The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3414

Chapter 3414: MTA Factions

After Master Bouderon provided a bit more clarification about the meaning of factions in the MTA, Ves realized that he and his fellow Journeymen came in touch with the Association's true power structure.

Before this point, Ves only had a vague and superficial idea on how the MTA was actually governed. Although it was not a state or star nation, its sheer size and enormous responsibilities effectively meant that it had a lot of people who had different ideas on what they should do with all of their power.

Although Ves had long known that the Galactic Mech Council effectively ruled the MTA as a whole, he didn't know much about what they discussed or what they voted upon. Such matters simply weren't publicized on the galactic net.

To the overwhelming majority of space peasants, the Mech Trade Association was a single, monolithic entity. Powerful mechers such as Master Willix and Master Bouderon never exposed their factions when they dealt with outsiders. They all portrayed themselves as representatives of the great Association.

Due to special reasons, Ves gained an early peek into the inner workings of the MTA. He was under no illusion that he would actually have a say in any matters. At best, he would become their lackey and assist them in minor matters.

This was nothing strange to Ves. He was familiar with cooperating with larger entities like the Clifford Society, the Rim Guardians and the Hexadric Hegemony.

No matter what they called themselves or how much power they possessed, as long as Ves was useful to them, they would have a basis of cooperation.

It was too bad that Ves never stuck around long enough to climb up their hierarchies and obtain greater benefits.

Years ago, Ves intended to develop a closer relationship with the Rim Guardians. He was a citizen of the galactic rim and did not possess a strong desire to leave.

The events that took place in the Nyxian Gap and the opening of the Red Ocean completely changed his calculations. Why should he waste any further time with earning the favor of the Rim Guardians when this fraternity was hardly relevant in the new frontier?

There were completely different clubs in the Red Ocean that could provide pioneers like himself with much more immediate benefits!

Ves had a feeling that the faction that Master Bouderon belonged to wasn't as limited as the previous clubs. There was no greater authority than the Big Two in human space. A faction that was powerful enough to steer the decision-making of one would never become irrelevant!

Ketis began to frown, though. As a swordmaster, she was not as restrained in front of an MTA Master as the rest.

"Master Bouderon, if I may ask, could you introduce the different factions to us?" She asked. "While we are honored that you wish to solicit us, it would be foolish to enter your faction without understanding where you stand and where your rivals stand."

"That is a reasonable request. Just to clarify, you are not obligated to accept our invitation. There are plenty of mech designers that have decided to cooperate with other factions or stay out of this game entirely. The benefits that we can provide are more subtle and mainly based on exchanging favors. We do not issue our own merits that you can exchange for different goods and services in some sort of merit exchange platform. At our level, such incentives are too vulgar and redundant."

That was easy to say for a Master Mech Designer and someone who was part of the upper echelon of the MTA. Even if Master Bouderon hadn't earned any merits, he could easily borrow favors from other people!

As for smaller figures like Ves and Ketis, the benefits they could gain from this cooperation was entirely dependent on the friendship and generosity of the people in charge.

Although this sounded like a step back compared to more structured organizations like the Rim Guardian Fraternity, Ves knew this was the only way for him to obtain direct assistance from powerful figures like Master Willix and Master Bouderon!

Such people were normally completely inaccessible to Ves, but it was a different matter if he entered into a cooperative relationship with their faction.

That said, no matter how much friendship he developed with Master Willix, Ves agreed with Ketis. He needed to know the full picture before he committed to a choice.

"There are 12 major factions and thousands of minor factions in the Mech Trade Association." Bouderon explained without any suspense. "The former are politically powerful alliances that bind together a coalition of like-minded Star Designers, galactic mech councilors and other high dignitaries. The latter usually lack the support of prestigious leaders and cannot set policy."

In other words, the major factions had a voice in the 100-seat galactic mech council while the rabble could only beg for scraps!

Master Bouderon briefly looked contemptuous. "You don't need to pay attention to the minor factions. They are only influential under selective circumstances. Think of supporting certain regions or minority groups such as heavy gravity variant humans. A major faction might cooperate with them, but they have no weight if they are not needed."

Everyone nodded. With an attitude like that, Master Bouderon's faction most definitely wasn't a minor faction.

Soon, he began to introduce the factions with no particular order.

"Let me start by introducing the most conservative faction, which is aptly named the Preserving Order Faction. As you can imagine, the Preservers are opposed to change and are the strongest advocates for a stable and predictable status quo. In practice, they oppose virtually every proactive initiative."

"They're a bunch of cowards who are afraid of breaking the vase." Jovy added in plainer terms. "They think that everything will remain just fine if we all bury our heads in the sand. They're one of the strongest opponents of the colonization of the Red Ocean."

Though Master Bouderon looked a bit irked at Jovy's interjection, he didn't do anything further.

"I see." Ves looked intrigued.

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