The Mech Touch

Nobody in the mech arena aside from Ves and Master Quan knew that an incredibly dangerous meeting was taking place!

On the surface, the two mech designers appeared to talk about their mech designs. Ves showed a lot of interest in the Dustweaver, and Master Quan was more than happy to explain a few surface principles about his work.

The true conversation took place on a spiritual level.

What Ves just learned was so shocking that he no longer felt that the fourth challenge match was of any consequence!

He struggled to accept the fact that he had made peaceful contact with a cosmopolitan.

Though his experiences with the members of this infamous alien-loving movement were limited, he had heard plenty of stories of how these crazies handed over lots of information and technological secrets to the native aliens.

The cosmopolitans were directly responsible for making the aliens of the Red Ocean a lot stronger and more difficult to defeat!

It was difficult to calculate how much human blood the cosmopolitans had on their hands, but it was definitely a huge amount that could grow bigger with each defeat at the hands of the aliens!

Perhaps one day the Red Cabal would succeed in taking back the territories occupied by so many human colonists and pioneers.

Once that happened, the Cosmopolitan Movement had made an undeniable contribution in the extermination of red humanity!

These thoughts made it a lot more challenging for Ves to maintain his rationality. He came close to spitting the 'respected' Master in the face and calling for the mechers to arrest this hidden traitor.

However, as crazy as Master Quan may be, the man was most certainly not a fool.

Ves did not think he could gain much if he acted on his impulses.

His greatest deficiency at this moment was that he was lacking in information. He didn't know much about the cosmopolitans and had no idea why someone as important as Master Quan took such a massive risk to expose his identity to Ves at this time.

It was better to hear him out. One of the advantages of a spiritual connection was that Ves could tell with great confidence whether people were lying. This may be one of the few instances where he could gain real insider information on a secretive human organization that possessed an outsized influence in the Red Ocean.

Ves could always decide to hand Master Quan over to the mechers later.

With that sentiment in mind, Ves tried to maintain a false facade while carefully directing a part of his attention to this dangerous discussion.

"What are the differences between moderate cosmopolitans and radical cosmopolitans? No matter what means you utilize, both of your groups are traitors as far as I am concerned. All of you are so intrinsically opposed to the interests of humanity that I see no reason why I should treat you differently from the scum who openly live in alien space and advise their alien masters."

Master Quan did not exhibit any anger or any other elevated reaction at being called a traitor.

"I do not blame you for believing in the propaganda spread by the powers that be. The mechers and the fleeters have done their best to turn our entire movement and ideals into a taboo that people such as yourself cannot disassociate the word treachery from cosmopolitanism. This is a great tragedy and one that complicates many attempts at communication."

Ves was not impressed.

"The poor reception that your people have received is entirely the fault of your mad organization. Do not lay the blame on the general public whose interests are being harmed by your extreme ideals."

"Let us not go too deep into ideology at this time." Master Quan conveyed with a touch of irritation. "It is not my intention to persuade you to accept our ideals and join our movement. Not only is it clear that we will not be able to convert you to our cause, but even if we are able to do so, it is impossible for your change of heart to remain unnoticed by the mechers that constantly keep you within their sights."

"Then why did you come and tell me all of this? What is your purpose?"

"I will need to explain to you how we are organized in the current day. Our movement has many cells. Even I do not know how many of them exist in the Red Ocean. Many cells are nearly completely independent and have developed their own rules, traditions, membership criteria and goals. We are only loosely united by the common cause of forming a peaceful and united pan-racial galactic community."

Ves mentally scoffed at that. "You guys are doing a 'good' job at fostering peace and understanding between different races. I am sure that you cosmopolitans are building up a lot of goodwill among the humans who have lost their families, their friends, their livelihoods and their homes to alien aggression that you have enabled."

"I do not deny that our approach is imperfect. Each cosmopolitan desires to guide humanity beyond its biased and backwards ethnocentrist ideology. The issue is that our cells are so isolated from each other that we employ many different strategies at the same time. Many of them tend to be violent, making it much more difficult for other cells to achieve their goals through gentler means. This is the nature of the beast."

"Since your Cosmopolitan Movement is so poorly run, why should I have anything to do with you guys?"

"Let me complete my explanation, professor. As I have mentioned earlier, I am a member of a cell that is a part of our moderate faction. The word faction may be misleading here as it is not a formal grouping or designation. Moderate cells can be further divided by their ideological distinctions. Many of us do not entirely agree on the more gentle strategies we must employ in order to bring humans together with aliens. What is important is that we never intend to harm our fellow humans, whether directly or indirectly."

