At first hearing, the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race had lost no small number this time.
But in fact, the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race the Hive Princess had put onto the Devourer Civilization's interstellar battlefields so far made up only half of the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race as it stood now.
For the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race had by now grown to over 1 billion!
And that figure of 1 billion did not include the low-grade hive units.
And that was with the Hive Princess keeping numbers down for "quality breeding."
If the Hive Princess were let breed and produce without restraint as things stood, the part of the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race that had been lost could recover in the shortest time, so long as resources and food were plentiful.
And right now, wasn't there a great deal of food?
There were the 30-million-odd Devourer Civilization interstellar warships stranded in the Owl Dragon Empire's universe.
"Little Bug, next our Owl Dragon Empire's fighting at home needs the help of the hive fleets under you too. And then all the wreckage of those interstellar warships you can take back as food, to quickly make up the numbers the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race has lost," Zhao Chen told the Hive Princess.
The Hive Princess nodded. "Got it, Brother."
The video window closed.
Now only Lilith was left beside Zhao Chen again.
"Now you can rest easy, can't you? Everything has gone very smoothly; we've got through the trouble in front of us, more or less," Lilith said, smiling at Zhao Chen.
But Zhao Chen said seriously, "It isn't over yet. The Devourer Civilization has 30 million interstellar warships stranded inside our empire; those Devourer Civilization Sovereigns will never sit and watch while we wipe this part of their interstellar fleets out to the last ship. They'll certainly find a way to send support. They'll open a few more space jump points into our universe in the shortest time they can."
Lilith thought a moment and nodded. "You're right about that. But they'll need to gather the resources for it again now, and muster the interstellar fleets they need too; that takes a great deal of time. At least it can't possibly be done in a short while."
"Dragon Girl, can you calculate how long the Devourer Civilization would need to launch another invasion against us this way?" Zhao Chen looked at the Dragon Emperor's artificial intelligence.
"No problem." Little Dragon Girl's eyes gazed into the void as though looking at something; in her pupils countless streams of data could be seen flowing past without end.
Zhao Chen went on, "Whatever happens, we have to devour these 30-million-odd interstellar warships in the shortest time we can."
Lilith frowned. "These 30-million-odd enemy interstellar warships have no logistics support or resupply now, true, and their morale will waver too. But their size and numbers are what they are. And our Owl Dragon Empire's legion fleets have fewer than 3 million interstellar warships, and the Sacred Elf legion fleet groups seven or eight million; together that's only 10 million. Even if we can also move the Hive Princess's interstellar hive-race fleets, which come to an estimated 500 million, devouring the Devourer Civilization's 30-million-odd interstellar warships in a short time will be no small feat. Of course, it all depends on how much time everything takes."
At this point Little Dragon Girl spoke: "By the records of intelligence on the Devourer Civilization in my database now, if the Devourer Civilization wants to launch another round of invasion of our Owl Dragon Empire's universe in a short time, it will need a week at the fastest, the very fastest."
A week?
Lilith was greatly startled; she had never thought the time would be so short. She asked, puzzled, "Only a week? How could it be so short?"
Little Dragon Girl explained, "That's the conclusion I've drawn from all kinds of intelligence data. Before this, the Devourer Civilization never launched an all-out invasion of our Owl Dragon Empire's universe, which means they've kept at least a good deal of reserve resources and strength in hand. So long as they have the resolve and the intention, a week is entirely possible."
Lilith looked at Zhao Chen with worry.
They had to devour the Devourer Civilization's 30-million-odd interstellar warships within a week.
That really was very hard.
Mind you, in the month of bitter fighting before this, they had devoured only 10 million of the Devourer Civilization's interstellar warships.
These 30-million-odd Devourer Civilization interstellar warships were at the edge of a cliff now, true.
But there was only a week of time left.
And everyone knew very well
that people driven into a corner like this might, if anything, break out with a will to fight.
Just then a video window popped up.
It was Marshal Charlotte.
"By the look on your faces, you're worried about how to deal with those remnants of the Devourer Civilization inside our Owl Dragon Empire." Marshal Charlotte had seen the worry on Zhao Chen's and Lilith's faces.
Lilith nodded, and told Charlotte the figure Little Dragon Girl had just worked out.
"A week…… about what I'd estimated," Charlotte said calmly.
Lilith scratched her head. "In this one week, never mind 30 million interstellar warships; if we can devour 10 million interstellar warships, that'll be doing well. It's really far too hard."
