The staff ushered the group in as soon as they could get the back room ready, and Max took a seat at the head of the table while the two groups faced off across the long sides.

“Now, where do we start? Since we are having a meeting in good faith, I will forego the fines for public nuisance this time. I believe that you are all familiar with our probation program for new businesses, and starting out this way would not bode well for your future attempts to expand. Now, I will flip a token. If it lands with the Aquila up, the group on my right will start. If it shows a skull, it will be the group on my left.”

That way, neither of them had to admit to the weaker position of being the first to offer terms. They were simply going by what the mediator fairly offered.

Max took the token from his Flat space, where it was safely stored as a shim for adjusting the Laser Arrays on his Mobile Suit in case they took damage and flipped it through the air. The disc spun about its axis rapidly, then bounced high in the air after hitting the table before flopping down flat with the Skull up.

Max noticed that the ‘Skull’ on this tool was distinctly Innu, a little fact that made him smile.

“Alright, you are going first. What conditions and concessions are you willing to offer to secure a truce?” Max asked.

The orange Giant frowned for a moment, not happy about having to be the first to put out an offer. It set the tone for the negotiations to come, and he didn’t want to start too low and lose the battle or too high and end up angering Max.

“I propose that we keep the truce to just that, a simple truce. We do not open any businesses that compete with those on the opposing block, and we don’t interfere with each other.” The Giant offered.

It didn’t gain him much of anything, but the businesses that he had picked, including this restaurant, had a solid business plan, and he was confident that without interference, they would thrive.

“What conditions do you want if the terms are broken?” The leader of the opposite side of the street asked, as he already had plans for a competing restaurant to go directly across the road from this one.

“What are the usual punishments that humans use for breaking an oath?” The Giant asked.

“Reavers take oaths seriously. The usual penalty would be to strip them of any gains they had made through the betrayal of their oath and then a public flogging.” Max explained.

Sure, that was the maximum, but it was quite common among senior officers who had broken the trust placed on them.

Both sides looked a bit shocked at the harsh penalty. The loss of assets if they got caught was minor. It was a risk that every illicit business took, but the loss of reputation that you would suffer after being publicly flogged for being untrustworthy couldn’t be repaired.

After hearing their thoughts, Max added to his comment. “Who would do business with us if they didn’t know for certain that they could trust us? We sell everything up to trillion credit terraforming machines, weapons, and Warp Drive Crystals. If any of them were faulty or didn’t show up, what would happen to our clients? Worse, what would our customers think of us if we couldn’t follow through on a threat?”

The groups carefully considered that. It was the true difference between powerhouses like the Reavers and the Black Market and small-time Mafia groups like theirs. You could trust them to follow through on everything from promises to find you a product to promises to wipe your planet out of existence.

The large-headed man with the oversized black eyes that led the other contingent shuddered a bit as he recalled what happened to the Volga. The Reavers certainly did follow through on threats. They had taken over an entire species Empire in a single day after they were angered.

“The penalty is acceptable. But the question remains, how do we define interference?” The second leader asked.

“Should I ask the Envoys? I’m sure they have a well-prepared definition of the term.” Max suggested.

“The standard definition is any action that causes a loss of revenue, reputation, or which causes physical damage.” The orange-skinned Giant replied. He wasn’t quite as literal as the Envoy, but he was quite logic minded, which was why his boss had chosen him for the position.

The leader from the other side of the street had been chosen for his ability to innovate and improvise, which were good tactics when opening businesses in a new location, but not as well suited to facing a long-term rival like this as the cold calculation of the Giant subspecies.

The two sides conferred to make sure that their tactics wouldn’t go overboard and break those direct limits. Like defamation, you could imply your opponent was inferior to yourself, but there was a fine line where you couldn’t actually lie about them. You could take actions to bring business to yourself that caused them to lose business, but you couldn’t stop customers from entering the competitor’s business.

The leaders both thought they had a solid plan to move forward at that point, but Max could see that this was likely to become a mess all over again.

“On behalf of Terminus, I will put one more set of conditions on the truce that should help it endure. Neither of you is to create a public nuisance again, and you will not take any more actions that discourage foot traffic through the area. It leads to poor quality of life for the residents, and we won’t accept that here aboard Absolution.”

The Giant nodded his agreement, but the black-eyed man was given great insight from Max’s comments. The Commander wanted foot traffic and a high quality of life for residents in the area. He still had some shops left vacant due to time constraints. He could turn the second floor of his buildings into nightclubs so that his side of the street would be busy at every hour of the day and night, and it would draw out foot traffic, which he could capture additional business from with various shops since they were in the neighbourhood anyhow.

A few drinks while watching the dancers while you went out to get ingredients for dinner certainly counted as a quality of life improvement to him, and if they were in the same building, even the employee trackers would show them at the grocery shop.

He was a genius in his own mind.

The Giant had a more simple plan. No other shopping district in the area had luxury products. There were groceries and family restaurants available all over the station, but luxury goods were still hard to come by. He would focus his side of the street to be more upscale so that everyone who went across the street to do their daily business would see the signs for things that their spouses had always wanted, from luxury clothing and jewellery to tools, VR pod bed upgrades and performance hoverboards.

He would let the other side do the hard work of drawing massive crowds, while he would prey on the urge to treat themselves now that they were making good money and go for the big ticket items.