The Mech Touch

Chapter 7013 The Red Two’s Stances

Too much had happened in a single day.

The Battle of Screed Tanner VI-F had enormous implications for the Premier Branch and the Larkinson Clan.

Being able to drive away a vastly superior alien force with a fraction of the numbers definitely proved that the Premier Fleet could participate in the battles of the highest level.

Short of being able to challenge an ancient phase whale, the Larkinsons of the Premier Branch were confident that they could tackle nearly any other alien adversary!

This day should have ended as a celebration of the human spirit and the rising strength of the Larkinson Clan.

Plenty of people had been paying attention to the performance of the First Sword Mark III at first.

The Red Association, the Red Fleet, the Terran Alliance and so many more groups had a vested interest in evaluating the performance of a full superdimensional ace mech.

The fact that Saint Dise managed to kill a greater phase lord outright while fending off two better-equipped greater phase lords definitely raised the strategic value of superdimensional matter even further!

While it was vital to equip them onto every god mech just to ensure they remained invincible against anything the Red Cabal could throw at them, once enough superdimensional matter became available, people would be looking to apply them to other products.

Ves believed that it was best used for producing personal armor and mechs. He did not think it was suitable for most other purposes such as enhancing the protection of critical systems of a warship because the cost-benefit ratio was too low.

Of course, that may be his bias speaking for him. It was hard for him to assume a neutral perspective on this subject when he was a passionate Senior Mech Designer. He could think of so many mech design projects that could benefit immensely from mid and high-grade superdimensional matter.

The Larkinsons should have earned a lot of accolades after securing such a decisive victory.

Taking down a significant alien depot and destroying half of the enemy phasefighters and warships stationed in the star system should go a long way into making the Ceasarion Upper Zone safer, at least for a time.

None of that happened. Few people could keep their minds on the Larkinson Clan when the foundation of the Red Ocean transformed overnight!

Nobody knew what was going on anymore.

Not even Ves could have anticipated that so many drastic changes would take place.

When he and Casella Ingvar attended a virtual meeting with the liaisons of the Red Three, it became clear that they had hardly received much information from their respective organizations.

That suggested to Ves that the Red Three had been completely caught by surprise. They did not anticipate the Red Split, the secret development of the Cybernetic Empire and most egregiously the Voribug Outbreak!

Since there was so much to talk about, the Saint Commander decided to focus on what was important for the Larkinson Clan.

"I am sure that we will all learn more about the events that happened today, but right now our clan needs to obtain several answers from the Red Three." The ace commander said.

"Ask away." Jovy gestured for her to continue.

"My first question is related to the Red Split. As you know, our clan has always tried to maintain friendly relations with every major human power. Through our patriarch, we are closely involved with the Red Association and the Red Fleet, but we have also forged good relationships with the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact. Now that the latter two have broken off from your regime, will there be any problems if we continue to maintain our cooperation with the Terrans and the Rubarthans?"

A brief pause ensued.

Jovy eventually shook his head. "I cannot answer your question with a definitive answer, but from what I know about my superiors and their agendas, the Red Association has little interest in sowing further division in human society. Humans must come together and combine our strengths to resist every external enemy that threatens us both. We understand the positioning of your clan in our society. We will not hold it against you if you exchange with the first-rate colonial superstates as before."

"Will the Red Association still hold this stance if we open relations with the Cybernetic Empire?" Casella asked with a sharp glint in her eye.

The mention of the Cybernetic Empire caused Jovy to carefully compose himself. His body went completely still in order to prevent himself from giving away any clues about how he thought on the matter.

It did not escape the others that resorting to this action already conveyed a lot of clues.

The mechers and especially the members of the Survivalist Faction must feel pained to see the Polymath go rogue and take the rich foundation of Bridgehead One for herself.

However, the Polymath also enacted a plan that many other Survivalists would have pushed if they were in her shoes.

By exploiting the greater spacetime bubble to give the richest and most developed central star node 53 years of additional development time was a gamechanger for red humanity!

The Survivalist Faction therefore gained much more than they lost. The Polymath may no longer be available to support them, but it did not matter now that she had moved on to a greater stage.

Survivalist or not, the mechers still remained confident that she at least shared the same values as her old faction.

The mechers of the Survivalist Faction never really quibbled over who should earn credit or who should take the lead in saving human civilization.

No matter whether they were mechers, fleeters, Terran, Rubarthan, cosmopolitan or alien, as long as he or she contributed greatly to the survival of red humanity, then the Survivalist Faction would be more than willing to forgive all of that person's sins!

This was a measure of the extremism of the Survivalist Faction.

It did not surprise Ves at all that the Polymath found common cause with it, and that she eventually went on to exemplify its values to the greatest extent.

