The Martial Unity

Ria could even faintly sense the antimatter within their chests, rapidly converting into energy, while the strongest among them, with bodies that were almost entirely mechanical, tapped into even higher forms of technology when it came to energy.

The endlessness of space, both in terms of available area and energy to absorb from the suns, had allowed Greater Tekvoria to bounce back as a greater force once more.

Ria directed a sweeping gaze across all of the pathwalkers, growing more enthusiastic. “So many of them are in our age range, Runark.”

Runark nodded as the two of them took seats at random, leaning towards her. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll actually get to make some friends our age. Better than hanging out with uncs. Thank god for the evosapien and hemosapien races and their accelerated timeframes of power.”

She could sense several pathwalkers who were close to as young as she was and were in the same tier of power as Runark and Ria, although even the gap between Runark and Ria was quite large. Ria had rarely teamed up with people of other races in the frontier. Part of it was because she had initially been quite scared of others learning of her identity if they got too close to her. She also had Runark, so she was never truly alone. Then there was also simply how race dynamics worked. After all, the differences between the races of Gaia weren’t simply superficial and functionally irrelevant. There were massive differences in how races worked, and that affected how easily they were able to get along with each other.

But now, she found the idea quite interesting. Perhaps it would make their operation more interesting. “Alright, everybody, take a seat.”

A familiar male voice drew everybody’s attention as a man in his early thirties walked into the conference room, upon the podium, stopping at the speaker’s stand. He wore a simple skintight suit that accentuated his body’s figure, much to Ria’s delight. His blood-red eyes were strict as he diverted a sweeping gaze across the entire conference room, his eyes lingering on Ria and Runark for a moment.

Arastia had called him Schoel. He had been there when the two of them had entered Arastia’s office the first time around, having grown a little curious about the two of them, before returning his attention to the gathered pathwalkers.

“You have all accepted the commission made by the Blood Humanist Society regarding a security mission for survey and extraction operations on Planet Amadeus III. Standard procedure,” Schoel began with a simple tone of voice. “The information regarding the mission has already been transmitted to all of you, but I will be taking the time to break it down and answer questions that you may have. The operation begins in thirty-six hours, and this conference will be your last opportunity to back out without a penalty fee. So if there are any of you who wish to reconsider, then now is the time.”

His tone of voice was firm and masculine, containing an abrasive edge to it. Ria’s amber eyes lit up while Runark simply grew dejected at her reaction, wondering how he could become more like the man who had managed to earn her fancies.

“Good,” Schoel continued with an approving tone after a moment of silence. “Now then, let me break down the operation.”

The pathwalkers grew more attentive as he began describing Mission Amadeus. Everybody already knew that they were dealing with a potentially infected world. There were standard protocols that came with that, of course.

“We have procured a sample of the Tide of Samsara.”

The screen behind him featured a viale containing a strange, fluctuating maelstrom of a substance. Each and every single pathwalker tightened at the sight of it. For they knew what it was.

It was essentially one of the most powerful superweapons that human civilization had, capable of annihilating microbacterial life on a planet entirely. It was a weapon designed specifically to exterminate the alien virus, meant to prevent it from sending a call for help as it had once in the past.

They had no means of dealing with it, were it not for a weapon, an iota of the Martial Art of the most powerful Martial Artist in existence. It was proof that the elusive Emperor of Water, as elusive as he was, still existed. “With this weapon, we can simply wipe out the infected world, and from there on…” He began going over their intentions to begin establishing a presence on the planet, and what the role of all the freelancers were. He didn’t go too in-depth on what the protocols they would have to abide to were.

After all, there was an industry standard to protocols and procedures that had emerged organically as recurring best practices established after trial and error. All pathwalkers had experience with standard protocols and procedures, allowing them to fit into complex operations such as Mission Amadeus III, even if they didn’t have any prior experience with the Blood Humanist Society.

This created labor mobility that allowed for pathwalkers to bounce from client to client, creating a more flexible and liquid industry, allowing for the frontier adventurer industry to truly thrive to the extent that it did.

“We expect to run into other human forces,” Schoel mentioned, sharpening his blood-red eyes. “We expect to run into other forces composed of predominantly one or two races, members of whom are here. We expect you to place your commitment to this mission above any other in-group considerations. There are many forces that are planning and have already begun moving towards Amadeus III. And among them are…”

BZZZT

The screen behind him featured several names.

[The Evolutionary Army]

The few evosapiens in the room stirred at the name, sharpening their eyes, even if they didn’t appear to be surprised. The list also featured many other names such as the Blood Cult, earning a glowering response from the hemosapiens.

Unsurprisingly, it also involved the Kandrian Empire, which made bids for all infected worlds. Ria’s expression soured immediately as the familiar yet alien coat-of-arms of the Kandrian Empire was displayed on the screen.