Once the furor about Max's declared intention to fight on his own began to die down, many other species took the opportunity to declare the same plan.
"It is the opinion of the Koleska Empire that a decentralized approach, with communication between forces, would be optimal for the successful defence of the threatened planets.
If our force is not sufficient for the task, we will choose to call on allies for support, but routing all decisions through a central bureaucracy will only delay the response times and create infighting and resentment among those sent to the most brutal of battlefields.
We will not shy away from our duty. We will fight. But we will do it because we choose to, and there will be none to take responsibility for our successes and failures but our own Commanders." The head of the Koleska delegation, a Defence Minister that Max recalled meeting once before, announced.
"The Dobryev second that sentiment. We will work with our allies when necessary, but we will dispatch our own troops to make the most timely of interventions. We must not let the species closest to the Rift be wiped out along with all of their knowledge and culture."
That was a thought that many of the species had. The various technology that the species kept to themselves was incredibly valuable.
Not many were like the Humans, who had spread their knowledge all through the Koleska and improved them faster than any other species in recorded history.
Even fewer would have had the ability to adapt that quickly, even if they were given the methods and knowledge. Their cultures would collapse under the strain of adaptation.
After a few more minutes of meetings, the Koleska Defence Minister stood again. "I am afraid that this meeting must be adjourned for the day, as we have a memorial starting in two hours, and I am needed on the planet."
"I will send you our shuttle information once we have the human delegation sorted out," Max replied, then rose to his feet, signalling to the others that the meeting was well and truly done.
Nobody wanted to be the first to walk away from a negotiation, but since the humans had agreed with the Koleska to put everything on hold until after the Memorial, it was no longer impolite for them to return to their ships and their own species' funeral rites for the lost.
The Valkia were also in mourning, having lost four out of every hundred soldiers they sent out into the void. It was far lower casualties than most, especially along the other flank, which had been first to break with many forces being completely overrun, but it was more than any Valkia force in living memory had suffered.
Even worse, the casualties were suffered during a loss.
The Valkia didn't hold a large public ceremony for the dead, though. That wasn't their way. Instead, it would be a private affair for those who knew them personally.
So, Max sent out the messages to the other humans and the Innu, as well as the Valkia Commander, who would likely nominate someone for the political purpose of attending the meeting before they were on their way again.
[Will there be reinforcements for the Human fleet?] The Innu Admiral asked, thinking about how to distribute the repair and restocking teams for the next battles.
[Yes, but I'm not sure when. I am told that there are more coming, though.] Max agreed.
There were a lot of forces already here, but there was word that more Mercenary Forces had signed up for the cause. Both the Reavers Trade Group and the major faction governments were offering substantial rewards, and that had tempted a number of wealthy Companies who could afford to upgrade to new military Drones to join the battle.
Max didn't expect that most of them would field Mecha except in the most dire of situations, but with thousands of drone pilots and a heavily armed ship, they would still be a formidable fighting force.
Nico was already working on changing the Drone specs for the next fight after analyzing what worked well and what was mediocre in this last battle.
The decision was that they would use larger drones this time to increase the number of weapons that could be fired at once. The smaller ones took up too much airspace for the firepower that they had since they were limited by their power generation.
Making them closer to shuttle size would also help disguise troop movements since the actual shuttles would be much more similar to the drones.
She was just finishing the orders when they picked up the last of the Commanders and made their way to the surface of the planet.
Ironically, they were landing at the Terminus Academy Airstrip, named in honour of their contribution to the development of Koleska military technology. It felt a bit strange to see himself honoured this way when they were here to mourn the dead, but even Max had to acknowledge that there would have been millions more dead if the Koleska had remained as they were.
The ceremony had them standing next to Commander Yuri, who now sported an intricately embroidered red cloak over his shiny black chitin.
Max hadn't seen that many clothes on a Koleska many times before, so Yuri must have gotten a major promotion in rank after the battle. Max silently congratulated him with a pat on the now clothed shoulder and a handshake, returned by the Commander without taking his eyes off the ceremony.
The Koleska were very ritualistic, and the crowd was completely silent other than the music being played. Everyone in attendance was torn between distraught and bored out of their minds, but most of them would have to stand through an entire week of these ceremonies all over the planet before they could return to regular duties.
Commander Yuri was thinking exactly that, and calculating how he would slip away from the optional additional duties without being caught. If someone caught him before he could leave, courtesy would oblige him to stay for even more boredom and another round of dry political speeches.
Spending too much time with the humans had definitely changed him.
