The Mech Touch

5850 An Act of Madness

Ves was impressed by Dread Captain Volkert's speech.

The 281 year old commanding officer spoke so much, yet shared so little relevant information.

This made a lot of sense. The aim of Volkert Argile was not to be transparent and explain to his crew what was about to happen ahead of time.

The point was to put everyone in a supportive state of mind. What was about to happen next would definitely cause them to be confronted by an unprecedented situation.

While the fleeters were way too well-trained to stop and gape at what was unfolding around them, it would be significantly damaging if they all became distracted by their doubts.

It was the job of the captain of the dreadnought to give everyone a reason to stand fast and work towards a common goal.

Volkert Argile's speech soon came to an end.

"Remember what we are fighting for. If everything proceeds as planned, the Dominion of Man shall become more than a mere warship. No other dreadnought in the possession of the Red Fleet will be her equal anymore. It is not technology that shall prevail today, but the power of common men. As the vanguard of humanity's revival in the Red Ocean, we must shed our bled to begin the ritual that will change our flagship forever. This must be a voluntary act. The power of sacrifice must be sincere in order for our mighty ship to accept your tribute, however small it may be. Please make your decision and spill your blood onto any surface within a single minute. and spill your blood onto any surface within a single minute. The ritual shall commence with or without your contribution."

Though the dread captain sounded more like a cult leader than an officer of the Red Fleet, hundreds of millions of spacers obeyed without question.

Since every fleeter serving on the Dominion of Man was wearing a vacuum-sealed suit, they couldn't pick up a knife and cut their finger or whatever.

Instead, they all activated a command that caused their combat armor to insert a tiny needle into their bodies.

The drops of blood extracted by these needles soon squeezed out different ports and began to splatter the decks and bulkheads of whatever compartment they resided at the moment.

The drops of blood were so small that they could easily be missed by the naked eye.

Yet the gesture was still valid despite the unorthodox way the fleeters shed their blood.

The sacrifice of a single ordinary fleeter was not significant enough for anyone to notice.

The fact that the vast majority of the crew serving aboard the gigantic dreadnought obeyed the instruction of their commanding officer resulted in a much stronger reaction!

Just as Ves anticipated, the collective sacrifice and the strong intentions behind this gesture caused the Dominion of Man to become charged with extraordinary meaning!

That did not mean that the dreadnought was about to evolve.

Anyone could repeat this gesture in different locations. What made this different was that Ves intended to make active use of this ceremonial gesture.

Before the power of this blood sacrifice faded, Ves began to make his move.

"I am starting. Get ready."

"Ready!"

"Begin the blood extraction!"

Every brain in a vat was connected to a lot of different devices. One of them could easily draw out a small portion of blood that circulated through the brain cells.

Each of these drops of blood passed through numerous channels until they spurted into a small wooden bowl that floated in front of Ves' armored form.

It went without saying that this blood was a lot more special. Taken from over a thousand different brains with A-grade genetic aptitude, Ves could clearly feel that the precious liquid possessed a huge amount of untapped potential!

The researchers of the CFA had harvested a lot of brains from old and accomplished officers.

They all served as captains, commodores and admirals back when they were alive. Just because they neglected their exquisite talent in piloting mechs did not mean that they were mediocre in other aspects.

Each of them leveraged their natural gifts to varying degrees. From accelerating their learning speeds to processing data a lot faster than their colleagues, these gifted fleeters all demonstrated enough excellence for their brains to be donated to the Brain Trust.

If these decorated and accomplished naval officers were still alive, then their blood would have held a lot more potency.

Alas, they had already died. That already sapped a lot of power from their lifeblood. Preserving their brains helped to retain what little extraordinary essence was left, but it was a paltry amount compared to what they were when they were at their greatest.

Ves did not really mind.

What the blood donated by all of the brains lacked in potency, they made up for it in quantity.

As the simple bowl became filled with the blood harvested from all of the brains, Ves could clearly sense the fusion of different energies, each of which came from different sources.

