Ves perked up when the Web Mistress addressed the mutated voribug threat. The major human powers had not published a lot of information about them. Most of what the public learned came from studying the public combat footage against the new threat that emerged on the Rubarthan front. Many people already speculated that the voribugs were being directed by a central authority. The masses were just unclear whether this direction came from a gestalt hive mind existence that formed when enough low-intelligence voribugs gathered together, or whether the direction originated from a single hyper-intelligent queen organism. It sounded as if the latter was the case. That had many implications. A single supreme voribug queen likely possessed absolute command over all of her swarms, making it so that each and every single element acted in complete coordination with each other. This was the kind of absolute control that the Polymath could only dream of. The voribug queen was able to implement a cohesive strategy and ensure that her entire swarm moved and fought according to her will. Even if the individual voribugs lacked the autonomy to make too many important decisions by themselves, the superior control made up for it in most cases. Ves inwardly shuddered when he thought about what a formidable opponent red humanity had gained. Yet for all of the advantages that the mutated voribugs gained by centralizing their command and control, there was also a very big vulnerability. "So have you guys sent out the Evolution Witch or another god pilot to track down the voribug queen and snuff out her life already?" "It is not that simple, Ves. We have mapped out the overall territorial expansion of the mutated voribugs, but we cannot pin down her exact location. She can be in one among tens of thousands of star systems. In fact, there is a possibility that she left the known holdings of the voribug race many months ago and secretly chose to hide her presence in an alien or even a human star system." "Shouldn't there be ways for us to track her down?" Ves looked puzzled. "Whatever means she uses to control her swarms, there has to be an insanely high amount of signal traffic between the voribug queen and all of her minions. You should be able to map out this communication network easily and trace the location of the nexus." "Again, it is not that simple. The alien network is dense and filled with large amounts of garbage data. Every signal bounces off other voribug, which bounces to the surrounding voribugs and so on. The voribugs are somehow also aware of signal interception and resort to more means to scramble and encrypt their data transmissions. This indicates that the voribug queen has a good understanding of red humanity's capabilities and has already implemented countermeasures to prevent my senses from tracking her down." Ves grew alarmed when he heard that! "Are you saying that the voribug queen is intelligent and aware of our capabilities to such an extent that she has successfully employed countermeasures against your 'network authority'?" The Web Mistress nodded with a serious expression. "The intelligence she has displayed through her actions is frightening for an alien being. I estimate that not even the ancient phase whales that have lived for over a million standard years can match her in this aspect. We are confronted by a hostile alien True God that understands our language, society and technology well enough to target our weaknesses while evading our strengths. It is naive to assume we can strangle this threat in its cradle by tracking down this queen and dispatching our god pilots at her. She may not be a Star Designer, but she is gifted in her own ways." All of this was alarming information! Ves already had an inkling that the mutated voribugs would be hellish to fight against, if all of those swarms were directed by an intelligent and rational queen, then their threat level was much higher than anticipated! "Are you able to tell whether the voribugs are bioengineered species rather than naturally formed?" "Oh, the answer to that question is simple, Ves. We know without a shadow of a doubt that the voribugs cannot possibly be a naturally evolved race. There are too many traits and too many signs of genetic tampering and optimization to conclude otherwise. What we do know is that the creations have almost certainly outlasted their creator. The voribugs would absolutely not behave as aggressively and reveal themselves at this time if they were still enslaved by their makers." Ves nodded in agreement. He thought so as well. It would be too outrageous if their original creators were still around. He also appreciated that he received confirmation that the voribugs were engineered. That would influence his strategy towards this race to an extent. Knowing that they were designed and bred for war and conquest was different from dealing with a naturally mutated species that possessed a lot of other traits. "I am looking to travel to the Rubarthan Pact and take a look at how our mechs are faring against the voribug threat." Ves said. "I am hoping to see whether I can help by designing a mech that is specifically designed to fight against them. Do you have any advice or insights that you are willing to share that can help me fulfill my goal?" He was being completely earnest here. He hoped that the Web Mistress would sense that and be more generous in sharing her information. She remained silent for a few seconds. "As I have already mentioned, the mutated voribugs are controlled by a singular powerful and intelligent queen, one who understands humans like us no less. Do not let your guard down and do not underestimate this threat. The voribugs are enemies that grow more formidable and more difficult to block as they grow in numbers. I am not too concerned whether the voribugs will make progress in human-occupied space. The reinforcements from the Cybernetic Empire