The Mech Touch

The earlier revelations paled in comparison with the latest announcement!

Councilor Veyron not only introduced a bunch of new technologies, but also announced an entirely new direction for humanity!

The course of human civilization that had settled for over four-hundred years was about to shift in a bold new direction!

The Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy was a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way Galaxy.

Just like planets orbited around a star, Red Ocean orbited around the Milky Way like a little brother circling around a big sister!

The sizes of the two galaxies were incomparable. The Milky Way's diameter stretched up to 200,000 light-years, which was stupendously huge!

In comparison, Red Ocean was a lot smaller. It stretched just 25,000 light years from end to end, making it eight times smaller than the Milky Way.

This still represented a huge amount of space, enough to establish several first-rate superstates if they managed to conquer huge swathes of territory!

Red Ocean encompassed enough space to fit a huge amount of star sectors!

Ves instantly formed a lot of questions in his mind.

According to the projected map, Red Ocean orbited 350,000 light years from the Milky Way! How could anyone traverse such a distance in their lifetimes?

Secondly, had humanity already established a foothold in this dwarf galaxy?

Many people long figured out that the MTA and CFA became less active in public. Unfortunately, no one managed to figure out what the Big Two were up to.

Only now did all of them realize that the Big Two had always been preparing for the invasion of a satellite galaxy!

Councilor Veyron elaborated on the importance of this bold new invasion.

"Though the expensive is enormous, we have a very good reason to target this distant dwarf galaxy. Phasewater is a strategic exotic with many possible applications. The minidrive is just one of many wondrous applications. We are certain that as long as phasewater becomes more available, humanity will find even more uses of this potent material!"

This idea already came to mind to many people. If phasewater was only useful in making miniaturized FTL drives, then the CFA wouldn't have agreed to this invasion.

Minidrives benefited the MTA a lot more than the CFA!

The latter always directed their research projects towards greater might. Their huge warships offered plenty of space for powerful FTL drives that offered immense range and speed.

On the other hand, the MTA placed a much higher priority on making technology more practical. The development of the minidrive was a typical MTA project as it succeeded in making FTL drives small enough to be mounted on mechs.

Certainly, newer problems emerged such as raising the cost, energy and material requirements of using this technology.

However, as long as the MTA managed to solve the size problem, it wasn't as difficult to address other shortcomings!

In any case, Ves guessed that phasewater was probably a critical material in many dimensional applications!

So much so that the CFA did not hesitate to get onboard the MTA's plan to conquer a very distant dwarf galaxy!

"We are aware of your questions." Councilor Veyron smiled. "In truth, we have already become aware of phasewater's wondrous properties and applications for several generations. When we found that phasewater is far too scarce in our native galaxy, we have cast our gazes elsewhere. Of all of the satellite galaxies that the Milky Way has captured, we have decided to invade the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy over fifty years ago!"

The map of the Milky Way Galaxy faded out. Instead, the star map Red Ocean grew larger, revealing a relatively modest patch of space that the Big Two managed to settle!

Footage began to play next to the councilor. Impressive star systems occupied and fortified by the Big Two came into view.

This was everyone's first glimpse of the space inside Red Ocean!

The distant star scape was much more dim compared to humanity's native galaxy. As the footage panned around, a distant glowing oval attracted everyone's attention.

That was the Milky Way!

Dorothea Veyron grinned. "What you are seeing right now are live feeds of the star systems that we've managed to tame in our fifty-year conquest!"

Ves and everyone couldn't help but gasp.

The Big Two sure hid this secret well! Not a single word about their invasion of a dwarf galaxy had leaked into the public!

"Make no mistake. Red Ocean is not devoid of intelligent life." The councilor turned grave. "We have already fought against many different alien empires, some of which are old friends of ours who have fled to this dwarf galaxy in the belief that they can recover their strength here in secret!"

Many people, primed by Veyron's earlier speech, already expected something like this. Where there were stars, there was life.

"The Mech Trade Association and the Common Fleet Alliance has fought very hard to carve out a foothold into this dwarf galaxy. Many native alien civilizations have learned how terrible we are from the aliens that we have defeated once more. This is a hostile galaxy. We cannot expect to face the same situation as we did during the Age of Conquest. The aliens have set aside their mutual differences in order to unite against our race."

The councilor grinned. "Unfortunately, we have accumulated our strength for four-hundred years. While it is difficult for us to transfer most of our forces to this dwarf galaxy, we have spent the last decades to expand our foothold and develop a newer and better means of crossing the void between the galaxies!"

The footage switched to an enormous gate floating in orbit of a lifeless planet!

The circular gate was humongous! Ves could tell because there were several CFA capital ships patrolling in the vicinity.

The huge gate outright dwarfed the battleships!

"What you are seeing now is a beyonder gate. It is one of our most powerful means of transferring our people from one galaxy to another! Upon activating gates on both ends, we are able to transfer any object or any living being from one galaxy to another in an instant!"

