The aid Xi Yan had promised-a massive transport fleet-arrived in the Norg's Flame System under the escort of the Community Fleet.
Norg was the homeworld of the Luopeng Resistance.
Minamar Specialized Industries' suppression of the resistance movement had left the planet at a staggering 30% devastation.
The only good news was that its proximity to Minamar Specialized Industries' Core Sector had spared it from the Gray Tempest's invasion.
Precisely because this was the Core Sector, Xi Yan and his aid fleet faced rigorous inspections from Minamar Specialized Industries when he brazenly brought them over.
When they learned that these supplies were aid for the Luopeng Resistance, the industrial capitalists throughout Minamar Specialized Industries lost their composure.
But an agreement between the two nations was already in place, and dedicated transport corridors connected the enclaves. They had no choice but to swallow their anger and let Xi Yan's fleet through.
Laden with relief supplies and personnel, the fleet crossed the territories of the Human Federation and the Xindari Triumvirate Regime before finally delivering its cargo into the hands of the Luopeng birdfolk.
The once-vibrant land was now littered with wreckage and ruins. Minamar Specialized Industries' suppression forces had created an interstellar humanitarian crisis here. In the eyes of these interstellar slavers, the Luopeng were nothing but inferior slaves.
Still, many humans back home seemed quite fond of these handsome birds with their colorful feathers.
The Luopeng had won their freedom, but their history was undoubtedly one of humiliation.
Before they could even reach the stars, slavers from beyond their world had forcibly uplifted them, then sold them into slavery. In the end, they had needed humans to secure their freedom, but their species had also lost its autonomy. Their future held nothing but perpetual vassalage to humanity.
Still...
As Chairman Jahuda