The Mech Touch

The reborn Rion Aaden had struggled to find his purpose for many years.

Why was he brought into this reality?

Why must he wake up day after day and make use of the life that he had regained?

What was his purpose?

He struggled long and hard to find answers to each of these questions. As the Vulcanites who became aware of his existence showered him with wealth and opportunities, he calmly took his time to resolve his doubts and live a life with meaning.

With all of the help and resources the Vulcan Empire provided to him, Rion gradually expanded his vision and became more capable of looking at the state of dwarvenkind from a more detached perspective.

He lamented how dwarves were being treated but did not believe the Vulcan Empire was the solution to their problems.

One day, he gained an epiphany.

The entire model of how dwarves lived by attaching themselves to human society was flawed!

Humanity was strong. There was no doubt about that. The problem was that humanity strongly believed in the superiority of its own kind. Anyone who visibly deviated from the human template were often treated poorly due to various reasons.

This was a fundamental trait of humankind. It emerged as a means to make humans stand out from other alien races and reject the ideology of cosmopolitanism that had almost caused humanity to lose its independence during the Age of Stars!

"HUMANITY SUCCEEDED IN PREVENTING ITSELF FROM BECOMING THE PLAYTHINGS OF ALIEN RACES, BUT THE SAME CANNOT BE SAID FOR THE DWARVES." Rion explained as he calmed down a bit from his earlier reaction. "ALTHOUGH THE SHACKLES AREN'T ALWAYS LITERAL, IT IS UNQUESTIONABLE THAT TOO MANY DWARVES LIVE IN BONDAGE TO THEIR HUMAN MASTERS. HOW MANY IMPOVERISHED DWARVES LIKE MY OWN SELF LIVE ON MINING PLANETS AND SUFFER FROM A LACK OF OPPORTUNITY? HOW MANY DWARVES ARE TREATED AS LESS THAN PEOPLE DESPITE LIVING IN THE SAME SOCIETY AS OTHER HUMANS?"

Ves still looked shocked after hearing Rion's radical ambition. "I get that. I truly do. You're still mad, though! Human civilization is the strongest power in this galaxy! There is nowhere you can go to escape the reach of humanity! Even if you set up a truly independent star nation in the Red Ocean or some other dwarf galaxy, humanity will come knocking at your door sooner or later. I don't think the Big Two will look kindly at your attempt at seceding from human civilization!"

Rion smirked. "THE COSMOS IS LARGER THAN YOU CAN EVER THINK. THERE ARE OTHER GALAXIES AND SPACE REGIONS OUT THERE, VES. THE DREAM OF FOUNDING A TRULY INDEPENDENT DWARVEN STAR EMPIRE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ATTAINED IN A SINGLE STEP. THIS IS BOUND TO BECOME A STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS WHERE I MUST PATIENTLY ACCUMULATE THE TECH, RESOURCES AND MANPOWER NEEDED TO FREE THE DWARVES."

If anyone else claimed that they could lead the dwarves to founding a star nation on their own, Ves wouldn't have taken the claim seriously.

Yet Rion was a much more exceptional dwarf than any other Vulcanite, and he sounded as if he was absolutely serious about fulfilling this grand ambition!

This was the purpose that Rion had settled upon to justify his second life! Without a goal that could continue to drive him forward, there wouldn't be much point for him to continue his existence. This was the answer to his existential problem!

Rion slowly reached out with his heavily armored arm and patted Ves on his own armored shoulder.

"IN A WAY, I HAVE YOU TO THANK FOR GIVING MY SPECIES AN OPPORTUNITY TO ATTAIN FREEDOM. YOU CREATED ME, VULCAN. YOU INSTILLED THE SEED OF A SEPARATE DWARVEN IDENTITY WHEN YOU FIRST CAME AROUND. NOW, THE SEED YOU HAVE PLANTED IN MY MIND IN THE FORM OF A KINETIC ROUND HAS BLOOMED INTO A TREE THAT SHALL GUIDE DWARVENKIND OUT OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION AND FIND A HOME THAT IS FREE FROM THE BIG TWO'S HEGEMONY."

Ves twitched his mouth. "You're welcome. If I have to be honest, I don't think you have any hope of escaping the reach of human civilization. You're a pretty clever dwarf, so you should know how formidable humans can be. The Big Two won't tolerate your attempt to set up a separate nation that can potentially pose a threat to humanity in the future. The precedent alone is a major threat to our society. If one minority group breaks off one day, three more minorities will declare independence the next day!"

