The status of the Fist of Defiance and the Polymath couldn't be more different.
One was a powerful god pilot who possessed such domineering will that it had become the primary force that sustained his existence.
The other was a Star Designer who was not only known as a prolific inventor, but also happened to be a failed tyrant whose attempted coup d'etat had left her in disgrace.
Philosophically, they were even further apart. Even if they were both members of the Survivalist Faction, they believed in very different solutions to save red humanity from getting overrun and wiped out from existence.
It was difficult for anyone to discern the Polymath's true motives and intentions at this time. This hyper-intelligent Star Designer shouldn't have been a person who was prone to madness and megalomania, but she surprised everyone during the Survivalist conference.
Still, the fact that she was still aligned with red humanity and plainly acknowledged her defeat meant that she did not receive any heavy punishment.
Certainly, the loss of reputation and the complete breakdown of her expansive network was a blow to her power and influence, but a Star Designer was force onto itself.
Perhaps lesser mortals still needed to rely on lots of alliances and mutual interests in order to get stuff done, but True Gods like the Polymath no longer needed such unnecessary entanglements!
The Fist of Defiance even suspected that the Polymath deliberately accounted for this outcome just so that she could make a clean break with her past burdens and relationships.
No matter what, the Fist of Defiance never fully trusted the Polymath from beginning to end.
Every Star Designer tended to disgust him a bit. They were way too clever and scheming by nature. The vast majority of them had never seen a lick of true combat in their life. Everything they knew about warfare was through second-hand information and the occasional human-to-human brain interface nonsense.
It was a pity that their relationship had deteriorated to this point. The Fist of Defiance previously respected the Polymath for becoming a rising pillar of the Survivalist Faction.
Alas, her ego and her overreliance on data turned her into a creature that did more harm than good, at least as far as he was concerned.
Was he any better, though?
The Fist of Defiance had no doubts about his beliefs, policies and convictions. Nobody became a god pilot while still having questions about himself. He was even more stubborn about pursuing his goals to the end than a Star Designer like the Polymath!
Yet that did not mean that he lacked self-awareness. He was more than cognizant of what kind of person he had turned into. Several centuries of fighting and training had allowed him to comprehend his psyche on a deeper level.
The Fist of Defiance was a god pilot who preferred to solve problems with his fists rather than his brain.
Both literally and figuratively, he always tried to forge ahead by applying the most direct application of force as possible.
The passing of his seemingly idiotic Deep Strike Plan was just the latest in his long line of bull-headed accomplishments!
Since red humanity united around his vision, his status changed considerably.
People already looked up to him for obvious reasons, but ever since he returned to human-occupied space, the folk practically revered the architect of the Deep Strike Plan!
So many common folk regarded the Fist of Defiance as the father of red humanity that the god pilot had no choice but to accept the responsibility that came with this title.
Even if the Survivalist Faction along with every major human bloc explicitly rejected the drive towards centralization as proposed by the Polymath, the current status of the Fist of Defiance exceeded that of any other god pilot or Star Designer.
His words had ten times the amount of political weight than before.
He could no longer indulge himself and take action without thinking it through.
A fast-growing political movement began to form across human-occupied space that espoused his ideals!
All of these new burdens did not cause the Fist of Defiance to regret the actions that led to this outcome.
God pilots never regretted their choices.
What he did find troubling was how to proceed from here. Nobody wanted him to become a tyrant or a monarch of red humanity, the Fist himself included.
Yet his intuition and his foresight vaguely hinted that even if he did nothing else, there was a chance that red humanity would slide in this direction.
Was it right for him to become the leader of a race that had never responded well to total unification in the past?
The man felt repulsed by the very thought of becoming the figurehead of his race and civilization.
Perhaps that sounded like a dream come true to control freaks like the Polymath. They would kill to be in his shoes!
Yet the Fist of Defiance would gladly trade places with another leader so that he could go back to bashing alien skulls and cracking open alien warships like eggs-
The rage and aggression building up inside his heart could not be contained without limit.
These destructive forces constantly tempered his willpower, but there was a limit to how much it could improve.
He did not belong in Bridgehead One.
Instead of babysitting the Polymath and guarding the greater beyonder gate, the Fist of Defiance yearned to go back to the frontlines so that he could fist more phase whales!
If only those alien whales weren't so damn good at hiding inside their secret pocket spaces.
Even a powerful god pilot could not track them down without any solid clues of where their pocket spaces were located.
God pilots could only rely on the power of their organizations to gather these clues and find a trace of those powerful whales.
Of course, there were plenty of other enemies they could fight. One of the reasons why the frontlines remained so stable despite the increase in alien incursions was because the god pilots had already begun to clear out the alien menace whenever a problem region was reaching its limit!
Though it was fare to find any worthwhile opponents in these cleanup operations, it was better than nothing.
He needed to vent his desire for battle and fist as many aliens as possible!
If that was not possible, then he needed to have a good brawl with one of his fellow god pilots.
Venting his aggression and his lust for battle against another god pilot was always a good way to enjoy a hearty battle!
Even though a lot of his peers hated to fight against a persistent and unstoppable adversary ike himself, both sides usually harvested many gains from a serious spar.
"You are departing soon."
"WITHIN A MONTH, WHICH IS SEVERAL WEEKS TOO MUCH. MY PATIENCE IS ALREADY WEARING THIN."
"Everyone knows who you are. They will not neglect this manner. The last thing that they want to see is for you to lose control and go berserk in the most important star systems in human-occupied space."