Chapter 6428 Astral Octagon

Chapter 6428 Astral Octagon

The great day was approaching. More and more dignitaries and guests arrived in Yernstall in the past few days.

Unlike the product reveal that previously did not attract the attention of every major player due to underestimating the impact that Ves could make, no one looked down on the founding of the Red Collective.

Even though the current blueprint of the RC caused it to turn into an empty shell that needed to be propped up by other major players, it had the potential to grow into power and rival the current Red Two one day.

With a Lower Council that served as the best way for the masses to have their interests represented at the galactic level, the mandate of the RC was much stronger.

This reason alone prevented the Red Association and the Red Fleet from sabotaging this initiative.

The only viable way for the mechers and fleeters to maintain their duopoly over red humanity was to take similar measures to open themselves up to the space peasants.

This was not acceptable for multiple reasons. Since the RA and the RF rejected any notion of granting control to the masses, letting the RC serve as a venting mechanism to those same folk was the best available alternative.

To be honest, not a lot of people possessed a lot of confidence that the RC's Lower Council and Upper Council could get too much done.

Aside from instituting common sense and widely accepted policies, the strong splintering of power and authority led to a circumstance where no one was strong enough to get stuff done alone. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

That also included Ves.

The only way to produce meaningful change was to convince enough people with voting power to support a specific cause.

This had to be done for each and every initiative. This was a tiresome and exhausting endeavor that would certainly sap everyone's energy.

Ves had initially conceived of the RC operating in this manner, but now that he was about to become one of its eminent leader, he partially regretted his decision.

His ambitious design for the RC ended up hurting himself.

What was the point of becoming a member of the Upper Council when he couldn't get anything done unless he hoodwinked other councilors into supporting his schemes?

While the Coalition of Faiths should give him a fairly stable power base, it was far from enough for him to attain a majority in the 150-seat Upper Council.

Aside from that, the Lower Council also played a crucial role in enacting legislation. Ves had a much weaker hold over it. Only a few religious organizations were powerful enough to effectively control the government of particularly religious states.

Ves was pretty sure he could get the representatives that answered to the Hex Federation and the Colonial Federation of Davute to vote according to his direction, but that was just two councilors out of 500.

If Ves wanted to use his position in the Upper Council to pass laws that benefited him directly, then he had no choice but to do his best to sell his plans in the hopes of forming a majority of supporters in both councils.

How tiresome.

Perhaps the only good news was that he did not have to do all of the work himself. Gavin had already been working to expand his political staff in order to handle all of the groundwork involved with drumming up support and tracking the stances of every senator and representative of the two councils.

As the hours passed by, Ves entered an armored transport that subsequently began to ascend into the air under much heavier escort than usual.

His destination? A heavily fortified space station that currently orbited La Reine.

"Welcome to the Astral Octagon, Professor Larkinson. I am Chief of Staff Eliza Mo Ragadan. I am in charge of your staff in your capacity as the chief senator of the Upper Council."

The two shook hands.

"Chief senator, eh? Have we decided to change the name of the Upper Council to the Senate?"

"Not officially." Eliza answered. "The Upper Council and the Lower Council will still retain their current names, but people have begun to use different terms on an informal basis. You should become familiar with this in order to avoid the impression of ignorance."

"Got it. Please lead me to my office."

"You do not officially have an office yet since you have not formally accepted a position of an organization that does not exist at this time."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I take it that you and the rest of my staff are stationed elsewhere."

The chief of staff nodded. "That is so. We shall lead you to the temporary offices where we temporarily work."

"Can my escort mechs come as well?"

"The Astral Octagon was designed to accommodate the size of most mechs in the main hallways. That said, it is best to only limit your mech escort to a single machine to avoid congestion."

"That is good enough."

Ves proceeded to follow his greeting party deeper inside the Astral Octagon. He attracted plenty of attention due to the company of his cat, his personal assistant and his conspicuous bodyguards.

Naturally, the Dark Zephyr accompanied Ves from a distance as well. This was not an unusual sight as there were other powerful leaders who possessed enough pull to earn the protection of an ace mech.

Ves actually felt a little sorry that the founding ceremony had taken so many ace pilots away from the frontlines. He hoped that most of them would go right back to the border regions to prevent the native aliens from breaking through.

Since the Astral Octagon was far larger than a typical metropolis, it was not feasible to travel by foot.

Large crystalline floater platforms could be called in from any location to help Ves and everyone else to travel to their destinations at a speedy pace.

Once they reached the temporary offices, Ves was surprised to see that hundreds of secretaries, advisors, political analysts and more had already joined his staff.

He hadn't been paying too much attention to this stuff.

Everyone rose up to their feet and made an extremely respectful bow towards the sole dignitary that wore a fancy red ceremonial robe and hat.

"I feel kind of overdressed." Ves awkwardly said.

"You appear exactly like you should." His new chief of staff reassured him. "An upper councilor indirectly holds dominion over the entirety of our population. You must use your appearance to inspire absolute confidence in your ability to fulfill your responsibilities and serve the interests of our race and civilization. Ordinary individuals cannot assume such heavy duties. They will get crushed under the massive weight and succumb to their own incompetence. To be able to reach this point despite your lack of professional qualifications in this aspect is an admirable feat."

Her words made Ves feel better about himself. He no longer felt as out of place in the Astral Octagon as before.

"Thank you for your kind words. Please lead me to a private space so that we can talk about the important stuff. I take it that this founding ceremony will not entirely go according to our desired plan."

"That is so." The woman said as she headed over to a private office on the far side of the hall. "There are many tensions and disputes that are causing upheaval. Many of them are not directly related to you, so there is no need for you to pay attention to them in person. There are only a couple of affairs that you must take notice of before you participate in the ceremony."