958 The Changes: The Army
Much has changed since Varian disappeared. It's just been a little longer than three months but it felt like a decade.
The first significant event that happened after his departure was the ceasefire. The Emperor's order was to prevent any unnecessary sacrifice. Even though they wanted to duke it out, the Abyss Rulers obliged the Emperor's decree.
After a week of back and forth, things returned to normal though there was nothing normal about it.
The army units had to reshuffle because of the casualties, recruits were inducted in advance, and promotions were hastened to fill in the gaps of the dead officers.
This major shift involved many factors and had far-reaching effects. But it paled in comparison to the fundamental shifts that the human army underwent vis-à-vis the abyssals.
Out of the almost 500 planetoids in total, 430 were wrestled for by both Humans and Abyssals. Abyssals controlled 20 while humans gained 50. More than 30 of these 50 planetoids came from the last war!
In the planetoids that Varian conquered, the human army was the sole force. These empty planetoids were filled up with newly recruited reserves and would serve as launchpads for any future operations.
Forget the strength of the army deployed on these planetoids, the existence of such a force was enough to deter the abyssals on the nearby planetoids. If they try anything funny, they'd be hunted by these hounds.
Some people proposed using the new recruits to join the existing forces on other planetoids and push back the abyssals bit by bit.
The proposal was rejected after much thought.
Firstly, these new recruits were still too weak to put heavy pressure on the abyssals. The heavy lifting would've to be done by the veterans. And even with them working together, it'd take at least a month of proper fighting to destroy a planetoid.
Secondly, the human forces still had nightmares of the Undead. If they go for mass killing and the Undead reappear…
And the third and most important reason—if they follow this plan, many new recruits would die. Rather than following that violent plan, if these new recruits grow up, they'd be much more helpful.
The prime consideration for this reasoning was a finding reported by the academy of military sciences: Humans were getting stronger relative to abyssals.
A level 8 human of the old generation was slightly weaker than their abyssal counterpart. A level 8 human of the current generation was almost equal. And the new generation would be slightly stronger.
Even though the gap wasn't very big, if enough numbers were present, then humanity would have a decisive edge.
For instance, instead of hundred humans needed for a hundred abyssals, if only ninety were enough, the remaining ten would be the game changers.
Of course, this 'difference in strength' was much lower and not too wide.
Realistically, ninety humans would be enough for a hundred abyssals, and that 'one' human would become the extra force.
And even after a few more generations of development, it's not like a typical human would be able to beat up two or three abyssals of his level.
Even the optimistic projections predict a hundred humans equaling a hundred and five abyssals.
Anyway, the deployment of the army in the planetoids, the control of planetoids, and almost everything related changed in a big or small way.
The next significant event was the funerals.
Only six people got the highest level funeral. It's not an egotistical competition of treating one as superior and the other as inferior based on levels. Every life sacrificed was important and even sacred.
However, the level signified the importance of what the martyr traded their lives for. For saving humanity twice, Varian was given the highest level there is. And if a higher level gets created one day, he'd get that too.
Most of his achievements were kept secret given the sensitivity of the issue. If the normal public were to know how close humanity got close to extinction, there'd be unbearable tension and fear.
Yet, people did know that a very young man named Varian received the highest level of the funeral there is.
They only knew that he sacrificed his life to stop an Abyssal that was on the verge of becoming a Sovereign.
And the number of dead heroes was too many. So, even though people were curious about Varian's odd case, they moved on after not finding much information about him.
And most of them weren't even in the mood to pry.
Watching the final rites of tens of millions of martyrs was already heartbreaking. New memorial halls were built across the planets.
In each city of each planet, people gathered in the central parks to pay homage to the Bravehearts.
The graves were drowned in the sea of flowers.
And tears.
Almost everyone knew a family that lost someone. A father, a daughter, a son, a grandfather, a sister. There were even some unfortunate families that were only left with young kids.
For these people that saw their family members as heroes, the war taught them the price of heroism.
The eulogies were perhaps the most depressing and almost prideful periods of this century.
Veterans that wouldn't flinch even if their skin burned off cried in grief remembering the lost comrades.
Old, middle-aged, young…it didn't matter. The grief engulfed everyone.
Every city lost heroes.
Every neighborhood discovered a person that would no longer be visiting every year for a dozen weeks.
The tragedy of so many lives filled the air with heavy grief. But amidst that grief was also a bursting pride.
Pride of being a warrior, of dying in a fight, of protecting something.
In a world where most do things they don't like just to live, dying for something you like and believe in—race, civilization, consciousness, loved ones—was a luxury only a few could make.
Perhaps it was a careless romanticization by the drunk philosophers, but the sobriety these deaths brought to the young men and women of the society didn't depress them into fear of death.
Rather, they rose up to meet the challenge.
The human spirit was rekindled and the new generation that was slowly growing complacent thanks to the 'inevitability' of them outgrowing abyssals in a decade or two woke up.
They realized that if they don't do everything they could, there was a significant chance that abyssals would finish them off before this decade.
The military academies were flooded with new admission requests like never before. The federation released all the resources from the treasury it could to strengthen the armed forces, especially the upcoming geniuses.
Many wealthy corporations and individuals pooled their resources into critical technologies in hopes of contributing their bit. Some selfish individuals didn't. Then they're 'requested' by the federation to do so and had to comply.
As a direct consequence of this war, the federation worked like a war machine and pooled its resources together to race ahead.
The abyssals, by creating a lot of death and destruction, only ended up making their enemy more determined.
Even the Abyssal Rulers were clear about the changes in human society. Whatever they do, they'd have to do it soon.
Otherwise, at the current pace, in just a few years, humanity would be out of their control.
