Ves decided to give the Terrans a chance. Although he could not tolerate a huge delay, it did not strain his patience too much if he delayed the project by two or so months. He already made an informal agreement with Master Laila Devos that if the Terrans failed to make substantive progress in their attempts to make their alternate control system compatible with TE Wood, he may decide to go ahead with the Arboreal Project without this key advancement. Mech design was not always about designing the best mech possible. It was about meeting the demand of the customers in a timely manner. Few people thought it was ideal if it took 5 or 10 years for them to finally get their hands on a product that could meet their requirements and solve their problems. Under certain circumstances, it was better to deliver a more rudimentary product within a year that only satisfied some, but not all of their requirements. So long as the product was good enough to help them complete their most urgent objectives, the shortcomings were not too critical. Ves now faced such a situation. He knew that with the way the Red War was unfolding, the Terran Alliance needed an effective solution sooner rather than later. How long could its frontlines last? Would a few months of delay cause the Caesarion Upper Zone to collapse before the Terrans could roll out enough Woodsap mechs to reinforce the depleted defenders? The original plan called for designing Woodsap mechs with the assumption of enabling mech pilots with lower-than-average genetic aptitude take control of more advanced war machines. What Master Laila Rebecca Devos proposed to do instead represented a pretty radical change of plans. The revised vision of the Terrans admittedly made the Arboreal Project a lot more innovative and useful, but could Ves and everyone else afford to wait that long to realize this more perfect implementation of a Wood Elemental Carmine System? That was the dilemma that Ves faced as a mech designer. He refused to believe that Master Laila Devos failed to recognize this dilemma. When she became confronted by this junction, she resolutely chose to bet on the more promising but also time-consuming choice. Whether she had made the right choice or not, she and by extension the Terrans would rather invest additional time into developing a more mature and developed Woodsap mech than to settle with rushed and inferior goods! They made this choice despite the awareness that a rushed Woodsap mech design may be just what they needed to stem the bleeding and give their defenses a crucial wave of timely reinforcements. This either told Ves that they were willing to bet the future of their colonial superstate on this gambit, or… they were not too concerned about the consequences of delaying the Arboreal Project. "The Terrans are not stupid." Ves reminded himself. "They are among the most careful and cautious thinkers among the first-raters." He spent enough time on New Constantinople VIII to know that the Terrans never made any reckless choices if they could help it. They liked to deliberate on possible solutions in committee so that they became certain that they chose the right direction to go forward. While this decision-making model often caused them to be slow to react to rapid changes, the Terrans nonetheless managed to preserve their legacy since the dawn of humanity's ascension into the stars. Even when they were faced with collapse in every direction, the Terrans remained steadfast in their steady and careful approach towards decision-making. If the opinions shared by Master Laila Devos did not merely reflect her personal attitude, but instead conveyed the consensus of the leadership of the Terran Alliance, then they most definitely had a trump card in store! "What are they relying on?" Ves wondered. A few possibilities came to mind. Perhaps the Terrans were almost ready to enact their mysterious plot to recapture the sovereignty that they surrendered to the mechers and the fleeters. Ves had never heard about it again, but he most definitely had not forgotten about it. The Terrans, the Rubarthans and possibly other conspirators must be maneuvering behind the scenes. As far as he knew, they were waiting for the right timing to launch their ambitious plan to declare their independence from the hegemonic regime originally established by the mechers and the fleeters. Were they already closing in on that fateful date? The Terrans may also be thinking about forcing their peak ace pilots to simultaneously step onto the road to no return. Most of their greatest heroes would undoubtedly be found wanting and perish, but if two or three of them managed to survive and complete their ultimate apotheosis, then it may be worth it in the end! Still, Ves felt it was way too soon for the Terrans to resort to this measure. They needed to mine a lot more superdimensional matter in order to complete the superdimensional conversion of many more peak ace mechs. That would definitely give their god pilot candidates a much higher chance of succeeding in their attempts to attain godhood! A more direct and extreme measure would be to deploy weapons of mass destruction en masse. Who cared about taboos when the Terran Alliance was on the verge of losing a crucial and strategically important Upper Zone? Although the massive escalation would undoubtedly invite a devastating counterreaction from the native aliens, if red humanity was already on track to lose the war according to its current trajectory, then why not flip the board and see what happened? Any change was better than the current status quo! Ves had an idea that this possibility may already be fairly close at hand. It only took a single rogue element that happened to have an antimatter bomb or equally devastating superweapon on hand to push the metaphorical red button. The rogue operators may be a Terran, a Rubarthan or maybe even a third-rater. So long as they were humans and so long as they launched enough weapons of mass destruction to rule out accidents, then the native aliens would most definitely choose to reciprocate! This was despite the awareness