Chapter 3331: Land GrabThe ambitious plan to undermine the Vulcan Empire had succeeded! Ves, Minister Shederin and Calabast had each contributed their own expertise to push the dwarven state into the abyss. The two advisors recognized that while the Vulcan Empire was strong on the surface, its interior had several vulnerable cracks. Shederin keenly recognized that the Vulcanites were too immature as a people and that their state was not as well-run as it should. Religion was the greatest fault line of the Vulcan Empire and it was the only element that could make its citizens forget about their hatred against the tall folk for a time! Calabast grasped the finer psychology of the extremist dwarves and knew what was needed to push them into militancy. She had gone on missions before where she was tasked with triggering groups of people to perform actions they would otherwise refrain from doing by finding the right handle to push them into action. Of course, she wasn't the only professional who recognized that the religious nutjobs among the Vulcanites could become their own worst enemies. There were plenty of dwarves who were quite aware of this fault line and their animosity towards the tall folk meant that they were not that easily fooled by false flag attacks and other mundane tricks. This was where Ves came in. Unlike other people, he possessed the unique capability to arouse the faith of the Vulcanites. Though no one knew why Ves was so familiar with Vulcan, the glow he created recently worked so disturbingly well on the citizens of the dwarven state that both of his advisors were surprised that the unwitting victims descended into civil war so quickly! Ves didn't expect the dwarves to get hoodwinked at such an enormous degree. After all, any decent mech designer could establish a clear connection between the mysterious statues of Vulcan and Ves' design philosophy. It appeared that Shederin's judgement that stupid people tended to double down when they were proven wrong was correct. His expertise, experience and ability to read other people were invaluable to the Larkinson Clan. Without his contribution, Ves would have never been able to push the Vulcan Empire to the brink! What was even more impressive about Shederin was that he never counted upon the civil war to single-handedly take down the dwarven state. No matter how badly the dwarves beat each other up, as long as the Mech Trade Association maintained a considerable interest in keeping a strong dwarven state intact, it would never allow human states such as the Empire of the Lost to invade the Smiling Samuel Star Sector. In fact, there was even a chance that the MTA would have stepped in to straighten the Vulcan Empire up! Whether they acted covertly or overtly, there was little that Ves or anyone else could do to stop the mechers from rescuing the dwarves from their own troubles. This was why drawing out the worst impulses of the Vulcanites was such a brilliant approach. The sectarian strife that had broken out between the two sides was not a regular civil war. It was not a struggle between rich and poor or oppressed and oppressors. Instead, the cause of all of the bloodshed was due to a difference in opinion on whether Vulcan was a dwarf or human! Even though there was a host of beliefs and attitudes associated with each interpretation, the fact that the dwarves were killing each other on a mass scale for a reason as banal as disagreeing whether their god was tall or short looked ridiculous! Shederin predicted that as the Vulcanites continued to show more ugly behavior, the MTA's patience for these people would quickly wear thin. "The mechers consider themselves to be the most enlightened group of people in the galaxy." The Purnesser mentioned to Ves. "They place themselves above the so-called space peasants and rule human space from an ivory tower. Even if they treat us like cattle, they still have certain expectations for their chattel. If the pigs they rear are too violent, dirty and unappetizing, it is not worth it to keep them anymore." This was the crux of their plan to collapse the Vulcan Empire. The behavior of so many dwarven citizens was so abhorrent and antithetical to the ideals of the Mech Trade Association that it had generated an enormous amount of disgust! The advantages of allowing the dwarves to keep an entire star sector for themselves no longer justified the cost of tolerating all of the excesses of the Vulcan Empire! A disaster like this would have never happened if the Vulcanites maintained a closer and more intimate relationship with the MTA, but obviously this was not the case. In the end, the dwarves not only bit the hand that fed them, but also acted so abhorrently afterwards that they showed no redeeming factors! It would have been surprising if the MTA did not opt to wash its hands from this quarrelsome group of ignorant dwarves. Once the MTA withdrew their guarantee, the Vulcan Empire was fair game to the surrounding human states! After so many decades of living alongside a xenophobic dwarven state that was filled with people who believed that the tall folk were the problem of all of their ills, it shouldn't be a surprise that the Vulcan Empire's neighbors did not like to live alongside the Vulcanites. Now that there was a golden opportunity to get rid of the dwarven cancer, the human states instantly moved into action! What surprised Ves a lot was that the temporary alliance of human states moved in so quickly. He would have thought that the onlooking humans would have been content to sit back and relax while the dwarves kept expending their manpower and using up their war-making potential on each other. "Time is of the essence." Shederin illuminated Ves. "The more time passes by, the greater the chance that a new variable will come and change the equation. For example, the two dwarven factions might wake up to the fact that they are just weakening each other so that the tall folk outside could take over Smiling Samuel at a bargain. A powerful external state or organization might come and back the Vulcan Empire. The MTA might change its mind. To the humans, this is the first time that the Vulcan Empire is vulnerable to attack. Anything can