The Martial Unity

FWOOSH!

Ria watched from the window as they left Planet Sarantel behind. The rich, brownish-red planet had been the place she called home for the past two years since she left Gaia Prime. “You know, I never got to ask.”

Misha’s nonchalant tone of voice was disarming despite the question she was going to ask next.

“Where are you guys from?”

Suddenly, the loud noise of the launch pod’s flaming thrust seemed to disappear as Misha casually asked a question that they were quite touchy about.

Ria did her best not to show the nervousness on her face, simply facing the young lady opposite her with a relaxed demeanor. “Kandria.”

There was no point in lying about that; she would most likely get details wrong that would make her entire story implausible and earn the distrust of her new teammates.

Besides, it was hardly a revealing truth. There were countless people who lived in the Kandrian Empire, especially after it expanded across the stars. There was nothing that could be deduced from that piece of information that could be tied back to her identity as a royal princess.

“Figured. You guys are too strong to be from elsewhere,” Sternon remarked, turning back towards Ria with a pointed interest. “This is a strange question. But have we met before?”

Ria tilted her head. “…I think I would remember if we did. You’re the first neo-evosapien that I’ve had a proper conversation with.”

“Hm, that makes sense, I suppose,” Sternon replied, heaving a sigh. “I have had a hard time talking to anybody after I deserted the army. Most evosapiens are not too welcome in most places in human civilization.”

“It must have been hard,” Runark remarked at the man. “Trying to live life outside the army.”

“Yes and no,” Sternon admitted. “The freedom was great. But… the isolation wasn’t. Still, the suppression of the army is much worse than even being treated like scum. Liberty is like a drug to me.”

“I-I’ve heard men in the Evolutionary Army aren’t allowed to reproduce, is that true?” Siliscia asked with a curious and concerned tone. Sternon’s expression grew awkward. “Yes, it’s true. We’re all descendants of the previous Supreme Commander.”

“W-Won’t that cause genetic problems?”

“We can change our DNA, so we can get rid of it pretty easily. Also, technology.” He shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong. I still abhor it. And it’s one of the reasons I left. I don’t know about you guys, but I do hope to start a family one day.”

“I can only imagine how frustrating that must have been,” Misha remarked with a raised eyebrow. “The Evolutionary Army sounds like an even worse place than the Blood Cult. At least hemosapiens are encouraged to reproduce as much as possible in the cult.”

“It’s one of the biggest sources of dissent in the army and why so many men risk everything to desert the army, even with all of the risks that come with it.” He heaved a deep breath. “I was frankly reconsidering this mission when I learned that the Evolutionary Army is partaking in it.”

The briefing yesterday on the mission had mentioned the forces that were partaking in an operation to Amadeus III. And among those forces was the Evolutionary Army. Ria could feel how nervous he was at the prospect of being caught by them. “Does the Army have a strict policy against deserters?”

He nodded nervously. “Unfortunately, they do.”

“…I’m surprised you went through with this,” Misha raised an eyebrow. “No one would blame you for deserting the mission.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t afford to keep running forever,” Sternon remarked with a stronger tone of voice. “I’ll fight like hell against those bastards if it comes down to it.”

“You don’t have to do it alone,” Ria remarked with a reassuring tone. “After all, we’re not alone. We have many pathwalkers. And we have many allies who are on our side and against the Evolutionary Army. Like the Kandrian Empire, for example.”

Of course, she dreaded running into pathwalkers from Kandria, since there was a much higher chance that she would get recognized. She intended to have her suit cover part of her face when the time came to ensure that none of them would catch on to who she was.

“We’ve reached the skyhook.”

She turned towards the window, gazing at outer space. She spotted a hook-like cable flying towards their pod as it slowed, losing its thrust.

CLACK

The hook connected to their pod, pulling them into space.

It was part of the Skyhook transit system. A transit system that used the angular momentum of massive rotating devices in outer space with long cables attached to them to essentially fling pods into outer space, reducing the amount of thrust that the pods themselves needed to generate.

The skyhook flung the pods fully into outer space, freeing them from the gravity of Planet Sarantel as the plasma-ion thrusters activated, slowly propelling them towards their destination.

A nuclear-powered fleet carrier that hovered in space in a layer of numerous other spaceships and other space infrastructure. The fleet carrier was utterly titanic, stretching more than ten kilometers in length, extending four kilometers in width, and two kilometers in breadth. It was painted in a blood-red theme, as one would expect from the Blood Humanist Society, with streaks of other colors cutting across the red cleanly. A stream of smaller spacecrafts could be seen boarding the fleet carrier, allowing the ship to live up to the name of the class that it belonged to. Numerous other hatches opened to allow MECHAs, bogeys, and even artillery to fill up the ship.

The name of the ship was proudly engraved on its hull of the ship.

[Blood Arc]

The launcher pod moved towards the Blood Arc as it had been preprogrammed to, eventually entering one of the hatches of the ship.

WHOOSH…

THUD

The launcher pad cleanly landed within a sealed compartment of the fleet carrier before opening up.

VMMM

The five of them stepped out eagerly into the largest spaceship they had ever had the opportunity to board.