The Mech Touch

The conclusion of Operation Night Jazz and the introduction of the Hyper Generation still generated massive shockwaves throughout human and alien society.

Ves corresponded with a lot of people from different parts of society. His expansive network provided him with many advantages as he was able to solicit many different opinions.

Although his contacts in the middle parts of human society were plentiful, he did not have a sufficient amount of contacts in the upper parts.

He had years to build up his network in various second-class states such as the Hex Federation and the Colonial Federation of Davute. His penetration of first-class society was much less comprehensive.

Ves tried to compensate for this shortcoming as much as possible. One of the main reasons why he chose to settle in New Constantinople VHI for a time was because he wanted to foster deeper contacts with the Terrans.

The Eden Institute served as an excellent place for Ves to measure the pulse of the Terran Alliance. Its students and professors came from various different clans and backgrounds. Visitors regularly came from other places in order to take supplementary courses or to collaborate on various research projects.

Every Terran had a story to tell. Though Ves knew that a lot of people only agreed to talk to him because of his perceived usefulness, he didn't mind. What mattered was that he could gain the information he wanted to hear.

Through all of these talks, Ves vaguely sensed several undercurrents running through Terran society.

The Streon Ancient Clan kept itself mum for the time being, but it was already making moves that were hard to obfuscate. The Streons had stepped up their efforts to procure supplies and war materiel, so much so that the price levels of these goods rose faster than before.

No one had any clue that General Axelar Streon was planning the heist of the century.

Perhaps the only other sign that hinted at this great undertaking was the gradual spread of Gaia worship.

The Terrans possessed a strong affection towards Old Earth. Humanity's ancestral home planet was the totem of their culture, and their permanent separation from this sacred symbol had traumatized these people.

It did not surprise Ves at all that cults centered around Gaia or Old Earth emerged as a result. They were still small-time for the most part. No official institution expressed any concern that these wacky groups of people would get up to mischief. The Terrans had endured the rise and fall of so many different faiths that they formed a well-established set of routines against their potential threat.

If these upstart cults ever stepped over the line, the ancient clans could easily squash them with only the slightest amount of effort!

"Interesting."

Ves had a feeling that these strange new cults had the shadow of a True God behind them. That made them a lot more significant than the ones founded by cheap charlatans.

The gradually unfolding oddities of the Age of Dawn had sparked a resurgence of the mystical side of reality.

Although only a small proportion of people had become initiated to this profound secret, Ves noticed many signs that a lot of states and organizations were gradually inoculating the masses to sights that defied common sense.

Broadcasting the battles of Operation Night Jazz was just one of many steps. The deliberate portrayal of god pilots as war deities did much to expand people's tolerance for unexplainable phenomena!

Ves only managed to gain a deeper insight in these changes after he met with Jovy again.

When he teleported back up to the Tarrasque and met with Jovy in his mech workshop, the two immediately engaged in a substantive discussion.

"The god pilots are on their way home, right?" Ves asked.

Jovy nodded even as he directed most of his attention towards the design of a virtual first-class multipurpose mech. "Operation Night Jazz yielded a lot of results. Our highest priority is not to cause any further trouble in the core of alien space, but to return in safety and digest all of the gains that we have attained from raiding the four Tide Stations. It is also important for us to recall the god pilots as quickly as possible in order to defend against the inevitable counterattack."

The mention of that last word put Ves on edge.

Anyone could see that the aliens suffered a heavy blow. Their Tide Station Network had been rendered inoperable and a lot of highly respected ancient phase whales died at the hands of human gods!

The surprise attacks had shaken the confidence of the local alien community. The Red Cabal which previously held an undeniable position of authority over the other alien races suddenly suffered a major decapitation strike that betrayed a lot of weakness!

The implications were many. The surviving leaders of the Red Cabal needed to make a big move in order to stop this event from collapsing their prestige even further.

"Are the aliens planning to initiate a counterattack?" Ves guessed.

"They are already attacking our border regions, my friend. That said, the aliens were not in a hurry. The Red Cabal was previously content to grind our forces down by throwing a large amount of cannon fodder fleets at us. The thought process behind this is that it takes time to mobilize all of the more powerful alien warfleets and transfer them to the frontlines. Their arrival may also be delayed by several more years if they have chosen to upgrade their existing warships with stolen human technology. The native aliens are aware of the disparity in technology, so the longer they delay, the more time they have to close this gap."

Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "This strategy only makes sense if the aliens believe that time is on their side."

