The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-6450

Ves scowled. He thought that the Survivalist Faction had definitely dealt with the issue of determining red humanity's future course.

Even though the infamous conference nearly ended up in disaster, it ultimately returned to the correct course, with the notable help of Ves himself.

Of the three plans in consideration on that day, each of them had their own merits.

The Deep Strike Plan advocated by the Fist of Defiance held true to the current will and ideals of red humanity. It may seem like the most idiodic option out of the three, but Ves liked it because it was the plan that most retained the original human spirit!

The Unity Plan advocated by the Polymath had become a complete taboo after the conclusion of the conference. It may have convinced and won over a lot of smart people, but after the Polymath proved with her own actions how terrible it was for a single tyrant to deprive everyone's ability to choose, no one wanted to pursue this direction anymore!

The Diplomacy Plan therefore ended up as the most 'logical' and 'reasonable' of the three plans. It had earned a lot of votes and almost displaced the Deep Strike Plan as the winning choice at the conference.

Even though the Fist of Defiance's vision ultimately prevailed, Ves was aware that there were probably a lot of sore losers who preferred to enact a different plan.

He could not rule out that there were still a lot of people left who still favored the Diplomacy Plan over the alternatives. It was logical to assume that these sore losers may still take action in secret to revive the defeated plan and let it come to fruition anyway! Not even the Xenotechnician himself may be clean in this regard!

As Ves began to develop an increasingly worse impression of the old Star Designer, the Secret Keeper tried to bring him back to reality.

"Chief Councilor Larkinson. Do not disregard my warning. What I have shared with you is unverified. You cannot base all of your decisions on gut feelings and wishful thinking alone. This is why nothing has happened on the surface, and why we are only maneuvering in the dark. These suspicions cannot come to light unless we have gathered solid proof of the Xenotechnician's subversive actions and formulate a plan to contain the damage"

Ves grimaced. As much as he hated it, the Secret Keeper had a good point. Acting on spurious clues and unverified proof was not the proper way to go about it. The current order was based on law and fairness. While human society was anything but perfect, the burden of proof of accusing a Star Designer of treason was immensely high!

Tier 1 galactic citizens possessed the greatest privileges and allowances of all. While nobody had written it down, one of the implicit perks of becoming a galactic citizen of a higher tier was that they could get away with 'minor' crimes without any concern, and

could even bear the guilt of greater crimes so long as their intentions were noble! There was a lot of room for an incredibly clever Star Designer like the Xenotechnician to maneuver. Trying to pin him down with his alleged collusion with the Cosmopolitan Movement was not enough to bring him to heel.

In fact, Ves actually doubted whether there was enough willingness to go this far in the first place.

The Polymath had undoubtedly tried to backstab the current order and take over all of red humanity without the consent of the people.

While nobody died as a result of her outrageous actions, she was clearly guilty of crimes that should have earned her the death penalty in most jurisdictions!

Yet what did the bigshots actually do? They stuffed her in a golden cage in Bridgehead One and permitted her to do what she loved the most, which was conduct a lot of research!

The more time passed, the more Ves suspected that the Polymath didn't actually get punished.

He even became convinced that this was deliberate if convoluted way to get rid of the hidden danger posed by the Iron Resonant Crucifix Crown and start anew as a proper True God!

The current state of red humanity therefore could not permit the downfall of a Star Designer. The Xenotechnician was still needed to prop up red humanity.

So long as his perceived damage to the war effort was lower than his contributions, he would be permitted to enact his subversive schemes!

"Your speculation makes too much sense." Ves told the Secret Keeper. "I can fully believe that the Xenotechnician still thinks that the Diplomacy Plan is the best chance for red humanity to survive. If he can tear down the pillar of human supremacy and replace it. with a greater willingness to live peacefully alongside friendly alien races, then he will definitely try to make it come true. As the embodiment of Assimilation, it is not enough to practice this concept by himself. Star Designers are still mech designers in that they seek to promote their design philosophy onto society. It is in his nature to persuade our society to accept and embrace assimilation even if that means coming up with a crooked plan to browbeat his ideals onto our unwilling faces."

It was a good theory, but Ves made way too assumptions in order to put together a neat story.

He may accept it, but that did not mean others were willing to do the same. It all came down to hard proof, which was very difficult to obtain for obvious reasons.

The Secret Keeper remained silent for a few moments before he started to speak again. "We cannot find proof we need to confront the Xenotechnician and forcibly shut down any attempt at realizing his Diplomacy Plan." The spy admitted. "What we can do is

remove the conditions for His Excellency to enact his plan. We do not target him. Instead, we target the Cosmopolitan Movement that acts as an essential interface between himself and the native aliens. Unlike the esteemed Star Designer, the cosmopolitans hiding in our society like plague-ridden rats are traitors that are guilty based on identity alone. We do not have to begin the cumbersome process of gathering proof to sanction them. We only need to verify that they are cosmopolitans and take the necessary actions to neutralize them as a threat."

