The seventh day of the Owl Dragon Empire's war of annihilation against the Devourer Civilization interstellar fleets trapped inside the Owl Dragon Empire.
The Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship
"Every unit is to start drawing in its fleets; no more hasty attacks," Zhao Chen said calmly, looking at the interstellar war holo-table before him.
"Such a pity. If they'd given us a little more time, we could have devoured all of these 15 million interstellar warships that are left too!" Xue Xiaoxiao muttered, unwilling.
"Who'd say otherwise? It wouldn't take much time: three days! Three days at most, and I'd have destroyed every enemy interstellar warship left on my battlefield!" Leona muttered, displeased.
Around a round table were gathered all the marshals and high command of the Owl Dragon Empire's military,
the marshal-commanders of every Owl Dragon legion fleet group.
"Your Majesty, the news that the Devourer Civilization will set up universe-space jump points linking to our Owl Dragon Empire's universe again in about twenty-four hours: is it reliable?" Wei Shishi could not help asking.
Zhao Chen could see that most of the commanders present were in truth very unwilling in their hearts.
After all, given a little more time, they could have eaten the meat on these plates clean.
To have so much left now was truly hard for them to accept.
"This news was sent back by people the Sacred Elf Empire has planted inside the Devourer Civilization's universe. It isn't real-time, but the content of the intelligence shouldn't be wrong. The earlier news that the Devourer Civilization's interstellar fleets would invade our universe came from them too. On this point we can trust them. Only the timing may vary somewhat. But we can't take a risk because of that. If the enemy appears just when our interstellar legion fleet groups have come through a bitter battle and are at their worst, the enemy is sure to seize the chance to launch a round of attack on us. Then we'd only take some needless losses instead. That risk isn't worth taking," Zhao Chen said in a deep voice.
Charlotte beside him said as well, "His Majesty's arrangement isn't to stop all attacks. It's only to lower the intensity of the attacks to a fairly low level. At that level of attack, each of your legion fleets has twenty hours to rest and refit. However you arrange it, you need only make sure that within these twenty hours your interstellar fleets get their fighting condition back to 70% of what it was before, to meet the attack the Devourer Civilization may launch in the next stage."
The many commanders nodded.
"This war, from first to last, has run nearly fifty days. I've seen how every one of your units has done, too. All excellent, all very good. After the war I'll give you the rewards you've earned. Right now, thanks to this surprise strike by the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group, we've come out ahead, true. But until the war truly ends, we can't let our guard down for a single moment," Zhao Chen reminded them.
"Understood," the generals said.
Next came some discussion of operations, mainly led by Marshal Charlotte.
When the meeting ended, the commanders present vanished from their seats one by one.
Very soon only three were left in the whole place: Zhao Chen, Charlotte and Lilith.
"Lilith, have there been any problems on the logistics side lately?" Zhao Chen and Charlotte both looked at Lilith.
Lilith said directly, "I've already told Charlotte the relevant information. Right now our logistics efficiency and the strategic resources we can supply only come to about 75% of what they were at the very start of the war. And if we keep up this state of war, logistics and supply will go on falling. After all, war is something that eats manpower, materials and money enormously."
Charlotte nodded. "Lilith told me these things the moment she had them. The others and I expected it long ago too. Keeping up a month of high-intensity fighting has already used up all the resources our Owl Dragon Empire had built up in this time."
Zhao Chen nodded.
The Owl Dragon Empire had not existed long; it was truly lacking in reserves.
In this war, had it not been for the Sacred Elf Empire's war supplies and resources partway through,
it could never have kept going for a month.
"Then if the Devourer Civilization goes on fighting us at any cost after this, how long can our logistics and supply hold?" Zhao Chen asked the key question.
"As things stand now, in another month and a half at most this figure will fall to 30% and hit the yellow warning. After another month after that, it will fall to 10% and hit the red warning. At that point we'll have to make trade-offs in our industrial capacity. For instance, give up building interstellar warships and supply the production of strategic supplies in full. Or forcibly requisition every industrial resource in civilian hands for producing war resources. These arrangements are all double-edged swords," Lilith said gravely.
Zhao Chen let out a long breath.
What Lilith had set out was already very clear.
"As things stand now, if the war can end at this stage, even if we haven't wholly beaten the Devourer Civilization, it's a situation we can accept. We can fully restore our fighting ability in a very short time through a period of recovery afterward. And then deal with the Devourer Civilization at our own pace," Charlotte said earnestly.
As a supreme marshal and commander, she was not someone who wanted only war; she knew very well when war was needed, and when war needed to stop.
"But that isn't something we get to decide. It's up to our opponent." Zhao Chen shrugged helplessly.
The three fell silent.
Zhao Chen changed the subject. "How do our combat figures stand so far?"
"So far, in fifty days, not counting the nearly 10 million interstellar warships we destroyed with the Supernova Ultimate Bombs, we've destroyed over 20 million enemy interstellar warships in all, and taken in nearly 5 million surrendering enemy interstellar warships. Our own combat losses in interstellar warships have reached 1 million." When Charlotte said this figure, her look was very grave.
Lilith added beside her, "We've lost 1 million interstellar warships, but in this time we've also built and delivered a batch of interstellar warships, about 300,000-odd. So in fact we still have 2.5 million interstellar warships on the battlefields right now. Only none of these interstellar warships is in very good shape now. A tenth of them need major repairs. Another two-tenths can fight, but the damage will affect their fighting. The other seven-tenths all have some damage, more or less."
Losing 1 million interstellar warships in one war:
whether in the days of the Owl Dragon Empire, or before that in the days of the Owl Dragon Legion, there had likely never been a campaign so great.