The Mech Touch

5013Red

Ves felt a lot less self-assured by the time the Star Designer and the fleet admiral completed their explanation on the exotic radiation generated by Messier 87.

He initially had great confidence in hils ability to make good use of the ambient spiritual energy that was slowly filling up the Red Ocean.

As a largely self-trained spiritual engineer with years of experience, Ves believed that he had a natural advantage in his ability to leverage E energy radiation.

Other mech designers, especially low-ranked ones, only could only manipulate it in a more passive and unconscious manner, but Ves possessed the perception of a primordial human and could manipulate spiritual energy at a much finer level.

This was especially when he had access to a companion spirit like Blinky!

Out of all of the ones he made for his various friends and family, none were as suited to take advantage of the productive uses of E energy radiation as Blinky!

The existence of R particle radiation threw a wrench in those plans. Though Ves understood that it could enable him to leverage additional power, the premise was that he could exert enough control over this exotic matter!

All of the changes brought by M87 undoubtedly resulted in a lot of changes to people's lives.

A lot of fears and uncertainty started to well up again. Would their bodies remain healthy? Would their Jobs remain the same? Would humans still be allowed to fight against each other?

All of these societal questions needed to be answered, so the Lord of Thermodynamics finally revealed the Big Two's vision of the future.

"It is unquestionable that the Great Severing demands changes to how we operate in the Red Ocean. Our highest priority is not to seek a way to return to the Milky Way, or complete our conquest and defeat the local aliens that have brought us here, but to survive our coming contact with the native alien civilizations of Messier 87."

A projected map centered around M87 appeared yet again.

"M87 contains many more stars than the Milky Way. Its richer and hotter interstellar medium also endows much of its star systems with greater resources. It is more difficult for life to evolve under these harsh circumstances, but the alien races that are able to overcome all of these dangers will unquestionably be more powerful than the races of our home galaxy on average."

"The more advanced and developed alien civilizations of M87 will likely possess the means to detect our dwarf galaxy's arrival in real-time or after a relatively short delay." Fleet Admiral Argile declared. "Do not assume that our arrival will not be discovered for many years because the light of the Red Ocean's appearance and the gravity it exerts on other stellar objects are delayed by hundreds of thousands of years. Our race has developed more advanced detection methods that can observe a relatively distant galaxy's arrival. The natives of M87 have likely developed similar technologies."

Many different red points of lights began to shine on the galactic map. They spread across M87 as well as many of the satellite galaxies orbiting around the greater conglomeration!

"The Red Ocean's current position allows us to obtain a snapshot of the history of this region of space. By analyzing the light transmitted from M87 and its satellites over a time range that spans at least hundreds of thousands of years, we have detected over 10,000 powerful artificial manifestations of energy that have already taken place in the distant past. We have also detected many more artificial signals that originate from ancient alien transmissions. Make no mistake. Powerful alien civilizations have resided in M87 in the past, so it is highly probable that powerful alien civilizations still exist in the present day."

That confirmed many people's suspicions. It was nice to have a more solid form of confirmation at least.

While Ves understood that there was a slight chance that a calamity may have befallen M87 and its satellites in the past 100,000 or 200,000 years that completely turned it into a barren wasteland, that was wishful thinking!

Instead of hoping for a lucky break, it was better to assume the worst!

"The good news is that we have yet to detect any significant concentrations of phasewater in any of the nearby galaxies." The Lord of Thermodynamics announced. "That should increase the difficulty of traveling to our dwarf galaxy, but it will not hinder the arrival of foreign aliens forever. We must prepare as much as we can and Increase our Isolated society's strength as much as possible in order to withstand a future onslaught."

The projected logos of the MTA and the CFA appeared yet again!

The Star Designer looked utterly serious when he spoke his next words. "From the moment the Great Severing has brought us to M87, our future has diverged from our brothers and sisters in the Milky Way. We are not only physically isolated from our greater human civilization, but our group must also contend with an entirely different set of dangers and challenges. We can no longer rely on the superiority that our race that our forefathers from the Age of Conquest have secured for us all. We must all begin anew, for better or worse."

The famous and familiar logos of the two organizations began to change.

The traditional MTA logo depicted a knight mech surrounded by orange flames and twelve different planets.

The flames and the planets all turned red in the altered logo!

The regular CFA logo displayed a blue battleship behind a white four-pointed star on a dark background that was speckled with stars.

The white star turned into a bright shade of red while the background turned into a darker red tint!

