Chapter 3836 Humanity's Weapon
"You are indeed right to raise this concern, marshal." Calabast graciously said. "If the fish-whale race wishes to remain prosperous, it should go all-out into repelling us from Purgatory and take control over the ancient star gate. However, think about it for a moment. Who do you think the Evolvers will hate more, the Swarmers who have killed lots of Evolvers and assaulted the Lab Continent for who knows how many times, or the friendly alien visitors who try their best to trade and cooperate with the locals?"
Many people turned thoughtful. When Calabast phrased this matter in this manner, it became a lot more understandable why cooperation became possible.
Calabast smirked. "It takes a high degree of cognitive and societal development to produce individuals who think about the good of an entire race over their own self-interest. Given how primitive and uncivilized these native life forms appear to be, the most they can take into consideration is the interests of their own group. What we need to do is to exploit their lack of vision and tailor an approach where we can both get what we want."
"Even if it comes at the detriment of the entire fish-whale race?"
"Yes. Short-sighted as it might sound, the divide and conquer strategy has worked in many different situations because it inherently takes advantage of the selfishness that many population groups possess. No matter whether they are human or alien, it is hard for them to resist the temptation to get ahead even if their state or species must pay a terrible price."
"We should try not to antagonize the fish-whales more than necessary." Ves added. "We can't take over this pocket space with our strength, so there is no reason for us to plot the downfall of every kingdom. We should just focus on grabbing our rightful share of phasewater before getting out. The MTA will probably take care of the rest."
The spymaster nodded in agreement. "That is true. In fact, we should try our best to frame our intentions in the best light to the aliens we choose to cooperate with. For example, we can argue that eliminating one of the kingdoms is good for the fish-whales because it will reduce their internal divisions and bring them closer to unity."
"Communication is a weapon." Ves stated. freёweɓnovel.com
"Exactly, and we humans have mastered its use in diplomacy and warfare. Through countless wars and collisions, we have gained a lot of experience in how to leverage communication to our advantage and passed on what we learned to the next generation. Throughout the history of human civilization, we have developed better frameworks, better techniques and better approaches around communication."
Calabast directed a contemptuous glance towards the map of Purgatory.
"Compared to a civilization that has not only conquered half of the Milky Way but also a good chunk of the Red Ocean, how can these backwards indigenous fish-whales come close to our racial accumulation? I am not discounting the possibility that they have engaged in diplomacy with each other, but if that is true, the frequency and sophistication of their communications should be low. The more we communicate with the fish-whales, the more we can gauge their mastery of this weapon."
Not everyone possessed a fine appreciation of communication as a weapon. Patriarch Reginald looked like he wanted to scratch his head.
"It sounds like playing with fire to me." The Cross Patriarch gruffly remarked. "We have all seen the power of the king fish. Is it really as easy to fool as you all think? We only have to make one mistake before this big fish decides to open its huge maw in our direction before spraying us all with its titanic swarm-destroying energy spray."
Calabast crossed her arms. "Blowback is always a possible risk, especially if we know too little about what we are dealing with. The best we can do is to adopt the most helpful posture possible. I will get into this later. First, I want to explain my thoughts on how we should handle the different fish-whale kingdoms."
She raised three fingers.
"In general, we can treat the groups in question with three different approaches. First, we can befriend and cooperate with them. Second, we can ignore or adopt a neutral posture towards them. Third, we can treat them as hostiles that we should eliminate as soon as possible for the betterment of our goals. Now, let us begin by determining which of these three basic approaches we should adopt for each of the fish-whale groups."
She turned to the map and highlighted all four kingdoms.
"The Hot Kingdom does not have what we want and is the furthest away from our base in this pocket space. We should ignore the Heaters and maintain a neutral posture if we ever come into contact."
"The Phase Kingdom is small but holds what we want the most in this pocket space. It is extremely unlikely that the Phasers will agree to trade their abundant reserves of phasewater for others to us, so defeating them is a necessity for us to succeed in our campaign."
"The Evolution Kingdom is also small, but shows the greatest degree of sentience, intelligence, sociability and rationality. If we approach the king fish correctly, there is a decent chance that we can achieve a mutually-beneficial agreement that can lead to a temporary military alliance. We should put our best effort into befriending the Evolvers."
Calabast paused for a moment.
"As for the Swarm Kingdom… they are a force of nature in Purgatory. Negotiating with its guiding intelligence is extremely unlikely to yield results due to its historical domineering behavior pattern and the overwhelming strength of its fish-whale massive armies. That said, many of the Swarmers appear to be inattentive most of the time, which will allow us to avoid hostilities with them. We may even be able to take advantage of their various shortcomings to steer them into actions that they would otherwise not undertake. It is for this reason that I believe that cooperating with the Swarmers is key to succeeding in our campaign!"
"Huh?"
Her last statement generated plenty of confusion and bewilderment.
People could understand why they should steer clear of the Swarmers. To cooperate with this rabid swarm of feral, bloodthirsty and cannibalistic fish-whales was unimaginable to those that had recently fought a bloody conflict with their brethren!
"The Swarmers are too dangerous!"
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