From what Ves could glean from the answers given by Jovy and Commodore Reze, it sounded as if the Red Two already accepted the new reality. The Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact had slipped away from their regime for good. There was so much bad blood between the Red Two and the first-rate colonial superstates that the latter had become allergic to surrendering their sovereign rights. The Terrans and the Rubarthans would never agree to give their former overlords power over their mechs and warships! Otherwise, what was the point of pulling off the Red Split? Still, the RA and the RF had many ways to undermine the insurrectionists. They could apply many different forms of pressure in order to force the mechers and the fleeters to the negotiating table. Ves therefore had good reasons to believe that the Red Two and the newly restored star nations would form a reluctant compromise that pleased no one, but at least kept the peace… for the time being. Everyone understood the reality that they could not afford to get embroiled into infighting, especially now that not one, but two major alien threats sought to make red humanity extinct! After Ves and Casella understood the general attitudes of the mechers and the fleeters, they turned their attention to the representative of the latest superorganization. Technically speaking, Ves should be considered a collie as well, but his deliberate attempts to maintain his distance from the Astral Octagon had worked a little too well. Ves had little idea what the actual leaders of the RC thought about the Red Split, the Cybernetic Empire and the Voribug Outbreak. Although Ves definitely intended to use his own channels to contact the collies and request clarification, it was a good idea to start with the leader of the Moloch Squadron. Formation Master Andrea Vos had been waiting for her turn to speak. "As you know, the Red Collective is not burdened by the… historical baggage of the Red Association and the Red Fleet." She calmly began. "Professor Larkinson, you founded our organization with the purpose of serving the people, most particularly those who had been overlooked and dismissed by the Red Two. We believe we have been able to fulfill that mission without resorting to heavy-handed rules or coercion. We have also imitated your strategy of befriending as many stakeholders as possible without becoming too involved in their more controversial affairs. It is not our place to do more than regulate systematic cultivation." That was a decidedly neutral answer, but that did not necessarily mean it was bad. The Red Collective was founded for multiple reasons, but one of them was to address the shortcomings of the mechers and the fleeters. Back during the end of the Age of Conquest, the MTA and the CFA had reached a position of unprecedented power. Whether they intended to or not, they amassed an enormous amount of military might. All of the human star empires and star nations at the time had become unprecedentedly weak and vulnerable. What was supposed to happen was that the MTA and the CFA helped these star nations rebuild by providing stability and protection against threats from human rivals and alien invaders. Once a few generations had passed, the situation in the Milky Way should have stabilized to the point the MTA and the CFA could safely wind down their excessive military forces and allow the human star nations to handle their own defense. That did not happen. Unlike the Five Scrolls Compact that at least chose to rule from the shadows, the MTA and the CFA took advantage of their unstoppable might and outright became the hegemons of human civilization! The Big Two cemented their power and imposed their rule on all humans no matter whether they were Terrans or ordinary third-raters. Were they right to do so? That was a debate that could never be resolved. Most people of the later generations had little interest in exploring ancient history. They had a much greater interest in clarifying the role of the Red Three in contemporary times. While the Red Association and the Red Fleet clearly wanted to maintain as much of the status quo as possible, the Red Collective was the only superorganization that sincerely wanted to work with the space peasants rather than make all of the decisions on their behalf. Of course, much of it had to do with the governance model that Ves deliberately proposed for the Red Collective. Every human stakeholder held seats in the Lower or Upper Council. The necessity of attracting as many votes as possible to build up support for specific initiatives made it necessary for most proposals to cater to the interests of as many populations as possible. In other words, as long as the Red Collective did not start to cheat and violate its own rules, it could never degenerate into a power-hungry and self-serving cabal like its older siblings! "Is there anything that you can actually do to lower tension and prevent the new situations from getting out of hand?" Ves asked the Farseer. "I am not fully informed of all of the stances and measures that the RC has taken, but I can tell you that fueling the animosity between the first-rate colonial superstates and the Red Two is the last thing we want to do." The liaison from the RC bluntly responded. "We have already offered our mediation services to the stakeholders in question. We are in a unique position to act as middlemen and neutral arbiters. We have no inherent stake in their private causes, and we cannot be biased towards either side. So far, all of the relevant parties have indicated their willingness to let us moderate their disputes." That was good news. Their willingness to put their trust in the Red Collective to mediate their disagreements showed that they did not want the situation to escalate. However, it may also indicate a desire to pull everyone into a quagmire that they could not get out of anytime soon. Going through all of this song and dance meant that a final resolution may be many years