Ant Tensei Redux Prologue Terra Arc in segmented format for easier reading and viewer enjoyability.

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Terra Arc, Part 2 - The Union of Man

I decided that if I was going to be leader of the nation, I might as well secure enough territory that I could play with the economy and scientific development.

So, I set out with an army of ten thousand extremely zealous soldiers armed with the aircraft, tanks, and various weapons of the recently destroyed army of the claimant. Taking over four military bases he had set up was also a bonus.

Hmmm… I think it took about a month to take over half of the civil war factions. I instituted a policy of slaughtering them all though, no reason to let a few enemies brainwash the unintelligent citizens into rebelling of course… Well, now that I think on it… nah, that was a good call. A cutting the neck of the cow waters the garden rather than letting it eat all the plants. Since it was internationally determined as a 'civil war' I was able to get away with it.

I guess my actions turned me into some sort of figure for the people at some point. Setting up a democracy, refusing to take power after I had removed tyrants from it, a man who was voted up by every one of his people, a man who cares and fights against tyranny and hunts down the tyrants that started the bloodshed. I guess I became pretty popular in the region. There were even two of the warring states that broke out into a revolution which overthrew their government to join sides with my 'unification' movement.

At that point, most of the other states banded together to try and face my forces. Didn’t amount to much though, by that time our forces already reached sixty thousand compared to their twenty thousand. Hell, I was even getting substantial foreign aid since I had taken control over all of the oil producing territories. They figured I'd give them special treatment if they invested and gave aid before the conflict ended.

There wasn’t much oil left after centuries of industrialization, so my holding of a third of the world’s supply of the stuff got me plenty of funds and military supplies from the big guys.

At the end, it only took me five weeks to end the civil war.

I was then hailed as a living saint by the people and there were some that even called me a god. To say the least that was just a 'bit' too far, so I thought it best if I took a step in to stop things from going in a bad direction. In a live speech to address the people, I cut my hand and let my blood flow from it. I went conveyed that I was merely a man, no different from any other human on the planet. Regardless of my skin, upbringing or anything else I was merely a man, equal to anyone of them. The speech was only a few minutes long but it seems that a great deal of them were brought to tears by it…

The speech then spread to the rest of the world and influenced many different nation’s policies. Within a few days of the speech I was hailed as a great humanitarian against racism and discrimination, issuing in a new age of equality… Honestly though, I just didn’t want churches to be raised in worship of me. They seemed to have taken it that I, the person they saw as the wisest and kindest person they knew was lowering himself down to their level and that as long as human blood ran in their veins there was nothing that should keep humans separate. Internationally it was even more hectic with various movements to stop religious and racial violence.

Wars around the world over religion and race that had gone on for years suddenly ended.

…

It was boring…

Ya, I didn’t really like that there wasn’t anything to do besides balance a budget. The nation was seriously poor, even if we did have oil, so I decided to get some more land.

I declared war on more or less the entire region and stated that I was going to unify the entire region into a single state so that I could seek out greater technology and economical growth.

Somehow I ended up with even more financial backing from the same major powers. They simply saw me as a tool to secure more oil. The lands I was fighting against were heavily against those powers and refused to develop their oil reserves, so me taking them over was a perfect way for them to gain access to more oil. Since the major powers were supporting me anyways, there wasn't any real international resistance to my movements.

They were really technologically inferior though, so the casualty reports were something like five thousand to one or something. We blasted them from afar normally, and after they were shattered, I found it interesting to charge into a melee fight. Hell, I often would even join in on it. The region was a sector for colonization in more ancient times, many of the 'nations' around us barely had a semblance of a government, even with their massive populations.

I found a certain thrill from running in with a sword in one hand and a gun in another with an army at my back. Since they didn't have all that many guns, it actually served to reduce the casualties rather than just blasting them away. The international community ate that up too, saying various things like how I wouldn't put a soldier's life at risk to reduce casualties if I wouldn't do it myself and how I was risking it all to prevent the lesser nation's citizens from perishing needlessly. Honestly though, I was just bored and wanted to see what it felt like to fight hand-to-hand with thousands of men on the battlefield. Not alone... of course...