should help the Rubarthan Pact hold the lines. It is the native aliens that reside in the territories around the expanding voribug threat that concern me. They are ill-prepared to fight a defensive war and will lose many more territories in the coming months." Her words alluded to a more terrible consequence. Ves only had to think for a brief amount of time before he figured out what she meant. "Are you saying… the inability for the Red Cabal and the native aliens to hold back the expanding mutated voribug threat will only cause them to grow uncontrollably strong, perhaps to the point of completely overpowering both us and the native aliens at the same time?" The Star Designer grimly nodded. "For better or worse, the Red Ocean is currently divided by three contesting civilizations. This normally leads to a precarious but surprisingly stable equilibrium. If one of them grows too powerful, the other two will temporarily reduce their hostilities against each other in order to suppress the greatest threat. This should automatically bring the civilizations into balance again, until another one threatens to become too strong." "That sounds nice, but reality isn't as clear-cut as you make it sound." Ves almost scoffed. "People aren't rational, and the same applies to our alien adversaries. The Red Cabal and the native aliens hate us so much for killing all of their native gods that they are determined to wipe us out even if bugs have begun to infest their homes on a large scale. The voribugs meanwhile conquer so many star systems that their exponential growth will advance at record speed. By the time both humans and native aliens are finally able to acknowledge the greater threat, I fear the voribugs may have already surpassed a critical point where they are producing enough offspring to potentially conquer the entire Red Ocean!" There were plenty of signs that the native alien races had utterly become consumed by their war against red humanity. They could not bring themselves to stop and face the latest and most acute threat. Even if red humans were more sensible and understood that they needed to hold back the voribug swarms first, their forces may not be able to relocate to the furthest border region of the Rubarthan Pact because of the continued threat of alien invasion elsewhere! In fact, according to the latest news reports, the Terran Alliance was enduring a renewed enemy push across its frontlines. The native aliens seem more interested in wiping out red humanity first than dealing with the voribug infestation while its scale still remained relatively small. Ves began to grimace as he suddenly understood what the Web Mistress was alluding to with her earlier words. "Are you saying that… if we want to contain the voribug threat and prevent it from growing out of control, we may have to assist the native aliens in repelling the bug infestations in their own space?" The entire notion sounded like a farce! Yet such an absurd circumstance may actually unfold in front of their eyes. Ves disliked the idea of fixing the incompetence of the major alien races whose territories were being gnawed upon, yet the alternatives were worse. As much as Ves hated the native aliens and wanted to wipe them all out, letting the voribug swarms devour the original rulers of the Red Ocean would lead to a worse outcome! As the Web Mistress had said earlier, a galaxy divided by three civilizations maintained its status quo longer because any that grew too strong instantly got ganged up by the other two. Right now, that correcting mechanism might not fire up in time to make a difference due to the absurd growth rate of the mutated voribugs! This meant that red humanity may have to do the unthinkable and assist the native aliens in defending their own space! Ves did not have a clue on how he could pull this off. It was beyond unacceptable to actually dispatch human forces over the border and fight side-by-side with the outnumbered native alien defenders. The latter would probably turn their guns on the arriving human mechs and warships! He wanted to palm his face when he thought about all of these headaches. "What a mess." The Web Mistress maintained a stoic expression. "Nobody thinks this is a desirable circumstance. Nonetheless, that should not prevent us from doing what is necessary to defend our race and civilization against the most dangerous biohazard in the new frontier. What separates high-tier galactic citizens such as you and I from those who rank below us is our ability and willingness to leverage our capabilities to the good of our society. I am pleased with the initiative that you have already shown, but I advise you to be open-minded." "What do you mean by that, Your Excellency?" 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖 "A time may come when you believe it is in our interests to defend the native aliens against invading voribugs. If doing what is necessary earns you condemnation, then you should proceed without fear. We shall vouch for you and protect you. Others may be short-sighted, but Star Designers such as myself are certainly not. We know what is best." Ves did not entirely agree with that last part, but he understood the gist of her argument. He still did not feel comfortable with this 'mission'. The very notion of having to fight on behalf of the native aliens sounded far too much like a betrayal for everything that he and his Larkinsons fought for in the past. "I will see." He said in a noncommittal tone. "I much prefer to keep everything simple and focus my efforts on helping our troops fight the voribug swarms directly. All of this 'my enemy of my enemy is my friend' stuff is too convoluted for me. Besides, maybe we are looking down on the native aliens too much. They have huge warmaking potential and they still have lots of phase lords and phase whales that have yet to commit to the Red War. They ought to be able to defend their own space."