The Martial Unity

The news of impending war was one that had begun to spread across human civilization, not by rumors, either, but rather through direct communications from the Kandrian Empire through secret missives to all states across human civilization.

All of them had received a message directly from the Emperor of Water.

[War is now inevitable, prepare for the worst.]

It put every single leader in human civilization on edge. Up until then, war had just been a possibility. One that they had worked very hard to avoid. Yet, the Emperor’s missive showed that their efforts had likely failed.

The arakai had learned of their existence.

Shortly after the Kandrian Empire sent a missive to each and every single head of state, the Security Council of the Gaian Alliance also moved. The Kandrian Empire motioned to invoke the Emergency Central Command Act. A piece of legislation passed by the General Assembly that, if voted upon, could establish a Central Human Command body that would have the authority to order all forces under the command of the Gaian Alliance upon the invocation of Article Two of the Gaian Alliance Charter, which was an article that granted the Gaian Alliance the right to conscript human forces for the sake of war.

”And make no mistake, my fellow delegates of the Security Council!” Delegate Marlin Vin Kandria spoke with an intense tone of voice, standing at a speaker’s stand upon an elevated podium. ”War is truly inevitable. I have painstakingly proven, with information from the Emperor of Water himself, that the arakai are now aware of the existence of our civilization, and in fact, have hostile intentions towards us!”

The air was chill, both literally and metaphorically. The delegates of the Security Council seated across the semicircular seating arrangement facing the podium did an excellent job hiding their true emotions, but inwardly, they all felt the grim severity of the situation.

Indeed, the confidential information provided by the delegate of the Kandrian Empire, a man who was part of the extended Kandrian Royal Family, a brother of the Emperor of Water, had presented information procured by none other than the Emperor of Water himself.

In other words, the information was virtually irrefutable.

”We must establish a Central Human Command to take over the command of human civilization. And thus, we shall put it to a vote,” Delegate Marlin spoke with a serious tone of voice. ”All in favor of the invocation of the Emergency Central Command Act?”

Every single arm went up in the Council Hall. Not a single delegate wanted to have their nation be seen as uncooperative or antagonistic to the Emperor of Water. The Emergency Central Command Act was unpleasant, because it forced nations, organizations, and polities to essentially surrender control of large portions of their military power to the Gaian Alliance.

It was one of the few overbearing aspects of the Gaian Alliance that only applied in times of great threat to human civilization.

”Then, the Emergency Central Command Act is hereby invoked, and this council shall immediately move to establish the creation of a Central Human Command which shall be entrusted with the direct command over the forces of human civilization.”

”Will the Emperor of Water be leading human civilization himself.

One delegate in the crowd asked with a wary tone. Delegate Marlin turned towards her, noting an elf who represented the Florentia, an elven polity that occupied an entire planet that served as a massive trade hub.

Elven civilization had been most fragmented in the Era of Expansion. Genoran Elven Civilization hadn’t managed to expand in the same sense that the Kandrian Empire or the Evolutionary Army had managed to. The reason an unexpected interaction between elven sociology and the nature of an interstellar civilization.

Elven civilization was congruent to elven society. They didn’t think of their civilization as a formal political structure, but rather an emergent structure that was built on top of their rich, deeply knit society. And elven society, in turn, was a very direct and connected society.

Elves were connected to each other through nature, but nature was isolated across star systems. Although communication between star systems was certainly very much possible, the bandwidth was far lower compared to the bandwidth of directly interacting with each other physically and also through their local flora network.

This resulted in the development of entirely separate elven societies in each star system that the elves had expanded to, fragmenting elven civilization greatly. Out of all the delegates present, there were more elven delegates than any other civilization, even though none of the races had managed to drastically out-expand each other in the Era of Expansion.

”The Emperor of Water will lead the highest command of the Central Human Command as the Chancellor, but he will not be as involved with its every decision,” the delegate of the Kandrian Empire clarified. ”He is confronted with many highly important matters pertaining to the survival of our civilization that only he is equipped to handle; thus, he will be preoccupied.”

Everybody had already deduced that the Emperor of Water would be extremely busy handling the affairs of the Divine Mothers, since he was the only one who could. No other warrior in their civilization could tackle beings who could fight Martial Transcendents other than the Martial Transcendent of their civilization.

”Ah, but the Emperor of Water has instructed me to inform all of you that he will personally enforce the Second Article of the Gaian Charter with force should any state actor fail to cooperate,” Delegate Marlin added with a serious tone of voice. ”Dissent will not be tolerated, for our civilization has entered a state where internal friction simply cannot be afforded. The fate of our entire civilization is at stake. We expect all parties to treat it as such.”

Those words made everybody stiffen. The mention of the Emperor of Water directly enforcing the Gaian Charter that gave it the mandate to conscript the forces of human civilization crushed any thought of resisting the process. Nobody wanted to incur the wrath of the Emperor of Water.