The meetings between the Koleska planetary leaders, military leaders and politicians ran all through the night and into the next day. There were huge logistical issues with what they were attempting to do, and now that everyone had a chance to hear from Commander Yuri, they were well aware of the issues with the Arisen Army's tracking virus, which had presumably infected the majority of their vessels by now.
That was the biggest issue that they had. If the Arisen detected the move, they could follow the civilians of the planet to their new homes. They didn't target military facilities on purpose most of the time. They only eliminated them to get at the soft targets behind them and wipe out as many of their targets as possible.
The discussion didn't include the humans, though there was a delegation from the bureaucrats welcoming both of the Destroyers to the system and encouraging them to stay and help out now that they had arrived and called for replacements to take their place at the Anomaly.
The Ship Commanders both thought it was hilarious how fast they turned from "Limited military alliance" to "Please be our new best friends ever" once they saw the level of destruction that the human warships were capable of, but they were chosen for their command because they could be polite and political and not cause international incidents, with decades of experience in the task.
For the next three days, Max waited as the Koleska hammered out the details before finally deciding that they had a proper solution. The move would be done in one wave. They would send a cutter around to innoculate all the involved military ships, which would bring the troops and cadets to the planet, take the civilians off, and then return to fortify the area.
That way, they could be relatively sure that the vessels wouldn't be tracked, and the ships would spread the antivirus to the planets where they were dropping off the settlers, which should reduce the chances that they were attacked. It wouldn't be instantaneous, which might attract the Arisen, but the planet would slowly vanish from their tracking like the population died out or was moved away.
The Koleska deemed that was the least suspicious way to do things, and the regular travel of the ships would help reduce their signature to the Arisen Trackers in the same way.
When the final message was sent to Max and the other human vessels, it was actually a relief. The plan was finished, and they would start moving people before the next attack started. All these delays only increased the chances that an attack too large for the planet's population to survive would occur before they could be evacuated and the military force could replace them.
Once the decision was made, the Koleska proved to be very capable planners, and the first ships were there the same day and reloaded with civilians that night, prioritizing the skilled workers first, as they were the most needed by other worlds.
The day after that, over a dozen massive ships arrived, dwarfing even the Destroyers but not quite large enough for Max to call them a Colony Ship.
Going through the information that they had gleaned from the Koleska computers, he identified them as their "Civilization Class Bulk Transports." They were a relic vessel of the Koleska empire and had been mothballed centuries ago before the war even started.
They had been deemed obsolete by the adoption of the Template Constructors, which reduced the need for massive injections of raw materials on a regular basis. So, they had never been contacted, and had no exposure to the Arisen virus, which would mean that they wouldn't be disappearing from tracking at all, so they should be nonentities, and the vanishing of the locals would go unnoticed.
It was a last-minute change when someone noticed that they still existed and were operational, so the final batch of troops would simply stay here in their ships if that convinced the Arisen Army that they were gearing up for a nasty fight, all the better.
Nico was in wholehearted agreement with the plan, and the Destroyer Captains weren't far behind her. They had full Regiments of Mecha on board, all upgraded, though not to the extent that Shattered Pride and Cleansing Light were. It would be a shock to the Arisen to face new styles of light and medium Mecha, which they would withhold until it was necessary to overcome an intense attack.
Until then, they hoped to keep them hidden as a backup weapon since the deal they had with the Koleska still made the locals the frontline troops, not the humans.
The ancient transports left just as the rest of the military arrived, and a message was sent through to Max on the secure channel by Commander Yuri, with an added tag from the planetary Governor.
[Commander Max. You indicated that your terraforming devices were capable of creating buildings and infrastructure. Might we meet with you to plan the rapid construction of a series of military academies on the surface?]
It was short, simple and direct, definitely from the Commander and not one of the politicians.
[I understand. We have plans already programmed. Would you like to use them, or would you prefer to use a local design pattern?] Max asked.
[That is the current discussion, but I have come to understand that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission.] Commander Yuri answered.
Max smiled at Nico. "You heard the man. We have had a miscommunication about the necessary repairs and upgrades to the planet. Make them something nice."
Nico hummed happily as she programmed huge military academies and bases into the Terraforming Arrays over each of the cities, as well as a whole new base, with a giant monument to the fallen capital, built on its former location.
They would be finished within the next two hours, and with the intensity of the negotiations, which Max could sense coming from the meeting rooms, they likely wouldn't even know what had happened until it was done.
While Nico finished her work, Max took a second to delete the records of their most recent communication from the devices of both themselves and Commander Yuri, as well as the Station's logs. It was much more believable than letting them be found later and still claiming a miscommunication, after all.
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