The Mech Touch

One of the critical reasons why Ves spared his valuable time on getting briefed by his chief of staff at the Red Collective on a regular basis was because he wanted to stay in the loop.

The Office of the Chief Councilor of the Upper Council was such a high position that Ves was entitled to learn about confidential information!

This was why he had to keep his office. Getting booted from it would mean he would lose access to a lot of juicy high-level information from the Secret Department.

The Red Collective's intelligence arm had only existed for a short time, but already proved to be incredibly competent and well-informed.

It had to be because its cadre largely consisted of the members of the Evolution Witch's personal spy agency!

So long as Ves remained a high-ranked figure within the Red Collective, he would continue to remain much more informed than the vast majority of other people in the Red Ocean.

This was crucial because Ves needed to be forewarned of potential threats and dangers.

It was better to hear it first from the Red Collective than find it out himself when he eventually stumbled into another crisis!

"The native aliens are beginning to stir as well."

"Our spies planted inside alien-occupied territory have found disconcerting clues." Eliza Mo Ragadan said. "The Secret Department along with the intelligence agencies of other groups have come to the conclusion that the native aliens are preparing to launch a decisive push in the near future. The Red Tide Offensive has dragged on long enough according to our enemies, so they are trying to gather a larger concentration of forces in order to topple the 4th and 5th defensive band in a single overwhelming push."

Ves furrowed his brows. "How reliable is this intelligence?"

"There is incidental proof that the native aliens are rushing the deployment of reinforcements from afar. So far, our spies have not been able to detect enough additional troop movements to justify a final push, but our analysts have concluded that the native aliens have found a way to circumvent our monitoring, possibly with the help of the cosmopolitans, in order to position their best warfleets in secret. We will not be able to predict the time of their final push until it is too late.

That sounded extremely disconcerting. While it sounded as if there was no absolute certainty whether the native aliens were contemplating a final attack, it made too much sense to Ves. This was why red humanity could not afford to disregard this threat.

"So how do we respond?" Ves inquired.

"All of the major groups have been notified of this possible development. They are currently keeping it secret because too much panic and unrest will ensue if we spread this information in advance. The native aliens will also learn about this and adjust their plans to make it more difficult to respond to their actions. We determined it is best to wait for the native aliens to make their move. Our current response is to quietly speed up the buildup of defenses of our strategic strongholds."

"Will it be enough?"

"Nobody can say for certain." Eliza said. "We do not think the leadership of the Red Cabal is incompetent. The phase whales and the major races have reasons to feel confident in their final push. The losses they suffered so far has not hurt their foundation too much, but it is ultimately unbearable for the war to last so long without dealing a decisive blow against their enemies. Red humanity is proving to be more and more undefeatable to the alien masses. This is bad because it can damage the morale of the alien population in the long run. The legitimacy of the native gods is based on absolute power. If they cannot prove to their subjects that they lack the power of an actual god, then their support base will begin to crumble."

"I see."

Perhaps not even the arrogant phase whales expected that their divinity would come into question so quickly after attacking but failing to defeat red humanity.

Right now, humans only occupied a corner of the galactic rim of the Red Ocean, but this relatively small piece of territory remained stubbornly in the hands of the extragalactic invaders! ŖА₦ȫ𝔟Ɛs

The disparity in numbers and accumulation was too great, yet because of the domineering power of just 8 god pilots, the 13 major alien races failed to make any progress in wiping out the presence of red humanity in their dwarf galaxy!

In that sense, the Red Cabal may feel pressured to the point of abandoning their attrition warfare doctrine even though it had yielded successful results up to this point.

Even if a final push would magnify the total losses suffered by the native aliens by a huge extent, the sacrifice would all be worth it so long as red humanity suffered a total defeat in the end!

Ves felt grateful that he had gained enough importance to learn about this secret development in advance. If he did not become the chief councilor of the Upper Council, he doubted that he would be on the list of those who were entitled to know about this possible turning point.

Now that he knew, he could make preparations in advance. He just had to make sure that he did not recklessly leak what he learned and spread unnecessary panic.

"How will the RC respond to this potential development?"

"Our organization is too new. We have not amassed enough combat capable cultivators to join the war effort on a larger scale." Eliza succinctly answered. "As such, our war plans only involve the deployment of cultivator troops in a small number of key strategic locations. It would be best if we can engage in guerilla warfare against the native aliens, but such weak and dispersed measures will not be able to stop a major push in any meaningful way."

