Chapter 720: World Soul
Back on Necromunda, Rogal Dorn kept a close eye on the progress of the gene-seed optimization project, while Magos Zhor of the Collegia Titanica began consultations regarding the specific resource manifest for the Titan Guard cultivation initiative. Ryo needed to balance these two crucial projects while monitoring the STC decryption progress, all while synchronously handling affairs on the Death World and Pandora through his neural links.
The cognitive load brought by such multi-threaded operations was immense, but for a Magos of the Mechanicus—especially one possessing his unique consciousness architecture—it remained well within tolerable limits.
Time slipped quietly away amidst the seemingly repetitive daily routines, but the various factions on Pandora experienced no true respite. The controlled pressure meticulously maintained by Ryo continued to exert its effects.
The Predator attacks did not cease with the relocation of their homeworld. Instead, under the precise manipulation of the Eldar warriors, they transitioned into a far more manageable pattern. The frequency and intensity of the raids were dialed to a level that kept the RDA and the Na'vi in a state of continuous pain and anxiety, yet never pushed them to the brink of total collapse or a desperate, all-out counteroffensive.
Target selection became far more particular. Against the RDA, the strikes leaned heavily toward their newly constructed exploration outposts, isolated transit routes, and highly automated mining nodes, continuously bleeding their economic margins and shattering confidence in perimeter security. Against the Na'vi, the brunt of the assaults fell upon those clans and hunting parties that openly opposed Sutai and resisted cooperation with the Seekers. This invisibly cleared the obstacles in Sutai's path, reinforcing her faction's stance that only through cooperation could their losses be mitigated.
This continuous, precise bloodletting yielded remarkable results. Inside the RDA's Hell's Gate base, Colonel Quaritch's expression grew darker by the day.
Inquiries from the board of directors arrived almost daily. Their tone had shifted from initial skepticism regarding the severity of the threat to furious demands: why, after injecting massive amounts of capital into security, were the losses continuing unabated with no hope of a permanent resolution in sight?
Proposals for security outsourcing began appearing frequently in the board's informal discussions and shareholder memos.
"That Dr. Ryo of the Seekers—didn't his subordinate, Maine, mention previously that they accept large-scale contracts?" a board member representing major investors bluntly stated during a remote meeting. "Since our own security forces cannot handle these ghost-like attackers, and they have proven their capability to counter these threats, why not consider outsourcing the security of certain high-risk sectors to them? At the very least, this would allow us to concentrate our resources and energy on extraction and transport, rather than endlessly pouring money into a bottomless security pit!"
Colonel Quaritch vehemently opposed this. He argued that it would further weaken the RDA's grip on Pandora and allow the tentacles of this mysterious Seeker faction to embed themselves deeper into the RDA's core operations. However, his rebuttals appeared pale and powerless against the endless stream of casualty reports and the shareholders' mounting panic over plummeting profits.
Ultimately, the board instructed General Manager Parker Selfridge to carefully evaluate the possibilities and terms of expanding cooperation with the Seekers, specifically in the realm of security. Despite his extreme dissatisfaction, Colonel Quaritch was powerless to halt this forming trend.
On the Na'vi side, the evolution of the situation aligned perfectly with Ryo's expectations. Under the continuous external pressure and internal fracturing, the path advocated by Sutai—deepening cooperation with the Seekers, learning practical technologies to enhance self-preservation, and leveraging their strength to counterbalance the RDA—gradually gained the support of more clans.
After witnessing the continuous casualties brought about by traditional combat methods and the waning influence of the conservative faction, Chief Eytukan increasingly leaned toward Sutai's pragmatic strategy. Tsu'tey's severe injuries remained unhealed, and the market for his radical ideologies shrank with every coincidental attack. The voice of authority within the Na'vi race was steadily consolidating in the hands of Sutai and her cooperative faction.
The entire chessboard of Pandora was steadily advancing toward Ryo's desired mid-game: both the RDA and the Na'vi were sinking deeper into a predicament they could not solve alone, forcing them to place more of their hopes and bargaining chips on him—the seemingly detached third party who held all the solutions.
Surveying this landscape, Ryo began to turn his gaze toward a more ultimate method of control. The successful relocation of the Predator homeworld and the acquisition of all its resources had proven the existence of a highly efficient path for processing a resource planet. He seriously began to evaluate whether he should subject Pandora itself to the exact same treatment: utilizing the dimensional gateway to migrate it into a fully controlled star sector, thereby solving all disputes and uncertainties once and for all.
However, when he mentioned this preliminary concept to Elandir, the Eldar Farseer revealed a rare look of solemnity and immediately voiced her deterrence.
"Honored Ryo, please carefully reconsider the plan to directly relocate planet Pandora," Elandir said, her tone carrying an unquestionable seriousness and an imperceptible urgency. "This planet... is fundamentally different from a world like the Predator homeworld. It is not a dead mineral deposit or a simple biosphere. It is currently incubating a World Soul."
"A World Soul?" Ryo's gaze narrowed slightly, the term catching his attention.
"Yes," Elandir nodded affirmatively, swiftly entering an explanatory state. "It is the embryonic form of a planetary-scale spiritual entity. It is the product of the planet's own life force and the convergence and germination of the consciousness of its massive ecological network. It is sensitive, possesses immense potential, and is intimately connected to every inch of land and every living being on the planet. According to my observations and psychic resonance, Pandora's global neural network and the collective consciousness it manifests—Eywa—is precisely the external embodiment of such a nascent World Soul."
She further clarified the risks, her tone professional yet earnest. "Forcibly relocating a planet possessing an active World Soul would subject it to violent spatial rule shifts and disturbances by traversing the dimensional gateway, which has a very high probability of causing irreversible damage. At best, it would cause the World Soul to wither, triggering a cascading global ecological collapse that would render the planet's value completely void. At worst, it could twist its consciousness, birthing an unpredictable and dangerous entity. The risks of this are simply incomparable to moving an ordinary planet lacking such a deep spiritual structure."
Ryo instantly grasped the stakes involved. He had not previously understood Eywa from the perspective of a World Soul. Now, it appeared that Pandora's greatest value—its unique, intact biosphere teeming with research potential—was bound inextricably to this fragile yet crucial spiritual core. A brutal relocation would be tantamount to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
"Then," Ryo rapidly adjusted his train of thought, posing a new question, "is there a way to process or take over this Eywa without damaging the planet's foundation?"
Elandir's response revealed a quiet confidence; this was indeed the exact domain of the Eldar's expertise.