The Mech Touch

Chapter 6201  Teetering on the Edge of the Abyss

One of the more important developments was the founding of the Red Collective.

Ves initially thought that the bigwigs wanted to delay this initiative and put it on the backburner while people invested most of their time and effort into stopping the alien invasion.

He was wrong.

The higher ups had a different plan in mind.

Jovy explained the situation to Ves in a stern tone.

"The founding of the Red Collective must not be delayed. It cannot be delayed. We have made a collective promise to the masses at the end of the public inquiry. Our credibility will be damaged and our commitment to this initiative will come into question if there is any delay."

"So who will lead the Interim Leadership Council now that the Evolution Witch is busy fighting the good fight?"

"You."

"Me?" Ves blinked.

"Yes, you. Why do you think your seat is situated next to the main throne? It is a signal that in the event that the chief councilor is unavailable, you have already received her blessing to take over a part of her responsibilities. You are expected to chair all of the remaining sessions and lead them in good order. You are the final arbiter of all discussions."

"Wait, you're serious. You actually want me to preside over the council sessions that will determine the structure and the policies of one of the most powerful human organizations to exist in the Red Ocean?!"

Jovy smiled at Ves. "This is not a decision that we have made on a whim, Ves. Your conduct in the previous council sessions has met our standards. You have also proven yourself to be a leader that is ready to assume greater responsibilities. Besides, no one expects you to shoulder all of the politicking, negotiations and law making expected from this office. The Evolution Witch's staff will continue to conduct this work according to her existing vision. You will mostly serve as a figurehead if you will. You still have the power to make your own decisions, but you must be certain that they fall within acceptable boundaries."

The Survivalist did not explain what 'acceptable boundaries' entailed, but Ves understood the gist of it. He was not allowed to change anything that was highly consequential, but he could probably get away with tweaking a few minor details in his favor.

"You guys trust me that much, huh? Well… as long as the additional workload is not too great, I am not opposed to chairing the meetings in the continued absence of Her Holiness. I have talked to her enough times to understand her overall goals and priorities."

Vector Loban grinned. "You have earned the trust and support of the Transhumanist Faction. Master Dervidian and other allies will support your decisions. It is not a catastrophe if you make a decision that the Evolution Witch disagrees with. As long as the matter is not too serious, she will not care too much. The Evolution Witch has made plenty of mistakes during her career, some of which could have ended her career and life. She recognizes that no one is perfect and that no one can be correct all of the time. As long as the overall trend remains optimistic, then all remains well."

Ves had no illusions that he could shape the Red Collective completely according to his own ideas.

A lot of stakeholders had a vested interest in the new super organization. Far too many big players would object if the Red Collective excessively favored one group of people over another.

The entire setup of the Interim Leadership Council was based around consensus. A proposal could only make it through the session by obtaining broad majority support.

That said, becoming the Evolution Witch's substitute was not an entirely symbolic move.

It was the clearest expression of the Evolution Witch's trust and backing towards Ves. That should help a lot with deterring people from stirring up trouble against him. Nobody wanted to earn a rebuke from a god pilot.

"By the way, this change means that you are officially promoted from a councilor to a deputy chief councilor. This is a substantial rise in status. When the Red Collective is ready to start its operations, your position in the Interim Leadership Council will probably transition into a more permanent office that is of equal or slightly lesser weight. You can consider this as a reward for proposing the Red Collective and serving as a good steward in the council sessions."

In other words, Ves better not mess up in his capacity as the 'deputy chief councilor'!

If he botched this job, then he could kiss his powerful and influential office in the Red Collective goodbye!

Though Ves was reluctant to assume a lot of heavy responsibilities when the Red Collective started to execute its mandate, he was even more reluctant to let go of all of the power that this position entailed.

Becoming a bigshot in the Red Collective was almost equivalent to getting promoted to the rank of admiral in the Red Fleet!

If Ves was afraid of getting bogged down with too much paperwork, then he would do as he had always done and hire enough assistants and subordinates to do all of the actual work on his behalf.

As long as he checked in from time to time to make sure his minions did not secretly abuse his trust, everything should proceed normally… hopefully.

At worst, the Red Collective would just get tired of his antics and kick him from his office so that a more serious administrator could take over.

That was fine with Ves. He was a mech designer first and foremost. He had no time to waste on power plays and convoluted political schemes that comprised the workload of those who lived for this exclusive game.

