The Martial Unity

RUMBLE!!!!!

Even as Garg was assaulted with attacks that heated it from afar and up close, a single thought reverberated through the conscious planet’s mind.

Untenable.

The conscious planet had known for a while now. It had been known for a while now that its current position was untenable. But what could it do? It was not in the nature of a planet to be free and mobile, not even a conscious planet. By its very nature, it was an anchored being.

Must Relocate.

Its thoughts existed in the integrated information that existed between it and the rest of the body, interacting through electromagnetic fields. Its consciousness was fundamentally different from the consciousness derived from bioelectricity or bioluminescence that was often found in complex chemistry.

It also had a profound impact on the nature of its psychology. Garg had arrived at Sirius several years ago from the Mariv Star Strand that existed parallel to the Orion Star Strand that it was in. It had arrived for one and only one reason.

To spread the Gargantian Hive across the Orion Star Strand through its planetary reproduction process. The Gargantian Hive had only a few million individuals in its entire civilization, although each individual was a conscious planet with tremendous individual power. And because each individual was separated by light-years from its siblings across different star systems, it had the lowest level of inter-species cooperation. This meant that each individual conscious planet could only rely on itself to protect itself in most cases, even if it could maintain communication and contact with its other peers. The biggest problem that gargantians faced was exactly the problem that it was currently facing. When it was discovered by more advanced alien civilizations. Especially Type-Two Civilizations. Especially since Type-Two Civilizations possessed the necessary military might to fight a gargantian head-on and, in some cases, even emerge victorious. Garg had been preparing for an assault for months, from the very moment the annoying pests had entered the star system it had claimed for an abode. It was a well-known pattern among gargantians, and they had learned to look out for the signs. Garg had been preparing for an assault for months, from the very moment the annoying pests had entered the star system it had claimed for an abode. It was a well-known pattern among gargantians, and they had learned to look out for the signs. A space-faring civilization would find them and would grow attracted by their exotic composition. It would clamor for its resources, but would quickly realize that the conscious planet was truly powerful and could not be confronted very easily.

In most cases, they could be driven away with just a little display of power. But in some cases, they weren’t deterred and would bring with them an army that would focus on destroying or subjugating the entire planet.

Garg knew that the battle was only a matter of time.

What it didn’t know was just how powerful its enemies were this time. And, it certainly had been hard.

“HEAT THE PLANET! ATTACK!”

VMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

A vast array of expanding laser beams scorched the entirety of the surface of the planet. The Gaian Space Force, spread across a concentric ring revolving around the planet, had begun using lasers not to destroy or even damage the planet, but to overheat it and ensure that it couldn’t deploy its counter-offensive and retaliatory power.

The pathwalkers strewn across its surface also contributed to a tremendous amount of heating. And it was working.

08:35

RUMBLE!!!!!

The hotter it grew, the less it could retaliate without overheating and destroying its own delicate consciousness. The less it could retaliate, the less it could stop them, causing the heating process to accelerate.

It was a brilliant plan that swiftly targeted the fundamental weakness of the conscious planet and systematically used it to incapacitate the conscious planet. Garg had fought many battles in the past where its enemies tried to destroy it with extremely powerful, destructive beams, but never before had an enemy so quickly identified that overheating was a much bigger problem for the planet than material damage.

Most of the mass of the body of the planet, unlike the organic matter of organic living beings, wasn’t vital for its metabolism, simply serving as armor.

But if it overheated, then there was very little that it could do to fight back. Rasmarck had correctly identified this weakness, creating a perfect plan to incapacitate and capture the planet.

And yet, he had underestimated the planet.

RUMBLE!!!

“WATCH OUT!” Sage Kyria of the Nest of Terra bellowed to all the pathwalkers she could communicate with. “Something is coming! The planet…! Garg is doing something!”

The Nest of Terra had been assigned to one and only one role once they touched ground on the planet. And that was planetary reconnaissance. Although they certainly could have helped with the destruction, that was already being sufficiently addressed by the war fleet and the other pathwalkers and Martial Artists. They could make much more valuable contributions to the war by monitoring what the planet was doing with their cutting-edge earth-bending and the Scriptures of Terra.

And what they saw was truly terrifying.

The crust itself began moving. The bedrock… seemed to come alive.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook as the very land beneath their feet came to life, fragmenting and reshaping into separate rock-like units beneath their feet.

RUMBLE!!!!!

They began taking the crude shape of a humanoid.

A golem.

The pathwalkers of Gaia watched as the very world around them began to shift, as the ground fragmented into living blocks of rock that took a humanoid shape.

Then, they attacked.

The golemized bedrock exploded upon the pathwalkers in a rampage unlike anything they had expected to run into.

None of them had expected that the planet could manipulate its crust to such an extraordinary extent.

What followed was perhaps the most chaotic battle, unlike anything the Martial Sages before them had ever expected to experience in their entire life.

RUMBLE!!!!!

“Watch out!”

“They’re too many…!”

“Rgh!”

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

The world shook violently as pathwalkers clashed with golems that erupted upon them from literally every direction, leading to an onslaught of collisions as the golemized crust of the planet threatened to overwhelm all of them.