Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 1233 - 669: Collapse and Breakout

Chapter 1233: Chapter 669: Collapse and Breakout
The Northern Line Army Group is different from the Western and Southern lines.
The Western Front has an absolute main force: the Otaubis Battle Group, the Solar Fleet, and the Sun Legion.
Although there are three entities, they are all direct units working for Holy Terra, and they have been cooperating with each other for a long time. Salius has full leadership authority over the Solar Fleet and the Sun Legion. Whether it is the Fleet Commander or the head of the Star Realm Army, they have no resistance to following Salius’s orders, allowing him to fully mobilize the Western Front Army’s troops.
As for the Southern Front, it’s even less so, as it’s only the Alliance itself.
Of course, both the Western and Southern lines have some additional forces. For instance, the Western Front has some remnants from the first Western attack that remained after following orders from the Phoenix Legion; there are also other battle groups or warships, and Star Realm Armed Forces that joined during the gathering process; some local forces conscripted from the Magrey Cosmic Domain…
The Southern Front also has some troops deployed from the Eastern Cosmos Domain and even the Yun Mengze Cosmos Domain located west of the Eastern Cosmos Domain, obeying Gu Hang’s command.
However, these ’foreign troops’ are merely auxiliary in the Southern and Western lines, not the core, serving as mere embellishments.
Gu Hang or Salius has strong control over their core forces, thus enabling them to command the overall army.
But the Northern Line isn’t like this; it’s a true coalition force.
Although the Black Cross Legion is a core component, its proportion in the entire North Line is honestly incomparable to that of the Western Front, let alone the Southern Front’s Alliance.
There are also double the personnel from other battle groups; the fleet is likewise a patchwork fleet. Besides the Black Cross Legion, the Star Devouring Cosmos provided significant support. And the ships from the Star Devouring Cosmos are of the same nature as those of the Northern Fleet and Yunluo Fleet from the Dragonhawk Star Domain in the past.
These fleets under the Star Domain Governments already have no inherent subordinate relationships and are forcibly combined. It’s likely that when leaving their home base to join the Expeditionary Force, they were advised by their home government’s heads to try to bring the fleet back. After all, for a star domain, the fleet’s value is enormous. If truly expended for the Empire, who knows how many years it would take to rebuild with the Star Domain Government’s financial capability.
Especially for some impoverished star domains.
And during the tug-of-war between the Northern Line Legion and the insect swarms in the Reya Duches Star System, the first to collapse were these star domain fleets.
They simply slipped away and ran.
The Insect Nest Fleet, showing great intelligence, didn’t chase after those escaping human ships but instead focused on applying greater pressure on the human fleet.
As the battle became increasingly untenable and seeing that the fleeing ships indeed escaped, more of the already wavering human ships began to rout.
By this stage, human losses in the fleet were not particularly severe. After all, the backbone ships hadn’t fled yet.
The greatest impact was on morale. View the correct content at freew(eb)no\vel..(c)om.
A substantial influence on the war situation was due to the breach in the fleet formation. The Insect Nest Fleet could take advantage of the human ship’s missing firepower to make a breakthrough. Not only did this leave human ships vulnerable to side assaults, but even some core ships were exposed.
In one swift assault, the flagship, considered the most important in the Northern Line Legion Fleet, from the Black Cross Legion’s Third Fleet, where Leroux himself commanded, was destroyed under concentrated fire.
Before and after the ship exploded, escape pods managed to flee from the doomed combat barge. Perhaps Leroux himself, along with some crucial personnel onboard, managed to escape. However, in the dire communication environment, no one could contact Leroux, and he could no longer command the entire fleet effectively.
Soon after, Marshal Xi Rui of the Black Cross Legion’s Fourth Fleet took over command. His combat barge was indeed assigned as the second flagship in the fleet sequence. f r\eeNovelFire.c(o)(m)
Marshal Xi Rui’s handling after taking over was by no means incorrect. Tactically, he tried to fill the tactical formation gap left by the destroyed combat barge; strategically, he did his utmost to steady morale, preventing a total fleet collapse.
However, regardless of his efforts, total collapse still came.
With Leroux’s disappearance and the flagship’s destruction, more ships began withdrawing from battle.
Orders sent out received no response.
It was unclear whether the omnipresent and powerful communication jamming ability of the insect swarm intercepted them or if they were heard and intentionally ignored.
The Tribunal warship where Qin Zhiping was stationed persevered the longest.
But it was meaningless.
Seeing the defeat as inevitable, realizing the greater trend was lost, Qin Zhiping had no choice but to order a retreat.
Or rather, ’breakthrough’ sounds more optimistic.
He successfully broke through; despite substantial ship losses and being unable to reconnect with main forces after a Star Realm jump, he and his crew survived.
But as soon as they breathed a sigh of relief, bad news kept coming.
The damage control department reported severe damage to the ship, irreparable under current conditions, and it could only be patched temporarily to remain operational. However, there was no guarantee on how much longer it would last, possibly breaking down abruptly at some point.
Qin Zhiping could only steer his ship eastward.
He knew heading north was suicidal, as that territory also belonged to the insect swarms. Heading east, to the Alliance-occupied Alfonso Star Domain, was closer, perhaps offering a glimmer of hope if they made it through.
Then, they were attacked by Void Insect Species hunting ships.
Evidently, during the previous battle, the insect race’s disregard for fleeing human ships was just a momentary tactical strategy. After achieving a fleet battle victory, those fleeing ships became war spoils needing reclaiming.
Dragging a damaged ship, they couldn’t escape pursuit.
The last of their power only allowed Qin Zhiping’s Tribunal ship to make a forced landing on this world called ’Taiyuan Star.’
20% of the onboard personnel perished during the landing.
Yet, at least 80% survived.
Their post-crisis relief was short-lived, as they immediately faced the endless pursuit of the insect swarm!
