The Martial Unity

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”The. Divine. Twins. Are. Keeping. Sentinel. Prime. At. Bay.”

”Interceptor. Fleets. And. Ascended. Arakai. Are. Engaging. Sentinel. Infantry.”

”Interdiction. Force. Damage. Rate. Has. Reached. Zero.”

A wave of relief washed over the Web Bringer. The pathwalker problem was temporarily held off by the preparations that had been made specifically to deal with them. The arakai had known well before entering the war that they would be at a disadvantage when it came to both quantity and quality of combatant units.

If they truly had to match humanity on this front, then they would have to mobilize each and every single combatant across their vast civilization in order to match their opponents pathwalker for pathwalker. That was simply untenable, especially since the arakai were already fighting destructive wars on two other ends with much more formidable civilizations where those units were sorely needed.

—o-o—o knew that the success of this operation would depend on how well they would be able to keep their pathwalkers away from the interdiction force. They needed to do everything in their power to damage human ships before they reached the hundred-kilometer mark.

The hundred-kilometer mark around the Web of War had thus become a critical boundary for both sides.

For the humans, the hundred-kilometer mark became the boundary that they needed to cross before they could deploy their pathwalkers.

For the arakai, the mark was the distance at which they needed to keep human vessels away at all costs. If they failed to do that, then the humans would be able to safely deploy pathwalkers that would rather easily be able to reach the interdiction force and inflict great damage to it.

At less than a hundred kilometers. The massive webnoughts and battle webships would not be able to unleash their firepower without striking their own forces. These massive vessels possessed long-range weapon systems with barrels that were many kilometers in length.

The precision of this power was much lower as a consequence. They would destroy their own ablative breachers and interdiction force if they tried blasting down pathwalker fleets before they got to their opponents.

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”We. Must. Do. Everything. In. Our. Power. To. Stop. The. Remaining. Armadas. From. Crossing. This. Boundary!” Divine Mother —o-o—o declared with an imperious tone, sharpening her six arachnid eyes. ”Unleash. The. Full. Might. Of. Our. War. Of. Web. On. Our. Foes!”

Of course, the Web of War was a massive web of war fleets that stretched an enormous amount of distance, meant to be able to take on all of humanity with its net war potential. The way they were bundled upon passage of the Gate of Conquest also meant that it was impossible for all of them to immediately start firing off their long-range weapons systems.

That was partially why the CHC had chosen to attack the Web of War with ten armadas right off the bat. They needed to make use of the opportunities created by Operation Lightfury in order to inflict as much damage on the interdiction force before the War of Webs could gain its bearings in this new star system and secure the interdiction force behind new protection.

The command issued by the Divine Mother spread through the Web of War rapidly as the webnoughts and the battle webships quickly followed through, maximizing their offensive assault on the remaining armadas of the human force, trying to destroy them before they could get as close as possible.

The massive guns and barrels of the webships slowly turned in the direction of the remaining armadas of human civilization before unleashing a devastating onslaught of destruction.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The Web of War prioritized the destruction of the remaining armadas before they had an opportunity to cross the hundred-kilometer line. Titanic gravitational pulse blasts, along with exploding ordnance, ravaged the human forces with an output that beggared imagination. The destruction that the webships were capable of exceeded that of the human forces, barring the dwarven weapons systems, by significant degrees.

”The Elvenger XII has been destroyed!”

”The Tenth Sol Carrier Fleet of the Eighth Armada had suffered great Damage!”

”Hull integrity of dwarven hulls has been reduced by forty percent!”

The human forces came under horrendous firepower. Even the vaunted Hephaestus’s Shield battle formation proved to be only a temporary measure when it came to withstanding the remaining destructive power of the enemy forces.

The dwarven warships, however powerful, could only withstand enemy assault for so long. At this rate, the destruction unleashed upon them by the arakai would not only destroy all of them, but would prevent them from ever crossing the hundred-kilometer mark.

”Sir, at this rate… the entire fleet of armadas will be destroyed.”

Grand Admiral Bornine of the First Armada stood, wearing a grim expression. He stood at the edge of his command platform, his hands gripping the railing tightly.

RUMBLE

The ship had been shaking nonstop from the destructive onslaught of enemy fire. The air aboard the command room was heavy. Everybody could sense the impending doom that was about to strike the fleet of armadas.

They had known, of course, that just ten armadas wasn’t enough to take on the War of Webs. The Strategic World Bridge Force had many more, but only ten could be deployed immediately, buying time for the rest to mobilize and prepare for much more serious ventures.

Still, the sheer size of the armadas and the extraordinary personnel that they harbored gave them hope that they would be able to land a devastating blow on the invading Web of War in one blow without suffering great losses themselves.

However, at this rate, they would face complete destruction while the core of the Web of War would remain almost entirely intact.

Grand Admiral Bornine inhaled deeply, sharpening his resolve.

”There is only one thing left to do. The dwarven ships won’t last much longer, and when they fall, we will be annihilated swiftly. We must be proactive and take the fight to them. We must use all other ships to guard the pathwalker carrier fleets and escort them past the hundred-kilometer mark.”