At 7:49 Venal time, an hour and forty minutes after the descent of the insectoid invasion army.
The Ministry of Military Affairs, the joint conference of supreme defense commanders.
Tai intentionally coughed twice. “The President announced roughly more than an hour ago that the entire Alliance is now under martial law. The military now has complete control of its defenses. The reserves and civil defense forces will soon come under our control.
“Currently, we require a workable strategy to drive these contemptible bugs out of the Alliance territory.”
The generals were all silent. Williams took out a box of maple syrup candy and lightly placed one in his mouth before speaking. “Our enemies’ goal is very clear: occupy the capital. After which, they’ll use the resources of the capital ring to move onto the next phase of their plan. We must stop them from achieving their goal.”
An old, dark-skinned general to the side heavily sighed. “General Williams, the enemy army will take no more than four days to arrive, and our main forces are stationed at the borders. You should know more than anyone else how much strength the capital defense forces have available. It’s not realistic to stop them with the forces we have in the capital, and there’s not enough time to bring in men from outside. This isn’t even considering the other enemy army threatening the Endaro Star Region! We can’t afford to move the border armies! In these circumstances, do you really think that it’s possible to defend the capital?”
The conference room was filled with sighs. The Alliance’s army was scattered across the border regions, but there were still one hundred combined fleets stationed in the capital. Still, these one hundred fleets were not enough at all compared to the more than six hundred fleets of their enemy! Moreover, the insectoids still had six hundred fleets at the edge of the Endaro Star Region, ready to rush in at any time. The situation was extremely perilous.
On the planar starmap, the Endaro Star Region was located south of the capital ring. Once the insectoids occupied the capital, the fleets could join with the existing army on the borders to surround from this region to the south of the capital, and there was no doubt that the Alliance would be unable to hold out against the assault of 1200 fleets. A quarter of the Alliance’s southern territories would instantly be occupied by the insectoids.
These were not the only consequences to the capital being taken. It had to be understood that this was the political, economic, and culture heart of the Alliance! Once the capital was lost, the economic impact to the Alliance would be immense, and panic would rapidly spread through the people. After all, the capital ring was the heart and face of the Alliance. Without the heart, how could a human survive?
Williams lightly rapped his finger on the table. “In brief, the capital can’t be lost. This is the result of meticulous analysis performed by the staff of the general headquarters. Once the capital is lost, the Alliance’s economy will fall back by one thousand years, and both the army and common people will be thrown into disarray.”
The dark-skinned general slapped the table and furiously said, “General Williams, your staff officers can really talk! The capital ring’s defense army consists of one hundred and six fleets in total, and thirty percent of them aren’t combined fleets. Within three days, we can only amass another seventy or so fleets from the surrounding areas, not even hitting two hundred fleets in all. If we were to exclude the security defensive fleets, which lacked any fighting power, our true fighting force is essentially one hundred combined fleets, so using one hundred fleets against the over six hundred insectoid fleets heading toward the capital, each supplemented with two capital ships… If you could fight this war and win, this old man would cut off his head and give it to you!”
The sighs of exasperation in the conference room got even heavier. This was a hopeless war. All the generals present understood this.
“I’m not saying that we should directly fight with the enemy, but have any of you ever thought of this? The capital possesses the best resources and manpower in the Alliance. If we can’t hold the capital, we can just move the capital away and set the entire Venal Galaxy aflame, not leaving the enemies even a shred of resources!”
Everyone was stunned.
Setting the Venal Galaxy aflame? This was where humanity had originated, god’s gift to them. Every citizen of the Pan-human Alliance regarded this place as holy land!
Moving the capital? Destroying the Venal Galaxy? Forget even pulling it off in the limited time available, such an option was something that they could not emotionally accept! This was like giving someone a knife and telling them to stab themselves in the heart. It required enormous courage!
Williams clenched his teeth. “I know that none of you are willing to give up on the capital—give up on this first home that humanity first inhabited, but I must remind you all that only a place where humans live can be called our home. Once the Venal Galaxy falls into the hands of the insectoids, the result will be a hundred times more tragic than now!”
They all fell silent. This was a difficult decision. No one was willing to give up on Venal, but all of them understood that the military did not have the ability to protect it.
“I object!” shouted a general with large ears. They all glanced at him and saw that this was the deputy head of the Admiralty, Admiral Layton’s aide Statham. Layton had already gone off to the Endaro Star Region to lead the defense, leaving Statham and the rest of his aides in the Admiralty to oversee affairs.
“The Venal Galaxy was already lost once, during the robot rebellion; we can’t allow her to be lost again at the hands of the insectoids! The Admiralty headquarters has a fleet consisting entirely of capital ships, eighty dreadnoughts, eighty carriers, and ten supercarriers! Now is the time to deploy the supercapital fleet on the battlefield and defend Venal Galaxy to the death! Even if we die, we must die here!”
