The Mech Touch

Ves had to admit that the layout presented by Admiral Chelsea Mieli sounded brilliant.

The more ardent reformists within the Red Fleet had to overcome the more strident resistance from the traditionalists within their ranks.

While the changes wrought by the Age of Dawn had forced the fleeters to embrace a certain degree of change, the traditionalists still wanted to stick to their old doctrines that had served them well for centuries.

Part of it was because of genuine belief in the superiority of their old tradition. The mentality of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' tended to prevail much more often in naval organizations.

This was rather understandable as mistakes concerning warships not only led to a huge amount of wasted resources, but also risked the lives of thousands of crew members.

However, red humanity no longer lived during the placid and stable days of the Age of Mechs.

External enemies in the form of the native aliens of the Red Ocean constantly pressed red humanity's frontlines.

The existing solutions still worked, but many people started to doubt whether sticking to tradition was enough to prevail over the foreign enemies.

The traditionalists did not necessarily object to technological development. The CFA and now the RF still needed to rely on stronger warships to keep up with the pace of their rivals and enemies.

However, what the traditionalists rejected was radical change to the point of turning the Red Fleet into a drastically different organization.

The fleeters took a lot of pride in their identity as the most rational protectors of the human race.

Unlike the mechers who invested all of their power into unfathomably intelligent Star Designers and mentally ill god pilots, the fleeters consisted entirely of 'ordinary' humans that represented the apex of the race that ascended from Old Earth and continued to bring the best out of their humble biological origins.

"The Red Fleet is filled with old traditionalists who believe in their mission to protect the safety and purity of the human race." Admiral Mieli said as she rose up from her seat and moved over to the window showing the expansive cityscape of the planet of La Reine. "They reject the foreign and the unknown. They abhor science and technology that does not fit into the conventional frameworks that our race has built up over millennia. They believe that humans can defeat any adversary by investing their strength in conventional technology alone. It has worked out for them in the past. They believe that they can repeat their success."

Ves furrowed his brows. "That sounds like a stupid approach from my perspective. The Age of Dawn has introduced us to the wonders of E energy radiation. Surely they aren't close-minded enough to ignore all of the benefits brought by hyper technology and E-technology?"

"The traditionalists within the RF do recognize the potential of these new branches of technology, but they also acknowledge the immense risks and danger they pose. What distinguishes reformers from traditionalists is the extent to which they are willing to explore the more unconventional and less precise applications of these promising fields of technology."

"That… is far too cautious of an approach if you ask me, admiral. Don't they recognize the obvious strengths of a Carmine dreadnought like the Dominion of Man?"

"We drew different conclusions from our examination of the transformed god ship, Professor Larkinson. Reformers such as myself see them as the future direction of warship development and the only means to keep up with the times. We no longer care about the process all that much anymore. We only care about the results. If we have to dance naked in a circle in order to make our warships 20 percent more powerful, then we will do so without bothering to figure out why it works."

"We live in a time of crisis. Your approach does not sound ideal, but as long as it keeps us all alive, it is better than nothing." Ves evaluated.

"Not every fleeter is willing to embrace the unknown. The traditionalists within our ranks see the risks and instability of the Dominion of Man as potential threats. The ship may be abnormally strong, but our complete inability to grasp the esoteric powers and theory behind her mystical workings is seen as a critical vulnerability that can plunge the Red Fleet into ignorance and superstition. They fear that we may lose what makes us rational humans, and turn us into a warship-based version of the Red Fleet and the Red Collective. Red humanity will lose its only sober-minded and purely human guardian if that is the case. This is a doom scenario to those who commit to the causes of human purity and human enlightenment."

This actually sounded a lot more noble than Ves initially thought. While he belonged to the opposite camp, he could not fault the traditionalists for putting their ideals above their own interests and fighting for causes they consider righteous.

Ves could not even deny that they had a point. E energy was an inherently fuzzy and chaotic source of power. It promised to bestow humans with great might, but also greater tragedies.

"I think I get it, Admiral Mieli. The traditionalists ideally want to stick with reliable, fully understood conventional technology where 2 - 2 will always equal 4. At most, they may tolerate a small level of uncertainty that always comes with hyper technology in order to boost their warships to a controllable degree. 2 - 2 - x will equal 4 - x, where x can range from -0.5 to -2. Perhaps these cautious but confident fleeters believe that as long as they can push their solution close to 5, they can vanquish the native aliens."

