Jerry and Jaruna. Jerry, Ghorza, Isabella Ramos and a few other members of the company all had a red filter over their image to indicate they were presently not mission ready.

"Power armor company is presently around 90% combat ready. Everyone but the Skipper and Top have probably spent more of the last year in their armor than out of it. Warrant Officer Jaruna is quite the asset in this regard, and has been helping integrate power armor with Marine Corps combat doctrine. She's also agreed to join the company for combat drops, which brings us some heavy weapons assets that you don't normally get outside of Cannidor troops. Few species handle power armor quite like Cannidor, or have the bodies for some of the things they can do. You can get some big Agela, but they don't have the tail for that extra heavy weapon. Sometimes two for a really big Cannidor. Going from one to three heavy weapons to four to five in a single heavily armored woman's insane. Cannidor made gear is incredible in general, they've really mastered the art form and we should buy whatever we can get in their ‘Midget' sizes.”

A press of a button brings up footage from a test range as a power armored figure fires bursts from what appeared to be an M2 heavy machine gun retrofitted into the back mounts that power armored troops used to carry the really heavy toys.

"Next, we've been making progress on integrating human kinetic weapons. That's also going extremely well. The "light" machine gun by Jaruna's standard, the M2 is a fantastic platform. Top informs me that a similar weapon was used to make 2000 yard plus sniper shots during a human war, so I've been demanding that level of accuracy from the integration with our suit targeting systems. Near pinpoint accuracy that far away in an atmosphere? No one will expect that!”

The display changes to a power armor suit with weapons highlighted across its various potential mounts.

“Standard load out for our power armor is... under discussion. Presently we're thinking about mounting weapons in the arms. A mix of lasers, plasma and kinetics. We're currently working with Wichen and the armory techs to figure something out, but in a perfect world I want a high fire rate kinetic weapon, some rapid cycling lasers. The left arm will contain a plasma caster. Top Ramos suggested adding a plasma grenade launcher functionality to the plasma caster, so we're looking into that. I also intend to mount a close-in defense weapon, of some kind.”

The image switches to a focus on the back of the armor, displaying a variety of compatible heavy weapons.

“Back weapons will vary based on mission, but recoilless rifles seem to be leading the charge in our planning sessions along with M2s and the occasional 25mm autocannon. Throw in another weapon in the hands in special circumstances that can be anything from a third heavy weapon to a battle rifle, or Jaruna's custom 40mm combat shotgun or it's smaller cousin, and it's a disgusting amount of potential firepower."

"How big is the bore on the "small" ones?" Jerry asks with a wry grin.

"25mm, a decent step up from the 12 gauge shotgun the regular human grunts will still be using. We're making the 25mm barrels already so it was determined to be easier to go with that size instead of going with 23mm barrels like the KS-23. We don't have a stash of unused kinetic AA weapons around. We've had some interesting developments with the shotguns. The humans have started calling them the Great White Shark and Bull Shark respectively for the record. It won't work with the Great White, because the recoil has proven to be intense even with axiom reinforcement and assistance, but the Bull Shark works out quite nicely as a repeating shotgun.”

An animation plays, showing the cycle of operations for both weapons in quick detail.

Both take magazines without issue, but Wichen and some of the girls from Mech Company managed to work out a linkless ‘belt’ feed. So I have Wichen trying to figure out a mount for them. For PA troops I’m intending to wrist mount them as a "surprise" defensive tool, or for use in close assaults, especially for the girls who like to wade in with both hands swinging. We'll have one set aside to mount to your armor Skipper, as well as one set up as a normal infantry weapon for your armory. We figured you'd appreciate the new toys."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Far be it from me to complain about getting more guns... I'm going to need to expand the armory in the den if you and Wichen keep this up. Bayonets still standard?"

