The Mech Touch novel Chapter 6336

Chapter 6336 Planned Showdown

A day before the date of the departure, Ves felt as if he had done his utmost to prepare for a conflict.

There was only so much Ves and the Larkinson Clan could do to reinforce the Bluejay Fleet any further.

This situation perfectly illustrated the flaws of possessing way more soft power than hard power.

When there was a severe mismatch between the two, the gap could result in dangerous situations where his enemies may band together to remove him from the political board in a violent fashion!

What galled him a lot was that the people who had a vested interest in his continued survival all treated this potential crisis as a test and an opportunity.

They all believed that getting attacked while the Bluejay Fleet was under transit would prompt Ves to gain inspiration that could lead to another wonder. He might also be forced to pull out a secret weapon that he had kept hidden for situations just like these.

It was not that they dismissed the very real possibility that Ves might die or get heavily injured in the process, but they paid too much attention to success and neglected the possibility of failure!

Though Ves was guilty of the same behavior in the past, he believed he wised up now that he became a father and grew older.

All of those high-and-mighty leaders should have developed even more cautious and calculating attitudes, yet they all ended up agreeing to a huge all-or-nothing bet!

"You are not wrong to assume that there are people who see this as an opportunity." Jovy Armalon told Ves during the process of selecting and securing the mechs of the Swarm Project that they wanted to showcase at Yernstall. "Any potential ambush on our expanded fleet will require a large commitment of first-class forces. If the enemy composition does not entirely consist of native alien assets, then you can expect the presence of human traitors. The probability is great that we can identify and trace their origins as long as we can glimpse them in the field. We can subsequently trace the connections and uncover hidden networks of people who have been working against the common interests of our race and civilization."

"Such as the cosmopolitans."

"Precisely." Jovy grinned. "The Cosmopolitan Movement has an even greater reason to target you than attempting to claim the bounty posted by the Red Cabal. You see, the cosmopolitans are being imperiled by one of your recent innovations that has just begun to roll out on a larger scale."

What could that be? Out of all of his recent releases, Ves only believed one of them had met the criteria.

"Are you telling me… that my kinship networks are effective at rooting cosmopolitans that have been hiding in plain sight in our society?"

"That appears to be the case." Jovy affirmed. "We do not have proof that kinship networks can identify all members of the Cosmopolitan Movement, but in the past half year, the new kinship networks managed to detect hundreds of potential members or sympathizers of the cosmopolitans. That alone cannot be used as proof that they are traitors, but it at least gives us a lead. When we captured the potential cosmopolitans and proceeded to conduct more expansive examinations of their lives, we found corroborating proof that confirmed their treasonous affiliations. It is regrettable that those caught were placed fairly low on the cosmopolitan totem pole, and each of their contact persons have disappeared. We believe that their cells deliberately offered them up to the kinship network to test the effectiveness as well as the possible limitations of your kinship networks."

"Well, being able to catch so many confirmed cosmopolitans when all of your other solutions have failed to sniff them must have certainly spooked them badly."

"Badly enough to raise the priority of your assassination, Ves. The Cosmopolitan Movement has put you at the top of their list. Entire cells are suspending their existing plots and schemes just to prepare for an attempt on your life. If the cosmopolitans fail to eliminate you, they believe with good reason that your kinship networks will deny them any opportunity to operate in the highest levels of power."

Ves should have thought about this sooner. One of the original reasons why he created the Larkinson Network in the first place was because he was paranoid about letting traitors into his clan. The effectiveness of this creation more than vindicated his decision!

Now that he was beginning to share the same benefits to other organizations, his invention directly threatened the continued infiltration of the Cosmopolitan Movement in the most important organs of human civilization!

If all of the human traitors lurking within the halls of the Red Two and the first-rate colonial superstates got exposed or driven out, then there would be much less room for them in human-occupied space!

That would massively impair their ability to steal human technologies, influence human policies and impede the efforts of their ideological adversaries.

In short, the continued existence of the Cosmopolitan Movement as red humanity's secret major power came under existential threat due to Ves' work!

That did not necessarily mean that the logical solution would be to eliminate the inventor!

"Killing me won't destroy any existing networks. It doesn't work that way." Ves said with a helpless expression. "They will continue to exist and operate as if nothing is wrong."

Jovy at least chose to be honest. "I personally do not agree with this attitude, but there are leaders who think otherwise. The fact of the matter is that the cosmopolitans can still abandon their posts and flee before they are obliged to connect their minds to a kinship network. That will never give us the satisfaction we need. We want to catch them in a single surprise sweep, but that requires us to wait for them to make the first move."

This plan sounded more and more sketchy to Ves!

While it seemed logical enough to actually work, he doubted that it was a simple matter of getting it done.

Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "All of the additional monitoring around the route will significantly limit the amount of assets our enemies can bring to bear. They are not necessarily meant to catch and destroy any unauthorized intruders. Their primary purpose is to increase the difficulty of sneaking an excessively large force past all of their patrols. Our enemies have a better chance of successfully intercepting our Bluejay Fleet with a leaner and faster ambush force. It especially makes it difficult for the native aliens to sneak hundreds of warships past our frontlines and move them deep into human-occupied space without escaping detection."

This was good news, because it meant that his enemies wouldn't be able to bring a humongous force of mechs, phasefighters and warships that vastly outnumbered the Bluejay Fleet!

However, a slimmer force that successfully bypassed all of that monitoring would definitely be competent in other ways!

"I am happy that you are beginning to understand the deep game that has started around your life, Ves. This is your crucible that people behind the scenes have meticulously prepared for you. Multiple ambitious plans may come into fruition while many others will have to be erased due to changing circumstances. Your performance during your business trip can directly change the course of history.

Ves already carried a lot of responsibilities. He did not need to add one more!

"Ugh. Why can't these damn cosmopolitans leave me alone?"

"It is your fault, Ves. You chose to embrace this difficult life. You are the only person who can create a kinship network. You understand its strengths and flaws the best out of all of us. If you had been gracious enough to relinquish your monopoly on the creation of kinship networks and taught others how to produce similar works, then you will no longer become a critical priority target to be eliminated according to the cosmopolitans. Once the secret has spread far and wide, the cosmopolitans have already lost. They cannot kill everyone that has learned the secret to creating kinship networks, nor can they waste so many resources to bring refugees back on track. They can only start by taking you and all of your works on this matter down."

If Jovy thought he could persuade Ves to relinquish his monopoly on kinship networks, then the RA Senior was sorely mistaken!

"I am not going to change my mind on holding onto my monopoly." Ves decisively stated. "I don't have much leverage to convince groups like your Survivalist Faction to help keep me alive. If the price for this decision is to force the cosmopolitans into a showdown against our Bluejay Fleet, then so be it. I feel a lot better about it now that you have shown me all of the precautions made by the Association."