Despite every soldier's aversion to additional work, the technicians who had been voluntold to go get the Hydroponics bays up and running were getting right to work. Not that they particularly wanted to do it, but the thought of fresh fruits and vegetables coming soon was enough for them to give their very best to the project.

The traders had only sent them seeds, and some small cuttings, so it would be some time before they would be able to harvest anything fresh, but that didn't matter. Once it was planted, someone would have to tend it and watch it grow every day, and that was one of the best duty rotations that the Technicians could apply for.

Not only was there very little heavy lifting, most days you were paid to literally watch the grass grow.

There were a large number of Kepler wheatgrass seeds in the shipment, a perpetually growing plant that could be cut down periodically, with the main stalk dried and ground into the finest of flour for baking. It was a simple luxury, but still a luxury for any spacefaring force.

Abraham Kepler had a supply on board as well, but it was mostly reserved for officers since the space on board was limited when they had two full-field armies of infantry plus a pair of Mecha Regiments on board.

The Dutchman had a very limited hydroponic bay, with nothing growing in it at the moment, but the Colony ship not only had a massive facility, but it had a transparent dome over it, so it could save power when they were near a star by strategically positioning the bay toward the light.

Max found that to be a bit odd, but the design of this ship was intended for much longer use than most. Either it was because they were expecting a century to cross between galaxies, or because they were going to keep using the ship after finding a new home.

That was different than Kepler, or most Human strategies. They often made the ships modular, so they could drop off all their supplies on the planet and use the containment as building materials for the first settlement, while the core of the ship was left in orbit for safety and as a possible emergency escape vessel.

[Ice-bearing asteroid found. Location incoming.] The staff on navigation duty called over the intercom. They could now do basic manual course adjustments, but it was still easier to have Nico or the Admiral, who also had a System Function for navigation and Computer Interaction, do the actual precision navigating.

[Course input. The Colony ship has a gravity capture system for asteroids, once we are in close proximity, I will bring us out of faster-than-light travel and pull the object aboard for processing.] Nico replied, letting everyone who was monitoring the Regiment's General Channel hear the conversation.

These asteroids weren't particularly uncommon, but they were highly valued for their ice content and heavy metal cores. Both were valuable materials, and with the Kepler Empire's technology, they could both be processed into usable forms within days.

As Nico brought up the details of the asteroid on the screen, Max realized they wouldn't be able to take it on board intact. It was over five hundred meters across, too large for any of the bays that they had available.

Even if they processed it, they didn't have room to store that much material in a single bay, but they could split it up and only fill about a third of the ship's total storage capacity.

It was a monumental find for them, even if the metallic core turned out to be mostly low-value metals and not something that could be used for militarized structures.

[Analysis complete

Total Weight: 517,047 tonnes

H20 Weight: Approximately 108,000 tonnes

Metallic and non-metallic contents are as follows:]

Max ignored the listing of the detailed materials but found that there were a number of Mecha structure metals included in the thousands of tonnes, enough to make dozens of Super Heavy Mecha or most of a Battalion worth of Heavy Mecha.

The trade value of that was immense, but realistically, it was impossible for most merchants to move that much material in any sort of timely manner, so they would take only what they needed and thought they could successfully fence within the next few months or a year.

They weren't just a Mercenary force though, they had the capability to build entire state-of-the-art Mecha. With this asteroid aboard, they should be able to sustain significant damages and still be back at full capacity for the next battle as long as they didn't lose many Pilots.

That was their great limiter. The Mecha could be replaced, and Munitions restocked, but they had exactly zero spare Pilots and no ability to replace the ones that they had. At least not without discontinuing the birth control regimen and waiting a few decades.

Nobody was happier about the news of the asteroid than the hydroponics bay. The only water they had came from the ships they arrived on, the Colony ship's stocks had been removed by the previous occupants. With this influx, they could bring the entire facility online and start expanding their facilities at the maximum growth rates.

It wasn't like they actually had enough people to need all that food, but it could be processed and kept for trade goods. The Kepler Military looked favorably on such an initiative, and they would be rewarded for it if they ever turned it over to the authorities.

[We are in position, reducing speed now. Prepare for Transition.]

Again the transition was a barely noticeable shudder of the ship and the asteroid came into view on the screens in the Engineering bay where Max and Nico had taken up residence.

The rest of the First Battalion was working in this area as well, so it was no inconvenience for them and only a few minutes jog to the Battalion Mess Hall.

A light blue ball of ice grew larger on the screen until the sensors showed it within a few hundred meters of the ship and the relative speeds stabilized to have the two objects traveling through space in sync.

[Gravity Control activated, activating Mining Lasers] Nico reported.

"We have mining Lasers?" Max asked in shock.

"Of course, what sort of Colony Ship doesn't?" Nico replied with a smirk.

He really had to catch up on those ship schematic reports that the Battalions were reporting every few hours.