Chapter 6208 Getting Schemed Against

Chapter 6208 Getting Schemed Against

"What is a deputy chief councilor?" Marvaine asked in confusion as he idly played with a plushie doll modeled after the famous Radiant god mech.

Merchandising was big business at any stage of human history. Pretty much every god pilot except for the really sensitive ones agreed to license out their likeness, not because they were short on cash, but because they desired to increase their presence in human society.

Even though Marvaine held a simple toy, no reproduction of a god mech was cheap, especially in the Terran Alliance. The plushie a whole range of exquisite synthetic materials that tastefully evoked the fastest mech in the Red Ocean and possibly in existence.

The toy even included a light amount of hyper materials, just enough to evoke a sense of light and speed.

Although many consumer rights groups expressed concerns about the potential dangers and side effects of exposing developing children to hyper materials, most people didn't care.

The exotic radiation from Messier 87 was already in the process of transforming everyone and everything in the Red Ocean. Hyper materials became increasingly prevalent and a part of everyone's lives.

"A deputy chief councilor is a big deal." Andraste explained as she casually tossed Lucky in the air.

Though the gem cat was not exactly light, the red-headed girl was not an average kid either. Lucky did not even need to reduce his own weight to allow the girl to toss him close to the ceiling until he fell back down again.

"Meow."

"Why is it a big deal?"

"Because... because... because papa is a chief! A chief is a leader! He's a leader of... something! Big sis, you tell him. You know what it is all about, right?"

The older and more elegant-looking girl nodded. The black-haired girl calmly sat on the divan while brushing Clixie's lovely calico cat coat.

The Rubarthan Sentinel Cat squinted with pleasure.

"Miaow~"

"A deputy chief councilor is... the second-in-command. That means that our papa will be in charge if the chief councilor is not available." The girl answered as she continued to pamper Clixie. "As long as the Evolution Witch no longer wants to lead the Red Collective, our papa will be in charge."

"Really!?"

"No way!"

Ves grinned and leaned over to give Aurelia a rub on the head.

"You are not completely wrong, but not completely correct either. There is more to leadership than a fancy sounding title. Not every organization is as centralized and untainted with mixed loyalties as the Larkinson Clan. Everyone participating in the Red Collective Project seeks to enrich themselves or their respective states and organizations. Do you understand how difficult it is to ride herd on them all? They are completely unlike our clansmen who have relinquished their old loyalties and voluntarily subject themselves to Goldie's supervision."

The children looked at their father with a mix of incomprehension. Even the cats did not completely understand his explanation.

"I thought the Red Collective was supposed to be as powerful as the Red Association and the Red Fleet. Why do people refuse to take you seriously?"

He shuddered.

"What's wrong, papa?"

"Ah, it's nothing to be concerned about. I am fine."

Though Ves may have figured out the Evolution Witch's scheme, he did not share any of his thoughts with his daughters. As clever as they may be, they were still terribly naive about the true levers of power.

He waited after he put the kids to bed before calling his personal assistant to his home office.

Ves stared at a projection of the map of the Red Ocean that depicted all publicly known troop movements.

Of course, this map only displayed a fraction of the forces on the move. It would be counterproductive for the Red Two and other groups to precisely broadcast the locations as well as the movement orders of all of their military assets. The native aliens would easily be able to set up winning battles and avoid losing engagements with all of that information!

Though the map only gave Ves a part of the picture, he was able to combine it with the confidential briefing that he received from his RA liaisons to see how the defensive bands were at risk of falling.

The 1st defensive band had almost completely collapsed by now. There were only a few holdouts, mostly from star systems that recently received a visit from a god mech or a dreadnought.

The intervention may have saved the defenders over there from annihilation, but this was only a temporary reprieve. The aliens would surely come back and finish the job as soon as the powerhouses moved on to relieve other sieges.

The focus of the alien offensive had shifted to the 2nd defensive band at the moment. Plenty of star systems had already fallen, but the remaining ones were putting up stiff resistance.

Ves felt gratified when he read the reports that the defenders did their duty without fail. There were only a few instances where the mech pilots and other troops displayed cowardice in the time where they were needed the most.

It would be great if the quality of soldiers on the frontlines remained high, but he was afraid that was not a realistic possibility.

For now, red humanity's pool of high-quality manpower remained abundant, but he was not able to imagine that this would remain safe after a few years of hard fighting.

Once the casualties continued to mount, the amount of professionally trained and experienced mech pilots would dwindle below a point where they could shoulder all of the burdens by themselves, then others needed to take over in their stead.

Carmine pilots had the potential to do so, but their quality and combat effectiveness was bound to be poor from the start. It would take multiple years before they could achieve any sense of parity with professional mech pilots.

It was better than nothing.

"Boss." Gavin Neumann said as he entered the office and stopped in front of Ves' desk. "You wish to have a talk this evening?"

"Yes. I have become burdened by certain theories and guesses. I would like to hear your analysis on this matter. Maybe your new Terran teachings can help me gain more clarity over what is taking place without my notice."

Ves quickly summarized his thoughts about the Evolution Witch's plans towards himself and the Red Collective. Gavin avidly listened to his superior and looked increasingly more thoughtful.

"Well?"

"If you wanted me to tell you that you are being way too paranoid for your own good, then you are out of luck, sir." Gavin said as his heavily digitized brain collected a lot of data and performed a comprehensive analysis. "The probability that your theory is correct is 40 percent. That is not a high number, but it is already reason enough for you to take this seriously. Your chance of occupying the highest seat of the Red Collective is larger than any other name."