14 Choices
"Ed, you were so reckless out there! Don't you know that most mecha won't survive the stunt you did? You could have let me pilot the mecha, you know?" Aya hugged him the moment he came out of the holocaust mecha.
"It worked out in the end, right?" he shrugged at her as he patted her head, "Also that was my problem, I don't want you to risk your life for me," he told her.
They were about to separate from each other when Dea ran toward him in protest, "I wasn't told that you will kill them! How dare you use me to kill these innocent people!"
"Dea, it's not Ed's fault, I was the one who did not tell you about it," she tried to defend him in front of her friend.
She was about to continue to talk but he stopped her and stood right in front of the angry girl, "They are not innocent, they came here to kill me and that was enough reason for me to retaliate, anyway, what did you expect from inviting them here? Having a nice chat?" he asked her.
"You!!!" she pointed at him with her hand and about to explode on his face when Aya pulled her away.
She looked apologetically at Ed and brought the angry girl out of the room with her to talk to her friend.
He shook his head and turned his thought to another matter, "Altea, how is our prisoner? Are they behaving?" he asked the AI.
As long as he was in the Alpha-Charlie, he could just talk and the AI would be able to hear him.
"They are doing fine. Our maintenance robot has installed the life support we get from their ship to our ship. As for the items you requested, you will need to administer them personally," the AI reported.
"Please compile their personal data and their ability for me, I want it before my personal interview with each of them," he ordered the AI as he saw them as his future worker and he would need to know what job they are qualified for.
"There are ten people in total, one is the vice-captain of the mercenary group; one strategist and Mecha analyst; two deckhands that were tasked with piloting the frigate; one mecha pilot in training; four mechanics that tasked with repairing their ship and mecha; and the last person is the former captain's nephew. He was the one who hacked on our system," Altea reported as she sent the detailed data to his smartwatch to read.
Ed went through the data and frowned, "Is this all? I seem to hear a girl's voice from their communication channel. Are you sure we don't miss anyone in the frigate?" he asked.
"No, Captain, according to the ship's log, there is no girl in the ship. Moreover, we have started to disassemble the frigates to repair Alpha-Charlie, and we found no one else," It replied.
"Hmm... this is strange, did I hear it wrong?" he mumbled to himself.
"How about our gain? Is there enough material to repair the Alpha-Charlie?" he asked.
"We got enough material, there would also be some spare material to spare." It replied.
"Is there anything else you need to report?" he asked the AI.
"We salvaged two useable mecha from the first frigate, after some repair they would be ready for deployment," It told him.
"Tell me about their performance, how good are they compared to the holocaust," he asked Altea.
"They are the same model as the red mecha you fight before, the official name is Red Falcon, a medium rifleman mecha, overall their performance is not that great as they cost less than a tenth of a holocaust mecha, the only great feature of this mecha is they are more of an all-rounder, they could fight decently even at melee battle," It explained.
It took him a while to understand the specifics of it, as he was not accustomed to reading mecha's statistics.
"I guess it's better than nothing. It would save me a lot of trouble in fighting an enemy at a distance," he thought.
Battle in space usually was kilometers away, at that distance his C-2 would not be able to get closer in time.
In his last fight, the enemy was already a few hundred meters from him so he could use the C-2 to fight them, but such a scenario was unlikely to happen every time.
"Why don't C-2 have any ranged option? Wouldn't it be better to have it?" he asked Altea.
"C-2 is optimized for melee fight, it has its secondary weapon for medium distance, it would weaken its melee performance if we add a ranged module on it. For the ranged fight, Daemo was going to use the A-1, it's an artillery mecha with energy barrier which made it a flying fortress in space and mobile fortress in a terrestrial fight as their ranged option," the AI explained.
Ed could only sigh as the A-1 was already stolen when he got into the Alpha-Charlie. There was no use thinking about it.
He was reviewing the information and resting in the cockpit room when he looked at his smartwatch. It's already been two hours since he left the frigate's crew in the prison.
"It's about time I talk with them," he thought as he told Altea to prepare the item he requested.
It looked like a chip that would be planted in the target's nape, it would make sure the user won't be able to disobey him just like the obedience collar.
He went to the prison to find each individual was locked, separated from each other in a white room. He could see them from the outside while they could not see him.
They seem desperate, as they have been doing nothing since two hours ago. There was nothing they could do in the room other than lamenting their losses.
He got into the first room to have a conversation with his first prisoner; he was the vice-captain of Star Chaser.
The moment he got into the room, the man got alarmed and put up a defensive position, Ed only smiled at the man and pulled out a datapad from his pocket.
"Don't be afraid, I'm here to talk," he said as he signed Altea to give him something to sit on.
A long table with a chair on both ends popped out of the floor. He sat at one end while waiting for the other man to sit on his seat.
Once the man sat there, Ed put a gun on top of the table in front of him. He did so as a show of power and a mind trick.
"Arnold, 28 years old, graduated from a famous military school but got kicked from his own unit and decided to join the Star Chaser five years ago, is this correct?" he read the datapad.
"Yes, that's me. What are you going to do to us?" he asked warily.
"As you can see, I have a ship but I have no crew to man it, I want you to work for me," he said straightforwardly.
"You want me to be a pirate? There is no way I will agree to that!" he got repulsed.
"Well, I'm a good man so I won't force you, you have two choices," he said with a smile, but his smile was so cold that Arnold got a goosebump.
He threw a gun-like tool and two magazines at the man, "That is an injector, the first magazine is filled with a chip, it will ensure your allegiance to me, if you want to work for me then inject it on your nape." He started.
"The second one is a poison that will kill you painlessly, that's my mercy for you, if you don't want to work for me then inject that into your body," he finished.
The man's eyes grew wide at his explanation. He looked at both magazines in hesitation; he did not know what to choose.
"I will give you some time to think, you have an hour to decide. Remember, you only have an hour, if you miss it then you will regret it in heaven," he said in goodbye as he left the room.
He continued to the other room. He repeated the same thing over and over again. Almost everyone immediately injected the chip once he gave them the option as they wanted to keep their life.
There were a few exceptions, though. The strategist decided to inject the poison and die rather than work for him, but Ed did not regret giving the man a choice as it would be better if they choose to work for him rather than force them to.
The second exception was the mecha pilot in training. Before he gave the man a choice, he already agreed to work for him, "I'm ok to work for anyone," he said nonchalantly.
"Now to the last room, let's see how that hot-blooded captain's nephew will reach," he thought as he got into the next room.