I think it was only two weeks before the rest of the nations surrendered. Like I said, there wasn't much of a government, it was more like a conglomeration of various gangs that held the population together through force.

After that happened, I was summoned to a security council meeting. The gist of it was for me to tell them how I was going to manage all of the people that were just conquered. It was honestly a pain for me to even head over there since I had to fill out paperwork for hours, then sit through meetings for hours. Then I had to undergo psych evaluations, and physical examinations, and medical examinations. Then I needed shots and background checks, and I tell you, those got messy. There was one zealous scientist that tried to cut me open, that didn't take well.

Regardless, they couldn’t just demand that I step down from my seat of control, especially since my public approval rating was nearly 98%.

Even when they went to do surveys, it came back with a 99.9% approval rating from their survey teams. It hadn't been that long, so the fervor in support of my leadership was far from over. Can't really expect the people to turn from that level of support instantly without cause.It became pretty obvious that some of the second-rate powers were trying to cause trouble for me, greed is always present in politics after all, though I always found it to be bothersome.

While I was dealing with all the mindless drones that kept bothering me with more and more pointless work that is common with bureaucracy, I developed what I called the ‘Provincial System’.

By dividing the populations up based on the populational composition, starting small by a district level that comprises of perhaps a single city or two. There, a district leader would be voted into power. Above that would be the provincial territory that comprises of the districts. The reason for the district is because it allows for sufficient voice for even the smallest of minority. At the city level, people know each other and they are able to speak their voice. The provincial level would be a territory comprised of many districts, normally around ten to twenty districts. The leader for this level would be chosen from a vote from the district leaders as a representative of the population below them. The district leaders would convene to discuss matters pertaining to their provence.

Above that would be the national territory, comprising generally of what used to be a national border. While the intent of the districts and provinces were for minority management and territorial organization, the national territory was intended to eliminate nationalist fervor. It’s really annoying that every single human being wants to be independent… I mean seriously, why the hell does everyone want to say “Look at me, I’m independent, I’m so special!”... It’s really stupid… You have less resources at your disposal and there’s all manners of economic troubles for you. It's literally the regression of human society whenever nations divide. There won't be as much economical or science development, meaning human stagnation.

With the national territory, a leader that represents their ‘people’ is elected from the provincial leaders. This is to ensure that at least roughly half the population of each national territory supports the current leader in power. Well, it also gave me the ability to dictate the investment of the national budget.

Instead of a small nation, I had a large region of undeveloped territory, so there was plenty to invest in. The more investment, the more money, and repeat. An economy is about how much money is constantly flowing in and out as well as within a country. The moment it stagnates with several people, that's when an economy will obviously start to fall apart.

I threw in a extra little function that both the provincial and national territory levels could have the leader remove with a majority vote at any time. The leader would also serve as long as he has the majority support. Though the district leader had to be elected every single year. When a district leader gets voted up to provincial leader or so on, a new leader would need to be voted up.

It was basically ‘determined’ by the international security council that I would be instituted as the ‘legitimate ruler’ of the territory and I was not allowed to step down… So I ended up forming an extra level of continental territory where I would be put at. It's not exactly like they could pull me down anyway. I hadn't done a single thing that would warrant my removal, as well as just about every negative thing I ever did in my life was common knowledge.

At the time, there were… I believe nine national territories, though if they even thought of voting against me, they would have probably ended up risking being voted out of power instantly. I was still pretty popular, not only nationally, but worldwide at this point.

Ah, as for what happened to the leaders and upper echelons of the various nations that I conquered, well, they lost all their power and a great deal of their wealth. I mostly decided to confiscate a majority of their wealth since several people holding all the wealth will lead to serious economic stagnation, even if they were to invest it, they would just collect more of the economy and cause worse stagnation as they went.

here were some that tried to resist and take back power through some way or another, so I ended up having them all assassinated. There were plenty that weren’t trying to do so, but I didn’t feel like finding out later that they had escaped my radar. People you remove from power or people you dominate will generally be incapable of forgiving you. Humans are kind of base like that. They would have caused more death and ruined my plans for economical development, so good riddance all in all. No one liked them anyways, so I announced my actions several months later.

