The Mech Touch

Chapter 6305  Calculated Outcome

"You have performed admirably under the circumstances." Master Vayro Goldstein told Ves after the council session came to an end.

As usual, not every councilor left right away. They gathered together and began to exchange words with each other. They often created virtual privacy circles around them that prevented outsiders from hearing or seeing anything inside.

Ves was in such a privacy circle right now. He wanted to hold a somewhat earnest talk with Master Goldstein of the Survivalist Faction.

In fact, the person he really wanted to get a hold of was the Evolution Witch, but she was obviously not available.

The second-best person he could turn towards was Master Termaneo Dervidian, but he had skipped this session for whatever reason.

The Transhumanist Faction instead dispatched another Master Mech Designer in his place that Ves had never met before.

Ves judged that he had a higher chance of getting straight answers from a friend even if he came from another RA faction.

 "I did not come to you to hear you praise my performance." He said. "I am well aware that while I have performed at or above people's expectations in certain criteria, I have also blundered in other areas. I am far from matching the real politicians in the council."

"Delegation exists, Ves. You do not need to shoulder every burden. Now that you have formed your own faction, you can rely on the capabilities of the other members to compensate for your own shortcomings. There are risks and vulnerabilities to this approach, but you do not have the luxury to concern yourself about these potential problems. Make use of the experts that have long ensured the continued survival, stability and prosperity of many of the faiths that you have subordinated."

The bald Master raised a good point .Ves would have done this eventually, but there was not enough time since the formation of the Coalition of Faith to accomplish anything significant.

That should change soon enough.

"I have been meaning to figure out what exactly the Evolution Witch wants from me by appointing me as the deputy chief councilor. My advisors and I have formed a lot of guesses about her goals and motivations, but I want to know whether you concur with our opinions and can grant us additional insights."

Ves shared a very brief summary about his speculations.

Master Goldstein looked amused more than anything.

"If the Evolution Witch has formed a plan around you, but declined to give you instructions, then it is best to act according to your usual self. I do not dare to share too much of my own speculations for fear of contaminating you outside of her intentions. All I can say is that if you are doing well, it falls in line with her plan. If you are doing poorly, then that is also within her calculations. Either way, do not overthink the issue and simply act according to what you want as opposed to what you think the Evolution Witch desires from you. It is actually quite good of you to make use of the opportunities presented to you and fight for your own interests."

Though Ves did not receive the answer he wanted to hear, Master Goldstein succeeded in reassuring him. The Survivalist was right. Ves should stop fretting so much and act according to his own inclinations. If Divine Lucie Miyazaki wanted him to act differently, then she would have instructed him to do so. SInce she declined to do so, she had no one to blame but herself if he diverged from her calculations!

"Thank you for clarifying this matter. Now that the Interim Leadership Council is halfway to completing its mission, do you think that the Red Collective will be able to hit the ground running when it is time to open our new organization up for business?"

Master Goldstein nodded. "You can be assured of that, barring a premature collapse of our frontlines. The necessity of the Red Collective has become too great for it to be stopped. The Red Two and the first-rate colonial superstates have already committed significant resources to build up the infrastructure of the RC, and they are also prepared to make additional short-term contributions if there are any shortfalls."

The leading powers of red humanity were nothing if not efficient. Ves possessed a rough understanding of how the major players intended to prop up the Red Collective.

They were not doing it all for free, of course. Their contributions directly translated into capturing a greater share of the seats in the Upper Council.

At least the RC was not at risk of becoming bankrupt anytime soon!

"That sounds good, because I think the Collective will need to supervise the operations of many different kinship networks. Three new ones should activate pretty soon now that they are finally permitted to deploy their new products. Is there anything I should pay attention to or be careful about when it comes to my kinship networks?"

"Not per se, Ves. The delays in implementing them has given us all much more opportunities to study, test and decipher their mechanisms. Even if we cannot exactly create them ourselves, we have become quite familiar with its quirks and rules. That does not necessarily mean it will function according to all of our projections, so live testing is still essential. According to what I know, all parties plan to implement a phased rollout. They will connect troops to kinship networks in batches and monitor them closely to determine whether everything is working properly."

That made sense. Ves would have made the same choice if he was about to use a very exotic and incomprehensible solution that promised to improve combat performance by messing around with people's minds!

If not for the obvious positive examples of the Larkinson Network and the Hexer Network, it would have been much harder for third parties to believe that kinship networks did not pose a huge threat to humans!

Even so, the fear and paranoia towards them had never faded. That was why the kinship networks that Ves had designed and delivered to his clients were much more hobbled by monitoring stations, tight restrictions, security tripwires and numerous hard shutdown methods.

