"Anything new today?"
While Hank had enjoyed having his daughter not only alive, but also back home, he was just as unnerved as Tia seeing a daily delivery of twice her weight in copper for no actual work. Said delivery had shown up some time doing the dead of night, and Hank had nearly gotten a heart attack the first few days he went out into his enclosed yard and saw a pile of precious metals.
"Yeah, he said I can go ahead and start working…"
Likewise Tia hadn't gotten quite used to the entire concept of paid time off, so she was happy that she had finally gotten the go ahead to start working.
"It is just that I also need to keep whatever this is close to me at all times."
Gesturing to the black faux wooden box about the size of her upper body which had appeared along with her normal payment, Tia had no idea what it contained. Having exclaimed it and found that it couldn't open, Tia could hear a faint whirring sound coming from it and was surprisingly lightweight like it was almost empty.
"... Did he say what it was?"
"Some sort of protection for me apparently… It'll open when I need it, or something like that."
Mac hadn't exactly been precise when he talked about the box, but seeing as it was marked 'RED import consortium' like the rest of the goods she had received to sell she wasn't too worried.
(At least it came from him, so it can't be too dangerous.)
"So where are you headed? I talked with Vivi and her boys yesterday and even showed them some of your coal, they seemed interested in buying a test batch."
Being a model dad supporting his daughters interest like he always had, Hank had spent the past few days going around to his acquaintances in the trade with samples of the coal Tia would be selling and recommending it, he had even gotten into the habit of beginning a few nuggets along to set on fire to demonstrate. As a seasoned blacksmith his words carried a bit of weight, but people were expectedly very hesitant to try the strange product. A few, however, had relented to at least test the synthetic coal out, mostly because Hank had promised to foot the cost for a replacement furnace if anything catastrophic happened.
"Okay, in that case I'll start there."
"Sure… There's also the quarter finals today, any news from Mac?"
Mac had done surprisingly well, from what Tia had heard.
"I'm sure he made it to the quarter final that's today, and also something about a knight he wanted to punch in the mouth, but I really didn't get anything productive out of his ramblings."
Over the few days Tia had been working for Mac, she had learned that he was basically a manchild without any strategy or focus. Despite owning an impressive fleet of spaceships, a private army of drones and more advanced weapons than Tia was even aware could exist, Mac didn't really seem like he was burdened at all, or even capable of using the tools at his disposal.
(I guess that's why he hired me, nothing like delegating things you don't wanna do… I guess.)
Still, there was something in the back of Tia's mind that was gnawing at her every time she reached this conclusion, it was like she was only seeing part of the picture.
(Sys-ops is online and well, RED is also doing everything it should given the restrictions I've put on it… What's the speartip status? What's the compliance level?)
(SPEARTIP READY AND IN COMPLIANCE. LEVEL 12 PROTECTION SQUAD TYPE 19 DETACHMENT ON STATION, ESTIMATED TTA; 35 SECONDS.)
(Good, but I want that down to 22 seconds at the most, don't care if visibility rises above current ROE.)
(REQUEST CONFIRMED. ADJUSTING ORBIT AND DISREGARDING CURRENT RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. 45 SECONDS TO COMPLIANCE.)
While there wasn't much Mac figured could happen in 22 seconds, he could still imagine plenty of unpleasant things. Then again, any closer and the detachment of heavily armoured and armed gunships would be easily spotted, so a 22 second response time it was.
While he had been planning fleet movements, interplanetary logistics and contingency plans he was also waiting for the quarterfinal match and staring into blank space.
"Are you just staring at me like that and ignoring everything I say to piss me off?"
That blank space was currently occupied by a supremely annoyed knight, but that was besides the point.
"Pretty much. But your eyes are also pretty interesting."
As Mac's mind had been otherwise occupied he had unconsciously locked on to the only other occupant of the waiting room, and as Anastasia had been staring at and trying talking to a wall for the past 5 minutes she was starting to become pretty irritated.
"I was stuck in a moral dilemma."
"Yeah, sure you were."
(You don't even know what that is.)
Getting the distinct feeling that the knight, Anastasia, was thinking something rude, Mac managed to sidestep his pride for a second and think back on the things he had missed.
"Yes."
"Yes what?"
"Yes I'm really a diplomat, or at least the closest thing to it my country has… Then again, calling where I'm from a 'country' isn't accurate. It's more of a military and ideological alliance."
"You're being surprisingly honest for once."
Although Anastasia didn't believe what the self-proclaimed 'diplomat' was saying in the slightest, he was at least being less vulgar.
"Well yeah, for better, or for worse… Worse in this case, I am the son of a fleet admiral. And now that I've gotten to this point in the tournament I figure I need to start taking things seriously."
This was Mac's real curse, the family he had been born in. And the crushing expectations that had followed.
"I didn't expect you'd be able to do that… Take things seriously, that is."
"... Is this because I beat those other knights? Are you being insecure?"
Mac had expected the knight would respond in kind if he was being serious, but seeing that she wouldn't, he was fine with continuing to be petty.
"Why would I ever be insecure, I'm a knight captain. You can't compare me to just any enlisted person."
"Well, if your subordinate knight's skills with the sword are any indication you might need to be ashamed, not insecure. My bad."
