Once the helmets came off, the Golden Legion representatives visibly relaxed, as if there was some formal code that had been keeping them from speaking their minds. There wasn't, Max knew from their thoughts, they had just been trained so hard that the armour meant they represented the honour and dignity of their people that they were too uptight to be their usual professional selves the first time they had interactions with another species.
Gregory the mall guard was much more relaxed, possibly because he had far less riding on his decisions than these dignitaries, but it had also made him much easier to talk to.
"Perhaps I can start off our meeting? There is a lot that I don't know about your world, and many of the things that I don't know could be vital to the defence and survival of your people. How about you start with a basic rundown of the planet? Size, population, geography and so on." Max suggested.
The General began his explanation with the fundamentals.
"Yes, of course. This planet is an interesting one, as it was created to match the size of a star, as that was deemed the optimal habitable space required for our species to thrive without having to leave to seek new homes.
That might be an advantage with your projectile artillery, but our species hasn't used such weapons in living memory, so I'm not completely familiar with the ballistics of such a weapon. What I can tell you is that gravity is a constant in this realm, as our original Deity was one of the gods who had an affinity for that law.
That might make it either easier or more difficult for you, but it does make travel on the planet predictable and possible.
At this point, the whole planet is populated, with 30 percent surface oceans, 9 percent surface freshwater, and our population is at 600 billion. I know that sounds like a lot, but with our communications down, there is no way to know how much of the world has been affected by this disaster. We can't even find out if there is relief coming, the explosions of the portals completely destroyed all of our communications.
We had to capture one of your small crabs and have it send the message back to your vessel because we didn't have any other way to contact you, even from the city."
One of the others, a man named Luke, who had the title of [Procreation Management and Sustainability of Indigenous Species Advisor], cleared his throat and picked up where the General left off.
"There are seventeen thousand S Class threat species on this planet, determined by their ability to eat a Golden Legion soldier through his powered armour. Their total populations are carefully managed so that they don't overrun the world or diminish to the point that they can't be used for the training of our men. There is also one other semi-sentient species, but I believe that you have met them already.
The Panthera Domesticus population has long since been a nuisance, but the guardian being favours them, as she can read their minds. That means we can only carefully control them, mostly through domestication and widespread neutering efforts."
The man paused when Nico laughed at his words.
"Did I misphrase something? There may be some linguistic differences between our species' common tongues, despite the similarity." He asked.
"No, it wasn't a mistranslation. I spoke with them about it, and the feral cat population considers you a war criminal, and has a particular hate for the shelters and the kibble served in them. I just never thought that I would actually meet the person who managed the neutering program in person." She explained.
The rest of the dignitaries in the room laughed. "You know, he's the only one of us who has actually had an assassination attempt manage to enter his house before being caught? The little fuzzball just sneaked right in and tried to toss a hair dryer in the bath with him."
"You all laugh, but I nearly died. The little monster even got it turned on, that's what alerted me that I was under attack.
Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Their population is an ongoing concern, but they aren't big on voluntary population control, as you might have guessed. They are considered nearly sentient, and they are damnably smart when they want to be.
They are found in every part of the world, as are we, and they prefer to live within the smaller towns and farms, where they are less restricted.
There are over a thousand flying carnivorous species, but none of them more than two metres in wingspan, none of which are a threat to us, unless they are enraged in a group.
It's the monster population that is the issue. The S Class carnivorous beasts will be in a frenzy with all this action, and the smell of blood triggers them to attack. Be mindful of them everywhere that you go, as many of them can bite through standard alloys."
The General nodded at each point, verifying that the man hadn't made any mistakes in his assessment.
"Thank you, Advisor Luke. Those are the fundamentals of the planet's ecology, so I will send you a map of the world to update into your system. It should be more complete than the regular version you might have obtained from the others, if they bothered to pack one before they responded."
Then he handed Nico a map. An actual paper map, that was so thick she could barely hold it.
"Seriously, do you not have a digital version?" She asked.
The General looked confused. "Well, yes, but it's formatted for our computer systems."
"I will take that version, please. We have an algorithm that is superb at decoding such documents and making them usable on our software." Nico explained.
She didn't mention that she was the algorithm, but that would likely only lead to uncomfortable questions that they didn't want to answer before they knew all that they could about the battlefield.
