The Mech Touch

5977 Accusations of Tyranny

The first fault line had already appeared.

Two opposing camps had emerged. The Fifth Enforcement Fleet, the Survivalists along with a substantial group of representatives of lesser states strongly advocated for greater centralization.

However, the Armsforger hailing from the Terran Alliance immediately expressed his opposition towards this stance.

Ves took a closer look at the famous Terran Star Designer. Lucas Nayald was a 260 year old Star Designer who maintained a remarkably young and muscular appearance. If not for the fact that his domain radiated a strong sense of metal from inside out, people would have mistaken him for a particularly athletic Journeyman or a Senior!

The biographies written about his life painted the picture of a talented and motivated descendant of the Nayald Ancient Clan.

Having been raised in one of the most privileged positions possible, Lucas Nayald did not waste this fantastic opportunity and worked hard to become an excellent mech designer.

One of the factors that helped him make so much progress was that he had decided upon his specialization very early.

Though the man did not set out to become a soldier, he had fallen in love with melee weapons after he picked up fencing as a 'mandatory' hobby.

He soon began to expand his fighting repertoire by learning and mastering all sorts of other weapons.

Lucas became obsessed with learning how to wield spears, halberds, other kinds of swords and more exotic melee weapons.

Though Lucas Nayald spent way more time on practicing his weapon skills than he should, his studies did not suffer too much from his activities, so he was allowed to pursue his new passion.

Once he graduated from mech design, he quickly went on to develop a design philosophy that enabled him to forge or fabricate the best melee weapons for his clients.

His overall design philosophy towards his famous melee weapons had started out simple, but changed very little over time.

Sure, the Armsforger had become a lot more skilled at forging his weapons, but he respected the old traditions of ancient human weapons so much that he never wanted to add any unnecessary gimmicks or frills to their design.

Though his solid metal weapons initially seemed unassuming, they gradually started to show their value as the Armsforger continued to improve his craftsmanship.

Of course, as a mech designer, the Armsforger already knew how to design mechs that made excellent use of the properties of his iconic weapons.

Over the course of two centuries, the Armsforger steadily worked his way up the mech industry as his mechs and mech weapons both earned greater renown within Terran space.

Nowadays, his weapons had become so coveted and desirable that even god pilots were willing to make large concessions in order to obtain one of his famous arms!

Every client that was fortunate enough to own his weapons already treated their possessions as treasured heirlooms.

The reason why so many people desired to own one of his personally forged weapons was due to several reasons.

The most basic one was that his weapons were much more solid and reliable than others. The Armsforger had initially made a name for himself by forging mech weapons that could endure far more abuse than was typical.

This was especially important in first-class mech combat as there were plenty of powerful machines that possessed high attack power.

A harder and more solid weapon would not break under a lot of abuse. The wielder could boldly use an Armsforger weapon to block or deflect an incoming projectile!

The most powerful Armsforger weapons were rumored to be so damn hard and tough that they could even remain intact when they were tossed into a black hole!

Few people took this rumor seriously, but Ves actually believed that this may be true, as crazy as it sounded!

Aside from being able to forge unbreakable weapons, the Armsforger also stood out for another reason.

He was one of the few Star Designers who was known to produce tier 1 Destroyer weapons.

Many powerful Terran god mechs wielded custom and extremely powerful tier 1 Destroyer weapons thanks to the indispensable work of the Armsforger!

The fact that so many Terran god mechs wielded such supremely powerful arms caused them to form a strong deterrent.

The Greater Terran United Confederation gained increased confidence over the course of the Age of Mechs for this reason.

Fighting against any Terran god mech up close was a nightmare to others!

Although precise information about tier 1 Destroyer weapons were scarce, Ves had heard plenty of rumors of how these unreasonably powerful arms were able to cut right through enemy God Kingdoms as if they were made out of butter!

Ves recalled that the Light of Sol did not unveil his impressive tier 1 Destroyer sword during Operation Night Jazz.

This was understandable as the god pilot was already able to complete his objections without revealing such a powerful trump card to the aliens.

It was a pity, though. Ves really wanted to see how easily a tier 1 Destroyer sword could carve up an ancient phase whale.

In any case, if there was one Star Designer in the Red Ocean who still retained the ability to produce new high-tier Destroyer weapons, it had to be the Armsforger!

This alone turned him into an indispensable Star Designer to red humanity!

When Ves thought about how the people of the Red Ocean could possibly resist the invasion of the Subjugation King and his armada, he believed that the unmatched lethality of tier 1 Destroyer weapons could give god pilots a realistic chance.

The more tier 1 Destroyer weapons the Armsforger was able to supply to every god pilot, the greater the probability of defeating the alien God King!

However, Ves did not think it was that easy for the Armsforger to fabricate his most powerful arms.