"I HAVE ALREADY ACCOUNTED FOR THESE REACTIONS. MY MASTER PLAN IS DECADES IN THE MAKING AND IS MORE THOROUGH THAN YOU THINK. I HAVE NO INTENTIONS OF OVERESTIMATING THE BIG TWO. I WILL START SMALL AND REMAIN DISCREET FOR MANY YEARS TO COME."

"So what do you intend to do, exactly?"

The mention of a masterplan aroused Ves' curiosity. He didn't just want to know how Rion intended to do the impossible, but also wanted to learn whether the dwarf's future actions would affect him and his clan in any way!

"FIRST, I WILL EVACUATE THE SINKING SHIP THAT IS THE VULCAN EMPIRE WITH A HAND-PICKED GROUP OF LOYALISTS AND TALENTS."

"I thought you said that the Vulcanites are a stupid and flawed people."

"I DID SAY SOMETHING OF THAT NATURE, BUT MY DESCRIPTION APPLIES TO AN ENTIRE CULTURE, NOT A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL." Rion patronizingly corrected him. "THE VULCAN EMPIRE MAY BE A DETESTABLE STATE, BUT IT CAN STILL FUNCTION AS A TALENT FACTORY FOR SMART, TALENTED AND CLEAR-HEADED DWARVES. I HAVE SPENT MANY YEARS TO GATHER THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST CITIZENS OF THE VULCAN EMPIRE AT MY SIDE. LOYAL SUBJECTS SUCH AS SAINT MAYORKA SUPPORT MY DREAM AND WILL UNQUESTIONABLY FOLLOW ME AS I ENDEAVOR TO BECOME THE TRUE EMPEROR OF DWARVENKIND."

That was quite a clever approach! No wonder Rion had no attachment and did not hesitate to disparage the Vulcan Empire.

To him, the flawed dwarven state was merely a talent factory to him! While many Vulcanites that grew up in Smiling Samuel were either average or awful individuals, there were always exceptions.

The name and reputation of Rion Aaden was so great that he had no problem recruiting the greatest citizens of the Vulcan Empire!

The people who served the Iron Emperor aboard this modest frigate were probably just a fraction of this secessionist organization. The ambitious dwarven leader must have amassed at least a million dwarven followers!

An elite organization that consisted of the best scientists, mech pilots, soldiers, engineers, academics, artists and other vital occupations of the Vulcan Empire had unlimited prospects!

By preventing the fat and garbage from polluting this group, the Iron Emperor was free to start a new star nation that was much more enlightened and better run than the current dwarven state!

In other words, the Vulcan Empire was just a test run.

The dwarven star empire that Rion truly wished to rule over was the real deal!

Though Ves admired Rion's guts and ambitions, he felt quite worried about what might ensue because of this. What if… the secessionist dwarves succeeded and managed to create a star empire that rivaled human civilization?

He couldn't hold in his concerns.

"Do you harbor any animosity towards humanity?"

'TRUTHFULLY, NO." Rion calmly replied. It sounded like he really meant it. "HUMANS ARE JUST IGNORANT, A TRAIT THAT MANY DWARVES SHARE AS WELL. IT IS THE NATURE OF LIFE THAT ONE SPECIES HOLD THEIR INTERESTS ABOVE OTHER SPECIES. HUMANITY'S POOR TREATMENT OF DWARVES IS AN INCURABLE FLAW. IT IS IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF BOTH OUR SPECIES TO SEPARATE FROM EACH OTHER IN AN AMICABLE FASHION. GENERATING FURTHER HATRED AND NEGATIVITY WILL ONLY DISTORT THE DWARVEN PEOPLE AND REDUCE THEIR CHANCES OF SURVIVAL. JUST LOOK AT WHAT THE VULCAN EMPIRE HAS WROUGHT TO SEE AN EXAMPLE OF THAT. DWARVES MUST LEARN FROM THIS DISASTER AND REALIZE THAT WE MUST MOVE BEYOND OUR RACIAL GRIEVANCES IN ORDER TO THRIVE."

To Rion, the Vulcan Empire served as an excellent example of what dwarves shouldn't do. It sounded cruel, but the state he was nominally in charge of was just a disposable tool to him! Once it served its purpose, it no longer had a reason to exist!

In fact, it would have been even better for the Vulcan Empire to crash and burn! The more drastic its collapse, the more effective it served as a bad example to follow!

