The Mech Touch

"What is a deputy chief councilor?" Marvaine asked in confusion as he idly played with a plushie doll modeled after the famous Radiant god mech.

Merchandising was big business at any stage of human history. Pretty much every god pilot except for the really sensitive ones agreed to license out their likeness, not because they were short on cash, but because they desired to increase their presence in human society.

Even though Marvaine held a simple toy, no reproduction of a god mech was cheap, especially in the Terran Alliance. The plushie a whole range of exquisite synthetic materials that tastefully evoked the fastest mech in the Red Ocean and possibly in existence.

The toy even included a light amount of hyper materials, just enough to evoke a sense of light and speed.

Although many consumer rights groups expressed concerns about the potential dangers and side effects of exposing developing children to hyper materials, most people didn't care.

The exotic radiation from Messier 87 was already in the process of transforming everyone and everything in the Red Ocean. Hyper materials became increasingly prevalent and a part of everyone's lives.

"A deputy chief councilor is a big deal." Andraste explained as she casually tossed Lucky in the air.

Though the gem cat was not exactly light, the red-headed girl was not an average kid either. Lucky did not even need to reduce his own weight to allow the girl to toss him close to the ceiling until he fell back down again.

"Meow."

"Because… because… because papa is a chief! A chief is a leader! He's a leader of… something! Big sis, you tell him. You know what it is all about, right?"

The older and more elegant-looking girl nodded. The black-haired girl calmly sat on the divan while brushing Clixie's lovely calico cat coat.

The Rubarthan Sentinel Cat squinted with pleasure.

"Miaow~"

"A deputy chief councilor is… the second-in-command. That means that our papa will be in charge if the chief councilor is not available." The girl answered as she continued to pamper Clixie. "As long as the Evolution Witch no longer wants to lead the Red Collective, our papa will be in charge."

"Really!?"

"No way!"

Ves grinned and leaned over to give Aurelia a rub on the head.

"You are not completely wrong, but not completely correct either. There is more to leadership than a fancy sounding title. Not every organization is as centralized and untainted with mixed loyalties as the Larkinson Clan. Everyone participating in the Red Collective Project seeks to enrich themselves or their respective states and organizations. Do you understand how difficult it is to ride herd on them all? They are completely unlike our clansmen who have relinquished their old loyalties and voluntarily subject themselves to Goldie's supervision."

The children looked at their father with a mix of incomprehension. Even the cats did not completely understand his explanation.

"I thought the Red Collective was supposed to be as powerful as the Red Association and the Red Fleet. Why do people refuse to take you seriously?"

"That is a complicated question to answer." Ves sighed. "Part of it is my lack of strength and prestige. Sure, I accomplished great things, but the god pilots, Star Designers and fleet admirals have been making contributions over much greater spans of time. I am still an upstart that managed to climb high enough to catch people's attention, but I have yet to prove I can persist at this level in the long run. If they want to misbehave, what can I do? Prople don't necessarily fear me. They unstead fear my backers, but the problem is that they are also part of the same club that wants to monopolize all of the advantages."

"The others do not think you are strong enough?" Andraste frowned.

"Hehe, for now. Who can say whether this will remain the same in the future? The problem now is that I don't have enough time to grow into my power. If I was as strong as the Evolution Witch, then no one would dare to question me so easily. Perhaps it is for the better. The Red Collective is clearly not suited to operate as a more centralized organization. A strong leader will just cause a lot of resentment from many stakeholders."

Ves suddenly came up with a frightening guess!

What if the Evolution Witch deliberately schemed to turn Ves into the leader of the Red Collective?"

It was impossible for Ves to receive this appointment based on his current circumstances, but what if the god pilot intended to ease him to the top of the hierarchy step by step over a span of numerous years?"

As long as Ves did not screw up while fulfilling the duties of a deputy chief councilor, the others would naturally harbor less objections towards bestowing him with authority. By acclimatizing the other councilors to the idea of letting him exercise actual leadership to a limited extent, they would show less rejection when he began to assume greater authority at a later date!

This was probably the most feasible way for an 'upstart' like himself to enjoy a position of great authority that was put him on the same level as other tier 1 galactic citizens!

As for why the Evolution Witch was so readily willing to relinquish her hold on the Red Collective, it was because she already commanded a lot of power and authority by virtue of being a god pilot and the head of the Transhumanist Faction.

Obtaining more power did not necessarily grant her any additional benefits.

Instead, continuing to lead the Red Collective would become a burden to her ambitions. She not only became bogged down with organizational affairs, but would also get saddled with the blame if anything went wrong.

