The Mech Touch

5693 The Origin of the Evolution Witch

In all of his interactions with the Transhumanists, Ves thought that they were a little weird but pretty alright for the most part.

Many of them pursued the crazy dream of attaining human transcendence by merging themselves with mechs somehow, but they never let their worst impulses overtake their common sense.

At least that was what Ves assumed.

The Mech Trade Association originated as an off-shoot of the Five Scrolls Compact, and had always tried to be the opposite of its former parent organization.

The Association was supposed to serve as a holy land for enlightenment, rationality, science and discovery. The mechers prided themselves on being smarter and more civilized than anyone else. They carefully kept the space peasants under their rule in check to prevent the masses from degenerating like they did during the Age of Conquest.

The Chosen Human was not a perfect fit for a leader of the Transhumanist Faction in the old galaxy, but he commanded enough respect to sit in the highest position.

It was not difficult to figure out his stances and policies. The god pilot was a strong adherent of human exceptionalism, the belief that the human race was better and more superior than other sentient races.

His own meteoric rise to power was the greatest example of the amazing potential of the human race!

The man earned his title by being the first and only human whose genetic aptitude measured at S. His growth as a mech pilot was so smooth that he managed to advance to god pilot at the age of 76, thereby shattering a record that had never been broken since!

The Chosen Human represented one of the greatest ideals that the rest of humanity strove for. He was living proof that the human race held a lot of buried treasures that just needed to be unearthed for more people to become as powerful and transcendent as him one day.

Under his conservative leadership regime, the Transhumanist Faction of the Mech Trade Association tried its best to avoid any association to the highly maligned Five Scrolls Compact.

The scientific method had to be respected as much as possible. Unbridled human modification had to be avoided as much as possible.

The overall purpose of developing augmentations was to accentuate the strengths that humans already possessed. They were not supposed to bestow them with new capabilities of alien origin that came with plenty of nefarious side effects.

Though the Chosen Human's power clearly wasn't enough to curtail the practice of genetic modification entirely, one of the reasons why he remained in charge despite the more incessant demands from the rank-and-file members of his faction was because of his ability to earn people's trust.

As long as a god pilot like the Chosen Human remained in charge of the Transhumanists, the latter would never dare to act too flagrant and engage in reckless human experimentation!

There were many Transhumanists who agreed with his more restrained stance. They wanted to make it possible for humans to rise above their common origins and achieve transcendence, but they did not want to lose their own humanity in the process.

The Chosen Human's attitude not only made its mark among the Transhumanists, but also many other mechers.

No matter how much the factions kept themselves apart from each other, they were ultimately semi-formal divisions of the Association. They were all mechers who shared a common purpose in the end.

This was also one of the initial reasons why the Survivalists eventually handed over responsibility of supervising the development of the Carmine System to the Transhumanists.

It had always been a vain attempt of the Survivalists to keep the existence of the Carmine System a secret from the Transhumanists.

Both groups already paid close attention to Ves! Their spying methods were so good that any measure to keep secrets from each other was always flawed.

Even if Ves and the Survivalists conducted a lot of tests on Carmine mechs within the secure laboratory environment of the Tarrasque, the Bluejay Fleet was technically a detachment of the Red Association, not just the Survivalist Faction.

The Transhumanists were bound to find out so long as they had even an inkling of suspicion that something funny was taking place inside the flagship of the Bluejay Fleet.

Naturally, once they learned what was going on, they wanted a piece of action. The Carmine System represented a radical advancement that almost fully matched the ideals of their faction!

Compared to other forms of human augmentation, trying to integrate with mechs did not generate as much opposition because it could be seen as an extension of integrating implants.

In any case, the Survivalist Faction eventually agreed to hand responsibility over the Carmine System over to the Transhumanist Faction.

After the Polymath's dramatic fall from grace, the Survivalists had lost a lot of trust. They needed to make a lot of amends as well as rein in a lot of ambitious initiatives in order to return to their original focus.lightsnovel

The Survivalist Faction had become preoccupied with different matters nowadays. As the future of red humanity became murkier, Ves guessed that they had no time to worry about what the Transhumanists would do once they got their hands on the Carmine System.

This led to the present circumstance where the Carmine System became the joint responsibility of both of the Survivalist Faction and the Transhumanist Faction, though the latter was a lot more passionate about its possibilities.

Ves initially did not experience much of a difference. No matter whether he reported his progress to Master Goldstein, Master Dervidian, Jovy Armalon or another researcher, they were all mechers to him. Both the Survivalists and the Transhumanists he talked to generally agreed with the stance to take it slow.

This was why he was caught off-guard by the brand new directive conveyed by Professor Vector Loban.

The man looked utterly serious, though.

