As soon as Terminus dropped out of warp, in orbit around the Grox homeworld, Max began an all-frequencies broadcast from the cockpit of Cleansing Light.


    [This is the Terminus Trading Company, under contract to the Cygnus Empire. Thepliance of your nation has been sanctioned. Please disable your shields and prepare for the peaceful reorganization of your political leadership.] Max informed them, hearing theughter in Nico''s thoughts from the other side of the bay where she was preparing tounch the Orbital Drone Fighters.


    [The Grox answer to no Human Empire. Leave now, and we will forgive this transgression for a nominal penalty.] The response from the arrived almost immediately.


    [You heard the man. All unitsunch.] Max ordered, then jumped out of the open bay door so that Cleansing Light could face the Grox Capital.


    Barriers were going up all over the, as expected, but they wouldn''tst long against the firepower of the Cutters, and if they were smart, they wouldn''t fight back at all after Max dealt with the Capital.


    There would be a lot of coteral damage from this n, but it was the best way that he hade up with to end the fighting before it started, so Max began to charge the Disruptors on his Mecha for one concentrated burst.


    The Grox must have detected the power surge with their sensors because they sent a volley of fire from their Capital defenses straight at him, flickering harmlessly against the shielding of Terminus.


    Max moved forward out of the protection of the Colony Ship and let loose the first volley, faintly greenish light from the Disruptors forming a pir through the atmosphere for the entire second that the weapon took to discharge. Then an immense explosion came from the ground, blinding every sensor that Max had.


    Nico''s evaluation came in even before Max''s sensors had recovered. [The Variable Frequency Disruptor entirely bypassed their shielding, annihting the city and causing the four fusion power nts below the Capital to go critical at once, with the st partially contained by the city''s defenses.


    The chances of survival are less than one in a billion.


    Chances of salvageable technology, less than one in ten million.]


    While the Captial burned, the Cutters madendfall near the fivergest work centers in the system, dropping their Battalions, which immediately split into Companies to secure their assigned zones.


    Mecha surged out of the cities to meet them, shouting and chanting litanies that made no sense to the Regiment. They were all in a foreignnguage that the Keplerputer systems didn''t automatically trante but seemed to be some religious litany by the assortment of banners and gilded leadership Mecha.


    [Commander, the first trantions are in. It appears they are calling us "God Killers." The Grox have set themselves up as deities to the enved human poption.] Nico reported.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Secondster, the Orbital Fighters wereunched, a wave of drones meant to reduce the casualties taken by their Mecha in the first wave of an enemy counterattack.


    [Just great. Now we have to deal with two worlds full of religious zealots. I don''t intend to kill every soul in this system, so someone needs toe up with a n in the next five minutes before the engagement starts.] Max ordered.


    They had a staff aboard Terminus that was just for logistics, nning, and data analysis. Hopefully, they coulde up with something quickly, or Max was going to have to do this the hard way.


    [n H is to inundate them with propaganda touting us as the saviors who are here to overthrow the deceivers. We could modify it to call them false gods. Every Grox that we kill will reinforce our message that they aren''t deities.] The nning staff suggested.


    [That''s not the worst n I''ve heard today. Get on it. I want it on every television and every radio on boths. Bombard them with the message that their overlords are usurpers, iming something that they have no right to.] Max ordered.


    [All Units target their leaders. Every signal you get that suggests a Grox lifeform, take it out with extreme prejudice. The loss of leadership will enrage them but also demoralize them and break the chain ofmand.]


    Aboard Terminus, the Innu and Illithid were watching the battle y out with a mixture of horror and rapt attention. Like a live train wreck, they were unable to look away. War might be anathema to their cultures at this point, but the thought that people had been manipted into epting their ve masters as deities they needed to worship was equally terrifying, especially once Nico started ying the footage from the for them, as the Grox who were stationed outside the main city rallied their forces to move out against the invaders.


    They clearly weren''t going toe out to fight themselves, so Nico started marking them with the sensors from the Drones, giving the Mecha more targeting solutions that would directly hit the Grox leadership.


    Max''s [Unified Force] System Talent and theputing power of Cleansing Light gave him plenty of options, fed to him from the entire Regiment as he hovered in orbit around the main, so Max chose the most pertinent first. He ordered the Cutters to take out the shields on the various cities and manufacturing areas. Then he obliterated the Grox Temples, where arge number of them were hiding and issuing orders to the Human militaries under theirmand.


    That was all that he could do from orbit, so Max searched thebat logs for the Company facing the direst situation and sent Cleansing Light hurtling through the atmosphere toward their position for some close fire support.


    The Second Company of the Fourth Battalion had particrly bad luck with thisnding. They had been assigned to what looked like a special forces training area and were outnumbered by Heavy Mecha at least three to one, with more assembling in the city.


    The Grox didn''t seem to have any Super Heavy Mecha so that the Thunder Guns would help even out the numbers, but for the moment, the Second Company was pinned down and beginning to take casualties.


    Six Disruptor sts turned two wings of Heavy Mecha into ashes as Maxnded between the Grox military and his own troops. His arrival brought cheers to his forces and panic to the enemy. A Titan ss Mecha did not belong in a Reaver attack force, and they had no ns on how to counter such a devastating weapon.