"Mhm, that makes sense, as regretful as it sounds. The RC is still too young. We need more time to develop."

The history of the Red Collective might get cut short depending on what happened in the following months.

The climax of the Red Tide Offensive was at hand. Ves grew more nervous as he thought about how little time he had left to make his own contributions to the war

Effort.

At the very least, his Design Department needed to rush the Riot Mark III Project, Amaranto Mark III Project and the Minerva Mark II Project to completion before it was

Too late!

The two upcoming Carmine mech design projects were not as important in

Comparison.

If he did not receive this crucial piece of intelligence in advance, then he may have chosen to allocate more time and effort into designing a pair of premium Carmine

Training and combat mechs.

This was an awful use of his limited time because designing them and releasing them sooner would not help red humanity in the slightest in the short term!

It would still take years for Carmine mech pilots to complete their rushed training and gain initial combat effectiveness while piloting their bonded machines. Compared to the millions and maybe billions of Carmine mechs that might get flooded on the battlefield after a few years, the value of doing this was much less than granting powerful new expert mechs to three of the Larkinson Clan's celebrated champions! As long as Venerable Stark, Venerable Orfan and Saint Commander Casella Orfan were able to break through after receiving their upgraded machines, they should definitely be able to gain enough agency to stave off defeat in a heavily-beleaguered star system! Ves had a powerful hunch that this final push would test red humanity's defenders to such an extent that a record number of heroes, saints and gods would ascend from

Their prior shells!

As a mech designer, it was not his place to join the soldiers at the frontlines and get his hands dirty.

His job was to equip the mech pilots with the best possible machines that would allow them to exert their full strength and beyond.

"If this final push begins, red humanity must devote all of its strength to repelling the massed enemy forces," Eliza said with a voice that conveyed grim determination. "Martial law is already in effect in many states, but its severity will grow during this difficult period. Everyone must be ready to get called for service at any time. Property might get confiscated in order to better support the war effort. Private forces must. unconditionally answer to a centralized military command formed by the Red Three in order for them to fight where they are needed the most. Not even the Planetary Guard will remain untouched. As long as they can spare any law enforcement mechs, they will have to be brought to the frontlines as well."

"If that will be the case, then the hinterland of human space will lose much of its defenders. Troublemakers such as the Cosmopolitan Movement will have more room to sow chaos and inflict severe damage to our infrastructure."

"We know, sir, but we have little choice in the matter. Most of our military planners would rather have damaged supply chains but intact borders than the other way around. Our industries can recover fairly quickly, but the same cannot be said for our

Border."

All of this had far-reaching consequences to both soldiers and civilians. The former would bear the brunt of relentless alien attacks while the latter might lose their jobs

And maybe even their lives!

Ves suddenly thought about his wife, his children and the rest of his clan. They all faced the risk of falling victim to the deteriorating security in the new frontier.

He did not want any of them to come to harm!

Was it time for the Premier Branch to abandon its foundation in New Constantinople?

Perhaps it was better and safer to return to shipboard life and spend all of his day

Inside the protective embrace of the Tarrasque.

Staying mobile made it harder for enemies to prepare an overwhelming ambush and

Cut off his escape route.

He and his clan would also be able to move away from the star systems that came

Under attack by the native aliens.

Avoiding overwhelming enemies was better than confronting them in battle!

Ves did not dare to travel to Yernstall or other well-protected star systems because

They would most certainly become priority targets to the ambitious native aliens! "Ugh." Ves scratched his head in frustration. "There is too little time."

It was no wonder that the Red Three's ultimate solution to preventing the native aliens from spilling into much of human-occupied space was to drop to their knees and pray for a peak ace pilot to successfully break through!

His chief of staff looked concerned, but not pessimistic.

"We shall find a way." She said. "Desperate measures are being prepared. Additional superweapons are being moved to the border regions. The Red Association may also be prepared to employ your 'Aspect of Transcendence' on a large scale at that time. The mechers believe that many of the mech pilots who have been struggling to fight and survive in the last half year have grown in impressive ways. They too may be waiting for a final push to surpass the extraordinary threshold." Ves did not have too much confidence in this measure. "The transcendence glow is largely effective for weaker mech pilots. It is nice if additional ace pilots can emerge because of that, but that is ultimately not enough I fear. If we truly want to hold onto our border regions, then we will need the strength of god pilots. I very much doubt that the transcendence glow can offer any material

Help to peak ace pilots. They must ultimately rely on their own willpower and mechs to make the final leap."

Red humanity was about to face its ultimate test!

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