The Martial Unity

“Pioneer III, V, and XIII are in danger!”

“Preliminary analysis on the alien lifeforms facing Pioneer III complete; they appear to be organisms that have evolved for the vacuum of outer space! Their tentacles can grapple with the very fabric of space itself!”

“That’s impossible!”

“It’s true! Their combat prowess in space is extremely high due to that as well. While our Martial Sages are greatly diminished due to their lack of footing in outer space, these creatures are able to use that advantage to maneuver better. On top of that, they appear to be kinetically absorbative genetically. They most likely gather energy for their life processes by absorbing it from their environment or perhaps even from battle. That might explain their aggression!”

“More shockingly, the unknown giant planet that Pioneer V has run into displays science of actionable intelligence and consciousness. The Emperor of Water has shared his wisdom that Gaia is alive, and that planets could possess a different kind of consciousness from other lifeforms, and he was right!”

“Pioneer XIII has run into some sort of mechanical life! We must analyze and get access to more data!”

“This isn’t a science lesson! Provide an analysis on how the threats can be neutralized! With each moment wasted, the risks of the Pioneers falling are very high!”

“Ah, sorry, sir!”

The analysts immediately rushed to do their job after the director scolded them with a strong tone of voice. Director Brenner narrowed his eyes as he oversaw a chaotic analytics division’s rush to develop recommendations on the threats that several of the pioneers had run into in the surrounding star systems in the neighborhood of Sol.

He gritted his teeth as his expression grew more troubled. Although the Emperor of Water had insisted on more ambitious attempts to reach the stars, he was certain that these missions would be relatively safe. What could possibly harm them?

And yet, just a month prior to the missions, they had been invaded by two alien invasions. It had sent chills down the director’s spine as he realized that they weren’t alone in the universe. Life might even be much more ubiquitous than he could have ever imagined.

He only hoped that it wouldn’t affect the twenty pioneer missions that they had planned into the interstellar neighborhood of Sol. And yet, of the twenty, three of them had run into hostile alien presences.

The remaining seventeen hadn’t run into hostile presences yet, but they had managed to discover signs of alien life. Some had suspected signs of microbial life on terrestrial planets within the Goldilocks zone around their stars based on biosignatures such as oxygen and methane. Others had managed to detect actual alien life, such as the crystal strider, and some interesting microbial life.

There were even those who had managed to detect some relatively advanced and intelligent Type-One civilizations who had yet to truly set foot outside their planet. However, none of those made up for the sheer threat that three Pioneers had faced in outer space. If those missions ended in catastrophic failure, they would lose the lives of valuable, highly-trained crews and tremendous amounts of investment that had gone into creating them.

Worst of all, they could endanger their entire civilization.

“Sir!” His secretary urgently reached him. “You have an important call!”

“Not now!” he barked. “I must oversee—”

“It’s the Emperor of Water himself, sir! His Majesty wants to speak to you immediately!”

Director Brenner’s expression grew grim as he immediately rushed to his terminal, accepting the video call.

BZZZT

An image of Rui emerged before him.

Suddenly, the world around them seemed to wobble.

As if the very fabric of reality was like the surface of a lake of Water.

The iron-clad rules that governed reality itself seemed to become as adaptable as water in the presence of the Emperor.

It took Director Brenner a lot of effort, despite all of his training, to maintain his composure in the presence of a Martial Transcendent. He had been trained psychologically to be unfazed by even peak Martial Sages.

But a Martial Transcendent was nothing short of a god in his eyes.

The weight of the meeting bore down on him as it took him every ounce of willpower to maintain contact with the ethereal eyes of the Emperor of Water that glistened with solemn severity.

“Director Brenner,” Rui spoke with a powerful voice. “I have learned of everything that has happened.”

Even his voice seemed to flow through the very fabric of reality. The director had heard his actual voice ring in his ears, even without the electronic transmission. The background behind Rui was the cosmos itself.

He was floating in outer space, his pitch-black hair waving weightlessly, unburdened by gravity.

How on Earth was he communicating through the network without being at a secure terminal?

The director didn’t understand, but he paid attention to what Rui said nonetheless.

“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say,” Rui began with a serious tone of voice as he explained everything he had learned in his meeting with the Tendril of Light.

The director’s eyes widened with horror as he learned about BABEL.

About the Gargantian Hive.

About the Astralites.

Rui continued without stopping, sharing all the intelligence he had gathered. He even went as far as to accelerate the information dump into the man’s brain using nonverbal communication.

By the time Rui was done, the director was reeling, causing him to stagger.

“Do you understand?” Rui’s ethereal eyes glimmered. “We are dealing with forces that are many, many orders of magnitude more powerful than our civilization in their totality. You must send reinforcements to our Pioneers because they will need them. They cannot emerge victorious with the Martial forces that are present aboard the ships.”

Director Brenner gritted his teeth. “But sir… the energy needed to open a wormhole for such a great distance… it took us six years of saving a large chunk of our annual energy generation to have enough energy to open a wormhole to such a distant location for twenty missions.”

Rui’s ethereal eyes sharpened at those words.

“You don’t need energy.”

His tone grew more confident.

“Ÿ̵̨̱͙́͑̄̓̾͂͗͒̌̕͠ǭ̷̪̭͚̭̖̼͕̹̘̰̖͐̑̓́͊̽u̴̞̤̥̬̪̥̬̐̀̄̈́͌̓̈́͐ ̸̣̹̐̍̎̿̅̃̿̔ h̴͚͔͠å̴̛̫̬̾̏̎̍̀̇̉͋͝͠v̵̛̛͎̺̈́̐̂̈̂̀͘e̸̡̝͇̫̲̣͍̙̲̙̙͎̭̩͐̀͑̽́͑͗͛͛͌̕͘ ̴̨̧̹̝̫͆͋̈́̓̚͘͠ m̴̛̜͎̖̙̫̜͓̗̯̖͆̐̐̾̂͋̑̔̋̅͗ę̵̜͖̙̂͌̿͂͊̓̓͌͛̕͝.̴͚̥̬̬̫͖̗͓̭̰̑̽͐̌͂̀̽̀͐̽͊”