"Absolutely. Axiom infused for most of the troops. Myself, Jaruna and you got monomolecular blades. Anyone else can ask for that on their personal or issued weapon, but you'll have to pay for it just like the pirates and anyone else wanting custom kit. Speaking of custom kit, the new revolver that's been proliferating quickly through the ship has gotten an actual designation. It's an NLM Custom. I'm told it stands for Neo LeMat, apparently humans had a similar revolve once upon a time with a smoothbore barrel that could take a charge of black powder and buckshot. Sounds pretty brutal, but I'd say ours is a little more refined with its underbarrel plasma weapon. Someone showed me a picture. Ours are certainly prettier even with some of the more... unique engravings people have commissioned."

Jerry chuckles thinking of his own NLM revolver that was sitting in its slot in the armory in the Den.

"Thankfully Wichen made mine just as pretty as you can get. It makes a good formal pistol for events since anyone reading up on humans will likely underestimate them as weapons... or ignore the kinetics entirely and focus on the nice, comfortable and familiar plasma weapon. Either way, let's get a pair made for Miles Brent and Agenda Lilpaw, and another for Cistern when we hit Centris or detach a ship that way next. Miles was never special forces material but he's been dragging his wheel gun with him since we left Earth. Doubt he'd ever replace that thing, but he strikes me as the type to appreciate this sort of thing. Make sure Miles' has some piratical swagger, human style, and class up Agenda's. She's apparently gone deep on this whole being a refined lady thing, so we'll present it as a refined gun for her newly refined sensibilities. That can pierce plate armor and put a hole the size of a fist in a bear."

There's a quiet chuckle across the room.

"Anything else to report from the Armory or the infantry battalion Ghorza?"

"Just family business."

"Might as well tell the class, ship this size, we're all extended family."

Ghorza nods. "The Field Pistols are done, and the ones that have already been finished have been customized. So the entire Bridger family is now standardized on field pistols. Jaruna says the civilian girls are doing pretty good with learning how to use their new hand cannons. The suppressor rings really helped out there. Not to steal your thunder Sir David, but the JSOC has also decided to standardize on the field pistol, though a fair few of them are also packing the NLMs."

Sir David points to his own NLM riding in its shoulder holster, complimenting his commando sweater and making the man look like something out of the second world war. "It's a capital weapon really. Absolutely chuffed with the chap who came up with it. High caliber, high velocity round with excellent armor piercing and terminal ballistics, bonded with a plasma weapon. Hah! Kinetics certainly have their place but I can't say the lads and I mind a weapon that doesn't run out of ammo."

Jerry nods, before focusing on his former rival and good friend.

"Speaking of JSOC, Sir David, anything to share?"

"No major updates skipper, we're still intending to hold initial tryouts for a proper commando course in the next day or so. This will enable us to at least dig into some basic training while we transit to Vucsa 5. While everyone else is working, JSOC will be doing an extended field exercise to put our would be commandos to work. They'll earn their beret and commando tab or die trying, and that's very much a promise. Most of the new candidates however are women, so we will work with the Chief Medical Officer to ensure proper screening for pregnancy is undertaken before we do any form of null training. Such individuals will be dropped, and allowed to retest with the next class."

"Fair enough Sir David. Anyone else got anything pressing before I give the floor to Syl for the detailed brief on the commercial half of what's going on, along with some of the logistics picture for what we'll be doing for the Undaunted on this leg of the trip?"

Masha raises a hand, tipping her hat back. "I do my lord."

"Sir works. Or Skipper. Hell, in private I'll even take Jerry from my senior staff."

"You are a lord by the ancient terms of my people, it is the most respectful way I can address you my lord."

Jerry didn't miss the "warmth" Masha put into the words "my lord" for a second. He also happened to know that ‘my lord’, in certain pronunciations and dialects of the Apuk language, cinder tongue, was also a way to refer to one's husband. Mix that with the sheer intensity of the eye fucking she was giving him and it wasn't terribly hard to read between the lines.

Then again, no one's ever accused the Apuk of being a subtle people. Being able to throw boulders that would make Atlas proud at your problems had that sort of effect on a society it seemed. Jerry put a mental note in his head to resolve the situation sooner rather than later. While he didn't dislike the pretty Apuk woman in the slightest, the heavy flirting she tended towards in the wrong spot could set a bad example for the troops.

