The Mech Touch

Chapter 6464  Obedience Is Mandatory

The event had concluded.

The Evolution Witch's announcement had shocked red humanity, but only for a time.

The Oblivion Gates did not directly affect their lives and livelihoods. Not yet. There was no way that ordinary citizens could gain access to the strategically valuable goods sent from the Milky Way.

Much of the goods obtained through this intergalactic exchange would benefit the people at the top.

These improvements would subsequently help red humanity put up a better fight against the native aliens, but that was not entirely certain.

These reasons and more caused the enthusiasm towards the Oblivion Gates to die down pretty quickly.

A lot of individuals quickly shifted their focus back on the Red Collective and the Yellow Jacket models.

Unlike those gates that weren't even developed enough to transport living people between the two galaxies, people could easily experience the benefits brought by systematic cultivation and Carmine mechs!

Ves was one of the few people who could not afford to move past the Oblivion Gates and the many implications of their existence.

Before he was able to meet with the Evolution Witch in person, his incarnation over in the Milky Way had already begun to talk with his mother.

The Oblivion Empress and the Beast of Fear saw no need to relocate to a more comfortable location.

The entire site was under the Beast of Fear's control. His God Kingdom monitored everything that took place within its reach, and it was trivially easy for him to prevent others from eavesdropping on their conversation.

Meanwhile, Master Willix continued to remain engrossed by the data stored by her elaborate workstation.

It was an eclectic gathering of people, especially with Veronica in the mix.

Unfortunately for the Cyborg Cat, she was by far the most junior and least informed among the four!

Veronica directed her artificial eyes towards the Beast of Fear.

The god biomech presented an intimidating sight. The poor incarnation felt she was still at the mercy of an apex predator beyond comparison.

"Can we speak in private?" Veronica meekly asked.

A feminine hand gently caressed the Cyborg Cat's back plating. "There is no need for that. This conversation will be more illuminating for you if he is present to provide clarification. Now that we have successfully completed this phase, you are now permitted to learn a glimpse of our grand design."

"You already dragged me into this dangerous mess to begin with!" Veronica angrily shouted as she tried and failed to squirm out of her mother's iron grip! "Since my Carmine mechs play such an important role in your plan, why didn't you inform me before you tried to bridge the gap between the two galaxies?! It would have been handy for you to give me advanced warning that I am about to become the number one enemy of the Common Fleet Alliance!"

Her mother imperiously looked down on her. As much as Veronica 'loved' her mother, she still couldn't get accustomed to her more… cold and inhuman traits.

She was not as human as the mother that raised her in her early childhood. That Cynthia Larkinson was gone forever.

After dying and ascending back to life and straight into godhood, the woman behaved much more like a True God and less like a mortal mother.

Veronica had tried her best to ignore the times when she felt alienated from her own mother, but she could not do so anymore.

There was a fundamental disconnect between mother and child.

They were much more different than the Cyborg Cat thought.

As much as they were bound by blood, they were way too far apart in everything else.

Her mother was older than the Age of Mechs. She had already lived under three radically different identities that she knew of. She still had no idea about her current goals and ambitions!

All of this caused Veronica to become more and more fearful towards her own mother.

If the two weren't mother and child, Veronica instinctively felt that the Oblivion Empress would have been nowhere near as gentle as now!

The Lady of the Night was a frightening woman! Her ultimate plan ran so deep that she even agreed to cooperate with one of the most deviant and shunned god pilots of the MTA!

She—

"Ehem." Cynthia coughed.

The True God released a small pulse of power that shook Veronica's Spirituality.

The interruption jarred the Cyborg Cat's mind, but also dragged her out of her negative spiral.

The mother pointedly gazed at the tentacled monstrosity.

"I would appreciate it if you refrained from stimulating my offspring's fear reactions."

The vaguely giant canine beast responded with a predatory grin. "That cat of yours is filled with fear. I may even go as far as to say that he, or she I suppose, is ruled by it. So much of it haunts her mind that she is entirely driven towards getting rid of the source of her distress. Her fear is… delectable."

"And you shall in no way feed off her fear."

"I would not dream of it, my partner. Let us proceed with this necessary discussion. Your offspring's desire for answers is just as strong as 'her' fears."

Veronica really did not like to be in the presence of two True Gods. They ascended so much that there was a fundamental disconnect between them and the mortals that surrounded them. Their dismissive attitude towards lesser beings grated the Cyborg Cat a lot!

"Mother." She said in an attempt to bring this conversation back on track. "Please explain to me why you did not see fit to inform me of your plan ahead of time."

"It was unnecessary." Cynthia Larkinson dismissively said as she continued to strike Veronica's head and back. "I am certain you are familiar with the need to know principle. Secrets must only be shared to others when necessary. Since you are no use to us in the prior phase of our plan, there is no positive benefit to informing you ahead of time."

"That is not true, mother! I could have made preparations to defend myself against the assassination attempts I know are coming. I also could have begun work on a Carmine mech that is completely adapted to the Milky Way. If you wanted to present the people of this galaxy with a Carmine mech, then I cannot blindly publish the Yellow Jacket designs. They cannot be made here! My design team and I have made extensive use of hyper materials that are nonexistent here. The Yellow Jackets also rely on exotics that also can't be found in the Milky Way. The fastest way to present a working Carmine mech design to the locals is to design a new Carmine mech from the ground up that copies much of the Yellow Jacket mech's homework, and that will take months of dedicated design work!"

