The Mech Touch

In the end, Ves chose to decide with his brain instead of his heart.

He would like to do nothing more than to punch Lady Romanda in the face and rat her out to the mechers, but that would not accomplish anything aside from making him feel happy for a short moment.

Ves hated the cosmopolitans. He distrusted the Horizon Cell, considering them to be barely better than their much more destructive counterparts. He also did not believe that the cosmopolitans would be willing to assist him forever.

Yet that did not invalidate the reasons to establish a tentative form of cooperation for the time being. Ves could not deny that he would definitely become better off if he accepted the proposal and colluded with the cosmopolitans.

He imagined that this was far from the first time that someone had made a dark bargain with the cosmopolitans.

Many informers and collaborators probably started out as upstanding members of human civilization that also viewed the Cosmopolitan Movement with contempt.

It was only through a combination of bribes and inducements that they willingly entertained the notion of collaborating with them. This could easily lead to a slippery slope where they became progressively more tainted with guilt as they offered more and more substantive assistance to the cosmopolitans in exchange for assistance that advanced their careers.

Ves had to be careful about that. He needed to maintain a tight grip on his relations with the Horizon Cell and never allow himself to go too far.

The best way to prevent himself from sliding down the slippery slope was to not step foot on it in the first place.

Unfortunately for Ves, he had already taken the first step as soon as he shook hands with Lady Romanda.

That put him in a precarious position, as he could easily start to slide as long as he took a few more steps.

Ves just had to trust in his footing and hope that he would not find himself sliding down to the abyss before he knew it! That would be very bad for his future prospects!

"I still don't like you traitors." Ves felt the need to make his stance clear. "I have no illusions about the longevity of this relationship. As soon as my continued existence becomes a detriment to your plans, I have no doubt that you will stab me in the back. I will be ready for that. I may even take preemptive action in order to deny you the first move. However, I am not an ungrateful person. So long as you remain sincere with me and leave me out of whatever nasty schemes you are plotting, I am willing to act with restraint and leave you guys alone. I am just a single person. I cannot take care of every problem that has befallen red humanity. If you do not mess with me, then taking care of you guys will rank low in my long list of priorities. Have I made myself clear, Lady Romanda?"

"We are fully cognizant of your stance on our cell and Movement." The Terran traitor seriously said. "As per our agreement, I shall continue to stay within your orbit and serve as a secret liaison between you and the Horizon Cell. Our accord will only remain active as long as I am not exposed."

Ves nodded. "I get it. As soon as we end this meeting, you should go off and try to reduce the suspicion on you as much as possible. I will try and put on a show to explain how I have suddenly gained a lot of accurate information about my opposition. I don't think that the mechers will cease their suspicions on you, so we better minimize our contact and pretend to be ordinary co-workers for the next few weeks."

Romanda smiled at him. "I have managed to avoid suspicion for multiple decades. You do not need to lecture a cosmopolitan on how to escape notice."

She was right. It was a waste of time for him to worry about her exposure. He just needed to keep his mouth shut and figure out how to present the information he learned to the Bluejay Fleet.

After his meeting with Romanda came to an end, the cosmopolitan nonchalantly exited his stateroom, leaving Ves alone with his cat.

"Meow."

"I know. Let's get back to what is important. I am having a really bad feeling about what may unfold in the next few days."

Ves knew that he was under intense scrutiny at the moment, so he tried to put up an act that would hopefully look convincing enough.

He first sat down behind his desk terminal and began to access various information channels.

He paid attention to the news published by regional organizations. He also accessed the Larkinson Clan's internal communications and paid close attention to the reports submitted by the Black Cats.

It helped that he assigned the Black Cats to monitor what was taking place in the surrounding regions a while ago. While the spies of the Larkinson Clan did not really have a strong presence in the Upper Zones, they were still able to keep an eye on the Middle Zones that surrounded the former.

Ves then proceeded to contact his extensive crowd of friends and allies. Not all of them replied in a timely manner, and only a few provided any helpful information.

This frustrated him a lot, to the point where he began to seek information from more mystical sources.

He rose from his seat and began to pull out a collection of small handmade totems from the Vault of Eternity.

"Ylvaine." He spoke. "How likely will my fleet get attacked once we arrive in the next star system? What sort of enemies will we face if that happens?"

The totem began to glow as the prophetic design spirit descended onto the totem.

Just like before, Ylvaine could hardly tell Ves anything due to his inability to predict the movements of beings who were more powerful than himself. He was only able to share a bit more vague premonitions of danger due to looking much closer into the future than before.

Ves grimly smiled. Though Ylvaine was not able to provide any detailed information, he at least managed to corroborate the intelligence that the cosmopolitans set up a much greater trap in the Nilhart System.

If nothing special happened, Nilhart would likely become the Bluejay Fleet's next stop, which meant that they would be falling straight into the trap of their enemies!

