Most of the Envoys got up to stagger to bed, but the Innu Envoy only held out her arms to be picked up, which made the Giant chuckle.
"I'm not carrying you. I can barely carry me today." The Giant told her.
"Fine, be like that. I can sleep in the chair." She pouted.
Max laughed and picked her up to carry her across the hall.
"We don't need you getting sore from sleeping funny. There is still most of a week of insanity ahead of us, and you aren't going to get out of it that easily." He explained to the scheming pink-skinned Envoy.
Their sleep didn't last long.
At six in the morning, barely four hours after they called it a night, their communicators were going insane again. The government had made a decision, and they were requesting a finance deal to get the equipment in time for the imminent battles.
"Tell them that we will make it happen and sort out the money later. How many units do they need, and how many soldiers should we prepare for?" Max informed the Giant as the two of them met in the hallway on their way to the meeting room.
"I was hoping that you would say that. They have some strange requests by human standards. They don't want a fully mechanized force but something like the mixed armies of your war videos. Can your people supply armour suits for humans as well?" The Giant asked.
Max considered it for a few seconds as he searched the minds of everyone on Absolution for a good answer to the question. Then it came to him: There were Innu everywhere, and they all technically belonged to the Innu Confederacy, the governing body for their species. Everyone wanted them as technicians and researchers, so they were everywhere.
If he used them and their resources, he could turn out an absolutely phenomenal number of Augmentic Armour suits. They already had permission to make the enhanced environmental suits, which were the same basic design except their current patterns were a few generations old and without the armour.
"I think we can. The ships we provide can make hundreds of thousands of them each, and I think that we have a way to get new Augmentic Armour distributed to nearly every planetary defence force in the Alliance, starting today." Max agreed.
He started to draft a plan to authorize it, using his authority as Commander of the Reaver Company that held the patent, to waive the fees for licensing until the end of the conflict.
"Here, look this over before I send it out. We have a working agreement with the Innu, and if they all have permission to make them at will, that will allow nearly every planetary defence force to make basic armour and laser rifles for their troops." Max informed the Giant Envoy.
"And you wouldn't expect anything in return?" The Giant asked suspiciously.
Nico walked into the office with a tray of coffee. "You are too shortsighted, my girthy friend. What are they going to do after the war, when they have an entire generation of soldiers trained on our equipment, and thousands of extra units in storage after they have drawn down their troop numbers?
We will become the standard equipment of infantry forces and planetary police all over the Alliance, and the replacement law enforcement units that they make after the war will no longer be free of charge."
The Valkia laughed as he walked into the room, with the Innu Envoy and the assistants shuffling along behind him.
"I knew that it would be something like that. Feed us the first dose for free, and then get us hooked on their gear. Let me guess; it comes with a detailed combat training simulation in the user manuals as well?" The Valkia asked.
"It does now." Nico agreed.
"Now you're the one giving them ideas." The Giant sighed while the Innu Envoy scurried over to the tray of breakfast foods, with a holographic list projected in front of her.
"Watching your calories?" Max asked as she used the hologram to pick out her breakfast choices.
"Even better. We did a study on breakfast foods to determine the optimal combinations for mental focus, without jitters or excessive distractibility, and I've optimized my early meal that way. It's genius, and it keeps me alert with a minimal amount of caffeine."
Everyone settled into their morning backlog of messages, and tried to sort out what was old chaos and what was new chaos, while Nico informed Mary of their new plan, and the arrangements that had been made, so that someone with more time on their hands could crunch the numbers and see what sort of loss they would be taking on the deal to let every Innu in the universe make Augmentic Armour at will for the duration of this conflict.
It wasn't like they had to make the units themselves, so there was no loss of manpower or materials, just the royalties.
The consensus among the Reaver Council was that it was a suitable goodwill gesture, and that with the number of warships and Mecha they were making for the Alliance, it was not a big deal.
The calculations came back quickly. If the Alliance made units comparable to Kepler mixed Regiments, with two hundred fifty thousand soldiers to five thousand Mecha, and new warships to move them all, the interest charge on the loan would pay for the infantry armour, as long as the Alliance took ten or more years to pay in full.
They weren't averse to making it an interest only loan, which would be paid for generations until someone got up the political will to pay it in full. But that would be up to the Alliance Government, as they weren't going to mandate terms of payment, just the price per unit.
Mary forwarded the information to the Envoys, and Max saw their expressions change as they realized exactly how much this would change the Alliance Economy.
War was good for business, and every factory that could be retooled to make military gear was already being converted to fill the panic orders, but only a small handful had the knowledge and resources to turn out what the Government needed. They were going to be indebted to the Reavers for the rest of their natural lives, even if they won this war.
