While they waited for a response from the drone pilots, Max worked on expanding his senses to the thoughts of the aliens in the city. It was a densely packed hive city, as expected of a world under siege, and finding the right mind was becoming increasingly difficult.
The local news was showing the scene of the battle that they had just held, and all of the minds in town were focused on the same things, making it impossible to tell who was important and who was just watching the news.
So, Max pushed further and further into their thoughts until he felt a strange sensation in his body. It felt like the System's Nanobots were confused about what exactly he was trying to do.
They wanted to help, but his current actions didn't match whatever they had thought he needed.
Realistically, they probably couldn't do much. They had capped out his strength, his agility and speed were far beyond human, and his body had been remade a half dozen times to the point that it took dozens of times more force to injure him than was normal.
But they were definitely looking for something.
So, Max did the only sensible thing he could while they waited for the locals to answer. He used Nico's skill to connect with the ship's computer and allowed the nanobots to go to work analyzing all of the samples that they had collected from the warriors and the demonic beings over the course of the battle, as well as what they had gathered from the chameleon aspects of the biodome aliens.
Since the nanobots were involved in the rapid access of data, they could use whatever they wanted for their own advancement plans. It was a simple method to help them make up their mind, and Max idly wondered how many species would be completely horrified at the Kepler attitude toward random genetic engineering by a hivemind artificial intelligence.
It had worked out well for them, but the basic premise sounded like the start of a horror movie, and when they saw similarly extreme levels of genetic engineering in others, the first instinct was always to wonder what had pushed them that far.
Finally, the sense of agitation within his body began to settle as the System's nanobots either found what they were looking for or gave up on whatever plan they had.
Max hoped it was the first, as another advancement at this point would be wonderful, but at the same time, he realized that it was incredibly improbable.
[Message translated. We come in Peace. An envoy is headed your way to make introductions.] The ship's computer automatically translated now that it had the data on the light flash language.
"They speak the same common tongue as the species in the Koleska region. I'm not sure if the Hunters speak it, as the Myceloids don't, but it is one that Nico and I both understand. They might try to keep using the light flashes, but one of us can contact them directly and talk to them if we have their communication frequencies." Max informed the others.
The envoy arrived only a few minutes later. One single terrified alien in what looked like a disposable transit pod, made from rapidly biodegradable plastic with no manual controls.
"They totally think we're going to kill her." Nico pointed out.
"Guaranteed. The so-called envoy doesn't even have controls to move the pod unless they're doing it through a neural link that our sensors haven't detected the circuitry for." Khan agreed.
Max shook his head. "No, it's a drone. The person inside has no control. Should I meet them, or should we send Nico, who is closer to their size?"
Nico laughed, "You go. You're halfway between me and the Hunters in size, so the shock when they see us shouldn't be as severe as if they went from seeing me to seeing Khan."
Max chuckled as he put his Mobile Suit back on to go outside and greet the Envoy.
The atmosphere was completely safe for him to breathe, but he wouldn't put it past the aliens to send someone with an incurable disease on a suicide mission, and he didn't want to catch something unknown to science.
There was too much terror in the envoy's mind to make anything else out, so he stepped out of the smaller side ramp and walked over to knock on the side of the pod.
"Good afternoon. I am Commander Keres Max, the chosen representative of this Hunting Trip. Might I know your name, Envoy?" He asked in the common language the aliens used.
It wasn't the same one as the aliens on the other planet had used, which was a bit strange, nor was it the same language that their official records were kept in, but most of the population thought in it, so it must be their native dialect.
The Envoy, a young adult female of the species who had been dressed in what looked like a ceremonial white toga, simply stared at him for a few seconds.
"Please don't hunt me. I'm a terrible runner, and it wouldn't be fun, I promise." She finally pleaded once she realized that she could understand this strange man.
"I agree, you would not be fun to hunt. But you have been chosen as the envoy between your people and mine, so you might as well get out of the pod and come talk to us about your homeworld." Max chuckled.
She was still thoroughly confused as she opened the side door of the pod and climbed from the hovering transport into Max's waiting arms.
He shifted her onto one hip and walked back up the ramp while he pretended that he couldn't hear the minds of the absolutely stunned drone pilots and military officers.
Once they made it up the ramp, Max ordered the ramp to stay open and let the Envoy down onto a couch facing out the door. Then he took the seat facing her, conveniently hidden from the sight of the pod and removed his helmet.
"You're, you're..." She stammered, then cleared her throat.
[No, you can't be. They're all dead. The old ones are not real.] She mentally whispered, with the words never leaving her mouth.
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