The Martial Unity

A week wasn’t very long, but there was no telling what the arakai would do in that time. Their goal was to convert Arima III into a bridgehead that could open a sustained portal between human civilization and Arakai Web Civilization to wage an industrially sustained invasion into human civilization. Even though the Web of War was quite vast and remarkably self-sufficient despite its size, an invasion connected to their civilization was one that couldn’t be stopped.

”Their goal is to capture the two red dwarf stars present in our star system and siphon energy from them to sustain their invasion,” Rui remarked, pointing to the two red dwarf stars on a three-dimensional hologram of the Arima III and the surrounding star systems. ”Once they do that, they will expand to other star systems at an unstoppable rate. What we need to do to is prevent them from being able to open that portal. That is the core of what our short-term goals must be. Destroying them immediately is likely out of the question. Which means that we must prevent them from consolidating their grip on our star system. We cannot allow them to build their bridgehead.”

Rui knew what the arakai were after thanks to the memories from o-o-o-o. He was aware of their invasion modus operandi. He knew that if he allowed them to succeed, it was not entirely certain whether even his direct intervention would be enough to stop the unstoppable tsunami that would ensue.

”Then we must throw every single pathwalker needed at any attempt at destroying our Dyson swarms,” Edward remarked with a knowing tone of voice. ”If we allow them to control our stars. Then they will have succeeded. For now, until my long-term reforms are fully implemented, we must focus entirely on control denial operations, rather than assault operations.”

”That would mean that we would frequently need to open a wormhole to Arima III each time they attempt to take over our stars,” one analyst noted. ”But we can’t open our wormholes into that star system if their interdiction force is repaired. We already know that that giant mothership at the center of the Web of War possesses formidable ship construction and repair capabilities.”

”The arakai are especially good at repairing their webships,” Rui’s tone serious. ”The ships are literally held together by webs which they are able to produce at high volumes, both organically and industrially.”

”Do you have a timeline on when their interdiction force will be completely repaired, Your Majesty?” One strategist asked.

Rui closed his eyes, activating the Eye of Prophecy.

Visions of the future flashed across his mind for hours, days, and even weeks. He saw flashes of their interdiction force rapidly being restored to its peak health at a scary rate.

”…Around a month. That’s all they need in order to repair their interdiction force despite all the damage that we have inflicted upon it,” Rui remarked with a serious expression, opening his eyes.

None of the others were happy to hear that, of course. They had sacrificed a lot of warships, soldiers, and even pathwalkers to inflict as much damage as they possibly could, and it had only bought them a month. The sheer rate at which the arakai would weave its damage Web of War back together was alarming.

At the present, their interdiction operations were halted, leaving them vulnerable to a wormhole ambush. The Web of War had thus predictably contracted and tightened and huddled up in a dense, almost singular formation that left almost no opening for a devastating superweapon siege that would have been able to target their vulnerabilities.

The webships compressed against each other as webs held them together, causing the web to become one singular strange ball of webships while the interdiction force was being repaired.

”It is highly unlikely they will do anything else before they fix their interdiction force,” Rui concluded. ”They razed those planets because it was low-effort and didn’t require them to be particularly vulnerable. But if they want to establish a bridgehead in this star system, then they cannot do that if they’re huddled up together like that, afraid of a wormhole ambush.”

That meant that they had a month before the arakai made a serious bid to capture the star system.

”And this time, they will not be caught off-guard by tactical ambushes like Operation Lightfury,” Edward remarked. ”They will be prepared for any and everything. If we want to stop them, we will have to wage a destructive war against them. One month is not enough to create enough dwarven fleet carriers to carry all of our pathwalkers. One month is not enough to research new forms of weapons systems that can affect our opponents. One month is not enough to mine all those esoteric resources from the three infected worlds discovered recently.”

”…It can be, if we use the manifold,” Rui remarked with a serious expression. ”It’s our only chance. My idea of implementing the manifold in space and having it serve all of our combined efforts instead of just the Kandrian Empire’s may allow us to make enough gains just in time.”

The others in the room couldn’t help but regard the Emperor of Water with surprise. That move would mean that the Kandrian Empire would benefit less from the manifold, while the other forces would be able to take ample advantage of it. It was a considerably selfless action.

”The Kandrian Empire would lose more if we fail to prevent Arima III from becoming a bridgehead,” Rui clarified. ”Thus, it is better if dwarven ship production occurs within a space manifold. Given how large this Greater Manifold is, we can accommodate both ship production and weapons systems R&D. Gather all of our best space research ships and space infrastructure in one place, and then have the manifold swallow them all up.”

This way, they would be able to develop the necessary dwarven carrier ships and the weapons systems needed to harm the arakai, perhaps just in time for the next big move from the aliens, even if they would be cutting it close.