happen that could close this window of opportunity. The best way to prevent these changes from occurring is to move quickly and decisively." "I see. It still sounds like a big gamble, though." "Second-rate states aren't weak, patriarch. Each of them has built up a formidable military machine. While it is true that there is still a gap between the might of a regular second-rate state and one that has gained complete control over a star sector, the Vulcanites have provoked too many enemies and cannot defend against concerted attacks from each direction. If the dwarven war machine was still in peak condition, then the defenders might be able to stall the invading human forces. As it is…" Ves slowly smirked. "The dwarves drew too many mech armies from the border in order to fight each other. Their military deployments are all messed up and completely in the wrong position to resist external invasions." Minister Shederin nodded. "Correct. Part of the reason why the Lost and the other invading humans launched their invasion so quickly is because they are afraid that the dwarves will eventually wake up to the fact that they have failed to guard their front doors and transfer their mech armies back to their border strongholds. Once the fortified star systems at the edge of Smiling Samuel have returned to full strength, it is much harder and costlier to take them down." Capturing these fortified star systems was one of the most essential steps to launching a successful invasion! Ves was reminded of the Komodo War where the Hexers initially managed to overrun the Friday Coalition's Crestfallen Stars. Though it was easy enough to bypass them in space navigation, leaving these military fortresses and bases intact left the invasion troops vulnerable to getting cut off or ambushed from multiple directions! Only by taking them away from the enemy would an invasion force truly be able to expand into the interior of enemy space. Since it was too costly to fully fortify every region of space, most states only fortified their key strategic nodes as well as the star systems at the border. As long as any attackers managed to overtake the latter, at least half of the most difficult steps of conquering an enemy state were in the bag! Ves fully realized how much of an advantage the human alliance had gained. "It seems these human states are highly confident in their ability to fight the Vulcan Empire's armed forces head-on." He noted. "That is certainly the case. The five states that have made a move so far are only the first-movers. They have taken a larger risk in order to capture the most desirable provinces first and expand their claims. The other states in the region that have adopted a wait-and-see attitude will not stand by for long. Once this second batch joins in, the Vulcan Empire simply cannot resist the flood of foreign troops." The civil war along with the initial human invasion already stripped away the Vulcan Empire's illusion of strength. For a long time, the Empire of the Lost along with other neighboring human states lived under constant fear of the powerful dwarven state. Yet with so many displays of weaknesses, it was impossible for the humans to keep fearing the dwarves! Once they broke their psychological barrier, the human rulers would definitely make a move in order to project strength! As a result, a huge stampede took place where many different human forces invaded a star sector that they previously regarded as taboo. In the beginning, only the invasion troops of the original alliance moved in. Afterwards, more human states joined the party and dispatched their own troops on short notice. Even though all of these human powers fought on the same side, they also treated each other as competitors. "Faster! Faster! Faster! We need to grab as many wealthy provinces as possible! Don't let the stinking Moseleys take away the territory that rightfully belongs the Lost!" "Sir, we can't sustain the pace of our invasion! Our troops are running thin and our supplies are wearing thin." "Then concentrate our forces and take over the enemy's key star systems. As long as we hold the crown jewels in our hands, none of our rivals can take them away anymore." "We'll overextend ourselves if we penetrate too deeply into enemy territory. Without cleaning up the periphery, the dwarves can still encircle and cut off our forward troops." "Then tell headquarters to put the private sector to work! Those mercenaries back home are too weak to assault the main systems, but they're just right to take over the lesser and more rural star systems." "Many mercenaries are undisciplined and unreliable. Their presence in Smiling Samuel will cause major disruptions in the war theater. Is it wise to invite them, sir?" "Just do it! As long as we give enough rewards, the unruly mercenary corps can still be harnessed. With their help, we will not only be able to grab more land, but also divert dwarven attention away from our main forces. As long as we hold more territory in the end, everything is worth it! Now let's move before our rivals come up with the same idea!" Once the Empire of the Lost started contracting mercenary organizations on a large scale, the other states quickly followed suit. Everyone seemed to smell a gold rush in the Vulcan Empire. While the states were mainly preoccupied with conquering territory, the various private sector forces were in it for a different reason. "Loot! Loot all of these wealthy dwarven planets! Grab as much booty as you can, boys, because a chance like this doesn't come twice!" A plundering season had begun as a multitude of human mercenary corps descended upon the Vulcan Empire like a school of piranhas. With the human mech armies occupying the attention of most dwarven military units, the Vulcanites did not have many forces left at their disposal that could resist the raids conducted by the mercenary fleets! It was under these increasingly more chaotic circumstances that the expeditionary fleet nonchalantly entered the Vulcan Empire once again. This time, the Golden Skull Alliance was far from the only human force that had entered dwarven territory. It attracted considerably less attention this time, which was exactly what Ves wanted!