When Ves convened a meeting with Commander Rivington, Commander Casella, Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Tusa, the latter four grew quite curious at what he had to say.
“What’s this all about, Ves?” Tusa asked as he casually sat next to his fellow expert pilot. “Did Lucky finally recover from his condition?”
“My lazy cat is still dozing off as usual.” Ves responded with a brief grimace. “No, I have something else in mind today. I think I may have figured out a solution to our current conundrum.”
They became attentive. They had all grown frustrated at the lack of action in the past few days.
After all, Ves had made a high-sounding speech about how Larkinsons were warriors. If they stopped at this junction without achieving anything substantial, wouldn’t that put his credibility into doubt?
“Don’t tease us any longer, Ves. Just spit it out. You must have come up with another scheme.” Venerable Tusa said.
Ves grinned. “Perhaps. Let me start from the beginning. First of all, in order to defeat the ultralifers, we have to understand them first. What do you recall about their group?”
The Larkinsons in the meeting room exchanged glances.
“The ultralifers are extremists, sir.” Commander Rivington eventually said. As a former Lifer, he understood them best. “They’re very proud about the Life Research Association and its highly-developed biotech industry. The problem is that they go too far. They’re not normal fans. They’re obsessive fanatics who can’t tolerate a single word of criticism. During normal times, they mostly fought back using words, protests, intimidation and so on, so they were never branded as terrorists or anything like that. Everyone else just learned to ignore their antics.”
Ves snorted. “Well, they’re a lot less harmless than you all thought. How could the authorities overlook this massive underground fortification? How could the Planetary Guard be okay with allowing these bunch of radicals to accumulate hundreds of dangerous biomechs when they don’t allow private individuals to own more than a couple of machines for protection?”
This was a glaring inconsistency and one that made him feel quite resentful about the LRA’s government. The obvious answer was that there was definitely something shady about this development. The local administration was rotten to the core.
Rivington shrugged. “I can’t tell you anything about that.”
“Then tell me more about their ideology. What do they want? What are they working towards?”
“Well, there is nothing more to them than what is already available in public. The ultralifers have never hid their agenda. They want to make the LRA and the local biotech industry more prosperous. The difference from other citizens is that they want to go through great extremes. They think that biomechs, designer beasts and other applications of biotechnology are vastly superior than the alternatives and that the LRA has a great responsibility to spread its model to the surrounding states. They’re not shy about advocating war in order to force the spread of biotechnology.”
“In other words, they’re super fanboys.” Venerable Tusa remarked on the other side of the meeting table. “These kinds of people exist everywhere. They’re so fanatical about something that their judgement simply disappears whenever their interests come up. They can not only tolerate any faults, but they take any attack on their interests personally.”
Ves smiled when Tusa mentioned one the keys to his proposals. “You have stated something very critical about the ultralifers. They’re biased. Their judgement is clouded. They can’t think straight when it comes to the objects of their admiration. This is one of their strengths, but it can also be their greatest weakness.”
Everyone else looked confused at that. The extreme ideology of the ultralifers was a powerful motivator to them. This differentiated them from mercenaries who didn’t fight for any cause and constantly weighed the possible gains and losses for every action they took.
Fanaticism conveyed strength! This was a lesson many Larkinsons had learned!
“How?”
Ves did not keep them guessing any longer. His smile grew wider as he activated a projection. It showed a live feed of the clansmen who were enjoying their brief five minute session in the presence of the Aspect of Tranquility and the Aspect of Healing.
He pointed his finger straight at the projected statues. “How do you think the ultralifers will react if they encounter a copy of my living statues?”
“…”
“Uhm…”
The others looked flabbergasted for a moment. They did not expect that the strategem that Ves hinted at turned out to be related to the angel statues of all possibilities!
Venerable Jannzi grew annoyed. “Ves…”
“Yes, cousin?”
“Are you being serious?”
“I am. No wait, hear me out.” Ves raised his palm in order to forestall her angry reply. “First, look at the clansmen who are eagerly queueing up to experience the glows of my new statues. Look at how much admiration they have in their eyes as they look at the statues in the distance. I have queried many of them shortly after I created the statues. Each of them felt attracted by my new creations. Compared to other organic statues, mine exude a special charm that not only makes them more alive, but also causes them to give the impression that they are much more perfect and impressive!”
This mainly had to do with the incredibly high compatibility between his design philosophy and organic matter. A normal Sanctuary mech projected a fairly regular version of Lufa’s glow. While it had the same effect as the glow projected by one of the Aspects of Lufa, the metallic mech itself only looked slightly more charming.
The four Aspects of Lufa were different. As the source of the glows, the statues that resembled real, life-like angels seemed to maintain a very convincing illusion that they were truly alive and divine!
This was a level of craftsmanship and flesh shaping that was beyond anything the Lifers had seen!