In fact, most of these measures were redundant in Ves' opinion. All god pilots should be able to monitor kinship networks and potentially destroy them if they ever posed a threat against the people under their protection.

"If there is a phased roll-out, then the impact of kinship networks will not be too big in the initial months." Ves remarked. "Is it truly wise to limit their usage when we need to beat back the Red Tide Offensive at all cost?"

"That is arguable." Master Goldstein said. "However, I can promise you that the phased rollout will increase in scale and scope fairly quickly after obtaining the initial results. By the time the Red Collective officially enters into operation, it should be ready to supervise the mass adoption of kinship networks, with all of the positive and negative consequences that will ensue."

That did not sound like a coincidence. All of this sounded deliberate and planned by a shadowy group of planners and architects.

Ves shrugged. There was nothing he could do about it. He had already submitted his works. It was up to his clients to decide what to do with his products.

"I look forward to seeing our troops fight as a more cohesive brotherhood by that time. If the frontlines are still intact, then the mass adoption of kinship networks may be one of the events that will ignite our counterattack against the aliens."

"The responsibility for supervising my special work is not entirely clear at the moment, Master. I understand that the Survivalist Faction wants to hold most of it, but I also think that the Red Collective should not remain uninvolved given the heavy reliance on E-technology."

"One of your other inventions is also due to rollout around the same timing." Master Goldstein stated. "If your work energizes our population as much as we anticipate, then you will earn much more credit for this contribution. This should be more than enough for you to defeat any leadership challenges and secure a leading position in the Upper Council if you so desire."

Carmine mechs could indeed produce these results. Ves was bound to attract a huge amount of controversy for giving norms the power to pilot mechs with the use of an alternate interface, but he would also earn the appreciation of even more people!

"The responsibility for supervising my special work is not entirely clear at the moment, Master. I understand that the Survivalist Faction wants to hold most of it, but I also think that the Red Collective should not remain uninvolved given the heavy reliance on E-technology."

Master Goldstein frowned as he thought over this issue. He spent a few seconds calling up bits of information before he uttered his reply.

"Your new upcoming products are still mechs as far as all mechers are concerned. It is not that we do not welcome the assistance of the RC, but there is no strong argument to involve additional parties at this time."

"Even so, the theory and application of my upcoming work may require the supervision and expertise of the professionals of the RC in order to obtain a complete enough grasp."

"We will determine the necessity of this once we reach this point. It is best to keep it simple if there is no need for additional complexity."

Ves would just have to wait until his Carmine mechs were almost ready to get published before knowing for certain whether his new products only had to please the RA or whether it had to satisfy the conditions of the RC as well.

Of course, the latter was not a disaster. If Ves was able to maintain his current advantages within the Interim Leadership Council, then he stood to gain a lower power in the Red Collective. That should be more than enough for him to lean on the RC inspectors and manipulate them into writing more positive evaluation reports on kinship networks.

As Ves continued to chat with Master Goldstein, he made use of this opportunity to ask another question that had been lingering in his mind for a while.

"Has there been any progress on popping the spacetime bubble around Bridgehead One?"

The RA Master's expression instantly turned grave at the mention of this heavy subject.

"I should not have to remind you that what I am about to tell you must not be divulged to others. The problem related to Bridgehead One is… difficult to solve."

"Hasn't the Spacelock arrived to see whether he can unravel the spacetime bubble?"

"He has." The bald Master responded. "He has done his due diligence and studied whether he can safely undo the spatial isolation and time deceleration effects around the star system. I am not privy to his analysis of the alien-produced effects. What I do know is that the Spacelock did not linger any further in an attempt to utilize his God Kingdom to steadily undo the spacetime bubble, but instead turned around and ventured straight back to Rubarthan space in order to defend the frontlines."

That was bad news. It could either mean that the Spacelock had no solution at all, or figured out a costly method to free up Bridgehead One that required a lot of preparation!

Regardless, the continued separation of Bridgehead One from the rest of human-occupied space was a calamity that made everything worse. The sooner it got freed, the better!

"I do not have the information to give you a definite answer, Ves." Goldstein. "Speaking out of pure speculation, I believe you should not count out the Polymath and the First Flame just yet. They may be trapped inside the bubble, but that makes them more desperate to break out. The combination between the most comprehensive human researcher and the strongest god pilot of the Red Ocean should be capable of accomplishing great deeds. The assistance of a powerful god ship in the form of the recently transformed and upgraded Dominion of Man can also make a difference. The only issue is time. It takes time for them to prepare a solution. A year may go by while less than 4 days have passed inside Bridgehead One. Time is their greatest enemy."