The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5260

Chapter 5260 Rising Opposition

Governor Mabrius Gauge tried to remain as impassive and composed as possible when the frustrating call with the Larkinson Patriarch finally came to an end.

The talk had been a disaster. Despite the optimism and good grace he displayed during the actual talk, inside he knew this effort at reconciliation was doomed from the start.

The Friday Coalition had built an incredibly detailed personality profile of the individual known as Ves Larkinson.

While the man's erratic behavior and extremely unlikely successes could never be truly predicted, there were still plenty of data points to chart out his responses to different stimuli.

Using the model constructed by all of the data, it was possible to formulate a conversational strategy that combined all of the most favorable predictive outcomes. Following it should give a speaker the highest chance of attaining his goals of any negotiation.

Yet no matter what kind of variables or conditions the social engineers inputted into the elaborate model, the predicted success rate never rose above 22.6 percent!

Those were dreadfully low odds. No one from the Friday Colonies wanted to step forward and take the initiative to hold this crucially important talk.

This was despite the enormous rewards for success.

If any of them actually managed to pull this off, the person responsible would obtain a considerable increase in importance for being the one who actually managed to tame the furious cat.

Yet if they failed to make any gains, then they would bear a considerable amount of blame for botching the conversation and ruining any hope of reconciling with a rising star of red humanity!

The Friday Colonies needed to select a spokesperson that was significant or important enough to get taken seriously by the Larkinson Patriarch. Pushing forth an obscure middle-level diplomat would not only be an insulting gesture, but the poor fellow might not get more than a few sentences in before the other side cut the connection!

Securing the cooperation of Tristan Wesseling would have been the best. The Larkinson Patriarch responded a lot better to those he considered his friends, and Tristan was perhaps the only person who originated from the Friday Coalition who could still hold a cordial conversation with the devil.

Sadly, Mr. Wesseling remained completely unsympathetic to the plight of his former state and people.

"I cut off my citizenship to the Friday Coalition for a reason." The Journeyman Mech Designer responded at the time. "1 have done my duty to my state and paid back all of the debts that I have incurred and more. Look, I don't blame the common Fridaymen for all of the ills of their state, but that does not mean 1 want to be a party of whatever sordid schemes the higher ups have plotted this time. With regards to my friend, you have made your bed. Now you need to lie in it. I have one piece of advice for you all. If you truly want to earn his forgiveness, then you need to offer your surrender. Anything less is unacceptable."

The former Fridayman's words proved correct. Though Governor Mabrius had been empowered with the right to make a lot of different concessions, none of them touched the core interests of the coalition partners currently in charge of the state.

They all tried to have their cake and eat it too, which ultimately failed just as the model predicted.

Governor Mabrius Gauge's heart had sunk to the bottom.

He knew that recriminations and blame would fly in his direction within the hour. Even though he had tried to make the most out of a bad hand, the other coalition partners wouldn't see it that way.

Part of it was a deliberate effort on their part. The Gauge Dynasty had been riding over their heads for a long time. Even with the latest setbacks in Pima Prime, the dynasty still remained rock solid back in the Komodo Star Sector.

Yet once those blasted phase whales cut off the link between the Friday Colonies and the much more powerful Friday Coalition, the balance of power in the former had completely changed!

The Gauge Dynasty that had recently suffered a huge blow in its port system and became burdened with rebuilding its infrastructure could have easily rebuilt Pima Prime in time.

Sure, plans had been set back by a lot of crucial years, but as long as enough capital flowed in from the Milky Way, the port system would have eventually been able to regain a semblance of its former self.

All of that had suddenly gone down the drain now. The Gauge Dynasty had become the weakest coalition partner in the Friday Colonies!

The economic damage was already bad enough. Losing the only ace pilot stationed in the Red Ocean was worse!

While the Gauge Dynasty promised to send another ace pilot to take the place of his deceased nephew, the replacement hadn't arrived fast enough before the new age commenced!

Now, Governor Mabrius Gauge was forced to stretch himself thin in an attempt to prop up the failing colonies of the Gauge Dynasty.

None of the other Fridaymen liked the Gaugers all that much. Now that the ones in the Red Ocean had lost much of their power and leverage, the Konsus, Vanguards, Carnegies and so on deliberately snubbed the Gaugers and reduced a lot of essential business dealings that kept the remaining colonies alive!

Mabrius could practically feel the sharks circling around the deteriorating and increasingly more vulnerable colonies that still belonged to the Gauge Dynasty for the time being.

While it was not acceptable for the other coalition partners to turn against the Gauge Dynasty in open conflict, the governor was well aware that there were numerous underhanded methods that could produce similar outcomes.

If Mabrius failed to turn this situation around, he knew that the Gauge Dynasty would become a remnant of the past in the Red Ocean!

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