Once again, my seriously tyrannical actions were ignored, something about me taking a stand against terrorism I think it was...

A few years past after that and my nation’s economy thrived, though half of it was because of the international financial support of my nation’s economic development. Since we had a large percentage of the world's remaining untapped natural resources, I drew in substantial international investiture for the sake of growing my influence. I didn't want to be bothered by some superpower wanting to take over, economically or by force.

Using the funds at hand, I built new school, new hospitals, and heavily invested into medical research and development. I have to admit… I went overboard with the medical investment in all hindsight… Gathering medical minds from around the world... legally gathering the most cutting edge technology... Nearly a third of the entire budget was a bit much… But hey… we managed to figure out the cure for cancer after just two years of research. Turns out you just need to ***************************** and inject ******************* into various **************** in order to ******************** and thus the cancer cells ************************************* after that the *********************** and the cancer just dies out. Wait… what was that? Hmmm… must be the oxygen levels getting low… I probably don’t have much time. I’m just enjoying thinking about my life, so it’s only been a few seconds and all, but I’ll probably be dead in another forty seconds or so… Bah, plenty of time to recap on all of my life.

Herm, where was I…

Well, after a few years a major superpower that bordered my nation attempted an economical take over to pull us into its sphere of influence and control the near 80% of the international supply of oil. Like I thought, no one could resist just leaving me alone to my own devices forever. Greed is the destroyer of man, the ruination of progress, the reaper of life.

Can’t say I took kindly to that. I sent out a call to arms amongst the populous and nearly a hundred thousand volunteers flocked in, coupling that with the then military of sixty thousand, I had nearly a hundred and sixty thousand soldiers enlisted. Within a few weeks, the nation was prepared for conflict. Not even that super power was able to prepare itself in time, though that's just the breaks of a heavily divided 'democratic congress'. They can't ever make a decision since they are all out for themselves before the people they represent sixty to seventy percent of the time. Oh, look at that, it's a majority of minorities, thus with the majority's rule, nothing happens.

What did I have to lose really, I declared war and ordered the various army divisions to attack. Without any training of course, they did only JUST enlist. I didn't expect much, I had a different outcome in mind, these soldiers served a far more important purpose than just defeating the enemy. They represented time.

I led various assaults and had to take command over most of the battles since they DID outnumber our total military force by nearly twenty to one, but what the hell, we were going to win if I said we were going to win. As long as we could manage to hold the enemy assaults back, we'd be able to win. There was no way they could win if they couldn't advance into our nation. Using the extreme zeal of the citizen army I had raised, I strove to hold the onslaught back as long as possible. So long as I was at the front lines, there wouldn't be many soldiers running, no matter the situation.

Within the first week of fighting on the border, we had roughly eighty thousand casualties, the next week it was another fifty thousand.

Though, during the third week, there was only four thousand casualties. The time had finally come.

The reason for this was because the big superpower with all the big guns and had all those wonderful planes, aircraft and tanks, had run out of oil reserves decades ago. Meaning the second the oil supply from my nation ran out and the international oil embargo I requested against them kicked in, they burned through their entire reserve quickly. In that sense, if you put it to numbers, with my nation holding 80 percent, and the international community that answered my call for aid cutting off another 19 percent of the international oil reserves, that only left them with a single percent. A percent that you can't think would be fully available to drain at a moment's notice.

No, and whatever national stockpile they had would not last long either. A capitalist nation with no oil reserves and well over a billion civilians. Certainly the government wouldn't have control over what reserves were left, so most of what they had was burned up by the civilians. Even if the government were to gather support amongst themselves to seize up what was left, it would take far too long to gain said support to do so. They would fight amongst themselves and waste the little time they had to gather the resources.

