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The entire middle had been cleared open, which allowed groups of councilors and politicians and representatives to rub elbows with the newly-formed nation-state. It was in their best interest to introduce themselves early, especially if they had need of the Republic’s skills.

Many lingered around the edges of the room, where numerous decorated tables with a slew of delicious hors d’oeuvres stood. All were chatting and mingling and debating with each other, all while also enjoying the food and drink that the de Jardins provided.

The members of the Corvus Republic were scattered here and there, in small groups, often in pleasant (and slightly awkward) conversation with everyone around them. Most had never been in a situation like that before, and were completely awed and overwhelmed by it all.

Especially those whose lives were mostly spent as prisoners or slaves. This amount of freedom was beyond their capacity to fully understand. But they most certainly appreciated it.

Of course, the majority of those celebrating belonged to the de Jardins. Some were a few of the dukes and duchesses that had voted the Ravens in. Most however were “regular” de Jardins. Although they had position within the House, they weren’t quite at the level of influence as the dukes and duchesses.

They were the Barons and Baronesses, Counts and Countesses. And even a few up-and-coming Lords and Ladies.

There were also a couple dozen dignitaries from Houses allied to the de Jardins. Though they happened to be visiting the de Jardins for a variety of diplomatic reasons, they were still invited to the celebrations. After all, it was in all their best interest to get to know the Corvus Republic. Especially their leadership.

The Ravens themselves found themselves in the middle of the vast room, where they were courted by every single de Jardin seemingly in existence. A few were certainly the romantic kind, and some were outright business-like marriage proposals, though the vast majority was perfunctory and diplomatic in nature.

.....

They were simple greetings accompanied by genial assurances regarding mutual assistance. Often with a few light jokes sprinkled in to ease any tensions. Standard allyship fare. Not that the Ravens had any problems with that.

The issue was simply that there were so many of them, and they were seemingly everywhere. Over two hundred guests came to the celebrations, and each and every one of them had to meet the Ravens. There was practically a line that led to them.

It became all too much, especially for the more introverted of the Ravens. Their social energy ran out ridiculously fast when faced with that many people all at once.

And before their anxieties could take them over, Eva, Miko, and Kali stealthed away from the crowd. They surreptitiously slunk away to the various corners of the hall, and went as far as they could from anyone else. Or at the very least, towards the smallest groups possible.

They left the talking to the others – the ones who could easily handle the social pressure.

And it was true to a great degree. Claire, Amal, Xylo, and Lucifer all thrived on the energy of the crowd. They greatly enjoyed meeting with every single one, and were all smiles all throughout the event. Together, they happily gained more connections, more friends, more operational possibilities, and more intelligence.

They were practically in their element.

Eva found herself at one of the tables in a far corner, and caught her breath to some degree. As her anxiety slowly drained away, she subconsciously grabbed a random hors d’oeuvre from one of the plates. Then she bit into it mindlessly and chewed.

Though she didn’t need the food itself, the simple act of eating helped lessen her anxiety faster than not. It broke away altogether once she realized that the food was really good.

She peered down at the half-eaten thing, and saw that it was a juicy chunk of brisket wrapped in soft reddish leaves. The meat itself was so tender and fatty that it practically melted in her mouth. Its savoriness was perfectly contrasted by the mildly sweet yellow leaf wrapped around it.

Eva popped the last half into her mouth and began to enjoy the food much more consciously. By the time she was done, all her anxiety had fallen away.

“I suggest the croquettes,” said a female voice, “Unit Leader Freya.”

Familiarity struck Eva, and she quickly spun around to greet the girl.

“Aurora!” she said happily. “So good to see you!”

“Same, same,” replied Aurora

“And wait a second... what the hell are you doing here?”

“Ah, that’s a long story.”

“I’ve got the time, trust me.”

Eva then grabbed a couple of croquettes, dipped them halfway through a couple different sauces, then extended them both out to Aurora, who picked one of them.

“It’s the whole Prophet thing,” she began. “Once they were all properly dealt with, and once everything calmed down, our unit was disbanded. Which was supposed to happen. But right before it officially happened, my officers and I were hit with Letters of Prosecution from the Navy.”

Eva groaned in frustration.

“Lemme guess,” she said. “Disobeying your superior or some nonsense.”

“And more, too,” Aurora replied. “Appropriating Federation property without authorization, misappropriation of Naval forces, utilizing deadly force on a Class V planet without clearance, endangering Federation citizens, and so many more.

