As the final and most critical phase of the Red Tide Offensive took place, every red human became affected by this final push. The temporary isolation of Yernstall Central Star Node generated a considerable amount of panic among the citizens. The authorities had been quick to publish statements that emphasized red humanity’s reduced dependence on single star systems. They also made it clear that the defenders of Yernstall were well-prepared enough for this possible event that they were already working to free themselves from the greater spacetime bubble. The mood among the people lifted up a little bit, but the bad news from the front quickly caused it to drop again. Many star systems struggled to withstand the native aliens as they did their utmost to topple the fifth defensive band. While the final line of fortified star systems was much better defended than the previous ones, the numerical advantage enjoyed by the native aliens was difficult to overcome. Both sides suffered severe losses in the initial battles. The red humans lost a lot of fortifications and a large amount of mechs. The native aliens in turn had to sacrifice a lot of phasefighters and warships to make actual progress. In places such as Kayana, the native alien attackers failed to take over a planet or moon. They had suffered too many losses and could not afford to persist in their attacks anymore. In other places, the native aliens produced significantly better results. Right now, many Middle Zones were at risk of falling. The alien assault fleets under the leadership of many different phase lords successfully gained the advantage on many battlefields. The Torald Middle Zone in particular was already at risk of falling due to losing several key star systems at the same time! Multiple powers immediately enacted plans to launch counterattacks in order to take them back, but there were many people who were skeptical whether this would happen. Too many star systems had fallen to make a concentrated counterattack viable. There weren’t many reinforcements or reserves left at this point. At this time, red humanity greatly suffered from the bottlenecks that hindered its military expansion. The production of mechs still remained fairly strong. The mech industry had not shown too many constraints when it came to producing more mechs. What red humanity truly struggled with was finding people to pilot these machines. Trained and skilled manpower became increasingly more scarce. Years of calling up reserves had drained the amount of mech pilots that were capable of fighting as part of a military unit. The only way to call up more manpower was to resort to desperate measures. The one that was currently hotly debated was the decision to conscript mech cadets that were in their last 2 or 3 years of study! Their theoretical understanding might not be complete and their skills may still be raw, but as long as they could fight with fairly simple melee or ranged mechs, they should still be useful on the battlefield! Carmine mech pilots also became a lot more popular than before. The production of Yellow Jackets ramped up as more and more leaders were willing to employ them on the battlefield in the near term despite the lack of training! Unfortunately, there was not much use producing too many Yellow Jackets. Training was a big issue. The Yellow Jacket line lacked the autonomy of the Auto Heretic line designed for the Milky Way Galaxy. The critical lack of HALM meant that most Carmine mech pilots could do little more than make the Yellow Jacket hover while pointing a single modular weapon mount in different directions. There were times when Ves thought about making this difference disappear. What was the harm in letting the Yellow Jackets take control over their own actions? As living mechs, they should be trustworthy enough to gain control over dangerous systems. When he cautiously brought this subject up with Jovy Armalon, the RA Senior Mech Designer furrowed his brows. "You are asking a troubling question, Ves." He said. "To be honest, we are ahead of you. Our faction and Association has been discussing the merits of allowing Carmine mech pilots to rely on higher degrees of automation in order to turn their machines more effective in combat. It would fundamentally change the relationship between mech and mech pilot. Your proposal will reduce the mech pilot to a supervisor to his own machine. This is… problematic. We do not want to make it a habit for human mech pilots to make use of their mechs this way. It will only make them all more dependent on automation." Ves scowled and pressed his fingers against his temple. "So that is a ’no’?" "There are many mechers who are utterly convinced that if we want to prove our right to survive, we must do so by showing strength instead of weakness. This is a difficult philosophical debate, and you may think it is silly for us to place so much importance on values and ideology. However, the Red Association is also a reflection of its top leaders. The Fist of Defiance and the Evolution Witch are both forcing their respective factions to block any attempts to automate mechs. There are also other leaders that would rather die than allow AIs to win their wars." Ves didn’t know how he felt about this. As a mech designer himself, he strongly agreed with this view. On the other hand, the pragmatist within him strongly objected to the decision to avoid specific categories of technology just because they did not conform to the ideologies of numerous god pilots. It was easy for these transcendent beings to tell Carmine mech pilots who had zero effective training to suck it up and train for a few years. Their civilization might not exist anymore by the time the Carmine mech pilots completed their most basic training! Therefore, support for greater mech automation never ceased. The strong opposition from several god pilots, Star Designers and other members of the cadre could not strangle