Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 1679 - 951: Unequal Treaty (2)

Aside from the native defense system, there’s also a force that can be mobilized, originating from the armed merchant ships of the Alliance caravans. Although their primary work and task are to conduct business, serving as veins to maintain trade within the Alliance, in necessary times, their armed forces can also be called upon to counter the enemy.

Especially since the Alliance caravans are originally an important prey for the Dark Spirit Race.

According to this kind of hinterland Star Sea defense system, when opposing the Dark Spirit Race’s raiding fleets, which are fully engaged across multiple Cosmos Domains and numerous Star Domains, simultaneously seeking targets and conducting ultra-limit operations, it’s genuinely challenging.

Honestly, a large number of attacks from the Dark Spirit Race were thwarted, and their failure rate is actually quite high.

But the problem is, the Dark Spirit Race fails often, yet their costs are low!

This mainly lies in their strategic issues.

The Dark Spirit Race would not be reckless.

According to the intelligence obtained from prisoners by the current Alliance, those in charge of conducting ultra-limit operations in the manifested universe are led by Isara of the Dusk Fang, a joint action of over fifteen large dark-skinned families.

Their strategies are extremely nimble. Their raiding fleets are divided finer than human forces, they prudently choose targets, and once they detect anything off, they immediately run, never confronting directly.

Once successful, they aim to cause as much damage as possible.

Just imagine, a planet suddenly attacked by about fifteen dark-skinned ships. This planet is relatively poor, with a population possibly not exceeding a billion, an army of about ten million defending globally; no navy; and a relatively backward planetary orbital defense system with insufficient construction.

In the entire universe, within the overall polity of the Alliance, this place is like a ‘village’.

Suddenly attacked by the dark-skinned ones, their elite forces landed, beheading and assassinating officials, causing chaos among the planetary leadership; then, they plunder important resources; using various weapons to massacre civilians.

After causing havoc for about ten days, when the support fleet is still two or three star systems away, they decisively withdraw.

If they have time before leaving, they can even conduct an orbital bombardment.

How can this be defended against?

It is extremely hard to defend against.

If they are unsuccessful at the assassination stage, strongly resisted by the Defense Army during the land plundering phase, or intercepted by orbital defense systems during orbital bombardment or when deploying something akin to an Extinction Order, the Dark Spirit Race would undoubtedly admit defeat decisively, abandon the target, and flee.

A few times, the Alliance’s rapid fleets caught them, winning a few battles, but overall, it’s mostly been at a disadvantage.

The native defense fleet has always been in a state of constant rush.

Honestly, this series of measures by the Dark Spirit Race is quite successful.

In a certain sense, the Alliance can almost be considered to have suffered a ‘defeat’.

How do you determine the victory or defeat of a war? Isn’t it just about whether the strategic goals of the parties involved have been achieved?

From this perspective, the strategic goal of the Dark Spirit Race, using what they call the Blood Rose Maze and spreading the flames of war to the Alliance’s homeland, like an ‘annoying bloodsucking mosquito’, indeed has been achieved: they’ve successfully forced the Alliance back to the negotiation table.

Negotiations have recommenced.

In the meantime, the Alliance was also unwilling and tried several times.

Even though the difficulties present themselves unsolvable, they still need to be resolved.

Even if the final outcome is a settlement through negotiations, what’s on the negotiation table must be earned through battlefield performance.

The Alliance successfully detonated two planetary obliteration bombs inside Comoros.

These two super bombs, though not capable of wiping out an entire planet like that, at least destroyed two districts heavily guarded by the Blood Maze. Even though the Alliance’s suicide squads bore huge sacrifices to deliver the bombs, and the planetary obliteration bombs themselves are extremely expensive consumable weapons, it’s uncertain if it was worthwhile.

However, the Alliance is also using this approach to harshly warn the dark-skinned ones: do not assume I am helpless. If we too are willing to pay any price, we still have the ability to utterly destroy you.

Additionally, on the Star Sea Battlefield in the manifested universe, the Alliance urgently redeployed fleets from the five major armies.

These fleets are specialized ‘Hunting Fleets’, equipped specifically for this purpose. While the Retribution-class battleships have very strong frontal combat capabilities and can be considered the backbone of the star battle, they are too slow. Similarly slow, the Zhuge-class carriers have also bid farewell.

These hunting fleets are often centered on the fastest Holy Grail Level battlecruisers, complemented by numerous destroyers and a small number of fast cruisers and light carriers to swiftly hunt down the raiding fleets of the Dark Spirit Race roaming within human Star Domains.

These raiding fleets cannot retreat through the Veil Spirit Gate after just one hit. Many are captured, completely destroyed, while hiding or in action before or after.

Simultaneously, with the frequent usage of the Dark Spirit Race’s Veil Spirit Gate, some locations have been deciphered. Human hunting fleets often arrive in advance, not in a hurry to destroy the Veil Spirit Gate, but patiently wait at the door. When the next wave of dark skins comes out or returns, they strike again, launching an ambush.

This effectively confines the Dark Spirit Race’s raiding operations in the manifested universe.

With difficult but progressing situations on both fronts, Ambassador Deska at the negotiation table grew more confident.

Finally, through continuous compromise and confrontation, a preliminary peace talk agreement was reached.

The Alliance permanently owns the already occupied Queen Rose Port and Bodhisattva Port.

The Alliance has the right to lease eight ports, including one large port, two medium-sized ports, and five small ports. These ports are contiguous with Queen Rose and Bodhisattva Port.

The Alliance has the right to station troops at these leased ports, jointly managed by both sides. A lease fee was negotiated, which the Alliance can fully accept. Theoretically, using these leased ports for transport and troop deployment costs seven times more than conventional transport energy, but the advantage lies in the drastically shortened time for troop deployment and important material transportation.

When humans have needs, the Dark Spirit Race must conditionally open their countless Veil Spirit Gate nodes in the manifested universe.

The Dark Spirit Race can engage in some technological trades with humans. The relevant technology list has been drawn up by both sides, but honestly, this can only be considered an added bonus. The dark-skinned ones are not too fond of human technology, limiting their military expansion or self-development, with bottlenecks rarely in technology.

And humans are quite eager for dark-skinned technology, but many dark-skinned technologies are developed based on their own conditions, which humans may not find useful.

Moreover, truly core technologies will not be shared by the other side.

These conditions can be regarded as the Alliance’s gains in this war.

Conversely, what did the Dark Spirit Race gain?

Ceasefire, no longer getting beaten.

Trade, they can use their own produced goods, high-precision creations, and port usage rights for trade with the Alliance. Among these, the most important are basic energy, food, and raw materials.

With these conditions, although the core areas of Comoros remain fully controlled by the Dark Spirit Race, and most ports still remain in the hands of the dark skins, it can be said that Gu Hang’s goal to aggressively attack Comoros at great cost has been achieved.

The Alliance has gained the ability to use the Veil Spirit Gate for large-scale troop deployment!

From this overall perspective, humans are truly the victors: all the strategic goals that Gu Hang wanted were achieved.

And the dark skins gained nothing. They didn’t obtain the two Chosen Ones they desired; they took a beating; a significant portion of their home was ceded out, either becoming permanently administered by the Alliance or existing as a ‘concession’.

What they received in return was merely stopping the beatings, along with vague and potentially restricted trade with humans.

For the Dark Spirit Race, this is undoubtedly an unequal treaty.