The Mech Touch

A day before the date of the departure, Ves felt as if he had done his utmost to prepare for a conflict.

There was only so much Ves and the Larkinson Clan could do to reinforce the Bluejay Fleet any further.

This situation perfectly illustrated the flaws of possessing way more soft power than hard power.

When there was a severe mismatch between the two, the gap could result in dangerous situations where his enemies may band together to remove him from the political board in a violent fashion!

What galled him a lot was that the people who had a vested interest in his continued survival all treated this potential crisis as a test and an opportunity.

They all believed that getting attacked while the Bluejay Fleet was under transit would prompt Ves to gain inspiration that could lead to another wonder. He might also be forced to pull out a secret weapon that he had kept hidden for situations just like these.

It was not that they dismissed the very real possibility that Ves might die or get heavily injured in the process, but they paid too much attention to success and neglected the possibility of failure!

Though Ves was guilty of the same behavior in the past, he believed he wised up now that he became a father and grew older.

All of those high-and-mighty leaders should have developed even more cautious and calculating attitudes, yet they all ended up agreeing to a huge all-or-nothing bet!

"You are not wrong to assume that there are people who see this as an opportunity." Jovy Armalon told Ves during the process of selecting and securing the mechs of the Swarm Project that they wanted to showcase at Yernstall. "Any potential ambush on our expanded fleet will require a large commitment of first-class forces. If the enemy composition does not entirely consist of native alien assets, then you can expect the presence of human traitors. The probability is great that we can identify and trace their origins as long as we can glimpse them in the field. We can subsequently trace the connections and uncover hidden networks of people who have been working against the common interests of our race and civilization."

"Such as the cosmopolitans."

"Precisely." Jovy grinned. "The Cosmopolitan Movement has an even greater reason to target you than attempting to claim the bounty posted by the Red Cabal. You see, the cosmopolitans are being imperiled by one of your recent innovations that has just begun to roll out on a larger scale."

What could that be? Out of all of his recent releases, Ves only believed one of them had met the criteria.

"Are you telling me… that my kinship networks are effective at rooting cosmopolitans that have been hiding in plain sight in our society?"

"That appears to be the case." Jovy affirmed. "We do not have proof that kinship networks can identify all members of the Cosmopolitan Movement, but in the past half year, the new kinship networks managed to detect hundreds of potential members or sympathizers of the cosmopolitans. That alone cannot be used as proof that they are traitors, but it at least gives us a lead. When we captured the potential cosmopolitans and proceeded to conduct more expansive examinations of their lives, we found corroborating proof that confirmed their treasonous affiliations. It is regrettable that those caught were placed fairly low on the cosmopolitan totem pole, and each of their contact persons have disappeared. We believe that their cells deliberately offered them up to the kinship network to test the effectiveness as well as the possible limitations of your kinship networks."

"Well, being able to catch so many confirmed cosmopolitans when all of your other solutions have failed to sniff them must have certainly spooked them badly."

"Badly enough to raise the priority of your assassination, Ves. The Cosmopolitan Movement has put you at the top of their list. Entire cells are suspending their existing plots and schemes just to prepare for an attempt on your life. If the cosmopolitans fail to eliminate you, they believe with good reason that your kinship networks will deny them any opportunity to operate in the highest levels of power."

Ves should have thought about this sooner. One of the original reasons why he created the Larkinson Network in the first place was because he was paranoid about letting traitors into his clan. The effectiveness of this creation more than vindicated his decision!

Now that he was beginning to share the same benefits to other organizations, his invention directly threatened the continued infiltration of the Cosmopolitan Movement in the most important organs of human civilization!

If all of the human traitors lurking within the halls of the Red Two and the first-rate colonial superstates got exposed or driven out, then there would be much less room for them in human-occupied space!

That would massively impair their ability to steal human technologies, influence human policies and impede the efforts of their ideological adversaries.

In short, the continued existence of the Cosmopolitan Movement as red humanity's secret major power came under existential threat due to Ves' work!

That did not necessarily mean that the logical solution would be to eliminate the inventor!

"Killing me won't destroy any existing networks. It doesn't work that way." Ves said with a helpless expression. "They will continue to exist and operate as if nothing is wrong."

"It will make it easier to eradicate the threat posed by your kinship networks if you are unable to intervene any further." Jovy retorted. "Not only will you not be able to create any new networks, but you will not be available to repair the existing ones when the cosmopolitans inevitably attempt to sabotage them. The Terran Network, the Rubarthan Network, the Human War Network and possibly other ones will come under heavy attack right after your elimination. The cosmopolitans have no other choice."

