Chapter 6205 Gloriana's Thoughts.
The new frontier began to show its transphasic fangs towards red humanity.
All across the border regions, the alien assault fleets relentlessly assailed the hastily built defenses of various human powers.
The problem was that there were way too many areas to cover.
Was the Red Association strong? Undoubtedly.
Did the mechers have enough warships, first-class multipurpose mechs and high-ranking mechs to cover each and every single star system across all of the zones that bordered alien space?
No way!
The answer was no different when the forces of the Red Fleet, the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact were also taken into consideration.
The cold hard truth was that humanity had too little time to transfer enough personnel and war materiel to the new frontier. The Great Severing occurred too soon, preventing the humans from completely consolidating their foothold in the Red Ocean.
This was the clever part about decisively pulling off the Ancient Refuge Plan!
These brilliant choices proved that not all of the leaders of the native alien civilizations were stupid. They would rather overestimate the threat posed by the extragalactic invaders than to do the opposite.
Although the native aliens paid a heavy price in order to teleport their entire galaxy in the orbit of Messier 87, all of it appeared to be worth it as they decisively took advantage of red humanity's many shortcomings!
As Ves returned home after his lengthy and informative visit to the Tarrasque, his mind became filled with all kinds of messy thoughts.
From learning about how red humanity's entire fate rested on the successful but extremely unlikely breakthroughs of all of peak ace pilots, to learning that he had been saddled with presiding over the Interim Leadership Council in the absence of the Evolution Witch, his entire life had taken a drastically different turn. Nôv(el)B\\jnn
Ves was not ready for all of this. He felt overtaken by events beyond his control.
When he returned to Diandi Base, he waited until evening fell before he selectively shared the recent developments with his wife.
Of course, with the RA eavesdropping on his conversations at all time, Ves was being extra careful not to divulge any classified information.
This meant that he did not mention anything about how red humanity could go extinct if not a single peak ace pilot managed to break through by the end of the year.
That sounded a bit too far to Ves. "I don't think it is that bad. There is definitely a need to push the release of Carmine mechs forward. Even if they phrased it as an optional request, I still would have agreed to shift my priorities. I don't think I am ready to complete my current projects as of yet. Technology hasn't caught up to my ambitions. Stuff will get a lot better in the next few years. Right now, it is better for me to work on low-end mech designs, as the cheap stuff doesn't demand cutting-edge technologies."
The mention of low-end mech designs was enough to elicit a frown from Gloriana. She was not able to appreciate the merits of cheaply made products.
"You do not need me to collaborate on your Swarm Project, correct?"
"It is a great honor to be able to participate in the development of the first true publicly available Carmine mech. It will be considered the ancestor of all mechs of its own new category." His wife noted with a bit of envy. "Which names are you considering? Will you turn to Master Benedict Cortez like usual? Are you thinking about selecting any of our Journeymen from the Design Department?"
"I'm good, Gloriana. I have already agreed to collaborate with Jovy Armalon and Vector Loban. The two Seniors will primarily help me design the first-class variant of the two related mech designs. I can easily take care of the third-class and second-class variants myself. There is room for two more collaborators. I am still considering who I should invite to participate in this historic mech design."
"It is a great honor to be able to participate in the development of the first true publicly available Carmine mech. It will be considered the ancestor of all mechs of its own new category." His wife noted with a bit of envy. "Which names are you considering? Will you turn to Master Benedict Cortez like usual? Are you thinking about selecting any of our Journeymen from the Design Department?"
"Neither." Ves shook his head. "Master Benedict Cortez is a fine collaborator, but he is a bit too similar to you. He only truly cares about high-end mech designs. The Swarm Project is a collection of low-end workhorses where he isn't able to display his true strength. Besides, I do not want to involve any Master Mech Designer for this critical mech design project as I do not want their design philosophies to overshadow mine. As for the Journeymen from the Design Department... I don't think they are suitable either. The Swarm Project is too important for Journeymen to mess around. I am thinking about inviting other Seniors."
"Do you know of any?"
"Not really, but I do not think that people will refuse my invitation due to my reputation and the Red Association's backing. I am even thinking about bringing in a Terran and a Rubarthan mech designer just so that their respective first-rate colonial superstates can claim partial credit for the new Carmine mechs."
"That is a politically driven approach. That usually results in suboptimal outcomes."
"I don't think it will be that bad. The Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact are both huge. There are plenty of talented and capable Senior Mech Designers among them. I just have to figure out what sort of specializations can bring the most added value to the Swarm Project before I know what to search for. The Terrans and the Rubarthans both excel in specific fields of technology. The Rubarthans are better at developing ranged weapon systems, for example."
Neither Ves, Jovy nor Vector specialized in offensive weapon systems. It was quite important to involve a proper weapon specialist in the design project as the main value of a frontline mech was to provide fire support on the battlefield.
"How soon do you intend to complete this project?"
"Within half a year." Ves decisively stated. "This is going to be a tight deadline for what amounts to 6 separate mech designs packaged under a single project, but I am confident I can make it. I just have to put a lot of other projects to the side."
"Does that mean that you will be spending less time on the Amaranto Mark III Project and the Riot Mark III Project?"
"I will try my best to do the work that is expected of me, but I won't have time to add extra refinements to them." Ves admitted. "It is not necessary. The Amaranto and the Riot already exist. I have put a lot of unique touches on them the first time around."
"I will be sure to preserve as much of their original charm as possible in the upgraded versions of their mech designs, but I cannot make any guarantees."
"Just do your best. It is not always bad to replace the old with the new."