Chapter 6998 The Day of Insurrection
Chapter 6998 The Day of Insurrection
On the day the Battle of Screed Tanner VI-F commenced, the Red Ocean continued to remain a hive of activity.
Many other battles raged in and around the frequently changing frontlines of the Red War.
Nobody kept track of the sheer amount of battles that the humans had fought against the native alien species.
Most red humans made the assumption that the Red War had erupted on the day the Great Severing occurred.
As for the fighting that occurred before this period?
The humans at the time did not really consider their steady advance into alien-occupied territory to be a proper war.
How could they? The humans were part of the most powerful civilization of the much greater Milky Way.
If humankind truly wanted to, they could have dispatched thousands of first-class mech corps, dozens of god pilots and tens of thousands of CFA battleships to sweep across the 'tiny' dwarf galaxy within a decade!
The fact that humans did not overwhelm the Red Ocean with overwhelming force was not a sign of weakness, but strength.
Humans had the luxury of wiping out the native aliens at any time, but they considered this option to be too costly and wasteful.
Rather than engage in a loss-making business, the Big Two chose to let the space peasants do their work on their behalf. They may be weaker and much more constrained by the rules, but plenty of them would be happy to invest their wealth and lives to become pioneers.
If everything went according to plan, the pioneers should have swallowed up the territories of the Red Ocean within 5 decades or less.
Unfortunately, nothing went according to plan. The Great Severing had split the most dominant civilizations in two galaxies.
Original humanity retained their dominance in the Milky Way Galaxy, though it was currently undergoing massive internal upheaval.
Red humanity had become the orphaned sons of their original race and civilization. It had lost the protection of overwhelming military force, just as the Red Cabal intended when they transported their dwarf galaxy to a distant cosmic location.
The fighting between the two sides was no longer as one-sided as before. The pioneers of red humanity only managed to make consistent gains due to receiving a constant influx of reinforcements through the greater beyonder gates.
Now that this flow had become completely cut off, red humanity not only lacked the reinforcements to sustain its offensive push, but even started to lose manpower and combat assets at a prodigious rate!
To many people, this had become the real Red War. It was a conflict where red humanity had been put on the defensive from day 1 and never had a chance to go on the offensive.
For many days, red humans fought and died in droves as they found themselves the weaker side of a war this time.
It was a situation that many human supremacists never thought they would encounter in their lifetimes.
Many of them indeed failed to adapt to the new reality. They either became ruined or lost their lives in the fighting.
Not a day went by without the galactic net broadcasting news about star systems succumbing to the advancing aliens.
The Red Tide Offensive unleashed by the Red Cabal was highly successful.
Ever since the red humans had lost their precious defensive bands, their territories no longer enjoyed uniform protection.
The inherent division between red humans caused many problems. The major powers tried their best to address this issue by investing more authority into Human High Command, but this was a flawed solution.
HHC could never address all of the grievances and disagreements of every human group.
The existence of a central authority that tried to tell different forces where they should fight did not sit well with many people.
Combined with many people's resentment towards the Red Association and the Red Fleet, people's regard for their hegemons had dropped below a dangerous point.
The popularity of the mechers and the fleeters was dropping. Not only were they failing to win or at the very least limit the losses of the Red War, they continued to lord over everyone else as if they were still unquestionably in charge of all humans.
This grated on many people, but particularly the Terrans and the Rubarthans.
From their perspective, HHC was not so much a platform to coordinate their defenses, but a tool used to control the space peasants and exploit them in order to make the RA and RF richer to the detriment of the masses!
More and more people became convinced that the old rules no longer worked anymore.
The start of the Age of Dawn changed everything.
Now that many people increasingly smelled weakness from the mechers and the fleeters, the space peasants gradually realized that their overlords were growing weaker!
This caused the downtrodden and the suppressed to have ideas.
After many months and years of secretive preparations, the conspirators finally received a signal.
The time had finally come!
While no forces began to mobilize on a wider scale, several major human powers abruptly initiated official live broadcasts at the same time!
Each of them directly addressed their own populations, but also intended to pass on their message to others, most notably the mechers and the fleeters!
On the side of the Terran Alliance, an honored Star Designer appeared in view.
The Armsforger himself had chosen to address the Terrans and other humans.
As a Star Designer that was famous for combining both high technology with traditional smithing techniques, the Armsforger had long been known for crafting the most exquisite melee weapons.
Many god mechs, particularly those that excelled in melee combat, benefited from his unbreakable Armsforger Weapons.
Now, this muscular and fit Star Designer had chosen to disclose a daring and risky plan that directly affected the lives of every Terran in the Red Ocean!
During this historic broadcast, the Armsforger chose to wear a multi-layered green garment that blended formality, refinement and transcendence in a single elegant presentation.
[My fellow Terrans and red humans, today I have an announcement to make. The leaders of the Terran Alliance along with other like-minded partners have been preparing to save our people by any means necessary. We have determined that the best way to do so is to expose the falsehood of unity, and recognize it for the tyranny that has always constrained our potential.]
