The Mech Touch

Red humanity was like a small pie that had already been divided between many different powers.

The most ideal situation was that red humanity was able to launch a successful counterattack against the native aliens and continue to gain lots of resources and territory.

Since no human groups previously owned all of the conquered territories, it was not as painful to 'donate' them to the Red Collective.

Even though this was hardly a perfect solution as it would take a lot of time and money to properly build up and develop all of the colonies, the Red Collective should eventually be able to grow stronger than any individual state.

Unfortunately for Ves and everyone else, red humanity was not gaining territory. It was losing it as the Red Tide Offensive continued to pound the frontlines!

This made the problem a lot worse. The small pie was shrinking as insects continually gnawed at the rim. People would grow even more possessive of their territories and assets.

The more territories that fell into alien possession, the more desperately the existing groups valued whatever they had left!

This was basic human behavior. It was impossible to defeat it as no one was self-sacrificing enough to willingly relinquish a part of their core strength to beef up the Red Collective.

Even though it should be clear to many councilors that their individual strategies would lead to a collective failure, these people mostly had no choice as they needed to stand up for the interests of their own states or organizations first!

Unlike the Red Association and the Red Fleet, the Red Collective did not possess a core of powerful cadre that could truly fight for its interests.

Since this was the case, it was unlikely that the Red Collective could actually reach parity with the Red Association and the Red Fleet for quite a while.

After all, the latter two relied on their god mechs and dreadnoughts as absolute deterrents. Nobody dared to push the Red Two too far because they possessed the overwhelming might needed to annihilate any enemy that crossed their way!

So long as the Red Collective lacked the same capacity, there was no way for it to throw its weight around to the same extent.

It was not so simple to create a good counterweight against the Red Two. Ves already began to press his fingers against his temple as he struggled to find a good resolution to this massive problem.

"I think I get why the Evolution Witch made no effort to remain in touch even though a god pilot like herself should easily be able to do so. She just wants to pass off all of the most controversial and difficult problems to me. No matter how many people I will upset with my decisions, she won't have to bear the taint of public indignation."

Gavin sighed. "That is one of my theories as well. She has certainly chosen an excellent time to make herself scarce. As far as I am concerned, you cannot escape any blame, so you better resign yourself to making a hard decision."

So what do you expect me to do in the next session of the Interim Leadership Council?"

"That is up to you. Most councilors will oppose any heavy-handed initiatives. The easiest and frankly most predictable choice you can make is to avoid any extensive expropriation. This will keep everyone relatively happy, but it will cripple the growth of a promising new superorganization."

That was not an acceptable outcome in Ves' eyes. He fully recognized that it was the most politically palatable decision out of all of the options, but trying to keep everyone as happy as possible was not the goal of the Red Collective.

It needed to be able to possess enough weight to gain the respect of the masses. It was not his intention to turn the Red Collective into a giant paper tiger that struggled to establish its authority over human space.

"So what other choices do I have, Gavin?"

"Well, you can request all of the stakeholders to make increasingly greater contributions to ensure the Red Collective starts off on a stronger footing. The greater the offerings, the stronger the Collective will become at the start. However, you will have to find a threshold that enjoys just enough support to gain everyone's cooperation. Unless you have a way of reading the minds of some of the most powerful and high-ranking dignitaries across human space, it is impossible to be certain about the most optimal percentage of contributions. Will you insist on 0.5 percent? 1 percent? 3 percent? Even though it doesn't sound like much on the surface, we are talking about trillions of MTA credits and dozens of star systems, along with many other kinds of contributions. If you ask for 0.1 percent too much, you will raise such a strong storm that you will lose all of your respect and authority as a deputy chief councilor."

Where should Ves set the limit?

He had no idea!

Perhaps the staff and advisors would be able to come up with a few good suggestions, but who knew if their analyses were sound and accurate.

Ves recognized that this was probably one of the Evolution Witch's tests.

If she remained in charge, then she could use a combination of her personal power and whatever support she managed to obtain from other tier 1 galactic citizens to ram through a decision by force.

Ves did not enjoy this particular luxury. He had to abide by the rules of the game and rely on a combination of diplomacy and ingenuity to secure a somewhat acceptable compromise that did not make everyone happy, but at least placated them just enough to hold their objections.

"I did not sign up to be a politician." Ves flatly stated.

"Politics can't be avoided at this level. You better resign yourself to your new reality, because this will not be the last time you are asked to balance the interests of many different stakeholders at the same time."

Both Ves and Gavin exchanged an exasperated look.

Then, they went back to work.

Ves began to read through a lot of reports. There were many different ways to divide a pie that had already been divided before.

No matter how Ves envisioned a possible division, no one would like it if he approached another power and took away a tiny slice of their own pie pieces!

