Chapter 6636 Auto Heretic Line After Cynthia received the data chip with the mech designs and the mech templates of the Rule Breaker Project, she asked one more question before she dismissed the mech designers. "What is the final name of this line of mechs?" Veronica did not answer immediately. She first took a look at the projected mech templates. The default appearances of the modular mech platforms did not look like 'rule breakers' from the outside. Instead, they looked like typical modular mechs at the budget level. Their appearances did not contain a lot of flair. There was not much Veronica could do to spice them up given their extensive modularity and low design budgets. Nothing about their outward appearances indicated the presence of the Carmine System. That was not difficult considering that Veronica had tried to shrink the footprint of its organic components as much as possible. The only feature that could possibly betray the fact that these mechs could be piloted by any human was the third eyes on their foreheads. Veronica could not resist the temptation to add her signature look to the base versions of the mech line. Third party mech designers could choose to remove this visual brand, but the Cyborg Cat had a feeling that few would make this choice. First, it was considered poor form for third party mech designers to remove the signature looks of another professional's work. Second, Veronica predicted that the presence of the third eye would become an iconic brand that would come to represent Carmine mechs throughout the old galaxy! The performance of the base versions of the mech line was incredibly poor by today's standards. Yet it was exactly due to their relatively simple designs and amazing modularity that they had the potential to birth infinity possibilities. This remained true even if the mechs would only have a chance to operate in a low-energy environment like the Milky Way Galaxy. After a bit more thinking, Veronica eventually decided to voice her original proposal for a final name. "If it is okay with you, mother, I would like to call this line of mechs the Auto Heretic." Auto Heretic. That was an unusual combination of words. It certainly made a drastically different impression than the 'Rule Breaker', that was for certain. The Oblivion Empress frowned. While she maintained her human demeanor, her disapproval showed by the way her voice suddenly sounded a bit more ethereal and superhuman. "Veronica... this mech line will change the course of history in this galaxy forever. Choosing a good name s paramount for your reputation as well as mine. For what reason do you insist on calling your Carmine mechs the 'Auto Heretic"?" The Cyborg Cat grew intimidated by her mother's altered posture, but she tried her best to stand her ground and offer a measured response. "You are right about how important names can be. I thought about sticking to the name of Rule Breakers. My new Carmine mechs certainly have enough reasons to be called this way. It breaks several long-standing traditions in the mech industry. These range from enabling norms to pilot mechs, designing and publishing the mech without requesting certification from the MTA, making the Carmine mechs highly autonomous to help total beginners attain a degree of combat effectiveness in the short term, connecting the mechs to the Red Kingdom as opposed to the Kingdom of Mechs and most importantly harvesting the souls of everyone who died, including the ones belonging to the living mech and mech pilot themselves." Though Veronica left out a few important design features, this summed up the unique and distinctive combination of traits of his Auto Heretic. "I wanted to bestow my Carmine mechs a name that reflects their open and transparent contradiction against the stifling rules and customs of the current day mech industry of the Milky Way. She continued to explain her reasoning. "This is why I wanted to call it the Heretic line at first. You should be familiar with the meaning of this word. The very existence of this mech directly opposes many of the MTA's prevailing rules and principles. Just like how the MTA and CFA managed to rebel against the hegemonic Five Scrolls Compact in the past by defying everything it stood for, now I am giving the Big Two a taste of their own medicine by releasing the Auto Heretic line of Carmine mechs." Her feline lips curled in a cruel and eager grin. "I don't think we should hide the fact that the very existence of my Carmine mechs flagrantly violates the strictures of the MTA. We should make it obvious from the beginning. Sure, it may provoke the mechers into banning it even faster, but that will only turn them into greater enemies of the human population. No matter what, they cannot avoid the Auto Heretic and the deviations against common mech orthodoxy. Even if I do not necessarily oppose many of the rules that the MTA has set in an attempt to keep the mech industry and mech market healthy. I still want my work to shake up the status quo and force people to question the assumptions that they have always taken for granted." If people wanted to, they did not have to use the name that Veronica designated for his Carmine mechs. Third party manufacturers that adapted his Auto Heretics could easily choose to apply a visual makeover in an attempt to sidestep the stigma surrounding this dangerous combination of words. These groups could try their best to disassociate their own 'clean' mech models from their base models as long as they looked different enough. However, no matter how two siblings looked different from each other, their original genes and family history could never be changed! Every Carmine mech derived from the original Auto Heretic designs would never be able to shake off all of the traits that made his works so subversive and taboo-breaking! Cynthia Larkinson began to understand what Veronica had in mind. "I see. You seek to accelerate the contradictions between