"The Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society, as the one with the largest territory, has the largest fleet of the five great powers. Its total is said to exceed five hundred thousand interstellar warships, including two thousand T4 interstellar warships, three hundred thousand T3 interstellar warships and two hundred thousand T2 interstellar warships. Don't underestimate their T2 interstellar warships. One of their Trial civilizations has very strong starship-refitting technology. Those T2 interstellar warships of theirs in active service have, to be precise, quasi-T3-grade strength!"
Five hundred thousand interstellar warships.
The T4 interstellar warships were not many.
What was frightening were the T3-grade interstellar warships and the two hundred thousand quasi-T3 interstellar warships.
At this scale, to be honest, only the three Trial blocs at the bottom put together could probably surpass it.
Then what kind of strength would the Savage Beast Alliance, ranked first in military might, have?
The Korgi civilization's Vice President saw Barbara's curiosity and said solemnly, "Though the Savage Beast Alliance has only three Trial civilizations and only twenty-nine systems, their level of technological development is extremely high, and their industry is very strong too. Their active-service interstellar warships are said to number two hundred ten thousand. Including ten thousand T4 interstellar warships; the remaining two hundred thousand interstellar warships are all T3-grade!"
Hearing this figure,
even Secretary Officer Barbara's pupils trembled.
The fleet was not large, only two hundred ten thousand.
But the problem was that the T4 interstellar warships they held outnumbered the T4 interstellar warships of the other four alliances put together!
And it was the only one of the powers to have retired its T2 interstellar warships completely.
That was probably why this power could be called the strongest of the five great powers.
On the paper figures alone, no one dared say anything!
"Well? If you don't believe what I've said, I can give you all the known system coordinates of these five powers. You can send people to investigate yourself. If I've told half a lie, may I and my civilization's power be damned forever in this Trial of the Gods!" The Korgi civilization's Vice President flung out a bitter oath.
Secretary Officer Barbara looked at him.
This intelligence, he truly had no need to lie about.
The system coordinates he gave, she would send starships to verify later too.
So a lie like this would be very easily exposed.
"Then the Savage Beast Alliance and the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society haven't thought of attacking you, swallowing you up?" Secretary Officer Barbara asked.
"They have. They think of it every moment. The present situation of the five great powers is called a five-legged cauldron, but it would be better called a three-legged one. On the big picture: the Savage Beast Alliance is one faction, the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society another, and the three of us remaining Trial blocs another. The moment the Savage Beast Alliance or the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society attacks any one of our three, the other two, though they won't come to the rescue, will at once attack the star-system territory of the Savage Beast Alliance or the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society."
Besiege Wei to save Zhao!
"In a situation like this, both the Savage Beast Alliance and the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society have to be somewhat wary. After all, the moment one of them comes under attack, the other is sure to kick it while it's down. Pull one hair and the whole body moves! We, the Triumvirate and the Crimson Flame all know very well that before our strength has grown, if this balance is broken, the first to be wiped out will be us. So we'll maintain this big picture. Still, it isn't entirely cooperation like this. Sometimes, on some small system battlefields, small local battles still break out. But the scale of the fighting and friction is held within a certain limit, to keep the fighting from escalating and more interstellar warships being thrown in. For instance, we and the Crimson Flame Federation have friction in a newly discovered system; we and they each hold half the system's space. And in the border zone, small-scale fighting often breaks out between us. But the scale of the fighting is generally held below corps level, that is, three thousand interstellar warships.[1] And the moment one side sees things going badly, it pulls out at once. No lingering in the fight."
Secretary Officer Barbara thought a moment and asked, "Then if we join your Far Shore of Deep Space, won't that balance be broken? Then you, as the ones who broke the balance, may become everyone's target."
The Korgi civilization's Vice President nodded, then said, "So in our plan, for now, your Fierce Dragon civilization's existence isn't exposed. You're a piece we keep hidden in the dark. So long as the other Trial civilizations don't discover your system coordinates, they won't know our Far Shore of Deep Space has found a new partner."
Secretary Officer Barbara's face did not change, but inside she was secretly delighted.
A situation like this was just what they wanted most:
to build up on the sly without exposing their existence,
while knowing the state of affairs outside at the same time.
It was simply Heaven siding with the Fierce Dragon.
"Oh, right. You haven't said how many interstellar warships your Fierce Dragon civilization has now," the Korgi civilization's Vice President asked curiously.
"Thirty thousand interstellar warships in active service in total. Including three hundred T4 interstellar warships; all the rest are T3-grade interstellar warships," Barbara said frankly.
Her eyes swept over his handheld terminal.
In fact she had noticed long ago that his handheld terminal had a lie-detector function installed,
switched on all along, from the start of the negotiations until now.
"Thirty thousand interstellar warships. No T2 interstellar warships. You're going the elite-troops route, then." The Korgi civilization's Vice President made no criticism of the Fierce Dragon civilization's fleet for not being large,
but gave a fairly objective assessment instead.
"It's pretty good. So long as your capacity can be raised later on, you can have an interstellar fleet of no mean fighting strength. And your present situation fits our Far Shore of Deep Space's requirements exactly. If the fleet were too big, moving it around in later combat missions would be a lot of trouble. There'd be a risk of exposure too. These thirty thousand interstellar warships of yours are just right for working with us."
In the Korgi civilization's Vice President's words, he already treated the Fierce Dragon civilization as one of his own power.
Secretary Officer Barbara pressed him: "You still haven't said clearly what this so-called plan of yours is?"
The Korgi civilization's Vice President, with a serious expression, pointed at the several windows that had been open all along.
On them was the information on the other four powers.
