From what Max could tell, they were the only ones that had noticed the incoming ships, so it was impossible to tell if they were part of one of the delegation's fleets and just in a pattern that wasn't recorded in the Kepler military logs that they had copied into the database aboard Terminus.
If this was just someone's fleet showing up early for the attack, it wasn't going to be a big deal since they should be expecting a large number of attack vessels to come past this point soon, as it was near the edge of both Kepler and Cygnus space, where a lot of the smaller nations would need to cross to get to their target areas.
Max would be able to relax a lot more if he had any sort of way of confirming if the Kepler Emperor had even heard their message and warnings, but the fleet that he was traveling with wasn't sending out any signals at all, observing radio silence the way that Abraham Kepler had been ordered to, and the way that Max was supposed to be doing, if he wasn't acting as a Reaver Commander at the moment.
It was a convenient workaround to their orders, allowing him to keep in contact with the world without outing themselves as a loyalist force.
The Reavers were theoretically neutral, but it was usually in their interest to maintain the status quo, so asking them to go along with this insane mission directly depended on the chances of success. If a small nation looked like they were going to fail, the Reavers who were trading in the area would almost certainly help the loyalists to victory, maintaining their existing business relationships as much as possible.
What Max really wanted to know was what the Rebels thought they could do that would totally destabilize the Empire. Now that the Emperor was acting directly, infiltration of the bureaucracy no longer mattered. He would simply override them and have anyone who he thought was betraying his orders executed for either sedition or incompetence.
The Rebels also didn't have a large enough fleet to take on his compliance force, so a direct battle to wipe them out and weaken the top echelon was improbable, even if they had a secret ally.
The incoming fleet might be exactly that ally, but still, it didn't seem likely that it would be enough of a military force to do anything to stop the Emperor.
[Keres Max, we need to speak of these new vessels. The Illithid know these vessels, and they are not from your galaxy.] A voice in Max's mind informed him.
[What do you know? Are they hostile?] Max asked.
[They are hostile to everyone. For that reason, they were denied membership in the alliance, and their territory marks the border of our allied forces. They live for the hunt and use power-assisted armor similar to your Mecha, but biologically based and not fully mechanical.]
A living Mecha? That sounded both horrific and incredible at the same time.
[What will they want when they arrive? Annihilation or a challenge? Many hunting species wish to challenge the very best first.] Max replied.
[They are a matriarchal society, so they will want to challenge your strongest female to a test of combat first. Their hunting suits are fifteen meters tall, so they are somewhat on par with your own Heavy Mecha, but as far as capabilities, I cannot say.
If the challenge is satisfactory to them, they will attempt to make a deal with your species champion. Usually, they want access to territories with more hunting grounds for them. Either ones where they can fight in their suits or the more extreme ones where they will fight unarmored.] The Illithid informed him.
Were there really that many planets with animal species that could challenge a Heavy mecha? Most of Kepler's territory had been terraformed, so such a thing was all but unheard of. The fact that a species that existed for the challenge of such places was still roaming around the universe meant that, on a larger scale, Kepler was the anomaly.
Maybe they would like to fight the Nemians? The giants would certainly love the challenge of fighting this hunter species. With their technology, they could match up to most heavy Mecha, and though Max didn't know the alien hunter's size, fighting the Nemians without their giant hunting suits, as the Illithid called them, should be an impressive challenge.
[General Kirkland, it seems that the region will be receiving some unexpected guests tomorrow. The delegation from the Reavers will meet with them, as they are known to be rather belligerent on first meetings with new species, so I do hope that you can pass our message on to everyone else.] Max requested.
[Nothing productive will get done at tomorrow's meetings anyhow. I have been instructed by the Imperial Crown Prince to inform them that you have members of the Alliance aboard your vessel and the exact reason why we, as humanity, have been deemed unworthy of their interaction. That will be more than enough to throw a whole week into chaos.] General Kirkland replied.
Finding out that your entire species was deemed too violent and primitive for civilized interaction was going to be hard on them. Especially the nations who considered themselves evolved forms of demihumans, thanks to ancient Genetic Engineering.
One week to get over the shock and start coming to grips with the way The Alliance sees them might be too short of a timeframe.
[Understandable. If they need us to send a representative from the Reavers, let us know. The other fleet should be here in the morning after the meeting has started, and we will move Terminus to intercept so that it doesn't become a huge mess with the gathered nations.] Max informed him, and sent a proposed timeline and movement chart.
A bit of data could go a long ways to helping the Cygnus delegation keep things under control on their behalf after all.