that their own territories risked suffering much more harm in response! After all, human-occupied space was tiny compared to the territories originally occupied by the native aliens. If red humans became vindictive enough, they could load their stealth vessels with as many antimatter bombs as they could fit before sending them off into alien space. These stealth vessels could sneak close to an important alien planet, discretely drop their payloads before slipping away unnoticed. If they repeated this tactic enough times, they could unleash a wave of devastation that would end up killing tens if not hundreds of times more aliens than any humans that moved into the new frontier! "This is an extreme solution. It is better if the Terrans do not open this particular Pandora's box." He may be overthinking the situation. Perhaps the simpler explanation was that the Terrans had enough faith in the defenders to hold the line long enough to wait for the arrival of the improved Woodsap mechs. This may especially be the case now that the Premier Fleet had launched and was even now entering the war theater. If the Saint Commander and the forces at her disposal managed to inflict enough damage to the native alien raiding operation in the surrounding regions, then that would definitely buy the Terrans a lot of additional time! "This is an unexpected connection." This explained why the Terran Alliance offered such generous incentives to encourage the Premier Fleet to start its first campaign around the Caesarion Upper Zone. Ves did not realize that the Terrans tied these two events together. He found it absurd that he failed to recognize this chain despite the fact that he was directly involved in both affairs! "Oh well. At least I eventually figured out this connection." The awareness brought him greater insight, but did not really change his outlook all that much. He just became a lot more invested in the success of the campaign that was about to kick off in a big way. Ves could still think of a few ways to increase the success rate of the Premier Fleet's intention to raze hell in alien space. However, all of this might not end up making much of a difference if the Terrans took too much time to make their special control system compatible with TE Wood. In order to gain more insight on what the Terran biotech experts were up to, he decided to call Vice Director Maria Abselon. "If possible, I highly recommend that you acquiesce to the Terrans and give them the time they need to develop a working implementation of their special tech." "Are you telling me that because you used to be a Terran biotech researcher yourself?" Ves suspiciously asked. Maria responded with a gracious smile. "The Terrans exiled me from their scientific community, remember? I hardly have any goodwill left towards my former people. You cannot believe how much our science has become tainted by infighting, theft and political interference. It cannot be helped. Despite how wealthy we appear from the outside, our research eats funding and resources like voracious black holes. It takes an astronomical amount of funding to make significant advances at this level. The Terran ancient clans can only support so many research projects at a time. I went into this arena without sufficiently understanding all of the unspoken rules. I should have been more cautious and forbearing, but the Terrans ultimately could not tolerate my attempts to assert myself." Ves frowned in response. Her evaluation of the Terran scientific community was quite negative. If pure research had to make way for external interference to such an extent, then where did that leave his Arboreal Project? "Do you think the Terrans will take longer than desirable to complete the revised control system for our collaboration project?" "Actually, no." Maria Abselon said. "Despite my harsh words towards my former colleagues, their abilities should never be cast in doubt. If the Devos Ancient Clan and other ancient clans are united in their purpose, then this research project will receive an unprecedented amount of support as well as political protection. The biotech scientists will constantly have to account for their progress, but they do not have to fear any other form of interference. This is close to an ideal situation for them. Their productivity will most likely multiply by a factor of at least 3 in my estimation." "Are you personally familiar with the special control system that the Terrans want to implement in the Arboreal Project?" "Not specifically, no." The vice director shook her head. "I specialize in exobeast research. The study of developing new ways to control a biomech falls into an entirely different specialization. However, if my speculations about the possible direction chosen by the relevant Terran scientists are accurate, then my expertise may not be as unrelated as I initially assumed." Ves deduced the possible connection. "Are you claiming that the Terrans will attempt to base their innovative control system on the nervous system of comparable exobeasts?" The physical projection of Maria grinned. "Not just exobeasts. Phase lords as well, particularly humanoid ones. The latter's multidimensional anatomy may involve several anomalies, but you cannot deny that the body of a human phase lord is the most suitable template for this research initiative." Ves blinked. "Are you saying I should donate my body for Terran science?" "It may not be necessary, sir. The Terrans are resourceful. Even if they do not have access to the research data relating to human phase lords, they can still reference data related to orven phase lords. There is no shortage of that. There are still many differences between human and orven physiques, but they at least have the same overall body shape and extremities, so it will take less time to convert the data into useful solutions." "...That sounds like a lot of trouble. Isn't it faster and more straightforward to outright give them data on human phase lords?" "That requires a human phase lord to volunteer private and sensitive information. Would you like to volunteer, sir?" "..."