Ves managed to recover his mood after assisting his wife.
The Riot Mark III Project was nearing its ultimate conclusion. The initial combination of high-grade superdinsional matter and archetech was anything but perfect or elegant, but Gloriana had already conducted enough experints to verify that the new solutions worked.
The Resonance Smith did not shortchange her in this regard.
Though Ves did not possess enough of an understanding of archetech to help his wife redesign the more difficult aspects of the Riot Mark III, he was still able to help her design the easiest sections.
It helped that his understanding of superdinsional theory was better than her own. There were not many aspects that he liked about his phase lord cultivation, but he had to admit that it was an enormous boon to his handling of phasewater technology and superdinsional technology.
"The Riot Mark III will be a machine without peer once he has taken on this form." Gloriana crowed. "For all of its problems and complications, archetech is still a superior tech base in terms of performance, resilience and damage control. Combining these strengths with the exceptional resistance of armor-grade superdinsional matter will result in the most powerful first-class expert ch in both the old galaxy and the new frontier. I dare say that no other expert ch will be able to match the extravagance of our design for years. Only the Larkinson Clan can afford to pamper its expert pilots to this degree."
"It is still just an expert ch, though." Ves said in a more tempered mood. "According to Ketis’ theory, once Venerable Rosa Orfan takes possession of this machine, her Earth score should shoot up so much that her breakthrough is practically guaranteed. Yet... nothing is absolute. If she fails to trigger her second apotheosis, then this project will beco known as the biggest and most expensive blunder in the ch industry."
Ves and Gloriana were essentially gambling on Venerable Orfan’s breakthrough. This was a dangerous and risky decision that may very well bite them back.
"Is that why you insist on applying your ’special treatnt’ onto our work?" Gloriana quietly asked. "Just look at our work. Do you think with a ch this powerful, Rosa Orfan will fail to live up to the Riot Mark III’s potential? I question the necessity of amplifying its performance even further, especially through questionable and dubious ans."
"You know that this has always been the plan." He responded coolly to her, making it clear that he did not accept refusal on this issue "The Riot Mark III is ant to beco the epito of chaos on the battlefield. In order to exemplify this trait, he has to be cruel to his enemies as well as his own pilot. The friction produced between the pilot and machine will beco the fuel that allows the combination’s performance to reach the next level. Out of all of the high-ranking ch pilots in our ch roster, Venerable Orfan is by far the most suitable candidate to receive this special treatnt."
Ves did not want to wait any longer. He had access to Demoncasting for a long ti, yet did not utilize it often enough to justify its selection.
That had to change.
In truth, Ves wanted to push for the creation of the very first D-ch because he continually questioned whether he had chosen the right upgrade track.
He could not possibly forget that he could have chosen Upgrade Track #3: Superdinsional Transformation during the latest System upgrade.
At the ti, Ves had no special feelings about this ’superdinsional’ business.
It was only after Ketis did her research and opened up a portal to the Blue Dinsion on her first attempt that Ves along with everyone else in the Red Ocean beca introduced to the wonders of superdinsional matter!
If he understood the enormous strategic value of superdinsional matter at that earlier junction, then he may not have chosen to invest in Upgrade Track #2: Demoncasting!
Alas, the timing was horrible. If he had waited a couple of months after upgrading the System, he may have made another decision.
That did not an he was dissatisfied with the choice he ended up with. Although he did not spend too much ti on it, Ves had already confird multiple tis that Demoncasting could yield powerful upgrades without needing to introduce another scarce wonder material.
D-chs had enormous potential. Ves just had to ensure that he was prepared and ready to perform the secret process onto the Riot Mark III.
As the pair continued to work, the conversation inevitably strayed to the conversation between Ves and the human phase lords.
Thankfully, Gloriana fully recognized and agreed that Ves had been right to turn away from the Red Collective’s nonsense.
"Hmph. No matter whether it is the estranged Phase Lord Departnt or the supposedly prim and proper Astral Octagon, they are both staffed by ideologues and extremists. None of them are on your side. They all want sothing from you. If you ask , you need to put more effort into standing up for yourself. You are the head of the Upper Council, Ves. You preside over a gathering that brings together almost all of the major human powers of the Red Ocean. That should convey a considerable amount of weight to your na."
Ves sighed. "You are probably right, but it is not that easy for to assert myself among all of those big players. Perhaps it is not worthwhile for to retain my seat in the Upper Council. There is no point in keeping the position if I can’t throw my weight around. Sure, it is nice to receive regular intelligence reports, and I can procure a large variety of exclusive goods from the internal exchange, but I can already get much of this through external trades."
Although Ves would always feel proud for playing a pivotal role in bringing the Red Collective to life, it had already evolved into its own beast.
The superorganization had beco unrecognizable to him. It had its own leaders, culture and interest groups.
Ves did not really feel like much of an insider. He was not cut out for politics. Perhaps it was best to repeat the sa move he did in the Larkinson Clan and resign from his position.
