Once the news started to spread among the trading vessels and the various companies that had pending orders from the Volga, the entire Alliance data network was flooded with speculation and gossip about humans.

They had only recently been recognized as an advanced species and were fast-tracked to a deal with the Alliance, but just yesterday, without any sort of warning, they had taken offence to something that the Volga had done and, in a single day, crushed the entire species.

It was unthinkable. Not even the Hunters were known to crush nations in a day. The Reavers knew full well that the Hunters were even more capable of doing it than they were, but they had learned long ago that it was more trouble than it was worth.

They didn’t want to hold and govern other species’ planets. They didn’t even want to govern their own planets, but they hadn’t found anyone worthy of doing it for them. They just wanted to go hunting.

And then, there was the video feed of the event. On some planets, thousands of landing craft were launched at once, dispersing hundreds of thousands of Mecha onto the surface, all with coordinated orders to take the cities and industrial areas first. On other planets, destructive ship-mounted weapons or a wave of bombings that turned an entire planet into rubble were chosen.

There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to what planets got what treatment, and the predominant speculation among the Alliance netizens was that it was not strategic but personal. They believed that certain members of the Volga leadership had so offended the humans that their entire homeworlds were wiped out while others were almost completely spared.

One world, best known for its music editing and beat production, had fallen without a single casualty. The humans had landed on the planet and simply demanded control, and for some reason, the Volga had given it to them. They gave the humans an entire planet without even trying to fight back.

If the attacks hadn’t happened all at once, it would have been believable that they had heard of the events on other Volga worlds, but the timeline didn’t work out, and it was causing speculation that the Music Moguls had been in on it from the start, and had been unwilling to go along with whatever had so angered the humans.

Max was watching the chaos from his office with Nico, who thought it was all hilarious, but he couldn’t properly enjoy the situation because of one simple message.

[As interspecies Liaison to the Alliance, the Reaver Trade Group requests that the Terminus Trading Company begins immediate damage control to the reputation of the human species within Alliance Media.]

“What should we do to clear the situation up? You know the orders as well as I do, and you’ve got a better grasp on the social media situation, thanks to your daily streams with the Tech Nomads.” Max demanded of his cyborg partner.

“I say we let them stew for a few more days, then put out a cryptic message about the benefits of civilized behaviour and leave it at that for another week. It will give everyone the impression that it’s not good to mess with humanity, and in a way, that fulfils our directive.” She suggested.

“Vetoed. No letting the reputation as warmongers set into the public consciousness.”

Nico actually thought about it for a while this time, then shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m not sure that they would actually believe anything we say at this point. The victory over the Volga was simply too one-sided. We look like the universe’s biggest bullies right now, and having the Alliance take over their entire nation on our behalf doesn’t really do anything to help that impression, even if it was necessary after the Volga leadership Caste collapsed.”

Max sighed and rubbed his temples to stave off an impending headache. That was the conclusion that he had come to as well, but there had to be something he could do. Maybe if he broadcasted the trials, it would help. The Alliance judged them as part of the determination of reparations to be made, so there was a layer of officiality to them.

“Make up an edited clip of the trials, showing the juiciest bits of the Corporate Espionage and unprovoked military action charges. Keep it under two minutes, and let me see it before we attach it to an official statement letting the Alliance civilians know what was going on.

If you do it tactfully, you can even use your idea for a slightly cryptic message about the benefits of civilized behaviour. Make it look like we taught them a long overdue lesson about not provoking other nations using military force.” Max decided.

That was better than doing nothing and letting the data net make up whatever it wanted.

It only took Nico a few minutes to create a polished and professional press release, with clips of the Volga attacks on various human worlds, quotes from the Alliance observers at the trials, and a slick speech stating that the human species would not become victims of warmongers, no matter how distant their home worlds were.

It was much better than he had expected, so he had her put it up right away through the Terminus Trading Company page.

In the course of an hour, it got billions of views, and the whole direction of the conversation changed. No longer did the public view the humans as the aggressors but as a highly militant species that the Volga had made a terrible mistake in attacking.

The fact that they had lost control of their Empire was only natural, given this new evidence. They had attacked a species that they had no hope of winning against, and it was just a shame that they had fallen so fast that negotiations to limit the extent of the war were futile.

The Volga became the punchline to a huge number of bad jokes about biting off more than you could chew and became the unofficial spokesperson for being humiliated in a fight.

“They got beat like the Volga.” Even made its way into an official sports broadcast after the Dishkal National team got beat 396 to 4 in a hoops tournament match.

Max actually felt bad for them. They used to be a somewhat respected trading partner, but now they were a bad joke, respected only for the quality of the products that they turned out and their efficiency. It had gotten so bad in many companies that they had to promote non-Volga staff members to deal with clients because the Volga were getting bullied and talked over by their customers.

Losing a war didn’t make them any worse as businesspeople, and Max was certain that they would get their revenge sooner or later, but for now, the Volga were laying low and letting the worst of the bad publicity blow over before they started showing up in public again.