The Mech Touch (Web Novel)-Chapter 6799: Deteriorating Economy

[The Upper Zones are holding for the time being. The defenses built up by the Red Three, the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact have proven their worth many times over. Countless native alien warships have tried to break our orbital defenses, yet found themselves crashing against a wall of alloy and energy beams…]

[The first wave of superweapons designed by Star Designers have made an appearance across the frontlines. Predominantly concentrated in the Upper Zones, their technological supremacy has taken the enemy aback and successfully forced the phase whales into passive positions. However, analysts fear that the Red Cabal will respond to the appearance of human superweapons by matching our escalation with their own superweapons…]

[OUR ANNIHILATION IS AT HAND! DEATH HAD DESCENDED UPON THE RED OCEAN AS OUR ALIEN EXECUTIONERS ARE ON THE VERGE OF BREAKING THROUGH OUR LAST LINE OF DEFENSE! SURRENDER TO THE INEVITABLE AND MAKE PEACE WITH THE FACT THAT WE WILL ALL REUNITE WITH EACH OTHER IN THE AFTERLIFE!]

[The slow collapse of the fifth defensive band has generated massive economic upheaval. Planets and states located closer to the frontlines have already entered into deep recessions as they are suffering from the consequences of the Red Tide Offensive. Skilled employees have paid the profligate prices charged by passenger liners to emigrate from their vulnerable homes while consumers are not buying anything except vehicles, survival gear and nutrient packs. Millions of companies have gone bankrupt, with more to follow in the following months unless stability returns to the frontlines…]

[The cosmopolitans were right all along! Huh? I know that what I am saying will get me arrested, but who cares about that when our planet will soon get raided and bombarded until not a single human organic cell is left alive? If I am destined to die, then I will make sure to leave a memory of myself behind by speaking what is really in my mind! As far as I am concerned, our obsession with making humanity the only race that matters has backfired! We should have tried to befriend some of the native aliens when we first arrived. By making enemies out of all of the major as well as minor races, we have doomed ourselves as soon as the Great Severing took place…]

[OUR GODS AND HEROES AREN’T DOING ENOUGH TO SAVE OUR LIVES! Where is the Polymath?! Where is the famous Dominion of Man?! Why has it taken so long for the first masterwork-level superweapons to deploy at the frontlines? The high-and-mighty first-raters have made their moves too late! There is almost no point in deploying our superweapons when the aliens have already pushed us to the fifth and final defensive band. We could have used them in the first defensive band instead! Also, whoever thought it was a good idea to transfer our ace pilots from the Middle Zonez to the Upper Zones should be arrested and shot for treason!...]

[Have faith! Our race is anointed by God. Under the protection of the one true God — not the alien monstrosities that parade as such because they can drink special water — humanity shall rise again, just as our forefathers have done during the Age of Conquest! Pray to Him and hope that the Almighty shall send down an apostle such as the Savior or the Marshal that will lead us to paradise…]

"Are you enjoying the news, boss?"

"Not much." Ves replied to Gavin Neumann. "I am rather surprised that half of these broadcasts are allowed to stay up. The Comm Consortium used to be a lot stricter about what opinions people are allowed to spread to the masses."

"It doesn’t matter too much anymore." The personal assistant shrugged. "The truth cannot be covered up or massaged anymore. If the native aliens successfully breach the fifth defensive band and begin to raze multiple Middle and Lower Zones, then all of the folks who are venting on the galactic net will no longer exist anymore. Perhaps letting them show their faces and leave their records behind on the galactic net is the last form of mercy that the authorities are able to offer to them. Many more people will die without leaving any notable mark of their existence behind. They are as dull and unremarkable as the asteroids floating in an asteroid belt. No one will miss the presence and absence."

The augmented assistant sounded remarkably emotional when he spoke about the lack of impact of the mass deaths of lots of space peasants.

Ves could not bring himself to disagree with Gavin’s assertion. Those that possessed valuable talents, a lot of capital or excellent connections mostly managed to find a way to evacuate from their endangered planets in advance.

"So how screwed are our commercial enterprises?" He asked.

"Their economic outlooks are bad. Our profit margins have evaporated as the price of purchasing input materials has skyrocketed. An increasing number of workers have quit their jobs depending on how close they are to the current frontlines. We are also gearing up our administration to write off all of the factories that we have built in the Middle and Lower Zones that are currently under threat. Davute is an especially notable headache for us. The branch that is based on this capital planet has built up a sizable real estate portfolio. It has used the profits generated by the factories at the Cat Nest to construct manufacturing complexes, office buildings, hotels, residential housing reserved for clansmen, hospitals and more."

Ves groaned and pressed his hand against his forehead. This must have been General Ark Larkinson’s doing. His damn uncle overestimated red humanity’s ability to defend its borders and underestimated the sacrifices that the people at the top were willing to make.

