The Martial Unity

As Operation Lightfury prepared rapidly, the rest of human civilization did not sit still. The changes brought by war were manyfold, but none were more noticeable than the mobilization of warships across humanity. Countless states, organizations, and polities mobilized a portion of their astronavy and war potential.

Massive carriers with hundreds of fighter crafts, bombers, and interceptors exited orbital space docks before entering superluminal travel in the direction of the heart of human civilization. Fleets of cruisers, battlecruisers, and even battleships were mobilized, all sent towards one destination.

The Solar System of human civilization. This was the first time in the history of the Era of Expansion that the Naval Centralization Draft Protocol had been invoked. It was the draft that entailed all human states and military organizations giving up a predecided portion of their astronavy to the Gaian Space Force headquartered in the Solar System.

The idea was to use the World Bridge Gate that had been created many years ago by the Panamic Space Organization, and had since been upgraded as the launchpad for wormhole deployments into any part of human civilization. The advantages of this strategy compared to normal deployment were obvious. A wormhole meant deployment to battlefields immediately. It would allow human civilization to fight with much greater speed than would otherwise be possible.

They wouldn’t have to wait days for reinforcement fleets to reach a given battlefield; they would be able to reach their destination much quicker than would be otherwise possible. This was the ’standard’ response that human civilization had prepared for the impending invasion that was done out in the open, unlike the highly secretive Operation Lightfury.

”The. Humans. Are. Mobilizing. Efficiently,” an arakai aboard a stealth webship muttered. ”We. Must. Report. Back. To. The. Divine. Mothers. That. They. Intend. To. Deploy. Large. Fleets. Of. Their. Warships. Through. Wormholes. The. Moment. We. Invade.”

The arakai webship floated about silently and inactively in the Arima III System of human civilization. It was woven from the webs of none other than a Divine Mother who specialized in the webs of stealth, armed with esoteric matter that was highly conducive to its purpose.

None of the system-wide sensors, scanners, and the rest of the surveillance apparatus of the human forces at the edge of human civilization were equipped with the means to detect the highly advanced stealth craft. The craft was so dedicated to stealth that an overwhelming majority of its active systems shut down the moment it entered human space. It could only survey and report back through the quantum web communication network of the arakai.

It could not even physically return to arakai space, it would be collected once the invasion into the Arima III was completed. These were the special wartime stealth crafts that had been developed for the sole purpose of securely gathering wartime intelligence against an enemy that knew they were coming.

The stealth craft continued to monitor one particular planet it was assigned to; Planet Sarantel, which belonged to the Jarkathar Federation. In particular, it monitored civilian awareness and preparation, paying attention to the benign chatter from civilians all the way from space with its high surveillance technology.

”First, the curfews and alcohol restrictions, and now a constant stream of active warships and fleets? This must be the end days.” One man muttered, chugging a carbonated drink despite being seated at a bar. ”I keep getting this uneasy sense of doom. Like, like we’re all going to—”

”Don’t.” His friend beside him warned. ”Don’t even say that. I don’t want you to jinx us.”

”Hah, if I’m right, then we’re doomed regardless of superstition. Might as well go down drinking!”

Bars and pubs in the Jarkathar Federation remained active despite the curfew, the alcohol restrictions were bad for business, but interstellar law was the law. The Gaian Alliance had dispelled any myths about its ability to enforce its laws with the recent destruction of the Blood Cult.

The air among people was tense. A faint angst hung in the air in City Stormfront, the most populated city on Planet Sarantel. Everybody knew something was going on, but very few of them understood what exactly.

Many of them guessed correctly, of course.

”It’s war, you fools!” A female therianthrope laughed as she chugged homebrewed alcohol traditional to Pasupati Tribes of Kiriket.

The sale of alcohol was restricted, but its self-production and consumption was not.

”We’re all going to war!” She chanted, half drunk, causing her tongue to slip the open secret.

”War with whom?”

”That should be obvious. Do you guys have memories of goldfish? Do you remember what happened four months ago?”

For a civilization that was plugged into the interweb very thoroughly, four months may as well have been four years.

”Ohhh!” One man realized with recollection. ”You mean… those alien spider humans! What were they called… oh right, the homoarachnoids! I thought we got over that. They’re back again?!”

”They never left, and they probably figured out that we screwed with them. All those warships… they’re being mobilized for a reason.”

”Wait, how the hell do you know all of this?”

”That’s because, unlike you losers, my party has been contracted by the Gaian Alliance for spacefighter operations.”

”Who are you calling a loser?! I could beat you up; Martial Artists are the strongest!”

”Oh yeah? Then bring it on!”

It wasn’t just warships, of course. Pathwalkers were conscripted as well, indirectly. The military and defense infantry assets of various colonial states and organizations were conscripted through the charter, but an individual themselves could not be directly conscripted.

The Gaian Alliance mobilized its massive treasury to offer generous remuneration to pathwalkers across all races to partake in the war. The stronger they were, the better. Now that war was inevitable, pathwalkers had gone from being a mere necessity to the difference between life and death.

Slowly but surely, human civilization prepared for the war that was just days away. This had been in the making for nearly four months when the arakai were first discovered and battled with, but the final thrust had arrived days before the impending invasion.