"Welcome... to the first conference organized by our faction in this new and exciting age. Many of you are apprehensive of what the Age of Dawn has brought to us all. You are correct to hold this attitude. Fear is a primal emotion that keeps us on our toes. Fear is what drives us to find solutions against problems that threaten our livelihoods. Fear has led us to take action and put an end to the madness in the closing years of the Age of Conquest." The Xenotechnician spoke with a voice that was firm but not too overbearing. His voice also contained a deliberate touch of artificial distortion, which was odd as a man of his ability could easily fix. The centuries-old Star Designer knew exactly what he was doing. He had grown so old that he no longer needed to put so much effort into conforming to societal norms. When a mech designer like him transcended into a post-divinity life form, he had become so far removed from his humble human origins that he may as well be a separate species! Of course, every mech designer voluntarily anchored themselves to their human identities. They dedicated so much of their lives to contributing to human civilization in one way or another that it was unthinkable for them to abandon their roots. Though the Xenotechnician kept his power so restrained that he came across as an aging but surprisingly healthy geezer, he did not present himself as anything other than a human. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢 Whether this was an accurate representation of himself remained to be seen. Everyone was just happy that this extremely powerful and capable Star Designer remained on their side! "Fear is a vital reason to act, but we cannot allow ourselves to lose our rationality and make decisions that are in error. We must master our own fears and muster up the determination to do what it takes to fight for our survival. Our faction is formed by the common belief that no taboo is sacred and that we must do everything in our power to safeguard the survival of our race and civilization." A heavy atmosphere fell over the assembly hall. Ves and many other attendees became swayed by the Xenotechnician's message. Even though the Star Designer did not show any deliberate signs of manipulation, his identity along with his powerful extraordinary traits still put a lot of weight in his words. It was a manner of speaking that caused everyone who listened to the speaker to see reality from his viewpoint! As a survivor of the twilight of the Age of Conquest, the Xenotechnician clearly maintained an attitude that if humanity already managed to save itself once, it could do so again! The only question in Ves1 mind was what sort of strategy the Star Designer intended to propose. The man clearly had a strong idea on what the Survivalist Faction and the Red Association ought to do in order to save red humanity from extinction! The living fossil did not keep his audience waiting for too long. "Let me be honest with you all. Our isolated society is under grave danger. Our technology remains superior despite the best efforts of the aliens to close the gap. Our mech pilots stand to gain strength beyond measure once they have begun to unlock the potential of exotic radiation. Given enough time, the disparity in numbers will no longer be relevant as our mechs and mech pilots are able to use exotic radiation as their strongest weapons against our adversaries." Humanity had always relied on ingenuity to solve problems that seem insurmountable. A lot of mechers placed a lot of expectations towards the Star Designers of the Red Association. Were the Star Designers up to the task? Would their innovations be enough to strengthen red humanity fast enough to resist the escalating alien assaults? "IT IS NOT ENOUGH!" The Xenotech loudly boomed, causing everyone to be taken aback by his abrupt shift in attitude! "We sustain ourselves with hope, but empty whims cannot solve the shortcomings that limit our ability to resist! Look at me. Look at this alien tech that 1 have deciphered. It seems powerful to your eyes. You are not wrong to respect its capabilities. Yet how many products can our society produce? How many raw materials can we extract from the limited amount of star systems under our control?" The old man made a simple sobering argument. Relying on the advanced technologies that everyone wanted to rely upon to reverse the tide against the aliens had a fatal flaw. The most powerful technologies often demanded the rarest resources! Even if people settled for more practical solutions, they still couldn't get around the limitation of a persistent shortage of raw materials! Many people actually hoped that the bigshots would find a way to overcome this problem, but how easy was it for them to create miracles out of nothing? While Ves faintly hoped that the ubiquitous supply of exotic radiation may be able to plug this enormous gap, the Xenotechnician clearly had a different proposal in mind. The Star Designer gradually began to unveil a hint of his enormous might as a True God. Ves had witnessed a show like this once before. Back then, the Polymath lifted the veil that maintained her human facade and revealed that she had become the embodiment of the fundamental concept of Truth! The Xenotechnician possessed a different domain. A manifestation slowly formed behind his back that looked like a small glimpse of a chaotic and disorganized clockwork machine of immense proportions! Ves and Jovy weren't the only people who lost control and gasped at the transcendently powerful sight. What made this incomprehensibly large and complex clockwork machine so weird and unnerving was that it was made out of many different kinds of tech! Both human and alien technological elements blended together in a seemingly haphazard fusion that looked like it should never be able to work, yet somehow functioned properly! This was the purest representation of the concept of Assimilation! This was the essence of the Xenotechnician in his transcendent form! It might even be his true body! The old and fragile human shell that he presented as his body was nothing but an unimportant meatsuit to the Star Designer. As a True God, he had largely transitioned into an energy-based life form that had taken the form of this titanic clockwork machine! As the Xenotechnician spoke, the entire audience could feel the utter belief, conviction and sincerity of the immensely powerful Star Designer. "No one will come to save us. Our compatriots that we have left behind in the Milky Way are unable to reinforce us, thereby denying us the advantages granted by the manpower, resources and assets of all of human space. If we wish to make up for this fatal shortcoming, then we must find a substitute. We must obtain more territory, harvest more resources and bring more forces to bear against the indigenous