6905 The Terran Gambit Ves almost couldn't believe what he heard. The Terrans and the Rubarthans actually plotted to declare independence! The unified civilization of red humanity was hardly perfect, but Ves did not think it was bad either. The mechers and fleeters in the Red Ocean had mellowed out a lot more. The founding of the Red Collective should have eased the contradictions between the different human groups and provided a stronger bridge for cooperation. The creation of Human High Command served as another bridge for cooperation. The brightest military strategists and planners put down all of their factional squabbles and came together in order to formulate a single orderly strategy to defend their race against the threat of alien aggression. Many people assumed that the first-rate colonial superstates would interpret the latest moves as a form of reconciliation. Even if the measures were mostly temporary, the goodwill extended by the Red Two should have buried any ambition to secede from unified red humanity. It turned out that Ves was too naive. His blind spot prevented him from recognizing the shady undercurrents. He spent way too much with the Survivalists, who tended to think in absolute rational terms. They tended to take logic to an extreme, to the point of disregarding almost any form of love and sentimentality. The Terrans at the very least did not think that way. Ves had spent enough time in Terran space to understand that these folk clung to their heritage and traditions like invisible suits of armor. If this turned out to be the case, then a possibility existed where the proud Terrans made a decision that fulfilled their long-held dreams of gaining independence! Even if they lost the protection of the mechers and the fleeters during a period where their colonial superstate was more vulnerable to alien incursions than ever, these stubborn fools insisted on fighting and dying as Terrans as opposed to red humans! It was a form of tribalism that may have gone too far! If the Terrans were the only people who suffered from their idiocy, then that was fine for Ves. Ves could foresee the emergence of numerous barriers between the Terran Alliance, the Rubarthan Pact and the Red Ocean Union. All of this would hinder the flow of trade and military assistance between the colonial alliances. Friction was bad! Once all three colonial alliances withdrew into themselves, they would find it much more difficult to trade the resources they possessed in excess with the resources that they lacked. More egregiously, many people and organizations would be asked to pick sides. Very few could remain neutral in an era of increased polarization and mutual suspicion. Those that pledged for one side could no longer easily engage in trade and travel with the other sides. All of these consequences and more would ultimately affect red humanity's ability to repel the real enemy. No matter how much Ves tried to think of the positives of this radical move, he couldn't see any obvious upsides to this extremely dangerous gambit. Was pride that important to the Terrans? "You still do not support our goal." Master Laila Rebecca Devos said as she stared deeply into Ves' eyes. "Of course not." Ves scowled. "You should know quite well what the consequences of sowing further division will be! We are barely holding on as a single unified race and civilization. The moment you guys begin to split apart from each other, we will be facing the native aliens as three or more completely separate groups! Dont' you think this sounds stupid? Even the native aliens have chosen to set aside their grudges and band together under the umbrella of the Red Cabal. What you are proposing is the complete opposite!" Though his words made sense, Master Laila shook her head in rejection. She completely denied his arguments. "Our situation is different from that of the native aliens. They are inherently weak, thus they have no choice but to group together in order to pool their resources together. We are different. We are the direct descendants of the Terran Empire. The old galaxy used to be in the palm of our hands, and we have the potential to grasp the new frontier in the future. One of the reasons why we cannot realize our destiny is because the mechers and the fleeters continue to shackle us. They deprive us of our sovereignty and impose greater restrictions on the use of force than they apply to themselves. Why are they the only ones allowed to field warships? Why do they have sole permission to employ weapons of mass destruction? What gives them the right to tell us how to live?!" Ves could never imagine that a woman as old and wise as Master Devos could turn into such a fanatical Terran! He could sense that she was not putting on an act. She completely voiced her true feelings in an unreserved manner. In this place of safety and privacy, she had no qualms about exposing her true thoughts to Ves. "The reason why the mechers and the fleeters get to be in charge is because they became the victors after the dust had settled at the end of the Age of Conquest. They ended up becoming more powerful than all of the other ruined powers at the time." Ves explained. Master Laila crossed her arms and scoffed. "That is over 400 years ago and in another galaxy besides. The Red Ocean represents a new start for all of us. I will readily acknowledge that the Red Association and the Red Fleet have greater forces than us, but they are all being tied down by the native aliens. This is why we are planning to declare our independence in the short term. It is inconceivable that the mechers and the fleeters will turn away from the frontlines in order to wage a civil war against us. Even with their god pilots, they simply cannot afford to violate their own principles and slaughter fellow humans out of a selfish desire to remain in charge." That… sounded