CHAPTER 140: SCATTERED SHADOW

Tom knew that his opponent had probably already learned that he could only control a maximum of 160,000 warships at a time.

But it didn’t matter; even if they knew, it was fine. He hadn’t planned to keep this a secret for too long anyway, and he couldn’t.

"So, what kind of tactics will you choose next?"

Tom’s heart was heavy, yet also slightly curious.

Under Tom’s strict preparedness, he saw that the opponent’s tactics had indeed changed.

The massive fleets no longer gathered together but began to disperse and maneuver on a large scale within the solar system, sometimes scattered, sometimes concentrated. Their attack targets also seemed not to be fixed but full of randomness.

In the previous stage, they were attacking Jupiter. It didn’t last long, didn’t cause much damage, and he didn’t suffer many casualties. Suddenly, the attack stopped, the fleet quickly withdrew, then merged with several other fleets and went to attack Mars.

The other fleets scattered throughout the solar system did the same, attacking one planet for a while, then another.

This posture somewhat resembled a war of attrition or guerrilla warfare.

"Playing guerrilla warfare with me? Can your logistics sustain it?"

Tom felt a bit confused.

At this stage, the Bluetoth Fleet’s logistical supply relied entirely on the extremely distant dwarf planets from the edge of the solar system, deep in space.

Individual dwarf planets have limited resource reserves, so the Bluetoth Fleet’s mining fleet had to travel long distances, back and forth between dwarf planets, expending great effort to collect enough minerals and resources to send to the battlefield.

Under such circumstances, you don’t seek a quick decisive battle, but instead... drag out the time?

The opponent must be planning some conspiracy.

Tom thought for a moment but couldn’t figure out what his opponent was planning. However, this was enough to draw Tom’s attention and make him re-examine his defense system.

Relying on the eight planets, each planet had established a complete unmanned combat defense system, stockpiling a large number of space turrets, unmanned warships, space mines, and ground air defense bases.

Each planet itself had stored a large number of clones and manned warships, and the eight planets could support each other.

His consciousness could also transfer freely at any time; if a planet’s battle was tight, he could immediately transfer there, and by completely eliminating communication delays, command Goku AI and the manned fleet to exert their full strength.

In terms of local combat and interstellar transport, he also had an advantage because there were many unmanned combat forces everywhere escorting his transport fleet, and each planet had ample resources to support it...

No matter how he looked at it, his defense system had no loopholes.

Since that was the case, he would just continue fighting with his opponent.

At once, the situation within the solar system changed again.

Large-scale planetary offense and defense battles like before no longer occurred, replaced by small-scale field battles, encounters, and surprise attacks.

The scale of combat greatly decreased, but the brutality and overall intensity of the fighting increased again.

At its peak, thousands of battles were even occurring simultaneously within the solar system, with hundreds of thousands of various warships distributed from as far as Neptune’s orbit to as close as Mercury’s orbit. There were battles everywhere, and the roar of cannon fire echoed throughout.

The vast solar system seemed to have turned into a meat grinder, constantly shredding both sides’ warships and soldiers, grinding them into the finest interstellar dust, merging with the starry sky.

Although the battle was brutal and the consumption immense, Tom was not panicked in the slightest.

The reason was simple: I have the eight planets as a resource base, with endless resources. However many clones die, I’ll replenish them; however many warships are destroyed, I’ll replenish them!

Let’s wear each other down, who’s afraid of whom?

On the contrary, your resource supply must be getting more difficult, right? The number of warships and soldiers has been decreasing, right?

I want to see if you can outlast me!

...

Bluetoth Civilization flagship, a high-level civilization meeting.

"Chief! We can no longer allow General Harrier to continue wasting our civilization’s precious warships, resources, and the lives of our soldiers!"

"It is unwise to engage in a war of attrition with the opponent; we simply cannot outlast them!"

"During this time, what else has Harrier done besides pointlessly wasting resources and lives?"

"Remove him! Chief, I request that you remove him!"

Inside the conference hall, people were seething with anger.

Chief Haiwei looked at the agitated crowd, his expression still calm.

He knew very well that it wasn’t just these high-ranking civilization officials who were agitated at this moment.

Every high-ranking official represented a huge interest group in a certain field behind him. Those interest groups, in turn, involved many citizens.

Rather than saying these high-ranking officials were acting out of personal indignation, it was more accurate to say they were the spokespersons for numerous interest groups and countless citizens behind them.

Clearly, General Harrier’s performance during this period had aroused opposition from almost everyone in the entire civilization, from top to bottom.

This resistance was so great that it had even coalesced into a consensus.

Remove Harrier, severely punish Harrier, and let another general fight this war!

However... he knew very well that Harrier was the one who was right.

He was the only one who had hope of leading them to win this civilization war.

Since that was the case, these storms and waves would be borne by him.

This was his duty.

Harrier, I will not let internal changes within the civilization affect you in the slightest. All pressure from behind will be borne by me. You only need to do your job.

Chief Haiwei stood up calmly.

The hall immediately fell silent.

"This matter... need not be discussed further. I have resolved to let Harrier lead this war and will not waver.

This is what I say to you, and this is what I will say to the citizens.

You may not understand now, but in the future, you will."

Chief Haiwei flicked his sleeves and left.

The hall remained silent, and no one dared to stand up and object again.

Over so many years, Chief Haiwei’s prestige had become deeply ingrained in people’s hearts. Once he adopted a resolute stance, no one dared to object.

Since he had made up his mind, then... let it be done.

A storm involving the entire civilization was forcibly suppressed by Chief Haiwei, relying on his personal prestige.

On the front lines, the brutal battle continued.

General Harrier’s expression was grave all day long. He slept only four hours a day on average, far less than normal rest time, but his spirit remained pathologically excited every day.

The Chief’s expectations, the pressure from the citizens, the hope of the civilization...

Everything rested on him.

Time quietly passed, and one day, at another intelligence analysis meeting, looking at the intelligence from the entire solar system presented by the war AI, a strange glint appeared on General Harrier’s face.

"I’ve found their weakness.

Yes, I’ve found it."