The Mech Touch

5976 Deep Political Maneuver

A sense of history overtook the well-dressed councilors. A diverse collection of 100 individuals spanning the top and middle layers of red humanity had gathered together in order to decide upon the formation of a third hegemon.

It went without saying that the political and economic interests surrounding the Red Collective were immense. The fortunes and livelihoods of a huge amount of human beings were at stake. Entire states might rise or fall depending on the decisions made during the remainder of the year!

Ves could already feel the tension in the air of the massive meeting chamber. Even though he and almost every councilor only attended this meeting by remote, the gathering of so many strong and powerful personalities inevitably caused a few invisible clashes.

The suppressed domains of powerful god pilots subtly collided against each other.

The powerful design philosophies of eminent Star Designers anchored their own presence in the meeting chamber.

It was quite impressive how the relatively 'ordinary' second-

raters and third-raters managed to maintain their composure during all of this invisible posturing.

Each of them understood that they served a vital function. If they botched their jobs, then the Red Collective could easily turn into an organization that trampled over the rights of space peasants.

This was unacceptable!

Faced with a once-in-a-lifetopportunity to reduce the rampant inequality of human society, many second-rate and third-rate states had temporarily set aside their persistent rivalries.

United by a common cause, these lesser states invested a lot of support into the statesmen that had been lucky enough to join the Interim Leadership Council.

The councilors who represented the interests of the less fortunate states had the most to gain from these all-

important sessions as far as they were aware of. Each of them eyed the other councilors and estimated whether they could obtain additional support during the discussions.

Many of these councilors couldn't help but sweep their gaze towards Ves.

The seating arrangement around the large circular table was incredibly significant and filled with meaning.

The councilors of the Red Association and the Red Fleet sat on opposite sides of each other.

The councilors of the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact also faced each other across a large distance.

Various neutral and 'lesser' councilors sat between the aforementioned power blocs, serving as buffers that ensured that tempers remained cool.

It was not a surprise that Ves was seated among the mechers. He was an honorary member and a well-established mech designer to boot.

His overtures to the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact had not pulled him away from his current camp.

His most recent collaboration with the Red Fleet did not sufficiently damage his relationship with the Red Association either.

What was peculiar about his seating position was that he did not sit at the periphery as befitting of his status as a tier 3 galactic citizen.

There were multiple god pilots and Star Designers who wielded a lot more power and influence over red humanity.

An argument could be made that Ves deserved to occupy an honorary position next to the chief councilor due to being the 'father' of the Red Collective.

Without his impassioned speech during the end of the public inquiry, red humanity would have never rallied around this broad and widely supported initiative so quickly!

However, everyone heard his repeated attempts to absolve himself of any further responsibilities and obligations.

If this was the case, he should have been seated a lot further away from the most powerful councilor in this grand and opulent chamber.

Had Ves changed his mind and decided to exercise his newfound political clout?

Or did the Evolution Witch simply granted him a position of honor without attaching any further meaning to this move?

A lot of councilors tried to guess the truth, yet failed to cup with a concrete answer.

None of them were crass enough to outright ask Ves or the Evolution Witch of their intentions.

That was not how the gwas played.

The councilors instead tried to form their own guesses.

The Evolution Witch never engaged in meaningless actions. Her difficult upbringing molded her into a legendary woman who never wasted her tand always tried to fulfill as many objectives as possible in the least amount of time.

Whether this was good or bad was a very important question. Ves had already earned a lot of notoriety for being a 'change agent'.

His very words and deeds created massive amounts of change, no matter whether people asked for it or not. If that was not bad enough, the changes he introduced were so unpredictable that not even a Star Designer as smart as the Polymath could plan around his moves!

For the Evolution Witch to pull the Devil Tongue so close to her position indicated that she may have made a secret agreement with him to muddy up the waters on her behalf!

As everyone formed their own conclusions about this deep and profound political maneuver, the Evolution Witch calmly introduced the agenda for the first session.

"The formation of the Red Collective begins with deciding on its mission. We cannot decide on its structure, hierarchy, principles, customs and taboos if we do not form a consensus on what it should accomplish. This is why we must debate on what the overall purpose of our organization should be. For now, we should be in agreement that the Red Collective should be tasked with regulating and promoting the phenomenon known as cultivation. The question now is how much power the Red Collective should hold over this sphere."

This was a big topic alright! Ves and many other councilors braced themselves for an intense dispute.

The Evolution Witch continued to speak

"The first topic on the agenda is centralization. How extensively our new organization should centralize the institutions related to cultivation? Should the Red Collective becthe sole sanctioned group that is permitted to allow its members to practice cultivation, or should we pursue the opposite and permit many different organizations to engage in cultivation within the boundaries set by our rules?"