"It's no small feat, true. After all, we mean to devour 30-million-odd of the Devourer Civilization's interstellar warships in one gulp," Charlotte said with a light laugh.
Zhao Chen rubbed his chin and said seriously, "But we don't necessarily have to devour all of these 30-million-odd interstellar warships, do we?"
Lilith looked at Zhao Chen in surprise.
Zhao Chen brought up several files on the Devourer Civilization, including the makeup of those interstellar fleets.
"About these interstellar fleets of the Devourer Civilization's: there are records from before. Because the Devourer Civilization took in many races of the interstellar universes it invaded before, outside interstellar races now make up close to half the population of their Devourer Civilization universe. And that means a good many of the officers and soldiers they recruit come from the races of interstellar universes they invaded and destroyed. Some interstellar fleets even belong to interstellar families that went over to the Devourer Civilization. They've served the Devourer Civilization before this, true, but that doesn't mean they're wholly loyal to the Devourer Civilization."
Hearing Zhao Chen set out his idea,
Lilith understood at once what he meant. "You want to drive a wedge between them! And win them over at the same time!"
Zhao Chen nodded. "Right. If we can get some of their interstellar fleets to surrender, that's one way, too. And this approach can also split the enemy's internal military structure, and its fighting power will drop sharply. That way the pressure on us can be greatly eased."
Charlotte said beside them, "I'd thought of that too, but it's no small feat."
"If it were easy, would we need to think about it?" Zhao Chen said with a light laugh. "Right now we have to seize every way that might work."
"If only the Sacred Elf Empire could send us some more reinforcement fleets," Lilith said, pouting.
Zhao Chen said, "The Flame Elf Queen has already gone to fight for that. But in the end that's up to other people; we have no way to sway it, and naturally we can't pin all our hopes on others either. We ourselves need to be ready both ways."
Charlotte said seriously, "I think Your Majesty's idea is very fitting too. It's no small feat. But in a week, even if we can't wipe out all these 30-million-odd interstellar warships, digesting as many as we can is to our advantage too. Even if the Devourer Civilization comes back in force then, there'll be fewer than 10 million of their interstellar warships left on our Owl Dragon Empire's battlefields. That puts a great deal less pressure on us."
Charlotte took a very easygoing view of it.
In a week, devouring them all would be best.
If they could not, no matter.
"Then we'll go along these lines," Zhao Chen said, nodding.
Lilith said at this point, "Then if there are interstellar warships that surrender, how should we deal with them?"
Zhao Chen thought a moment and said, "For any interstellar warship that surrenders on the battlefield, we can hold none of their ordinary acts of war in the fighting before against them. We're willing to grant them the standing of equal citizens of the Owl Dragon Empire, and give them the most basic living conditions. If they want to leave, we won't stop them. But all weapons and equipment must be handed over, and so long as they're within our Owl Dragon Empire's borders, they must obey our orders and arrangements."
Charlotte put in at this point, "How these surrendered people are settled matters a great deal, above all the first batch. If they're settled properly, we can use it in our outside publicity and greatly increase the effect inside the enemy."
Lilith smiled slightly. "Rest easy; leave that to me. That's my specialty."
Matters of the human heart were naturally a succubus's greatest specialty.
With that, the basic steps of the plan were settled.
After a brief joy, everyone threw themselves into the next step of the plan.
As for urging surrender, naturally it was to be done while fighting.
Lilith set up a public universe channel that could be picked up within several battlefields, so that the crews on enemy interstellar warships could receive it too.
At the same time Lilith also borrowed from the Sacred Elf Empire some of those interstellar races who had fled after being invaded and persecuted,
to have them urge their own people in the Devourer Civilization's interstellar fleets to surrender in person.
Urging surrender from one's own people was beyond doubt twice as effective.
……
"I…… what should I say in a minute?" A woman with four eyes in her face, and something like a little braid of tissue at the back of her head, looked nervously at the Owl Dragon woman officer before her.
"It's all right; say whatever you want to say. Think back to when the Devourer Civilization invaded your interstellar universe. Your universe home was invaded and ruined forty years ago, wasn't it? You'd have been only twenty then, still a minor among your race. You can tell the story of your home back then. In short, you can say whatever you like," the woman officer said with a smile.
These woman officers were no woman officers picked at random; every one of them, without exception, held a degree in interstellar racial psychology.