Too much had happened in one day! At first, multiple powerful first-rate states declared their intention to secede from the unified human civilization framework that had originally been setup by the Mech Trade Association and the Common Fleet Alliance. During the time of the Great Severing, most people never questioned the assumption that the mechers and fleeters would remain in charge of the humans that could no longer return to their home galaxy. Their circumstances drastically changed, but inertia and familiarity caused many humans to accept the reign of their familiar overlords. Even when the Red Association and the Red Fleet started to take on their own identity and begin to make adaptations that their parent organizations would never consider, they still represented the old status quo. No more. The decision of so many major players seceding from unified humanity had irrevocably damaged the authority and reputation of the Red Two. It became clear quite soon that unless the Red Association or the Red Fleet was willing to employ overwhelming force to violently bring the Terrans and the Rubarthans back into the fold, it was impossible to turn back the clock. The possibility still existed so long as the mechers and fleeters were willing to redirect a handful of their formidable god pilots and dreadnoughts. However, the very notion of pulling them away from the frontlines just to unleash their awesome killing power against fellow red humans was unconscionable! Not only would the Red Two's remaining support from the population evaporate at record speed, but the god pilots and dreadnought crew involved may even go as far as to mutiny against their own superorganizations! Even so, there were still plenty of hardliners within the RA and the RF that still insisted on bringing the first-rate colonial states back under their jurisdiction through any means necessary. If violent means could not be employed, then what about non-violent ones? As long as they remained discrete enough, they could employ many dirty tricks that would be difficult to trace back to their agents! Yet the other events that happened on the same day quickly dispelled the hopes of the mechers and the fleeters. The news and subsequent reports about the return of Bridgehead One generated a huge amount of controversy and alarm. The good news was that the largest, most developed and most powerful central star node had become accessible again. The greater spacetime bubble erected through the efforts of 6 ancient phase whales had disappeared for good. Multiple science vessels examined the periphery of the enormous star system and discovered that the local space had completely turned to normal again. None of the spatial barriers had lingered, and the passage of time inside the Bridgehead One had become fully synced to how time passed by in the rest of the universe. People could never be too careful about this. Yet after what the mechers and the fleeters learned about how the Polymath selfishly and ruthlessly took advantage of the botched attempt of the Red Cabal to eliminate the de facto capital star system of red humanity. If she wanted to, the Polymath could have used her formidable intellect and amazing wonder machines to unravel the greater spacetime bubble with minimal risk and complications. Yet she did not do so. She violated the secret terms of her exile and broke her promise to never seek a position of power in a governing organization or similar. The brilliant part about her takeover plan was that she had done so gradually. Having learned from her first botched attempt, the Polymath did not attempt to take over Bridgehead One in a single attempt. That would have generated a lot of chaos and opposition. There were very real chances that the dissidents would take up arms and unleash weapons in the most densely populated planets of the central star node. The damage and loss of life would have been catastrophic! Instead, the Polymath purposefully kept the status quo in place just so that she could undermine it piece by piece on a gradual basis. At the same time, she used the additional time afforded to her to burnish her reputation, make her case to the masses and win over one troublesome faction of loyalists after another. It was impossible for the Polymath to knock over these barriers in a single day or month, but what about a year? What about a decade? Time could wear away almost any form of resistance. Only high-ranking mech pilots remained stubborn to the end, but they were the exception rather than the rule. The Polymath did not encounter many issues with transferring them to their own preserve where they could train, meditate and generally stay out of the way. It helped a lot that she personally offered to design brand-new mechs tailored to each individual champion. After she essentially bribed the most stubborn mech pilots to not interfere with her business, the Polymath was free to convert the remaining population at her leisure. It was not as easy as it sounded. Bridgehead One was absolutely massive. The Big Two deliberately built it up as the foremost anchor point of humanity's presence in the dwarf galaxy. The mechers and fleeters almost spared no expense by pulling over so many stars and planets. It was absolutely mind-boggling that they managed to put so many stars together, tweaked their orbits so that they would not crash into each other, and build multiple Dyson spheres around them to capture their energies and prevent their combined electromagnetic radiation output from transforming all 100 planets into radioactive hells. Despite the fact that Bridgehead One completed such a massive transformation, its population had also ballooned. Many mechers and fleeters who emigrated to the Red Ocean preferred to work in this star system. Bridgehead One was one of the locations that benefited the most directly from the prosperity generated by the trade facilitated by the greater beyonder gates. Combined with the abundance of top tier laboratories, workshops, factories and other facilities, there were only a