The Mech Touch

The stances of all of the newly formed factions of the Red Collective became pretty clear.

The Coalition of Faiths, the Terran Faction, the Rubarthan Faction and the League of Minor States all voiced their strong support for allowing sects to occupy seats in the Upper Council.

The Guardians of Order, the Mecher Faction and the Fleeter Faction opposed the decision to allow sects to place their own senators in the Upper Council.

The two groups were roughly evenly divided as a consequence.

The proponents had a vast amount of population on their size. An overwhelming majority of states wanted to gain a greater voice in the upper council by working through their citizens that would comprise various sects.

Whether the cultivators that would eventually become a part of these sects would retain their loyalty to their states was a very questionable assumption.

Nonetheless, it was better than nothing. The Terrans, Rubarthans and many other states did not want to get excluded from power. They were willing to fight hard to obtain sufficient representation in both the Upper and Lower Councils!

The opponents meanwhile also formed a strong power block. Sure, they only represented the will of a small fraction of the population, but they also happened to possess the greatest military might!

The Red Association and the Red Fleet only reluctantly embraced the rise of the Red Collective.

The former two organizations were not stupid enough to stand in the way of history and stop the Collective from becoming reality.

What they instead sought to do was to use their power and influence to inhibit the Red Collective and the cultivators it depended upon as much as possible.

The weaker the Red Collective, the less benefits the Red Two had to surrender to this new rival!

The Guardians of Order that comprised a collection of powerful individuals and groups opposed to giving too many rights to cultivators could therefore count on very powerful backing to support its stance.

It was not easy for the proponents to overrule the opponents for that reason.

Ves knew that if the proponents could not come up with strong and convincing enough arguments, the end result would likely turn into another middling compromise solution.

That was not a desirable way to conclude the discussion on this important subject.

When Ves decided to support the initiative to split the council of the Red Collective in two, he had been aiming to dominate the Upper Council.

He freely gave up any ambition to control the Lower Council, knowing that it was not his business to meddle in this chamber.

Controlling the Upper Council was already good enough in his opinion. It should make him powerful enough to influence the policies of the Red Collective in his favor, but it should not make him powerful enough to become known as a dictator.

After all, the Upper Council and the Lower Council both needed to be in alignment with each other in order to successfully pass a bill. One could not unilaterally decide the policies of the Red Collectives in order to prevent any single leader from becoming too tyrannical.

Ves therefore made a deliberate step back so that he could hopefully take two steps forward.

The most ideal outcome would be to win this argument and successfully let the Coalition of Faiths occupy much of the seats of the Upper Council. This would directly turn Ves into a major political leader, allowing him to become a true heavyweight in high-level galactic politics!

However, in order for this to work, it became crucial for him to ensure that his faction would be able to exercise enough power in the Upper Council. This could only be done by letting sects appoint their own people as senators.

Despite the current deadlock, Ves actually remained confident that he could get his way in the end.

He tried his best not to smirk as he turned his gaze towards a familiar Master Mech Designer.

"Master Goldstein, please tell us what the Survivalist Faction of the Red Association thinks on this matter. Do you truly think that sects should only be treated as disposable armies, or do you think they can become more if they are given the freedom and respect that they deserve?"

Though Master Goldstein previously uttered a stance that matched the opinions of the Guardians of Order, he did so as a representative of the Red Association as a whole.

Ves bet that the Survivalist Faction might not feel the same way!

"Cultivation is known to be a powerful force, and that was the case in a more restricted galaxy. Here in the Red Ocean, cultivation has the potential to train a large number of individuals in how to fight without relying on excessively costly products.The Red Tide Offensive has already overrun the 1st and 2nd defensive bands. The 3rd defensive band will not last and will collapse sooner or later. It is imperative to transform as many people into qualified soldiers as possible. If cultivators and their sects can contribute to the war effort on a large enough scale, then the Survivalist Faction is in favor of giving them a chance to prove their trustworthiness."

Divide and conquer. Ves sought to undermine the opposition by breaking their illusion of unity.

Not everyone from the Red Association and the Red Fleet agreed with the stances of the Guardians of Order!

Ves just had to find these skeptics within the Red Two and slowly unravel the mistaken impression of unanimity to weaken the opposition to his proposal!

"Admiral Chelsea Mieli."

"What is it you require, Professor Larkinson?"

"Tell us whether the stance of the Second Main Fleet and the Seventh Light Fleet of the Red Collective is in favor of opening the Upper Council to the sects."

The admiral most certainly understood Ves' ploy, but she implicitly cooperated with him anyway because their goals were somewhat aligned.

