"Hihihi! I've got you, lil bro!" "Let go of me! It's not fair that you are older than me. I already have enough!" "Nuh-uh. Let big sis give you a few more kisses. You've been such a good boy as of late." "I hate you, Andraste!" The kids were up to their usual antics again. Andraste wrestled Marvaine to the carpeted floor and began to put colorful-looking bunny ears on his head. Aurelia meanwhile watched over her siblings as she sat on the nearby couch. Both Lucky and Clixie cuddled her body from the sides. The two cats lazily yawned and enjoyed this moment of bliss. Their parents meanwhile spoke about much more weightier topics than they were ready to handle. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺 Ves sat next to his wife as he summarized his meetings with Hugo Fournier and Alexa Streon. Just like him, Gloriana reacted with visible shock when she learned that the Cybernetic Empire had made such a massive investment in the development of living mechs and potentially other living technological creations. The director of the Design Department fell silent for a time as she kept a loving eye on her children. Much had happened in a short amount of time. Not even she could keep track of ongoing developments anymore. However, she could not afford to remain blind to all of the geopolitical shifts that took place across the Red Ocean. As a mother, she wanted nothing more than to build a society where her children could grow up in relative peace and not have to fear the specter of extinction. Just like Gloriana herself, she wanted Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine to grow up and become a part of a dominant human civilization that reigned supreme in the Red Ocean. The current state of red humanity was still far from reaching this point. The reappearance of Bridgehead One may have put their race ahead, but the sudden emergence of the mutated voribugs put them in a tight spot again. Red humanity was fracturing while at the same time its enemies had multiplied. The only consolation was that the mutated voribugs did not consider the native aliens to be their friends. Although the suspected territories taken over by the voribugs was relatively small, their explosive expansion combined with their rapid reproduction rates meant that they could easily become exponentially more powerful over time! They just needed more time and star systems filled with high-quality resources. The voribugs grown from generic materials and low-quality exotics were fairly easy to wipe out. They may possess the advantage of numbers, but did not possess the durability or attack power to pose a serious threat against more advanced human forces. However, the voribugs possessed keen senses towards valuable materials. They drastically became stronger as they devoured mid to high-grade exotics as well as hypers. Any excess devoured by these voracious insects usually got transferred to hives where massive amounts of stronger voribugs got spawned in a matter of days! Yes, days! The reproduction rate of the voribugs was insane. It was as if their race had removed a biological limitation and completely turned into an evolving biological calamity. If the voribugs kept invading human and alien space at this pace, a lot of theorists predicted that these powerful alien insects would only need up to half a year at most to reach critical mass and almost completely flatten all opposition in the Red Ocean! At that point, the threat posed by the native aliens became irrelevant because they too would get drowned by endless tides of evolving voribugs! The only star systems that would remain in non-voribug hands would be the ones that were permanently guarded by True God-level combatants. There were way too few of them to safeguard large enough territories. There was only one central star node that was as massive and energy-rich as Bridgehead One. Other star systems were only worth a hundred as much or lower. If red humanity was reduced to a dozen or so star systems, then it would be nearly impossible to overcome the massive amounts of voribugs that proliferated throughout the entire dwarf galaxy! It was due to the potential for the mutated voribugs to snowball at a rapid tempo that Ves considered them to be the most acute threat in the Red Ocean. Perhaps the hidden trump cards and vast reserves of the native aliens still made them the most powerful enemies of red humanity, but their flaws were also vast and numerous. The major races always had trouble mobilizing into a full war footing. So long as the native aliens remained complacent and unwilling to let down their guard against each other, they would always tie up a huge proportion of their population and military assets into keeping each other in check. That might change soon once the native aliens woke up to the true horror of the mutated voribugs, but considering how the ancient phase whales were used to operating at an extremely placid pace, by the time they issued the necessary directives, the voribugs may have already overrun half of their territories! Oh well. It was not the Larkinson Clan's responsibility to tackle this incredibly complicated and delicate situation. The Larkinsons had become big enough to be placed on the map, but still lacked the strength to reshape it on a greater scale. The clan needed to focus on what little it could do to help the rest of red humanity fight against the incoming threat. "Do you think that the Cybernetic Empire reached to you and our clan because of your previous dealings with the Polymath or because we control the means to enter the Blue Dimension?" Gloriana asked. "The latter is definitely the case." Ves answered without any doubt. "That is likely the reason why the Cybers opened up a dialogue with us so soon. They cannot afford to miss out on the next superdimensional mining bonanza. However, I think that the existence of the Living Machine Tower has turned me into a critically