Ylvaine vaguely sensed that the Tjella System and the Mazepan System were less dangerous, but could not provide any further details.

That was fine. Ves could just fill up the gaps with the information provided by Lady Romanda.

In order to do his due diligence, Ves proceeded to contact a bunch of other design spirits. They had nothing useful to say.

For all of their power, the Superior Mother and Gaia had no influence over the human or alien forces that were waiting in ambush.

Ves frowned. He was pretty disappointed with the lack of information on what was lurking in the depths of those 3 star systems.

Those places had to be under monitoring. The Bluejay Fleet did not transit to a stop that had not been scouted beforehand by a vessel that had traveled ahead.

Still, it shouldn't be too difficult for the cosmopolitans and the native aliens to hide their presence in most star systems. Their assets could be hiding inside an undiscovered pocket space, or they could have entered an asteroid belt and shut down most of their systems in order to minimize their emissions.

There were far too many high and low-tech solutions that could hide their presence from the scouting vessels. The cosmopolitans understood human technologies too well, and knew exactly how to exploit both common and less common detection systems.

That had always been the most troublesome aspect about fighting against the cosmopolitans. They possessed a huge intelligence advantage. They were always the ones that took their enemies by surprise. The reverse almost never happened.

Ves began to grin. "That's not going to happen if I have any say about it. I am done with getting hoodwinked."

After Ves had cycled through all of his design spirits, he put his totems back into the Vault of Eternity, causing them to magically disappear from view.

He acted his comm. "Jovy. I need to see you at the bridge. Tell Admiral Gori Tensen to expect my presence. He needs to hear what I have to say as well."

"Roger."

Ves was glad that the mechers respected him enough to hear what he had to say. He had already developed an extensive bond of trust with them, or at least the ones hailing from the Survivalist Faction and the Transhumanist Faction.

"Come, Lucky."

"Meow."

The gem cat grew more alert as both of them became more alert towards danger.

The two half-expected to get jumped by cosmopolitan agents that had managed to infiltrate the Bluejay Fleet, but their journey to the bridge thankfully remained uneventful.

After enduring a brief but intensive security inspection, the two entered the expansive bridge of the heavy cruiser.

Ves was not in the mood to admire the grand and militaristic interior. He strode straight to the center where Admiral Gori Tensen, Jovy Armalon and the projections of a couple of other important figures had gathered.

Ves nodded at the admiral as well as the projection of Major Simon Jankowski.

The latter still remained stuck as an expert candidate, but he may very well gain an opportunity to break through in the next battle.

It would be great if this happened, as Ves would gain another strong protector.

"Speak." Admiral Tensen was clearly not in the mood to entertain an idle story.

"I have consulted my sources and gained a bunch of scattered but useful information…"

Ves pretended as if Ylvaine and his design spirits fed him a lot of surprisingly detailed information about the enemies that were waiting in ambush up ahead.

Everyone began to frown as they heard what the cosmopolitans and their alien partners might have in store.

"Do you have any information that can confirm and corroborate your claims?"

"No, admiral. My design spirits tend to get their information through mystical means. I cannot even begin to explain to you how Ylvaine is able to see future timelines. All I can do is relay what they have told me. I cannot determine how reliable they are, but I am willing to believe them in absence of information that can disprove their claims."

The leader of the Bluejay Fleet clearly did not wish to make decisions based on dubious sources of information, but he knew that Ves had good reasons to be successful.

There was at least one aspect about his story that was correct.

"I have already chosen the Nilhart System as our next destination." He said. "I was minutes away from ordering the navigators on every ship to calculate their route to this star system. If the cosmopolitans have managed to make this prediction and acted on it, then we should avoid it out of precaution."

"That's the thing, admiral. We can't avoid our enemies entirely. I don't know too much about navigation, but I know that if we take an enormous detour, we will only make it easy for the enemy's main force to intercept us midway."

"What do you suggest?"

"Ylvaine happened to identify two star systems where our enemies have posted slightly weaker forces. As long as we make enough preparations in advance, we should be able to smash through the enemies posted in the Tjella System or the Mazepan System and continue straight to Yernstall."

"It sounds as if you have already drafted a battle plan on our behalf."

Ves smirked. "I did. I am not a military planner or anything, but I have plenty of ideas how we can counter the forces stationed at one of these two star systems. I personally recommend the Mazepan System."

"Hm." Jovy thought. "If the intelligence on the cosmopolitan forces stationed in the two star systems is accurate, then it indeed makes sense to pass through the Mazepan System. The cosmopolitans rely more heavily on the element of surprise to achieve success. Now that they have unwittingly lost their information advantage, we can turn the tables on them as long as we make enough preparations."

It was a bit difficult for the mechers to accept a change of plans based on unreliable sources of information, but Ves had such an impressive reputation that they were willing to take him at his word!

Ves was pleased about that, but he quietly hoped that Lady Romanda did not screw him over by feeding him false information!

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