The Martial Unity

Chapter 4095: Darthourne Planetary Engine

Dwarven greed for resources was truly unparalleled, second only to that of the giants. Rui smiled with a hint of amusement, shaking his head. ”Fifty percent is too even considering the contribution of your ships. But I can assure you that you will get a larger share of the yields than other parties as long as your contributions are greater. We can flesh out the compensation after we have fleshed out the actual operation, since only after the details are decided will we be able to decide who is contributing more.”

He turned towards the gathered military experts in the room. ”Say we use dwarven warships and their powerful defenses to weather the destruction unleashed by Garg. Then what?”

”Then we need to find a way to capture and incapacitate the planet as soon as possible,” Mother Alicia responded this time, studying the intelligence gathered by Pioneer VIII and its reinforcement guard fleets. ”The longer this battle goes on, the more it will slip out of control. Unless, of course, we are willing to spend years collecting intelligence on this target. Then we can tolerate In reality, all of them knew that that was the prudent thing to do. To systematically collect all the information that they had at hand for as long as it took and then commit to an extremely well-planned attack.

However, they knew that the one who called the shots was far too impatient for that.

Rui shook his head, furrowing his eyebrows. ”I donʼt want to wait that long. What are the methods we have at our disposal for capturing the planet? Iʼm sure that we have some technological means at our disposal, yes?”

The generals, analysts, and strategists turned towards the dwarven commander, Commander Nornen, who once more basked in the acknowledgment of dwarven superiority. ”We have some technological methods at our disposal. They are classified and confidential proprietary technology, but Emperor Arenstroff has authorized me to divulge them to all of you for the sake of the operation.”

He waved his hand as his neural implant transmitted information to the projector.

BZZZT

The image shifted, projecting a three-dimensional hologram of a device. [Planetary Engine: Darthourne]

The device itself resembled a concave mirror that was as large as a planet itself, smoothly hovering around a giant planet in constant revolution. It was a truly remarkable structure, even if its purpose was not entirely clear

”Whatʼs a planetary engine?” Rui frowned. He was quite familiar with the technological inventory of the Kandrian Empire and the Panamic Alliance, and he had never heard of such a thing.

The dwarf grinned, eager to explain. ”Itʼs a technology that we dwarves have developed for advanced planetary engineering, Your Majesty. We deploy this around a planet in order to manipulate the energy flux that a planet receives. This way, we can micro-manage exactly what kind of stimuli a planet is subject to. Additionally…”

BZZZT

The hologram shifted, displaying brief explanations of its functionality with an animation that featured the Darthourne Engine moving a planet, and even controlling its rotation, and internal geological phenomena through a complex use of electromagnetic and gravitational fields.

It allowed them to literally mold planets however they wanted, making their lives much easier than a lot of other civilizations that faced the challenge of trying to manipulate planets.

”Interesting,” Ruiʼs eyes lit up. ”However, this isnʼt meant to be used against a hostile, conscious planet armed with esoteric matter capable of unleashing lasers that can vaporize planets, right?”

”Thatʼs true, Your Majesty,” Commander Nornen replied. ”However, we are able to modify it to suit these purposes. We can equip it with some invintium to ensure that the structure is more stable. We can have our greatest craftsmen personally craft it to ensure that its durability is off the charts.”

”Wouldnʼt modification and production take a long time?” Rui raised an eyebrow. ”I do not wish to wait for years to commence this process. Can you get it done in months?”

Rui knew his questions were unreasonable, of course. He knew that it wasnʼt particularly viable for such an extensive process to take so little time. He expected the dwarven commander to flatly say it was impossible, but to his surprise, the commander accepted it.

”We are able to, Your Majesty,” the dwarf replied with certainty. ”But only if you lend us your manifold.”

Ruiʼs eyebrow rose. The Kandrian Manifold was still a secret, on paper, but it had since been shared with the elves and leaked to the tekvores. He was hardly surprised that the dwarves had managed to get their hands on the information surrounding it.

”The manifold is crowded,” Rui remarked. ”Even with half of it being repurposed for non-Martial purposes, there is still a lot of claim for it. Even if you do get access to it, it will be of limited access.”

In the six years after the war, Rui had overhauled the manifold as the number of Martial Artists and Martial Sages rose astronomically. The reality was that individual Martial Sages and Martial Masters were simply not as valuable as they used to be. The marginal utility of each Martial Sage growing stronger in the manifold plummeted greatly, making it less and less worth dedicating to Martial Artists.

He had repurposed half of it for other purposes, such as technological development, scientific research, and other time-consuming processes that yielded extremely highly valued results. Rui anticipated there would come a day when he would get rid of its purpose as a training site almost entirely.

”That is fine, Your Majesty. We donʼt need too much space within it.”

”Really? That Darthourne Engine looks massive.”

”Itʼs modular, Your Majesty,” the commander smiled proudly. ”It is composed of trillions of tiles that we hand-produce. We will be able to put together a modified Darthourne Planetary Engine for the sake of subjugating a hostile, conscious, exotic planet.”

Ruiʼs eyes lit up with deep interest. ”Thatʼs brilliant. You dwarves truly are handy.”

”Hahaha!” the commander indulged him in a laugh that was a bit too hearty and boisterous. ”Thank you, Your Majesty. Iʼm sure our dwarven craftsmen will be extremely pleased to hear you out!”