The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-6449

Ves thought a little more on what the Huntsman actually wanted.

God pilots tended to be brain-damaged extremists who achieved success by pursuing their goals far beyond any reasonable boundaries.

Many people failed if they tried to do the same, but the existing god pilots were the exceedingly rare exceptions who actually received continuous rewards for their reckless and arguably suicidal gambits!

This was highly problematic. Through their legendary life experiences, god pilots became conditioned to expect positive outcomes when they pursued unreasonable objectives. Their mentalities became warped to the point where they could justify all sorts of actions that defied common sense just because they expected the situation to work out in the end!

Only their principles, oaths and promises held them in check. Certain god pilots bound themselves much more tightly to existing order than others.

The Huntsman may have risen up from the Mech Trade Association, but he was much less attached to its duties and its commitments than others.

However, Ves was not entirely willing to believe that the Huntsman had entirely forsaken his most central duty to protect red humanity.

At most, he may have messed up his priorities so that he could indulge in his own personal desires while still keeping red humanity alive for the most part.

"I think I get it now." Ves said after he spent a minute on analyzing all of the information he collected on the frustrating god pilot. "The Huntsman's primary goals are to save red humanity and to become strong enough to become a god king. In fact, knowing what is coming, he may have convinced himself that the only chance to save us is to achieve a breakthrough at all cost. Whether his selfish and reckless actions may inadvertently lead to the slaughter of 25, 50 or even 99 percent of red humanity, he can still justify his decisions as long as 1 percent or maybe even less of the human population makes it to the end. He won't technically betray his oath to red humanity in this deplorable scenario."

"This one of the reasons why the Whale Ark Project has received enough support despite its astronomical resource requirements." The Secret Keeper added. "The god pilots are not capable of experiencing fear anymore, but they want to minimize the probability that they will lose their strength after red humanity perishes. It is useless for them to abandon our civilization, fly to a forgotten corner of the Red Ocean and hibernate long enough for the native aliens to forget about the human threat. The god pilots have all made the same vows, and they must abide by them if they want to retain their strength. This is our bottom line."

Ves twitched his lips. "I see. The god pilots are not above rules lawyering. Even if a doom scenario takes place, as long as the Whale Ark can take away a viable seed of red

humanity that can be used to make a comeback in a less hostile galaxy, they have not technically broken their vows. I think it is rather deliberate that they have only promised to protect the concept of our race and civilization, but never mentioned any numbers."

Red humanity could number in the quadrillions, but it could also number in the thousands.

As long as there were enough red humans around to preserve their population and retain the essence of their culture and civilization, the god pilots would remain assured they would keep their powers!

If that was not the case, then they would end up as miserable as his grandfather Benjamin after he was forced to retire from active service!

"God pilots are not infallible." Closier-17 readily acknowledged. "They have attained great power, but have to work unreasonably hard to attain so much strength. That is what makes them so worthy of respect and admiration. However, they can still go astray. We fear that the Huntsman may be radical enough to nurture a monster that may become powerful enough to break our fragile empire in the Red Ocean. That is why we must remain on guard against him and seek to blunt the most destructive elements of his schemes."

"I agree, Secret Keeper. In fact, I would like to take this a step further. I think that we should not only maintain this attitude towards the Huntsman, but every other god pilot as well. This includes your patron. You have to admit that the Evolution Witch has been behaving a little sketchy as of late as well. Who can say whether she is just as dangerous as the other god pilot?"

If Closer-17 took offense at Ves' accusation, he did not show it. The spy exhibited excellent self-control throughout the entire confidential briefing.

"You may question Her Divinity's methods, but do not disregard your critical thinking. There is a clear difference between the two god pilots. The Huntsman pursues strength by hunting stronger individual prey. The Evolution Witch pursues strength by promoting evolution among red humanity. It is in her best interest to preserve as much of the population of red humanity as possible. It would be even better if the population can grow. The more people put effort into self-evolution, the more she will become the definitive Goddess of Evolution in this dwarf galaxy. A catastrophic drop in population and the breakdown of the existing order can be seen as a regression in her eyes. She desires red humanity to move forward, not backward. This is why she supports the Red Collective and continues to maintain a strong interest in its operations.""

Ves had already deduced much of that, but it was nice to hear confirmation from an agent of the god pilot herself.

He accepted this reasoning. The Evolution Witch was both frightening and bossy, but he was willing to assume that her intentions were noble.

At the very least, she could not afford to be as callous as the Huntsman.

A small to moderate proportion of human deaths was acceptable as that would cull the weak and spur the surviving humans to evolve harder. Go too far, and there wouldn't be enough humans left to feed her hunger for evolution!

Ves tried to think about who else could pose a threat. "Okay, enough about the two. Are there any other god pilots who maintain uncomfortably close relations with the Cosmopolitan Movement?"