This was another stunning new invention! While the Big Two developed various means of traveling faster than light, Ves had never heard of the development of a huge gate that could transport something hundreds of thousands of light-years away!

What impressed Ves and everyone else even more was that it all happened in an instant, as if the two gates folded space itself!

It didn't take a genius to guess that phasewater was pivotal to the functioning of the beyonder gates.

Unlike the tiny minidrives, the beyonder gates likely used a lot more phasewater!

Perhaps a metric ton of this substance was not enough to make a beyonder gate work!

Yet the Big Two managed to construct at least a pair of these enormous gates!

If phasewater truly enabled the creation of something as amazing as the beyonder gate, then what else could humans do with this exotic?

Many people began to let their imaginations run wild. Their eyes reddened and their breaths grew hotter as they imagined building starships that could cross the galaxies, mechs that could jump from the galactic center to the galactic rim or teleporters that could transport a human from one planet straight to another planet!

Phasewater instantly turned from a niche curiosity into a must-have material to many scientists and business magnates! Whether they wanted to make a name for themselves by inventing a pivotal new tech or become the richest person in human space by selling lots of innovative new products, many people already started to clamor to enter this exciting new dwarf galaxy!

"The Milky Way is already settled. Unless we wage war against the neighboring alien empires, there is hardly any room for development. Red Ocean is an opportunity for us to pioneer new territory!"

���We must set foot in Red Ocean at all costs! The future of human development will definitely center around phasewater! We must harvest as much phasewater as possible!"

"Since the Age of Stars, humanity has expanded into space. Now that we have become the hegemons of the galaxy, there is hardly anything that excites us anymore. This announcement changes everything! The invention of the beyonder gate and the invasion of Red Ocean has opened an entirely new road for our race!"

For millennia, humanity never thought they would be able to escape the Milky Way Galaxy. Everyone thought that humanity would first resume its conquest of the rest of the galaxy before turning their attention elsewhere.

Yet now that the Big Two decided to invade a satellite galaxy, many people began to develop a hunger for adventure!

Including Ves!

"This.. is a great opportunity for us!" He whispered to his girlfriend.

"Are you thinking about starting your grand expedition in Red Ocean?" Gloriana frowned. "It sounds dangerous! Didn't you hear Councilor Veyron mention that the Big Two fought hard to gain a foothold in this dwarf galaxy? Our mechs and unarmed starships won't stand a chance against aliens who aren't bound by our rules!"

Ves briefly frowned but soon relaxed. "I think there's a reason why the Big Two decided to drop this bomb. I can't imagine any leader from the CFA or MTA failing to predict that many humans would want to be part of this exciting new development!"

His prediction turned out to be true. After Councilor Veyron showed off the beyonder gate that could convey entire fleets from one galaxy to another, she began to reveal the Big Two's intentions towards anyone interested in exploiting Red Ocean's bounty!

"With the construction of the beyonder gates, we have secured our initial gains in Red Ocean." She spoke. "The beyond gates allow us to transfer vastly more forces into this dwarf galaxy, allowing us to wage war against the local alien empires at a much greater scale than before! Soon, our warfleets will double the territorial acquisitions we've made in the last fifty years in a matter of months! And this is just the start of our explosive expansion!"

The star map of Red Ocean came back into view. The map only highlighted a small number of star sectors at first.

Then, the number of glowing star sectors doubled.

The time lapse continued as several years went by. The territories conquered by the Big Two continued to expand at a frightening rate!

Though the expansion was not very detailed or reliable, it nonetheless gave every human an idea of how much confidence the Big Two possessed into expanding their presence in this alien galaxy!

Councilor Veyron sighed. "Our territorial conquests are about to accelerate at a rapid pace. Our primary concern is to defend humanity and expand our strength. While we have settled several important star systems and plan to settle many more, we are not interested in colonizing so much space. We are concerned with greater responsibilities!"

"Here it comes." Ves rubbed his hands in anticipation.

"For this reason, the Mech Trade Association and the Common Fleet Alliance has decided to allow the rest of humanity to join us in our conquest of the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy!"

"Yes!"

"We allow passage to every organized group or fleet that wishes to develop our civilization's presence in this new and virgin galaxy." The councilor announced with a welcoming smile. "No matter if you are a Terran or a citizen from the galactic rim, we will offer many different opportunities for you to colonize a planet, found a new state or prospect for phasewater!"

Gloriana looked skeptical "Is it that easy?"

"However, we do not offer this opportunity for free. For the time being, we will only allow passage through the beyonder gates to groups that can pay the price. You may obtain passage by paying the full monetary cost of activating the beyond gates or by redeeming merits from our respective organizations."

"Doesn't that mean the Terrans and Rubarthans will have first dibs?"

"I will tell you the truth. It is not easy to pay for passage. However, we do not wish to limit passage to those who reside in first-rate states. We offer more generous terms to reputable groups based in less developed regions as long as they abide to an additional agreement. So long as you meet our approval, a new future awaits!"