[Yes, I dare to state the truth. Since the start of the Age of Mechs, our Terran people have been stripped of our rights and suffered one humiliation after another. In their greed to conquer our civilization, the Big Two has stolen our warships and prohibited us from fielding them ever again. They have also imposed a set of rules and instituted a technological blockade. Under the reign of the mechers and the fleeters, we can never be allowed to field weapons that can ever threaten their rule.]
[Do you recognize how absurd it is for us to behave as a subjugated group in a time where the native aliens are the greater threat to our common civilization? Many of us have filed constant petitions and requests to repeal the rules that tie our hands behind our backs. Yet the Red Association and the Red Fleet refuse to take them seriously despite the fact that we are losing more men and mechs than the mechers and the fleeters.]
Many viewers grew angry and upset at the mechers and the fleeters. It was pretty easy to turn the Terrans against their current overlords.
[The prohibition on the use of shield link technology is the most egregious restriction that they have imposed on us. While their own mechs and warships are able to collectivize their azure energy shields, thereby enabling all of their units to last far longer in battle, we are still not permitted to use the same technology.]
The Armsforger assumed a more grave demeanor.
[What does this tell you? To us, it signifies the fact that the Red Association and the Red Fleet values their own greed and lust for power over the defense of our united civilization. They have helped to establish Human High Command, only to deny its suggestions to liberate us from their confining and outdated restrictions. They still guard against a return to the Age of Conquest, thereby completely forgetting how much we thrived during this golden age of humanity.]
The Armsforger actually looked angry this time.
[Their continued refusal to return our right to field our own warships and use every advanced tech that is already known to our civilization does not benefit our race. It merely benefits the tyrants that fear losing power over the supposed 'space peasants'. My fellow Terrans, do not mistake this fact. We all enjoy the status as galactic citizens, but as far as the mechers and fleeters, we are still the same barbaric primitives that they imagined us to be since the start of the Age of Mechs.]
[We are not children that need coddling. Neither do we accept the argument that it is better to keep dangerous tech and weapons out of our hands for fear of harming ourselves. Continuing to maintain this stance serves no other benefit than to maintain the same excuse that has led us to accept the false authority of the mechers and fleeters for several centuries. No more. We can no longer tolerate the lies of the RA and the RF, especially when doing so will continue to deprive us from the powerful tech that we need to protect our borders and keep our fellow Terrans safe.]
A symbol began to appear on the Armsforger's back.
It was a flag that depicted a globe that displayed the continents of Old Earth!
[Due to these reasons and more, every Terran leader have agreed that we must make a bold statement. It is my pleasure to announce that from this day onwards, the Terran Alliance will unilaterally secede from the tyrannical hegemony that is led by the Red Association and the Red Fleet. We are not requesting them to hand over the rights and sovereignty that rightfully belongs to the Terran people. We will take it back ourselves.]
The background changed.
It depicted projections of brand-new warships flying under the Terran flag.
Such a sight would have attracted the heaviest degree of punishment from the Red Two in the past!
It also showed mechs that managed to withstand concentrated firepower due to carrying a working shield link transceiver.
This was a naked breach of the Red Two's duopoly on shield link technology. The Armsforger was very much correct that the only reason this restriction existed was to ensure the mechers and the fleeters maintained technological superiority over the 'space peasants'!
Soon enough, a map of human-occupied space appeared.
[By taking back our sovereignty, many contracts, treaties and laws are no longer appropriate anymore. The territories of the Terran Alliance will no longer answer to any laws imposed by the Red Two that we have not explicitly chosen to retain by our own free will. Our legal departments have already revised many of them to fit the new era where the Terrans are able to stand proud for regaining our freedom. Let there be no confusion over our stance. We do not look kindly to the RA and the RF for subjugating us for so many years, but this is not the time to settle our grudges. For as long as the native aliens remain strong, we shall work and fight together as red humans.]
[However, if we must fight and cooperate with the Red Three, we will do so as their equals, not their vassals. Under no circumstance shall we obey their orders, or supply them with our goods and materials without engaging in honest trade. If the mechers and fleeters truly prioritize the continued survival of red humanity, then they should make the sensible decision and allow us to retain our sovereignty. If they are not willing to do so, then they must know that we do not stand alone. The Rubarthan Pact and numerous other first-rate states are following suit.]
The map changed to reflect a greater split unfolding. Not only had the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact become sovereign star empires again, there were even a handful of first-rate states in the Red Ocean Union that followed suit!
The Armsforger formed a vicious grin.
[In the eventuality that the mechers and the fleeters refuse to accept the inevitable, we are not above turning our arms against our fellow red humans. We shall never be slaves again. No matter what sort of advanced tech the mechers and the fleeters intend to use, we have more powerful tech at our disposal. With the assistance of hidden but also rising human power, we shall persuade the RA and the RF to accept our turns, not by force, but by giving them a farewell present. Otherwise, they shall not have any opportunity to receive the technological secrets they desire the most.]
That was a bold statement to make. It sounded rather implausible for the Terrans and other conspirators to buy the Red Two off with technology transfers, not when they had already accumulated so much cutting-edge tech!