That... actually sounded brilliant. It made a lot of sense and was a lot easier to enact than walking up to the Xenotechnician, pointing a finger at him and declaring him guilty of treason!

The best part about this approach was that the Xenotechnician's guilt became irrelevant. If he was innocent and played by the rules, then no harm was done. The removal of cosmopolitan cells that he could potentially cooperate with obviously did not affect him

in any way.

If he was guilty and seriously colluded with the cosmopolitans, then removing the latter was an elegant way to solve this problem. The Xenotechnician might not be able to get the comeuppance he deserved, but red humanity would face one less threat than before! The challenge in this course of action was to eliminate all of the cosmopolitans lurking in human society.

This was quite difficult. So far, the rollout of kinship networks was still ongoing, but it was likely to encompass every red human in the near future.

Ves also feared that the wiley and resourceful cosmopolitans may actually succeed in figuring out a countermeasure against kinship networks.

Nothing was impossible. The cosmopolitans should never be underestimated. They had perfect the art of infiltration in human civilization since the Age of Stars. This was their greatest strength and specialty.

If the cosmopolitans were effective enough at infiltration to fool the God Kingdoms of mighty god pilots, then it was not impossible for them to circumvent the inspection of kinship networks as well!

Ves even feared that the current 'panic' and 'overreactions' by the cosmopolitans embedded into human society were meant to mislead.

Sure, the panic and fear among most cosmopolitan cells may be authentic, but there may be other cells that had cracked the secret to circumventing the control of kinship

networks.

They would probably lay low and continue to lurk in a society that thought that it had gotten rid of the cancer of the Cosmopolitan Movement.

As Ves thought about whether he should devote his time on improving the security of

his kinship networks, the Secret Keeper made a surprising statement. "The Xenotechnician is not the only mech designer that the intelligence community secretly fears. We are also paying close attention to other highly influential mech designers who can threaten red humanity's survival, either on purpose but mostly by accident. More threats are emerging from within our very borders, and the possibilities introduced by E energy radiation is exacerbating the problem. One particular mech designer of high renown has very recently proven his capacity to inflict untold damage

onto our society?"

"Oh? That sounds extremely serious. What is the identity of this loathsome and deplorable mech designer? He must be a real piece of work for him to attract your

suspicion."

"He is present in this very same office. I am speaking to him at this moment."

???

Ves froze for a second before he made the realization that the Secret Keeper accused him of posing the same threat to human civilization as the Xenotechnician! "That-that-that is uncalled for, you spook! Okay, I admit it. I played fast and loose with the rules on occasion, but my intentions are always pure! I have always stayed true to the creed of a mech designer! I have made far more contributions to our civilization than most Masters can dream of! I have never created a work that was solely meant to damage or collapse our society!"

The Secret Keeper patiently let Ves vent his outburst. Once the outraged mech designer lost a bit of steam, the intelligence agent made a single retort.

"Vulcan Empire."

"...Oh."

That was a bit awkward. Ves did not think he could excuse his deliberate engineering of

a collapse of a large second-rate state, and the only one ruled by the dwarven people at

that!

Even if he took advantage of the faultlines of the original Vulcan Empire in the old galaxy, there was no easy way for him to escape culpability in a civil war and subsequently an external invasion that led to the deaths of a huge number of people!

"That was an exception." Ves calmly stated after he sobered himself up. "I never did anything like that again. I am fully happy to preserve the peace and harmony of our

society." Closier-17's gaze turned more piercing and judgmental. "I believe you... but only up to the point we have not given you any grievances. Whenever you perceive anyone or anything of becoming an obstacle in your way, you generally choose one of two responses. You avoid the problem, or you confront it directly in the most violent means possible. You are unlike any other mech designer who has risen to your height. Your propensity to resort to violent and uncivilized solutions is much higher than we regard

as healthy. There is a great deal of simmering anger inside of you. This makes you liable

to act reckless or lash out without consideration for collateral damage."

"I... do not recognize your characterization of myself. I am not as volatile and unstable as you claim I am! I am a perfectly sane and rational mech designer!"

The Secret Keeper crossed his arms. "Do you actually believe in what you say, or are you engaging in wishful thinking?"

This conversation was becoming increasingly more frustrating to Ves!

He would like nothing more than to walk up to the spy and smack him in the face for

daring to accuse Ves for posing a threat to society!

However, he tried hard to control his emotions. Any irrational responses would just end up vindicating the Secret Keeper's unwarranted claims.