"This is Fierce Dragon TV. We interrupt with an urgent news item. A few hours ago, our Fierce Dragon Kingdom launched a blitz against the Dax Empire, which has repeatedly invaded our Fierce Dragon System. The gains were considerable! In this campaign, many commanders and fighters aboard the fleets' starships performed outstandingly. And of course no few heroes stayed forever in a foreign land. More detailed news will be released in due course."
This item, suddenly added to the news, took everyone watching by surprise.
The item was not long; read aloud, it took under a minute.
Anyone not paying close attention might even have missed it.
But this very news item of under a minute shot straight to the top of the trending searches on every platform on Dragon Star a minute later.
Fierce Dragon Kingdom fleets launch expedition against the Dax Empire
Revenge on the invaders has begun
Fierce Dragon civilization strikes back at the Dax Empire: a crushing victory?
Every kind of report came pouring in, and every kind of guess too.
But most guessed for the best; after all, news like this, had it not been a crushing victory, the Fierce Dragon civilization would never have announced it publicly.
But just how great a victory it was, no one knew.
And some, for their part, grew worried at heart.
Those, naturally, were the ones with family serving in the Fierce Dragon fleets.
They began trying every means to get in touch with their loved ones, hoping only for word that their loved ones were safe and well.
"Mommy, there's a war." In a remote small town, a boy not yet five pointed at the news the television had just played.
And beside him was his mother, who had just hung up a call.
When the woman had heard this news through, she realized at once why her husband had suddenly called her.
So in the past few hours he had just been through a war.
She knew very well what branch of service her husband was in:
a mecha pilot.
She knew little of combat mechas; she knew only that people said a mecha pilot's death rate in interstellar war was over ninety percent.
So at the very start she had fiercely opposed her husband becoming a mecha pilot.
The interstellar marines were worrying enough already,
let alone mecha pilots, with a still higher casualty rate.
But her husband had turned in his application without a second thought.
Over this, the two of them had even had a cold war lasting several months at the time.
Tears could not help running from her eyes.
Whatever else, she at least was lucky, because she knew her husband was still alive.
——————
At the same time,
the Lanners civilization fleet's position was rather awkward.
They had learned that the Fierce Dragon civilization's fleets had withdrawn completely.
It left their Lanners civilization commander flat-out dumbfounded.
That Fierce Dragon civilization lot had actually run off?
Hadn't they come to seize the Dax Empire's star-system territory?
Why had they just run off like that?
And the Dax Empire was in fact very angry too.
Raided by the enemy, and with no small losses.
And now the other side had even run off.
Who could stand that?
The problem was that right now they did not have the ability to settle accounts with the other side.
If they gave chase right now, they might not even come out ahead.
And at this point, the Lanners civilization's fleet, still sitting at this table, became instead the thorn in their eye.
Fine.
It was bad enough that the Fierce Dragon civilization had come up and punched me in the face.
You Lanners came and punched along with them, and after punching you even want to ride on my face and take a dump!
The Dax King, with nowhere to vent his fury, began mustering great numbers of fleets, ready to wipe out every last one of the two thousand Lanners civilization ships that had invaded his Second System!
And at this point, the Lanners civilization fleet faced a hard problem that called for a choice.
Withdraw?
Give up this turf they had grabbed?
Not withdraw?
Then the war with the Dax Empire would escalate!
The Lanners civilization fleet's commander could not make this decision; he could only send the news back to the Lanners civilization and ask the Lanners leader to decide.
And when this news reached the Lanners civilization, it could be said to have blown the Lanners civilization's leadership sky-high.
"What? The Fierce Dragon civilization's fleets have withdrawn!"
"What's that lot playing at? The fighting was going fine and they actually withdrew. What do they mean by it!"
"They've withdrawn, and now the Dax Empire's fleets have their eye on us."
"Should we withdraw too?"
"We worked so hard to occupy such a big piece of turf. If we withdraw now, we'll get nothing at all!"
The hall was full of the sound of endless quarreling.
War, or pull back?
This was the huge choice now laid before the Lanners civilization.
"Enough. We don't have that much time now. A show of hands, right now. Those who agree to keep fighting the Dax Empire and not give up the third of the system we now control, stand on the left. Those against, stand on the right. No one may abstain!" The Lanners leader looked at the people in the hall.
After a brief silence,
everyone began to spread out.
Some went to the left, some to the right.
But in the end, those who chose the left were somewhat more, though only somewhat.
Those on the left made up about sixty percent.
Gains in hand: no one was willing to give them up gladly.
All the more since this was a chance the Lanners civilization had seldom managed to seize in these past few years.
"Since over sixty percent feel we can't give it up, then pass this order on to the commanders at the front: tell them to set up defensive positions on the front-line battlefield and make sure that third of the system stays under our control!" the Lanners leader said solemnly.
"Yes!"
This order was at once sent to the front-line battlefield.
The Lanners leader looked at everyone in the hall: "Since we've now settled on our direction, then let's all think together about what we should do next."
A minister-officer took a deep breath; before, he had opposed garrisoning, but since it was now settled,
he too would start thinking about the garrison plan.
"First, what we can be sure of is that the Dax Empire now has about ten thousand interstellar warships. Of those, five thousand are seesawing with us on the front-line battlefield in our Lanners civilization's system. In their own several home systems there are five thousand more interstellar warships. But the good news is that their T3 interstellar warships suffered heavy losses in this raid by the Fierce Dragon civilization's fleets; though their interstellar warships are many, their fighting strength has slipped badly. And for a long while to come, they'll need to assign some fleets to defend some of their important high-value sites, in case the Fierce Dragon fleets make another sneak attack. So I reckon the force the Dax Empire's fleets can send to attack us will number about three thousand. But that is, after all, a system the Dax Empire originally controlled; fighting in that system, their supply problem is better than ours. So our combat pressure will be somewhat greater. I think the two thousand interstellar warships we first sent over are nowhere near enough. We need to raise the number to four thousand interstellar warships; only that way can we hold steady the third of a system we've taken!"
