Cave_Canem
Miniature Cyberwolf
This is so true.
Consider just at the most basic level, the Empire is probably thinking, 'well, if we have to, we can have Damsel hit Apeiron.' Because it was just him, and as insane as his progression rate has been, there is still the possibility to one-shot him (as far as they know)
But once he shows up with a team, how much of what he's done was just him, and how much was him using something a teammate had made or figured out, and how much was him using a collaborative project they'd all worked on.
It changes the possibility from , 'We could get a lucky shot and take out Apeiron.' to 'We could get a lucky shot and take out Apeiron, which doesn't actually change much and now his team is coming after us without restraint.'
And all the other groups that were making plans for/about Apeiron, once they hear of Apeiron's team, will be having similar musings.
Yeah, this is incredibly important because it means people now know you can't just get a lucky hit in and be done with it - even assuming he's the only tinker and the others couldn't maintain the technology (which is not the case here) - it would likely hold together long enough for the remaining members to enact a punitive strike, even by the most optimistic views of people that still think he's somehow a more regular tinker.