"Commander." Yinn said as she gave a salute with the rest coming out of the maintenance bay after Rocky and his engineers had installed Package Ten in them. To top it off, Rocky even added the latest Tactical System Operating System which was currently available for Majors and above, citing official reasons that Package Ten could not be used optimally with the current operating system. Obviously, it was 'favouritism' since Rocky is under the command of Jin and the System but people who undoubtedly see it as a 'kind' gesture from the Archduke himself.
"Or should we say Captain?" It was the first time Tellie teased Jin and the rest also gave him a proper salute while grinning. All of them do not know what exactly had happened but they knew that they were installed with some of the restricted hardware and software that were not available to them if they were under the 'same' commander. Either way, their absolute adherence to this new Jin had allowed them to soar even greater heights which they could have never achieve.
One of such heights was their promotion.
Alongside, Jin's promotion letter to captain, the Archduke had also indicated that the Mechanoids serving under him would be raised one rank higher as well for their service to the country. (Killing dozens of Mechanoids deserved just that!) In addition to the promotions, recommendation letters for combat war medals personally written by the Archduke had also been sent to the Military Council for vetting. (Of course, it was all written by the capable personal attendant and Raymond had even assured Jin that those recommendation letters were merely a formality and those combat war medals would be issued to them as soon as the letters had been processed.)
These news were the first thing that they received as part of their notifications when they were booted up, allowing them to appreciate whatever Jin had done for them during their downtime. They were initially afraid that both Jin and the team would receive the greatest punishment of them all, and once they were shut down, there was no chance those Grey Bear War Maidens would ever see the light again. Therefore, to be able to be rebooted up for service and those notifications plus the upgrades installed, grateful was a word that could not be sufficiently expressed to their commander. If this world was a relationship game, that trust meter Jin had with those War Maidens would practically be broken as their trust for him had reached more than max level.
"There is no need for that." Jin exclaimed with a gentle smile and gave a return salute. "After all, we have lots of work to do." Jin added as he pointed at his ear, indicating that he will be telling them what had transpired for the past half a day when they were shut down. Everyone knew that Jin was an outsider, an anomaly of the current world and even if they were to take his words at face value back then, there was no way the War Maidens would find it logical.
Even as he explained to them a partial explanation about the System and how the Archduke had become his permanent ally, they still found it hard to believe since it had defied all rationale. No one in this world will believe that they could serve someone else after talking to them in a short period of time. And thus, the Mechanoids confirmed that Jin would have used some special outsider powers that allowed him to do that. And as Jin spoke more about it, they understood how they were brainwashed and in hand were also roped into it as well as the Tactical System had taken this opportunity to enter their processor cores and change some of their codes so that the logs if nefarious people were to ever kidnap them and dig dirt on Jin would not be able to find anything useful on him.
This means that the Mechanoids will auto censor themselves while keeping the secret that were not accessible to their 'black box' due to the System's coding. And yet that was not a problem since the Tactical System had already have its hands in those War Maidens. It automatically uploads and downloads information so if the War Maidens were ever decimated, it was easy to recreate them again since most of the information were with the Tactical System.
"So... That's the gist. Boy I am hungry..." Jin said as he could feel the hunger pangs really going for him after not being able to eat for such a long time.
"If that's the case, I think we should call it a day for now. Get ourselves acquainted with this current town and perhaps visit little Marvin." Tellie suggested and everyone agreed.
"And if we are going to Commander's new land, it would also be best if we gear up and recreate members who we lost in the previous operations." Yinn added.
"You mean Grey Bear Squad is not just the four of you?" Jin asked as he never knew there were more of them.
"Yeah, our medic died and we usually have a temporary War Maiden as part of our team. Now that we have some money, we can get our medic back and perhaps get a permanent member for the team too." Yinn said and Jin nodded his head, checking the number of gold bars he had left after performing the demonstration. The Tactical System on the other hand already told him that it was feasible but Yinn made his worries flutter away when she told him to cash in on all the bets they made once they officially submitted the scoutting mission.
"Huh, you mean all these rewards from the Archduke ... none of them are part of the mission rewards?" Jin was genuinely confused and the entire squad laughed as they simutaneously opened the holographic consoles and showed Jin that the mission was still pending.
"Yes, that's why we are all in disbelief when we heard how you managed to get this much... reward even after spending them for your said demonstration." Diaz was eyeing at them, wanting a good feast.
"Well, then what are we waiting for! Let's go to wherever you go to submit your mission details." Jin said and the squad said the following in sync.
"Yes, Captain!"
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