Chapter 866: Merciful Max
The response to Max's inquiry about funeral rituals took a few seconds. [They usually burn them in space in a plasma fire, with a ritual speech. We don't have anyone willing to give it, though. The hatred for them runs deep.]
[Just send it to me, and I will make sure that our people take care of them appropriately.] Max agreed.
He knew it was a strange idea to the Koleska, but it was human tradition to take care of the enemy dead if they didn't have anyone left to do it themselves.
[Nico, check that Destroyer for survivors. Perhaps there is someone who can do the funeral rituals.] Max ordered while the rest of the fleet started collecting their own dead and damaged.
All ten test units were still operational, though they had all taken damage. It was impressive for a Line Mecha unit, and the other Line Mecha units had suffered heavy casualties, nearly ten percent disabled or destroyed units as far as Max could tell.
It would have been much worse if the Darklings hadn't shown up when they did and scared the Galen fleet away. The standard Mecha simply weren't agile enough in space to be well-suited to a battle like this. They were sitting ducks when the attack craft approached, and they couldn't even turn fast enough to properly track them.
[Help Lead Researcher Nico clear the crippled Destroyer. The Line Mecha are designed for that purpose. Just remember to fold your wings before you try to head down a hallway.] Max ordered the test team, then moved to help the other units clean and gather up the remains of the Galen attack fleet.
Every unit was carefully checked for signs of life, and a few survivors had already been found among the crippled attack craft. The main force was gathering them in the final Cutter to fall during the battle, as it was still somewhat operational, and they could send the dead home to their families that way, along with the survivors.
They didn't need prisoners, and it might buy them some goodwill with the Galen and avoid more attacks.
From the ferocity of this attack, it seemed unlikely, but the soldiers didn't know anything beyond the details they were given about the enemy they were to fight. They didn't even know the name of the human race. They were ordered to fight, and they fought just as a good soldier should.
Max searched through the records they had borrowed from the Co-Operative for a translation program, then uploaded it to an earpiece so that he could speak with the prisoners.
[Admirals, I will lead the dealings with the prisoners. Keep bringing the bodies and survivors to the same spot, and I will make sure that they are out of the system and out of our way as soon as the battlefield is cleared.] Max instructed as he Piloted the Cleansing Light over to the Cutter.
It was a tight fit getting his Mecha in the bay door since they didn't use tall machines, but there was plenty of room inside the bay for him to stand up and greet the prisoners, who were being held by a single wing of Line Mecha.
Max exited his Mecha in augmentic armour with an Archangel Exoskeleton equipped over the top of it for an extra layer of shielding and more mobility, should the gravity plating in the damaged vessel fail entirely.
It had clearly been damaged heavily in the attack, and there was blood everywhere, but only in small quantities, as if the Darklings didn't care if their prey was injured, only that it was taken alive.
"Good evening, everyone. I am Commander Keres Max of the Light of Truth. That was the first vessel that your fleet attacked today, so I have taken the role of dealing with the survivors of the battle." Max explained to the group.
"So, are you going to enslave us like your Knife Ear allies? It won't be so easy for you, alien." One of the men spat back at him.
"We don't take slaves. We just don't care what the Knife Ears do to our enemies. They don't attack us, so we don't attack them. If they want you, they can have you for all I care." Max replied, making the alien visibly flinch.
They were stout and strangely shaped, making Max wonder what they looked like under that armour. They didn't have an internal monologue at all, so he couldn't check their ongoing thoughts for signs of what they looked like, but the armour had two arms and two legs, with no visible head but a sensor suite at the front.
Either they were strangely shaped or hunchbacked to fit into that bulbous torso. Of course, it was possible that the armour wasn't form-fitting either, as Max hadn't checked any of the bodies whose armour had been breached other than to notice that their blood was a deep purple.
"Then what will you do with us?" The same Galen spokesperson asked.
"We will put the ship on a preset course in the same general direction as your fleet fled, and we will evict you from this star system. We have a nonaggression agreement with the Koleska, and we are stationed here for the foreseeable future, so if you find your people, please warn them never to return." Max replied.
"That's it, just like that? No forced labour camps, Military Prison or corporal punishment?" The soldier asked.
"Not this time. It was an unprovoked attack, and we don't take that lightly, but I am a generous Commander, and I believe in second chances. So today, you will be released with a warning for your people and the chance to give the dead a proper burial. Next time we will not be as merciful."
The terror that those words invoked were enough that Max was sure the Galen was taking him seriously, and some of them had vivid images of what that might mean the next time, from eternal torture in a vat of healing liquid as the Knife Ears did to anyone who annoyed them, to a life of slave labour on a mining asteroid with a shock collar on until they starved to death.
All were valid ideas, and Nico would probably have ideas on a better healing fluid to torture people in, but the Reavers were fairly merciful if they let you live. At least by this sector's standards, it seemed.