the talk. Desperation could make many people turn a blind eye towards their principles. God pilots could never bring themselves to break their promises, but there were still other ways they could assist with repelling the native aliens. The cautious leaders were still reluctant to open the floodgates of mech automation. "It is… regrettable that the Red Association has failed to be decisive on this matter." Ves commented. "I kind of see where the opposing god pilots are coming from, but this is a typical example of why it is a bad idea to put god pilots in charge of anything. They are holding all red humans to the same impossible standards as them. AIs are tools, just as any other piece of tech. They have great capacity to do harm, but they can also solve a lot of acute problems." Jovy sighed and leaned in to place his hand on Ves’ shoulder. "Your words will not have much weight on this matter. We all understand the logic that your Yellow Jackets can fight the aliens more effectively, but there are justified fears that we will only be giving our enemies a chance to exploit a backdoor in the programming that causes all of our Carmine mechs to go berserk. I can only promise that we will make sure to relay your words to the opposing leaders. Whether they will listen is another matter." Well, at least Ves tried. He personally disagreed with this direction, but his clout was not enough to sway the minds of stubborn god pilots. "So how is the war effort going?" He asked. "Give me the truth, not the rosy picture that you feed to the public in order to keep their spirits high." "You are a sharp and perceptive individual, Ves. I think that you have enough information channels to possess a good grasp of how the Red Tide Offensive is actually unfolding. It is largely going as predicted. The Lower Zones are losing ground at a steady rate. The minor races are just throwing as many cheap warships into them as possible. This is good as the lack of phase lords means that it is easy to foresee how every battle will progress. The lack of strong champions prove that neither side of the war cares too much about the most barren regions of this dwarf galaxy." "The Upper Zones are holding up for now, I guess." Ves said. "From what I have read on the galactic net as well as the intelligence briefings from the Red Collective, the decision to shift a lot of second-class ace pilots to the Upper Zones have paid off. Many star systems still retain their strongholds because of their help." "We truly cannot afford to lose the Upper Zones that are closest to the border." Jovy solemnly said. "If one of them falls, other Upper Zones in the vicinity will come under threat. That will massively diminish their industrial output, which is catastrophic for us in the long run. The longer we keep the Upper Zones secure, the longer we can produce units that can fight against the best of what the aliens are throwing at us. I have heard that Saint Davia Stark has made a good contribution to our cause. She has distinguished herself in the Rubarthan Pact in such a dramatic manner that the Rubarthans have already crowned her with her first title." Ves smiled in a mixture of pride and amusement. "Yes. The Executioner of Light. It is not what I would think of when I come across her name, but it is as good of a title as any. I haven’t received her opinion about it. She might pull another Tusa and reject the title proposed by her adoring fans." From what Ves understood of Saint Stark’s character, she probably did not care that much about what names other people placed on her shoulders. So long as the title was decent and acceptable enough, there was a high likelihood that she would agree to the proposal. "Many people are admiring her marksmanship skills, her willpower and her extraordinary abilities." The Survivalist mecher said. "What few individuals take notice of is the ace mech that enables her to output so much damage. She has single-handedly destroyed scores of enemy warships, many of which happen to be alien battleships. This is a feat that puts her well ahead of other ace mechs. I know numerous high-ranking mech pilots that would love to make use of a luminar crystal rifle similar to the Instrument of Vengeance." Ves immediately waved his hand in rejection. "No way. There is little point to doing this. I don’t have time to design such standalone weapons. The Instrument of Vengeance is so strong by itself. The weapon is strong due to the excellent synergies with the Amaranto’s mech frame and Saint Stark’s domain field. They all complement each other. This magic will be lost on other expert mechs and ace mechs unless they are massively overhauled." It was Jovy’s turn to become disappointed. He understood what Ves was talking about, so there was no easy way to persuade Ves to design high-end luminar crystal rifles for other powerhouse mechs. "You can reconsider at any time, Ves. You do not have to design a customized weapon for any machine." The two Senior Mech Designers went back to discussing the ongoing war. The Red Tide Offensive spooked a lot of people, and the people who should arguably fear for their lives the most were those living in the Middle Zones right next to the border regions! "The Krakatoa Middle Zone is in trouble, am I right?" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺 Jovy ruefully smiled. "Its prognosis is not good. There are too many phase lords assaulting those star systems. Phase whales have already appeared in sporadic fashion. Too many star systems fell despite possessing stronger orbital defense networks around their populated planets. The Torald Middle Zone has turned into a sieve. I would not be surprised that alien raiding fleets have already begun to sneak into our hinterland to conduct raids on vulnerable industrial sites." In other words, Krakatoa and all of the states that have taken root over there were in the fight of their lives! Stay tuned for updates on freewebnovel