important mech designer to the Cybernetic Empire. I am the pioneer of living mechs and I am still ahead of the likes of Hugo and his peers. We share at least one common goal, and that is to turn living mechs into a permanent fixture of the mech industry and mech market." The Living Machine Tower suffered from a massive handicap compared to the other Thirteen Towers due to the absence of support from the Red Kingdom. While that probably made the LMT a lot purer and less prone to internal squabbles, it was difficult for its members to achieve anything of scale. The fastest way to unlock the Living Machine Tower and enable it to recruit tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of mech designers was for Ves to realize his design philosophy! When Ves realized this shared interest, he knew that he could potentially milk a lot of benefits from the Cybernetic Empire. The Cybers would be happy to facilitate him if that meant that he could advance to the rank of Master Mech Designer sooner rather than later! Gloriana began to realize this as well. "The Polymath clearly recognizes the value of living mechs and living warships. This is why there are Thirteen Towers instead of Twelve Towers. Everything you have described to me so far makes me think that it is a strategic imperative for them to cooperate with you. Even if they have managed to train enough living mech design specialists to get rid of their dependence on you, it is still much more efficient to let you take the lead." Ves grinned. "That gives me leverage. I bet I can ask for a lot of interesting technologies in exchange for my assistance and cooperation. What do you think?" "The Cybernetic Empire has technologies in abundance, so it should be open to such an exchange. That said, do not expect the Cybers to offer their most powerful and cutting-edge high technologies. We are not yet qualified to conduct such exchanges unless we are willing to trade our existing stock of high-grade superdimensional matter." While the Cybers definitely stockpiled a lot of advanced technologies, trading them away once pretty much meant that it would be difficult to repeat the same trade in the future. Technology theft was far too prevalent in human society. If one group managed to acquire a set of trade secrets, then other groups would eventually learn them as well. Unless there were special limitations such as controlling the supply of Destroyer particles or making it difficult for an individual to master the relevant knowledge, other parties would soon make use of their own local variants of the same tech! All of this meant that the Cybernetic Empire only possessed a limited warchest. Perhaps the Polymath and the Thirteen Towers were constantly working to develop new innovations, especially after learning about the importance of superdimensional matter. This would give them more chips to trade with other parties, but even then, the Cybernetic Empire could quickly give away all of its tech if it did not control the expenditures of the new stun grenades. Ves could not ask for hundreds of technological secrets. He also knew he could not ask for knowledge about the truly grand and impressive stuff. "I think we should draft a wish list of what kind of tech we want to add to our clan." He said. "The tech should be revolutionary enough to promise a lot of power, but not strong enough to demand far too much in return." This was not an easy balance to maintain, but Ves was sure that people could manage to work with these limitations. "What is at the top of your list?" Ves asked. "Do you even need to ask? Archetech is at the top of my mind. There should be enough scientists in the Cybernetic Empire that have conducted a deep study on it. It is extremely helpful for my own progression if I can access their notes or better yet receive private tutoring from those alien tech experts." "Hm, that makes sense, but I am not too certain whether the Cybers have committed enough in advancing red humanity's understanding of archetech. I guess there is no harm in asking. What else do you want to know, Gloriana?" His wife furrowed her brows. "I am not too sure, to be honest. It is difficult to ask when we do not have a clear understanding of their technological strengths. The warfleets that passed through the Translocation Gates should be close to reaching the frontlines, is that correct?" Ves nodded. "Everyone expects the first live feeds of their combat performances to start in a couple of days." "Then we will wait to fill up our wishlist until we have personally seen the new and technologically advanced mechs and warships in actual battle. No matter whether it is the native aliens or the voribugs, neither groups have any reasons to be lenient towards the armed forces of the newest human power." The Cybernetic Empire made a strong impression upon its debut and had never retreated from this policy since. However, this behavior also attracted a lot of criticism. There were too many individuals and groups that openly questioned whether the Cybernetic Empire was worth all of the hype. This made it inevitable for the Cybers to show off their strength this time. The time for subtly was over. "Regardless of what sort of tech the Cybers will debut in the coming battles, I doubt that they will have shown their full capabilities." Ves analyzed. "They just need to show off enough tech to handedly win their battle, but not so much that they would attract all sorts of tech-hungry bandits. They need to do so against two completely different opponents, neither of which are pushovers by our standards. This is an interesting conundrum. I have a strong feeling that the Cybers will surprise us with uncommonly effective solutions." All of red humanity wanted to see how far the Cybers had come when it came to advancing their high technologies. Offense, defense, mobility, utility. People expected for the Cyber mechs to score better in all of those categories!