Ves and his little family freshened up for the day and finished their sumptuous breakfast. Each of the survivors of the alien abduction event gained an entirely new appreciation of the simpler pleasures in life. It had only been less than a day where they had been deprived of the ability to choose when to eat and when to use the bathroom. While the Larkinsons not only managed to get free while suffering minimal losses, they also harvested an immense amount of gains from this incident! Already the news portals went abuzz with what the Larkinsons had done. From deploying powerful mechs such as the Everchanger to quickly resolve the rampaging warbeasts that had been let loose on the streets to massacring thousands of hidden aliens that had supposedly taken over a pocket space that Davute never discovered, the buzz surrounding the Larkinson Clan propelled its reputation to another peak! When Ves separated from his wife and children and calmly headed over to the main office of his Royal Mansion, his personal assistant prepared an entire stack of dossiers. "You know, Benny, I originally intended to take a day off." Ves said in a weary tone. "You really shouldn't, boss. Too much has happened and everyone is running around trying to put out all of the ongoing fires. I do not think that the new colonial federation will like it if we continue to delay their pressing matters for another day." Ves stood in front of the tall windows that gave him a decent view of the surrounding forest and the taller city structures in the distance. Kotor City still enforced a form of pseudo-martial law at this stage. The colonial government clearly did not want to drive all of the party-goers away, but it also had an obligation to guarantee the safety of everyone in its domain. The military and the assisting third parties had already wiped out the immediate threats, but the security holes that allowed the Karlachs to launch their novel surprise attack and the remnants of the pescan race to kidnap the VIPs needed to be closed. A lot of engineers employed or contracted by the state were in the process of going over every crucial security and protection system. They needed to manually check for any forms of sabotage and subversion, putting extra effort into investigating how the attackers managed to disable the well-protected warp interdiction field generators. Only after plugging these critical gaps would Davute have the confidence to kick off its much-anticipated festival! Ves frowned when he heard this news. "The colonial government is still insisting on holding a week-long celebration? A lot of people died. Entire streets in the Government District turned into warzones." "It is exactly because so many negative incidents occurred that Davute is eager to turn the page. That president is really clever, boss. He pinned all of the blame on Karlach and even took advantage of our victory in that pocket space to claim that his new colonial state had managed to come out on top. He's desperate to keep Davute together. Do you remember that the VIPs of two of the seating blocks got wiped out in an instant? The organizations they led are pissed, leaderless and probably about to collapse. Yenames Clive is personally intervening to prop them all up and prevent them from going bankrupt and so on. It is a huge mess as those organizations aren't so eager to cooperate with the state that failed their leaders." A complex expression appeared on Ves' face. He was one of the few individuals who figured out that the targeting of those seating blocks was not random. Ves and Calabast had no way to determine how extensively the conspirators within the colonial government colluded with Karlach's saboteurs. The fact that those odd and powerful warbeasts immediately spat out devastating energy beams in the direction of Block M and so on indicated that this was not a simple matter of pulling a few plugs! He shook his head. The depth of this conspiracy went so deep that it was far too dangerous for the Larkinsons to get involved. His clan may have been on the rise, but it stood no chance against established old galaxy powers such as the Clive Consortium! Besides, the Larkinsons did not stand to gain any benefits from following up on this matter. Ves had already decided to leave Davute and never return, so there was no point in getting entangled over its internal affairs. The only clansmen who needed to be concerned about the follow-up were the ones that had transferred to the Davute Branch or the new military division led by General Ark Larkinson. Ves did not really care about what the Davute Branch decided to do. He had already set them loose in his heart. The clan was already in the process of completing the administrative and legal reforms that would officially grant the side branch more autonomy in exchange for receiving less support from the main branch. It was all part of the new proliferation strategy that would ultimately spread the Larkinsons across the Red Ocean. The clan might not be able to build a strong regional stronghold by pursuing a strategy of geographic diversification. Once Ves had enough of the view, he returned to his desk and sat down onto his chair. He was ready to get to business. "Alright, let's start. What do I need to take care of first?" