Chapter 6657 Bright Liberation Movement The Bright Liberation Movement possessed a checkered past in its previous incarnation. Back when the Bentheim Liberation Movement fought for the independence of the state's only port system, it had largely been regarded as a band of terrorists. The BLM never managed to gain traction across much of the population because few people thought it was a good idea to separate Bentheim from the Bright Republic. If the port system and possibly a number of surrounding star systems declared independence, then the neighboring Vesia Kingdom would just swoop in and swallow up the much more vulnerable port system in an instant! However, the one good thing about the Bentheim Liberation Movement was that its deplorable actions at least restrained the actions of the central government. The government officials who resided in Rittersburg did not dare to divert too much wealth from the port system to many of the other provinces of the Bright Republic for fear of boosting the support of the rebels. This proved that the BLM's leadership actually possessed a degree of shrewdness and pragmatism that Senator Tovar could respect. Now that he became one of the leading figures of its direct successor, he truly found that the BLM certainly knew how to keep its act together. The only problem that Tovar had with the past and current incarnation of the rebel organization was that its lower ranks were severely lacking in discipline. They were a far cry from the professional soldiers of the Mech Corps. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖 If not for the fact that a lot of deserters from the Mech Corps had left the Bright Republic and hooked up with the Bright Liberation Movement, Senator Tovar would have doubted whether it was worth it for him to spend his years trying to wrangle the rabble. Fortunately for him and many other Brighters, the Carmine Revolution vastly improved the BLM's prospects. The discussion on the strategic steps that the BLM needed to take continued to rage on. There were multiple leaders who advocated for immediate action. "We cannot waste too much of our time on troop building! We are losing momentum the longer we sit on our thumbs! If we take too long to begin our offensive, many of the tourists will get bored and leave." "Most of them are not that useful to us to begin with in their current state, Metcalf." Senator Tovar calmly retorted. "Many of them are Carmine mech pilots with more false bravado than skill. They need more training in order to fight more effectively." "They don't need to fight." Metcalf Larkinson contemptuously said. "They are already making themselves useful by volunteering to serve as our cannon fodder. If they survive the initial battles, then we may decide to train them more seriously, but first they need to prove they have the guts to fight in a real war." Metcalf Larkinson was not a mech officer. He was just a resentful 60-year old veteran mech pilot who managed to escape the Bright Republic when the Larkinsons suddenly became wanted. Unlike most of the relatives that managed to get away, Metcalf Larkinson did not answer the rallying call of Ark Larkinson and refused to join the Larkinson Family or Larkinson Clan. He was one of the few who wanted to continue to do his duty to the Bright Republic even if it had turned hostile to him and the Larkinsons! He was not really a qualified leader, but he managed to gain more prominence by making use of his Larkinson name. These days, his influence had grown by a considerable extent, especially since he was a blood relative to the legendary Father of Carmine Mechs! Senator Tovar would not be able to dismiss the aggressive suggestions of Metcalf Larkinson as easily as he wished. He needed to engage the stubborn soldier with proper arguments. "You should not treat our foreign volunteers in such a callous manner. They are our guests. They have shown their goodwill to us, so we must show them the respect they deserve. We need to pay more attention to our reputation. All of our actions and decisions will reflect onto Professor Larkinson one way or another. As a Larkinson yourself, you should know that his name and your name has always stood for honor and duty. Do you truly wish to forsake the reputation that your predecessors had fought with their lives by throwing away the lives and ruining the piloting careers of so many foreign Carmine mech pilots? We still need their support and the support of their backers to keep the Bright Republic after we have taken it back. Let us not disgrace our war heroes by painting our state and its citizens in a negative light" The BLM was in the public spotlight now. These short-sighted rebel leaders had always suffered from myopia. They were unable to understand the greater diplomatic context that they were operating under. "Our movement is not a platform for an old man like you to springboard your way into galactic politics!" Metcalf Larkinson complained in lieu of a better counterargument. Senator Tovar rapped his knuckles against the table. "I wouldn't be here if I did not love the Bright Republic. My family was one of its original founders. We have a duty to restore what is ours. I am merely cautioning you to pay attention to diplomacy. You may not like it, but we need outside support to retake the Bright Republic and keep it out of the hands of our enemies. Do you not realize that the Friday Coalition can resort to any measure up to and including direct military intervention to erase all of our gains?" That caught numerous leaders by surprise. Not all of them had thought far enough. The old man shook his head in disappointment. "We are living in a Free Zone now. The Big Two's rules no longer apply anymore. Aside from the common consensus that we should not try to acquire and make use of warships and superweapons, we are allowed to do almost everything else. That includes second-rate states directly intervening in third-rate