"Since you've already seen the information on these powers, I think you can see the direction they've set for their future development. For us three Trial blocs at the bottom, what we naturally pursue right now is developing ourselves fast: a stronger industrial foundation, more resources, more interstellar warships. Lie low and build up. But for the Trial civilizations of the two powers in front, it's entirely different. Take the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society first: they have the largest fleet at present. And our intelligence shows they're still expanding their T3 interstellar warship capacity further. Within three years at most, the annual T3 interstellar warship capacity of those factories of theirs can be raised to three hundred thousand. In one year they could build another T3 interstellar fleet the size of their present one. But the biggest problem is resource output. With T3 interstellar warship capacity expanding like this, the demand for resources is enormous too. Once the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society's resource gap is solved, their war machine will start up, and then at extreme speed they'll wipe out our several Trial blocs, and finally fight the decisive battle with the strongest, the Savage Beast Alliance. That's the blueprint the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society dreams of for itself. If it really develops like that, they will very likely win. The key point is whether they can find enough resource output within these three years. And the Savage Beast Alliance pursues a stock of T4 interstellar warships. They're producing T4 interstellar warships at full speed now. By our reckoning: suppose one day the T4 interstellar warships the Savage Beast Alliance holds are three times the total T4 interstellar warships of the other four of us powers. Then, never mind how many other interstellar warships there are, the Savage Beast Alliance will launch the decisive battle against us. First pull up the three of us powers, and finally wipe out the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society. How decisive T4 interstellar warships are on the battlefield, we interstellar civilizations all know very well in our hearts. And we've worked out that point in time too: three years! If the Savage Beast Alliance develops step by step over these three years, barring accidents, it will meet that condition."
Having heard this analysis,
Secretary Officer Barbara had a rough picture in her mind too.
For the five Trial blocs, three years had become a deadline.
The Savage Beast Alliance had only to wait three years to sweep through every power.
And the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society had realized this too.
They knew they could not break through on T4 interstellar warship capacity,
so they had put their weight on T3 interstellar warships instead.
So long as there were enough T3 interstellar warships, they could wipe out the Savage Beast Alliance.
But unlike the Savage Beast Alliance, which had only to sit and wait,
they were still short of enough resources, so that was what they needed urgently now.
"Since the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society is short of resources, they must be looking very frantically for more systems now?" Secretary Officer Barbara put forward her guess.
The Korgi civilization's Vice President nodded and said, "That's right. The Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society now is like a mad dog. They're looking everywhere for new systems. Any system they find, they take control of by the hardest means. Slavery, every kind of violent rule, all of it brought out. And if in the process they run into other powers, they'll go to war without hesitation; so long as it doesn't bring the other powers down on them together, they'll grab all they can. What's more, in the systems where they have friction with us three Trial blocs, they keep stirring up conflict, swallowing our star-system territory bit by bit. The Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society now is a vicious hound!"
Secretary Officer Barbara thought a moment and said, "So far, all you've told me is what the Savage Beast Alliance and the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society are arranging. You still haven't said what your Far Shore of Deep Space and the other powers are preparing behind the scenes. Surely you aren't just going to wait quietly for death?"
The Korgi civilization's Vice President said, "We three powers have also met and discussed it in private, and each has its own plans and arrangements. First, openly: against the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society's frantic expansion, we hold an extremely strong will to resist and will never give up our systems lightly. As for the Savage Beast Alliance, to be honest, we won't provoke them of our own accord now. Then the only way is to raise our T4 interstellar warship output. So long as our total number of T4 interstellar warships can reach a third of the Savage Beast Alliance's T4 interstellar warships, the Savage Beast Alliance won't go to all-out war with us within three years! That's the result of our meeting. But as everyone knows, every power has its own little schemes. For instance, the Triumvirate Star Union: their idea is actually somewhat crude. They're trying to poach from our Far Shore of Deep Space and the Crimson Flame Federation. In their thinking, since their own strength can't grow as fast as those two monsters, why not just suck blood directly: by merging several Trial civilizations, raise their own size to the same size as the Savage Beast Alliance and the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society, and then they'll have the means to stand up to them. Both we and the Crimson Flame Federation strongly resent this poaching, so their reputation is very bad. But in private, just which Trial civilizations are in touch with them, nobody knows. At least our Korgi civilization has no wish to join the Crimson Flame Federation.[2] Their way of doing things can hardly make anyone truly strong. As for the Crimson Flame Federation, I hear they're trying to speed up their technology at present, seeking to build T5-grade interstellar warships, to overtake on the curve. That truly is one way, but a very hard one. But if they really could do it, it wouldn't take many: so long as they could build thirty T5 interstellar warships, they could break the whole present situation! A T5 interstellar warship facing T4-grade interstellar warships, never mind one against a thousand, could take on a hundred with room to spare. Paired with interstellar warships of other grades, its fighting strength could be maxed out outright, and so achieve one against a thousand. As for just what level the Crimson Flame Federation has reached in technological research, we don't know. They've kept it secret all along. As for our Far Shore of Deep Space, our ideas are rather more varied. Internally we're doing research on T5 interstellar warships, but we're not putting as much into it as the Crimson Flame Federation. Besides that, we want to seek to weaken the other Trial civilizations in war. When the enemy is weakened, don't we ourselves grow stronger? On this point, actually, we've never had a very good plan. But the appearance of your Fierce Dragon civilization counts as filling in this piece of our puzzle!"
The Korgi civilization's Vice President looked at Secretary Officer Barbara, his eyes shining,
as if he had seen an oasis in the desert,
one that brought them enormous hope!
Secretary Officer Barbara's face did not change; she waited for him to go on!