The Mech Touch

"This World Tree Project… is too huge." Ves spoke in a whisper. "It works incredibly fast. It is effective on all sorts of alien planets. It is capable of producing large amounts of organic mechs and starships regardless of local environmental conditions. It can even reproduce by producing spare World Tree Seeds, thereby opening up the possibility for rapid proliferation. The World Tree is able to account for so many variables with such perfect coordination and decision-making that… I cannot imagine that any random Terran R&D team can produce such an amazing bioconstruct. This… is the work of a Star Designer, right?"

"You should already be able to guess who is responsible for realizing the World Tree Project." Master Laila Devos said.

There weren’t many Star Designers that had a strong penchant for biotechnology and trees.

"This should be the personal work of the Dryad Queen."

The Terran Master Mech Designer nodded in confirmation.

"The original World Tree Seeds are grand works. It is difficult to shape organic products into masterworks, let alone grand works, so it is all the more impressive that the Dryad Queen is able to develop them at all. Each original World Tree Seed is a strategic weapon of the highest order. They are incredibly versatile and can learn how to work with new materials such as phasewater and superdimensional materials as long as they are fed with the relevant data. The derived World Tree Seeds lack this intelligence and improvisation capabilities. They must rely on human instructions or data imported from the original World Tree Seeds to solve problems that are not included in their databases."

Amazing. Ves had not connected the dots, but now that he understood that the World Tree Project was the brainchild of the Dryad Queen, it all made sense.

Only she could develop such a massive and ambitious superweapon!

Though Ves knew a lot less about the Dryad Queen than other Star Designers due to maintaining a lower profile, he remembered that she harbored strong animosity towards the Big Two.

"This World Tree Project… is probably one of the contingencies that you Terrans originally relied upon to guard against the Big Two, am I right?"

"Your guess is as accurate as ever. If the worst outcome took place where the mechers and the fleeters sought to eradicate the first-rate superstates once and for all, we planned to take our World Tree Seeds and plant them in human space as opposed to alien space."

That was diabolical. It was one of the many extreme measures the Terrans had prepared to deter the Mech Trade Association from eradicating the Greater Terran United Confederation.

"I guess that is not the case in the Red Ocean."

"The native aliens pose a much greater existential threat to us than the Red Association and the Red Fleet." Master Laila Devos confirmed. "If the war deteriorates past a certain point, we will dispatch many suicide fleets into alien space. Each of them will carry at least several World Tree Seeds. Their sole mission is to create the longest trail of destruction in alien space. None are allowed to turn back. They must rely on the resources, biomechs and other supplies generated by the World Trees to sustain and prolong their campaigns as much as possible."

"That is… quite extreme."

"The planets they drain of resources may not even be converted into human-compatible biomes. The alien globes will be drained completely of their nutrients in order to deny our enemies to the best possible extent."

"There aren’t enough spacers and mech pilots to make use of all of that organic hardware."

"This is why it is possible to automate them." Master Laila Devos replied. "As long as there are at least a handful of key personnel in charge of the controls and key systems, we can mitigate much of the risks associated with extensive automation. It is not a perfect solution, though. The mechers and the fleeters are capable of sabotaging or subverting them if they put effort into their attempts. The native aliens lack such capabilities, so it is much safer to rely on automated mechs and warships to wage war against their territories. If necessary, the propagation of World Trees can be completely automated, but this is a last resort that is only reserved for the direst of circumstances."

If the native aliens collapsed the fifth defensive band and began to invade the hinterland of human-occupied space on a large scale, Ves had no doubt that the Terrans would deploy this doomsday weapon without any shadow of a doubt!

He could even see how the World Trees synergized with Gaia. The Terrans must have proceeded to update and modify their World Tree Seeds to cooperate with the True God.

Ves felt as if he finally understood the entire context of the Arboreal Project. It turned out that the Terrans valued wood-based Carmine biomechs so much because of their compatibility with the World Tree Project!

"The World Tree Project can preserve the future of the Terran people, culture and nation far better if we have access to Carmine biomechs." Master Laila Devos frankly explained to Ves. "Any norm can pilot them, though they will have to rely heavily on automation if they want to become combat effective with little to no training. This synergizes well with the fact that Carmine biomechs that are specially designed around our World Trees can be produced, repaired and upgraded with minimal traditional infrastructure."

She revealed the most ambitious goal of the Arboreal Project.

"You want the Arboreal Project to enable your side to rapidly militarize your population." Ves figured out. "You draft billions of civilians, send off to planets devoured by World Trees and force them to pilot the freshly produced Woodsap mechs. Even if they are not made out of TE Wood, they are likely made out of the best materials the planet has to offer. This will allow you to dispatch a huge amount of poorly trained but incredibly numerous mech forces to many other hostile star systems."

If human space no longer became safe anymore, then civilians might as well make themselves useful by volunteering to become Carmine mech pilots!

