The Martial Unity

More than three months had passed in human civilization since the debacle with Planet Amadeus III. Much had changed in the span of three months. Perhaps the most shocking change to everybody in human civilization was the complete and total sanction of the Blood Cult.

The Interstellar Court of Justice had moved to an expedited trial with the help of the Sovereign Authority of the Chancellor of Gaia, and had swiftly buried the Blood Cult under a mountain of preliminary injunctions and sanctions that completely froze the organization from even moving, enforced with the full weight of human civilization.

Because it was an expedited trial, the litigation had been swift. The Blood Humanist Society had been called forth to provide evidence of High Treason, which the Blood Empress promptly did.

Further investigations revealed that the scheme wasn’t merely one that had involved a handful individuals, it had involved the entirety of the political leadership of the polity.

The decision came swiftly and overwhelmingly, just under three months after the trial had begun.

The Interstellar Court of Justice declared the Blood Cult guilty of the crime of High Treason and ordered the complete dismantling of the entire polity, with the complainant to be given control over the assets of the Blood Cult along with oversight from the Gaian Alliance.

Naturally, the Blood Cult didn’t accept the judgment.

It resisted,

But in the face of the might of human civilization compelled and moved by the institutions of the Interstellar Court of Justice, they didn’t stand a chance. The Gaian Alliance controlled all trade hub star systems, cutting off various branches of the Blood Cult from each other, preventing any kind of large-scale mass mobilization.

Within just a few months, every single planet and star system controlled by the Blood Cult was completely seized by the Gaian Alliance and the other forces that contributed to the effort, leading to the end of the Blood Cult.

It hadn’t been easy, of course. The Blood Cult thrashed and fought back with every ounce of resistance it could muster. It threatened mutually assured destruction.

And yet, even when it tried to live up to its threats, it simply… failed.

Portal malfunctioned, communication technology froze, their antimatter superweapons simply jammed, and everything seemed to grind to a halt. Every time an action they took failed, every step they took turned into a stumble, and every time they grit their teeth, they merely bit their tongue.

Almost as if a greater force was working to prevent them from being able to mount even a mildly resistive force.

It was the most overwhelming, and overwhelmingly smooth, sweep of a powerhouse that anybody had ever seen. So much so that not a single person could bring themselves to believe that this could have organically occurred.

”He is acting.”

In a military conference hall, Aethna sat at the head of a table, immersed in thought as he watched footage of the swift, one-sided domination in the conflict that had ensued.

He knew for a fact that the Blood Cult would not be able to defeat the Gaian Alliance in battle, but he also knew that it was strong enough to make the victory pyrrhic.

Yet, it was over within a week, and it had been smooth sailing from start to end. That meant that there was some other entity acting in the background to ensure that the enforcement went smoothly and that the integrity of the Gaian Alliance and the world order it created would be respected and adhered to.

An entity so powerful that it could manipulate a war without ever showing itself out in the open.

The dominance displayed by the forces of the Gaian Alliance and those helping it was so great that it sent a chilling effect across the human civilization.

This wasn’t the first time that the Gaian Alliance had sanctioned a polity or a person, but it was the first time this had happened to such a powerful entity and on such a large scale.

The fact that it could swiftly mete out the ruling of the Interstellar Court of Justice elevated the importance of interstellar law, liberal as it was. It sent a message that if they did mess up the few hard rules that the Gaian Alliance implemented on the human civilization, they would have to pay a heavy price.

Aethna knew that the message was directed towards him more than anybody else.

He had never gotten the opportunity to go to the Strehegeld Star System because the entire issue had reached its conclusion even before he had managed to go there, so much so that even he had to rely on third-party intelligence to learn what was happening.

But more than anything, he was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to tap into the esoteric resources that were present in the Strehegeld Star System. The Gaian Alliance had implemented a total and complete ban on all human travel or presence in the Strehegeld Star System, citing civilizational security as a reason.

In the past, he would have definitely considered violating the ban and going there anyway with a stealthy mining fleet to gather as many esoteric resources he possibly could. But this time, he decided not to. The Gaian Alliance had just gotten done making an example of everybody in human civilization.

If he chose to violate the law now and he got discovered, he would be giving the Gaian Alliance a reason to completely sanction the Evolutionary Army.

”I can’t allow that to happen.”

For now, human civilization was in a precarious spot, having run into a highly advanced civilization that spooked even the powerhouses of human civilization, and admittedly including Aethna himself, having received a report regarding the scale of the threat involved.

But it also offered him some opportunity, as long as he was wise enough to take it. He was definitely more prudent than Blood Lord Saron, who, in his vain arrogance, led him into a course of action that ultimately led to his death and the destruction of his organization.

”I have no intention of following in that fool’s footsteps.”