Far from causing a giant mess, the fusion of energies actually proceeded a lot more harmoniously than it should.

This was because every blood donor was an officer of the proud and mighty Common Fleet Alliance.

Each of them had their differences, but they also had a lot in common. It was the latter that enabled their blood to get along for the time being.

"Blinky. It's your turn now."

"Mrow!"

The Star Cat emerged from his helmeted head and immediately started to manipulate the amalgamation of spiritual energies attached to all of the blood.

The goal was to homogenize the spiritual energies as much as possible. Blinky proceeded to do so by cutting off a lot of impurities that would only be detrimental to the outcome of this ritual.

There was no time for finesse. The companion spirit cut off parts as long as he harbored any doubts about the usefulness of retaining them. Though crude, the process quickly reduced the differences between all of the energies and caused them to become more and more identical to each other.

Blinky deliberately retained their spiritual imprints, not because it was too troublesome to remove them all, but because Ves intended to preserve this condition.

The spiritual energies each came from humans who used to be highly accomplished CFA officers. Disconnecting these ingredients from the humans they used to belong to was a considerable waste.

Ves also felt that retaining the markers that tied them to their original human identities fell in line with the spiritual product that he intended to make.

"Mrow."

Once Blinky was done with removing as many impurities as possible in such a short timeframe, he immediately commenced the next phase.

The Star Cat opened his maw and began to release a huge amount of life-attributed energy!

This was the spiritual energy that was almost unique to Ves. It was infused with the power to create life out of nearly anything.

This time, Ves intended to create his new ancestral spirit with the spiritual remnants of over a thousand CFA officers as the key ingredients!

There was no need for Ves to add any other spiritual ingredients to the mix. Doing so might cause the resulting outcome to become more stable and sophisticated, but it also had a much higher chance of triggering a more destructive lightning tribulation!

Since Ves had no intention of calling down lightning bolts that were powerful enough to sunder the Dominion of Man in half, he restrained himself and tried to keep this act of creation as simple as possible.

That might not be possible in a few aspects due to the fact that he had taken ingredients from so many different sources, but the pre-treatment should have removed a lot of problematic variables.

So far, not much about this creation process was particularly new to Ves. He was gradually breathing life into a brand-new spiritual entity that not only exemplified the fleeters, but also the belief in human supremacy.

Yet if that was all that Ves intended to do, then there was no need for him to take so many precautions.

This was only a small part of his full plan.

Minutes passed by as Blinky continued to merge all of the different spiritual energies into a cohesive amalgamation that would form a singular personality derived from countless remnant human personalities.

Even though Ves had never done anything like this before, he was pretty sure that the risks of failure were fairly low. He and Blinky had an excellent handle on the situation. Nothing strange occurred that hinted to them that their process was flawed.

As the new spiritual entity slowly came into being, Ves clearly sensed the rituals around him at work.

Shedding blood was just the first step. The fleeters all received instructions to engage in nonsensical actions that nonetheless possessed great symbolic significance.

They ranged from dancing in circles while holding black scepters to praising the coming of the spirit of human domination.

Naturally, the fleeters were more than reluctant to engage in these silly acts, but they followed instructions anyway.

Their performance left a lot to be desired, but Ves did not really mind it. The vast majority of the crew members were sincere enough to contribute small parts of themselves to this ongoing effort!

The effects were subtle but crucial. A lot of potential problems related to mashing the spiritual remnants of so many different personalities togethers never occurred. The personality of the new amalgamation exhibited a lot more stability than he initially expected. A sense of wonder and success started to emanate from the drying bowl of blood.

Ves curled his lips into a grin.

If this was the limit of his ambition, then there was no need to keep his newly obtained Flower Parasol within his reach!

While Blinky was on the cusp of completing this crucial phase, Ves barked a warning towards Sigrund.

"I am about to commence the third phase! Keep a close eye on the activity of the Brain Trust. Make sure that the five Alpha Brains remain absolutely healthy and stable!"

"Roger!"

