One of the junior Koleska blurted out in surprise when Commander Yuri played the video feed for him. "Oh, I recognize those. Those are the little Mecha from the VR Pods. I thought they were a game construct."
"No, they are the backbone of our light military forces, used for urban combat and other delicate situations, where levels of firepower like what is wielded by Shattered Pride or Cleansing Light would cause too much collateral damage.
We're not in the business of annihilating inhabited planets unless the species on them is one of the extremely aggressive non-sentient ones that infest our Galaxy. Those ones have to be fully purged from a planet, or they will repopulate and continue to kill everything that they come across." Max explained.
That seemed to convince the Tinnar that they were both firm in their beliefs and benevolent when possible, which improved their first impression of the humans as a possible successor to the Knife Ears as an intergalactic scourge.
"It seems that your species has a unique way of dealing with issues. Is that part of their nature, or is it a societal development?" The Tinnar's cultural advisor asked.
"It is a cultural phenomenon. During most of our development, we were fractured into much smaller groups, and infighting was common, even while we were engaged in battles against hostile alien species. But in more recent times, we have formed larger alliances so that we can mobilize the might of the species in its majority and put an end to the rebellions and infighting.
We're far from perfect, and the process is far from complete, but we have made a solid start."
Their discussion was cut short when the attack alarm went off again, signalling an Arisen attack.
[Incoming Arisen vessels. Materialization between the planet and the Station.] The announcement repeated.
That was the customary attack pattern, where they would appear and surround a world, then crush it. For once, the Arisen were doing what they were expected to do, and the entire Koleska fleet had trained for this.
Max and Nico jumped to their feet and pulled out small shield generators from their flat spaces, a part of the Piloting Suits that they would put on once they were closer to Santa Maria, but an essential safety measure in case the Station was attacked on their way to their Mecha.
"Our apologies. We will be happy to finish this after the attack." Max called as they ran, but half of the table had already spread out, leaving the Tinnar guests sitting there awkwardly with the bureaucrats.
The lead bureaucrat hummed at the Tinnar group leader, in the Koleska equivalent of a smile and sighed. "It seems that we have been left behind again while the fighting rages. You can be assured that the Station is quite safe, though. The shields have never been breached during the Arisen attacks, and the defence fleet here is the finest in our entire Empire."
The Tinnar gave him a dubious look, but a junior staffer came to his rescue.
"The humans have granted us some of their learning technology, and it has allowed us to increase the quality of our war machine pilots by an impressive degree. For the last four battles in a row, we have set species records for low casualties, and they have been improving with every fight.
If we keep up like this, we might actually be the clear winners of the engagements and not simply staving them off in a war of attrition." The young Koleska declared proudly but produced data to back up their point.
"Interesting. So it's not just a military alliance?" The Tinnar asked.
"In theory, it is a strictly military alliance, but the humans are generous with their technology among allies, it seems, and they were the first to propose a deal for learning machines to improve our soldiers.
I am ashamed to say that they might have found our warriors lacking, but once you see those two with your own eyes, you will understand why we are not upset that the humans only sent two people to uphold their end of the deal." The lead bureaucrat explained.
"Are they really as impressive as the rumours are? That ship looks quite large." The Tinnar leader asked, making the Koleska bureaucrats bring up the Station's video feeds.
What they saw was just one ship, a Colony Ship shaped like a pyramid nearly ten kilometres tall, with a terrifying number of fighters and War Walkers deploying from its surfaces.
Even at an early estimate, while they were still deploying, the Station's defenders were outnumbered ten to one just in War Walkers, and the crescent-shaped fighter planes would make it hard to even get to them, as well as posing a serious threat to the surface of the planet if they chose to descend.
They were also too close to the planet, its moon, and the Station for the humans to use Antimatter weapons, even if they wanted to. The backlash would damage their own vessel and cause huge casualties among the civilians.
"I will admit, this is a larger than usual force, but I have confidence that they will be able to deal with it. As I said, our force here is the finest trained among our entire species. However, if you wish to prepare to depart, I won't hold it against you." The bureaucrat sighed.
He somewhat wished that he, too, could run away from this, as the odds didn't look good, but it wasn't physically or ethically an option for someone in his position. He would be stripped from his rank if he fled, and he didn't have the authority to commandeer a ship to leave in.
Max and Nico launched seconds later, and their weapons were firing at full rate and maximum dispersion pattern as soon as they were clear of the Station and had a line of sight to the Arisen Army.
They weren't targeting the main ship. That was futile at this point, and they were going for maximum damage to the army itself. The two Mecha were decimating the Arisen numbers before the fighters could close the distance for their shorter-range particle weapons to get close enough to threaten the Mecha.
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