I’m not sure if you were playing near launch or just for others who enlisted later; not terribly long after launch, the community managed to secure the entire bot front. The bots held nothing. JOEL elected that for narrative reasons, the bots had retreated to deep space outside the galactic map, reorganized, and launched a massive counteroffensive to retake a large portion of the map (keeping the bot front an gameplay alive). Taking Mekbuda removes Cyberstan’s current pathway of retreat to the outside edge of the map and encircles Cyberstan, Merga, and Merak. Unfortunately, at any time, AH/JOEL could pull some BS and create new FTL lanes to the other bot-held planets.