states. Now that the mechers and the fleeters no longer impose any invisible restraints, the Fridaymen will no longer face sanction if they directly deploy their vastly superior second-class mechs on a third-class battlefield." This scenario sounded a lot more realistic now that the leaders processed the greater implications of living in a Free Zone. "Shouldn't the Fridaymen have their hands full with the Hexers?" "Perhaps in the future, but not to the same extent." Senator Tovar replied. "Unlike our BLM, the Hexer cause is much more extreme. Too extreme for most people, in fact. They also require vastly greater funding and support in order to reclaim their former territories in the Komodo Star Sector. While the Hexer expatriates may still be able to muster several powerful armored forces in the next year, their poor diplomacy will continue to hamper their attempts to build a coalition. In summary, do not expect the Hexers to keep the Fridaymen busy in the short term. We must find a way to deter the Fridaymen from invading our fragile and recovering third-rate state with overwhelming force. The only viable way to do so is to borrow a page from their book" "What do you mean by that, senator?" "Have you forgotten how the Friday Coalition won the Komodo War? The Fridaymen leveraged their diplomacy to invite a large amount of foreign military support to help them in the war against the Hexers. The Fridaymen also 'borrowed' the expert pilots of third-rate states in our star sector to stack the deck against their archenemies. Their strategy worked, simply because the Hexers were not able to match the Fridayman's efforts. Never ignore the power of making friends with other states." That caused a lot of other leaders in the meeting to rethink their own approaches. They never really appealed to foreign aid in the past, but that was mostly because no one really cared about the Bright Republic. It was different now that the historic deeds of one of its former citizens had put a galactic spotlight on the state. "The Friday Coalition is not in a good place as far as diplomacy goes." Another BLM leader said. "It is the only major state in the Yeina Star Cluster that is continuing to prohibit the production and use of Carmine mechs. Everyone and their mother knows that Professor Larkinson used to be enemies with the Fridaymen. That has definitely caused many Carmine mech pilots and the people around them to develop a bad impression of the second-rate state. The Fridaymen tried to kidnap or kill him multiple times. If they succeeded, every Carmine mech pilot right now would still be stuck as powerless norms who would never be able to pilot a machine in their lifetime." That was also a good argument. It was difficult to gauge how much the Friday Coalition lost support and whether it would lead to more serious retaliatory actions, but for now no one was willing to offer any military aid! Part of that was because many states were too concerned about the deteriorating security situation to spare much forces elsewhere. Senator Tovar possessed a much better picture of what the Friday Coalition might be going through in the future, but he doubted the others were interested at the moment. "It is true that the Friday Coalition is in a weak position at the moment. That makes the second-rate state dangerous. Its leaders may decide that they need a show of strength in order to repair the confidence of its citizens and demonstrate to everyone else that they are still in charge of the Komodo Star Sector. If we start our operation to take back the Bright Republic too soon, we will become the nail that the Fridaymen will seek to hammer down." The faces of many BLM leaders turned ugly after hearing that. They were not stupid enough to reject this possibility. "If that is the case, how long do we need to wait?" Metcalf Larkinson asked in a more subdued tone. "Half a year to a year." Senator Tovar estimated. "Events are still developing quickly, so you do not need to wait longer than that. The Friday Coalition will continue to grow more and more unstable as it is struggling with an unsolvable dilemma. In the meantime, foreign donations and volunteers keep coming in from the other parts of human space. Many may feel discouraged and decide to leave, but I believe that you can compensate for their absence with other newcomers. What is important is that you must give them enough time to learn how to fight as a unit in an organized mech force. Carmine mech pilots are not soldiers, so you must work to correct that shortcoming so that they have a good chance of surviving the coming battles." The meeting continued as the leaders of the Bright Liberation Movement continued to address a range of other topics. The former senator mostly took a backseat on these discussions. He was not directly involved in matters relating to officer promotions, logistics and so on. He also attracted enough of the limelight for himself. If he kept attracting so much attention, then he would eventually come across as a usurper rather than a contributor. There were already too many rebels who harbored a lot of suspicion about Camden Tovar's motives within the BLM. He was not the sort of person who was traditionally associated with the previous incarnation of the rebel movement. In truth, some of their accusations were correct. Senator Tovar was already thinking about the next step of his career. He did not intend to dedicate the rest of his life to the Bright Republic. It was too small and inconsequential for his current appetite. As long as he wrangled the BLM into a successful reconquest of the Bright Republic and managed to earn a good reputation while doing so, he was confident he could insert. himself into a larger political organization! After all, since Ves Larkinson and his fellow soldiers of the Flagrant Vandals had fought so hard to extend his lifespan by a century, he may as well make better use of his additional years!