Translating a Red Ocean mech into a Milky Way mech was not as simple as it sounded. From design philosophies to substantially different material availability and properties, there was no way Veronica could make do by designing a hasty variant of the Yellow Jacket.

Too much needed to be changed in order to complete the conversion. The workload was so great that Veronica might as well start over with a blank slate and design a proper Milky Way-adapted Carmine mech from the very beginning.

While it may be true that she did not have time in the past 6 months to work on other mech designs aside from the ones of the Swarm Project, she still could have made plenty of preparations in advance!

Now, Veronica unwillingly had to devote a few months of her time on designing a new Carmine mech that she never thought was necessary.

This was all because her mother kept him in the dark!

"Your points are valid, yet irrelevant. A delay of a few months is inconsequential. It takes time to open up a formal dialogue with the Mech Trade Association. We can present the designs of your Yellow Jackets as a temporary solution. If you knew how much peril you will face after we reveal the existence of your Carmine mechs to the Milky Way, would you have been able to work on your Swarm Project as comfortably as you did in the last half year?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"..."

She made a good point. Veronica knew that she wouldn't have a good time if she knew what was coming. The quality of her work might drop. Her progress might slow down, causing the project to be delayed.

"It's the principle of the matter that counts." Veronica weakly complained.

"Irrelevant." Cynthia shook her head. "The Oblivion Gate Project is too important for news of it to spread to the wrong groups. Maintaining secrecy is more important than satisfying your curiosity. You are not adequately able to protect your secrets. Your human self in the Red Ocean is being watched too closely by your protectors from the Red Association. It only takes a single slip of the tongue to prematurely expose our plan."

"Have you ever thought that I would refuse to cooperate with you guys?" Veronica growled, trying and failing to sound intimidating. "I am the only one who can design Carmine mechs, which according to you is pivotal to preventing a horde of god mechs and CFA battleships from obliterating the Black Oblivion Gate. That means that I am one of the failure points of your plan. I can simply refuse to design the MW version of a Carmine mech, you know."

"You have no choice." Cynthia said in a sterner voice. "From the moment we developed a pair of working Oblivion Gates, it is only a matter of time before the MTA and the CFA learn about the results. The Beast of Fear over here cannot do much to delay the arrival of a punitive force that will either steal or destroy the Black Oblivion Gate. We cannot resist them on a military front. Not only will we lose the gate, but my empire, as rudimentary as it is, will be crushed under their tyrannical heel. I will not be able to escape if they dispatch one or multiple hostile god pilots and will suffer yet another death. You and your father may be able to run and hide, but you will fail. The MTA or the CFA will catch the two of you sooner or later, and you will perish in their hands after they have absorbed as much information from you as possible. Only by making our situation public and using Carmine mechs as a means to win overwhelming public support will you be able to preserve your continued existence in this galaxy."

Her mother smiled at the cat. "You are bluffing. You would never deny your cooperation to us. You are not even as upset with us as you appear to be. Do you know why? I am your mother. You are expected to obey my commands. To even mention it is redundant."

"Mother…"

"You have no choice." Cynthia said in a sterner voice. "From the moment we developed a pair of working Oblivion Gates, it is only a matter of time before the MTA and the CFA learn about the results. The Beast of Fear over here cannot do much to delay the arrival of a punitive force that will either steal or destroy the Black Oblivion Gate. We cannot resist them on a military front. Not only will we lose the gate, but my empire, as rudimentary as it is, will be crushed under their tyrannical heel. I will not be able to escape if they dispatch one or multiple hostile god pilots and will suffer yet another death. You and your father may be able to run and hide, but you will fail. The MTA or the CFA will catch the two of you sooner or later, and you will perish in their hands after they have absorbed as much information from you as possible. Only by making our situation public and using Carmine mechs as a means to win overwhelming public support will you be able to preserve your continued existence in this galaxy."

Veronica grimaced. Her mother was right. The Cyborg Cat had no choice. There was no other viable way forward aside from conforming to her risky plan!

"I don't like it, mother. I need you to be more forthcoming to me. I don't want to be kept in the dark, especially now that my Carmine mechs may be the only reason that will keep us all alive in the next months."

"The kid deserves his due." The Beast of Fear unexpectedly voiced his support. "There is not much harm in revealing the next steps of our Oblivion Plan."

Veronica felt an undeniable sense of pleasure and eagerness when the god pilot mentioned the plan.

"What… is the Oblivion Plan?"

"The Oblivion Plan is an ambitious scheme to engineer the rise and expansion of the Oblivion Empire." Cynthia Larkinson finally gave a straightforward answer. "The goal is to expand the Nyxian Gap… by devouring the surrounding star sectors."

Veronica grew shocked and horrified after hearing this diabolical answer! "What?! Are you actually planning to expand the hazardous region?! Thousands of populated star systems will get engulfed! Trillions of people will lose their homes and workplaces! Entire states will fall!"

"That is true, but the Nyxian Gap is hungry, my child. It is too weak, and the activation of the Black Oblivion Gate has drained it of its souls. It needs to be replenished. Only by devouring the nutrients around it will I be able to command more power. Strength is vital to our continued survival. The stronger I become, the more I can keep us all secure in this hostile galaxy."

"That… the Big Two will never stand for this! How can you possibly stop the mechers and the fleeters from destroying the surrounding star sectors?!"

"The answer to that question is simple. We engineer the downfall of the Big Two." The Beast of Fear spoke with obvious pleasure and exhilaration!

"WHAAAAAAAT?!"