The Martial Unity

His words shocked the crew in his command room. The Deputy Admiral turned towards the man with a stunned expression. ”But sir… that will mean the destruction of most non-pathwalker carrier vessels.”

The grand admiral knew that, of course. But he remained resolute.

”It is a necessary sacrifice. The other admirals and captains will understand. This must be done for the sake of winning this war. For the sake of the future of all of humanity.”

This was the resolve that members of the Space Force needed to have in order to become military leaders of some of the most destructive forces of human civilization. It was a resolve that was no less intense than the resolve that Martial Artists and other pathwalkers needed to take in order to walk their paths.

It was perhaps even more intense, for their bodies weren’t able to withstand the power to shatter lands. The moment the hull was breached, their lives were almost certainly forfeit.

All of them understood how important this battle would be. The reconnaissance and surveillance vessels within their armadas had detected fleets worth of shipyards within the web. Meaning that the damaged interdiction force could be restored. Once it was restored, the entire star system would fall under arakai control, and it would become a bridgehead for the rest of Arakaian Web Civilization, allowing their force to become industrially sustained, making it virtually invincible.

The future of human civilization rested on this battle.

Just as Grand Admiral Bornine predicted, none of his fellow admirals or the captains under them objected to his order. At present, all the other armadas had essentially huddled up together under one large screen of dwarven ships that tanked most of the damage.

The remaining battleships and battlecruisers couldn’t really do much while they were hiding. The surviving breachhead had already reformed, blocking most of their onslaught. And the attacks that did make it through, striking the webnoughts and webships, were rendered useless by the antithetical defensive systems of the arakai. They had already discovered the uselessness of their offensive weapons systems against the Web of War.

In other words, they were useless, simply hiding behind dwarven ships, accomplishing nothing. If that was the case, then it was worth it for them to use their own bodies to escort pathwalker carrier fleets past the hundred-kilometer mark.

And thus, the perilous escort operation rapidly began.

From the Second Armada to the Tenth, they instructed their fleets to push forward no matter the costs. The dwarven ships, already pushed to their limit, parted as the escort force physically protected the ships containing their pathwalkers.

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

The ensuing destruction was horrible to behold. Grand Admiral Bornine watched with gritted teeth as ships containing long-time friends and comrades erupted in catastrophic explosions. Massive, domineering warships were utterly destroyed by the calamitous power the webnoughts and battle webships unleashed upon the human forces.

It wasn’t just the loss of lives that was so painful, but the loss of countless priceless warships that had long become the premier means of war for an advanced interstellar civilization. They were made from some of the finest esoteric substances, but the same could be said for their opponents, perhaps to an even greater extent considering their sustained relationship with the cosmic virus.

And yet, the sacrifices that the crews undertook proved to yield fruit.

The pathwalker carrier fleet was placed behind all of the other warships, creating a wall of ships that protected the pathwalkers even at the cost of themselves. A large portion of the ships had suffered excruciating losses by the time they reached the hundred-kilometer line.

But they reached it nonetheless.

”UNLEASH OUR WARRIORS!” Grand Admiral Bornine bellowed with a guttural voice. ”MAKE THEM PAY FOR SPILLING HUMAN BLOOD!”

The pathwalker fleets of the remaining armadas, unscratched by arakai sieges, opened their hatches, launching their warriors without any further delays.

”I will quell the chaos of this battlefield with the power of Order.” Sage Jinryong Namgung shot forth, leading hundreds of Martial Sages that shot towards the interdiction at blindingly high speeds. Their exo-Martial suits were equipped with thrusters that propelled them forth at extraordinary speeds.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

With a single attack, he managed to crack the starboard of the capital interdiction vessel. The cracks spread across the structure of the vessel as a flood of air emerged from within the vessel.

FSSSSSS!

”The opening of your order is in the palm of my hands.”

He placed his hand on the side of the ship before pushing forth with power generated from the core of his body.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The ship exploded, completely ravaging the palm of the Reverend of Reckoning. The Transcendent Candidate had refined his mastery over order by a decent degree in the thirteen years of the Era of Expansion, drawing closer and closer to the Transcendent Realm.

His enthusiasm and ferocity for the higher Realm of power had only grown, unlike the Boundless Light. The confidence in his eyes was visible, driving him forth to push himself further and further.

”For Gaia! For humanity! For the Namgung Clan!”

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!!!

The Martial Sages behind him began to wreak havoc across the already damaged interdiction force, allowing them to weather the defenses of the many sub-capital interdiction vessels.

They alone would not have been able to inflict meaningful damage to the vast interdiction force, but they weren’t alone.

The remaining armadas, from the third armada to the tenth, also crossed the hundred-kilometer mark at great cost, unleashing waves and waves of pathwalkers to bathe the interdiction force in.

Martial Artists led by Martial Sages and Martial Transcendents, a large fleet of elves and their biological superweapons, therianthropes and their ferocious beasts, and even evolutionaries.

The swarm of pathwalkers rushed towards the interdiction force, all but itching to unleash hell upon their enemies.

”For human civilization!”

BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM!!!

The battle entered its final phase as the ten armadas were reduced to a fraction of their volume.