To Admiral Drake's annoyance, the negotiation team made up of men from the Hunter ships had every intention of working in shifts so that the negotiations could proceed continually from the moment that they arrived until they were finished.
The template that he had received sped up the process a lot, but it was designed to cover all interactions between two species. The Hunters weren't convinced that some Humans didn't qualify as a Game Species. There were also other species that the Commander had instructed him to add to the agreement as mutual targets, which necessitated a Hunting Alliance agreement.
Between the two, it quickly turned the agreement from eight hundred pages to fifteen hundred, but the speed with which they progressed was impressive. Everything was double-proofread so that nobody snuck deceptive clauses into the agreement or made any errors. The work was split into teams, with each group taking care of only eighty pages or so, making it more manageable for the teams to get through.
By evening the next day, they were almost done with the negotiations, thanks to the heavy use of form templates from the Alliance, who had been negotiating with the Hunters for centuries. The basics were that if the Hunters were hunting Klem, they were required to invite at least one group of what they deemed "Civilized Humans" with them. Only groups that were aggressively attacking outside of their own border could be deemed as Game after consulting with a "Civilized Human" faction.
That way, there was at least some assurance that they weren't going to be causing trouble around the Galaxy but that they still did it in a somewhat ethical and sustainable way.
The Admiral had been quite hesitant at first. Still, after they used a few examples of nations that they had passed aggressively attacking everyone around them, not to take over territory or maintain stability, but simply as a continuation of a generational feud, it became clear that there were, in fact, groups of humans that he wouldn't be too upset about seeing attacked by Hunters.
By their rules, they would take no more than ten percent of the population unless it was an invasive species like the Klem, so it wasn't like they were going to be totally depopulating planets. They would serve as an excellent boogeyman if they were pointed at the Galaxy's troublemakers though.
While they were working themselves to the bone, the Huntresses were having a much better time, relaxing and getting to know the Mecha Pilots of the Terminus Trading Company. They were quite shocked to see the ratio of males to females but slowly began to accept that allowing them to mingle freely like this wouldn't lead to the males being bullied by the human females.
They were willing to set aside their judgment of the males' skills and did that right away once they saw the physical capability of all of the Heavy Mecha Pilots and the footage that the Innu had captured during their outing to the uninhabited planet, but the idea that they were on a socially equal footing was harder for them to understand.
Max was having dinner with Huntress Khan, Colonel Klinger, and Nico when the negotiation teams said the deal had been finalized. He had expected the Huntress to want to read every detail and go over it line by line, but surprisingly, she took a two-page summary sheet from her negotiator, the same one that was handed to Max and Nico, and nodded as she read.
"These terms all look acceptable. We will contact you or your representatives on Rae 5 when we want permission to hunt humans. So far, you are the only group that has proven that you are not Game but worthy allies, after all." Huntress Khan informed them, then tucked the paper away in some sort of storage device that Max couldn't see and couldn't find a way for her to be hiding under the plain toga.
"You don't know the flat space technology? I suppose those snotty Alliance sorts wouldn't trade you for it. They've always got some moral reason to hide the good stuff. But we will deal with you. It was developed by the Innu, using an advanced form of the Warp Field Technology that warps the volume of the interior. It isn't big enough to hold me, but perhaps Tarith Rage would fit.
For the very reasonable price of twenty of those lovely Plasma Cannons that the Line Mecha carry, I will give you the design schematic for the flat space storage devices. Just don't tell the Alliance until you can make your own. They get cranky about spreading their technology." Huntress Khan offered.
"We can make you a lighter version with external sights, or would you prefer to alter them yourselves?" Max asked.
"Every Huntress customizes their own weapons. They will adapt them to their own preferences. We don't use any sort of stabilized plasma weapons, so these should be a novel change for our Huntresses, and I have already verified that we can make our power distribution system compatible with charging them." Khan agreed.
"Then you have a deal. We have our own manufacturing facilities, and our design teams love the challenge of adapting new technology." Max told her, shaking her hand to seal the deal.
"See, males? That is how you do a deal. Who needs thousands of pages?" The Huntress laughed while the men shook their heads at her simplistic outlook on what was involved in an alliance treaty. She never read more than the outline, and if there was a potential conflict of the minor details, it was up to an advisor from the foreign affairs team to inform her.
"We must get going now. Our long-range scanners have detected a Klem wave landing on an uninhabited planet beyond the borders of human space, and my Hunters are eager to test out our skills against their chitin." Huntress Khan declared.
"Do enjoy yourselves. We must return to a negotiation with the other humans, so, unfortunately, we can't join you. If we finish early, we will open a portal so we can watch you in glorious combat." Nico told her, making the Huntress laugh.
"See, she knows the way of the Hunters already. Thank you for hosting us, Terminus Trading Company, and we will return soon for barbecue and Gravity Slides."