away. It took a lot of time for parties of this scale to hash out each and every point of contention. "What is your attitude towards the Cybernetic Empire?" Ves asked next. "The Red Collective has only just begun to open up a dialogue with the Cybernetic Empress and her empire. We have already received indications that it will be difficult to insert the Red Collective into their highly developed but insular society." The Farseer frankly revealed. "Why is that the case?" The Saint Commander looked curious. "Should they not be eager to embrace the benefits of systematic cultivation?" "Not… entirely. As the name of their empire suggests, the Cybers have overwhelmingly resorted to cybernetic implantation as their favored means of empowerment. Due to the fact that Bridgehead One only became subjected to a heavily diluted version of E energy radiation during the Time of Isolation, many of the Cybers trapped in the central star node have grown up in a society where E energy is regarded as strange, scarce, unscientific and uncontrollable. Once these beliefs have continued to fester over two generations, it has already become a part of the foundation of the Cybernetic Empire." "Does that mean that the Cybers are actually rejecting hyper technology, E-technology and systematic cultivation?" "Not necessarily, professor. The Cybers have grown up in a society where the smartest human scientist and engineer has become their absolute ruler. They admire the Polymath and strive to do their best to match her excellence. They have developed a fondness for science and technology. Their attitudes towards hyper technology is still positive because it gives them a reliable and consistent means to harness the unpredictable power of E energy radiation." "Shouldn't they hold a similar attitude towards systematic cultivation?" "Perhaps a minority of Cybers think so, but from our analysis of their publications and discussions, they are largely suspicious and fearful of systematic cultivation. They think that rashly practising the cultivation methods of the Red Collective will cause their cybernetic implants to malfunction or maybe even threaten their lives. The more extensively they replaced their organic flesh and bone with cybernetics, the greater their rejection towards systematic cultivation." That made a lot more sense. Not even Ves could predict what would happen if an individual who had replaced over 80 percent of his body with cybernetic limbs and organs practiced a body cultivation method. Of course, that was a rather extreme example. Most qi cultivation methods did not act on the human body in any serious fashion as far as Ves knew. They primarily acted on the mind and spirit of their practitioners. Technically, this meant that they should be compatible with people who had almost entirely transformed into mechanical existences. "The Cybers are quite powerful in their own right." Vector Loban stated. "They are the only humans in the Red Ocean that have embraced the route of literal mechanical ascension. Well-performing cybernetic implants are expensive and limited in production, but do not underestimate them. The Polymath along with much of their R&D sector has dedicated multiple decades into improving and refining them. They have also conducted many theoretical studies on how to better leverage the possibilities of hyper technology once the Time of Isolation has come to an end. At this time, most Cybers are more interested in upgrading their existing cybernetics with more powerful and feature-rich hyper versions." What could be more important to the Cybers than becoming stronger and more capable? A population of humans that had devoted much of their interests in cybernetics and augmentation had little interest in the affairs of people that lacked their passions! Perhaps there were still plenty of Cybers that wanted to save red humanity or travel outside Bridgehead One, but Ves was afraid that they were the minority. Under the reign of the Polymath, Bridgehead One had transformed into the closest thing to a utopia in the Red Ocean. The Cybers probably considered themselves to be far superior to the other humans who mostly kept their bodies organic. The differences between the two groups had grown so much that they may even struggle to consider each other a part of the same species! Ves leaned forward. "So does that mean that the Cybernetic Empire will not join the Red Collective?" "I truly cannot say, sir. That will depend on the outcome of the high-level negotiations between the Cybernetic Empire and the Red Collective." The Farseer said. "If you wish to hear my personal interpretation, then I believe that the Cybers will likely be content to cooperate to a shallow degree. There are shared interests that make it difficult for the newcomers to reject the RC, but that is still a long distance away from total acceptance and integration." There were many clues that hinted that the Cybernetic Empire would not be as enthusiastic about welcoming the Red Collective as the other major powers. This had many implications. Ves was not sure whether to regard this as a positive or negative development. On the one hand, the Cybers could act as a check against the collies. If anything went wrong with qi cultivators one day, the cybers who rejected systematic cultivation would be in an excellent position to intervene and solve the crisis! The same applied in reverse. If the cybers all got hacked or corrupted by their cybernetic implants, then powerful cultivators could come in and resolve the problem without succumbing to the same dangers! The meeting continued. The Larkinsons and the liaisons continued to talk about the Cybernetic Empire, but they spoke very little of substance. They had too little information to go on. The Cybernetic Empire was still an enigma that was clouded by fog. It was better to wait for a few weeks before making any important decisions centered around the new human power as they would all have much more information at their disposal.