More detrimental than that was the increased suspicion and scrutiny she would attract from her peers and rivals.

Ever since the Age of Conquest came to an end, humanity developed a distaste for concentrating too much power in the hands of a single individual.

There were occasions where having a singular strong leader could cut through all of the red tape and prevent endless quarrels from bogging everything down, but few people liked it when they were being excluded from power.

The Polymath's attempted coup had put quite a fright onto the leaders of red humanity. The fact that a single Star Designer actually came close to taking effective control over everything had made the others a lot more vigilant about other possible attempts.

As long as any of the leaders of red humanity started to assume too much power, then they would be regarded with far greater suspicion. All of their actions would receive much greater attention, and their initiatives would also receive much greater pushback, not necessarily because others disagreed, but because it became more and more important to contain the rise of a leader who had crossed an important boundary.

From a political perspective, it made a lot more sense for the Evolution Witch to voluntarily let go of the opportunity to lead the Red Collective.

The next best alternative was to pass on the highest seat to a trusted ally or confidant. She apparently chose Ves.

He only realized now what a clever choice she made. Ves may be a bit too young and inexperienced to hold a position of great authority, but that just happened to serve the interests of those that wanted to make use of the Red Collective for their own purposes!

A younger, pliable and less experienced leader was much less likely to take them to task. It would cement the decentralized nature of the Red Collective and prevent anyone from gaining too much power over others.

Ves also had a special destiny with the Red Collective. He proposed its existence. He convinced a huge majority of people to support its formation. He also possessed mystical powers and knowledge that granted him greater expertise in the areas of responsibility that the Collective was meant to oversee.

All of this turned him into the most obvious candidate to hold the highest office when the Red Collective finally came into operation around half a year later.

He shuddered.

"What's wrong, papa?"

"Ah, it's nothing to be concerned about. I am fine."

Though Ves may have figured out the Evolution Witch's scheme, he did not share any of his thoughts with his daughters. As clever as they may be, they were still terribly naive about the true levers of power.

He waited after he put the kids to bed before calling his personal assistant to his home office.

Ves stared at a projection of the map of the Red Ocean that depicted all publicly known troop movements.

Of course, this map only displayed a fraction of the forces on the move. It would be counterproductive for the Red Two and other groups to precisely broadcast the locations as well as the movement orders of all of their military assets. The native aliens would easily be able to set up winning battles and avoid losing engagements with all of that information!

Though the map only gave Ves a part of the picture, he was able to combine it with the confidential briefing that he received from his RA liaisons to see how the defensive bands were at risk of falling.

The 1st defensive band had almost completely collapsed by now. There were only a few holdouts, mostly from star systems that recently received a visit from a god mech or a dreadnought.

The intervention may have saved the defenders over there from annihilation, but this was only a temporary reprieve. The aliens would surely come back and finish the job as soon as the powerhouses moved on to relieve other sieges.

The focus of the alien offensive had shifted to the 2nd defensive band at the moment. Plenty of star systems had already fallen, but the remaining ones were putting up stiff resistance.

Ves felt gratified when he read the reports that the defenders did their duty without fail. There were only a few instances where the mech pilots and other troops displayed cowardice in the time where they were needed the most.

It would be great if the quality of soldiers on the frontlines remained high, but he was afraid that was not a realistic possibility.

For now, red humanity's pool of high-quality manpower remained abundant, but he was not able to imagine that this would remain safe after a few years of hard fighting.

Once the casualties continued to mount, the amount of professionally trained and experienced mech pilots would dwindle below a point where they could shoulder all of the burdens by themselves, then others needed to take over in their stead.

Carmine pilots had the potential to do so, but their quality and combat effectiveness was bound to be poor from the start. It would take multiple years before they could achieve any sense of parity with professional mech pilots.

It was better than nothing.

"Boss." Gavin Neumann said as he entered the office and stopped in front of Ves' desk. "You wish to have a talk this evening?"

"Yes. I have become burdened by certain theories and guesses. I would like to hear your analysis on this matter. Maybe your new Terran teachings can help me gain more clarity over what is taking place without my notice."

Ves quickly summarized his thoughts about the Evolution Witch's plans towards himself and the Red Collective. Gavin avidly listened to his superior and looked increasingly more thoughtful.

"Well?"

"If you wanted me to tell you that you are being way too paranoid for your own good, then you are out of luck, sir." Gavin said as his heavily digitized brain collected a lot of data and performed a comprehensive analysis. "The probability that your theory is correct is 40 percent. That is not a high number, but it is already reason enough for you to take this seriously. Your chance of occupying the highest seat of the Red Collective is larger than any other name."

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