The Martial Unity

”Coming back to the point,” Minister Ru continued with a serious tone of voice. ”The integrated interstellar surveillance system has fully come into effect. We have observed a significant rise in our ability to monitor threats within human civilization. Over the past few months, the Gaian Intelligence Organization has created a robust intel-sharing platform that allows all of us to pool all of the intel we have on external threats, particularly those of a wormhole or superluminal entry into human civilization, allowing us to be able to better detect the inception of any kind of attack into human civilization. We expect that this will significantly raise the odds of our ability to resist an attack. This was, of course…”

She turned back towards the Esoterist with a glint of displeasure. ”…spurred on by a certain someone’s reckless use of superluminal superweapons within human civilization, unidentified.”

She was, of course, referring to his attack on an infected world that cleansed it off the virus, Planet X-167, which had occurred after Ria supplied him with the information of its state as an infected world.

This had occurred at a time when human civilization was extremely sensitive about the possibility of an invasion from a much more powerful and advanced civilization. It had ultimately led to the recognition of the need to have better detection systems across human civilization coordinated by all great powers.

This had not occurred before due to the libertarian nature of the Era of Expansion that led to the spur of humanity expanding as fast as it did. However, in the face of a powerful external threat, no major power complained about the heavy-handed approach to surveillance.

”The purpose of this meeting is to propose additional measures to clamp down on potential civilizational security threats.” Minister Ru continued with a calm but serious voice. ”In particular, the Security Council’s Commission for Civilizational Security has recently published a report on a rising threat to humanity that could potentially undermine our civilization to alien threats from within our civilization.”

Her golden eyes sharpened.

”The Underworld.”

In the Era of Expansion, the Underworld had resurged with a vengeance. The architecture of outer space and the cosmos was such that it became fertile soil to foster the growing threat of the black market. The simple fact of the matter was that space was extremely vast. The distance between stars was truly astronomical. On top of that, the natural speed limit of the dissemination of information was very slow compared to the size of the cosmos.

Light took years to travel between stars. That meant that even if someone was detectable, they could relax, for it would be a while before the light carrying information on their presence would reach any kind of observer.

These two factors created a truly extraordinary breeding ground for piracy and other dark activities to grow and grow. Any and all goods and services that were illegal in most jurisdictions could be funneled through the black market and be reliably distributed across humanity, including, of course, illegal narcotics, illegal human-related goods and services of the unsavory sort.

They were difficult to track, they were difficult to stop, and they were difficult to control. Prior to the Era of Expansion, the Underworld had been heavily neutered because of a highly dense world with surveillance technology scraping every single nanometer of Gaia.

The Void Order regime that the Emperor of Water had put in place had utterly eradicated the Underworld within the Panama Continent.

The age of stars had led to a renaissance.

”The Underworld is a domestic threat to civilizational stability and state consolidation.”

Everybody in the meeting had shifted towards the projection of the transparent, almost ethereal individual who spoke. A young man who wore military attire with the crest of the Evolutionary Army embroidered on the chest area of the fabric.

Supreme Commander Aethna, a man said to be the true heir of former Supreme Commander Anthea.

”And while it is a significant domestic threat, it is not a foreign threat,” he continued with a calm, composed tone, leaning forward on the table as if he belonged there. ”I don’t believe that it should be made a priority at the moment. Not to mention, the integrated intelligence system should help with quelling them.”

As the leader of one of the most powerful polities in human civilization, he had naturally been invited to the meeting, even if his relationship with some of the other members, mostly leaders of surrounding colonial states, was not good, to say the least.

Previously, one of his few political allies had been the Blood Lord and the Blood Cult.

Who was dead, of course, losing him some political support within human civilization. It forced the supreme commander to change his posture a little. Especially when it became clear that the Gaian Alliance had the power to enforce its laws despite its liberal leanings.

For now, it wasn’t wise to aggressively push towards achieving his goal. If the past few months had shown anything, it was that he had underestimated how difficult his goal was. And he had underestimated the Era of Expansion.

He had underestimated Rui Quarrier.

He had assumed that the Emperor of Water had tied his own hands behind his back by choosing to establish an era of true liberty in the stars while constraining his own power with institutions and checks and balances.

But he had been wrong.

As the matter with the Blood Cult had proven, the institutions didn’t restrict the Emperor of Water at all.

They served him from the very start.

The expedited trial, the swift judgment, and the even swifter delivery of that judgment led to the complete dismantling of the Blood Cult within the span of just a week. If Aethna didn’t want that to happen, he would need to play along.

’At the end of the day, it boils down to my own power.’

If he wanted to challenge Rui Quarrier a third time, he would need to become a Transcendent at the bare minimum. He would need to reach a Realm of power that no evolutionary before him had ever touched.