Max set the rm to get up early the next morning to prepare for their meetings, but it seemed that the rm wasn''t early enough. He was awoken by an urgent message from the bridge staff.


    [Sir, we have iing Mercenary Vessels. Not just a few. Our signals count over fifty.] The radio officer informed him.


    The ck Wolves should only have a dozen vessels, and some of them barely qualified as Cutters, so either they had brought back allies to split up loot after a sessful mission, or this was a trap.


    [All hands to ready stations. Mercenary ships are iing, and we have not yet determined if they are all friendly.] Max ordered, quickly getting into the augmentic armor suit that he had been given after the trials wereplete but leaving the helmet in the t space storage.


    He raced to his office, where he could check the screens and view the data streams much more conveniently than the projections from his new watch. It did indeed show over fifty signatures, though some of them might be doubled up, as arge vessel could take a few smaller ones into their warp field for shelter and ease of transport.


    [Someone, find me the ck Wolves Station Captain, I want to know what is going on.] Max called over the Regiment-wide general channel.


    [I''m with him now, Commander. It seems that their transmission wasn''t as secure as they thought it was, and every friendly Mercenary group that they passed wanted in on the action, as well as a few hostile ones who wanted to give them a try inbat before they could finish the deal.] Nico replied, and Max could hear the sound of boots thumping on the walkways as she spoke.


    That meant they were likely running either to him or to one of the meeting rooms in the public areas, which were set up for groupmunications.


    That seemed like the more likely choice, so Max got up and searched the thoughts of the crew to find their location before running to join them.


    As he ran, he started to get a list of the Mercenary Companies that wereing their way. They were all friendly or neutral toward the Reavers, though not all on the shortlist for early alliances. Doing things in bulk might work much better, though, as he could pull a whole region of the Death Wind Territory in at once if he yed his cards right.


    With the new generation Cutters and a Titan ss Mecha on board, he wasn''t particrly concerned about being overrun if they decided to y a trick on him, so Max started making preparations in his mind about how he would begin the negotiations once the leaders of these groups arrived.


    By the time Max made it to the room where the Station Captain was chatting with the new arrivals, the details of the iing fleet were already known. There were only tworge Mercenary Companies among the mix, the ck Wolves and the Exterminators, a massive group that specialized in border fights against Klem waves.


    Apanying them were thirty small, single vessel Mercenary Companies who did mostly bodyguard work and lived from their ships, with no permanent base station or homeworld of their own.


    That meant that this deal wouldn''t gain them much territory, but it would gain them arge force of trade vessels that could assist with their early attempts to corner the market.<novelnext></novelnext>


    One after another, the ships docked around the station, spreading out in an organized dance of steel like they had practiced all their lives. Once they were in ce, the Station Commander turned to Max and put on his best formal smile.


    "We have a request to join the negotiations. Thirty-one new groups would like to join the Reavers Trade Group."


    "Please invite them aboard. I will have the crew prepare more seating for the meeting." Max replied, then sent out the message to make sure that there were at least seventy seats at the main table and much more seating in the back for assistants and others.


    The room was ready quickly, but it took an hour before the Mercenary groups had assembled outside the cargo bay door where Terminus was docked with the station. It looked like they had sorted themselves into some sort of hierarchy based on the strength of their forces or perhaps by some sort of internal ranking that Max was unaware of.


    The man in front was huge, almost tall enough to be a Narsian, at 2.8 meters, and heavily modified with cybeics.


    "Commander Keres of the Reavers. I am Commander Arnold of the Exterminators. It is a pleasure to meet you." The big man greeted Max when he stepped through the threshold.


    "Likewise," Max replied, shaking his hand and getting a mighty squeeze in return.


    A normal human''s hand would have been pulverized, but Max was no normal human, even without the addition of the augmentic armor, and his return greeting was met with the squeal of hydraulics being forced open as his grip strength exceeded their limits.


    "So what they say about Kepler Commanders is true. Small but mighty." Commander Arnold smirked, pleased with the result of his test.


    Max could already tell that this man was going to be difficult to deal with, but his fleet included a Human-made colony ship, aary base, and over twenty otherrge vessels. They were supposed to be contacted by the main negotiating fleet more than a month from now, but Max''s appearance at the ck Wolves base had drawn their attention.


    "Come, let''s find a seat, and then everyone can introduce themselves." Max insisted, motioning to the huge round table that was now set up in three concentric rings, with the rear two on risers so that the upants could see what was happening at floor level.


    "You don''t look concerned with all these Mercenaries aboard your ship." Commander Arnold noted as he took a seat next to Max in the central ring.


    "Terminus herself is a force to be reckoned with, and we have a few technological advances that can provide personal security." Max agreed, tapping the new augmentic armor he was wearing.