By spending almost two generations to forge a one-system empire through her own machinations, she had single-handedly solved or ameliorated several of the most critical shortcomings of red humanity!

The Cybernetic Empire had the potential to do a lot of good for human civilization in the Red Ocean.

Even if the Polymath weakened the Red Association by supporting the Red Split, the Survivalists probably did not care so long as their former faction leader still managed to make red humanity stronger.

This was good news to Ves and the Larkinsons as it meant that the Red Association was unlikely to kick up a fuss.

Ves turned to Commodore Zonrad Reze. The Red Fleet may act in lockstep with the Red Association at times, but it was still a separate superorganization. The fleeters pursued their own goals and upheld their own ideals, so it became important to figure out their stances towards the latest events.

The disguised form of Sigrund maintained a neutral expression. "The Red Fleet still needs time to gather all of the facts and monitor the actions of the Terran Alliance, the Rubarthan Pact and the Cybernetic Empire. Our highest priority has always been the protection of the human race. We guard them against their worst enemies, which unfortunately includes themselves."

Ves frowned in puzzlement. "Can you be more specific? What does that actually mean?"

"It means that we are primarily concerned with the use and abuse of warships by the human race." The commodore elaborated. "The Common Fleet Alliance has always upheld the principle that warships will do more harm than good if they are under the control of humans who are not qualified to wield their immense power. The Red Fleet still maintains the same principle, but we have become more proactive in recognizing groups and individuals that can be trusted with limited control over warships through the Warship Quota Program and the Auxiliary Fleet Program."

The former granted an opportunity for people who made great contributions to field individual first-class warships.

The latter gave second-rate and third-rate states a chance to build their own warships and organize them into auxiliary fleets that operated under the supervision of an RF officer.

Both programs would have been unthinkable during the Age of Mechs.

It was only due to the Red War that the fleeters had been forced to relax their normally tough and unyielding stance.

The introduction of the two aforementioned programs greatly improved the RF's reputation, but their half-hearted measures to give the 'space peasants' limited access to warships was evidently not enough for the first-rate states.

Now that the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Alliance clawed back their right to field their own warships, they would definitely take advantage of this right that the fleeters had denied them for over 4 centuries!

Naturally, that did not sit well with the Red Fleet.

The Terrans and the Rubarthans most definitely learned their lesson from the dark days of the Age of Conquest, yet if the commodore's words were any indication, the fleeters clearly did not think they had earned enough forgiveness!

While Ves directed his attention towards the shifting relationships between the Red Fleet and the insurrectionists, the Saint Commander paid more attention towards the RF's continued insistence on restricting the use of warships.

"Will there be any changes to the Warship Quota Program and the Auxiliary Fleet Program?" Casella asked.

The CFA officer firmly shook his head. "I cannot give you any definite answers, but I can share with you my impression that we will not seek drastic changes to our existing stances and policies. We regret that the Terrans and the Rubarthans have decided to defy our well-intentioned rules, and we encourage those who have nothing to do with the insurrection to continue to abide by our rules."

In other words, the Red Fleet preferred that the groups that did not participate in the Red Split to avoid messing around with warships.

Perhaps many people believed that with the Terrans and the Rubarthans breaking away from the Red Two, it became a lot more acceptable to own and field your own warships.

The fleeters vehemently disagreed with this attitude.

"We do not have the capital or infrastructure to field too many first-class warships." The Saint Commander said. "Besides, our clan has always been strongly associated with mechs. We are unlikely to pivot to warships. Our excellence in designing and piloting mechs is our greatest advantage. We have no existing warship tradition to rely upon. There is no compelling reason to adopt warships on a large scale."

Commodore Reze responded with an approving smile. "We appreciate your stance. We hope that the Larkinson Clan continues to hold on to it. We are not trying to restrict the use of warships solely to keep them for ourselves. We believe that when humans no longer hold armed vessels in awe and can acquire them with much greater ease, they will no longer respect their immense destructive capacity and become more willing to direct their firepower to our vulnerable human populations. The Terrans and the Rubarthans are already in danger of repeating the mistakes that our race has made during the end of the Age of Conquest."

What a pessimistic view.

However, the fleeters may be right in their prediction. Power had a corrupting influence. Anyone who acquired warships would want to see them being put in active service, and that was where the danger began.

Ves did not necessarily disagree that red humanity was still not ready to field powerful warships on their own terms.

However, it was impossible to convince the infamously stubborn and humorless fleeters into changing their minds on their core stance.

Restricting the use of warships was the RF's raison d'être!

Trying to undermine it was nothing less than undermining the existence of the superorganization!

The fleeters would never forgive such a violation!