The Martial Unity

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”Interceptor. Starfighters. Have. Engaged. Pathwalker. Payloads.”

”Interdiction. Damage. Rate. Has. Fallen. By. sixty. Percent.”

”Pathwalkers. Identified. As. Hybrid. Human. Species. Sentinels.”

Aboard the command room of the Web Bringer, —o-o—o stared at the ongoing conflict with displeasure in her six arachnid eyes. She knew that the two times that the humans had managed to catch the arakai off guard had reduced the odds that they would be able to capture the star system and convert it into a bridgehead for a more sustained, connected invasion into human civilization.

The tactic of the pathwalkers swarming their webships and targeting their vulnerable components was a tactic that the arakai had foreseen, which was why the War of Webs were equipped with a large number of starfighter interceptor crafts. These were crafts that bore strong resemblances to jets, with a main body with a cockpit marked with a glass hatch within which an arakai pilot sat. It was equipped with two antimatter drives, giving it great thrust, allowing it to zoom by the much slower sentinels and harass them with small but potent blasts of light.

It appeared that while laser beams were too primitive a form of weapons systems for the larger ships, the arakai didn’t have any problem equipping their smallest crafts with them. They were specifically part of the fleet to deal with the absurd numbers of pathwalkers that humans could bring to the war.

After all, even though the net total number of pathwalkers that both sides had in their civilization was roughly equal, this was because the arakai civilization was thousands of times larger than human civilization. They couldn’t actually divert all of their ascended arakai to fight against the humans because most of them were fighting much larger wars against the dessandrites and the aquadites.

This forced the arakai to send a disproportionately large number of starfighter crafts to keep the pathwalkers engaged. And so, it was doing a decent job.

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”60%. Of. Sentinel. Force. Is. Adopting. A. Defensive. Posture.”

”Damage. Rate. Of. Interdiction. Force. Has. Reduced. By. 80%.”

”78%. Of. Sentinel. Force. Has. Halted. Interdiction. Siege.”

This proved that the decision to bring an enormous army of interceptor starfighters was a great decision. As long as they could harass the pathwalkers every time they stepped out, then they could prevent them from becoming the bane of the War of Web. Of course, the interceptors were too weak to kill the sentinels. Sentinels were especially powerful pathwalkers. It was one thing to distract these giants; it was another thing to fell them. Small craft could only force them to activate their defenses, at best.

Webships were inherently unwieldy by their very nature. They were excellent at long-range warfare and had unparalleled destructive power, but at short ranges, they were at the mercy of the strength of their hulls and structures against the power that pathwalkers could bring to the table.

Unfortunately, the starfighter solution only proved to be a partial success.

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”Alert! High-grade. Sentinels. Have. Resumed. Offensive!”

”The. Starfighter. Interceptors. Are. Unable. To. Damage. Them!”

Far away from the Web Bringer, amid the fraying interdiction force, Sentinel Prime destroyed yet another vessel with a single attack.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A tremendous explosion erupted as the antimatter reserve chambers were breached by the Sentinel’s power. The matter-antimatter annihilation reactions caused the explosion to be so intense that it swallowed other nearby vessels in a matter of seconds, thoroughly ravaging their energy shields.

Sentinel Prime’s cybernetic fist opened as his hand sharpened flat and stiff. He pointed his hand at the ship as his fingers began shining with power.

VMMMMM!!!!!

A tremendously bright plasma beam erupted from their edges, shooting towards ships at relativistic speeds. He specifically aimed for their most vulnerable components and least well-guarded sections, wisely avoiding the prothanite hulls.

BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM!!!

With a single swing of his hand, the plasma beam destroyed half a dozen sub-capital interdiction vessels, completely annihilating them in the process. Sentinel Prime’s cybernetic eyes flashed as he spotted a fleet of nearly one thousand interceptor starfighter vessels flying towards him faster than lightning.

Predictably, they unleashed an onslaught of laser beams at him. The lasers converged on the powerful sentinel. Even though each laser beam was weak. With the power of thousands, they could easily vaporize cities and even islands.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM…!

Yet, before a pathwalker whose power put him in the top ten, even this concentrated firepower was barely a tickle. They felt weaker than the water drops of a drizzling rain. The sentinel scoffed as he activated his plasma beam hand-cannon.

”Such paltry efforts cannot ever hope to stop me.”

VMMMMMMM!!!

With a single swing of his hand, annihilated each and every single starfighter interceptor fleet, killing thousands of arakai pilots in the blink of an eye. His cybernetic eyes glowed as they returned to the interdiction force. He immediately resumed his rampage without even a second thought.

Although his people were having some trouble with the starfighters, Sentinel Prime knew that the best way to protect them was to become a tyrannical menace on the battlefield that unleashed untold destruction on the interdiction force.

After all, he was wise enough to understand that the starfighters were cannon fodder. They were merely meant to protect the interdiction force by throwing themselves at the sentinels, expecting to suffer tremendous casualty rates.

By committing to destroying the interdiction force, they would be forced to focus more on him than his brethren and subordinates, thereby taking the pressure off his people. Thus, he stopped holding back, unleashing his true might upon the interdiction force of the Web of War.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

He became a force of destruction itself. His body didn’t so much as even suffer a scratch, while everything he touched was reduced to ashes. His bones were tempered and electromagnetically reinforced invintium while his muscles were motors equipped with cutting-edge superconductor technology.

On top of that, his heart was a dark energy generator that he had managed to negotiate from the Bournvyrne Empire in exchange for his services. He would never tire ever again. And the War of Web learned that the hard way.