The Mech Touch

Chapter 3836: Humanityʼs Weapon

”You are indeed right to raise this concern, marshal.” Calabast graciously said. ”If the fish-whale race wishes to remain prosperous, it should go all-out into repelling us from Purgatory and take control over the ancient star gate. However, think about it for a moment. Who do you think the Evolvers will hate more, the Swarmers who have killed lots of Evolvers and assaulted the Lab Continent for who knows how many times, or the friendly alien visitors who try their best to trade and cooperate with the locals?”

Many people turned thoughtful. When Calabast phrased this matter in this manner, it became a lot more understandable why cooperation became possible.

Calabast smirked. ”It takes a high degree of cognitive and societal development to produce individuals who think about the good of an entire race over their own self-interest. Given how primitive and uncivilized these native life forms appear to be, the most they can take into consideration is the interests of their own group. What we need to do is to exploit their lack of vision and tailor an approach where we can both get what we want.”

”Even if it comes at the detriment of the entire fish-whale race?”

”Yes. Short-sighted as it might sound, the divide and conquer strategy has worked in many different situations because it inherently takes advantage of the selfishness that many population groups possess. No matter whether they are human or alien, it is hard for them to resist the temptation to get ahead even if their state or species must pay a terrible price.”

”We should try not to antagonize the fish-whales more than necessary.” Ves added. ”We canʼt take over this pocket space with our strength, so there is no reason for us to plot the downfall of every kingdom. We should just focus on grabbing our rightful share of phasewater before getting out. The MTA will probably take care of the rest.”

The spymaster nodded in agreement. ”That is true. In fact, we should try our best to frame our intentions in the best light to the aliens we choose to cooperate with. For example, we can argue that eliminating one of the kingdoms is good for the fish-whales because it will reduce their internal divisions and bring them closer to unity.”

”Communication is a weapon.” Ves stated.

”Exactly, and we humans have mastered its use in diplomacy and warfare. Through countless wars and collisions, we have gained a lot of experience in how to leverage communication to our advantage and passed on what we learned to the next generation. Throughout the history of human civilization, we have developed better frameworks, better techniques and better approaches around communication.”

Calabast directed a contemptuous glance towards the map of Purgatory.

”Compared to a civilization that has not only conquered half of the Milky Way but also a good chunk of the Red Ocean, how can these backwards indigenous fish-whales come close to our racial accumulation? I am not discounting the possibility that they have engaged in diplomacy with each other, but if that is true, the frequency and sophistication of their communications should be low. The more we communicate with the fish-whales, the more we can gauge their mastery of this weapon.”

Not everyone possessed a fine appreciation of communication as a weapon. Patriarch Reginald looked like he wanted to scratch his head.

”It sounds like playing with fire to me.” The Cross Patriarch gruffly remarked. ”We have all seen the power of the king fish. Is it really as easy to fool as you all think? We only have to make one mistake before this big fish decides to open its huge maw in our direction before spraying us all with its titanic swarm-destroying energy spray.”

Calabast crossed her arms. ”Blowback is always a possible risk, especially if we know too little about what we are dealing with. The best we can do is to adopt the most helpful posture possible. I will get into this later. First, I want to explain my thoughts on how we should handle the different fish-whale kingdoms.”

She raised three fingers.

”In general, we can treat the groups in question with three different approaches. First, we can befriend and cooperate with them. Second, we can ignore or adopt a neutral posture towards them. Third, we can treat them as hostiles that we should eliminate as soon as possible for the betterment of our goals. Now, let us begin by determining which of these three basic approaches we should adopt for each of the fish-whale groups.”

She turned to the map and highlighted all four kingdoms.

”The Hot Kingdom does not have what we want and is the furthest away from our base in this pocket space. We should ignore the Heaters and maintain a neutral posture if we ever come into contact.”

”The Phase Kingdom is small but holds what we want the most in this pocket space. It is extremely unlikely that the Phasers will agree to trade their abundant reserves of phasewater for others to us, so defeating them is a necessity for us to succeed in our campaign.”

”The Evolution Kingdom is also small, but shows the greatest degree of sentience, intelligence, sociability and rationality. If we approach the king fish correctly, there is a decent chance that we can achieve a mutually-beneficial agreement that can lead to a temporary military alliance. We should put our best effort into befriending the Evolvers.”

Calabast paused for a moment.

”As for the Swarm Kingdom… they are a force of nature in Purgatory. Negotiating with its guiding intelligence is extremely unlikely to yield results due to its historical domineering behavior pattern and the overwhelming strength of its fish-whale massive armies. That said, many of the Swarmers appear to be inattentive most of the time, which will allow us to avoid hostilities with them. We may even be able to take advantage of their various shortcomings to steer them into actions that they would otherwise not undertake. It is for this reason that I believe that cooperating with the Swarmers is key to succeeding in our campaign!”

”Huh?”

Her last statement generated plenty of confusion and bewilderment.

People could understand why they should steer clear of the Swarmers. To cooperate with this rabid swarm of feral, bloodthirsty and cannibalistic fish-whales was unimaginable to those that had recently fought a bloody conflict with their brethren!

