When Terminus translate back to warp speed, the Admiral turned them away from the Kepler borders and further into the Empire, where they would have a higher probability of coming across a military patrol, and not the revenge of whoever sent the bounty hunters after them.
They didn't even know which of them was being accused of War Crimes yet, though it might just be the entire Command Staff on the ship, depending on how the determination was made and who made it.
Certainly, there were a few scholarly sorts who would argue that the Disruptor and the Fusion Flamer were both impermissible as weapons of war, no matter how effective they were.
[No pursuing vessels detected, clearing the border areas now.] The Admiral reported to the ship a few hours later, letting them breathe a sigh of relief.
Terminus hadn't taken much damage from the Bounty Hunters' return fire, but any damage was more than they would prefer since they didn't fully understand the ship's construction and they didn't have a full design schematic, only a structural layout.
That was the downside to being on an alien Colony Ship, they didn't really know much about its construction, and how it was intended to be properly repaired, or even if it was. More than a few cultures over the Millennia had sent out Colony ships on a one-way mission, intending for them to be dismantled at the end of the journey and not survive any longer than that.
Of course, that had proven to be a mistake in most cases, as damages in transit often left that variety of ships too mangled to fully terraform and Colonize a planet once they arrived, leading to harsh lives or even the loss of the Colonists.
The shields of the Mecha had held up well against the small defensive Lasers of the enemy ships though, well enough that most units didn't even think to destroy them. Max certainly hadn't and he didn't have any of the Mecha suffer breached shields either, though that could be due to the effectiveness of the first spot that they chose to target.
General Yaakov had gathered all the Command Officers in his room, as well as Mary Tarith and the Reaver named Jeff who was formerly in charge of the operations on Kepler Terminus Station.
"Rae 5 appears to be our best bet. We will have to cross through rebel territory and close to what I am calling the Tapani Occupation, but that should help draw them to us. Major Nico here has generously offered to assist in increasing the Colony Ship's shield output since it wasn't designed for war, and the Imperial Inquisition has been in contact with General Ming." General Yaakov reported, before deferring to the other General.
"The Inquisition forces have identified seventeen rebel planets in the area, including Kepler Terminus, which is currently in a state of civil war. In response, a battle fleet of seventy-two heavy Transports, plus Cruisers, Destroyers, and Cutter escorts has been dispatched to arrive within forty-eight hours.
Their only request is that we attempt to draw Tapani's attention. If we can prevent them from going all in on the defense of the Rebel Planets, the fleet believes that they can take them with minimal losses, then turn the space-based assets on the invaders and drive them out.
As you know, Tapani isn't large enough of a nation to deal with that sort of fight and may choose not to engage at all, if they are given time to think before they have to engage."
The General made good sense, but trying to pull an entire small nation's fleet away from the front lines with just one Colony ship was an impossible task. They likely couldn't even draw enough away for the fleet to take back Kepler Terminus without a major fight.
"What do you propose that we do?" Max asked.
"I know it might sound a little crazy, but I want to use the Colony ship for its intended purpose, to terraform Rae 5, and then send out an open channel message that the System is now a free port, Reaver controlled and open to all Reaver business." General Ming insisted.
"You want to create an independent nation on an uninhabited planet and make people believe that it is a threat? It's close to Tapani, but I can't see that working." Max pointed out.
"Only, it won't be uninhabited, will it? We have city-scale construction equipment aboard Terminus, we can build entire empty cities on the planet to draw the enemy's attention, and scatter what few people we have through them as defenders. The message should draw a few Reaver fleets who are short a home base to us, and anyone who answers will be ready for a fight.
The Kepler Fleet has many contacts among the Reavers, and they pay well, so I have hopes that our plan will work. I am also trying to get a portion of the Kepler Fleet to join us there to stop the Tapani counterattack." General Ming replied.
"And after this fight? What do we get out of all this risk? This is my Family we're putting on the line for your plan." Mary Tarith pointed out.
"Rae 5. When the battle is over, you get to keep the planet, though I suspect you will be sharing it with a number of other Reaver forces. You can organize them how you like, and we need multiple cities built on the planet for this plan to work, so there should be enough space to go around." General Ming replied with a smile, matched by Mary Tarith.
"A free planet for the defense of the free planet? That's not a terrible deal. Put that in writing, with the Emperor's mark on it and you've got a deal, I will have the fleet call as many as they can." Mary Tarith agreed.
Max just shook his head at the insanity. The Reavers were a wild and free bunch, the only use they would have for a planet was to relax and party after a hard mission, and to make repairs. If Reaver fleets controlled an entire planet, even the Death Winds Territory, known for its Mercenaries and danger might be impressed at the level of debauchery.