"Shouldn't this be a reason for you guys to deploy even more protection than the paltry amount of reinforcements that you have sent?!"

Jovy smiled at Ves. "We did mobilize additional assets to contain the threat posed by your enemies. You just have not seen them yet. Take a look at this map."

The Survivalist activated a projection that showed the star map between New Constantinople and the Yernstall Central Star Node.

A line appeared which showed the most direct route between the two important star systems.

"The New Constantinople-Yernstall route is a busy trade channel. Many cargo vessels circulate between the two star systems, so this route is highly monitored. The unoccupied star systems located further away are not as closely monitored. These are all potential hiding places where a hidden enemy fleet may be lurking in an attempt to ambush our Bluejay Fleet. Now, we are not going to travel along this direct route. Our plan is to randomly divert our course and take unplanned detours in order to make it harder to intercept us. Any enemy fleet must be stationed in star systems that can give them good access to other locations that we may possibly pass through. Our Association has dispatched warships to many of these strategically located star systems."

Dozens of star systems lit up, showing a sample of star systems that the mechers paid extra attention to in order to detect the passage of any hostile fleets.

"What if you guys managed to find a hostile fleet?"

"Then we dispatch our nearest fast response fleets to intercept the threat and finish it off as best as possible."

Additional star systems lit up. These were more fortified locations where the Red Associations stationed numerous potent warships and carriers filled with highly effective first-class multipurpose mechs. Multiple nearby fortress systems could dispatch a part of their own forces to join forces and defeat the enemies that dared to skulk about in human-occupied space!

Ves looked a lot more intrigued after learning about this. "This is a much more elaborate setup than I thought. In fact, it looks increasingly clear to me that you don't want to reinforce my fleet too much, or else that will deter my enemies from making any move. The real purpose behind all of these stupid decisions is to force the cosmopolitans and other enemies to expose themselves! They want to initiate a showdown with the parasites that have been festering in human society for a long time!"

In other words, the bigshots actually intended to use Ves as bait!

So long as the cosmopolitans exposed plenty of traces, their entire cells might get wrapped up during a future crackdown!

Jovy at least chose to be honest. "I personally do not agree with this attitude, but there are leaders who think otherwise. The fact of the matter is that the cosmopolitans can still abandon their posts and flee before they are obliged to connect their minds to a kinship network. That will never give us the satisfaction we need. We want to catch them in a single surprise sweep, but that requires us to wait for them to make the first move."

This plan sounded more and more sketchy to Ves!

While it seemed logical enough to actually work, he doubted that it was a simple matter of getting it done.

Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "All of the additional monitoring around the route will significantly limit the amount of assets our enemies can bring to bear. They are not necessarily meant to catch and destroy any unauthorized intruders. Their primary purpose is to increase the difficulty of sneaking an excessively large force past all of their patrols. Our enemies have a better chance of successfully intercepting our Bluejay Fleet with a leaner and faster ambush force. It especially makes it difficult for the native aliens to sneak hundreds of warships past our frontlines and move them deep into human-occupied space without escaping detection."

This was good news, because it meant that his enemies wouldn't be able to bring a humongous force of mechs, phasefighters and warships that vastly outnumbered the Bluejay Fleet!

However, a slimmer force that successfully bypassed all of that monitoring would definitely be competent in other ways!

"I am happy that you are beginning to understand the deep game that has started around your life, Ves. This is your crucible that people behind the scenes have meticulously prepared for you. Multiple ambitious plans may come into fruition while many others will have to be erased due to changing circumstances. Your performance during your business trip can directly change the course of history.

Ves already carried a lot of responsibilities. He did not need to add one more!

"Ugh. Why can't these damn cosmopolitans leave me alone?"

"It is your fault, Ves. You chose to embrace this difficult life. You are the only person who can create a kinship network. You understand its strengths and flaws the best out of all of us. If you had been gracious enough to relinquish your monopoly on the creation of kinship networks and taught others how to produce similar works, then you will no longer become a critical priority target to be eliminated according to the cosmopolitans. Once the secret has spread far and wide, the cosmopolitans have already lost. They cannot kill everyone that has learned the secret to creating kinship networks, nor can they waste so many resources to bring refugees back on track. They can only start by taking you and all of your works on this matter down."

If Jovy thought he could persuade Ves to relinquish his monopoly on kinship networks, then the RA Senior was sorely mistaken!

"I am not going to change my mind on holding onto my monopoly." Ves decisively stated. "I don't have much leverage to convince groups like your Survivalist Faction to help keep me alive. If the price for this decision is to force the cosmopolitans into a showdown against our Bluejay Fleet, then so be it. I feel a lot better about it now that you have shown me all of the precautions made by the Association."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!