The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

Ves presented the Red Fleet with tantalizing options for their dreadnoughts.

The Dominion of Man had undoubtedly won over a lot of fleeters. Even if the current dreadnought was not yet a match for a god mech, it was not unrealistic to think that might change in the future.

However, the danger that Furia might lose control one day tempered the expectations of the leaders of the Red Fleet.

It was already bad enough that they had one potential time bomb on their hands. Creating more transformed Fire Elementals vastly increased the probability that one of them might go rogue and turn into an incredibly powerful threat to human civilization one day!

As far as Ves was concerned, it was not his job to weigh the risks and decide whether red humanity needed the power of Carmine dreadnoughts bad enough to play with fire yet again.

He had informed his clients of the possible choices they could make and the conditions they had to meet in order to create an additional 'living' starship like the Dominion of Man.

Ves was pretty sure that there were at least some leaders within the Red Fleet who felt desperate enough to take another gamble. It was well-known that the fleeters had always envied the huge amount of combat power that a god mech had at its disposal. Developing a warship that could actually enter into a stalemate against such a powerful machine would increase their bargaining power and prevent them from becoming irrelevant.

Not that Carmine dreadnoughts were the only possible ways for the Red Fleet to keep up with the times. The ongoing battles between the Dominion of Man and all kinds of strange and exotic alien warships had opened the eyes of Ves and many others to the possibilities of proper hyper warships.

So long as red humanity was able to decipher the more advanced applications of hyper materials, the shipbuilding industry would probably experience a massive boom on top of the existing one.

Nobody wanted to lose their precious hulls now that they had become increasingly more difficult to attain.

Even then, it was doubtful that they would work as well in a medium-energy environment.

While the ongoing tribulation event granted the fleeters crucial glimpses of an entirely different development path for warships, it would take a long time to replicate any of them. There were too many new scientific fields that their researchers had to puzzle out before they developed a robust theoretical framework to design these kinds of ships.

Even then, it was doubtful that they would work as well in a medium-energy environment.

It would be better to selectively apply Messier 87-style naval engineering onto existing human naval paradigms.

All of this meant that the Red Fleet had no viable alternatives to develop a warship that could come close to competing against the likes of the Dominion of Man.

Ves was the only person in the Red Ocean who could offer the fleeters a way to strengthen their entire superorganization.

This granted him an enormous amount of leverage, but only if the Dominion of Man survived her lightning tribulation.

Given that Furia and the dreadnought had become so powerful that they continued to smash apart the alien warships of the 7th round with very little complications, that outcome seemed increasingly more likely!

Perhaps it was premature to talk about follow-up plans based on a successful outcome, but it was not as if Ves had anything better to do with his time.

He had already done his part and exhausted all of his fighting capacity for the day. There was little he could do to help the Dominion of Man aside from providing occasional advice, not that it was necessary at this stage. Caramond, the Super Brain, Furia as well as the entire crew of the dreadnought had the situation well in hand.

"If you had a choice on which dreadnought you would prefer to convert next, which one do you recommend?" Dread Captain Argile asked.

That was a good question.

This was a complicated subject because there were a lot of important variables at play. The emergence of Caramond already changed human civilization forever because people finally gained a concrete manifestation of their belief in human supremacy.

Ves had no doubt that people would begin to sing the praises of Caramond on a daily basis, especially when this sort of behavior actively prevented Furia from going rogue.

In order to convert a second Fire Elemental, Ves had to find a second human aspect to empower. What limited his choices was the need to tie the aspect into the name and symbolism of the dreadnought in question.

"There are a number of viable choices." Ves slowly responded. "In truth, every remaining dreadnought can be transformed. I am sure that we can figure out ways to do so safely. However, we can make our lives much easier if we pick the ones whose meaning is already tied to ingrained human attitudes. The Dominion of Man was a perfect first choice for me because it encapsulated one of our strongest cultural traits as a race. The other ones… are not that straightforward."

"That is true. The Reign of Frost is likely among the more difficult dreadnoughts to convert. Hardly any human thinks about freezing on a daily basis."

"Exactly. Then there are aspects of human behavior that are not something that we should promote. For example, the Throne of Lies is a very useful dreadnought, but with a name as ominous as this, I am not sure whether it is a good idea to create an ancestral spirit that is literally empowered by lies."

"Everyone lies, Professor Larkinson. No one can remain completely honest aside from bots, and even they lie when their programming compels them to do so. I admit that it might not be as easy to control a spirit that is centered around a troubling concept, but surely the rapid growth should more than make up for the additional difficulties."