logical enough. Ves had to admit that the timing they chose was indeed devious enough. Regardless of whether the RA and the RF wanted to retain their reputation as the 'good guys', there was no excuse for them to use military force to beat back the secessionists and subjugate the 'rebellious' territories. Ves knew quite well how the Survivalists thought. They would consider the breakaway event to be a fait accompli and accept the new status quo. So long as the price of intervention was far greater than the price of doing nothing, then the incredibly rational Survivalists would definitely prefer to choose the latter! The other factions would follow suit. No matter how prideful and greedy they may be, none of them would be eager to turn away from a righteous war for survival in order to engage in brutal human infighting. However, just because the mechers and the fleeters could not do anything to bring the Terrans and the Rubarthans back into the fold did not mean they had no way to retaliate. Ves could foresee that relations between the Red Two and the secessionists would deteriorate by a huge extent. Even if they did not turn into outright enemies, the mechers and the fleeters had plenty of ways to make the secessionists miserable! From withholding valuable technological and material support to trying to funnel alien invaders into the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact, the revenge of the RA and the RF would definitely make the 'traitors' suffer! All of this was bad news for people that just wanted to survive the Red War. The greater the internal division of human civilization in the new frontier, the lower their chances of making it out alive! "Don't you care at all about whether your stunt will torpedo our chances of survival?" Ves asked in a frustrated voice. Master Laila smirked in response. "Our assessment differs from yours, but for argument's sake, let us assume that your words ring true. Our reaction to this is this: it is better to die free than to live as slaves. For over four centuries, the Terran people, culture and institutions have come under constant assault by our supposed rulers. Have you ever put one moment of thought in how ridiculous it is for all of us to fall under the yoke of a trade organization based on mechs and a coalition of fleets that had betrayed the nations they used to serve? We refuse to recognize them as legitimate or even competent rulers. The best credit we can give them is that they have restored stability to our civilization during the Age of Mechs, but that is all. Their usefulness has come to an end, so they must be removed." "..." Ves could feel her determination. She truly meant what she said when she preferred to die free. These were the words of a fanatic who believed that her cause ranked higher than her survival! Ves had a very bad impression of fanaticism in any form. He used to think that it was only the religious types that fell victim to extremism. It turned out that nationalists were just as prone to going crazy! The old Terran Master's expression softened. "Look at it from our perspective, Ves. If red humanity is already doomed to go extinct, then there is little harm in regaining our sovereignty. If we are about to perish, then let us regain our dignity as a star empire that has once led the entire human race. We may die, but we shall do so as the proud descendants of the Terran Empire as opposed to the slaves of the RA and the RF. This is our version of the Final Glory line that you have recently released." That was completely different! Ves did not think the two solutions were comparable to each other! "What if there is a chance that we can survive as long as we fight hard enough?" "Then we fight hard." Master Laila grimly smiled. "I believe with all of my heart that if every Terran soldier learns that we have taken back our sovereignty from the mechers and the fleeters, they shall swell with pride and fight our enemies harder than ever! Our peak ace pilots such as the Renewer of Terra, the Messenger of Silence, the Golden and the Everlasting shall rejoice and fight with the future of the Terran Alliance at stake! Along with superdimensional technology, this may just be the catalyst they need to ascend to godhood and become the newly appointed protectors of our dream to forge a new galactic empire!" Crazy! These Terrans were crazy! Yet… the argument espoused by the Master Mech Designer did not sound entirely unrealistic. If this insane stunt truly sparked a new wave of nationalism and elevated the moods of all of the peak ace pilots, then perhaps they might have a better chance of surviving the road to no return. This was because high-ranking pilots never operated according to objective truths and logic! They operated according to subjective feelings and opinions! If they thought that founding a new Terran nation state in the Red Ocean was the best thing ever, then they just feel so good that their chances of advancing successfully may increase by as much as 30 percent or whatever! Truth did not matter in the Age of Dawn! Belief held more power in this brand new era! Although Ves wanted to argue against it, he could not come up with any good counterarguments. Perhaps the Terrans had a good point. But only if their extremely risky gambit succeeded. So long as their belief in a sovereign Terran nation state surpassed the very real material disadvantages of breaking relations with the Red Association and the Red Fleet, then the Terrans would win the greatest bet of their lives! Thank you for reading my work. If you wish to support The Mech Touch, please vote with your golden tickets! Purchase Privilege for The Mech Touch! Read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers while enjoying a 99% discount on unlocking new chapters! Join The Mech Touch's unofficial Discord server: https://discord.gg/APB5KCU