"The native aliens control the vast majority of the Red Ocean. Their population base and access to resources are far greater than our own. They are not wrong to hold this assumption. We are fine with this for the time being as we need more time to mobilize the strength of our territories. We do not want the frontline battles to escalate until we have completed the transformation of the greater beyonder gate."

The Deep Strike Plan could not truly start until red humanity gained a means to rapidly teleport a deep strike force behind enemy lines.

Perhaps this was one of the other reasons why the Red Two urgently wanted to attack the Tide Stations.

Not only would they be able to destroy a powerful tool that could potentially interfere with the operation of the greater beyonder gate, but they could also steal a huge amount of high-level knowledge on teleportation, spatial displacement and many other relevant subjects!

While the gains were massive, many more native aliens had become fully alerted to the threat posed by the invaders who came from another galaxy!

Jovy sighed as he turned away from his incomplete mech design. "Attacking the native aliens in such a high-profile manner has its downsides, you know. We have slain a handful of the greatest and most respected 'gods' of this dwarf galaxy. This has shocked the entire alien community. Even the more complacent sentient individuals who think the war is too far away from their home planets have become a lot more serious about the threat we pose."

"We alerted them all. We showed that despite our limited numbers, we can make them bleed. I bet the phase whales have become so outraged with the deaths of so many of their eldest leaders that they are gunning for our blood."

The serious expression on Jovy's face showed that he held the same thoughts.

"We could have laid low and let the aliens think that we were fish on the chopping block. We did not do so in the end because the chance to take out the Tide Station Network as well as many ancient phase whales is too precious to us. While we are more than satisfied with the gains, the greatest consequence is that we have fully awoken the beast that is called the phase whale race."

Ves understood what Jovy meant. The phase whales were individually powerful, but they were highly reclusive and isolationist in nature. They bred slowly and spent centuries engaging in their private experiments.

Relatively few phase whales actively participated in the greater alien community. The Red Cabal was an exception rather than the rule.

Now that this powerful race had suffered massive and unprecedented losses, many of the isolated phase whales that previously ignored what took place outside had become fully alarmed!

It was conceivable that many of these phase whales would soon choose to end their isolation and take active part in the counterattack against the human invaders!

"It is not just the phase whales that will be out for blood, but also the other major alien races." Jovy elaborated. "While we regularly belittle the inferior capabilities of the native aliens, their ability to gather intelligence is quite decent. The hidden archeships that are secretly operating in our space are gathering large amounts of signals on a constant basis. The Deep Strike Plan is not a secret to our adversaries. They know that in five or so years from now, we will gain the capability to directly launch attacks on their core star systems. What do you think they will do in response?"

It was not difficult to game out this scenario.

"It is not tenable to defend all of those star systems." Ves spoke. "There are way too many of them that any defensive forces will only spread themselves thin. In this case, the best defense is offense. It is best to cut off the deep strike raids from the source by attacking human space. If they can push far enough to destroy our greater beyonder gate, the threat of unblockable raids will automatically disappear."

"Hm, you have a good grasp on strategy. Your assessment matches our own. Now that we have woken the beasts, our adversaries will quickly move to intensify their attacks on our border regions in the short term. We will not only see an increase in the quantity of alien raiding fleets, but also a substantial rise in the quality and power of attacking starships. On top of that, the phase whales will begin to participate more actively in these attacks as well."

That sounded incredibly concerning, but red humanity wasn't completely hopeless in this fight.

"The Hyper Generation came at a good time, then. All of those azure energy shields, hyper weapons and space suppressors will come in really handy. The incentives of the New Elites Program will also encourage a lot of human forces to volunteer as linefighters. As long as we can withstand the upcoming counterattack, our chances of winning should improve."

The mechers had thoroughly considered every aspect of this conflict. They had made deliberate moves and already anticipated what the aliens would do in response.

Still, for all of their analysis and foresight, the aliens could still prevail so long as they mustered up enough hard power!

Fortunately, red humanity still had a powerful batch of protectors.

"The losses will be great in the coming years, but so long as our god pilots are anchoring the frontlines, we have a fair amount of confidence that they will hold."

"Are you sure about that, Jovy? What if fifty or so phase whales decide to gang up on one of our god pilots? As powerful as our greatest champions may be, I do not think it is easy for them to fend off so many angry whales."

The RA Senior shrugged his shoulders. "This is why we cannot pin all of our hopes on the god pilots of the present. Their quantity is too low. Our Association is in the process of investing massive resources into raising many more mech pilots. The more god pilots we can produce in the coming 50 years, the greater the likelihood that we can save our civilization. We cannot conquer the entire Red Ocean with only 8 god pilots."