Once he knew what he wanted to do, Max sent a message to Nico and the Ship Commanders, as well as Major Miller, instructing them to meet him in his office for a brainstorming session on the future direction of the Terminus Trading Company.

Other than Major Miller, who handled most of their logistics, as well as the First Battalion, they were all in charge of ships, and by Reaver standards, that gave them a say in all major decisions. It wasn't enough to override an order by the Commander, but if you wanted to keep your Company organized and cohesive, it was best to listen to what your Sub Commanders had to say.

It wouldn't take long to gather, with all the ships in the same Star System, recovering supplies and repairing Mecha after the battle, so Max hurried to put together some suggestions in case his subordinates drew a blank on what they really wanted from the future.

Max knew that most of them would be happy floating around and trading a few goods here and there to keep their pockets lined, but he had to think on a bit grander scale than that.

He had just jotted down a few notes when the buzzer to his door rang for the first time, and Commander Klinger walked in, accompanied by a small brunette woman, who Max assumed was either his assistant or second in Command. He didn't recognize her, so she must have come to them with the new ship, and it would be the perfect opportunity for her to meet the leadership of the Terminus Trading Company.

"Commander, meet Kira. Battalion Commander of my Mecha forces and my interim Second in Command. I have decided to hold a competition for it in one week to give the other officers who wanted the position a chance to prove themselves and establish a proper hierarchy among the crew." Klinger explained.

"Not a bad idea. Good to meet you, Kira, and I wish you the best of luck in the competition." Max greeted her.

"Thank you, Commander, but I won't need it. There isn't any category that they can defeat me in." She quipped back with a smile.

"I like her already. But it looks like most of the others are here, so let me send Nico a message to see where she has gotten to." Max informed the room.

There were a few snorts of amusement at the fact that Nico was missing again, though everyone knew where she would be: somewhere in the development labs, ignoring her messages.

She arrived only a few minutes later, accompanied by a teenage Innu girl that none of the officers recognized.

"Get yourself an assistant? Or just got sick of being the short one and gene-modified one of the Tech Nomads to be smaller?" Klinger asked.

"This is Nicole, chosen because I could remember her name. She is the youngest sister of one of our researchers and was available to carry data slates for me today." Nico explained as if that made any sense at all.

The little girl looked to be in awe of the proceedings, so Max searched through her thoughts, only to find that she had met Nico half a dozen times already, and she really was the only one of her siblings whose name Nico could remember.

The rest were named after obscure Innu researchers, but as her name was Nicole, she was easy for the Cyborg to remember.

It had made them somewhat good friends, as Nico was willing to indulge the girl's interest in human technology, as well as show her where to get the good sweets and ice cream on board Terminus.

"Sorry that I am late, but I needed some time to make a proper presentation. I have the most wonderful plan, and I think that you all could appreciate it." Nico explained, then took one of the data slates from her assistant and placed it on the holographic projector in the middle of the table.

"You know, those things hold multiple files." Max pointed out after noticing that the girl was still holding a half dozen tablets in her arms.

"But then I would have to transfer data between them, and that's just a hassle. My assistant works for snacks, which is a much better proposition than spending the time to transfer all of my files to one tablet." She explained.

If Max's calculations were right, it would take her roughly two and a half seconds to transfer all the data from those tablets to the one she was carrying due to the processor limitations, but it wasn't worth arguing over. Everyone else had brought an assistant with them, so he might as well allow hers, even if the little Innu wasn't security vetted.

Nico cleared her throat, gathering everyone's attention back to professional matters. "Alright, I will start with my idea, the expansion of the Terminus Trading Company through a central hub. We have the technology and vessels to run errands all over the Galaxy and beyond, and soon enough, we will be spread out on various missions while the core group from Terminus attends to the official functions of trade and diplomacy.

But that is no longer viable on Terminus herself. The ship has taken on a life of its own, and making it a target for hostile forces is an unacceptable risk. So, I propose to keep Terminus as an observer, following the main force around, with occasional side trips for the tourists and students, while the business side of our operation is moved to a secondary vessel.

To that end, I present to you the initial design plans for our own mobile operations station, tentatively named the Absolution. Would you like a moment to admire her beauty, or should I start right in on the details?"

She was definitely going to have to give them a moment. Nico's idea of a mobile operations center was possibly the most insane space-faring vessel that Max had ever seen. While it wasn't as immense as the thousand-kilometre sphere of the Alliance World Ships, it was no less impressive simply due to its design.

It was like nothing that he would have ever expected to see from Nico, an elegant hull with the flowing line of an exterior docking ring all down her main body's length, serving the secondary purpose of exterior armour to protect docked ships, with large oval pods seemingly inflated out of the ship, some made of transparent materials and filled with forests, and others opaque, in the same gold as the ship's hull.

If it weren't for the pods, it would have looked a lot like the Cathedral ships, with a beaked ram prow and long body, ending in a pair of rear wings that would never be used in an atmosphere, but with the domes added, and some smooth spires extending from the center of the main hull, just in front of the point where it expanded at the back, gaining dozens of kilometres of extra height, it had a completely alien and organic look to it.

Honestly, it looked like she had taken one of the demonic designs that she usually came up with and put in the effort to make it smooth and pretty, but somehow it really worked.

"As you can see, there are two hundred docking points, each large enough for a standard Cruiser, plus another ten large enough for Battleships, and a special place in the center of the lower hull for Terminus.

Absolution is nine hundred kilometres long, with an intended population of ten million, and a military force set to comprise one hundred standard Mecha Regiments, plus a significant drone force of interceptors and, of course, the four hundred Cutters to deploy the Mecha." She declared proudly, then began to go into details of the design.