”The Swarmers are too dangerous!”

”They are only dangerous if they choose to attack our forces.” Calabast retorted. ”Just as with the Evolvers, we should give them as little reason to resort to this action as possible. To us, there is no benefit to fighting them. Aside from the site around the alien star gate, their territories have little to nothing of value for us. Instead, the greatest advantages of the Swarm Kingdom that we can leverage is their high military strength and their obvious desire to take over the remaining landmasses in the pocket space. Our goals may not align with each other, but that doesnʼt mean cooperation between us is impossible. We just need to… apply a different communication strategy towards the Swarmers.”

A lot of people wondered what this kind of communication strategy would even look like. Was it as simple as sending over the Dark Zephyr to taunt a few hordes before purposefully leading them on to the Lake Continent?

Ves doubted that it would be so simple! ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ꜰʀᴇᴇ ᴡᴇʙ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ. ᴄᴏᴍ.

He liked her perspective, though. Viewing the Swarmers as potential assets was better than viewing them as irreconcilable opponents.

Now that Calabast explained how they should treat the four fish-whale kingdoms, she proceeded to the crux of her plan.

”Given this situation and the conditions we are working with, we first need to establish a solid foothold within the alien circle. The Evolution Kingdom is our best candidate for the reasons that I have already mentioned. We must do our best to build our relations with the Evolvers in the limited timespan we have available.”

”That doesnʼt gain us anything by itself.” Patriarch Reginald remarked.

”You are correct. That is why we must leverage this relationship into actual results. The best way we can accomplish this is to persuade Evolvers to team up with us to break open the Phase Kingdom.”

Commander Melkor looked puzzled. ”How can that even work? The Phase Kingdom may be small, but it holds a defensive advantage and likely excels at launching wide-area attacks that can take down a huge amount of enemies at once. The Evolution Kingdom is not that much stronger and is under strong pressure to defend its own territories. If the Evolvers attack the Lake Continent, they will suffer so many losses that they cannot possibly defend it and their old territories against the Swarm Kingdom! If the king fish has any brains, he would never agree to such a suicidal plan!”

Calabast nodded in agreement. ”This is why we need to adopt a more sophisticated plan than what you have suggested. We will have to borrow the strength of another fish-whale kingdom to gain access to the huge phasewater concentrations on the Lake Continent.”

Melkor still looked skeptical. ”If we somehow manage to fool the Swarmers into attacking this phasewater-rich landmass, do we even have an opportunity to collect our spoils? I donʼt think those Swarmers will be in a sharing mood once they have sacrificed a lot of their own kind to defeat the Phase Kingdom.”

”That is why we must formulate a more elaborate plan than that. We must continue to explore and communicate with the different kingdoms in order to understand what we can do to unravel the status quo and nudge the circumstances in our favor.”

It would have been much simpler if they could just launch a straightforward raid on the Lake Continent and grab all of the phasewater over there by force, but that required way more mechs than the Golden Skull Alliance had at its disposal.

This was why they were listening to Calabast to begin with. Even if people had doubts about their ability to wrangle different groups of fish-whales into attacking each other, it was worth a try. The payoff for success was too huge for them to disregard this opportunity!

Calabast elaborated her vision and answered different questions for half an hour before the conference meeting ended.

The expeditionary forces did not take action immediately because they still needed to settle on a specific plan to make contact with the Evolution Kingdom.

To that end, Ves requested a private meeting with Calabast. Both of them soon appeared in a smaller virtual meeting room where they could speak in private.

”What is it now, Ves? I am a pretty busy woman at the moment.”

”I want to talk about our first contact with the Evolution Kingdom. I donʼt know what you have in mind, but I think it is best if I make first contact with the king fish.”

”...”

Calabast looked so unimpressed with his suggestion that she did not even deign to voice her disapproval! Her expression already conveyed what she thought about his stupid idea!

”Hear me out, Calabast. You have worked with me for years, so you should know that I can communicate with all kinds of life forms. Now, I suppose we can send a diplomat or something to communicate with the king fish, but without a common language this will always be a slow and difficult affair. Instead of wasting all of that time, why not resort to an effective solution and let me talk to the big fish in person? I am willing to take the risk of entering the spatial portal and boarding a vehicle that can take me to the perimeter of the Lab Continent so that I can have a good talk with the fish in charge.”

The woman let out an exasperated sigh. It was as if she was reprimanding a naughty boy for misbehaving in the same way for the umpteenth time!

”Did we not talk about how your days of gallivanting into danger zones are over? You have built a large and extensive clan, Ves. Let others bear the risk of contacting a dangerous group of fish-whales. I distinctly recall that Venerable Joshua gets along with different humans and animals as well. With his friendly and earnest personality, he stands a good chance of breaking the ice with the Evolvers.”

Ves shook his head in disagreement. ”Joshua is a nice fellow, but he has one major fault.”

”And what is that?”

”Iʼm the Devil Tongue and he is not.” He stated.

”...”