The World Tree Seeds completely allowed the Terrans to skip the cumbersome process of colonizing planets and building industries. They just needed to plan a very big seed and wait long enough for it to sprout and start producing a huge amount of bioconstructs!

Carmine biomechs such as Woodsap mechs were the final piece of the puzzle that completed the grand design.

The World Tree Project was still devastating without them, but the addition of wooden biomechs that could easily be piloted by any human individual allowed the Terrans to make their enemies bleed a lot more!

"World Trees can also be used defensively." Master Laila informed Ves. "If the native aliens have breached the frontlines and have begun to tear into Terran space, then we are ready to plant the World Tree Seeds that we have prepared on multiple planets. Even if we program them to minimize the destruction to the environment, damage to existing infrastructure and the ecosystem will still remain extensive. The population must be evacuated into orbit or to designated safe spaces prior to planting the World Tree Seeds. After that, the World Tree will leverage much of the resources of the planet to fortify and build a massive amount of arms to repel alien invaders. Much of evacuated Terrans will either be evacuated by transferring them onto cheap wooden bioships with basic FTL travel capabilities, or will be drafted into war."

"Why the insistence on forcing your untrained civilians to fight the aliens in person rather than leave the job to automated mechs and other bioconstructs?"

The older Master Mech Designer’s face grew stern. "If we are too cowardly to stand and fight for our ideals and our Terran nation, then we have already succumbed to weakness. The death toll will be astronomical, but those of us who survive will possess the grit and determination to keep our Terran heritage alive."

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Spoken like a true leader who knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was far too important and high in rank to ever risk her life on the battlefield like all of those poor Terran schmucks.

Many drafted Terran civilians would likely be assigned to man various stations in the bioships or defensive fortifications if they possessed the right expertise.

If they did not possess any relevant skills to do those jobs, then they would probably be put into the cockpit of a Carmine biomech and be told to pilot their semi-autonomous machines into battle!

"Since this is your true goal, is there any point in working with TE Wood, then?" Ves asked with a frown. "Are Gaia Trees even necessary?"

"Do not discount the value of your work, Ves. The Arboreal Project as you have envisioned will be the most elite and premium version of the wooden Carmine biomechs that we intend to field. The Gaia Trees that are currently in development derive a small part of their design from the World Tree Project, but they are still fundamentally different creations. Gaia Trees cannot be grown by draining the nutrients of other planets. They can only be grown while fed with large quantities of phasewater, Solus Gas and many other high-end materials. They solely exist to support the operation of the Arboreal Project. We are merely planning to derive dozens if not hundreds of variants of Carmine biomechs that substitute TE Wood with other material compositions."

Ves grew a bit more mollified after hearing that. He actually found the Terran scheme to be incredibly ambitious, inventive and promising.

No matter whether the Terrans intend to deploy their World Trees offensively or defensively, they could always count on this trump card to ignite the full warmaking potential of any planet, especially if it already had an abundant human population!

Ves took a deep breath. As much as he felt grateful for Master Laila Devos for revealing such a massive secret to him, he felt that they had strayed way beyond the original topic.

"It is incredibly interesting to learn about this World Tree Project of yours, but… this stuff is too high-end for me. I am looking for more practical exclusive tech that I can incorporate in my future biomech designs. That stuff about Rapid Adaptation Biotechnology is much more interesting."

Master Laila smiled. "Do not be so quick to dismiss the relevance of the World Tree Project. You have much to offer to us. We welcome your concessions. As long as you are willing to trade large quantities of superdimensional matter, mech design commissions and contribute to a number of our secret projects, we are willing to supply you with a single World Tree Seed."

Ves almost shot out of his chair when he heard this offer. "What?! Really?!"

"Ah, do not get too excited. Our original World Tree Seeds are too precious to trade, so we can only offer you a derived World Tree Seed. The two operate on the same scale, but the latter requires more active human direction and control in order to operate as intended."

"Can the latter produce more World Tree Seeds?"

"Yes, but there are many requirements." The Terran Master answered. "A new seed can only be grown on a resource-rich planet and takes a certain amount of time. The third-generation and subsequent generations of seeds will also be lesser in capabilities. Exceptions do exist. If you plant a seed on a planet that is rich in high-grade minerals and other precious resources, much of that can be used to grow a superior seed rather than strengthen the existing World Tree. You can also actively modify the World Tree or World Tree Seed with your own technological applications. You can design your World Tree as long as you possess the right amount of courage and expertise."

"And completely piss off the mechers and the fleeters by owning and making use of a biological weapon of mass destruction." Ves sardonically remarked.

"Taboos are a relic of the previous age. Now that the Red War has come this far, I would have expected you to possess a more enlightened view towards the use of superweapons."

"I still want to maintain friendly relations with the Red Association and the Red Fleet, Master. Besides, I don’t think you will set a low price for a derived World Tree Seed. I am not sure whether I am willing to make this sacrifice."

"Then let us explore the possibilities further…"

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