"What is your stance on the radicals of your movement, then? Are the two of you enemies, or are you simply willing to go your own ways?"

"We are not friends or allies. We try not to make contact with each other at all if we can." Master Quan responded through the spiritual connection. "As shameful as it may be, our moderates are not willing to go to war against the radicals. Such a conflict will only cause us to consume each other, causing us to move further away from realizing our ultimate goal. We have decided long ago to work separately."

Ves found it ironic that a group that originated from diplomats and alien lovers couldn't even form a harmonious community within its own ranks.

How could the cosmopolitans ever hope to unite humans and many different alien races when they couldn't even reconcile their own internal differences?

The severe dysfunction that existed within their forbidden organization clearly proved that their ambition was nothing but an impossible fantasy!

"I already have a rough idea on what the radicals of your movement are doing to advance their cause, not that they are doing a good job at it." Ves conveyed. "What I don't understand is what moderates such as yourself are doing. If you people have done anything to promote the idea that humans and aliens should get along, then I have not noticed any of your efforts."

"I will not betray the trust of my cell and expose our activities. It is not necessary for you to know the specifics, professor. What I am willing to tell you is that our Indigo Cell has recently decided to enact the Cross-Species Pantheon Plan."

"The Cross-Species... Pantheon... Plan?"

"We have conducted extensive studies of many alien cultures in the Red Ocean. One of the common traits is that they share a common belief in the divinity of phase whales and phase lords. Every alien society in this dwarf galaxy is so interconnected that worshiping phase leaders as literal gods has become the glue that connections them together. As undesirable as it may sound to resort to a backwards phenomenon to tie all of these races together, we cannot argue about the results. Wars of annihilation between the local alien civilizations have become a rarity because each of them can always find common ground in their religious beliefs."

That actually sounded rather interesting. Ves would have liked to discuss this topic if he wasn't talking to an actual cosmopolitan.

"That sounds nice. How does this relate to your plan?"

"Can you not recognize how we can take advantage of his common belief? A modest amount of cosmopolitans assume that one of the reasons why the aliens are so hostile against us is because we are fighting against their gods. Operation Night Jazz has done incalculable damage against our cause by inflaming the aliens against humanity further after we have slain several of their 'gods'."

"Good."

"This is anything but a good development, Professor Larkinson!" Master Quan insisted! "Red humanity is so outnumbered by the native aliens that it is impossible for us to win the Red War by ourselves! Only by finding common ground with the aliens and making peace with the more receptive among them can we hope to save our race and turn the Red Ocean into a multi-racial paradise. It does not help that our god pilots are more prone to be regarded as unholy demons rather than gods that deserve their respect. It is nearly impossible to convince the vast majority of aliens that our god pilots and Star Designers are equivalent to their phase leaders. Our Cross-Species Pantheon Plan has never been able to launch due to this setback."

As Ves listened to the cosmopolitan words, he finally started to connect the clues together. He almost widened his eyes as he deduced the true reason why Master Quan approached him in such a risky manner!

"Are you trying to find a substitute for a god by seeking me out?! This is crazy! There is no way in hell I will play any part in your deluded scheme! It is impossible for aliens to cease their opposition to humanity because I just happen to be a 'god' in their understanding. The aliens are trying to exterminate our race due to many reasons. They want to remove an existential threat to their own civilizations. They want to take revenge for all of the native residents of the Red Ocean that our race has slaughtered. They want to take back all of the territory that we have stolen from them. These are the true reasons why we are at war. No amount of superstition can change this fundamental equation."

"You underestimate the power of belief. Faith is a powerful force to many alien races. Aside from outliers such as the puelmers, the vast majority of sentients in this dwarf galaxy are conditioned from birth to develop absolute belief in the divinity of phase lords. They are compelled to display absolute subservience to any phase lord no matter the race. We can exploit this common rule by having you present yourself to different alien groups and convincing them to lay down their hostility against humans."

Madness. This was madness.

Though Master Quan did not present himself as an absolute nutcase like a radical cosmopolitan, he was just as crazy and delusional as far as Ves was concerned!

There was no chance that such a stupid scheme could possibly work!

Even if there was a sliver of a chance that it might actually produce the intended results, there was no way that Ves wanted to have any part of this dangerous and subversive scheme!

As the intense noises of the match playing out below continued to ring throughout the mech arena, Ves' mind had turned into a blender as he entertained many different thoughts.

There was no way he could remain calm under the circumstances!