While Max and Nico began to organize the data they were getting from the first few attacks, hoping that they could get some sort of useful analysis of the enemy's capabilities from the footage that was being streamed back to the Alliance, the Envoys were doing the same, but with a very different approach.
They were rating them by the output and area damage capabilities of their weapons, instead of the effectiveness and style of their tactics.
Both were important, but the Alliance didn't view their army as a fully customizable force. They had used standardized equipment for so long that it was more logical for them to assess enemy capabilities and determine what their casualties would be, instead of calculating the effectiveness of enemy tactics first, and then building a force to counter them second.
The Cathedral Ships had some ability to adapt, but it seemed to be based on what they had on board, and not an infinitely flexible list of weapons programmed into a Drone Replicator.
That was what Max was counting on to keep their casualties down, the ability to always have the right tool for the job when he determined what the best counter to the enemy's strength would be.
The Envoys were actually making rapid headway on the process of calculating the enemy's strength, and Nico already had the data ready for the equipment that was being shipped to them, so they could use that to determine the likely rate of losses for a mixed force, as they were fielding them, and make any necessary adjustments.
Most of the Alliance Commanders and Planetary Governors were open to using drones to soften the enemy forces before sending manned vehicles against them, but some had a deep-seated mistrust of the constructs, after so many years dealing with the Arisen.
Those would be the ones that suffered the most, but there wasn't anything that Max could say which would change their minds. If anything, his explanation might make things worse, as he knew that the Arisen could take over the drones or the Androids, and he simply didn't care.
The frowns on the Envoys faces kept getting deeper and deeper as they assessed the enemy capabilities compared to their previous generation of military equipment, but once they started entering the numbers that Nico was providing, they began to relax a little bit.
Then they realized just how little of that equipment they had, and it was back to frowning.
"Can you all calm down? Your mood swings are giving me whiplash." Max asked just before lunch, as the group began to analyze the data coming in from the newest attack, announced only minutes earlier.
"There is no off switch for emotions, only caffeine, which turns up the processing speed." The Innu Envoy reminded him in what Max knew she thought was a pompous tone.
"Can you at least hold out some hope for them, then? We've got ships on the way, an entire Android Fleet, and it outnumbers the Cathedral Ships in that system nearly two to one.
This is just a probing attack, measuring our response times and capability. There is no need to worry so much, the planets won't fall."
The Giant turned his disturbed frown at Max.
"Easy for you to say, you don't have anyone from your Faction there."
Max shrugged. "That's not entirely true. There are five of my people in that Fleet, one per Destroyer. But I have already calculated the likely outcomes, so there is no reason to panic. Just watch as our response fleet tests their capabilities."
The Giant was far from satisfied with that answer, but he understood that he wasn't going to get a better one. So, he resigned himself to settling for what he could get and continuing his work.
It was the Innu Envoy that had the real answer to set the Giant's mind at ease.
"You are thinking about this all wrong. You are treating it as a prevention, like when we stop a rebellion or a terrorist attack. But it's not. From the moment that those ships arrived, this has been a rescue operation to disperse the hostile forces and save as many of the survivors as possible." She explained.
The Giant went back to work in a distracted state, trying to determine if he really was thinking about the situation the wrong way, or if the Innu Envoy had just been corrupted by the humans so much that she was thinking about it from their point of view.
It was impossible to say that she hadn't been influenced at all. She smelled like human body wash and coffee. But her logic was still fairly solid, and she did have a point about how the situation was more of a rescue, as they didn't get the location of the attacks until after the battle was underway.
Max had seen the big man frustrated on many occasions, but today he seemed especially close to his breaking point. So, he decided to relieve a bit of the Envoy's stress and send him some new data to analyze.
"That's the information on the new Destroyers. If you want to punch that into your calculations, you can determine what sort of impact the change is going to have on the battlefield." Max offered when he sensed that the Giant was close to an existential crisis.
"Of course, thank you, Commander. I will get on that and get the data sent off to the Central Government so that they can work out a logistics plan for the limited number of these new vessels that we have available." He replied instinctively.
But he started work on it right after, so the Giant had been successfully distracted, and his mind was no longer stuck in a loop of self-doubt and confusion. Max's mission had been successful, and he didn't miss the appreciative smile that the Valkia gave him for saving them all the trouble of talking down a melancholy Giant who had a hard time accepting that his way might not always be the right way.
They had more than enough experience with that to last a lifetime. It was nearly as common as the Valkia Envoy being three minutes late for a meeting because he stopped outside somewhere to smooth his feathers.
