Chapter 7426  A Cloud Over Terra

It was nice for Ves to catch up with Benny.

He felt concerned about the great operation that the Streon Ancient Clan was on the cusp of starting.

Once General Axelar Streon and the Ouroboros led his forces through the reformed gate at Bridgehead One, they would either return with a new god pilot at the helm or fail to come back entirely.

Ves found it difficult to imagine a third outcome.

The Streons had put their fate in the hands of their daring and visionary leader. Whether the Renewer of Terra could live up to his ambitious title remained to be seen.

The political ramifications of his move were great. The Terran Alliance had only recently earned its independence.

Now that the honeymoon period had run its course, the new colonial star empire sorely needed an unambiguous victory.

The Streons did not have to be the ones to bring hope to the hesitant Terrans, but their strength and sense of duty compelled them to make the first move.

The Renewer of Terra had overcome his own fears and hesitation. After so many years of stalling, he could no longer excuse any further delays on account of the inadequacies of his unique hero mech.

The Ouroboros had overcome its most significant flaws.

The only reasons that could hold him back were ones that reeked of cowardice and hesitation.

There was nothing wrong about having second thoughts about engaging in a risky or dangerous act.

It was very human for individuals to fear for their lives.

It was natural for humans to hesitate about stepping past the precipice.

Yet it was exactly because these were human responses that a god pilot candidate had to discard their fears and doubts.

God pilots were not merely more than humans. They ascended their race entirely!

Saints had already completed much of this process, but that made it all the more difficult for them to shed the final remaining parts of their humanity.

They were indispensable parts of their essence.

Recklessly carving out these pieces of humanity was no different from removing the heart or destroying half of the brain of a baseline human!

The only way for them to survive such a life-threatening transformation was to create a miracle.

Yet miracles had always remained the territory of the divine.

Not even a peak ace pilot as strong and well-prepared as General Axelar Streon could guarantee that he could produce a miracle through his own actions.

He could only place all of his bets on the upcoming operation and hope that he could successfully pull of a deed so legendary that it could literally distort reality in the form of an inexplicable miracle!

What were the odds of this happening?

Ves realized with a heavy heart that his previous meeting with General Axelar Streon may very well be the last.

He found it regretful that he had not arrived in the Terran Alliance in time to catch up to his old Mastery host in person.

Talking with Benny was nice and all, but it was not the same.

He appreciated the gesture, though.

As the meeting between the two finally wrapped up, the senechal uncharacteristically stepped forward and held Ves in the arm.

This was an unusually intimate move from a man who had previously displayed an impeccable degree of decor.

"Be careful, young man." Benny almost whispered in the mech designer's ear. "Great change has already commenced. The leaders of the Terran Alliance have already lost their composure. The dire state of the new frontier combined with the need to differentiate their colonial star empire from the other major human powers has led them to embrace a radical plan."

The senechal would not pass on this warning to Ves without good reason.

"What are the details of this radical plan?" He asked with a frown.

The Terran responded with a mysterious smile. "I shall leave it to the individuals responsible for conceiving and executing the plan to account for their own decisions. They have been looking forward to presenting their attainments to you. Just remember that their actions do not directly reflect on you. Whether their extreme actions will lead our people to greatness or disaster, they bear all of the credit… as well as all of the blame."

That did not sound reassuring. The way Benny spoke made it sound as if the Terran leadership had engaged in a high-risk high-reward gambit.

It was one thing for Ves to make a risky gamble.

It was another thing for the wise and patient leaders of the Terran Alliance to exhibit the same behavior!

Although Ves was aware that leaders needed to be more decisive in a time of crisis, he questioned whether this was the right time to initiate a desperation ploy.

"Is the Terran Alliance doing worse than it appears on the surface?"

"Not necessarily, Ves. The other leaders have recognized a promising but life-changing opportunity and decided to take it with all of their might. Several difficult conditions happened to align. There are those who believe that serendipity is at play. Regardless, once the Terran Alliance unveils this plan, nothing will ever be the same again."

"So why go out of your way to warn me if I am not directly responsible?" Ves furrowed his brows.

"You do not need to bear any guilt, but that does not mean you are unrelated to this controversial initiative." Benny responded. "As one of its enablers, your voice on this matter is louder than many others. Combined with your eminent galactic citizenship, many people are susceptible to your words. You can influence the narrative. This is a great power and one that you should not wield lightly. I only ask that you withhold your immediate reaction. Think over the implications and form a proper stance before you finally decide to break your silence. Can you do that, Ves?"

The weight of this supposed initiative loomed taller and taller over his head. Ves felt as if he was about to stumble into a massive trap of sorts!

Though Ves felt incredibly irritated that Benny refused to divulge any actual details about this secret Terran plan, he understood that the senechal was bound by laws and contracts.