"I'll do it." Ves confirmed. "I will agree to exercise the responsibilities of a deputy chief councilors and herd all of the remaining unruly cats of the Interim Leadership Council."

"Good. You will hear from us later. As promised, we will continue to undertake much of the work. Your only job aside from presiding over the meetings is to receive our period reports that summarizes the most important developments related to the Red Collective. We will not demand you to do more than that, as it would be counterproductive for us to keep you away from the design lab for too long. Your Swarm Project takes precedence over everything."

"That is good to know."

Even the Red Association acknowledged that mech designers should not split their attention on too many side activities.

As the meeting was about to wrap up, Ves asked one more question about the war effort.

"Be honest. With the information available to you, how likely do you think we will be able to hold onto the border regions?"

Neither Jovy nor Vector maintained a happy expression, which was already an answer in itself.

Jovy sighed. "As we have mentioned before, our overall defensive strategy amounts to delaying actions. We try to make a stand at many different fortified star systems not because we think we can hold on to them, but because they can force our enemies to waste more time in breaching them. The fall of the 1st defensive band is imminent. The 2nd defensive band will fall by the end of the month. The 3rd to 5th bands will hopefully hold for at least a year, but they may not last for more than 3 months."

"That… sounds terrible!"

"In a fight with even numbers, we are confident we can thrash the native aliens. The issue is that war is never fair. The Red Cabal has successfully managed to mobilize a larger proportion of the military machine of the major alien races. Even then, we loosely estimate that well over 60 percent of native alien warships have never budged from alien space. Also take into account that our enemies can still raise more warfleets with relative ease. Their manpower pool is practically endless, and they can produce more phasefighters and warships with their vast industrial capacity. This is how badly we are outnumbered."

"…"

"If just 40 percent or so of their standing navies can push us to extinction, how the hell do you expect us to hold onto any part of the border regions, especially now that we lost access to Bridgehead One?"

Vector Loban replied this time.

"We already gave you the answer to that as well, Ves. Our size limits the scope of human industry. Our manpower pool is tiny compared to that of the enemy. Our technological development is one of our strengths, but not even our Star Designers can come up with a killer weapon that allows us to annihilate all hostile forces with a single move. That can only be done by relying on the only trait of our race that is theoretical unlimited."

It did not take much guessing what the answer may be. "Human potential."

"Exactly." The Transhumanist grinned. "Our faction exists because there are mechers that believe wholeheartedly that we must put more emphasis on human evolution as opposed to obsessing about mechs alone. Right now, the god pilots stationed at the front are hopping from star system to star system in an effort to destroy every concentration of enemy forces they come across. That is how we are barely able to hold on for the time being. All 5 defensive bands would fall within just a single month without their enormous contributions."

"…"

How could red humanity be driven to this point?

The regular and irregular military forces of human civilization were completely incapable of holding the line against the native alien threat!

Humans had fallen far from their previous dominant position where the mobilization of any god pilot was completely unnecessary to defeat any single alien polity in the Milky Way!

"So let me get this straight, Vector. We will all get wiped out within a couple of years if not a single peak ace pilot manages to break through during the current offensive, is that right?"

The Transhumanist liaison stiffly nodded.

"We are all pining for a miracle. You should already possess a basic understanding of the terror of the road to no return. It is no exaggeration to claim that peak ace pilots such as the Mace of Retaliation face certain death if they attempt to initiate the Mech Body Merger process today. If the 5th defensive band is getting close to being overrun… most peak ace pilots will initiate the process, hoping that the desperate circumstances and overwhelming need for strength may offer them the tiniest glimpse of salvation."

This was undoubtedly an act of extreme desperation!

Peak ace pilots were indispensable champions on the battlefield. They may be a lot weaker than god pilots, but they were far more numerous. Red humanity relied on this exalted group to counter most phase whales and phase lords that took part in the offensive.

If all of these peak ace pilots perished on the road to no return at the same time, then red humanity was no longer able to keep so many enemy phase leaders at bay!

The fall of the human race in the new frontier became an unstoppable trend at that point!

"Do you understand now why we cannot give a damn about many matters anymore, Ves?" Jovy asked.

"Uh, yes. You guys have done a good job at enlightening me. I never realized how closely we were teetering on the edge of the abyss." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Even if we have a few more reasons to be more optimistic about the future, this is irrelevant if we cannot last through the present."