After the “emperor’s” appearance, things began settling down. People had already seen the borderline magical effect of the rescue ships and they chose to extend their trust to the empire... at least mostly, anyway. Beneath the surface, most were still withholding judgment as, though they had indeed received some benefits from the empire, the conspiracy theories were indeed believable. But levitating ships and tractor beams had gone a long way toward building people’s trust regardless.
Still, there was a long way to go. There were hundreds of rescue ships, sure, but there had been thousands of attacks.
But everywhere the rescue ships went, they were soon followed by constructor swarms, GEMbots, and aid personnel that built temporary housing for the displaced victims who didn’t require extended stays in medical pods. Thus, every cleared site soon became a hive of activity as large buildings were constructed at a speed that rivaled that of time-lapse videos.