Max prepared their official version of the mission report while they waited for the higher authorities to come to yell at them, then sent it off as soon as he was sure that his response, his report, and Nico's version of events matched up with what the Koleska would find on their sensor logs.
They couldn't see through the cockpit shielding of the two Mecha, so they couldn't verify whether or not he was remote piloting both Mecha, so that part was relatively easy. He could also explain away the combat capabilities as part of human technology. He would just have to pretend that he was actually apologetic for the Antimatter warheads since they posed a real risk to the stability of the nebula.
What he got, after the Koleska leadership had reviewed the situation, and the risk that the Arisen could have made it through to the other side without anyone to stop them, was a sternly worded memo.
That was it.
Commander Yuri was the one to deliver it in person since the leadership felt that a digital message was insufficient to express their dismay. He was currently standing just outside the airlock, gathering his courage to face Max. What he expected was an angry alien Commander who felt completely justified in his actions, and as the Station Commander, he was the sacrificial scapegoat who had to deliver the message in person.
Sending it with an orderly would just be insulting, so it had to be him, no matter how little he wanted to be here.
"You do know that I can see you standing out there, right, Commander?" Max asked over the intercom, breaking Commander Yuri from his reverie.
"Ah, yes, of course. Might I come in? I have a message for you from High Command." Yuri replied politely.
Max opened the door, and put on a somewhat stern face for the benefit of the cameras that faced the airlock door, then closed the airlock again when Commander Yuri was inside the ship.
The Koleska Commander pointed to a device pinned to his robes and tilted his head.
His thoughts said that it was an audio recording device, so everything that they said to each other could be verified by the politicians in real-time. Nico would have jammed a video recorder, and those who were with them at dinner would already know that, so they had sent the most simple possible recording device to verify everyone's account of events.
Max cleared his throat and began to speak in a stern voice. "It is an honour to meet with you again, Station Commander. I presume that you have a message for me from your superiors?"
Commander Yuri gave a short bow and handed over the letter. "I have their official reply to the situation involving the restricted weapons of war being used within close proximity to the Anomaly.
They would like to remind you of the negotiations that have been ongoing between our people and the threat to the status quo that an incident involving a chain reaction within the nebula would cause.
It is their most direct desire that this incident is taken seriously by all parties." Commander Yuri informed him.
"Understood, Commander. Is an immediate response required?"
"No, Commander. With this, the incident is considered resolved. I thank you for your time."
Commander Yuri backed toward the door, which Nico opened behind him, so he could politely back out of the ship, and then return to his duties on the station.
Max tossed the letter to Nico, who opened it up and quickly scanned through the contents.
"Oh, this isn't bad. Sternly worded, but not aggressive, demanding, but not hostile. A solid warning but not a threat. I should take lessons in how to send a political message from the Koleska." She commended the letter, then tossed it on the table, no longer interested in the message.
She settled down on the couch with her legs across Max's lap and sighed. "How long do you think we have before the Arisen Army is here for vengeance? With two of their Cubes down, they are going to be completely pissed off."
"It took two days after the Co-Operative left before they arrived here looking for them. So, I think that is about the timeline that we are working with again for the next one. Presumably, they will be finishing with another attack or planetary invasion before they send more troops here.
But the forces are getting larger than I would expect for such a minor Station. Normally they would send larger forces to attack a planet where there is more life to wipe out, not to a station where there is little to gain and every reason to avoid it as a waste of time."
Nico stretched and put her hands behind her head. "A lot of the decisions that they make don't make much sense if they're actually trying to wipe out all life. It would make more sense to wipe out the valuable targets first and then move on to small reward locations like these ones, but it seems more like they are focusing on specific targets like they're looking for something.
It might be something about the targets that they're looking for or something that they think might be hidden in this region of space, but they are going through the species of the region in a methodical way that really does look like there is an ulterior motive."
"What do we have for historical data?" Max asked.
"The Co-Operative had a pretty good historical record of the battles against the Arisen. They used it to try to avoid being overrun or targeted, though we know now that it didn't matter since they were being tracked.
Now, where do we start? The early records are pretty thin since they only start when the groups started to collect refugees, and the records of the groups that were killed off before this group formed were lost with them."
They were in for a long night of data analysis, but hopefully, they could come up with some good news out of this and maybe find a pattern or meaning to the attacks hidden in plain sight.
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