A Colossus rushes in at the start

Chapter 59 The Bee Swarm Strategy Remains Steadfast

Above the vast starry sky, the disadvantages of the Star Alliance became increasingly apparent as more and more planetary life forms entered the closed spacetime.

Unable to attack the microcosm-type planetary being's physical body, and with the gravity-blocking ships no longer able to prevent it from entering faster-than-light speeds, the Star Alliance's fleet-maintained war front was constantly being pushed back.

The Star Alliance has considered changing its strategy, such as using light cones to fight guerrilla warfare against cosmic planetary creatures. They would first have their fleet launch an attack from a distance of a few light centimeters from the cosmic planetary creatures, and then immediately hide in faster-than-light mode. The cosmic planetary creatures would only discover the enemy's attack a few minutes later, and by then, the attacking fleet would have already escaped at faster-than-light speed.

However, this guerrilla warfare is only effective against single microcosmic planetary organisms.

On the battlefield, what matters is group fighting, inter-unit coordination, and the power of unity. It's not like the one-on-one duels between big shots in martial arts or fantasy novels. In war, the side that prioritizes martial ethics will die the faster.

The galactic intelligence network built by the second-generation scouts makes it difficult for the Star Alliance fleet to escape or hide, as long as they remain in the galaxy, to escape detection by the swarm.

Therefore, every time the Star Alliance fleet launches an offensive against cosmic planetary life on a light-minute or light-time scale, it is quickly intercepted by nearby planetary life in cooperation with each other, and captured and destroyed by gravitational interference waves.

However, even so, the Star Alliance persisted in using this tactic, firstly to test what type of attack could harm microcosm-type planetary creatures, and secondly to delay the speed at which the planetary creatures conquered the star field, buying more time to find a solution.

Unfortunately, the Star River Alliance was unaware that their plans coincided with Lu Shang's ideas.

Lu Shang never intended to defeat the Star River Alliance too quickly. Otherwise, if all the Star River Alliance civilizations were to flee en masse, the current number of bees would make it impossible to guarantee that they could all be intercepted. Moreover, there was no relevant intelligence network on the fourth and fifth spiral arms.

We can't just let the battlefront in the river system expand beyond the river system, can we?

Therefore, before the second-generation scouts are deployed in the fourth and fifth spiral arms, Lu Shang needs to give the Star River Alliance a glimmer of hope that they can turn the tide.

As for whether the Star Alliance will find a way to attack life forms on cosmic planets, Lu Shang is not worried at all.

Seeing that all the attacks, both understandable and incomprehensible, landed on the phantom constructed by the planetary creature using psionic energy, or within a few light-seconds of the phantom, Lu Shang knew that the Star River Alliance still believed that the true form of the cosmic planetary creature was still in this universe.

Does anyone really expect to destroy the enemy by destroying the 'phantom' projected by the enemy?

If you're on the wrong track, the harder you try, the more you'll fail!

The war lasted for nearly three years. Although the Star Alliance's massive fleet suffered repeated defeats and heavy losses, its size never decreased.

The reason for this is, of course, those fortress ships that took over the role of the war machine group.

Compared to the Star Alliance's previous war machine hordes, they possessed faster-than-light mobility and combat capabilities, and were equipped with colossus weapons, capable of blasting a planet to smithereens with a single blow.

If they are deployed to a star system, they can extract star matter within a day and produce a full-strength Star Alliance fleet.

However, these are not particularly dangerous. Their existence poses no threat to life on cosmic planets. They are just very good at escaping. They often set up sensors a few days before their anchorage, and if they are disturbed, they will immediately enter faster-than-light speeds.

Moreover, each fortress ship is spaced more than twenty light-years apart, completely eliminating the possibility of wiping them all out in one fell swoop.

Lu Shang was too lazy to waste time outsmarting these fortress ships; his attacks mainly targeted administrative stars.

The people are always the vessel of a civilization. No matter how much technology changes or how advanced it becomes, it will ultimately serve the people within that civilization.

To control the people is to control civilization.

The Star Alliance has to choose between two options: either its fleet comes out to be attacked, or its administrative planet is infected.

The Star Alliance may seem to have a choice, but in reality, it has no choice.

In order to regain the initiative in the war, Lu Shang was surprised to find that many of the Star River Alliance's uninfected mobile administrative stars were moving towards the center of the galaxy.

After completing the second-generation scout expansion of the fourth and fifth spiral arms, it was basically determined that the Star Alliance would gather the remaining administrative capitals in the center of the galaxy.

"What are they planning to do? Lure the bee swarm into a final, decisive battle?"

"The main force of the bee swarm cannot gather too much towards the center of the river system, otherwise it is in danger of being sealed into a frozen cycle of reincarnation."

"The environment there has a strong suppressive effect on the use of psionic energy."

Nanali and the other masterminds were quite wary of the galactic center, mainly because the battle between the Star Alliance and the Void Gods had taken place there.

The main forces of the Babel Tower swarm and other dependent races were left behind by the Star Alliance's gravitational interference fleet, forcibly taking the supernova explosions of several supergiant stars with their faces.

It goes without saying how much psychological trauma the swarm's masterminds have of this place.

Moreover, the powerful gravity at the center of the galaxy has a strong suppressive effect on the use of psionic energy.

Matter tells spacetime how to bend, and spacetime tells matter how to move—psychic energy acts on spacetime itself, influencing the movement of matter through changes in spacetime.

In other words, if the difficulty of spacetime distortion increases, the effect of psionic energy on matter will weaken.

If we understand spacetime as a piece of soft tofu, a human hand can bend it effortlessly.

The gravitational pull at the center of the galaxy acts like a compressor, compressing this soft tofu into something almost as hard as cardboard. If a person were to try to bend this tofu, they would undoubtedly need to use even greater force.

Once the swarm attacks the center of the galaxy, although the range of psionic energy remains unchanged, level twelve psionic energy may only produce physical effects at level six or even lower.

However, even so, it wouldn't have a serious impact on the planetary life form. It carries too many psionic brains, and even if these psionic brains can only exert psionic power equivalent to level one, it is still many dimensions stronger than the psionic power released by a single level twelve psionic brain.

"Whether it's a trap or not is irrelevant. I've said it before, let them fight their battles, and we'll fight ours."

"We don't need to care what the Star Alliance did; we just need to proceed at our own pace and achieve final victory step by step."

Lu Shang ordered all planetary life forms in the galaxy: "Occupy the starfields ceded by the Star Alliance; the swarm needs more planetary life forms."

"The remaining planetary life forms began to construct a blockade network along the jet streams on both sides of the galaxy, cutting off all faster-than-light routes for them to leave the galaxy."

"Once we have accumulated enough planetary life, we will begin a full-scale attack."

Kasha thought for a moment, then asked worriedly, "Is it too late?"

"Don't worry, time is on the side of the swarm," Lu Shang replied.

Gravity compresses spacetime, which has the effect of slowing down time. Compared to normal time, the flow of time at the center of the galaxy is slowed down!

Combined with the time acceleration of the swarm's use of psionic energy, the time difference in material utilization between the Babel swarm and the Star Alliance will only become greater!

(End of this chapter)