Then again, considering Apuk nature, Masha would probably be moving in for the kill "shortly". They weren't quite as direct as Cannidor but they were pretty direct in their way. Jerry suppresses a shudder as he remembers the words Vernon had put in his report.

'If an Apuk takes a man as her husband and he doesn't escape he doesn't despise her enough for it to matter, and if no one challenges her to take him away then no one loves him more.'

Something like that.

It gave Jerry a mild headache. Knight dragon turtle women who could juggle small starships were bad enough without a degree of cultural yandere behavior.

"Right. What's your business Gaucha?"

"I've received a gift from the Empress. I was ordered to wait till we were spaceborne to share this gift with you all, as it is of great value and will make a worthy asset to this ship. My eightfold honored elder sister has good relations with the Imperial household. I am one of the first Apuk in Undaunted service, while we have many humans serving our Empress as sorcerers. I know they do not see it as service, but they serve the Crown all the same. This necessitates commemoration as our alliance continues to be forged into an unbreakable alloy. Her Majesty also wanted to commemorate the launch of the Undaunted's second large starship."

Masha reaches forward and connects to the tri-d viewer and brings up a wire model of a small spacecraft.

"This is the Apuk Starblade fighter. It is a fast, agile, aerospace craft that is at its best in void combat. I have five confirmed kills in a Starblade. I look forward to defending the Tear in one once again."

The design featured an elegant, long, central fuselage with cockpit that maximized pilot visibility with a sweeping, beautiful wing. The engines were in nacelles to the left and right about 1/3 of a way outboard along the wing. Each engine came with two vectored nozzles that looked to give the snappy aerospace fighter incredible maneuverability.

"Alright, admittedly, that's extremely pretty."

Tyler nods "Looks fast as hell too. I'm a bit jealous. I love my Huscarl but that thing is just downright mean looking."

Jerry nods. "Yeah, very nice looking, what's the weapon load out like?"

Masha manipulates a few controls, highlighting weapons pods at the wings. "A paired set of a pulse laser and plasma cannon at each wing tip. The center fuselage holds another pair of pulse lasers and plasma cannons, and a launcher for small axiom enhanced torpedoes. Pirates who capture or somehow manage to buy these beauties tend to replace the launchers with a single heavy laser or plasma weapon. The power he can generate is more than sufficient for such a weapon, and thus armed, they have no need to carry or resupply munitions. We have been supplied with a decent stock of these torpedoes and the information required to make them."

The display switches to a demonstration of an attack on a larger vessel by a Starblade, taking down the target's shields with its energy weapons before launching a spread of the small torpedoes. The mix of plasma and axiom enhanced warheads absolutely devastated the target hulk, burning through heavy armor and rending the softer interior bulkheads like butter.

"I have no doubt Lady Wichen will have a new high yield torpedo for the launchers before we reach Serbow in a few months time. I would in turn like to present any innovations on that front to the Apuk military, share and share alike, yes?"

"...Fair enough. We are playing with their toys after all."

Masha clears her throat, and Jerry catches the little glint in her eyes. She wasn't done. She had a grand finale to the little show she was putting on.

"Which brings me to the rest of the gift. We have one fighter on the Tear now. On reaching Serbow, three more Apuk pilots will be sworn to your service Lord Bridger, and to the service of the Undaunted. They will each bring a Starblade, along with support materials, and an Apuk master technician with several apprentices to service the fighters. A fifth Starblade will be provided for delivery to the Dauntless, for evaluation for possible Undaunted service, or to allow for study to advance new human designs. It is my understanding that the Empress wishes to ensure her new allies' swords are as sharp as can be."

The human part of the table's jaw drops collectively.

"Were we just gifted an entire flight of advanced starfighters?"

Jerry finally manages to get out, incredulous at the Empress's incredible generosity.

Masha nods. "It is good to be the Empress."