If she wanted to go low, Mac could do lower. If Mac had learned anything in officer school it was how to be a sassy and obstinate asshole.
"You're disrespecting hallowed knights that are the very cornerstone of protection in this kingdom."
"Am I? Then let me be more precise, sorry."
Once again forgetting that diplomacy was the entire point of him being there, Mac saw red when the knight started talking about bullshit higher reasons.
"If I'd failed to beat any of those shitstains dressed in unused, soft armour back home my childhood instructor would've beat me senseless. Also, what the fuck is wrong with you people and this premitive 'honor' system? Fighting is for killing your opponent or beating them so badly they'll never cross you again, so act like it."
Anastasia had heard this argument before, and she didn't like it this time either. Mac sounded like a coward to her, and she wasn't about to be shit talked by a coward.
"That does it."
Standing up to beat the shit out of Mac, Anastasia only stopped when a clerk entered the waiting room to call her and Mac for their semi finals.
"Mac, Miss Anastasia, please follow me for your matches."
Sensing the tension in the air, the clerk nevertheless did his job like a consummate professional. Forced to calm down as she realised going out of control in the waiting area would get her disqualified, Anastasia clenched her jaw and simply walked away.
"... This isn't over yet."
Staring at the door Anastasia left through for a moment, Mac realised he had let her get the final word in and flipped like the petty manchild he was.
"tHiS iSn'T oVeR YeT. You better lose in this match, otherwise I'm going to break your nose for that one."
"... Umm."
Sadly the only person left to witness Mac's tantrum was the clerk from before, who awkwardly attempted to do his job, pointing Mac to the door.
"Yeah yeah, I'm just joking. Besides, I'm pretty sure she wants me, being all feisty like that."
-
(I swear I'm going to 'accidentally' break that guy's family jewels at some point.)
Forced to calm down now that she was among the people she was protecting, Anastasia still vowed to do something to 'fix' Mac. Still, to do that she would need to pass the semi final match and then in the unlikely event Mac also passed she would get her pound of flesh.
Reaching the arena, Anastasia raised her hand in response to a few of the cheers as she was met with a pleasant surprise.
"Ah, Captain."
The person she met on the field was a large man 3 heads taller than her with gray hair, a booming voice and scarred brown skin. His name was Charles, Captain of the Lily knight company and the foremost expert on the killing of monsters that threatened the kingdom.
"Captain, it's good to see you."
"Since that last swarm in the south, I still have a tooth for you, if you're interested."
"Ah, no. That's fine, I don't like keeping trophies."
The tooth Charles talked about had belonged to a partially large goblin king the two of them had brought down together, and while the fight itself had been plenty entertaining Anastasia was soured on remembering even further because of that event's civilian casualties.
"Okay then… Mind if we wait a bit? I wanna watch whatever is going on over there."
Pointing to the other field, Charls had heard much about this other participant and wanted to see him in action for himself.
"You don't want to see the match up from the rafters instead?"
Even without starting their match, Anastasia was pretty confident in the fact that she would win, as she had 9 out of 10 times she had faced her fellow knight captain. This wasn't a dig at Charles, it was just a fact that he didn't have the same amount of experience fighting against people as she did.
"Well, given that I can manage to lose against you slowly the fight might be over while I'm still getting my armour off, this guy has a habit of ending his fights fast."
Chales also knew what the outcome of this fight would be, but he was still confident enough in his own ability to stall that he was worried he would miss the other fight going on at the same time.
"Fine."
Planting her sword still in its sheath into the ground next to herself, Anastasia learned her shield against it as she also fixed her attention on the fight that was about to take place next to her.
Stepping out into the arena stifling a yawn, Mac looked around for a bit with disinterest. The fact that this was the semi final and he still hadn't drawn his sword was part of it, sure, but also he had realised something fundamental.
(These people usually fight with that 'magic' shit, but since I haven't seen a dude get torched by a fireball yet, spellcasting must be banned in those rules I didn't pay much attention to.)
The problem with that was people from this world were fighting with a handicap, while fighting people with enhanced physical performance was something he had done for hundreds of years.
(Hmm, also not a threat… What's RED's numbers looking like? I expected a lot of anti matter from that gas giant two systems back.)
Mac's opponent this time around was a lady in way too little clothes wielding a knife and bladed whip, but he wasn't worried.
Worse than being worried; Mac was bored, his limited attention span had long since worn out, and he wanted to get on with this thing already.
(RED REPORTS ANTIMATTER PRESENCE AT 5.2 TIMES NOMINAL IN MAGNETIC TRAP.)
(5.2? That's far above standard, and also a fucking pattern around here.)
Dodging the knife whip that had clearly been aiming for his throat in clear violation of the arena rules, Mac started pulling up additional datasets from the surrounding star systems as he looked at the relative abundance of rare materials with renewed suspicion.
(Then there's all these gravity readings from the dwarf planets a few systems over… I know most rocks of that size are mostly just loosely packed balls of dirt, but this is taking it to the next level, all while there's way too much useful material in them… It's like they're purpose made resource satellites.)
Now standing over his opponent which was rapidly being whisked away by a team of healers, Mac ordered a few core samples to be extracted to throw out a few feelers, then he made sure to blow the haughty knight a kiss as he returned to the waiting room before his finals match.