The Martial Unity

”Outpost. World. -oo-o—o-. Has. Stopped. Responding.”

In a distant network that stretched across millions of stars, nearly a hundred individuals spoke through means that were beyond the fathoming of mortal minds.

Each of them was a goddess in their own right, deities among their own kind. They communicated through a network of connections that didn’t stretch through matter or energy, or even space and time.

But through information itself.

They communicated through a web beyond the visibility of lesser minds. An untraceable, encrypted communication between the leaders of an entire civilization that stretched across a million stars.

”Planet. -oo-o—o-. Has. Stopped. Sending. Daily. Reports. To. The. Web. Of. Authority.” One female homoarachnoid spoke with clicks that were distinctly elderly and authoritative. ”Analysis. On. The. Web. Reveals. That. The. Flow. Of. Telemetry. From. Planet -oo-o—o-. Has. Also. Completely. Halted. With. No. Prior. Warning.”

A sense of concern hung through the web.

An entire outpost world had become completely unresponsive.

A Divine Mother had stopped responding.

The outpost worlds of homoarachnoid civilization were outside of the direct control of the aliens. They were generally more furtive in their operations than planets directly within their territory. Therefore, the flow of communication between outpost worlds and the main civilization was more limited on purpose.

The telemetry was minimal and periodic, exclusively for security and basic coordination. The individuals in distant outpost worlds weren’t allowed to communicate with the rest of human civilization, with the sole exception being Divine Mother O-o-o-o.

She had been among the few Divine Mothers who had been deployed to the furthest edges of the outposts of homoarachnoid civilization. A thankless job that had been forced upon her by her stronger and older peers who had secured the more desirable spots in homoarachnoid civilization for their primary goal in life.

To reproduce and produce a greater next generation of homoarachnoids. That was the purpose that consumed the most powerful female homoarachnoids of the species.

The economics of reproduction of the homoararchnoids was different from that of any species in the Gaian Tree of Life. Female homoarachnoids could produce virtually limitless eggs every single day, while the male homoarachnoids produced very few seeds due to lacking any one singular genetic blueprint like DNA. Producing seed that contained their genes was a complex process that required amalgamating the web of their information into a single seed.

This created a rather alien set of circumstances that were generally very different from anything in the Gaian Tree of Life. Seed produced by male homoarachnoids was scarce, while eggs produced by female homoarachnoids were abundant. It led to a dynamic where the evolutionary filters existed on the female side rather than the male side.

Only the most powerful females had the privilege to reproduce, being capable of producing millions of fertilized eggs every single day. The females carried the responsibility of expanding their population, and that included the frontier where they followed virus seeds from exploding planets, and generating entirely new populations filled with powerful homoararchnoids like -oo—o and Oo—o- with the power of esoteric resources.

It was the way that they expanded their civilization, and it required Divine Mothers to move away from their cozy webs back home and into a barren alien frontier. Not exactly the place that the Divine Mothers would rather spend.

Even then, the complete silence from Divine Mother o-o-o-o was concerning. It was an anomaly that raised alarms across homoarachnoid civilization. The only reason that they didn’t immediately rush to the outpost world was to ensure that they didn’t give it away.

To their enemies.

If knowledge of the sudden silence from a Divine Mother in homoararchnoids were to reach their enemies, then… that would be bad.

”What. Does. The. Virus. Say?” A younger Divine Mother asked with a tense tone of voice.

”None. Of. The. Branches. Have. Received. Any. Information,” an elderly Divine Mother declared. ”There. Was. No. Emergency. Flare. From. The. Infected. World.”

That was even more chilling. It wasn’t as though outpost worlds had never been breached before, they certainly had, but they usually sent SOS calls for help, where back-up from the virus’s own assets or from homoararchnoid civilization could swiftly be supplied.

”Was. It. The. Laminar. Integuments?”

The air grew tenser. The galactic community of the Milky Way may have been fragmented and divided, but most great powers were aware of the strange jellyfish-like aliens that rushed over with a giant army every time they detected an infected world. Although the homoarachnoids had no formal communications with the laminar integuments, they had fought numerous times in each of their long histories.

They were the number-one suspect when it came to the question of whether any third parties were related to the silence from Planet -oo-o—o-.

”I. Suspect. It. Was. The. Dessandrites.” A more burly female voice grunted in the exclusive web of communication. ”If. They. Somehow. Found. Out. About. The. Presence. Of. A. Sole. Divine. Mother. In. Trouble. Then. They. Could. Have. Planned. An. Ambush. And. Killed. Divine. Mother. O-o-o-o.”

”We. Do. Not. Know. If. It. Was. The. Dessandrites,” another Divine Mother interjected. ”It. Could. Have. Been. Any. One. Of. Our. Alien. Enemies. Who. Possess. An. Administrator. In. Their. Ranks. Or…”

Her tone grew more serious.

”It. Might. Be. A. New. Threat.”

Silence hung in the air.

The Milky Way was unfathomably vast, with hundreds and hundreds of billions of stars. Even though the homoarachnoids had conquered a million of them and had many millions more within the domain of their influence, it was still only a drop in the water.

There was simply too much that was unknown for them to possibly be certain of the limits of what was possible.

”I. Am. Treating. This. As. A. Class 1. Emergency.” A powerful, authoritative female voice spoke. ”We. Will. Prepare. For. The. Worst. And. Send. Two. Of. Our. Sisters. To. Investigate. What. Happened. To. Sister. O-o-o-o. And. -oo-o—o-. For. This. Operation. I. Am. Inclined. To. Send. Specialists.”

Her attention shifted towards two specific Divine Mothers.

”—oo-oo—. The. Webhunter. And. -o-. The. Deathweaver,” she declared. ”The. Two. Of. You. Shall. Be. Tasked. With. Investigating. The. Cause. For. The. Silence. Of. Planet -oo-o—o-. And. Sister. O-o-o-o. And…”

Her tone grew severe.

”If. The. World. And. Our. Sister. Are. No. More. Then... Find. And. Destroy. The. One. Responsible. For. Their. Demise.”