The Mech Touch

When the Mace of Retaliation completed his fiery presentation, the gathered mechers and associates remained active and excited for a long time!

Even if most of them realized that betting all of their chips on committing to this questionable strategy might not cause as much disruption and division among the aliens as everyone hoped, it was still a plan that aligned with all of their principles and ideals!

As the children of the Age of Conquest and the Age of Mechs, the red humans had long grown up in an environment where their race firmly ruled at the top of their old galactic hierarchy.

They rose up from nothing and came to dominate half of the Milky Way Galaxy by themselves.

How could they possibly fail to repeat the same feat against major alien races of the Red Ocean that were objectively weaker and less technologically advanced than the Seven Apex Races that previously dominated the old galaxy?

Unfortunately, the comparison was not that simple.

Back during the early days of the Age of Conquest, humans still retained the sly and cunning mindsets that enabled them to draw attention away from themselves.

The Seven Apex Races never fully recognized the threat of these individually weak upstarts until it was too late!

Now that red humanity had entered the Age of Dawn, it could not count on the ignorance of the native aliens to stall for time and play the aliens against each other.

Humanity was just too scary! The Red Cabal obtained all of the information it needed from the cosmopolitans and other sources to know that these extragalactic invaders had to be stopped before they built up too much momentum!

Therefore, the Fist of Defiance's predictions on how the aliens would behave to the deep strikes might not pan out. So long as the aliens were all rational and determined enough to strangle the threat of red humanity in its cradle, no amount of deep strike raids would be able to shake their resolve!

As the attendees in the large assembly hall waited for the final main speaker to show up, Ves found it difficult to make up his mind.

"I can't make up my mind on which one I prefer." Ves softly murmured. "Both plans have their merits. I think the Xenotechnician's diplomatic approach likely has the highest chance of success, but we have to give up so much in the process. The Fist of Defiance's aggressive approach is much more to my liking, but it's a lot riskier."

Jovy nodded in agreement. "We can only choose one or the other. The two plans are not completely opposed to each other, but the controversial nature of the Xenotechnician's plan means that many people will prefer to avoid it entirely if there is a viable alternative."

Everyone began to build up more and and more anticipation for the final presentation.

The crowd did not have to wait too long. The light in the enormous assembly hall dimmed as the final speaker appeared above the central podium.

Everyone fell utterly silent and straightened their backs as they became graced by the presence of one of the youngest and most impressive Star Designers to emerge from humanity!

Every Star Designer was a living legend, but the Polymath somehow managed to upstage her eminent colleagues by the sheer amount of brilliance she possessed!

Her amazing advancement speed and her comprehensive grasp of practically every field of technology enabled her to form new connections and pump out amazing innovations at breakneck pace.

Ever since she advanced to her current rank around half a century ago, she had rapidly established herself at the top due to her impressive productivity.

The Survivalist Faction was incredibly fortunate to have her within its ranks. Red humanity was also lucky that she had ended up stuck in the Red Ocean by the time the Great Severing occurred.

Ves carefully schooled his own expression. He also tried his best not to let his overactive mind come up with wild and strange ideas.

He could not afford to let his guard down around this Star Designer. They remained competitors so long as both of them held fragments of the Metal Scroll.

Given the incredible disparity of power between the two, it would take only a moment for the Polymath to order his execution!

Fortunately for Ves, the Star Designer paid no attention to a young and small associate. Her true audience were the Masters and other high-ranked dignitaries seated at the rear. The plan she was about to present was so all-encompassing in scope that she could not afford to get distracted by lesser concerns!

Compared to the Xenotechnician, the Polymath presented herself in a more vibrant and youthful manner. She looked like she was at the prime of her life. She also came across as a woman who intended to stand up and fight for humanity in an intelligent way!

"Survivalists." Her voice spread across the crowd like raindrops falling onto a desert. "The earlier two speakers have both sought to present their solutions to the existential threats of our new and isolated society. I admire both of their visions. Both the Xenotechnician and the Fist of Defiance possess the courage to propose changes that are necessary to alter our unforgettable circumstances."

A familiar map showed up again. It displayed the same galactic map of the Red Ocean. The projection did not linger here, but zoomed in on the bottom edge where red humanity claimed its own territories.

"Both of their plans have merit, but they are attempts to overcome the inherent weaknesses of our society that we have inherited from the Milky Way. The truth is that we are not confronted by one set of enemies, but two. Red humanity is beset by aliens from the outside and plagued by internal division from within our very borders. It is the latter that has become increasingly more unacceptable. The proof lies in the inefficient and arbitrary division of territories in human space."

The projected map highlighted the Red Ocean Union, the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact. It then proceeded to highlight the individual states and autonomous regions controlled by an incredible variety of groups and rulers.