"I would do anything for a secret army of uncommitted humans." Ves rubbed his tired face with his palm. "It is too bad that such a unicorn doesn't exist in the Red Ocean. If we stayed in the Milky Way, then we could have approached one of the thousands of brotherhoods, secret societies and other fringe groups that have accumulated over multiple millenia."

Gavin smirked back at his superior.

"You are wrong, boss. It is true that human occupation of the new frontier lasted too short for all of those groups to take root and prosper, but I do know of one fringe organization that may just have the manpower, wealth and structure to give the Red Collective a backbone."

"Who? Don't tell me it is the Hunting Association."

"That is actually a decent suggestion, but what I have in mind is the Cosmopolitan Movement."

"…"

"Well?"

"…Are you kidding? Do you know how crazy that sounds!? The point of all of this is to increase the legitimacy of the Red Collective, not ruin it beyond recovery! The cosmopolitans are proven traitors to our race! They have helped the native aliens kill so many innocent humans that no one is willing to trust them on anything, let alone make peace with their vile movement! If we are able to extend this offer without getting assassinated, and if the cosmopolitans are crazy enough to accept this offer, then we will lose the support of every stakeholder in an instant! We will all become enemies of red humanity!"

Ves could see where his personal assistant was going with this crazy suggestion. If not for the hugely adverse effect on the legitimacy of the Red Collective, then Ves might actually be willing to put his weight behind the proposal.

Alas, the cosmopolitans had made themselves so universally reviled with their treasonous actions that hardly anyone was willing to negotiate with their most moderate and reasonable cells!

The problem now was that there was no other major human bloc that could give the Red Collective the foundation and muscle necessary to operate in an effective manner.

Ves and Gavin traded useless suggestions for ten or so minutes before the latter proposed a different approach.

"We need to stop treating all of these major powers as single united blocs." He suggested. "Nothing good will come if we negotiate with the Terran Alliance and so on as a whole. We should divide and differentiate the people that make up these big groups. If we do that, we can engage the subgroups that have the most to gain by cooperating with the Red Collective."

That sounded rather different than the other suggestions.

"Give me a few examples."

"Well, the aforementioned Hunting Association is a clear option. It officially answers to the Huntsman, but it does not directly have anything to do with mechs, so it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Red Association. Since the hunters who practice the mysterious Code are technically cultivators, they are naturally aligned with the Collective."

"You are right, but the hunting community alone cannot prop up the Red Collective by itself."

"That is why we need to find hundreds of other smaller groups and subgroups like this, Ves. Sure, no one will take us seriously if we have five or ten of these minor powers behind our back, but what about a hundred? What about two-hundred?"

Now that was beginning to sound interesting. Ves leaned forward.

"I am not sure a colony of ants can command the attention of a pack of lions, but I guess it is worth the attempt. I like your suggestion. It is more proactive than the alternatives. What sort of other groups do you want to pull into this coalition?"

"Churches."

"What?"

"I am being serious about this, boss. Think about it. The mechers and the fleeters have never favored any form of religion since their inception. They have instituted many policies that have either suppressed or ignored the existence of different faiths, organized or otherwise. In the past, these religions have no effective means to resist this bias against their beliefs and practices, as the leaders of the Big Two and now the Red Two have always maint an uncompromising attitude."

It did not take much effort for Ves to understand why this was the case. The mechers and the fleeters had become so traumatized by the Five Scrolls Compact that they sought to eradicate anything that remotely resembled that once-dominant cult!

The Red Collective did not come with all of this historic baggage. This meant that it had the potential to become the official representative and standard bearer of all human religions!

Even if the Red Two no longer feared the resurgence of the Five Scrolls Compact, they were unlikely to lift their animosity towards churches. They were too set in their ways.

Ves looked thoughtful as he contemplated this possibility.

The Red Collective did not come with all of this historic baggage. This meant that it had the potential to become the official representative and standard bearer of all human religions!

It was the only member of the theoretical 'Big Three' that could stand up for the rights and interests of so many churches!

"Your suggestion sounds good in theory, but… don't you know that a lot of different churches hate each other's guts? Their dogmas contradict each other so egregiously that wars have been fought around the correct interpretation of scripture!"

Ves should know, as he once exploited religious strife to engineer the total collapse of the Vulcan Empire!

"This is why you need to step forward and use your famous Devil Tongue to string all of these different religious groups together, Ves. Only you possess the reputation, credibility and personal charisma to unite a hundred disparate enemies and rivals around a common cause. If you can do this and make all of the cooperating churches abide by their agreements, then I can promise you that the Red Collective will definitely acquire a foundation that is at least a fourth as strong as that of the Red Association!"

Gavin's suggestion was definitely sound, but Ves was reluctant to embrace this bold suggestion.

He did not question its viability.

He instead questioned the risks of this initiative!

Was it really a good idea to empower and give a strong voice to all of these diverse and chaotic faiths?!

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