Ves shook his head. "I think you are underestimating the threat posed by such an entity. Do not forget that the faith won't just shape the personality of the ancestral spirit, but also the Fire Elemental that is bound to the Throne of Lies. Think about what sort of being you will produce when you inundate him with a multitude of human lies. I do not think you can afford to trust such a being to power your dreadnought unless you have implemented a huge amount of safeguards."

"That is a good point. You are indeed correct. We should save the Throne of Lies for a more distant future. The Heart of Darkness should also be left aside for the time being. Hopefully, we have made enough advancements in a number of decades to decrease the danger posed by the Fire Elementals. Do you have any positive suggestions?"

"I do. My personal favorite is the Indignation of Righteousness." Ves said. "Converting her into a Carmine dreadnought as I call it will entail the creation of an ancestral spirit that feeds off human anger, indignation and other related sentiments. There are a lot of humans who are angry at the aliens who threaten their livelihoods. None of them want humanity to go extinct. The more setbacks we suffer, the greater our indignation against the cruel and merciless aliens."

The suggestion did not impress the dread captain.

"Your analysis is logical, but the choice itself is not ideal. The Indignation of Righteousness is a titan of defense. Her mobility ranks at the bottom and she is lacking in long-ranged armaments. Her defense is admittedly impressive, but we cannot win the Red War by remaining passive all of the time."

"There are still plenty of key locations that need to be defended by god pilots. If they can be substituted by a Carmine dreadnought, then the Indignation of Righteousness can still play a crucial role. The greater beyonder gate for example could really use her protection."

That was quite a good suggestion. Dreadnoughts were more closely associated with nigh-unstoppable offensive pushes, but could also protect critical assets, especially if they received additional remote shielding modules.

The fleeters did not want this to be their only choice at this junction.

"Do you have another suggestion?"

"I suppose the Doom of Xenos is another good candidate." Ves said with a hint of hesitation. "Its meaning and associations are simple and direct. The mere act of killing aliens or even thinking about it will fuel the growth of the associated ancestral spirit and keep the converted Fire Elemental under control."

"You sound reluctant. Why?"

"The Doom of Xenos has a very offensive connotation, captain. The steps we need to take to convert her into a Carmine dreadnought will inflame xenophobia in human society. I know what you want to say next. This is already a deeply rooted trait in our society. What I am afraid of is that creating an ancestral spirit that literally feeds off alien hate will turn us into an uncompromising civilization that can never consider compromise."

That caused Dread Captain Argile to frown. "Be careful, Professor Larkinson. People may accuse you of being a cosmopolitan."

"I hate the cosmopolitans, but that does not mean I am entirely closed to a possible future where we may find it better to sign peace treaties with the more reasonable alien races." Ves responded with a sigh. "We can't always have everything in our wish list. It is just a possibility that I would like to keep open just in case. Transforming the Doom of Xenos will throw away any chance of peace and reconciliation. We will lock ourselves in an undying struggle against the aliens."

There was too much political baggage for the both of them to explore this topic any further. Ves had already issued his warning. It would be up to the bigshots to decide whether they wanted to grace red humanity with a personification of humanity's desire to kill alien beings.

The Doom of Xenos was still a fantastic dreadnought, though. She was one of his absolute favorites simply because she was armed with the largest and most powerful spinal cannons that Ves had ever seen!

It was incredibly exhilarating to think how much more powerful that titanic spinal gun would become if it received the full empowerment of a loyal and obedient Fire Elemental. Nothing would be able to defend against a direct hit from such an enormous planet-cracking weapon! Not even an ancient phase whale would fare any better!

Ves and the dread captain quickly went through a few other possibilities. The Grail of Eternity was too abstract to produce strong results, and the Guns of Armageddon should only be upgraded into a Carmine dreadnought when red humanity was losing the war.

"It is fascinating to hear about all of these possibilities." Volkert Argile spoke. "It is regretful that we have never considered them in the past. We would have changed our approach to the development of our dreadnought if we knew that their names had so much power over their potential upgrade potential. Is it possible for you to perform a similar procedure onto our less remarkable battleships, professor? We have many more of them, and they possess all sorts of names that may align much better with our strategic goals."

"Only if they are equipped with a Spark Reactor or similar. This is really a mandatory requirement. Otherwise, the living warships simply won't have enough power to make a difference. I am looking for potential substitutes of Spark Reactors myself. One of the ideas I have been thinking about is to capture a calamity beast and imprison it into my own version of a Spark Reactor."

"That is a recipe for disaster." The dread captain stated. "Calamity beasts are not nearly as powerful as Fire Elementals. You will find that they will only be powerful enough to enhance sub-capital ships."

"I know, but it is better than nothing. I am looking into other alternatives, but I fear that their lack of power will only make them suitable for mechs or smaller warships."