The reason for the extreme casualties was mostly due inpart to my orders to not allow them to break through into one of our oil fields. Needless to say, holding off a military that's near twenty times larger than yours is not an easy venture. Though, I did enjoy the fighting. It certainly is not every day that you're able to take part in a battle between fifty thousand or a hundred thousand men.

In the end, things were not so great for our friend, the 'Super Power' as something began to change.

Power shortages and military desertion plagued the fourth week as the civil populace began to show great signs of unrest. Within five weeks, market prices on everything from food to water shot up ten fold. The economy was collapsing in on itself as an international oil embargo turned the nation’s remaining fuel into something worth more than the actual currency. Military desertion became commonplace as their mechanized army became totally useless before our invasion.

As we passed over abandoned military camps, and established supply lines, their equipment became our own.

By the end of the seventh week, we had already laid siege to the capital city.

By the tenth week, that big bad global superpower surrendered to my invasion force. At that point, my invasion force only numbered nine thousand out of the initial one hundred and sixty thousand. Though the entire army at this point was mechanized. Three soldiers to a tank, two to an aircraft. That remaining nine thousand soldiers was still a formidable fighting force. Enough so that the superpower, with nearly fifty times the population and thirty times the territory surrendered rather than attempt to resist. They were starving for resources at this point, that's a weakness to capitalism I suppose.

Beyond my military’s strength, most of the reasoning for the surrender was because of the civil anarchy currently plaguing the nation. Even if they wanted to resist, their economy that was so focused on international imports was collapsing on itself.

Ugg… just remembering the nine years it took to calm that territory down and get government restored, the economy rebalanced, the currency changed and the sociology and general populace outlook on individuality converted… What a pain. I swear there had to have been nearly a hundred thousand executions of anarchists and nationalists and revolutionaries against my social order. Of course they were only the ones that killed other civilians and attempted rebellions. Since they were doing so, they were branded terrorists... though there were a serious amount of them... Hah... just thinking about all the paperwork I had to fill out would probably give me a headache if I wasn't just about to perish...

One wonders why, when not only they are suffering, but everyone around them is suffering, do they point their fangs at the person offering them help… That had nothing to do with the fact that I totally didn’t cause their economical collapse and their suffering. Not a single chance that it would all be my fault. They started it after all, I just saw it as a chance to gather EVEN MORE resources to play with. Well, by resources, I mean economical resources rather than natural resources. A super power is a super power, plenty of technological advancements were made possible. If I recall... there was some gene project that used my DNA to attempt to replicate my development... weren't they starting human testing soon... hah.. doesn't matter now though...

Well, when you compare a hundred thousand people to the near one billion population, it doesn’t turn out to be that big of a deal does it.

After the economy had revitalized the nation was back on track, I attempted to step down from my position, only to receive such a major national and international backlash to the extent that I had no choice but to be stuck with it. Haah… I can somewhat understand what they were thinking though. No matter what I said, no matter how crazy the idea was, whatever I did, everyone benefitted from it.

My investiture into medical science increased the life expectancy of the human race to almost two hundred years. Cancer and many other diseases were eliminated under the extensive international focus on research and development. Through the study of my body’s physiology and structure, medical science discovered ways to grow new organs and rebuild entire lost limbs.

Through this research, brain damage and spinal damage now had cures. Through the medical development, the private industry continuously developed the technological field to keep up with the medical demands. The international economy thrived under a golden age of intellectual development.

Surrounding smaller nations began to either vote to join or started revolutions to join my nation. Just to mention, on almost all occasions I had heavily influenced those situations into causing them to join, rather than it having much to do with their actual free choice.

Ah, almost up to the present now… good thing too, because i’ve only got another ten seconds or so… maybe twelve if I really feel like it…

With everything that had been built, everything that I headed and forged with the flames of determination, our planet looked as if it would finally, finally enter an era of understanding, an era of learning, of growth, of prosperity, and, the most desired achievement of all, of peace.

WELL, of course the moment that I actually thought that cursed doom flag called peace, a certain report started circling through the government chains. It would just so happen that I was one of the first to learn about it.

[Part 2: The Unity of Man - END]