The Cathedral Ships weren't going just to give up because their leadership had been defeated in another layer of space. That wasn't how they operated and wasn't at all in their nature.
As soon as the defeat was noticed, they doubled down on their aggressiveness, trying to push back the combined force of the Morphos and the Humans while retaking the lost portions of the surface.
It wasn't going well, with the human vessels being vastly superior to them in firepower and shielding, but the numbers advantage was enough for them to at least hold on while the battle for the surface raged.
[Drone Bombers are away with the supply drops for the resistance. The Android Mecha force has stabilized the region around the motherships, and no more interceptors are currently detected.] The AI reported.
That meant that the supplies to the surface were going down basically unimpeded, without taking any fire, so Max directed them to remain near the surface and use their stockpile of materials to either bomb enemy emplacements or provide more specialized rifles for the defenders.
If they were taken by the enemy, they would only be a mediocre performing laser rifle and not a threat level increase, but in the hands of the locals, they would be deadly against the energy beings.
"Max, tell them to come back. I'm bored." Nico complained, making the Envoy laugh.
"What is one full-scale boarding action not enough adventure for one day?" Envoy Queen asked.
"Not when it ends so easily. I get that zero casualties is the best way, but that was one seriously unsatisfying fight. They didn't even send their first string fighters because the ceilings in here are too low for them to move about easily."
The Morphos leader laughed. "No wonder everyone says that the humans are terrifying. I wonder what species was brave enough to go with the rest of your fleet?"
Max chuckled. "Actually, there were a lot of offers once they saw that we were fully capable in a fight. But the rest of our fleet is moving out with the Koleska. We have been working with them for a while now, and we understand their equipment and their protocols, so there is a much lower chance of an incident while we have so many mercenaries in our force."
The battle on the surface was becoming more and more intense as the general population was armed to deal with the threat, and Max was carefully blocking all attempts by the local government to send out a message demanding that he stop sending weapons to the civilian population.
Anyone who sounded that panicked about their population having weapons definitely made him want to see what would happen when the general population all had laser rifles. Max suspected that the result would likely be much less bloody than the Planetary Governor was suggesting in the messages.
The civilians weren't turning weapons on each other, and they were putting together a well-organized defence against the armies from the Cathedral Ships that couldn't be banished by the energy weapons of the Drone Fighters.
Really, the worst that was likely to happen was a coup, and those sorts of things happened all the time on human planets. You could even call them an essential part of human politics.
"Commander Max, our allies in the planetary government have informed us that there is an uprising of the lower caste citizens that is taking over as the enemy is defeated on the planet." Envoy Queen informed Max a few hours later when the battle was nearly through.
"Oh, that is unfortunate. Are they looking for a mediator? We are quite good at mediation." Max asked.
Nico froze her facial expressions to avoid giving away her amusement. She had been watching the same thing that Max had, but through the cameras on the drones, and it was clear that there was going to be an incident of some sort before things were settled here.
"Perhaps. The Planetary Governor and the Upper Caste are currently trapped in an underground bunker complex, and the battle is raging above them." Queen explained.
"Give us a second, and we will locate them and determine the situation." Max agreed.
Queen was right; the senior military and government officers had all been hidden underground for the entire invasion, and they were now welded into their bunkers by the forces on the surface.
There had been some scuffles at first, but it looked like those were dying down already, and the civilians were moving toward cleanup and damage control efforts.
[Commander, the fleet battle is officially over, and the last of the ships in orbit have fled to the other layer.] The AI reported in its artificially happy tone.
Nico unblocked communications and sent a message to the Planetary Government.
[This is Subcommander Nico Tarith of the Terminus Trading Company, a Human trade group and paramilitary force that makes up a portion of the intervention force in orbit over your planet. Do you require our assistance to arrange a mediated negotiation with the civilian forces on the surface of your planet?]
There was a lengthy pause, enough that Queen was beginning to wonder if they had received the message at all, and then finally, the Planetary Governor answered back from the surface.
[We do not negotiate with terrorists. We have ordered our forces to disarm the civilian population, and we request that any future interventions do not involve weapons drops.]
[We understand. If you do require our intervention, we will remain in the system for another hour while we decide on what location to proceed to next.] Nico replied.
"Well, that's that. It looks like they have it all sorted out, and the invasion force is basically gone, with only a few hundred Warriors still in hiding. It always takes a while to get the last of them cleaned out, but I'm sure that they will get it sorted.
So, how satisfying was it to see an allied planet rescued? That's not something that you get to do every day." Nico asked the Envoy.
"Remarkably satisfying, really. We swore to them many generations ago that our people would come to their aid in a time of crisis, and I must say, this certainly seems to have been a crisis.
Do humans also hold onto honour debts that strongly?" The Morphos Envoy asked.
Nico shook her head. "We do hold onto them, but perhaps not that strongly. Treachery is abundant among our people after the first generation which swore the debt. The younger generations forget the reason for it, or it gets glossed over in the historical records, and they begin to believe that the debt is unjust."
Queen nodded. "That I understand. The younger generations always believe that they know best."
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