The Mech Touch

There was a light at the end of the tunnel.

The tunnel might be awfully long, but at least General Axelar and the Ouroboros found a way to get out of it. This was massive progress as far as they were concerned!

As the Terran leader began to ask for further clarification from Gaia, Ves grew more suspicious.

Logically speaking, Gaia and the Terrans were natural allies. They both cared a lot about their roots to Old Earth.

Gaia could even be regarded as a product of the collective thoughts of the Terrans.

However, Ves did not automatically assume that Gaia prioritized the interests of the Terrans. Only her own interests mattered.

Even if Gaia had developed a dependency on the Terrans, that did not necessarily mean she had to care for each of them. Her proposal might sound innocent enough, but Ves did not think it was that simple.

"Let me ask you a question, Gaia." He spoke up again. "What are the most important requirements to turn a planet into a new version of Earth? I very much doubt that the Ouroboros can undergo a full cycle of destruction and rebirth with a random rock floating in space."

What was the catch?

Gaia shifted her head towards Ves. "The nutrients created from the destruction of an alien planet must be sufficient enough to fertilize the creation of Earth in this galaxy. A lifeless rock or one that only contains primitive life is sufficient. In order to mirror a planet that has spawned a successful space faring race, you must select another planet with similar conditions. It should preferably be the home planet of a civilized and highly developed alien race that is close to equal in strength to the humans in this galaxy." ,1 i>

This single condition alone was too harsh!

Neither Ves, General Axelar, the Ouroboros or even Lucky thought that it would be easy to satisfy this insane condition!

There were many races in the Red Ocean, but few of them possessed the capital to compete against red humanity even when the latter was cut off from the Milky Way.

This almost certainly meant that if Axelar and the Ouroboros wanted to find the planet of their dreams, they would have to invade the core territories of an alien race and commit genocide on the latter's home planet!

That was the easy part.

Destruction was not enough. It had to be paired with creation, which meant that the invading human forces had to stick around and do their utmost to terraform the globe that had just been cleansed of alien life!

Even if the Terrans utilized their best and most powerful terraforming technologies, the transformation of an entire planet could not be completed in a short amount of time!

Depending on how many resources and assets that the Streons could muster for this suicidal operation, their forces would at least have to stick around for an entire year!

However, the story did not end there. In order for the new Earth to live up to its name, it had to be permanently populated by billions of human citizens.

Only after satisfying all of these cumbersome conditions would the Ouroboros hopefully be inspired to undergo a fundamental transformation.

This meant that red humanity had to stick around and hold an extremely sensitive star system for many years if not decades!

Even after the Ouroboros successfully restored its balance and enabled Axelar to make his ultimate breakthrough, the new Terran god pilot would likely remain obligated to defend red humanity's new home planet against every possible threat!

Both Ves and General Axelar were clever enough to realize that the real winner of this arrangement would be Gaia.

Axelar did not appear to have any strong feelings for Old Earth. If he did, then he would have agreed to help Gaia realize her ambitious goal.

"Are there any other requirements?" Ves asked.

"There are other helpful criteria." The powerful entity spoke. "The planet must ideally be orbiting a G-type main-sequence star. The planet should possess comparable mass and ground composition as Old Earth. The planet should be orbited by a moon that is comparable to Luna."

That narrowed the eligible choices far too much!

"I doubt that there is any planet in the Red Ocean that satisfies all of these requirements." Ves mildly said.

"The conditions do not have to be valid at the beginning. A planet may be different at the beginning, but this is not a hindrance as long as it can be made into the image of Old Earth through terraforming. A moon can be created or towed from another location. All of these are profound acts of creation that will further your mech's connection to this force. Do you understand?"

That... made life a lot easier for General Axelar. He no longer thought that this suggestion was ridiculous. It was merely incredibly difficult.

"Has anyone identified a suitable planet as of yet?" Ves asked. "I know that a lot of your worshipers have joined forces in order to found a new version of Earth in this dwarf galaxy."

"They have found several matches." Gaia replied. "They have started their search by examining the home planets of the more powerful races of this dwarf galaxy. Several of them are acceptable, but they are located too far away from human space. For example, the home planet of the orven race is the most ideal candidate due to the resemblance between humanity and this race."

The orven home planet was located thousands of light-years away!

Trying to capture it and hold it on a permanent basis was impossible!

The only realistic way to fulfill Gaia's goal was to steadily gain more ground in the ongoing war.

Once humanity's front lines advanced close enough to the star system where orvens originally came from, the Terrans could make a forceful push and safely take it over without overextending themselves!