"The Second Main Fleet and the Seventh Light Fleet are both cautiously open-minded of the benefits that cultivators can bring to red humanity's defense." Admiral Mieli responded. "We are principally not opposed to giving sects greater rights as long as they are making major contributions. This includes sending combat capable soldiers to the frontlines, but can also come in the form of providing logistical support by producing specialty materials and products that cannot be supplied by mundane companies."

That was not an unconditional vote of support, but it was pretty good that Admiral Mieli offered support at all. It was incredibly important for her to prove that the Red Fleet was not of one mind on this issue!

Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson clearly did not like what her fellow fleeters had said.

"The Red Fleet carries on the tradition of the Common Fleet Alliance of serving as a bastion against the weird and the unnatural. We would be betraying our fundamental principles if we allow sects to gain a measure of political power. What if this will pave the way to the rise of the next Five Scrolls Compact?"

"Is that such a bad outcome?" Admiral Mieli retorted to the much younger and more junior fleeter. "Traditions are important, but I do not agree they must be treated as sacred. Change is necessary, especially after the turn of a new age and a radical change of circumstances. The Five Scrolls Compact used to be our collective enemy because it was an enemy of mankind. If the sects under the supervision of the Red Collective can grow powerful enough to rival the old Compact, then that is not necessarily detrimental as long as it is fighting against our external enemies. Even if the sects gain more control over the RC than anticipated, it cannot exercise free reign over human society. The Red Association and our Red Fleet are not beholden to the sects, and can always overpower the Red Collective if it turns into a cruel and corrupt organization."

One of the factors that led to the secret rise of the Five Scrolls Compact was that it encountered no effective opposition within human society.

Sure, their secrecy had a lot to do with it, but the lack of any strong human groups that could fight against them head-on was another factor why the Compact eventually dominated the human race behind the scenes!

Such a travesty could never be repeated in the Age of Dawn. The Red Two, which succeeded the Big Two that dominated the Age of Mechs, had not lost their power and still maintained their hegemony over red humanity!

As long as that remained the case, it was impossible for the Red Collective and its large collection of crazy cultivators to have its way on every issue.

This condition was enough to reassure many skeptics and undecided councilors that it was not that bad to bestow additional power to the sects.

"Sects are not armies that are necessarily willing to throw their troops to the front at the whims of leaders who bear no relation to them." Ves spoke again. "Sects are cultivator organizations that are comprised of people who have their own desires and ambitions. It is important for us to give them the space and allowances to develop their powers. We can counter many fears about spawning the next edition of the Five Scrolls Compact by increasing their entanglements to our society and institutions. Trying to isolate, punish and diminish them simply because they wield unnatural powers is counterproductive. It will only drive more cultivators to develop undesirable personalities, which will reflect onto their power expression in a negative manner. I believe that the best way to turn cultivators into a productive force of red humanity is to emphasize participation instead of repression."

That was a powerful argument and plea that tilted the discussion in his favor even further.

Though it did not change the minds of any ardent opponents, it provided enough grounds for Master Goldstein and Admiral Mieli to maintain their supportive stances, at least when it came to their respective factions.

As the discussion continued, it became clear that the rifts within the Red Association and the Red Fleet could not be mended.

The Guardians of Order had a much weaker base of support when it was unable to gain the unanimous backing of the Red Two.

Though the Guardians of Order could still count on the support of numerous individual councilors, this was not enough to form a strong base of opposition!

When it seemed that the debate would end into a decisive victory for the proponents, Lieutenant-Commander Astrid no longer tried to accomplish the impossible and instead settled for securing minor concessions.

"If you wish to give sects a place in the Upper Council, then you should at least limit the number of senators that come from this group." The youthful fleeter officer argued. "We should not allow the sects to gain an absolute majority of the Upper Council due to quantity alone. The Red Collective should set a quota that only permits the top 20 sects to participate in the Upper Council."

"Top 20? That is not comprehensive enough! Too many groups will be left out if that is the case. We should offer enough room in the Upper Council to accommodate the senators from the top 100 sects."

"100 senators that are completely beholden to the sects is far too much when the Upper Council is supposed to be made up of 150 senators in total."

The proponents and opponents continued to fight over the quota for a while before settling on letting the top 75 sects place their senators in the Upper Council.

The Guardians of Order fought very hard to reduce that down to the top 50, but Ves had fought hard to deny his opponents this crucial victory!

It was actually hard for him to secure this gain as there were many groups that were willing to give sects a bit of political power, but not too much.

It was only after Ves expended a significant amount of political capital and burned a lot of goodwill in the process that he managed to attain this crucial outcome!

Ves couldn't help but smile at this time. Not only did this outcome ensure that his Coalition of Faiths would claim at least a few dozen seats in the Upper Council, but his Larkinson Clan might be able to claim one for itself!

This was outside his own seat as the eventual leader of the Upper Council!

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