This was why Ves had always insisted on maintaining the independence of the clan and remaining cautious about investing heavily into fixed locations.

Now, it looked as if Ves made the right decision yet again white all of the Larkinsons who insisted on putting their trust in third-party governments and institutions might have to pay for their mistakes with their lives.

"Are there any evacuations?"

"There are." Gavin responded. "We have converted a part of our merchant fleet into refugee vessels. As long as you install basic life support facilities in the holds of large cargo haulers, you can bring away a large amount of people. The evacuations of clansmen who are based in branches that are close to the frontlines is proceeding according to schedule, but… the ones who are based on well-defended planets such as Davute are partially rejecting the offer to flee to safety."

Figures.

Ves sneered as he steepled his hands in front of him. "Let me guess. General Ark Larkinson wants to rope in as many of our clansmen to defend Davute from the advancing aliens, is that correct?"

Gavin nodded. "He does not want to run without doing his duty to the Colonial Federation of Davute. The main goal is to stop the alien advance at the Davute System. If this cannot be accomplished, then the 77th Warborn Mech Division should at least do their best to delay the alien invasion in order to buy time for more evacuations. Right now, many, but not all, of the non-essential personnel such as factory workers, R&D personnel and children are being evacuated to safer zones in the rear of human-occupied space. It is only the soldiers and the personnel required to support their activities that are remaining behind."

That sounded a bit better. The Davute Branch was not as crazy as Ves feared.

He still disagreed with the Larkinsons who had grown so attached towards Davute that they were willing to risk their lives to defend it, but… he could understand the sentiment.

People needed to fight. Even if the odds were stacked against them, humans couldn’t afford to retreat all the time. They needed to stand up for what they believed in and fight for a cause that was greater than their own survival.

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Ves mentally saluted the poor chums of the Davute Branch, but that was all he did. He had no desire to provide any additional aid to these dummies.

Even if General Ark Larkinson suffered an accident as a result of his misplaced sense of patriotism, he only had himself to blame.

Ves continued to talk about business and related matters with Gavin.

The declining economy and the unstable market conditions disrupted a lot of operations. The Larkinson Clan had to suspend or pull back many different business ventures in order to adjust.

"The good news is that we have built up a formidable warchest in the past few years." Gavin said. "The Yellow Jacket line has especially earned us a large amount of cash. The bad news is that inflation is spiking. The prices of ordinary commodities have remained the same, but the prices of premium goods and materials are skyrocketing. People are beginning to find out that a fat bank account is less useful than a powerful mech or vehicle when the aliens come knocking on your door. This means we can buy less for the same amount of money."

"Ugh. Inflation. I figured that would make a return. Do you think we can still afford to pay for all of the major ventures that we have planned? Can we still produce mechs to replace the ones we have lost, and can we still pay for the construction of high-quality starships at our shipyards?"

"It is doable, Ves. We will rapidly use up our cash reserves if we do so. Our deficit spending will go through the roof. However, if you think that it is better to be broke than safe, then this is a good decision to make. Given the popularity of your Carmine mechs, you should be able to recover funds that you have spent on the construction of starships, but that is only the case if there is a semblance of a mech industry left after this ordeal."

He nodded in agreement. That was what he thought as well. LMC mechs have proven to be enduringly popular, and Carmine mechs had become the latest trend.

"I am afraid that this invasion will leave behind deep scars in whatever society we have left." Ves frankly spoke to a man that he had come to trust to a certain extent. "Our society is continuing to diverge from what we left behind in the Milky Way, and I am not sure if that is entirely good."

Gavin disagreed. "I think your fears are overblown, boss. Humans will come together and try to shoulder the burdens together. We have no other choice if we want to avoid a catastrophic loss. Our civilization is resilient. Our society will likely remain the same because we won’t be able to return from prosperity as quickly and easily if our culture and traditions change beyond recognition."

Ves pressed his lips. He did not quite agree. He felt that red humanity’s society had become a lot more fragile. It shouldn’t take too much pressure to collapse everything.

"I hope that you are right, for all of our sakes."

Ves continued to watch the news feeds. He enjoyed the eclectic opinions that popped up. The doomsday scenarios hanging over people’s heads certainly caused a lot of people to stop caring about proprietary and simply voice their true opinions.

Even if they cussed out the mechers and the fleeters, the Red Comm Consortium still permitted the broadcasts to continue. That was really weird. Had the influence of the Red Collective grown so powerful as of late that it was able to serve as a counterweight?

That did not sound likely.

Perhaps the mechers and the fleeters of the Red Ocean had a change of heart.

"Nah."

Who was he kidding?

The Red Association and the Red Fleet would never relinquish their hegemony so easily!

A more likely possibility was that the Red Association wanted to provide additional stimulation to peak ace pilots.

The more desperate people broadcast their tearful last days, the more the god pilot candidates felt motivated to step on the road to no return! Enjoy exclusive content from novelbuddy

"This explanation makes much more sense!"