How long would it take to make this happen?

Given how badly red humanity was outnumbered at the moment, it would be a fantasy to expect linefighters to steadily beat back the aliens and conquer more territories.

It was much more likely for the opposite to happen!

Even if the best-case scenario occurred, it would still take an unknown amount of decades before red humanity could commence a serious takeover of the orven home planet.

This took way too long!

Both Ves and Axelar grew pensive.

"Wait. Does the orven home planet have to remain in its current star system, or is it okay for us to displace it to a completely different star system?"

"The planet of its origin does not have to remain constant." Gaia steadily replied. "If you have the technology and the means to transport an entire terrestrial planet to another system, then you may do so. You must take care that the destination resembles the Sol System to a greater degree."

Axelar gained a lot more hope! "Does this also have to do with the forces of creation and destruction?"

"Taking a planet away from its origin can be seen as an act of destruction. Moving it to another star system can be seen as an act of creation. All is perfectly balanced, as all things should be." Gaia solemnly spoke.

That made this mission a lot more realistic!

Holding an Earth candidate over the long term while being situated far away from friendly human space was impossible. Not even Axelar could justify such a suicidal mission. He would rather remain stuck as an ace pilot for the rest of his life than drive millions of Terrans to their doom!

It would be a different story if General Axelar Streon and his forces only had to invade an alien star system, wipe out all life on a home planet, and find a way to teleport it all the way back into human space!

"Wait." Ves jerked. "General, does your superstate have the technology to teleport an entire planet across a distance of hundreds if not thousands of light-years?"

"I cannot give you the answer." The powerful pilot shook his head. "Humanity in the Milky Way possesses this ability. The Big Two have been able to move entire stars from one star system to another. Humanity is much weaker in our current galaxy. We have lost access to the services of a great majority of Star Designers and god pilots. We may not have the means to teleport a single planet from one star system to another. I will have to make an inquiry through my own channels, but I anticipate that a readily available solution is not available."

That disappointed Ves. "If that is the case, then you may have to make a device that can make this happen."

Axelar concurred. "There are rumors that particularly phase lords are able to teleport entire planets under their own power. This means that it should be viable to produce the same effect through technological means. I fear that the conditions to make this possible is an enormous ordeal in itself. Not only must I convince a Star Designer to embark on a grand design, but I must also secure an enormous amount of funding, phasewater and other resources to make this superdevice,"

If the demands were too great, then it might not be worth it to go through all of this trouble.

While red humanity certainly needed all of the god pilots that it could get, the sacrifices had to be worth it in order for this ludicrous operation to make sense!

Ves stared back at Gaia. So far, this mission primarily benefited a non-human spiritual entity that was highly invested in repairing her incredibly frail foundation.

The fact that Axelar and the Ouroboros might benefit from this effort was more of a side effect than anything else.

There had to be a safer and much less extravagant way to balance out the power of creation and destruction of the Ouroboros.

It was a pity that Ves was unable to come up with any better alternative. Perhaps he needed to spend more time on this, but if he didn't get any new ideas, then fulfilling Gaia's goal may be the only realistic opportunity that Axelar had left to transform his ace mech!

Gaia withdrew her presence shortly afterwards. She had delivered her desired message. Now it was up to Axelar and the Terrans to decide whether they were willing to cooperate with her insanely ambitious scheme.

Ves felt rather bad for Axelar and the Ouroboros.

It shouldn't have been so difficult to solve a single problem, but Ves was too weak to offer any easier alternatives.

"We can continue to look for a more practical alternative." Ves suggested.

General Axelar remained silent for a few seconds.

"I will welcome any plan that allows my mech to unlock its potential without making too many sacrifices, but... the proposal issued by Gaia may be our best chance to transform our lives. There is much that you do not know about god pilots, Professor Larkinson. There is a popular theory that in order to attain this level of power, we must perform deeds that only gods can accomplish. These deeds must be legendary and affect as many lives as possible. Invading alien space, razing the home planet of the orven race before displacing it back to friendly space most definitely satisfies this requirement! The more I think about it, the more my heart and soul is convinced that this is the deed that can propel me to godhood!"

The Ouroboros echoed this sentiment by letting out a supporting noise!

Both pilot and mech were aligned on this issue!

Rather than to go through the tedious and frustrating process of reforming the Terran Alliance, the pair would rather invade the heart of alien space and rob the home planet of one of the 13 major races of the Red Ocean!

Ves almost couldn't believe how quickly Axelar lost his initial doubts and embraced this ludicrous fantasy!