"From now on, the human race as we know it will be divided into two civilizations, not one!" Fleet Admiral Stanley Argile roared! "Prolonged exposure to M87's exotic radiation will mutate us all into more powerful and adapted variations of the baseline human race. Each of these variations will henceforth be referred to as red humans. While our Common Fleet Alliance will seek to preserve as many rules and customs as possible, we must Inevitably change our modus operandi in order to adapt to our new circumstances. With the permission of our grand admirals, we decided to form an off-shoot of our organization which you may refer to as the Red CFA!"

Red humanity!

Red CFA!

Ves, Gloriana along with everyone else in the Red Ocean reacted with shock at the announcement!

Even though a lot of clever people figured out that the Big Two Inevitably had to form a regime in the altered new frontier, few expected it would happen in this way!

His Excellency Hendrick Polt could not fall behind. "The Mech Trade Association agrees with the decisions made by our allies from the Common Fleet Alliance. Our organization that is localized in the Red Ocean shall henceforth operate under the banner of the Red MTA. No matter how much contact we still have with our counterparts in the Milky Way, we will no longer operate under the exact same rules, customs and expectations." This was a revelation that would shake the fabric of human society in the new frontier.

It was one thing to figure out that humans of the Red Ocean could no longer march in lockstep with the humans of the Milky Way.

It was another thing to formally acknowledge this separation and proactively promote a divergent mindset!

Right now, a lot of people in the Red Ocean still saw themselves as authentic human members of the one true human civilization in the Milky Way.

What about ten years later?

What about fifty years later?

By the time two generations had gone by, the vast majority of people in the new frontier would probably think of themselves as different and superior to their more 'primitive' and 'boring' cousins in the other galaxy!

Gloriana chuckled. "I find it curious that despite taking the drastic step to form a new civilization around the concept of red humans, the CFA and the MTA are still doing their best to maintain their present status."

"What can you expect from them? No matter whether they add the word 'red' in front of their names or not, their nature has not changed in the slightest." Ves said in a cynical tone.

Indeed, in the next five minutes, the Star Designer and the fleet admiral described how the Big Two would endeavor to maintain the stability of the current status quo as best as possible.

The most important constant was that the Big Two still intended to enforce the prohibition against taboos as vigorously as before!

Red humans were still not allowed to form their own sovereign star nations.

Red humans were still not allowed to develop and deploy weapons of mass destruction.

Red humans were still not allowed to develop, construct and make use of warships.

Aside from that, the Comm Consortium still remained responsible for managing the Red Ocean's galactic net.

"We also plan to accelerate the expansion of the Red Gate Consortium." The fleet admiral explained. "We shall quickly construct a network of lesser beyonder gates in every secure zone in order to form the Red Ocean Galactic Gate Network. The formation of this gate network will promote our economic development and enable more rapid transfers of military assets in the case of hostile alien invasions."

That certainly sounded handy to have in hand now that red humanity was outnumbered by so many old and new alien civilizations!

Ves could also tell that the formation of a new gate network would also prevent the red humans that were scattered in many different zones from drifting apart from each other.

The closer they were connected to each other, the smaller the likelihood that they would attempt to make off on their own!

"We do not intend to remain on the defensive." The fleet admiral declared in a more eager tone. "The Red Cabal has already demonstrated extremely powerful and threatening capabilities. It may be able to realize more desperate actions such as detonating all of the phasewater in our dwarf galaxy. We must neutralize the threat of this pan-alien alliance by toppling its largest strongholds, defeating the ancient phase whales that are largely responsible for executing the Great Severing and completely break their base of support. In the following years, the Red CFA and the Red MTA shall intensify our offensives into alien space and seek to destroy the 'Tide Stations' to prevent the phase whales from affecting the entire galaxy once again."

Ves and Gloriana held mixed expressions. By accelerating their invasion into alien territory, the 'Red Big Two' clearly chose to persist in their hostilities against the indigenous aliens!

The Red MTA and the Red CFA clearly decided not to seek any form of truce or reconciliation with the phase whales and the other major alien races of the Red Ocean.

Tliis was bound to become a huge preoccupation that would sap red humanity's attention and resources for many years.

Would the red humans be able to defeat the local aliens and digest their gains fast enough to meet the M87 aliens in time?

That was a big question!

"The Age of Meehs as we know it has to come to an end." The Lord of Thermodynamics announcement with a serious expression. "Meehs shall still play an Integral role in our society, Just as warships have protected our civilization for many centuries. However, the changes produced by prolonged exposure to Messier 87's exotic radiation combined with our future contact with the new galaxy's native alien civilizations shall lead red humanity into a new future."

A golden light began to shine from above. Both the Star Designer and the fleet admiral became illuminated by blinding golden rays!

"In order to commemorate our new start under the golden light of the nearby supergiant galaxy, we declare the start of the Age of Dawn!"

The Age of Dawn!