The Martial Unity

News of Pioneer I’s encounter with alien life immediately coursed through the Panamic Space Organization, reaching the Kandrian Empire first. “This…” Rui’s ethereal eyes lit up with amazement. “This is incredible.”

He was seated at his table within the Royal Office in the Kandrian Empire, reading the reports compiled by the Pioneer I command and the Panamic Space Organization. The light of the evening sun lightly illuminated the office, permeating through his translucent body and illuminating the documents before him. He studied with interest the data that they had managed to collect on the crystal striders on Serun Planera I. The creatures were of silicon biology, an element that had four electrons in its valence shell, just like carbon, making it just as chemically diverse as carbon was.

Spectrography, even before the Serun I mission began, had revealed the planet had large amounts of silicon, so he had always expected some amount of complex chemistry, but not entire lifeforms.

The preliminary reports suggested that these lifeforms were primarily underground inhabitants, although they could also somehow jump into the air great distances despite being composed of crystals. It was a fascinating structure of life that he would have never imagined.

“The Tendril of Light was right, life truly is everywhere,” he realized. What they might have considered to be a truly remarkable phenomenon might have been far more common than they could have realized. His insights and enlightenment into life and into causality allowed him to understand exactly why life was common.

“Life is just complexity that survives.”

Life was Water, he already knew that. But it also meant that it was just a matter of time for some kind of chemical complexity that somehow managed to survive in its environment and persist. And of those forms of chemistry that survived and persisted, those that could recreate themselves would go on to persist even more.

Unless a planet was frozen solid or smoldering hot, where no chemical complexity could emerge at all, it was just a matter of time for chemical complexity to emerge, survive, and eventually reproduce. The fact that they had found alien life this quickly and this easily was evidence that they weren’t going to run short on it, most likely.

The news quickly made its way past him, spreading across the political class of the Panama Continent that contributed to the funding of the Panamic Space Organization and its development. The political leadership within Panama was more numb to the discovery. After all, having been visited by two alien species within twenty-four hours about a month ago was proof that they were not alone. All the political and philosophical ramifications that could be inferred from it had already been inferred a while back.

At most, this simply confirmed the frequency of life throughout the universe, and they were simply ignorant for having thought of themselves as special. It was a little disheartening to know that the life on Gaia was not as unique and special as they had thought it was. The notion that just about any planet in the universe could simply develop life that easily and that arbitrarily was one that crippled the notion of human exceptionalism.

They weren’t alone. And they weren’t the most powerful, either. However, despite that, it was possible for them to maintain a sense of human exceptionalism nonetheless due to the presence of Paths. It had become clear to them that while the Laminar Civilization was more powerful than Gaian Civilization, they lacked personal paths of power that could allow them to grow individually more capable than the average member of an alien species.

“I don’t like that.”

The voice of the Esoterist hung in the air as he sat at a terminal with a hologram floating before him. One that displayed the three-dimensional design of a warship prototype. One that was more enhanced, more destructive, and more powerful than their existing designs. The Esoterist tinkered with the design, flipping his finger through it as he added more and more elements to the design. His expression contained a hint of displeasure; his eyes behind the virtual reality visors were sharp.

“You don’t like what?” The Astromind absentmindedly replied from across the design lab, as he skimmed through the reports of the crystal strider with great interest and excitement.

“That people think paths are the only things that set us apart from other life in the universe,” the Esoterist turned around towards his colleague. “That we’re the same as all dumb life in the universe if not for Paths.”

“I don’t know about ‘the same.’” The Astromind directed a turning glance towards his colleague and friend. “But it is objectively true that Paths are what set us apart. The laminar integuments are clearly very intelligent, so even our intelligence doesn’t put us above them. It doesn’t appear that even esoteric matter puts us above them since they seem to have it to some extent as well.”

This made the Esoterist feel mixed. On the one hand, the more esoteric matter there was in the universe, the better it was for him. However, it also made him feel less special and unique.

However, what truly got to him was that Paths were considered to be the only advantage that humans had over aliens. He had thought he had finally subjugated the Martial Path with technology thanks to MECHAs, but Rui’s mass breakthroughs at the Sage Realm complicated his calculus. On top of that, Rui’s breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm made it so that people’s faith in paths had gained a renewed resurgence. That irked the Esoterist, even if there was nothing that he could do about it, unfortunately.

Having stood in Rui’s presence had reminded him of why Martial Transcendents were treated like gods. The sheer weight of his presence seemed to have warped the very fabric of reality itself into that of his vision of it. The Esoterist couldn’t help but feel like it was the most disrespectful action to the laws of physics to so blatantly violate them, but alas, there was nothing that he could do.

“I’m gonna have to find a solution to Transcendence,” he muttered with dissatisfaction.