The Martial Unity

Twenty missions.

Twenty Pioneers omni-ships.

Twenty destinations.

Humanity cheered as the Panamic Space Organization launched each of them one by one. And yet, while Gain Civilization cheered at their first steps across the Milky Way, the Chancellor of Gaia was consumed with more important matters.

“Deep. Study. Of. Gaia. Confirm. No. Threat.” The Tendril of Light conveyed to him with what appeared to be a sense of relief, as the color of its light grew lighter and brighter. “Peace. Finally. Confirmed.”

In the depths of outer space, Rui hovered in the emptiness of vacuum some distance away from the Tendril of Light. The background of the cosmos served as the backdrop to the negotiations with the Laminar Civilization, as the two leaders had scheduled another meeting after the Laminar research team on Gaia confirmed the absence of any threat from Gaia as an infected planet, thanks to Rui’s efforts.

“So… that means you are willing to sign a peace treaty with us?” Rui asked with a hopeful tone.

“Affirmative,” the laminar integument mused. “Peace. Treaty. Vital. For. Further. Cooperation.”

Rui heaved a sigh. The past month had been a little bit of a silent stand-off between the laminar integuments and Gaian Civilization. They had yet to formally agree to a peace agreement due to concerns that the Laminar Civilization had with the infected planet of Gaia. They couldn’t allow an infected planet to exist without confirming that it was no longer a threat. They would have to destroy it if they confirmed it was a threat.

The worst part was that Gaian Civilization was unwilling to depart from Gaia. If the Laminar Civilization decided to destroy Gaia anyway, war was inevitable, and Rui would likely get dragged into a long, destructive war with the Laminar Civilization, as peace would become more and more unachievable With this, however, they wouldn’t have to go down such a catastrophic route. They could pursue the path of peace and cooperation. They could trade goods and services with the laminar integument as they had agreed to. They could also conduct information exchanges. The laminars wanted all the information on human biology so that they could try to decipher the truth of Paths and get to the essence of it.

The humans, on the other hand, wanted intelligence on the cosmos, and Rui was finally eager to get his hands on it as soon as possible. Since they were expanding into outer space even as they negotiated. The sooner they could get their hands on the information on what threats awaited them. “Am. Aware. Of. Urgent. Need. For. Information,” the laminar integument smoke. “Will. Not. Delay. With. Information. Transfer.”

The laminar integument’s body began to shine as a beam of light emerged from within the depths of its translucent, colorful jellyfish-like body. The beam was composed of a thick stream of light signals, conveying a dense stream of information.

They entered Rui’s eyes in a single flash of light, allowing him to receive the information.

The information was more comprehensive than he had expected. On a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way, it displayed the information of the Laminar Civilization, as Rui had sought.

The scale of their civilization was massive, occupying a visible portion of the other end of the Milky Way galaxy, spread across a large number of star systems within a roughly circular sphere of influence around their original ancestral solar system, where their now-deserted home world was. Despite becoming an interstellar nomadic species, they still chose to remain close to home, out of sentiment and longing for their long-destroyed home world. Their civilization was composed of world ships just like the one in the distance behind the Tendril of Light, each the size of a planet. Each was led by a commander who collectively served as the Laminar Council that had absolute authority over their civilization. If the council had decided to wage war with Gaian Civilization in order to destroy their home world, then even if the Tendril of Light wanted to make peace, he would have no choice but to commence an attack.

What shocked Rui to his core was just how many such world ships they had. They had nearly a million world ships

If he assumed that each of them was as strong as the one the Tendril of Light led, then it meant that the Laminar Civilization was nearly a million times more powerful than Gaian Civilization, given that just one world ship had been enough to equalize the sum totality of the military force that Gaia was mustering.

Of course, this didn’t include Rui’s power as a Martial Transcendent. He wasn’t able to say if he could singlehandedly take on an entire civilization that was closer to being a Type-Three Civilization than they were a Type-Two. If it were possible, he would have to push himself to the very limit to just barely be able to protect the planet of Gaia from destruction.

And even then, he didn’t think one person could take on an entire civilization of such a titanically vast magnitude.

Perhaps the Laminar Civilization had sensed this, given how overwhelmingly dominant his decimation of the invading nebulars was. Perhaps that was why they were so sincere in their approach to Gaia. They did not adopt a condescending position as they could have. As a leader himself, Rui knew how the Kandrian Empire would act if they came across a very tiny and much more primitive tribal society, for instance.

He didn’t even have to imagine it; he had already seen examples of it with the G’ak’arkan Tribe in Vilun Island, many years ago, when he was just a Martial Squire. The Kandrian Empire sent low-level diplomats to communicate with such a civilization; Emperor Rael would have never bothered communicating directly with them.

And yet, in this case, the Tendril of Light itself came to meet with Rui each time. That was a conveyance of its respect for him, which he could simply read in its mind. He continued processing the information that the laminar integument transmitted to him eagerly as he moved on from the laminar civilization to what he truly wanted.

Other threats in the Milky Way Galaxy.

The laminar civilization’s awareness of the Milky Way was not as comprehensive as he would have liked. Ultimately, they were not a Type-Three civilization that had completely explored the entirety of the Milky Way, either.