aliens that seek our extinction." A new projection came to life. It showed an impressive representation of the Milky Way Galaxy. Every attendee was familiar with the sight of their home galaxy. Their eyes showed longing and regret in various measures as they observed the lost cradle of human civilization. A much smaller galaxy appeared next to this giant representation. The Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy was only a little over 1.5 percent as big as the Milky Way Galaxy. In practice, this meant that the Red Ocean was only as large as an extensive collection of old galaxy star clusters! Of this dwarf galaxy, only a part of the bottom was lit up in red. The rest was dyed in white. "On this date, red humanity has laid claim to roughly 8 percent of the territories of the Red Ocean." The Xenotechnician factually explained as he silently withdrew his impressive domain. "Do not be fooled by this percentage. Only a fraction of our claims consist of upper zones. The native aliens are in full control over the most resource abundant territories of their home ground. It is not possible to make an accurate comparison of the amount of relevant resources that red humanity have access to compared to our direct adversaries, but our most credible estimates suggest that we only have access to 1 percent of the total amount of phasewater and other strategic resources." I! II This was a harsh and depressing truth. Humanity essentially started its invasion of the Red Ocean by entering the periphery of the dwarf galaxy. It was the equivalent of extragalactic aliens trying to invade the Milky Way by setting up a bridgehead in the Komodo Star Sector! While this ensured that humanity would not be faced with overwhelming resistance right from the start, red humanity was now beginning to suffer from the consequences of this fateful choice! "Our society is about to enter its darkest hour. As the Red Cabal is preparing to flood our limited territories with alien fleet after alien fleet, we will not be in a position to undergo any further expansion. Instead, the opposite will occur. The balance of power will continue to grow more lopsided until we have reached a tipping point where we cannot possibly win this war anymore. No matter how many battleships and god mechs we can throw at our adversaries, we cannot stem the tide for long." The Xenotechnician did not continue to pummel everyone's confidence by hammering home how far red humanity had fallen behind compared to their enemies. "Desperate times call for desperate measures." He spoke in a slightly more uplifting tone. "If we cannot guarantee our survival by staying true to our current selves, then we are not doing enough to save red humanity. We must rethink the fundamental tenets of our civilization. If we release one of our boundaries, how can we use that to increase our advantages and impact the strength of our enemies?" No one had a clear answer to this question. The taboos were far too strongly ingrained in everyone's minds. As an ancient fossil who spent his youth in an age where the modern taboos had never taken shape, the Xenotechnician possessed a different attitude to the rules that had long been considered sacred by the children of the Age of Mechs. The old Star Designer took an audible breath before he finally unveiled his explosive solution. "We must revoke the taboo that prohibits us from cooperating with aliens." He announced, much to the shock of almost everyone in the assembly hall! "We must be frank about our position of weakness and resort to diplomacy to find allies among the indigenous alien races of the Red Ocean. As long as we employ the right intermediaries that can act as a reliable bridge between red humanity and a receptive alien race, we can form new treaties and convert deadly enemies into helpful allies!" The map of the Red Ocean began to change. Roughly 20 percent of the territories lit in white suddenly began to glow in red! All of a sudden, humanity and its new allies had access to much more resources, assets and manpower! Combined with humanity's undeniable tech advantage, this might be enough to reverse the balance of power! "Realizing this plan will be difficult, but not impossible." The Xenotechnician stated. "The major alien races are not as friendly with each other as you think. The fault lines that have generated many tensions between them have not faded with the arrival of our race. If we carefully study every alien group, we should be able to find these fault lines and use them to create more divisions among our foes. If red humanity can form a brand-new coalition with a major race such as the orvens or the puelmers, we can fight our remaining enemies to a standstill! I cannot promise you that we will be able to win the war, but it should at least be within the realm of possibility to create a stalemate!" Everyone was still too shocked to exhibit any other reactions. What the Xenotechnician proposed was too radical and unthinkable to everyone! Even though the Star Designer's logic was simple and clear, the leaps he made were just too shocking! The powerful old man did not care for all of the criticism that he would doubtlessly generate in the coming days. He had a strong belief that his plan was the most viable of them all. Only compromise and diplomacy would save red humanity from total extinction. "I must disclose one more piece of information to you. Our plan has little chance of success if we attempt to engage in diplomacy with the aliens ourselves. As much as we dislike it, we must make do with the choices at hand. There is only one existing group that can act as an intermediary. In fact, this group of outcasts have already taken the initiative to approach me and offer their services. Our relation with this forbidden organization is poor to say the least, but as long as their goals are compatible with ours, we must not let the taboo against cooperating with these generational criminals stop us from saving our race." Wait a second. Ves was starting to have a very bad feeling about the identity of this forbidden organization! The Xenotechnician made an admission to all of the gathered Survivalists and associates. "It is the cosmopolitans who have clandestinely approached my people and proposed this plan in the first place. An irrational response to their valid and sound proposal is to reject it outright in the mistaken belief that red humanity must stand alone. The reality is that we do not have the qualifications to do so. We are not the humans of the past. We are not operating in the galaxy of our origin. We are our own people, so we must make our own rules! If our only way out is to swallow our pride and abandon our old principles so that we can engage in realpolitik, then so be it! Survival comes above all! Red humanity must be saved, by any means necessary!"