The Mech Touch

Ves had a lot to catch up to after he withdrew from his Deep Research Mode.

He had inconvenienced himself and a lot of people by suddenly disconnecting from reality.

The fact that he and others never anticipated that this would happen at this timing was the worst part about it. Nobody had made any preparations to deal with his temporary absence from the public sphere, his inner circle and his ongoing diplomatic efforts.

Fortunately, Ves had made sure to conclude a lot of important affairs during and after his last business trip, so no particularly acute issues suffered from his prolonged absence.

The Red Collective had rapidly managed to establish its authority and respect across human-occupied space. The universal benefits brought by systematic cultivation had quickly won over the approval of the common folk.

The greater space-time bubble surrounding Bridgehead One had grown more and more volatile. Scientists that had been examining the data from this artificial phenomenon night and day came up with all kinds of wild theories about what was taking place inside, but no one formed any definite conclusions. The one fact that they could agree upon was that it was bound to end fairly soon, as the spacetime bubble's energy consumption increased so rapidly that it would run out quickly.

The Red War had progressed in a direction that was slightly more unfavorable to red humanity than before.

The native aliens had managed to topple more fortified star systems in the 4th defensive band, but they had yet to unleash their rumored 'final push'.

The intelligence agencies collected more and more clues about this final push. The native aliens were increasing their efforts to stockpile additional supplies, but it was not up to the level to support a sustained assault.

This made more and more people suspect that the native aliens might not be trying to push through the existing border regions. What if the native aliens secretly formed a massive armada and took a huge detour just so that they could attack Yernstall or one of the other critically important central star nodes?

Fighting a war in space was much different from fighting a war on a planet!

If the aliens truly wanted to, they could rely on warp travel to travel far above or below the galactic plane.

By traveling 'up' or 'down' the disc that represented the stars of the Red Ocean, the native alien armada would encounter no obstacles and no annoying human defensive forces that could hinder their advance.

Although alien warp travel was a lot slower than modern human FTL travel, the former was not bound by as many restrictions as the latter. The only question was whether the native aliens were willing to invest months if not years of monotonous travel time in order to unleash a devastating strike behind the lines.

Efforts to monitor the huge void of space above and below the galactic plane had drastically increased once people recognized their vulnerability to such an assault, but the amount of manpower and assets being used up was considerable.

What if they guessed wrong? What if they wasted resources that could have been elsewhere?

Unfortunately, there was no way to make a sure bet. Human strategists could only make recommendations based on flawed and incomplete data.

One of the more important developments that spun from red humanity's anxiety towards the native alien's attempt to deliver a coup de grace was the reallocation of many second-class ace pilots.

Their combat power was high, but they were all limiting themselves by piloting second-class or quasi-first-class ace mechs.

That was an acceptable practice during the Age of Mechs. The Big Two had always sought to minimize the destructive scope of warfare, so third-raters and second-raters were strictly forbidden from employing weapons that exceeded their tech level.

The Age of Dawn had invalidated many of these rules and traditions. It made little sense to deliberately shackle some of red humanity's best champions due to artificial constraints.

With the imposition of martial law, the Red Three gained the authority to commandeer these ace pilots and force them to pilot first-class ace mechs by any means possible.

Only the more powerful ace mechs had a realistic chance of killing or at least containing alien phase lords.

Weaker machines that often lacked the energy to inflict high damage couldn't even get past a phase lord's spatial barrier before they exhausted their reserves!

The second-class ace pilots affected by the Red Three's directive understood this very well. They also knew that the changes were for the good of red humanity as a whole, so they did not object to their mandatory transfer to the upper zones.

Of course, a lot of second-class mech forces suddenly lost their most important protectors. The middle zones were bound to suffer more casualties as a result, but the strategists at the top believed this to be a worthwhile sacrifice.

The logic behind these decisions was that the most decisive battles in the upper zones had to be won at all cost.

If the first-raters lost their respective battles, then it didn't matter if the second-raters or the third-raters had done better.

Everyone would all get swept by an unstoppable tide of native aliens as there were no mechers, fleeters, Terrans and Rubarthans to defeat the most formidable enemy assault fleets!

"This is an incredibly risky and radical strategic shift." Ves frowned as he sat in his main office.

Once he recovered from his abnormal shape, he tried to get back to work as soon as possible.

He was doing his best to catch up to two month's worth of developments.

Gavin Neumann shrugged his shoulders as he personally briefed Ves. "I am no military mastermind, but from what I have been able to read on the galactic net, it sounds as if the bigshots don't mind sacrificing multiple middle zones and lower zones in order to force the native aliens to waste their time on conquering less important territories. Every star system located in the zones directly behind the border regions will probably see massive bloodshed and warfare. The governments over there are doing what they can to fortify their most important locations, but it will be too little too late."

"This includes the Krakatoa Middle Zone, right?"