Ves stepped forward. The floating blood bowl and Blinky seamlessly kept up with his movements. He only stopped when he reached the side where a special set of organic AI cores had been placed.

Out of all of the brain units placed within the Brain Trust, 771 of them possessed a genetic aptitude score of A-.

259 of them were characterized with a genetic aptitude score of A.

Only 5 of the harvested brains were blessed with a genetic aptitude score of A+.

This said a lot about the preciousness of the latter. Any potentate that managed to measure at this score when they reached 10 years old were usually snapped up in an instant!

Ves found it agonizing to see that the fleeters were so prejudiced against mechs that the former owners of these brains rejected the opportunities of their lifetimes!

It was such a glaring misuse of strategic resources that he couldn't help himself from correcting this grave injustice!

"You may have wasted your opportunity to ascend to godhood in life, but I shall make sure you shall do so in death."

This was perhaps the most critical sensitive phase of the process.

Many of the software and hardware changes to the Brain Trust were solely designed to facilitate this unprecedented act!

"The Dominion of Man shall unite in blood!"

Blood began to circulate from the brain units to the Brain Trust and beyond!

A huge amount of channels had been installed and repurposed for the express goal of enabling the blood to be spread across many other sections of the dreadnought!

While the blood did not reach more than a few percentages of the titanic hull, it was not really necessary for the blood to come into contact with the entire structure of the dreadnought.

The intent was more important than the form.

Besides, blood spilled by all of the crew members served as a nice substitute!

The important part was that there were just enough conditions to form a crude and much larger version of the Carmine System!

Once the blood structure had been formed, Ves began to execute a series of actions that he had thoroughly considered in advance!

He manipulated the newly created spiritual product into forming a pact with the enormous dreadnought!

This was supposed to be impossible. The Dominion of Man was not a living mech, and the new spiritual entity did not possess a physical body that could circulate blood.

This was why the 5 Alpha Plus Brains were the key to his plan. They formed the nucleus of the Brain Trust. All of the lesser brains served as expansions according to the specialists who maintained this powerful array.

"You shall become the blood vessel of my latest creation!"

Ves anchored the new ancestral spirit to all of the Alpha Plus Brains at once!

This shouldn't have worked under normal circumstances, but the point of the Brain Trust was that it used neural interface technology to connect everything together!

The brain units were only neurally connected to each other, but also the operating system of the Dominion of Man!

Whatever the case, nothing unexpected occurred. Ves was successfully able to anchor the ancestral spirit to the 5 Alpha Plus Brains due to these unique circumstances.

Ves grinned when he saw that every condition had been satisfied.

The Dominion of Man imitated a Carmine mech well enough to function as a very rough and primitive version of a 'Carmine warship'.

His latest spirit happened to satisfy the conditions of a Carmine mech pilot due to the fact that he gained a 'body' in the form of 5 of the most precious brains on this ship!

"The pact is made!"

The consequences of forging this critical spiritual connection under these abnormal circumstances were massive.

A huge amount of pressure began to form above everyone's heads.

The heavens themselves judged that an act of creation had taken place that clearly violated the natural order!

The act was so daring and brazen that the reaction was bound to be fierce!

"Hahahaha! Hahahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!"

The reason why Ves began to cackle was because he actually managed to pull it off! He managed to forge a Blood Pact with two completely different existences that completely diverged from anything he had worked with before!

The most extraordinary part about all of this was that he had centered his work around the Alpha Plus Brains of the Brain Trust!

The potential implications were enormous. Ves knew that Blood Pacts had the ability to increase the effective genetic aptitudes by a small measure.

This caused him to come up with a bold idea.

Was it possible to break the natural barrier that prevented mech pilots from attaining S-grade genetic aptitudes?

Even if the Blood Pact was unable to make enough of a difference to increase the genetic aptitude of one Alpha Plus Brain, what about five of them working in unison?

They were so strongly connected to each other that they practically functioned as a single super-brain!

With the Carmine System thrown into the mix, Ves theorized that what he had done might just be enough to do the impossible!

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

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