Commander Casella narrowed her eyes. “Are you trying to exploit the fact that the ultralifers are insanely obsessed with great applications of biotechnology in order to win them over or something? You managed to do so with the former members of Spiritus Sancti, who also happen to share some similarities with the ultralifers.”
This was a radical plan, but sadly Ves did not believe the ultralifers would be so easily fooled.
He shook his head. “The ultralifers still hate me. I’m not confident that they will drop all of their animosity towards me just because of this. I think it’s better to take a step back and predict how they will react to the appearance of the statues without associating them with a troubling identity such as mine. What do you think they will do if we place a few copies of my living statues just outside their underground fortress?”
A few seconds passed before Rivington made a guess. “I think… they’ll instantly fall in love with the gifts. They’ll bring it back to their base and worship the statues as if they are gods or something.”
Everyone could easily imagine this result. After all, most applications of biotechnology couldn’t come close to the beauty and charm of the Aspects of Lufa!
Still, not everyone believed this would go as smoothly as they hoped.
“All of this sounds great, but the ultralifers couldn’t possibly be that stupid.” Venerable Jannzi stated. “We can’t expect all of them to drop everything aside and spend their entire days under the influence of their glows. There are bound to be leaders among them who know that they can’t afford to allow every mech pilot to blank their emotions at the same time. It’s probably that they will set up the same restrictive rotations as we did and limit exposure to the statues for a limited amount of time. They will also make sure to thoroughly scan the statues in order to confirm that they aren’t hiding any bombs, listening devices or other improper devices.”
Ves nodded in agreement. “Those are my thoughts as well. The ultralifers are well-organized and have access to decent equipment. They will have protocols in place that will likely cause any attempt of sabotage to fail. This is why I have developed another plan.”
“Please tell us, oh genius.”
“First, I’ll make a bunch of copies of the Aspect of Tranquility.” He said as he began to mark out a few spots on the projected map. “Then, I want them to be placed outside the main entrance of their base. After that, we just wait until the ultralifers crawl out of their defensive fortification and come to experience the glows in person.”
The others didn’t look convinced. There were way too many holes in this simple-sounding plan!
“Why the Aspect of Tranquility. Don’t you have other statues that might have a stronger effect than blanking out conscious thoughts and emotions? Why not create something more dangerous?”
Ves shook his head. “I don’t want the statues to appear too suspicious. The Aspect of Tranquility has the simplest and most neutral effect. I don’t dare to tamper with its glow or make any dangerous changes to it. The ultralifers must be willing to approach the copies I make without worrying about their lives. Don’t underestimate the intuition of certain people. If any of the ultralifers have a bad feeling about my statues, then they will definitely show a lot more vigilance.”
“Then… what stops them from picking up your statues and bringing them to their base? We can’t attack the people basking in the glows if they are hiding inside their fortification. I thought drawing them out is your main purpose.”
“There is a simple solution to this problem. We just have to make the statues worthless as long as they are moved or tampered with in any way.”
“By blowing them up?”
“No.” Ves shook his head. “As we’ve discussed earlier, if there are any signs of harmful devices inside the statues, the ultralifers won’t be eager to worship them anymore. What I have in mind is much simpler and much more straightforward. I’ll just turn off the glows of the statues once something happens to them that I don’t like. Moving the statues, building new walls around them, trying to dissect them and so on are all triggers that will prompt me to take action.”
“You can do that from a distance?!”
Most Larkinsons didn’t know that Ves could deactivate the glows of his own mechs by remote! Just learning about this had massive implications to the mech pilots.
Ves didn’t feel the need to be circumspect about this capability. “Yes. I can do that. I won’t explain the mechanics, but just be reassured that I can easily make the statues lose the qualities that make them special. When the ultralifers first encounter my statues, they will definitely try to do the stuff I’ve mentioned. What I have to do is to deactivate the glows whenever something happens that I don’t approve of. After a few attempts, the ultralifers will slowly learn that leaving them in place is the best way for them to preserve their value.”
“Will that actually work? It sounds… stupid.”
“That’s because you aren’t fanatics like them. I think there is a significant chance that they can’t resist the temptation of my statues. Just look at our own clansmen. In fact, I can even go a step further and raise or lower the intensity of the glows depending on what they do. For example, the more ultralifers experiencing the glows at the same time, the stronger and more fulfilling the effect.”
Venerable Jannzi widened her eyes as she comprehended the diabolical nature of this scheme!
“You intend to train the ultralifers as if they are animals!” She accused Ves. “You intend to combine both positive and negative reinforcement in order to incentivize your victims to act in a way that falls in line with your goals. This is brainwashing!”
Ves awkwardly coughed. “I wouldn’t say that! I am merely… giving the ultralifers what they want. Don’t they like excellent bioproducts? I just happen to be able to fulfill their needs. They just need to pay a price to enjoy my creations.”