It was not his place to tell.

Ves finally nodded his head. "I do not think I am impulsive enough to judge things on their surface. I did not make it all the way up here by remaining ignorant of the deeper undercurrents. Still, I shall take your words at heart and maintain greater prudence in the days to come. I cannot promise you that I will absolutely remain neutral, but I will do my best to reserve my judgment."

"That is all we can ask of you. To be honest, the general and I have not made up our stance on the matter. This initiative can easily spiral out of control. It is dangerous to the point that it may even end up fracturing the Terran Alliance. Emotions have already run high behind closed doors."

Well that sounded reassuring. Not.

When Ves finally departed from the powerful frigate and returned to the Tarrasque, he still remained mostly in the dark.

He came up with dozens of strange ideas on what the Terrans had been cooking up, but they all remained speculative so long as he did not gain any further clues.

"What do you think, Lucky?"

"Meow." The gem cat pointedly yawned.

"Well, thank you for showing so much care on an issue that is controversial enough that it might break the Terran Alliance."

Since Benny already told Ves that the Terrans would present their dastardly plan to him soon enough, he decided that it was pointless to waste more time on guesswork.

He did not forget about his latest side projects.

Though he was scheduled to attend a handful of smaller meetings before attending a major event afterwards, he still had enough time to address his research.

He immediately called a meeting with his fellow collaborators.

Alexa Streon, Zanthar Larkinson, Merill O'Brian, Cormaunt Hempkamp and Kelsey Ampatoch all dropped their ongoing assignments and promptly arrived at the meeting room.

He could see Gloriana on the side of the entrance. She no doubt developed a lot of curiosity on what her husband and this bunch of eclectic mech designers had in mind, but refrained from interfering.

She knew him well enough that if he chose to keep her out, it would be better for her sanity if she just waited until he was ready to present his final results.

The woman directed a pointed stare at Ves before she silently huffed and moved away.

The married couple had long grown past the stage where they jointly worked on every design project or research project.

Once the hatch slid shut, Ves immediately commenced the meeting.

"We have all spent a bit of time on our respective assignments. While I do not expect each of you to achieve any great progress, I would still like to hear a status update from you all in person."

Several mech designers looked uneasy. Their tasks were not easy.

They reluctantly reported what little progress they made. Few of them conducted experiments. Most were still stuck with studying academic literature.

Ves did not look too surprised. He still found it useful to hear their initial ideas and research directions.

The original goal of the research project was to exploit the energies generated by the perpetual conflict between Saint Rosa Orfan and her D-mech.

This was not an easy endeavor by any means.

"I have been looking into developing an interface that can link a Destroyer weapon to a mech… and its pilot." Cormaunt Hempkamp stated. "I have worked on many different neural interface models over the years, but as far as I know, no one has ever developed a direct interface with a Destroyer weapon. It is unthinkable. However… both before and after the onset of mechs, humans have developed many different versions of neural interfaces that enable them to link with all kinds of devices. The latter has fallen off hard as the Mech Trade Association has imposed strict regulation on the uses of this dangerous technology. Their enforcement succeeded in building up public confidence in neural interface technology, but it has also led to heavy stagnation in its subsequent development."

"Get to the point, Hempkamp." Ves impatiently demanded.

The neural interface specialist got the message and sped up his speech. "What I am trying to convey is that if I want to develop an interface that effectively links to a Destroyer weapon, I can choose between two different routes. The first is to start from scratch and build a new interface that is not based on any existing templates. This is both dangerous and time-consuming, but will allow me to accrue a deep understanding of the underlying fundamentals and principles."

"What is the second route?"

"If I can gain access to restricted databases containing old and classified pre-mech neural interface design schematics, I may be able to search through them and select the most relevant ones for our purpose. I can then proceed to combine them and fill up the missing gaps with my own contributions to present a complete iteration much faster than the alternative. However, the haste combined with the lack of original research means that I will not be able to gain a full understanding of what I have wrought."

Ves was not unfamiliar with this approach. Many mech designers started out their work this way by putting different licensed parts together.

The convenience was great, but working with parts that they did not understand prevented them from optimizing their designs to the fullest.

In other words, Ves had to make a choice between quality and expedience.

It was a good thing that Gloriana was not around.

"We don't have enough time to make it right." Ves said with a tired breath. "Speed is of the essence. It doesn't have to be perfect. We can improve and optimize our experimental work over time. What matters is that the working principles are sound. You don't need to be too meticulous to test that. I will use my credentials and network to give you that access, Cormaunt. I am sure the Red Association or the Terrans will be accommodating given my status and contributions."

"Thank you, sir. I can greatly accelerate my research if I can reference those classic designs."

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