"Correct. If the Red Three is truly giving up on holding the Torald Middle Zone, the aliens will have a straight path to invading the Colonial Federation of Davute. If the Davutan armed forces still had all of their ace pilots, then they might be able to stall the invaders long enough to wait for a turnaround, but now…"

The situation did not look optimistic to Ves. He could understand the dilemma of the higher ups. They had made the most rational strategic decisions to maximize their chances of winning the Red War, but they also brought a huge amount of human suffering.

"Maybe the situation won't be as bad as we think." Ves optimistically remarked. "There will be plenty of chances for high-tier expert pilots to break through during all of the desperate defensive actions. Even if they can't pilot ace mechs in the short term, they should still be able to slow down the alien advance."

He moved on to studying how the conscription of second-class ace pilots directly affected his clan.

The expeditionary fleet of the Golden Skull Alliance had to transfer away most of its ace mechs in order to transform them into more effective counters against phase lords.

The only ones left at the moment were Saint Linda Cross of the Cross Clan and Saint Dise Larkinson of the Larkinson Clan.

"Saint Dise is allowed to stay in the expeditionary fleet?"

"That is because Swordmaster Ketis has already started the First Sword Mark III Project in advance. In the meantime, our latest ace pilot will continue to pilot her current expert mech in battle, just like Saint Commander Casella Ingvar. According to her latest estimates, it will take four to five months for the Dise's living mech to be upgraded into a first-class ace mech, boss."

"That fast?"

"Ketis has entered into a collaboration with a number of Master Mech Designers of the Red Association. She chose to work with them because Master Benedict Cortez is not suitable for the project and preoccupied with other obligations." Gavin explained. "There are a number of critical time-sensitive decisions that you need to make about the project. Director Gloriana will brief you in person once you head over to the design lab."

"Understood." Ves said as he imagined all of the benefits of gaining another powerful ace pilot. "Dise is an excellent warrior. I am glad that she has managed to break through before the final push has begun. A duelist as good as her is what we need the most in the Red War. Anyway, what else is on the agenda?"

"Your deputy over at the Astral Octagon is waiting to brief you as well. You will need to move over to our secure communication chamber in order to speak to your chief of staff about the most important matters relating to the Red Collective. It shouldn't take too long as the RC is still in the process of implementing its existing plans."

"Fine. Let's get this over with as soon as possible."

After Ves concluded his short and brisk talk with Eliza Mo Ragadan, he finally moved to the design lab where his wife summoned him to her office right away.

"Woah. Why the hurry, honey?"

Gloriana was clearly gnashing her teeth as she stared at Ves with impatient eyes.

"I need you to set Ketis straight about her stupid and borderline treasonous attempt to kick us off the First Sword Mark III Project."

"What?"

"Let me summarize the situation for you." Gloriana said.

She proceeded to fill Ves in about how Ketis chose to undertake the First Sword Mark III Project.

The ambitious swordmaster did not let the Heavensword's insertion into her life stop her mech designer ambitions.

She not only negotiated a deal with the Red Association by herself, but also wanted to increase her ownership over the First Sword!

Kicking out Ves and Gloriana from the project was a bold decision that was guaranteed to create a lot of controversy, but Ketis apparently possessed enough courage and determination to persist.

An impasse had formed between Ketis and Gloriana as a result. The two female mech designers failed to resolve their disagreement in the month since Ketis had begun to design the next ace mech of the Larkinson Clan.

Ves furrowed his eyebrows. As was typical of his wife, she had made plenty of biased remarks that sought to paint the situation in her favor.

However, even without this needless effort, Ketis did not exactly paint herself in a good light by making such an extreme decision.

"Do you remember how we designed the original First Sword?" Ves asked. "Ketis was already in the lead at the time. We provided our own design solutions and helped with compensating for her lacking technical skills, but it was undeniable that we gave her enough room to put forth her own vision. What she is doing right now is not much different from what she did back then. These days, she can collaborate with far more mech designers than you and I. She is maturing as a mech designer and has put effort into expanding her own network of contacts. She has many more options available than years ago, so she isn't obliged to repeat the same decisions she made in the past. A good mech designer must be able to respond to current and future needs rather than mindlessly following tradition."

His wife slowly started to look more and more upset with him. "Are you… taking this insolent woman's side? Are you deliberately trying to indulge her just because she used to be your student?"

Ves did not take his wife's reaction seriously. He maintained his calm and leader-like disposition.

"Sentiment has nothing to do with how I see this issue. I am taking a rational approach towards the decisions made by Ketis. As long as she can successfully present a case where replacing our design applications with the contributions of other mech designers will make the First Sword better, I see no reason why I should deny her proposal. It is you who are letting yourself get swayed by your emotions. As the Director of the Design Department, you should not allow your own biases and selfish desires overtake your judgment."

"I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT YOU ARE SAYING, VES! KETIS IS TALKING ABOUT USURPING ONE OF OUR ACE MECHS AND CLAIMING IT FOR HERSELF! NOT ONLY THAT, SHE EVEN INTENDS TO COLLUDE WITH OUTSIDERS TO KEEP US OUT! THE FIRST SWORD IS ONE OF OUR MORE IMPORTANT EVOLVING WORKS! HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID FOR ALLOWING IT TO SLIP FROM OUR GRASP!?"