The girl continued to rattle off more than a dozen charges, which caused Eva to become more and more irate. It was more proof of the Federation’s incompetence.

But as she listened, it dawned on her that it all seemed a bit too much. Why a prosecution? Why not simply discharge her dishonorably?

Aurora and her team literally helped stop terrorists. And yet they were being charged as if they were the terrorists themselves.

“I don’t get why they’d do that, honestly,” said Eva. “I mean, you were just doing your jobs! The very thing your entire unit was created to do. Didn’t you tell the admiralty that your captain was derelict in his duties?!”

“We didn’t have the time,” Aurora replied. “Once we found out what was happening, we ran. I mean, captains don’t ever prosecute their own staff, yeah? We figured it came from higher up from him. And maybe he got prosecuted too, I don’t know.

“We think maybe the captain was ordered specifically not to go after the Prophets. Or maybe do whatever he could to slow things down.”

The girl sighed deeply. The frustration in her situation was clearly evident in her voice. To be driven out of the Federation, away from her friends and family... It was more than she or her crew could handle.

“So you ran to the Hegemony,” Eva said. “I don’t blame you. Hell, that’s why we’re here, too.”

“Pretty much, yeah,” said Aurora. “We all kind of split up a bit, though. Running from the Fed really broke some of us up inside... More than half joined up with other Houses. Some got their own boats to captain.”

“Good for them.”

“Agreed. But I still got six of my officers, and about a quarter of my crew. We’re still a good number, and we’re all pretty damn skilled. We came here since we heard how great the de Jardins are, figured we’d join up with them.”

The two of them stood silently for a few moments and lightly nibbled on their food. Aurora’s situation sunk deep into Eva. It made more sense to her that it was an act of corruption by the Federation, rather than incompetence. This certainly seemed more their style.

“Well, you’re better off away from that hellhole,” Eva eventually said. “You oughta consider yourselves lucky to have gotten away like that. And joining the de Jardins wouldn’t be a bad deal at all. They’ve definitely been good to us so far.”

“About that,” Aurora replied, “yeah, we were about to join the de Jardins. But once we heard that you were starting a nation-state, we decided to join up with you instead. Really would be the best outcome. You all do some really great things for people, and that’s where we wanna be, too. If you’ll have us, anyway.”

Eva was taken aback at Aurora’s request. And she certainly couldn’t turn her down – experienced military crew was something that the Corvus Republic needed.

“Oh, hell yeah,” she cried out. “You’re a godsend, Aurora! Of course you’re welcome to join! Your whole crew can! We’re gonna be so much more capable now. Your numbers are really gonna help out! I mean, we gotta vote on it. But no way is anyone gonna vote no on you joining.”

“That’s not even the half of it,” said Aurora. She grinned wide with pride as she spoke. “My crew and I escaped to the Hegemony via our destroyer, which means -”

Before she could finish her sentence, Eva grabbed her by her shoulders and her eyes bugged out wide. She could hardly believe what she was hearing.

“You flew a Federation warship into Hegemony space?” she breathed out. “That’s real daring of you. Real daring. I mean, I’m surprised they didn’t blow you all out of the sky.”

“They almost did,” Aurora replied. “But we kept our guns powered down, and we kept hailing our surrender on open channels. We luckily got through before they tore into us, yeah.”

Aurora laughed lightly, as though being that close to death was some kind of joke. Not that Eva found the humor in it. But then it suddenly dawned on her what Aurora was alluding to.

“You’re adding a Federation destroyer to our fleet?!” she muttered. “Holy hell, that’s huge!”

“Ahaha, yes and no?” replied Aurora. “Your friend the Minister took it from us. Said she needed to reverse engineer it for Intelligence purposes. Not like we had a choice, so we surrendered it to her. But it isn’t all bad: she gave us some ducats in exchange for it.

“The ones who split off got their rightful share, but there’s still a whole lot left over. We were gonna buy our own frigate with it – we were thinking about doing some merc jobs for the de Jardins. But we could maybe give it to you instead. That would be better for you, right?”

Eva was swept up by Aurora’s gesture, and choked up just a bit. She then pulled Aurora into her arms, and embraced her tightly.

“You don’t have to give us any of your money,” she replied. “You’re all welcome to the Republic no matter what you own, or what clothes are on your back, or what ship you’re flying.”