Chapter 967: Civilian Data

Once they understood the basics of the local encryption, which took a few minutes, even with their computing power and Nico on the job, it was a simple matter to gain access to the civilian side of their data network on the planet.

But, as expected of a planetary network, there was so much irrelevant information floating around that they had to work a while longer until they found the local version of a search engine to help them find relevant data.

"Alright, we're in. Now, let's get started with the recent news. There should be something here, even if it is local government propaganda. You can't just hide an invasion of this level. Too many people can see it with their own eyes."

The team worked for a few more minutes as they sorted through the results that they had gotten from their search, trying to determine what was real and what was propaganda.

"It looks like the government here doesn't really censor much. They've been in a defensive war for centuries now, and there is fairly detailed information on the attacks, including calls for recruitment and offers of rewards after the battle has ended." Nico informed Max with a shrug.

None of it was all that interesting. It was important, and they learned a lot about what was going on, but it was nothing new and exciting.

"Any sign that they have been the aggressors? From the sounds of it, no, but I need to check for the report that I'm going to send to the Alliance." Max asked.

"None. The Myceloids are a random menace, but the Underlings, as they call these warriors, have been aggressively attacking everything that they see for centuries since they became active in the region.

They have names for a few of the species that have mutated into them as well. It looks like they were from planets that went willingly to the worship of the being they follow.

That didn't stop them from slaughtering their planets, but they kept some that they deemed worthy to add to their own forces." Nico explained.

"So they are a cult of some sort then?" Max asked.

"Definitely. However, we can't seem to find any sort of reference to what they worship. That part seems to be either taboo or extremely well censored, and nobody mentions it even with vague or slang references."

That was unfortunate but unavoidable. The public was only ever allowed so much information, and giving them too much knowledge about the enemy would encourage them to try to relate to the aliens, which would inevitably lead to a seditious rebellion of people who had some other grievance against the government.

The same scenario had played out too many times in the past for Max to discount the fact that the government's attempts to minimize details about the enemy were an attempt to prevent the same thing from happening here.

"It's a lot of generic information, but we have a basic timeline of the conflict for you now. That's about the best that we can do with the civilian data, but we are still working on the government servers. They have some information online, and we're hoping that it gives us a bit more of a clear picture of the situation." Khan added.

While Nico and the Hunters focused on the search for government data that would tell them more about the enemy force here, Max started making plans to deal with the larger mutated aliens.

It was seeming more and more like the other layer was used as a refuge for the most dangerous species that lived in this layer, so it wasn't completely shocking that this one also had links there, but the level of mutation that he had seen was very concerning.

Stopping that from spreading to the planet that the Anomaly leading to the Alliance was on had to be a priority, and that meant not letting them control any more planets close to the Anomaly as far as he was concerned.

He could only hope that it was worth it and that the data he had seen from these aliens wasn't masking a level of violent imperialism that would leave him and the Hunters in a battle against a third species.

The group of blood-covered aliens here was relatively confined, all in one area, and for the moment, they didn't seem to have any connections to a nearby ship or reinforcements. They had been nearly eliminated from the planet, thanks to the timely intervention of the Myceloids, and now the locals were working to clean up the last of them.

If nothing changed, the outcome was clear: it would be a grinding siege with heavy casualties on both sides before a win for the defenders. But it would be much better to have them gone and finish their first contact with the small gray aliens before anyone else came to disturb them.

"Well, the Government servers are a bust. What they have online is mostly tax documents and trade details. We learned that they still have active trade with twelve other planets controlled by their species, plus more with vessels from two other species, but there's nothing about the war there other than raw numbers on the costs and casualties." Nico sighed.

Max patted her head and smiled down at the disappointed cyborg.

"Well, I have some good news for you. I've been making plans to shorten this siege so that we can make proper first contact before either side gets reinforcements and turns this into a bloody grind.

If we launch a surprise attack on the blood-covered ones now, we can meet with the defenders and hopefully come to some sort of nonaggression agreement before anything else comes to interfere.

Then, we can start sorting out what is going on in this region. It looks like it is even more politically unstable than the Koleska Territories."

Nico and the Hunters shared a smile.

"That's much better than sitting here and observing. Please, do elaborate."