"Cultivation is a corrupting force." Fleet Admiral Amelie Jameson took the word as soon as the Evolution Witch finished her speech. "I do not have to present any further evidence or documentation on this, as many councilors should already be aware of how our people suffered in the past. Humans cannot be trusted with the power to 'arm' themselves with destructive power obtained from absorbing reckless amounts of E energy. Just the psychological aspects of gaining personal power without the necessary training and discipline herald a future of great danger and instability. If we want to preserve our safe and stable order as much as possible, we must completely centralize cultivation under the Red Collective and nowhere else."

As the head of the Fifth Enforcement Speech, Fleet Admiral Jameson naturally wished to pursue the greatest degree of control and enforcement as possible.

Although she took an extrposition, there were multiple councilors that showed obvious signs of support.

The members of her camp within the RF automatically backed her stance.

The councilors hailing from states that tended to harbor greater fear towards crand anarchy also had reasons to support greater centralization.

What was interesting was that a number of the lesser councilors seemed swayed by Fleet Admiral Jameson.

"A central authority that governs all areas related to cultivation can be a boon to the middle and lesser zones." An elderly man slowly spoke. "Second-rate and especially third-

rate states lack access to sufficient resources and other forms of support. If we are asked to fend for ourselves, we will not be able to develop our own cultivation methods, accelerate the collective evolution of our populations and remain connected with first-class cultivators."

Another lesser councilor added further support to this stance. "Do not forget that there are talented and gifted people in every population group. There are many third-raters and second-raters who are ordinary on the surface, but may actually possess remarkable talent in cultivation. They are the equivalent of A-grade mech pilots. If our goal is to cultivate the strongest heroes possible to increase our fighting power against our alien enemies, then it is not wise to let many of our talents languish due to the division between the classes. A strong Red Collective that offers sufficient resources and opportunities to hidden talents will yield greater dividends in the future."

This was a strong argument towards shaping the Red Collective into a powerful and more centralized organization.

Many forms of cultivation were dependent on talent. A lot of ordinary folk would not be able to make much gains unless they had access to a lot of elixirs and other cultivation resources. Thɪs chapter is updated by NovᴇlFɪre.ɴet

However, most space peasants had no chance of obtaining such luxuries. Spending a lot of resources on strengthening so many weaklings was not a good investment, but the equation was different if a lot of talents could be found!

Just like mech pilots with high genetic aptitudes, these freaks of nature were able to comprehend specific elements a lot faster than others.

Depending on the cultivation method, the most talented humans found to date were able to race their way through the first major cultivation rank as if it was a wide and smooth road.

Although they still needed to spend at least a few more years before they could reach the second major cultivation rank, that was already the equivalent of becoming an ace pilot or a Master Mech Designer!

It was so incredibly unreasonable that a handful of blessed humans could form their domains in less than a decade after they got started in cultivation!

Although no one who understood cultivation well enough dared to ignore the potential of ordinary people who were willing to overctheir lack of talent with hard work, the priority right now was to raise a batch of human True Gods as quickly as possible.

Only when their civilization started to produce more cultivators of the third major cultivation rank would red humanity be able to tilt the balance of the Red War in their favor!

This was why those concerned with the state of war saw merit in this direction.

"As far as we know, it is not necessary for humans to undergo extensive genetic modification or install many artificial implants in their bodies to excel in cultivation." Master Vayro Goldstein of the Survivalist Faction spoke up. "If we can promote simple and foolproof cultivation methods among every large population of humans, we can discover many talents that can help us hold back the ancient phase whales and defend against other major threats. If we want to identify them as extensively as possible, we must control or monitor the potential talents. By constantly tracking their behavior and their growth speed, we can discover their value early and invite them to a training camp where we can realize their potential as effectively as possible."

The Survivalist Faction evidently saw great need for True Gods in the future, so Master Goldstein did not hesitate to present an incredibly intrusive plan!

Naturally, not everyone was willing to turn the Red Collective into an intrusive and controlling entity.

"Power corrupts." The famous Terran Star Designer known as the Armsforger spoke. "This ancient adage applies to organizations as well as individuals. We cannot put all of our eggs in a single basket. Letting the Red Collective control everything related to cultivation will stifle the potential of many people and make the organization more inefficient and unwieldy. It is better to allow individual people, organizations and states to form their own cultivation groups. This will allow each of them to explore their own cultivation directions. More importantly, they will also be able to keep each other in check."

"With all due respect, Your Excellency, your proposal will lead to much greater infighting than we have witnessed during the Age of Mechs." Master Goldstein calmly retorted. "Dividing our cultivators into many different groups will scatter their collective strength and make it easier for them to get defeated in detail. We are at war. We cannot afford to extend too much freedom to our future soldiers and champions. If we are to survive as a race, we must pool our resources and manpower together in order to cultivate as many saviors as possible. We have no other choice!"