The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1488

Over the next couple of days, Ves immersed himself in current events. He read all of the news and analysis reports of the sandman invasion. He particularly read through projections and predictions of the future.

Most analysts painted a bleak picture. None expected the states in the first line of defense like the Tomaris Federation to last.

Though defeating an individual sandman fleet did not require too much effort, the frequency of sandman attacks prevented the defending forces from catching a breath.

"It’s a constant, ongoing battle of attrition interspersed with brief pauses." One of the experts described on a live news program.

Though the Tomaris Federation could have lasted up to half a year or more if the state got its act together, who wanted to stay aboard a sinking ship?

An increasing number of citizens had already given up and wanted to go! An exodus of refugees had already begun. Anyone with a ship or paid the exorbitant amount of money to gain passage left the endangered border states in droves.

Even though billions of refugees had already left by cramming themselves into cargo haulers hastily upgraded with additional life support systems, an uncountable amount of humans remained stuck on isolated and increasingly abandoned planets!

An enormous tragedy began to unfold as the defending mechs in the besieged star systems either pulled back or stood their ground until they got crushed!

Ves closed his eyes in sadness while cuddling Lucky.

"This is the price for the MTA’s inaction and the CFA’s refusal to take responsibility." He spoke.

The Big Two enjoyed such a lofty height that they no longer saw the suffering of those at the very bottom.

Perhaps the only good news that came from the border states was that any planet or star system with a significant MTA or CFA presence escaped destruction.

For this reason, a tiny settlement like Mancroft Independent Harbor remained relatively safe due to the CFA fuel refinery operation orbiting one of the local star system’s gas giants. Any sandman fleet that attempted to attack the human space stations promptly got blasted by the warships on patrol.

Nonetheless, the MTA and CFA forces mainly turtled up and refused to project their power to neighboring star systems. No matter how many star systems got engulfed by the sandmen, the Big Two insisted that the local forces of the star sector should deal with the problem themselves!

Ves let out a cynical laugh when he read the bland statements of the two humongous organizations. "What the hell are they so worried about that they can’t deploy more than a single warfleet?!"

There was no use in speculating over the reasons for their inaction. Many people guessed that the Big Two were preparing for something big, but figured out little else.

In any case, the inaction on the part of the two second-rate states was a lot more understandable. Neither the Friday Coalition nor the Hexadric Hegemony dispatched anything more than scattered mercenary corps to the border states.

While their help was very much appreciated, by the time they reached the frontlines, the first line of defense would have probably fallen already.

"It takes too much time to travel from the center of the star sector to the periphery."

He knew this first-hand. His Barracuda was one of the fastest ship classes of the Friday Coalition, but even she required at least another month to reach the Tomaris Federation at her greatest speed.

In any case, a tsunami of refugees threatened to engulf the states in the second, third and fourth lines of defense. In fact, most ships would have attempted to travel deeper into the interior of the star sector if not for their straining supplies and life support systems!

Even the Bright Republic braced itself to receive a humongous number of refugees. Though the border states they came from weren’t very populated, if everyone attempted to leave at the same time, that amounted to a very scary amount of people!

Ves briefly considered whether there would be mech designers among the refugees. Perhaps he could pick up a couple of new subordinate mech designers to fill up his design team.

Fortunately for the refugees, the Bright Republic, Vesia Kingdom and the other states already started to set aside room for them. The governments already began to erect a lot of prefab structures and facilities in low-density planets to provide food and shelter to the people who had lost everything.

Attempting to provide the refugees a way to rebuild their lives could come later. For now, the Bright Republic already started to house the first refugees that had fled first on rural planets with plenty of room to spare.

Coincidentally, this also included Cloudy Curtain. The authorities already formed a plan that called for scaling up its agriculture. Instead of cultivating expensive, slow-growing crops like cloud rice over a few patches of highly fertile soil, the planetary government planned to convert a lot more landmass into farms.

While machines did most of the work, humans were still needed to supervise the farms and handle problems that weren’t suited for bots.

"At least the refugees have something to do. I guess we also need the food."

The Bright Republic took the sandman invasion extremely seriously. The extensive movement by the government spoke of a broad and all-encompassing plan to defend its territory against the alien invasion that would arrive at its doorstep in a year or less!

Ves breathed a sigh in relief when he ascertained that the government fully committed to defending the Republic. The same couldn’t be said for the states closer to the border. A lot of government officials and even entire mech regiments had gone rogue and abandoned the states they were duty-bound to defend!

"I’m glad I don’t have to make this choice." He muttered while idly squeezing Lucky. "Unlike the Tomaris Federation, it looks like the Bright Republic actually stands a chance at withstanding the invasion."

"Meow."

"I’m not going to run and ruin my hard-earned honor and reputation. It’s one of my most valuable assets! I’m only going to run if others start running in droves! At least I’ll be able to hide my shame in the crowd!"

Reputation was a double-edged sword. While Ves benefited substantially from the fame it provided, it also held him up to a pedestal where he was expected to conform to a specific image.

As soon as he broke the bubble, his reputation would come crashing down!

For this reason and more, Ves reluctantly decided to commit to the Bright Republic and do his best to contribute to its defense in his own way.

"Of course, it would be nice if I could burnish my credentials, earn a lot of goodwill and most importantly sell a lot of mechs!"

Currently, the LMC was poorly positioned to take advantage of this crisis. As its lead designer, Ves bore responsibility for this failure, but also bore the responsibility to remedy its inadequacies.