"It takes far more than a sum of 5 to overcome the massive disadvantages subjected to our side in the Red War." The RF admiral crossed her arms. "If we work with the oversimplified model that you have just constructed, reformers such as myself believe we need to attain a score greater than 8 in order to gain the upper hand in the Red War. Nothing the traditionalists prefer to do will get us anywhere close to that sum. We not only need to resort to more controllable measures encapsulated by x, but also more radical applications denoted by y, which can range from -5 to -5. The formula that we prefer to use therefore resembles 2 - 2 - x - y."

This was a much more volatile approach. The sum could reach an astonishing figure of 11 in the absolute best case scenario, but could also plunge to a terrible low of -1.5 in the absolute worst case scenario!

If everything worked out the way the reformers hoped, red humanity would probably be able to launch a successful counterattack against the native aliens and completely conquer the Red Ocean within a single generation!

If the risks taken by the reformers blew up in their faces, then red humanity would probably lose all of its territory and go extinct! The worst part about this deplorable outcome was that humans essentially defeated themselves, thereby saving the native aliens a lot of trouble!

Given these realities, Ves understood quite well why the traditionalists rejected the huge uncertainties and risky gambles that came with experimenting with more alien and esoteric forms of technology.

"I think that one of the key deciding factors of choosing one's preferred approach is determining the difficulty of defeating our enemies." Ves said. "That not only includes the native aliens in front of our face, but also the more powerful aliens that may be able to reach our dwarf galaxy one day. Given what we know, I find it extremely short-sighted to stick to conventional human tech when its limits are so low. Don't they realize that they are underestimating the alien threat?"

Admiral Mieli responded with a grim smile. "That is what bothers us so much about the traditionalists. We are not working with the same numbers. They underestimate the alien threat and overestimate the strength of conventional human technology. Call them optimistic if you like, but they are more willing to believe in their own calculations. It has worked out for them once before. Humans managed to climb out of the threat of assimilation or extinction during the Age of Stars and kicked off the most glorious expansion of our race during the Age of Conquest."

"Are those fleeters ignorant of the true history of our civilization? As far as I know, the Five Scrolls Compact controlled humanity behind the scenes. Those crazy cultivators must have used their strange powers to stack the deck in humankind's favor."

"I think that is the case as well, but the records of those historic periods are biased and incomplete. Nobody can determine how extensively humanity was able to conquer half of the Milky Way by relying on our cunning and rapid technological adaptations alone, or if the aid of powerful cultivators working in the shadow proved indispensable. That has led to different factions and ideologies choosing the answers that best fit their desires as opposed to the actual truth."

Ves scoffed when he heard that. This was a typical human habit.

"I think I understand better now why you want to divert so much naval-related R&D to the Red Collective. The Red Fleet may be changing, but it isn't doing so fast enough to accept the necessity of investing research into y. Only the Collective is open-minded enough to tolerate all of the uncertainty and danger surrounding y. I can accept that. The only issue is… why should the RC bear all of the risks and the consequences of failure, while your RF gets to keep its hands clean and reap all of the potential rewards?"

The proposed cooperation sounded good, but Ves could recognize the trap inherent in the scheme.

Letting the RC take point into this risky line of research meant that the latest superorganization would bear all of the blame if anything went wrong!

The RF on the other hand could pretend to be completely clueless and innocent of any guilt. This was despite the fact that the fleeters actively shared their knowledge base and loaned their scientists and naval engineers to the RC.

The dynamic of the conversation had changed. Now that Ves explicitly started negotiations, the RF admiral had to follow suit and put herself on the opposite side.

"Might I remind you that the Red Collective does not have any strong armed forces of its own. It must rely entirely on the forces loaned by us and the mechers to protect and enforce its own interests. It is in your best interest to not only strengthen the warships protecting the RC, but also convert our more skeptical fleeters of the benefits of your more promising technologies."

Ves leaned back on his seat. "That may be true, but you stand to benefit a lot more than us. Any technological breakthrough will not only strengthen the warships seconded to us, but also the ones that remain in the command of your powerful warfleets. I will not accept an outcome where the RC is reduced to a special projects research division of the RF."

"What do you propose then, professor?"

"If you want to muster the full enthusiasm of our cultivation scientists in your warship projects, then give us the right to own and field our own creations. Only when we can build up our own fleets consisting of these newfangled 'artifact warships' will we be motivated to cooperate with your naval engineers with full sincerity. Also, I expect that we will need a lot of help from your RF. You must agree to send us lots of consultants that can help us set up our own naval organizations and organize our own warfleets. We may never be able to match the professionalism of the Red Fleet, but we should at least be competent enough to fight the native aliens without issue."

"Training and consulting can be arranged, but our Red Fleet is short of qualified manpower…"

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