The Martial Unity

Runark grinned at those words. ”Sounds fun!”

”I’m fine with any direction we go from here as long as we do it together,” Sternon smiled.

”That’s exactly what I was hoping for!” Siliscia’s sapphire eyes glistened with enthusiasm.

”It will be interesting to disrupt the virus-hunting industry with your ability,” Misha remarked with an intrigued tone of voice. ”The sector, from what I understand, is packed with a lot of incumbent guilds, parties, freelancers, and even corporations. They use state-of-the-art technology and specialized pathwalkers to detect planets that may be infected before deploying specialized pathwalkers to them to confirm whether or not a given planet is infected or not.”

Because the demand for esoteric substances was so high, the demand for infected worlds was even higher. Entities that could find infected worlds were in high demand, and an entire sector of pathwalkers and non-pathwalkers had developed to identify infected worlds.

It wasn’t easy by any means, of course.

Over the eons, the cosmic virus had evolved to be able to hide in plain sight. Not all infected worlds had anomalies that made them easier to spot. In fact, most didn’t, thanks to manifolds that could hide the anomalies in an airtight four-dimensional space-time manifold, something that was impossible to detect even with cutting-edge technology.

Not all planets were bloated beyond what was physically possible like Gaia. Ultimately, the virus was extremely decentralized with branches and sub-branches evolving independently, which made every infected world generally unique.

”There are companies which have developed artificial intelligence and specialized software that can identify planetary anomalies in astronomical observational data,” Misha explained patiently. ”Mining companies and other infected world enterprises use this software and AIs to flag planetary anomalies and then hire guilds, parties, pathwalkers, companies to get out there and vet each of these anomalies.”

”That was the kind of mission we partook in with Planet Amadeus III,” Siliscia remarked thoughtfully.

”Yes, except the Blood Humanist Society is powerful enough to do it itself,” Misha remarked. ”And in this case, it was almost certainly a slam dunk, so we went there assuming it was an infected world. However, there are countless cosmic and spatial anomalies in the universe. Not all of them are infected worlds, and very few of them are as clear and cut as Planet Amadeus III.”

The universe was a vast place with enough space for all kinds of phenomena. Especially since astronomers had detected that the universe was not uniform when it came to the constants of reality. The spatial variation of constants was something that was only discovered when humanity expanded outwards, requiring another variable to be accounted for when expanding into outer space.

It also led to millions of false-positives in the search of infected worlds, making the job of finding infected worlds all the more intensive.

”So we could be one of the parties commissioned by mining enterprises to confirm or deny whether or not a world is infected,” Ria remarked thoughtfully, frowning. ”That feels small. With my ability and sensitivity, we should be able to leverage it in a more powerful manner. My goal with pursuing infected worlds is to get as many infected worlds uninfected and cleansed and mined.”

”You make it sound like you have a vendetta against them.” Runark raised an eyebrow.

”I do,” she growled. ”But also, humanity needs as much esoteric matter as it can get. Especially since…”

Her expression tightened. ”War seems inevitable.”

The air in the luxury guest suite grew tense as each of them remained silent at those words. They each knew what she was talking about, of course. They had each been present in the same operation on Planet Amadeus III. They knew exactly what she was talking about.

”Even if it wasn’t inevitable, we have made powerful enemies; that is for certain,” Misha remarked with a serious voice. ”Your ambition is noble. And you’re right.”

Her cybernetic eyes managed to convey anticipation. ”For someone with your ability, merely becoming a commissioned virus hunter is too little. We can do more. In fact, I believe we can go beyond merely being virus hunters. We can be virus brokers.”

Ria’s amber eyes lit up at those words. ”Virus… brokers?”

”That’s right,” Misha remarked with a surprisingly energetic voice. ”We have you. And you say you can identify infected worlds so well that you can feel them from many light-years away. That means that we can identify infected worlds left and right. We can use that information by…”

She raised a finger. ”By selling it. We can sell that information to nations, mining enterprises, research organizations, and even other non-state actors like the Blood Humanist Society. Thus, we become intel brokers for infected worlds specifically, rather than trying to confirm whether a given world is infected or not.”

”That’s a great idea!” Ria’s eyes lit up. ”That way we can make the most of the information that I can bring, and we can maximize the number of infected worlds that we get through!”

”Are you sure you want to surrender the first-comer’s advantage?” Silisica raised an eyebrown.

Misha shrugged. ”Unless you want to start a mining company and pick up some drills, there is no meaning for us in being the first-comers. I don’t care to get into that sector, personally. We can sell the information about an infected world to mining specialists for billions of alliance credits and allow people who know what they are doing to do what they do.”

”I agree; I have no interest in trying to greedily monopolize an infected world,” Runark concurred. ”It’s better to sell it and move on to the next infected world. But how do we verify a world is infected such that we can convince others of it?”

Misha fell into thought at the question. ”…Frankly, I’m not entirely certain of that. I’m not an expert on infected worlds to know about that, but I do know that we will need concrete proof, especially early on before we build a reputation for being uncannily knowledgeable about infected worlds.”

She turned towards Ria. ”We will need to consult an expert on infected worlds. Any idea where we can meet such a person?”

Ria’s eyes lit up. ”There’s one person who comes to mind immediately.”