handful of star systems in the Milky Way that could exceed Bridgehead One's splendor! This was also one of the reasons why its temporary loss represented a substantial drop to the rest of red humanity's warmaking potential. Even if other star systems such as the Yernstall Central Star Node could take over some of Bridgehead One's functions, it just was not the same. What red humanity expected to receive was the original version of Bridgehead One. What they got instead was a completely new one system star nation state. Over a span of 15 years, the Polymath essentially took over all of the institutions that governed the many different aspects of Bridgehead One. At the start, she successfully persuaded the majority of the population to agree to her proposal to extend the time they remained stuck in the greater spacetime bubble. This was the most vulnerable part of her plan. If the masses strongly disagreed with remaining in isolation, then she could not execute the rest of her plan. Fortunately, enough people became convinced by the necessity of spending several decades in a time-accelerated pocket of space in order to reverse the losing trend of the Red War. It helped that many of the residents of Bridgehead One were already familiar with EdNet training. It was easy for them to make the comparison and expect similar outcomes, only this time their efforts would be much more tangible. Once the Polymath bought herself a lot of time, there was little chance for the population to resist her case. She was a Star Designer, the single-most intelligent 'human' in two galaxies. Trying to usurp leadership from billions of mortals was like stealing candies from a huge amount of babies! Perhaps the amount of babies was a bit excessive this time, that did not change the fact that none of them possessed the strength to resist a Star Designer's machinations. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂 Even the members of the Red Fleet had fallen under her sway! The fact that the Dominion of Man had become the flagship of her enormous armada represented a gigantic loss to the Red Fleet! Fleet Admiral Stanley Argile and Fleet Admiral Amelie Jameson must have gone completely crazy once they learned that the Polymath stole their precious trump card and god ship! There was just one other mystery that weighed heavily on many people's minds. "The Dominion of Man is not the only top-level asset stationed in Bridgehead One at the time." A mech designer of the RA said. "What happened to the First Flame? According to the glut of information that is being disgorged into the galactic net, His Holiness has not made an appearance in decades." An administrator who also worked for the Red Association began to grimace. "According to the 'Cybernetic Empress' herself, the First Flame played a deciding role in the defense of Bridgehead One during the initial deep strike operation launched by the ancient phase whales. After the Polymath had made her intentions to turn Bridgehead One into an enormous time capsule for ostensibly noble reasons, the First Flame agreed with her and chose to make his own preparations to save red humanity. He is not a Star Designer, so he cannot introduce new tech or govern the population as effectively as the Polymath. He can only allocate his time into enhancing his personal strength." The RA mech designer looked skeptical. "That must be challenging. He is a god pilot who is confined to a single peaceful star system. There is not enough external pressure that can make him excited and give him an actual purpose. What has His Holiness been doing in the decades that he remained stuck in Bridgehead One?" "The Polymath claims that the First Flame has chosen to undergo a long period of 'closed cultivation'. He did so by transforming his god mech into phoenix form before diving through one of the gaps of a Dyson sphere in order to hibernate inside one of Bridgehead One's 12 stars." What an outrageous claim! Any other mech pilot would have committed suicide if they attempted to dive past the corona and into the convection zone and beyond! Perhaps god mechs were much more resistant towards the massive amounts of heat being thrown about in a star, but even they should not be able to last on an indefinite basis. It was different for the Phoenix! The First Flame was a god pilot who wielded the power of flame at a god-like level. The Phoenix was probably the most heat-resistant mech that humans had ever made. As long as the two combined their advantages, it became a lot more plausible for them to be able to survive for many years while hibernating inside a star. Whether the First Flame was currently swimming in the upper layers or slept inside the massive core of the star, the amount of energy he had been absorbing in the last 50 or so years must be astronomical! This was probably the best possible use of his time. The mechers could not conceive of a better alternative. Sure, the First Flame could have remained active and either supported the Polymath's political machinations or stood against them, but what was the point? Even if the First Flame was not a member of the Survivalist Faction, even he agreed with the notion that the continued survival of red humanity mattered above all else. Let the Polymath play her games. So long as she contributed to their common goal, the First Flame had no reason to quibble. The First Flame had grown too old to care about petty politics and infighting. His cantankerous behavior had already put him out of touch with the newer generations that were in charge these days. "So how much has the First Flame changed?" "Unknown so far. Due to the drastic reduction in E energy radiation, we know that the First Flame has not been able to absorb significant amounts of E energy during the Time of Isolation. We believe that he has grown stronger, but that his progress is selective rather than holistic. Unless he emerges from a star, we can never know for certain." "Will he reappear now that Bridgehead One has reconnected to the main universe?" "...That is under debate."