"Tell me." I said. "I'm open to anything at this point."
"We have next to zero chance of winning the war without a miracle." she said. "I suggest that we accept defeat, pack up and leave before people get killed."
"You think that we should just evacuate a couple billion people from Mars?" I asked. The plan was interesting for sure, but how practical was it?
"Exactly." she said. "I've seen that you are pretty successful at using tactical retreats."
Was that supposed to be a compliment or an insult!?
"...so I suggest we try out the largest tactical retreat in history." Mei continued. "Let's take our factories and run away. We won't have won anything, but at least we might get to live."
"Even if we gathered all the ships produced in history, there is no way we can lift a whole planet of people into space." I said. "We can't just choose who gets to fly and live, and who gets to stay and die."
"We won't." Mei said. "Natural selection will do it's job."
"We are better than this, Mei." I said.
"No, we are not." she argued. "We will get the best people with us, and give them a chance to live. The rest will make their last stand against the machines to buy us time."
"That's so cruel, almost as if we are the villains!" I shouted. "Mei, I can't believe you!"
"If you want to lift more people off the planet, Mr. President, I suggest that you instruct our factories start producing cheap economy-class ships as soon as possible."
"Mei, we are not going anywhere." I said. "There is no other habitat in the Solar System that can house millions, let alone billions. Not even Europa or Callisto can come close to the habitability of Mars. Even if we run away, we will be sitting ducks in cold, dark space and get hunted down eventually."
"Not if we build a grand fleet to counterattack the machines during that time." she said.
"And how exactly will we do that?" I asked.
"While the people we left behind buy us time, we will send fleets to the remotest regions of the Sol system. Some of them will even go to the Kuiper Belt or perhaps even beyond that. Whoever survives the journey will establish industries in secrecy and gather resources as fast as possible. We will start producing warships quickly, and when we have enough, we will rendezvous at a secret point. And then, we will lead those fleets to recapture Earth and then Mars!"
She was very enthusiastic about her plan. And, to be honest, it was a better plan than mine - at least some people would get to live for longer (as opposed to my plan in which everyone died). Even though it would be very hard to make it work in practice, at least we would give some people a chance to survive.
"I... I will have to think about that." I told Mei. "But there is a major flaw in your plan."
"Which is?"
"While we are building our fleets, the machines will be building fleets as well, and at a rate much better than we can ever hope to match."
"They won't." Mei said. "Once we are defeated, they will no longer need warships. You were talking about what you called a 'cybernetic utopia'. A new, higher species waging civil war doesn't sound like utopia to me."
"I know, but I doubt that they will just lay down their arms." I said. "They will know that we ran away, and they will know we will come back one day."
"Oh..." Mei paused. "Right. Then, we will have to hinder their production at the same time."
"Mei, it is almost impossible to be faster than them at production. They will have access to all the resources of Earth, Mars, Ceres, Mercury, Venus and whatever other large body you can think of." I said.
"Well, it is better than staying on Mars and waiting to die like you suggest." Mei said.
"That, unfortunately, is a good point." I agreed with her.
"Maybe, either way, we are all dead already..." said Mei. "I'm just trying my best."
"Wait a minute." I said. "I have an idea that could potentially give us the production advantage."
"What do you have in mind?"
"You will hate the idea." I said. "The Crystal Mirage."
"What about it?"
"If we manage to hit one of their large fleets, we will have taken out a lot of them at once." I said. "They will need quite some time to replace their losses. While they are busy with that, we can hope to catch up a bit."
"Of course, but first of all, they will still overwhelm us and we will still lose the war; and secondly, I am not even sure if we can target fleets with the Crystal Mirage. I bet it can only shoot large bodies like moons and planets." Mei said. "Besides, there are a good amount of enemy fleets stationed around Earth, and we can't risk shooting Earth."
"But we can risk shooting Mars." I said.
"You were right, I hate that idea." said Mei. "But... if it can give us time... it might be worth a shot."
"So, the final plan is this: We will produce lots of passenger and cargo ships and send people away to various locations far away, while those who are left on Mars fight the machines to buy us time. When the enemy brings their largest fleets, we activate the Crystal Mirage to shoot Mars and take them down."
"Yes." Mei said, and continued. "Those who survive will gather resources quickly and start manufacturing warships, while making use of every opportunity to hit the enemy industry. Once we have a fleet big enough to challenge the enemy, we merge fleets at a secret rendezvous point and strike to recapture Earth."
"Okay, this plan is as great as it can get." I said. "However, there is still one last problem."
"And it is?"
"The Crystal Mirage." I said. "It has always been a secret superweapon project. We are Federation members now, that much is okay, but how do we even get it to activate on our will?"
"I don't know, you are the president. Maybe kindly ask the Federation?" Mei said.
"It doesn't work quite like that." I said. "Oh, I know..."
"What?"
"We will have to contact one of those Republic scientists who were invited to work on the project."
"Do you think they will agree to shoot their homeland and their comrades along with the enemy?" Mei asked me.
"If it can save mankind, why not?"