The message from the Envoys was short and to the point.
[Commander, a delicate matter has come up, and we require your insight at your urgent convenience.]
The message that received from Mary Tarith only seconds after that was a bit less subtle.
[Max, we are in the process of a hostile takeover of sixty different intergalactic military suppliers. Stall the Envoys for one hour and it will be a done deal.]
That shouldn't be too difficult to do, as they were likely to have a lot to talk about, and he could get them lost in the details for a while before anything significant came up.
[I will do my best. They have already requested an urgent meeting, and getting that arranged should burn the first thirty minutes. Send me the list as you have them finalized.]
[Will do. I expect great things.]
Max did a quick search and found that the sixty companies that Mary was talking about were likely to be the sixty publicly traded companies whose stock prices had all tanked over the last few decades, as military demand stagnated, and they had too many competitors for the demand.
Most of them had resorted to also making other products, but the ones that Max could pick out of the list should give Mary and her business partners production facilities in nearly two thousand new star systems.
That would definitely be enough to put them on the map as a major military supplier, and they would have reasonable coverage all through the Alliance, including on the front lines of the upcoming conflict.
If the enemy couldn't disappear into the other layers, they could be intercepted with relative ease, as long as the defenders had enough firepower to deal with the groups they picked.
Max sent the location of one of the private office buildings in the political district on the otherwise unused upper level, and arranged to meet them there in 30 minutes. Even for an urgent matter, that was a reasonable delay, and gave him time to shower and change then get to the location, while those on the far side of the ship would only just be able to get there on time.
The Envoys' mood was sombre as they checked in through security to get into the offices, and Max activated the white noise audio in the public areas before closing the soundproof doors and marking the whole wing of the office building as being in use.
"I suspect that there are many things that we need to discuss today, but let's start with the simple ones. How have things been here on Absolution? I know you've been flooded with work related to all the new developments from the Rae 5 Moon Base, and the issues in the Anomaly Region, but was there anything that you are lacking, or something that you would like changed to make your lives easier?" Max asked.
"I would appreciate it if we were actively kept in the loop." The Giant muttered, and Max gave him a curious look, sensing only annoyance in his thoughts.
The Innu Envoy smiled at her huge coworker. "We got the announcement that the Reavers had actively started to buy up military suppliers five minutes before we got the memo that there was a massive force of ships gathered outside our borders, with the Alliance as the only obvious target other than the lone Galaxy of the humans."
Max smiled at her and raised his hands in surrender. "They were the ones that found the threat, I suppose that it's understandable that they started to make their own preparations before they let everyone else know."
The Innu nodded in understanding. Of course, you should make sure that your own house was secure before you went around telling everyone else to secure theirs. That was just common sense to her.
The Giant still looked a bit annoyed, though. "And now that they are the largest single military equipment supplier in the known universe, how are we supposed to explain the threat to the populace and still maintain our credibility?"
"Easy, you let them look at the markets tomorrow and realize what happened for themselves. If you hadn't already been keeping an eye on their transactions, would the purchases have raised any alarms with you?" Max asked.
The Giant nodded. "Actually, it would have. The first message that we got was a notification from the Monopoly Prevention Monitor, who monitors large changes within an industry sector for attempts to buy out large numbers of competitors."
"That makes sense. Did Mary run afoul of the regulations? She's usually pretty cautious about such things." Max asked.
"No, as of this moment, her group controls forty-seven percent of the total market, as the Reaver Council Holdings Company. Until they bypass fifty percent, they are free to continue their acquisitions without restrictions."
Max made a note of his comment and pulled up the relevant regulations from the Alliance legal guide.
"Alright, so it looks like these will be the last of the weapons manufacturers that the Reavers will be able to buy, as the regulations count all the Reaver Companies as one overarching entity for the purposes of competition."
The Valkia smiled. "Don't you think that they might be able to find one or two more that are in tough spots?"
Max chuckled and shook his head. "By tomorrow, the rebound in stock prices will throw the industry into chaos and the regulators will be reassessing the production potential of our purchases, based on the standards of the other Reaver owned businesses. I can almost guarantee that will push us past half, and we will be fettered by the anti-monopoly legislation."
The assistants with the Giant began to run numbers while everyone waited patiently for them to finish. They handed over a single data tablet to the Giant Envoy, whose eyes opened wide in shock as he stared at them.
"Those numbers should be right. If the existing businesses converted to Reaver weapon patents, the resultant decrease in the current backlog would increase their total sales by 1438 percent for the month, and with no increase in order volume, would put them at fifty-four percent total market share.
If they were to get the new weapons contracts, or even a portion of them, that would increase, and the likely panic buying by non-governmental forces could drive that number much higher." The assistant explained.
"Feth." The Giant mumbled, borrowing a human phrase.
The Innu nodded in agreement. "I suppose that this is the wrong point to mention that they would naturally begin an ad campaign to promote their expanded capacity, and all the non-military manufacturing capacity that they have amassed."
The Giant rubbed his temples. "Alright, I get it. They cherry-picked the best value and stopped when they thought they had enough to crush the competition. Now, should we move on with the actual reason we are here?"
Max checked the clock. They were getting close to the hour that Mary had asked for, but the Envoys had already seen through her power play before they even arrived, so it didn't seem like a big deal to get started on the actual negotiations now.
"Alright, let's get to work."
