The news of the war between the Humans and the Volga didn't only attract the attention of the Alliance and the Hunters. It also brought the humans to the attention of many other species in more distant regions of the universe, who were more than a little intrigued by what sort of unconventional warfare the humans had thought of to overcome a civilized enemy in such a short timeframe.
They had the general details, and the humans had enough military forces that they could invade a hundred planets at a time, but the rest of the details were sketchy due to the varied tactics.
The one thing that every species was sure of was that they used a combat suit as the Hunters did, in varying sizes based on their target, and that made them a very scary opponent.
Attacking a planet normally meant sending a fleet to fight their fleet, and whoever won would take the planet. But invading the surface meant that your enemy had to choose between completely destroying their own planet to dig you out or fighting a land war.
By the standards of most species, it was barbaric, inefficient, and completely beyond rational thought. Attacking the surface meant that you might harm or kill the civilians instead of claiming them as a prize. Worse, you might destroy valuable factories and inventories of goods. But, like the Hunters, they didn't seem to care about that at all. They were more interested in teaching the enemy a lesson in prudence.
That was the primary reason nobody would attack the Hunters. Not because they didn't think that they might have a chance to win a fleet battle, the Hunter fleets were relatively small, and they could be overwhelmed individually by many small nations without issue.
But if you did that, the Hunters would show up on your planet, and once that happened, all bets were off.
An enemy was an enemy, and there were no non-combatants when the Hunters went to war, only game and prey, and the distinction meant very little to the species who had been designated as either one.
Curiosity did send a lot of those species looking through the Alliance records on the humans and reviewing the footage that was available of the battle against the Volga so that the other species could form a proper opinion of how they should interact with this new species in the future.
There was a surprising amount of data about the species and the Galaxy that they were in, given the recent date of contact. But everything that the aliens read was more and more disturbing. Killer insects, genocidal giants, killer robots, vampiric humanoids with mind control abilities. The entire Galaxy was a Class A Hazardous nightmare, and these humans still considered their home galaxy safe and interesting enough to be worthy of holding guided tours.
The Alliance Envoys were closely monitoring the situation as the last of the human forces retreated back home with a collection of new toys to modify and experiment on, as well as thousands of new Alliance Observers sent to ensure that the humans weren't emulating the Volga and just plagiarizing Alliance copyrights.
At first, the humans were deeply insulted by the implications. A Reaver does not steal. They might murder you and take what you left behind, but they do not steal. But once the Observers explained that it was more of an oversight board, like the Reavers' own Rights Council, they were much more agreeable to the notion.
The fact that most of the observers were volunteers from the Innu species who wanted to learn more about the obsolete and antiquated human technologies that didn't make it into the live streams from Terminus also helped things move smoothly.
Humans and Innu had a natural affinity for each other, especially the scientists. Once they got to talking about tech developments, everything turned theoretical, and they all but forgot that they were of different species.
Nico, for one, thought that it was hilarious. She had her own crew of Tech Nomads, and now nearly every Reaver Company had at least one such Innu with their crew. Sure, the Innu was working for the Alliance, but that only meant that she wouldn't help them violate Alliance laws. It didn't mean that she wouldn't help give them ideas on how to NOT violate Alliance law and turn the experiment that they were running into something completely new.
The rapid assimilation of Innu into human military vessels, as most alien species considered every single human ship, was a concerning development. The most tech-adept species was teaming up with one of the most violent and innovative upstarts in the last few millennia, and there was nothing that could really be done to stop them.
So, after finding out that Terminus Trading Company was the designated Envoys of the species to the Alliance, the independent species beyond the Alliance borders started making plans to get someone to that ship and start learning more.
Those that found out that there was an actual Alliance Accredited multi-species Academy on the ship were overjoyed. Sending children to Alliance schools was an important step in building relationships between the political leadership of the next generations. Being able to do it on a third-party location, without the intense oversight of Alliance officials, meant that they could send students whose families wished to avoid such intense scrutiny of their dealings and businesses.
What it meant for Max was a huge increase in demand for space aboard Terminus. Space that they were quickly running out of, despite having doubled the size of the Cruise Ship area in recent months and gaining so many more ships for their fleet. It was a strange feeling, being out of room aboard Terminus, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and guests under his authority, but that was the state that they were in.
He needed a plan. One that would expand the space aboard Terminus to accommodate all of the demands that were placed upon the official envoys of the Human Species to the Alliance, and one that wouldn't leave him locked in his office doing paperwork all day.
In short, he was working on a plan to make himself a figurehead while he designated bureaucrats underneath himself to do all of the actual work. If he did it right, he might even get to spend more time in his Mecha for a change.
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