He did not believe that any high-grade exotic or hyper could possibly withstand the extreme concentrations of Destroyer particles.

Perhaps only the rarest and most coveted super-class materials could be used to make a stable tier 1 Destroyer sword!

Unless red humanity managed to import a lot of strategically valuable materials from the old galaxy, the chances that the Armsforger would be able to make another tier 1 Destroyer weapon was low.

Mech weapons were very large as a rule. Their weight could often be measured in tons.

In order to produce a tier 1 Destroyer weapon that was fit to be wielded by a mech, the Armsforger needed to obtain a large quantity of super-class materials!

Perhaps not every part of the Destroyer weapon had to be made out of the most powerful materials, but its core at least had to include them in order to prevent them from tearing themselves apart.

In any case, the Armsforger had become an extremely critical Star Designer in the Age of Dawn.

Ves personally had another reason to keep a closer eye on Lucas Nayald.

He suspected that the reason why the Armsforger became so good at making melee weapons was because he had access to the complete legacy of a Divine Blacksmith!

It would explain why his simple-looking arms became so unreasonably powerful. It also explained why he respected a lot of old traditions so much.

For now, the Star Designer's clear importance meant that no one was able to dismiss his words. His opinion had to be respected, especially when people wanted to commission powerful arms from him one day.

Despite the pushback from his opponents, the Armsmaster continued to argue in favor of his stance.

"Our Terran people have learned the hard way that forced unification and centralization is not attainable. Turning the Red Collective into a centralized organization with a strong mandate to regulate and control cultivation in our shared society will do nothing more than to restore the tyranny that we have rebelled against in our past. Do not squander the current level of public support towards this initiative. If the Red Collective is seen as a tool to enforce an iron grip on the masses, then the response from the public will be brutal and overwhelming."

Those were strong claims, but many councilors found them to be plausible.

Ves agreed with this sentiment as well. He not only agreed with the Armsforger's logic, but also benefited a lot more if the Red Collective became weak and divided.

The Evolution Witch likely held her own opinion on this matter, but it was not appropriate for her to share her own opinion when she presided over this meeting.

A short pause ensued as people waited for the next councilor to oppose the movement to centralize the Red Collective.

The Spacelock eventually spoke up on behalf of the Rubarthan Pact.

"<nullb>I find myself in agreement with the respected Terran Star Designer. Human civilization has remained divided throughout most of its history. The Red Collective must adapt its organizational structure to accommodate our current reality. It is not appropriate to impose radical changes to our current society by using the Red Collective as a cudgel on every state."

The god pilot had spoken!

Both the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact had made their stances quite clear now.

While they did not like each other, that did not stop them from implicitly banding together to ensure that the Red Collective did not become a threat to their respective first-

rate colonial superstates!

Ves already predicted as much. He too did not want the Red Collective to obtain too much power and boss everyone around.

It was at this point that a third speaker took the word.

The Mace of Retaliation stood up and maintained a stiff posture as he loudly voiced his stance.

"My father and I are of the opinion that the cure must never be worse than the disease. We have already flirted with absolute tyranny in our recent past. We must not allow ourselves to let our fears make our decisions because you are afraid of empowering people who previously did not carry enough weight in our society. Accidents will happen and people shall die on a larger scale than before. However, we are convinced that this is the best way for us to raise strong warriors that are willing to fight for their people!"

A lot of people looked intrigued.

The Survivalist Faction had become divided.

On the one hand, the Survivalists represented by Master Vayro Goldstein believed in the original stance of the Polymath. They were convinced that the only way to keep cultivation under control was to exert strong control at the top!

On the other hand, the Survivalists represented by the Fist of Defiance firmly believed that giving people the freedom to do what they wanted in terms of cultivation would step up and fight a lot harder than the cogs of a huge machine.

Though it sounded as if the Fist of Defiance and his son were not completely aligned with the Terrans and the Rubarthans, they at least shared a common cause on this subject.

The debate continued to rage on as two power blocs continued to argue whether the Red Collective should be heavy-handed in its treatment of cultivators or not. The implications were far too great for anyone to maintain a neutral stance on this highly consequential matter!

Ves conscientiously kept his mouth shut during the debate. He did not feel the need to insert himself in this contentious argument and attract unnecessary attention to himself.

However, just because he wanted to remain out of the spotlight did not mean that other people were willing to let him fade into the background!

"Professor Larkinson!" The Mace of Retaliation loudly boomed from his position on the circular table! "You have yet to offer your recommendation. Why not speak up and tell us what you think? The Red Collective is your invention, after all. You have earned the right to have your voice heard! Come on. Tell us how stupid and self-destructive these people are by trying to hoard too much power!"

Ves inwardly groaned as the other 99 councilors immediately turned their gaze in his direction.

He wouldn't be able to get away with remaining silent anymore!

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