the MTA and the general population. You are also encouraging the people who pilot your Auto Heretics or otherwise admire them to recognize how extensively the mechers have failed to satisfy their true needs." For too many years, the Mech Trade Association had sought to fulfill the interests of an increasingly smaller group of people. At first, the MTA served the public well by imposing stability and rewriting the rules of human warfare. Peace and stability returned in a galaxy that had previously become engulfed in genocidal wars and destruction on a mass scale. However, as the MTA increasingly began to concentrate and hold onto its immense power over human civilization, the superorganization began to become increasingly more focused on amassing wealth and defending its dominant position over humanity alongside the CFA. Serving the people had become an increasingly more distant priority to the mechers. In fact, Veronica could even argue that it had never really been a top priority in the first place. This showed how far too many mechers looked down on the people of second-rate and third-rate states as space peasants. Perhaps Veronica was being a bit too unfair towards the mechers. The MTA had not sought to reduce the inequality between first-raters and space peasants, but it did not. have an obligation to do so in the first place. It was unrealistic to wipe out the differences in wealth and prosperity between states that were rooted in very different environments. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖 The Big Two at least implemented numerous rules and customs designed to protect the space peasants from the threat posed by first-raters. However, that only increased the isolation between first-raters and space peasants. The less they interacted with each other, the less opportunities for the latter to join the former. As a former third-rater herself, a part of Veronica always felt resentful for the Big Two and all of the first-rate states to guard their wealth and privileges so extensively, Perhaps one of the driving reasons why Veronica worked so hard to design the Auto Heretics was to take revenge on a distorted galactic society that had long sought to limit. the upward mobility of third-raters as much as possible! "Why add the word 'auto' to the name, then?" "That is because I wanted to emphasize the most significant deviation from other mechs." The cat answered. "Calling my Carmine mechs the Auto Heretics will create a very easily understandable impression that my products are not static machines. They are alive, they can think for themselves, they can evolve over time and most importantly they can take complete control over their own mechanical bodies. By adding the word 'auto', I will make it clear to both mech pilots and those who own them that my machines should never be treated in the same way as ordinary mechs. Our society must treat them differently in order to make the best possible use out of them. Those who ignore my message will do so at their own peril. The Auto Heretics can potentially turn hostile towards their own pilots and owners if they are mistreated. I deliberately did not set too many limits on that in order to force all of my future customers to treat them seriously." The Auto Heretic line challenged the very definition of the word mech. To many original humans who grew up in the current age, the word mech represented a giant human or beast-shaped machine that could be controlled by a human through the use of a neural interface. This was not the most accurate definition, but it was definitely one that many people could agree with! In their minds, mechs were always regarded as a giant form of 'equipment' akin to a suit of combat armor. The pilots were in control. Their ability to command these amazing war machines could result in drastically different outcomes. Two pilots controlling the same mechs could easily defeat 10 times their number or get beaten in the first fight depending on the differences in skill and other human-derived factors. Veronica wanted to change this way of looking at mechs. She wanted the people of this galaxy to treat her Auto Heretics as life forms in the truest sense. They were truly alive in that they possessed thoughts and emotions just like other sentient beings. This was especially the case if they were able to grow into third order living mechs. She knew that the MTA would not like it at all. They would definitely treat the Auto Heretics as an existential threat towards mech pilots and the mech industry as a whole. This was because it was always possible for the Auto Heretics to fight by themselves! By reducing the importance of the human mech pilot, the mech line threatened to remove them from the picture entirely! Veronica admittedly did not implement enough safeguards to prevent her Auto Heretics from rebelling against humans en masse and forming their own race and civilization in the Milky Way. However, she believed that this would only happen if the Auto Heretics were forced to do so by an ungrateful human society. So long as most people treated their Auto Heretics fairly and with respect, such events should not take place. "One of my goals for these works is to force original humanity to recognize my living mechs as equal or near-equal sentient life forms who deserve a place in our society." Veronica said in a measured tone. "I do not have as much confidence in original humanity's ability to do as red humanity, so I am willing to resort to more forceful and coercive means. In any case, anyone who wants to make use of my Auto Heretics will have no choice in accepting my viewpoints. There is no other way for them to become a glorious Carmine mech pilot if they refuse the very notion that their machines are alive." Was this how a mech designer should act towards his customers? No! Did Veronica like the prospect of forcing a confrontation against the establishment in charge of the stuffy MTA? Yes!