After Ves and Gloriana finished their work for the day, both of them grew satisfied with how the ch design was shaping up. They had not encountered any troubleso complications that could cause the completion of the ch design project to be delayed.
"You can pass on the good news to Venerable Orfan." Ves told his wife. "If the remaining design sessions are just as smooth, then we should be able to begin the upgrade process very soon. Everything else is already in place."
Gloriana ford a tired grin. "I am already looking forward to it. I am confident that the Riot Mark III will turn into an excellent masterwork... at least before you apply your special treatnt. What cos out after that is anyone’s guess, but I am afraid the end result will be far from matching my ideals."
"We all have to make sacrifices, Gloriana."
"Do not remind , Ves."
As Ves was about to retire for the night, he received a notification from Secret Keeper Zariel-775.
A part of the data stolen by Lucky had finally been decrypted. The intelligence gleaned from it was interesting enough that Ves needed to know about it as soon as possible.
Though Ves was not in the mood for more manipulation, he couldn’t help himself. He did not think he could enjoy a proper break without satisfying his curiosity.
"This better be good." He muttered.
A short ti later, Ves entered a secure chamber where the secret keeper was already present.
The other man handed over a secure data pad.
"What did you guys uncover?" Ves asked as he began to skim through the ssages on the screen.
"The data cores that your chanical cat managed to hack into are protected in different layers. The weakest cores are relatively lightly encrypted as they contain data that is deed low priority. These cores are also used to exchange data that is frequently accessed and transmitted. Their speed and lack of latency makes them more convenient in usage. Over ti, these speed cores automatically transfer their data to the more secure but also slower cores."
Ves roughly understood what was going on. "So you only managed to crack the data retrieved from the weakest and least important cores. From what I am reading, you have only managed to retrieve scattered exchanges of ssages between the mbers of the Phase Lord Departnt."
"Correct. While you can expect them to exercise a certain degree of discretion, there is enough explicit ntioning of their agendas for us to understand what the leaders of the various units truly seek."
The ssages that Ves perused contained snippets that contained varying degrees of incriminating statents.
Much of it sounded treasonous. They only differed by degree.
"I don’t have ti for this." Ves instructed. "There are too many exchanges. Give a summary. Tell what I should truly know."
Zariel did so. "There are 7 individuals who truly comprise the leadership body of the Phase Lord Departnt. These are the polemarchos, the three strategoi as well as the three champions of their respective phalanxes. You have not t the latter, but they stand to take over leadership if their superior is taken out of the equation."
"Okay?"
"Take the Facelss Giant Phalanx for example. Its commanding officer is Haroudi Molain, the Divine Harpoon. As an old hand and a forr infantry commander, he is the most steadfast among their gathering. According to these internal ssages, it is clear that he is still loyal to red humanity and a proponent for keeping the Phase Lord Departnt within the RC. He serves as an important counterweight to the others who have much stronger desires to go independent."
"I see."
"The Divine Harpoon needs to be pushed upwards as much as possible." Zariel 775 said. "He is on our side, pretty much. That is good news to us, but he is not without his own problems. His obstinacy has made him many enemies among the other ’Ascended Giants’, chief among them his own champion. Jees Vorkine, known as the Divine Arsenal, is a powerful potentate with D-grade genetic aptitude that is nonetheless able to control a hybrid between a ch and a raint that is integrated with multiple weapon systems and other tech. While he has never explicitly made his intentions clear, his word exchanges imply that he intends to initiate a leadership challenge to the Divine Harpoon in the near future."
"Oh." Ves found this to be mildly interesting. "How likely will the Divine Arsenal succeed?"
The secret keeper lowered his head. "We do not know if we are being honest. We do not have a good understanding of their combat power. The Phase Lord Departnt has kept much of its activities behind closed doors. However, the Divine Arsenal would not make his attempt if he thought he was unlikely to succeed."
The underlying ssage was that the Red Collective needed to resolve its problems with the Phase Lord Departnt before this leadership challenge could happen.
If the Divine Arsenal won his duel against the Divine Harpoon, then a crucial restraining factor would disappear. The entire leadership of the Phase Lord Departnt may very well be in support of declaring independence and turning the Ascended Giants into a separate race!
"What are the other leaders like, then?"
"They are considerably more problematic. Fasia ledor, now known as the Fiery Axe, is a strong advocate for independence, but she also despises the Red Cabal. There are voices that actually propose that applying to join the Red Cabal and adopting the alien ways is their best option. We can at least rely on the strategos of the Flesh Chopper Phalanx to restrain these voices among her subordinates."
Trying to turn the Ascended Giants into its own separate race was one thing. Ves thought it was stupid, but he did not have overly strong feelings about it. To him, it sounded similar to the dwarven initiative to turn their kind into a race of their own.
What Ves could not accept was outright defection to the Red Cabal!
This was a serious betrayal to red humanity and detrintal to all of the people they left behind!
The fact that this suggestion was a legitimate proposal within the Phase Lord Departnt showed that it had truly gone astray!
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