Before the man could finish, Williams softly said, “The Freedom Cavalry is the foundation of the military. Unless it is absolutely necessary, we can’t mobilize this supercapital fleet. Plus, even if we send in the Freedom Cavalry, can we really win? What if this force is completely wiped out? The Alliance will lose its final hope!”
The Freedom Cavalry they spoke of was a superfleet formed entirely of capital ships, and its base was only twenty jumps away from the capital ring. The military had invested enormous efforts into the superfleet. All of the members of it were the elites of the elites and could go one versus one hundred!
Alas, the Freedom Cavalry was the only force of its kind in the Alliance, the last resort of the military. If the Freedom Cavalry was sent in, the military would lose its means of contending against the insectoids. After all, the capital ships in this fleet formed one-third of the total number of capital ships in the Alliance.
“You coward! You traitor! You’re giving up on Venal Galaxy? The people will curse your name, you contemptible scoundrel! Don’t you fear being drowned to death by the spittle of the people cursing your name?” Statham furiously bellowed, his body shivering in agitation.
Williams turned the candy in his mouth over with his tongue before lightly answering, “I’m not afraid. The only thing I fear is humanity being wiped off the starmap. The capital can be rebuilt, but can humanity?”
Stathman was unconvinced, but before he could continue cursing Pine Williams, he heard a great boom. Silver-haired General Tai finally had enough.
He slammed the table and sent the tea cups on it flying in the air, his face ashen.
Even the temperamental Statham did not dare to say anymore. The legends said that Tai’s bellow of fury was an ultimate weapon akin to the Roar of the Goddess of Freedom. Nobody dared to challenge General Tai’s authority in the military.
“ENOUGH! SILENCE, ALL OF YOU!” Tai roared. The conference room became deathly still, the generals not even daring to breathe too loudly.
“Williams, how long will it take to move the capital?” Tai sternly asked, his tone brooking no objection. Though he said that he would hear the opinions of others, once he made up his mind, he would execute his decisions without hesitation and not care one bit about what other people felt.
Williams opened his micro-supercomputer and took out a detailed form. “One hundred and eighty hours, provided that the military, police, and the various fighter organizations and corporations work together.”
Tai nodded. Williams truly deserved his position as chief of the military’s general staff and member of the military triumvirate, and the subordinate that he was the most proud of. The incident had only taken place around one hour ago, but Williams had already developed a detailed solution for withdrawing from the capital. This was firm proof of his decision-making and thinking abilities.
“General Williams!” Tai sternly said.
“Present!” Williams immediately stood up and saluted.
“The military appoints you as chief commander of the capital withdrawal plan. You have full authority to execute this plan! Within one hundred and fifty hours, you are to withdraw the capital to the Alliance’s northern region! Anyone who disobeys you can be executed first and reported after this is all over.”
“Understood!” Williams replied.
“General Souness of the Civil Defense Force, General Mi Jian of the Safety Bureau, and Chief Na Chuan of the Alliance Police Force.”
“Present!” The three senior officers in charge of the civil defense and safety of the capital quickly stood up.
“Starting now, all your men are under the direct command of the military. I give you twenty-four hours to gather all the available warships, transport ships, and even the shuttles around the capital. As for exactly how, seek orders from General Williams!”
“Yes!”
“Fleets 1574, 2356, 8426… Seventy fleets in total are to head to the Peace Mountain Base in the Placid Star Region south of the capital immediately and prepare to head off the insectoid fleets! If any fleet does not arrive within forty-eight hours, their fleet commander is to be summarily executed!”
The generals were flabbergasted. None of the seventy fleets Tai had mentioned were combat capable, and all were old or crippled fleets, instead. In doing this, he was essentially ordering the seventy inferior fleets to commit suicide!
Let alone the seventy inferior fleets, even seventy of the best fleets of the Alliance would be unable to slow the insectoids’ advance. The result was obvious even before the battle had taken place.
These were seventy fleets! The total number of crew neared one hundred million people!
One order from the general meant the loss of one hundred million lives. This was the cruelty of war.
The generals swallowed. If they had been in Tai’s position, they would have never had the courage to make this kind of decision.
Williams did not show any reaction. It was an ancient principle that the kind should not command soldiers. Anyone who aspired to be a great general must be willing to achieve victory at any costs. Tai had no other options but to make this decision. While sending one hundred million souls to their deaths seemed very cruel, if the enemies were allowed to attack the capital, even more lives would be lost. That would be the true cruelty.
Having the entire army retreat to the north to reestablish the capital, sacrificing human lives to buy time and gather together a stronger force for a battle at another time was the only possible choice!
After some thought, Williams asked, “Who do you plan to have command these seventy fleets?”
Silver-haired Tai’s eyes gleamed with a cold light as he harshly replied, “It has to be that man! It’s about time that we put him to use.”
