The Mech Touch

By the time the Secret Department finally dumped a huge amount of confidential information and speculative guesses into his mind, Ves felt awfully tired.

His body remained in peak condition, but his mental condition had deteriorated quite a lot.

He learned too many secrets, a proportion of which exposed the true side of the people and organizations he thought he understood.

How they presented themselves in public was multiple times cleaner and more upright than how they acted in reality.

It was hard for Ves to come to terms with the reality that the heroes and exemplars he looked up to had their own dark pasts.

Still, he was realistic enough to know that not everyone at this level could keep their hands clean. There was too much competition and not enough resources to go around. This trend only worsened after the start of the Age of Dawn. Getting cut off from the Milky Way Galaxy screwed over a lot of people.

While Ves and his Larkinson Clan had been isolated from the crisis and turmoil that erupted after the greater beyonder gate no longer enabled passage between the galaxies, the circumstances were much worse for parties that depended heavily on funds and assets transferred from humanity's home galaxy!

In order to survive, the groups that fell into crisis resorted to desperate means in order to maintain their dominance. Much of it took place out of sight, and if people noticed that their superiors and owners had changed hands all of a sudden, they had a lot of reasons to keep their mouths shut and their heads down.

Red humanity's order remained precarious several years after the start of the crisis. It all came down to resources, and more pertinently prime living space.

Under the current conditions, the most ideal territory that people wanted to live in was a star system located far away from the frontlines and relatively rich with phasewater and other precious resources.

Such star systems were few and far in between, and had already reached saturation in terms of how many people they could feed and employ.

More construction was ongoing. States hurriedly terraformed lifeless planets into barely livable globes in order to accommodate the enormous influx of refugees and cowards fleeing from the regions most at risk of getting attacked.

The constant upheaval and displacements broke a lot of old organizations and promoted the growth of the ones that occupied superior positions in the new reality.

The wave of consolidations along with the developments at the frontlines produced many losers and precious little winners.

The weak got culled in large numbers. They either lost their livelihoods as they sought to abandon their homes and previously stable jobs. Due to the plunging value of real estate in or close to the border regions, these unwilling migrants lost much of their wealths and became destitute overnight.

Many soldiers fighting in the frontlines engaged in a much more literal struggle for survival. Mech forces fell and right, and despite all of the incentives used by the major players to send soldiers off to war, the manpower pool was getting drained at a prodigious rate.

The last 6 months of intense fighting at the border regions had taken a huge toll on the amount of eligible mech pilots!

The native aliens made no secret of their determination to rely on attrition warfare to exhaust red humanity's capacity to fight.

The enemy's strategy was undeniably costly for both sides, but even the most ignorant individual could figure out that the humans wouldn't be able to keep this up for long!

If Ves had not introduced the Yellow Jacket models, the mech industry would have resorted to extreme measures to raise the amount of eligible mech pilots.

From expanding the production of frontline mechs to send low-aptitude mech pilots into the gauntlet to reducing the mandatory study years of mech academies by half, everything had to be sacrificed in order to put more bodies in the trenches!

The Red Fleet's Starfighter Corps would have overtaken mechs in this situation. Although starfighters were undoubtedly inferior to mechs, their ease of use and lack of dependence on neural interfaces would prove decisive when mech pilots simply ran out after a point.

In fact, the Red Fleet even plotted to marginalize the Red Association entirely by taking over much of the resources and privileges previously enjoyed by mechs!

By gradually replacing the mech industry with the starfighter industry, the fleeters sought to damage the foundation of the mech community and prevent it from ever regaining its preeminent status in society in the future!

Ves found it rather distasteful that the fleeters could not stop themselves from targeting

An important pillar of red humanity during an existential war.

However, this was far from the only case where comrades in arms secretly or not-so-secretly sought to undermine each other.

One of the overall conclusions that Ves made after learning about the true state of human civilization was that the current order might not last anymore.

While the foundation of human civilization in the Red Ocean was still deep enough to prop up its existing rules and institutions for a few more years, there was a limit to how much the current players could expend their reserves.

War coffers were being emptied at a rapid rate. Productivity was dropping. The

Economies of many states had plunged into deep recessions. Non-renewable resources were being used up far too quickly.

The social order was also beginning to deteriorate. This was especially the case in the star systems that were at risk as well as the highly congested planets that refugees flocked towards.

Above all, there were still far too many states and governments that refused to tackle the emerging problems with the necessary grit and determination.

Far too many non-essential civilian industries were still operating when the need for war materiel was constantly surging.

The industrial policies of many states had yet to adjust to a state more conducive to total

War.

Leaders refused to curtail the production of consumer goods for fear of causing deeper economic disruptions and attracting the fury of their people.

