The Mech Touch

Chapter 6050  We All Have Our Roles To Play

The value of a geezer who was 300, 400 or 500 years old was always greater than a person who was just 100 years old or less!

If the former was a mech designer or scientist, then he must have mastered an immense amount of advanced knowledge. Each year they lived, they could produce all kinds of amazingly useful contributions to society, from researching new applications of hyper materials to increasing the effectiveness of many applications of phasewater technology by 5 percent!

The productivity of these old fellows who had managed to earn a lot of merits to prolong their lives by several centuries was insane. They were living treasures of red humanity and an important part of the core foundation of their race.

From a purely utilitarian perspective, it made a lot of sense to kill a bunch of disobedient expert pilots and ace pilots to prolong their lives!

Ves widened his eyes as he suddenly understood the greater calculus behind the Evolution Witchʼs scheme.

If the supply of high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum in the Red Ocean got cut off due to the Great Severing, then the mechers urgently needed to produce their own supply somehow.

By promoting demonic cultivation so that even mech pilots benefited from the rapid growth they provided, a lot more expert pilots and ace pilots were expected to emerge in the future!

Due to the sequelae of these dangerous methods, many of these new heroes were bound to turn into bad apples. They would eventually be hunted down by the Red Associationʼs Compliance Department and get processed into a bunch of high-level resources.

The end result was a net positive benefit to human civilization as a lot more high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum became available again!

While Ves rapidly pieced the conspiracy together, the human visage of the Evolution Witch kept smiling in a manner that made her appear as a man-eating monster.

When Ves cautiously directed his attention at the god pilot, he couldnʼt help but wonder…

Had she ever fueled her growth by preying on fellow humans?

Even though the notion was highly inappropriate, Ves couldnʼt help but think about the worst outcomes.

He couldnʼt help it! His paranoid mind was working against him! This was one of the worst times for him to indulge in conspiracy theories, especially in front of a god pilot who had unambiguously demonstrated her ability to read his thoughts in the past!

The Evolution Witch only looked more and more amused at Vesʼ increasing distress. This entire farce seemed like an amusing game to the powerful god pilot.

It was no wonder Lucie got along so well with Cynthia!

They both liked to tease and torment him as if he was a naive little boy!

Ves scowled. He was still too weak to earn the respect of these powerful True Gods. Only when became one himself would he finally be able to interact with them on more equal grounds!

”You know far too much for a Senior Mech Designer, but considering your galactic citizenship and your honorary membership of the Red Association, I can issue the necessary permissions for you so that others cannot use this as an angle of attack.”

”Thank you.” Ves responded with relief in his tone. ”Iʼm not sure if I need it, but it is better to have it just in case.”

”It goes without saying that you must continue to maintain your discretion on these matters. Our society is not as pure and clean as we wish it to be, but there is no better alternative available to us. We must hide certain truths from the general public because disclosing them will make us weaker. This is intolerable for us. Every major power that is aware of the related secrets agrees with this stance. We represent the collective will of our civilization.”

There was no way Ves could hide the fact that he was skeptical towards this claim. All of this sounded like the same kind of elitism that afflicted the Big Two and the first-rate superstates for multiple centuries.

Why did they get to decide what was acceptable and what was taboo?

Ves felt an urge to be more proactive in making sure that the Red Collective followed a different trajectory from the Red Association and the Red Fleet. He couldnʼt stand this kind of hypocrisy!

The Evolution Witch silently shook his head as she clearly read Vesʼ thoughts.

There was no need for them to argue any further on this contentious issue.

Before Ves exited the meeting, the god pilot raised one more subject.

”Once the aliens launch their long-awaited offensive, pay attention to second-raters and third-raters. We certainly will. Their performance is important to the defense of our territories. If they begin to falter against the might of the invading aliens, then it will become harder for us to preserve our defensive bands. We cannot allow the middle and lower zones to become the weak points that enable the aliens to overrun all 5 defensive bands.”

Ves frowned. ”There is only so much they can do. It helps that you guys have built fortifications in their strategic star systems, but the RA and RF are ultimately outsiders in those places. They have much less emotional attachment to the locations they are ordered to protect. Only local citizens who have a vested interest in defending their territories will be more inclined to fight as if their lives and freedom depend on it. As for the soldiers hailing from the Red Two, I bet they will withdraw as soon as they begin to incur more serious losses. Their greatest priority is not to hold the aliens back, but to preserve their strength so that they can fight another day.”

It would be detrimental for the mechers and the fleeters to lose too many combat assets during this stage of the Red War.

The Red Two maintained a firm grip on red humanity due to their overwhelming might. Their god pilots and dreadnoughts exerted a lot of suppression, but their real foundation of power was their abundant amount of mechs, warships and defensive installations.