"Humanity has always suffered from flawed and inefficient governance." The Polymath stated even though everyone already knew that. It was like saying that water was wet or that stars were hot. "The current division of red humanity's territories is a direct consequence of the compromises and limitations imposed by the flaws of human civilization of the Milky Way. When the latter remained connected to the former, there were enough justifications to divide the star regions in this fashion. Now that this condition is no longer in place, why must we continue to tolerate this division?"

The Polymath brought up a matter that has disturbed plenty of people in the past. However, nobody proposed to do anything else because the price of trying to change anything was too great.

In particular, the first-rate superstates would block any radical changes in the way that human space in the Red Ocean was being governed!

Yet what if those dominant first-rate superstates were no longer around to enforce their interests in the new frontier?

The Polymath's words began to open people's eyes to the incongruity of the current situation.

The Polymath continued to make her case with facts and logic. It was as if she was holding a lecture in front of a university class!

"Inertia and outdated attitudes are holding us back from realizing that we have remained unchanged in a completely new and different age and environment. I agree with the Xenotechnician's sentiment that the old vestiges that we have internalized for centuries are holding us back. We must rationally rethink every rule and custom and evaluate whether there is any merit to maintaining them in our altered reality."

All of this made sense so far. Ves did not think that anyone could refute this argument.

The issue was where she was heading for with this pitch. It sounded like a setup to a much more expansive intervention.

The Polymath's expression remained stern as the projected map that displaced all of the individual colonies and states started to get flooded by many different arrows.

"What you are looking at is a summary of all of the open conflicts as well as hostile relations between different colonial states. Each of these overt or hidden wars continue to consume large amounts of manpower, assets and resources for marginal reasons. While there are many valid justifications to enable the space peasants to vent their urges on their fellow peers in the Milky Way, it is pure waste to allow this to proceed when our entire collective is being targeted by the sum total of sentient alien races of this hostile dwarf galaxy. We may be able to suppress infighting to a certain extent, but without implementing more permanent changes to our society, there is a high likelihood that the population at large will invest too much resources in unproductive activities."

This was one of the persistent flaws of the human race. Pride and traditions gave them strength, but they also gave people reasons to fight against each other.

Internal competition had been a fact of life for humanity for as long as it existed. Even when the Terrans were at the height of their power, their empire did not last long because they ultimately failed to suppress the rising discontent and animosity from within their expansive territories!

After the Age of Mechs commenced, the Big Two did nothing to resolve this flaw. Instead, the mechers and the fleeters did the opposite and promoted internal division for many reasons that made sense at the time.

The Polymath essentially acknowledged this prior truth, but also pointed out how inefficient it was to continue to maintain the current order when they were all beset by so many hostile aliens!

"Given all of this waste and lack of productivity, we must quickly address this problem while the population at large is still malleable enough to accept radical changes. What I wish to propose to you all today is a multi-faceted plan to completely reform our society as we know it. It consists of multiple prongs. One is focused on reforming the governance of our territories. Another is focused on unshackling the technological boundaries that hold us back. The last is to revive our ancient legacies and maximize our usage of a new source of power. This is all we need to secure our objective. Red humanity already possesses all of the capital it needs to defeat our adversaries. We merely have to draw out all of the potential that is currently put to waste."

"Let me present Our near-total separation from the existing order of the Milky Way presents us with an opportunity to institute our own order, one that has been carefully designed without any historical baggage and is completely tailored to our current circumstances."

In order to emphasize her words, the map showed a complete change in the organization of red humanity's space.

The Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact existed no more. Both of them had been subsumed by the Red Ocean Union!

Upon this merger, the Polymath proposed a complete redivision and reorganization of all existing colonial polities. The various zones were each divided into a handful of evenly-sized provinces, all of which were interconnected and dependent on each other to promote greater cooperation!

"We must remove all existing divisions and integrate our society as much as possible. In this possible new human empire, its citizens will no longer identify themselves as mechers, fleeters, Terrans, Rubarthans or by any other irrelevant label. They will all become citizens united under a single banner of a new galactic order. Our order."

What?!

Ves along with many other Survivalists were completely shocked by the Polymath's proposal!

It was not every day that a leader would boldly propose to erase millenia's worth of cultural traditions and historical grievances.

Although all of this made a huge amount of sense in theory, Ves did not think it was possible for the Polymath to overcome the sheer amount of opposition to her proposed new galactic order.

Since he had begun to teach at the Eden Institute of Business & Technology, he had interacted with the Terrans often enough to know that they would absolutely resist this insane plan with all of their might! There was no way they would roll over and allow the mechers to erase their proudest heritage!

How could the Polymath possibly push through her reforms in the face of overwhelming opposition?