What discomforted Ves quite a lot was how casually Rion dismissed the wellbeing of most of the citizens of his current empire. Although he talked a lot about trying to free and improve the lives of dwarvenkind, in reality he had no qualms condemning billions if not trillions of Vulcanites to death, captivity, exile or foreign occupation!

In order to realize his ambitions, Rion decided that he could not afford to be dragged down by the dregs of his race.

The vast majority of them were too ignorant, hateful, biased or just plain stupid to earn their emperor's appreciation. Ves even suspected that Rion would gladly dump them all into a black hole in order to cleanse the dwarven race of its ugliest members!

All of these revelations caused Ves to gain a more complete understanding of what Rion was like. He took it upon himself to shoulder a great responsibility and one that compelled him to make a lot of cold-hearted choices.

Was Rion ultimately right? Ves didn't dare to pass his judgement. The game that the Iron Emperor decided to play was so high level that a simple mech designer simply wasn't qualified to give suggestions!

There was one nagging question, though. Ves couldn't figure out what Rion intended to do with a certain aspect of dwarven society.

"If I may ask… does Vulcan play a role in your hypothetical dwarven star empire?"

Though Ves didn't necessarily need it, it would still be great if his incarnation gained a powerful source of spiritual feedback!

With the Vulcan Empire flushing down the toilet, the god that bestowed its name to it was about to lose a hefty amount of spiritual input. Though Vulcan could still rely on other sources of spiritual energy, it was best if his incarnation could gain the support of as many dwarves as possible.

Rion did not immediately answer. Apparently, this was a complicated subject if the dwarven emperor had to think about his response.

"RELIGION… IS A FLAWED AND PRIMITIVE SOCIAL CONSTRUCT." He stated. He was definitely a secularist, it seemed! "I BECAME EVEN MORE CONVINCED OF THIS TRUTH AFTER SEEING HOW RELIGION HAS TORN THE VULCAN EMPIRE APART. BESIDES, DESPITE YOUR CLAIMS, NOW THAT YOU HAVE COME BEFORE ME, IT IS PLAIN TO ME THAT YOU ARE NOT AN ACTUAL GOD. YOU ARE… SOMETHING DIFFERENT. AT BEST, YOU ARE HUMAN WHO HAPPENS TO WIELD SPECIAL POWERS. AM I CORRECT, PATRIARCH LARKINSON?"

Well, at this point there was not much point to denying Rion's well-reasoned suspicions. The dwarven sovereign was too smart and observant to be rebuffed by lies.

Ves lowered his head. "I guess your description is accurate. I can't explain how I am able to do all of these things, but… it's complicated."

"...INTERESTING. I HAVE LEARNED MANY SECRETS THROUGHOUT MY YEARS AND I HAVE MY THEORIES. THEY ARE IRRELEVANT, THOUGH. THE MYSTERIES OF HUMANITY ARE MAINLY RELEVANT TO YOUR SPECIES. IF DWARVENKIND WISHES TO EMERGE FROM THE SHADOW OF ITS PARENT, THEN DWARVES LIKE MYSELF MUST FOLLOW OUR OWN PATH TO POWER!"

Rion raised the Banner of Vulcan and harmonized with it! Although the phenomenon wasn't resonance, it was similar to it in a way that only many years of bonding could produce!

"YOU ASKED ME WHETHER RELIGION WILL PLAY A ROLE TO OUR SPECIES. THE ANSWER IS YES. FAITH IS A POWERFUL MOTIVATOR THAT CAN DISPEL FEAR, UNITE DIFFERENT PEOPLE AND CONTROL THEIR THOUGHTS. I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO RALLY ENOUGH DWARVES BY RELYING ON MY OWN INDIVIDUAL CAPABILITIES."

This was a surprising response! With how rational Rion sounded, Ves would have thought the dwarven emperor would aim to rely on logic and reason to base his independent dwarven nation.

"You plan to continue to leverage belief in Vulcan?"

"CORRECT." Rion slowly grinned. "VULCAN MAY BE FAKE, BUT YOUR POWERS ARE REAL. I SHALL NEED THEM IN ORDER TO BRING DWARVENKIND TO PROSPERITY. AS LONG AS I SUCCEED, I SHALL BECOME THE HIGHEST RULER OF A SOVEREIGN DWARVEN EMPIRE, BUT YOU SHALL BE ITS SECOND FOUNDER. MY FUTURE SUBJECTS SHALL FOREVER REVERE YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS BY WORSHIPPING YOU AS THEIR 'GOD'! ARE YOU NOT PLEASED?"

"...."