"Are you surprised, Professor Larkinson? You shouldn't be. Both our policies and our calculations have changed. Although we do not like to spread this message to the public, red humanity's future outlook has worsened. Even the Survivalists agree that we must act more proactively in order to turn the tide against our current and future enemies. As for my own faction, our new leader has made it clear that time is of the essence. We can no longer afford to conduct far-reaching studies across multiple decades. Our society as we know it may no longer exist in a recognizable form by the time a full generation has passed."

That was a highly plausible assumption. Back in the old galaxy, most people were confident that their society would roughly remain the same after the passage of three or so decades.

Mechs became a little better and technology may have increased in sophistication, but the samefamilies and states remained in charge as before. Human order in the Milky Way had become so solidified that the Transhumanists over there were much more concerned with maintaining the good times.

It was completely different in the Red Ocean. Trying to maintain the stability of a declining society was like delaying the inevitable. It was logical for the Transhumanists to conclude that they needed to let go of at least some of their constraints in order to help red humanity overcome the many challenges on the horizon.

Of course, the more radical and enthusiastic researchers within this faction may have been driven by more selfish and greedy motivations when they decided to throw their support behind the new regime.

"Does this instruction come directly from the Evolution Witch?" Ves critically asked.

Professor Loban shook his head. "I cannot make this claim. She is engaged in more important affairs. Perhaps she has been made aware of your ambitious research project when she assumed leadership over our faction. She should have entrusted this matter to her confidantes if this is the case. I am merely acting on the instructions of one of them. What matters is that the Evolution Witch expects everyone engaged in promising or productive research projects to speed up their progress whenever possible."

That was understandable. Ves probably knew more than the Transhumanist in front of him what kind of horrors may be waiting to pounce on red humanity.

Yet Ves also felt hesitant about this radical change in strategy. The contrast between abundant caution and expedient results was so extreme that he felt reluctant to embrace this shift!

The other man clearly sensed this hesitation. Both of them sat down so that the Transhumanist was able to explain the underlying factors behind the many changes in policy.

"Depending on the structure of an organization, a leader may have an outsized influence on how it is run. Your clan and your mech company closely reflect your values and ideals due to obvious reasons. Our faction is much larger and much older, but our leaders are also much stronger and more influential. The Chosen Human has set strong limits on what we are allowed to do, but the Evolution Witch has changed all of that because she approaches human transcendence from a different perspective."

"How so?" Ves asked.

"You should be familiar with the origin of the Evolution Witch, correct?"

"I am. According to her biography, the Evolution Witch was born as a mecher, but suffered from multiple congenital flaws on birth that the MTA were unable to cure for whatever reason. She had a rough childhood and has been told that she would likely die in her late 20's as long as her congenital defects remain unaddressed. Instead of accepting the inevitable and giving up, she instead used this threat as a powerful motivation to advance as a mech pilot. The only way for her to solve her ailments and get rid of the specter of death looming over her shoulders."

This had been the start of her obsession with the power of evolution.

To Divine Lucie Miyazaki, evolution was literally the force that had saved her life and granted power unmatched by almost everyone else! Her enthusiasm for human augmentation had always been high as a result!

"The biographies are a little short on the details of her early life, but your retelling is mostly correct." Professor Loban said. "What I wish for you to know is that the Evolution Witch is known as a strong proponent of human inferiority. Her stance is almost opposite of that of the Chosen Human."

lightsnοvεl "Human… inferiority? That… is not what I expected from a god pilot."

"It is not as bad as it sounds, Professor Larkinson. Human inferiority is a theory that assumes that humans are not inherently superior to other sentient races. It is inferior to many other alien races, most notably the Seven Apex Races that previously dominated the Milky Way. The fact that we have managed to overcome them during the Age of Conquest is not because our race is inherently superior, but because we acknowledge our inferiority and work harder to compensate for our many deficiencies."

"I see."

The Evolution Witch basically equated her own miraculous rise to power to humanity's own successes during the Age of Conquest.

"We are all ants." Vector Loban stated. "A talent as good as the Chosen Human only appears once per age at most. There is no possible way for more humans to be born with S-grade genetic aptitudes. He is an outlier that is unfit to be included in the general model of the human race. Most of us are far weaker and less talented than him, but that is not a problem because we have the power to actively control our own evolution. Inferiority is not a fault as long as it is not a permanent state. Acknowledging one's weaknesses is a virtue as long as you are willing to solve them or work around them. Our entire faction is slowly embracing this new attitude in favor of the old one. Red humanity is currently unfit to survive and thrive in this new age. Only by working harder to promote our own evolution will we be able to earn the right to dominate this age, just as we have done during the Age of Conquest. This has become our overarching purpose."

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