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦 "There are a number of documents that you need to sign…" So much had happened yesterday that different arms of the government had sent a lot of paperwork to the Larkinson Clan. They mostly pertained to the defense of the Government District. The Larkinson mechs on the scene had saved many lives but also broke a lot of laws in the process. Of course, there was no way that Davute would ever go after the Larkinson Clan for defending the citizens of the state, but the proper procedures still needed to be followed. Ves found that there were surprisingly little documents related to the pocket space. The only ones he had to sign were provisional non-disclosure agreements that would have to be renegotiated in the future. Although Ves did not want the government to shut him up, the contract terms were remarkably gentle, so he did not mind throwing Davute a bone. "Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already been working throughout the night to handle our communications with the government." Gavin Neumann reported. "You do not need to waste your time on these matters. As far as our clan as a whole is concerned, Davute has dropped the ball to such an awful extent that it owes a lot of compensation to us. What helps our case is that we are not alone in this. Every major stakeholder of Davute who sent their representatives to the founding ceremony are just as angry as us, if not more. Right now, we are united in our dissatisfaction with the government. If President Yenames Clive doesn't take us seriously enough, more investors will get fed up to the point where they will pull out of his state." That had already started to happen according to Gavin. Not everyone was as brave as the Larkinsons. To many of these pampered and high-born leaders, getting caught in the middle of the battlefield was an enormously traumatic experience! When Ves requested a list of organizations that had already published their intention to divest their holdings in Davute, he learned that over two-dozen different companies had already begun this process. The colonial government was likely working extremely hard to convince these stakeholders to change their mind. The danger was that the sentiment would spread. If too many companies decided that Davute wasn't safe enough anymore, then the panic might spread, causing the state to lose support for its upcoming war against the purported perpetrators of the surprise attack! "As you can already imagine, the colonial administration is prioritizing its talks with our clan a lot. President Yenames Clive insists on scheduling a meeting with you within the next two days. He wants to close a deal with us before the festival begins." Ves directed a grim look at his assistant. "I am not in the mood to talk to that bastard. Can we postpone this meeting until after the festival has passed?" "I do not think that is a viable option for us." Gavin advised. "One of the reasons why we need to sign a new agreement is to settle the matter of the pescans that we have claimed as our prisoners. While we managed to get them past the Davutan soldiers and stuff them in the holding cells beneath our compound, the legality of what we have done is extremely dubious. Davute is well within its rights to barge into our Cat Nest and gun the pescan captives down without giving us a chance to protect our new property. The Big Two heavily frowns on keeping indigenous aliens alive." That was indeed a serious concern. Ves did not want to break the promise he had made to the pescans regardless of whether they were aliens. Of course, he still didn't take the threat of government intervention too seriously. Any sign of overbearing behavior would completely crush its efforts to establish a free trade hub where any company could engage in honest business without needing to worry about arbitrary laws and unfair treatment! It was still better to resolve disagreements through mutual talks rather than unilateral action. Ves and the Larkinsons had tested the patience of the colonial state numerous times already. Going overboard would cause his reputation to deteriorate as more and more people assumed he was petty, childish and vindictive. "Fine." Ves conceded. "Schedule meetings with both the president and the MTA. We need to get both of them off our backs." Although he was not in the mood to negotiate with President Yenames Clive once again, the dynamic of the upcoming talks would definitely be completely different from before! This time, the Larkinson Clan unquestionably held the upper hand. Davute needed to grovel even harder to retain the approval of the people who played a starring role in resolving the serious crises that broke out yesterday! "Did you hear any news about the pocket space that has fallen into the lap of Davute?" "There are a lot of unverified rumors flying around, but nothing solid as of yet." The personal assistant replied. "It is far too early for the official institutions to announce anything regarding this huge surprise. I think that the colonial administration is already trying to persuade the MTA to turn the pocket space into a territory of Davute. Even if the government has succeeded in these talks, it might take months for the details of this possible agreement to leak to the public. The Davutans want to keep the Karlachs in the dark as long as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if the center of the Government District turns into a forbidden land." "Yenames Clive should give our clan a lot of remuneration for helping his colonial state claim an invaluable pocket space. We may not have discovered it, but we helped to conquer it from the pescans without causing our side to incur excessive losses." "I will be sure to pass that on to our negotiators." "The upcoming war will become even hotter than before because of this." Ves grumbled. "Karlach is bound to grow so jealous that its leaders have little choice but to take over this port system or die trying." There were so many repercussions to yesterday's events that Ves couldn't keep up with it all. The Krakatoa Middle Zone would soon get embroiled in a war that would inevitably produce a lot of losses. Meanwhile, humanity's war against the native aliens continued to get stalled as the defenders finally got their act together. The aliens who used to treat each other as rivals had finally begun to settle their differences and join forces in order to unite against the human invaders!