Only by retaining a large amount of combat capable units were they able to exert firm control over human-occupied space!

The Evolution Witch did not bother to deny this calculus.

”We all have a role to play. For now, one of our priorities is to comprehensively increase the combat power of the lesser states. I expect you to make a contribution by developing Carmine mechs in the near future. Once they are announced, much attention will be drawn towards their ability to allow norms to interface with mechs. However, the more immediate effect is to effectively raise the control of mech pilots with their Carmine mechs. This is much more important, so you should prioritize the needs of existing pilots first.”

”Understood. I havenʼt started yet, but I will do so in the near future. I guess you want me to focus on empowering the mech pilots at the bottom by supplying them with cheap but fairly effective machines, correct?”

”Our liaison will convey our specific needs to you when the time is right. Unlocking the potential of third-raters is one of the necessary conditions to win the war in the long-term. You have gained a good understanding of the first-class mech community. What do you think is our greatest fault?”

”There is too much of an obsession with pursuing quality over quantity.” Ves immediately shared his opinion on this matter. ”You first-raters invest an unreasonably high amount of money and resources to design and produce mechs that can only be piloted by a miniscule proportion of your manpower pools. There are so many more first-class mechs and first-class mech pilots that can contribute almost just as well to the war effort, but none of you ever gives them the respect and recognition they deserve.”

The Evolution Witch was well aware of these flaws.

”I personally agree with you that the primacy of first-class multipurpose mechs is flawed and needs to be addressed. It is the product of a past era when the wars in the old galaxy have turned into limited show matches and brief raids into enemy territories. They still have a role to play in the current age.”

”I can understand the appeal of first-class multipurpose mechs, but why must you force every first-class mech pilot to fit into the same mold? What is wrong with fielding a bit more specialized mechs? They are cheaper and impose less demands on the pilot. Sure, they are more limited as well, but it is more important to increase your numbers since attrition is a major concern in the Red War.”

”If a change is necessary, it will be considered sooner or later. The upcoming enemy offensive shall serve as an important test of our war readiness. Are we truly equipped to fight a long and brutal war against the races that holds most of the Red Ocean? Can the quality of our soldiers and war machines compensate for the vastly greater quantity of enemies that are about to assail our border zones? All will be revealed in the coming years. There are many stubborn old fools who cling to old theories and assumptions despite the radical change in circumstances. Only hard proof of their failures can reduce their credibility and make room for new initiatives and paradigms.”

That sounded important to Ves as well, as he was one of the many mech designers who enabled some of these new initiatives and paradigms.

This was also an important reason why the Evolution Witch spared a small part of her incredible valuable time to speak with Ves.

Their cooperation was bound to increase in the future. Both of them needed to depend on each other in order to advance their respective interests. It made sense to deepen their friendships.

Ves should have felt grateful for this. He already managed to befriend the Destroyer of Worlds. Having the backing of the Evolution Witch added a second powerful protector to his camp, thereby deterring his enemies even further.

However, Ves did not entirely feel comfortable to associate himself with the leader of the Transhumanist Faction.

The more time he spent with her, the more he became jaded by how far she was willing to go to promote her evolution and the evolution of red humanity.

Divine Lucie Miyazaki undoubtedly became convinced that her purpose was utterly correct. She possessed such strong conviction that every obstacle in her way had to be removed, with violence if need be. Every god pilot was a natural tyrant. It was no wonder that people were reluctant to put them in charge.

Alas, the current circumstances left people with little choice. Red humanity was too divided for its own good. Everyone pursued their own agendas. God pilots were not much different in this regard, but at least they could be trusted to fulfill their original responsibilities, which made them the best out of a collection of suboptimal choices.

”There will be a lot of successes and failures in the coming years.” Ves concluded. ”I just hope that the failures wonʼt be great enough to put us too far behind. The native aliens are able to mobilize so many fleets that they wonʼt hesitate to expand any breach. Any single collapse at the frontlines can lead to a domino effect that will make our downfall inevitable.”

The Evolution Witch did not look concerned at all. She chuckled as she maintained an optimistic perspective towards the future.

”That is not necessarily the case. The Red Cabal has been holding back, and so have we. You do not know the depth of measures that we can take in order to tip the balance of the war. Our race did not rise up to become the overlord of the Milky Way Galaxy by playing according to the rules. You have yet to truly witness the superweapons developed by Star Designers. If the Common Fleet Alliance is able to design and construct dreadnoughts by relying on mortal scientists and engineers, what do you think the top of your profession can produce if all they have in mind is creating the most powerful killing machines?”

Well, if god mechs were an accurate indication of their capabilities, then they could definitely produce a lot of unimaginably powerful superweapons!