Combined with the rise of an increasing number of political firebrands and agitators, repression was on the rise, causing citizens to become even more miserable.

Ves never imagined that his society's internal stability had plunged so low. The news portals did a good job at trying to maintain the illusion of solidarity, but the reality was that the wellbeing of humans had dropped to lows that had not been seen since the dark days of the Age of Conquest!

When Secret Keeper Rosette-193 briefed him on the dire economy and stability of a lot of human territories, she then proceeded to introduce a tentative solution that certain bigshots had devised.

The woman in a gray uniform passed a secure data pad to Ves that contained a single highly confidential proposal.

"This is... the Dissolution of States Plan?"

"The name should already tell you everything. The soft-spoken Rosette-193 said without emotion. "There are a number of god pilots and Star Designers that believe that the Polymath was ultimately correct on the problems that are impairing our civilization. Many existing states are founded and controlled by pioneers who have taken large risks and agents of powerful groups that are rooted in the Milky Way. More often than not, the controlling authorities are not competent and prepared enough to lead their states in a time of crisis and war. However, they can still rely on inertia and their existing properties to maintain their positions of power. This leads to an undesirable situation where the potential of human states remains untapped. You should know by now that this problem is not being remedied. Instead, the opposite is happening"

Ves widened his eyes, especially when skimmed through the document. "Are you truly serious about breaking apart all of the existing states?!"

"This plan is not set in stone. The Dissolution of States is an adaptation of one of the components of the Deep Strike Plan. We originally planned to introduce a similar if less disruptive plan after the start of deep strike operations, but the Red Tide Offensive has caused enough accidents and setbacks that more and more leaders are beginning to accept the need to bring this component forward."

"So you think it is a good idea to depose all governments, decentralize their administrations and encourage powerful groups to compete against each other for

Control over star systems? The damage produced by these conflicts, whether directly or indirectly, may exceed the losses inflicted by the native aliens!"

Rosette-193 shook her head. "That may not necessarily be the case. All human-to-human conflict will be strictly regulated. Destructive wars will remain prohibited. At most, territorial disputes will be decided by formal matches between two military forces. This is not a new method as the Terrans, Rubarthans and other first-raters have resorted to similar methods in order to prevent escalation. What is important is that the weak and unworthy will no longer be allowed to hold onto territories that are currently being squandered in their hands. The New Elites who have fought and survived in the frontlines understand much better how extensively we must militarize our existing territories. If we must sacrifice our culture, our addiction to consumer goods and our peaceful way of life in order to survive, then we must begin with haste."

That sounded incredibly serious. Ves anticipated a huge amount of protests and opposition as result of this insane plan,

Yet... he could also see how it could produce the positive effects described by the female.

Secret Keeper.

The infighting was bound to produce a lot of losses, but the gains may be greater once

More deserving leaders took over.

These conquerors had little respect for the existing laws and property rights that

Protected the status quo. They could easily smash apart the corruption and the unproductive laws that prevented territories from reaching their greater potential. Ves recognized that the main purpose to enact the Dissolution of States was to completely tear down the highly parasitic rent-seeking powers that only sought to benefit themselves at the expense of the greater society!

This plan had the Polymath all over it. Even if she was unable to contribute directly to the plan due to being trapped in a greater spacetime bubble, it was clear that a growing number of leaders had gained renewed appreciation for her logic and ideals!

In fact, Ves actually liked parts of the Unity Plan as well. The biggest problem he had

With it was that it demanded that the smartest human should be placed on the throne. As long as the current leaders never intended to enact this final controversial step, it

Was not that bad to implement the rest of the original Unity Plan.

Ves sighed. "When?"

"Uncertain support for the Dissolution of States Plan has not yet reached a majority. We

Expect that it will ultimately be implemented within 6 to 12 months. We cannot afford to

Delay too much as our civilization needs to implement harsh but necessary reforms as soon as possible."

"I see. What about... the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact?" Ves asked. "The people

Of those states have a lot of pride in their shared identities. The ancient clans and the Rubarthan principalities will not agree to let themselves be broken down and lose all of the advantages of maintaining strong and permanent alliances with each other." "That is also one of the main sources of opposition to the proposal. We believe that the Terrans and the Rubarthans will ultimately recognize the necessity of this radical plan, but they will continue to cause unnecessary delays. At most, they will be excluded from

The plan in exchange for receiving reduced material support. Over time, we believe that the competitiveness of the Red Ocean Union will surpass the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact, which will cause the latter two to reconsider the wisdom of their

Opposition."

That sounded like a lot of wishful thinking to Ves. It was dangerous to rely so much on assumptions, but the Secret Keeper sounded awfully confident that everyone would eventually fall in line.

Where did Rosette-193 get all of her confidence?

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