Discovery
"Captain, The C-2 have returned safely with the target," Altea reported.
"Prepare the cage and inject the chip to them before they could make any mess," Ed commanded as he went toward the hangar to welcome the returning pilots.
When he reached the hangar, the mechanics were already doing their job to check the mechas for any damage, even the Red Falcons were being inspected as every deployment might result in wear and tear even if they did not get attacked.
He looked at the C-2 that had a lot of damage on its armor, but he could see the damage was mending itself, even if the Mecha was already on hibernation mode.
The holocaust engine was working continuously to ensure the mecha to be in top condition, the only way to destroy the mecha completely was to destroy the majority of its system or the alien tech itself.
The C-2 doesn't actually need any repair, but the mechanics were still checking for any error just in case the holocaust engine malfunctioned.
"Captain!" they greeted him as he got there, Aya and the other two mech pilots were not harmed in any way from the last deployment, they were just a bit tired from the lengthy deployment.
"Good job everyone, you did not disappoint me," he praised them for their successful deployment.
They thanked him for his praise but it did not make them overconfident, everyone know that the fight was a close call if they did not follow Ed's command then they would have hundreds of metal-eaters swarming over them, at best they might lose the C-2 and at worse, they would lose the Alpha-Charlie if that happened.
They had too little mecha to actually exterminate a whole den of metal-eater, unless they have a heavy artillery mech then they would need at least a squad full of mecha to safely exterminate the den.
"Ed, what do you want with them? Metal-eaters don't sell that well since they are ugly and not very smart," Aya asked him.
"You will know after a while, for now, get some rest," he told her while patting her shoulder.
The simple gesture made her blush, and she did not question him any longer, she just nodded at him before going to her room.
Once she went away, he focused himself to look at the captured space creatures; they had been tranquilized once they got into the Alpha-Charlie, the dose it took to tranquilize them could kill an elephant.
Ed saw as an automated robot injected each of them with the taming Chip, each of them had been programmed so the Space creature would not harm the crew or eat the ship, it also made them absolutely obedient to Ed's command.
The injector used to inject the chip was bigger than a shotgun, as they had a thick skin that could block bullets.
In his eyes, they looked like an oversized rat with metal skin and fur. From the data sent by Altea to his smartwatch, they weigh almost as much as a solid block of metal of the same size.
"If this thing attacked humans, then it would shred them to pieces," he mused. There was no fear in him, as he knew they would not be able to do that.
Humans actually wanted to enslave space creatures to be their pet and weapon, but their slave collar was not effective on them.
The obedience collar use was specifically created for self-aware creatures such as human and alien. With Daemo's taming chip, Ed could actually capture space creatures as he pleased.
When the injector was injecting the chips, it made as loud a sound like a gunshot as it took a lot of force to inject the chip.
"The chips are online, Captain. What are we going to do next?" Altea asked him.
"First, let's move them to an empty room, I don't want to make a mess here," he instructed the AI.
It made the bots transport the still sleeping creatures, because of their weight, it needed three worker bots to move each of them.
"Altea, how detail can I command them? Will they do everything I tell them?" Ed asked the AI as it would be easier if they could follow detailed commands.
"You can be as detailed as possible, Captain. The chip will help them understand your command, as long as their body allows, they would follow it as best as they could," it replied.
"Good," he said while moving to another room.
It was an observation room. He did not risk being in the same room as the creature as he planned to make a mess.
A giant screen shows the room that holds all the three creatures. They were still sleeping soundlessly.
"Wake them up," he commanded.
Ed was alone in the room and no one knew what he was doing with the creature. He was not a researcher, but his experience of leading a giant company taught him a lot of things.
He was confident that he could at least manage until he hired qualified people. He did not want the other to watch what he was going to do as he did not know how they would react.
The room was soon filled with a green gas before the sensors detected increasing activity from the creatures. They were about to wake up.
It did not take long before they raised from the ground and started to look around. They tried to claw at the floor and walls, but for some reason, they would always stop an inch right before they could touch them with their sharp claw.
The green gas soon got filtered out as he observed their behavior, "Altea, Can I command them from here?" he asked.
"Sure, Captain. You can talk through your smartwatch, I will forward it directly to their chips," The AI answered.
Ed directly raised his smartwatch, "Stand still, line up near the wall and be obedient," He told them.
They soon stop moving and start to line up by the wall before stopped moving. The chip had made them as obedient as a robot. Altea had set them to maximum level since Ed was worried about them.
"Pull out one claw from each arm and put them on the floor," he commanded the creatures.
Once he commanded them, they raised their claw to their mouth before using their teeth to pull out the claw.
They grunt in pain, but none of them stopped what they did. Once the claw was pulled out, they did the same with another claw from their other hand.
Ed looked at them without sympathy, while the AI could only stay silent and let him do as he pleased.
"Altea, send a robot inside and retrieve the claws," he instructed.
Soon the claw was brought out of the room. While it was still a bit bloody, Ed could see the wounds on the creature's arms were healing rapidly.
As a space creature, they evolved to close wounds in seconds because the blood in their body would be vacuumed out of their body if it stayed open.
"What are you doing to do with them, Captain?" It asked him.
"I want a detailed report about the claws and their composition, test their ability to withstand pressure, impact, heat, and any other thing you can test it with," He instructed.
"Yes, Captain" it replied.
Ed soon raised his smartwatch once again and commanded the creatures to pull out some of their furs and then let the robots retrieve them once more.
He commanded Altea to test the fur just like before, then he proceeded to command the creatures to pull out two of their teeth.
He was curious about their claws and teeth for their ability to break through the C-2's armor. If he could use them to make weapons, then it would surely become useful.
He actually wanted to experiment with the creature's skin and bone, but he stopped himself as that would cripple his lab rat.
He planned to breed them first so he would not need to capture more. Fighting another group of metal-eaters was not worth it.
After finishing acquiring his sample, he let the AI gather data from them before he went back to his office. It would take a few days to test all the samples.
"Captain, we are almost ready for another FTL jump. Is there anything else you want to do here?" Altea asked him.
"Gather some minerals from nearby asteroids, we will use them to feed the metal-eaters, I don't want to waste precious metal on them," he told the AI.
After some resource gathering, the Alpha-Charlie continued its journey to the Millenium base; they did not need to stay in the barren star system any longer.
Ed was spending some time with Aya and Dea while having lunch, he had spent time with them from time to time to increase their favorability to him; he believed the system would reward him if he maxed out their favorability.
He was having a simple conversation with them when he suddenly remembered, "Right! Tomorrow is the first day of the month. Looks like I will get a visitor," he mused.