"But freeing up another two thousand interstellar warships will be very hard. Our Lanners civilization, all told, has only fifteen thousand interstellar warships now. And our weakness is that we have very few T3 interstellar warships. So far we still have no complete T3 interstellar warship production line; we've built only five T3 interstellar warships. Whether against the Dax Empire or the Fierce Dragon civilization, that's a big gap. So on the battlefield we often have to throw in more interstellar warships than the Dax Empire's fleets to gain the upper hand. If we pull too many interstellar warships off the front-line battlefield in our own system, then our own system will be in danger instead," someone said, questioning this arrangement.
The minister-officer said solemnly, "There is risk, but since we've decided to garrison, it means we're placing our bet. So whatever happens, this third of a system can't be lost. As for our own home system, though its forces will be drawn off, because it's our home system, our margin for error fighting there is still quite high. So I think drawing off two thousand interstellar warships is no problem at all."
The military dispositions were soon settled:
in the Lanners-controlled zone of the Dax Empire's Second System, set up the Lanners civilization's bridgehead position, garrison it with four thousand interstellar warships, build a two-way star-gate, and so on.
"The military side is settled. Then we can't be slow on resource development either. After all, we occupied these star-system territories in the first place to seize the resources of these places. We must take over these resource planets quickly and set up our mining system. Where there are natives, use the local natives; where there are none, we'll need to ship a great deal of labor over. In short: within a month at the latest, every resource planet and mining site in our controlled zone must be back at work, and so feed back the resources we've put into this war!" the minister in charge of resource development said earnestly.
No one objected.
After all, invading and fighting wars was for nothing more than seizing resources.
From then on,
a second front opened between the Lanners civilization and the Dax Empire.
It could be said that each side now had a battlefield in the other's systems.
Little did they know that the Fierce Dragon civilization, which had brought this situation about,
was at this moment in quite another state.
An aside:
over the Fierce Dragon civilization's sudden withdrawal, the Lanners civilization was still very angry, and even sent an envoy specially to the Fierce Dragon civilization to ask just what was going on.
The Fierce Dragon civilization's answer was this:
What we originally agreed was to contain the Dax Empire.
Containment doesn't mean defense.
I struck back.
I used up the Dax Empire's interstellar warships.
I weakened the Dax Empire's fighting strength.
Isn't that a kind of containment too?
I've kept my word.
As for you suddenly sending troops over and now being in this somewhat awkward position,
what's that got to do with us?
Did we ask you to go to war?
Now you want us to send troops to support you?
Sorry.
Our fleets also took heavy losses in the earlier fighting, and need a long time to rest and refit.
At this official wording from the Fierce Dragon civilization,
the Lanners civilization's envoy was angry past all bearing, and yet the Fierce Dragon civilization's way of doing things was perfectly reasonable.
Tell me, wasn't that infuriating?
In the end, the Lanners civilization's envoy went back with his tail between his legs.
"Gone?" Zhao Chen looked at Secretary Officer Barbara, who had come back.
When that Lanners civilization envoy had come earlier, he had kept on saying he wanted to see him.
Coming to see him: what for was easy to imagine.
Zhao Chen had no wish to waste time on the man.
So he had had Secretary Officer Barbara find some excuse or other and put him off.
"Mm. He's left," Secretary Officer Barbara said with a faint smile.
"He didn't ask us to promise anything?"
"He did, but it's enough to say something nice; things said aloud don't have to be kept anyway," Secretary Officer Barbara said, like a cad sweet-talking a young girl.
Zhao Chen needed no thought to know what Secretary Officer Barbara had said to the other side's envoy.
Nothing more than:
Rest assured, we and the Lanners civilization are allies; we'll advance and retreat together.
Rest assured, once our fleets have rested and refitted, we'll fight the Dax Empire again.
And words of that kind.
As for whether these words would be kept?
The answer, Zhao Chen and Barbara knew very well from a single look at each other.
"This way at least we've won ourselves another year or so," Zhao Chen said with a breath of relief. "And this way we can develop our Project Surpass too."
"Mm. Project Surpass has already begun, with Chief Engineer Annie in charge. Chief Engineer Annie says that within a year at most, Project Surpass can show results," Secretary Officer Barbara said solemnly.
What was Project Surpass?
Wasn't the Dax Empire a danger precisely because, years before, it had been first to step into the T3 tech stage?
The Fierce Dragon civilization's resources were limited; even mass-producing troops, it would be very hard to surpass the Dax Empire in a short time.
Then choose another line:
build T4-grade interstellar warships outright,
and at one stroke surpass the Dax Empire's and the Lanners civilization's present level of technology.
When those T4 interstellar warships appeared on the front-line battlefields,
that lot would probably know too that this game was about to end.
"Ten T4 interstellar warships," Zhao Chen muttered.
Project Surpass was to build ten T4 interstellar warships within a year, going all out.
These ten T4 interstellar warships would take in every ship type, so as to form the most effective fighting strength.
"Of these, interstellar frigates and interstellar destroyers aren't very hard to build. Interstellar cruisers and interstellar battlecruisers and interstellar heavy-artillery ships aren't too big a problem either. The greatest difficulty is probably the interstellar missile ship, the interstellar battleship and the carrier warship. These three kinds of interstellar warship are our most important main-force interstellar warships," Zhao Chen muttered, those familiar T4 interstellar warships already rising before his eyes.
Once these T4 interstellar warships were completed,
the three-way standoff before them could be broken.