The Martial Unity

”The First Battle of Arima III has concluded.”

Rui’s voice hung in the meeting room of Central Human Command. His tone revealed neither satisfaction nor disappointment, but merely acceptance. His ethereal eyes betrayed the deep thought that he was engrossed in, even as he leaned forward at the head of the table, his fingers interlaced with each other.

Although he had presented a powerful image of himself to the rest of human civilization, the people around him could see that he didn’t possess the absolute confidence in humanity’s odds of a smooth victory.

He lifted his attention, directing a sweeping gaze around the table. ”It is clear to me that this council is too detached from the war. From this point forth, I’m going to expand the Central Human Command to all astronaval leaders in the field, as well as our strongest pathwalkers. You experts will still have a place, but the input of those who are on the field and have experienced the war is just as important, if not more. We might have been able to avoid some of the blundering shortcomings that this battle revealed had we done that from the start.”

Whether it was the fragility of non-dwarven ships or the Martial Artists and their discomfort with propulsion systems, it was too untenable for the leaders of these blocs not to be part of the strategic process. That would increase the probability of leaks, but he didn’t think that the arakai would be able to get their hands on this information unless there were human traitors willing to sell human civilization out.

That was highly unlikely to be the case, of course. Everybody stood to lose everything if this war was lost. It was illogical for a human to side with aliens. The strategists, intelligence analysts, and other intellectuals accepted his decision with few misgivings. Much of their projections for how this battle was going to go were off the mark.

They had not predicted the devastating losses that would be suffered just trying to deploy the pathwalkers to the interdiction force. They had not predicted a lot of the dynamics that went on in the battlefield. That didn’t mean they were incompetent, by any means, but it did show that they lacked the necessary information. Which could be filled in by leaders on the ground, or rather, in space.

”That is prudent,” Transcendent Dwight voiced his approval of Rui’s suggestion. ”We mustn’t be disconnected from the reality of our troops while sitting in our ivory towers. That is a good way to alienate the brave forces fighting for the survival and future of human civilization.”

It didn’t take long for this order to be implemented and a new projection to be brought into the meeting room in short notice.

Grand Admiral Bornine of the First Armada emerged at the end of the table. The old man was clearly exhausted, but did not refuse the summons from Central Human Command. Along with him were several other projections, including Sentinel Prime and the Reverend of Reckoning, an elven leader, a MECHA Sage, along with field commanders from the Whale Clan of the Pasupati Clans and from Greater Tekvoria.

Each of them were exhausted, some were even wounded, undergoing immediate medical treatment even amidst the meeting.

”Welcome to the Central Human Command, soldiers of human civilization,” Rui beckoned them with a smile of genuine respect and admiration. ”You have fought hard. You fought well. You have fought for human civilization. For that, on behalf of everybody here, I offer my deepest gratitude. Your services will be rewarded, rest assured. Your fallen comrades will be remembered and honored. What you have done for humanity will be cherished. I give you my word as the Chancellor of Gaia.”

Grand Admiral’s expression softened a bit at those words. Like everybody in humanity, the man only knew the Emperor of Water as an almost mythical deity. His silence and obscurity during the Era of Expansion had only added to the elevation of his status as a de-facto god emperor.

The grand admiral had feared that the universal hero of human civilization would be a disappointment, character-wise, but he was relieved to see that the Emperor was a gracious man of class.

”I speak on behalf of my comrades, both alive and dead, that we are deeply appreciative of your recognition, Your Majesty.” The man stood up, bowing to one of two Transcendents in human civilization. ”We look forward to your commitments.”

”Rest assured, I have no intention of breaking my word. Our fallen soldiers—your fallen comrades—will receive the highest honors,” Rui reassured him. ”I apologize for inviting you here on such short notice. I would much rather have done this after you have healed and rested, but unfortunately human civilization does not have the luxury of time. Inviting you to this council is recognition of your value to our civilization as a leader of the first battle human civilization has faced as a collective in the Era of Expansion. We have many thoughts on what has unfolded. But we would like to hear yours—” Rui looked around at the others. ”—all of your thoughts in regards to what has unfolded and what can be done to improve the circumstances of reality of space war. Your inputs will affect successive operations, which may be conducted as soon as today or tomorrow.”

Grand Admiral Bornine frowned as he thought about the Emperor’s words. He had so many thoughts and emotions that it was hard to sort them all out, but there were several pillars of truths that he felt in his bones during the battle.

”Frankly, the one thing that I am deeply certain about is that warships that cannot withstand even a single attack from our enemy are simply worthless,” he boldly declared. ”Aside from dwarven-crafted vessels, I regard the rest of our warships as junk.”

His words were bold. Calling human civilization’s first-class elite warships junk was certainly a decision. But it could not be refuted upon the shocking destruction that had been wreaked upon the First Armada.

”I propose that, for the foreseeable future, we limit all of our operations to dwarven ships,” the man proposed. ”And we spend all of our ship construction capabilities on having the dwarves re-craft the remaining non-dwarven ships. Until the dwarves have renovated our astronavy, those ships are worthless and simply spoils of war for our enemy.”