"Not to our knowledge, no. The remaining god pilots all have their issues, but they are considerably more honest in this regard. We have not gathered evidence that the remaining 6 have colluded heavily with the cosmopolitans after the Great Severing." That caused Ves to feel relieved, but then he remembered that there were more tier 1 galactic citizens than these powerhouses.

"Wait, what about the Star Designers, Secret Keeper? I refuse to believe that all of them are clean. I am not too familiar with them all, but the Xenotechnician is by far the sketchiest suspect. It is unthinkable to assume he has never had dealings with the Cosmopolitan Movement."

"You are correct to suspect that there are Star Designers who maintain problematic relations with the cosmopolitans in the past as well as the present." The spy slowly replied. "They are generally much better at hiding their tracks than the god pilots, so it is difficult to collect credible proof of their transactions. I will not address the sporadic clues that we have gathered on the other Star Designers and speak solely about the Xenotechnician, I can tell you that you are not wrong to question his guilt."

That caused Ves to straighten his back. The thought of a Star Designer actively colluding

with the Cosmopolitan Movement sounded quite frightening!

At least the plans and motivations of the god pilots tended to be rather straightforward

and easy to deduce.

Star Designers were far too clever for their own good. The last incident with the Polymath had taught Ves that these powerful True Gods could threaten the entire existing order by themselves in the right situations!

"Is the Xenotechnician a member of the Cosmopolitan Movement?" Ves asked the

question that many people wanted to ask.

Unfortunately, the answer he received was less than definite.

"Unclear. We have not gathered sufficient hard proof that can state with certainty that the Xenotechnician is... or is not a cosmopolitan. What we can state with a greater

degree of confidence: that he is not a stranger to colluding with the Cosmopolitan Movement. That has remained true in the past as well as the present. We are still reasonably certain that the Xenotechnician has not betrayed us, but his insistence on maintaining clandestine relations with the cosmopolitans is less than desirable." "What does that mean?" Ves looked confused. "I mean, from what you have told me so far, every human leader has colluded with the cosmopolitans in the past, and maybe a

handful of them can't shake off this habit. What makes the Xenotechnician's actions

special?"

"It is his underlying motivations and ideology that makes him such a threat from our perspective." Secret Keeper Closier-17 said. "Unlike the Huntsman who merely treats the Cosmopolitan Movement as a convenient tool, the Xenotechnician is the sole tier 1 galactic citizen that arguably possesses the greatest sympathy towards the cosmopolitan

cause."

That was what Ves suspected for a long time. The Xenotechnician's domain was clearly centered around the concept of assimilation. He would not do well in a galaxy that is devoid of aliens whose technologies he can study and assimilate.

"I always suspected that he was up to no good." Ves muttered. "Out of all red humans, he is the least willing to put the native aliens at a decisive disadvantage. It is in his best interest to keep our alien adversaries as competitive as possible. Otherwise, where will he be able to take samples out of all of the newer and more powerful technologies the aliens have developed to compete against red humanity?"

Ves scowled. "Is he still doing this?! Can't he see that the native aliens are already powerful enough to overrun many of our border systems?! If they manage to master even more powerful stolen technologies, they will definitely break through our defensive lines and conquer large swathes of human-occupied star systems! Trillions of innocent

humans will die!"

"We agree with your analysis, but that is what makes the Xenotechnician's suspected actions so difficult to read." Closier-17 said. "Just as with the Huntsman, our intelligence and analysis of the Xenotechnicians actions and intentions remains woefully incomplete. We only have a calculated guess of his true motivations at best."

"Explain, please."

"The Xenotechnician is a Star Designer who embodies the concept of assimilation. That

is known. What we know about Star Designers is that they must continue to act in line

with their domains in order to make further progress."

"The same applies to god pilots or any other cultivator as well." Ves remarked. "We have therefore made a tentative guess that the Xenotechnician seeks to advance his comprehension and mastery of the concept of assimilation by a substantial leap by pursuing it in our society. We are anything but certain about this, but we suspect he may be in favor of strengthening the native aliens to the point where the gap in hard power grows large enough to put us in despair!"

"That... that is outrageous! The native aliens will wipe us outright if that ever comes to

pass!"

"Yet it holds a certain logic to the Xenotechnician." The Secret Keeper emotionlessly said. "His goal is to break the stranglehold of human supremacy over red humanity. Only then can he open enough space in our society to spread the ideals of alien coexistence, which is most conducive to the concept of assimilation. He correctly recognizes that as long as we believe we still have a chance to win the Red War, we will never be willing to shatter the myth of our superiority over the aliens. Only by driving us to the brink will we become open to the idea that we must actually seek peace and ally with alien races in order to survive in this dwarf galaxy."

"That... basically sounds like his Diplomacy Plan. Didn't the Survivalist Faction vote that

down already?"

"Correct, but did you truly think that Star Designer, one of the most successful humans.

to ever exist, will give up that easily?"

"...You have a point."