Zhao Chen rubbed at his own temples.
"How great are our losses to the present?"
Lilith said from beside him, "To the present, our whole loss of interstellar warships is under a thousand, and all of it from a few particular mischances. And most of those are T2-grade, with a few T3; among T4-grade there is no loss to be shown so far. The losses have all fallen upon the other legion fleets; our Owl Dragon Legion has no reduction in fighting strength at present."
Coming to this, Lilith paused. "Our greatest loss, if it must be named, is our combat stores. To the present, the combat stores consumed in this campaign already come to near 10 trillion star coins' worth of military stores. Understand that the whole store we had laid up came to but 50 trillion! If the fighting goes on at this rate, our 50 trillion of combat stores is enough only to kill 15 million Hive Motherships — and above half will still be unsettled!"
Zhao Chen pressed a hand to his brow; he felt an aching in his skull.
He had thought before that a shortfall might arise in this matter of combat stores.
But he had never thought the gap would be so great.
"And this is with no great quantity of our interstellar warships damaged as yet. Should ships take damage, it must want a portion of the military stores and raw materials drawn off to repair them. And the consumption would rise further. Still more when… the Commander knows too that to the present the enemy's 11 T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships have not even appeared!" Lilith said gravely.
Very well; the gap was greater yet.
"Then how great is our shortfall, in the end?" Zhao Chen asked her.
Lilith raised a hand and opened a star chart.
Upon it were marked beacons at the several resource points of the three great empires, and every beacon was joined by a dotted line to this hive-race field in the Holy Radiance Empire.
"By the orders we gave before to the three empires' industrial bodies and to our own Owl Dragon industry, every starship project save those already in building is postponed. All production lines are used for producing military stores, missiles, shells, energy blocks, and repair components. And they are shipped in real time.
"On average, each day military stores to the value of 300 billion star coins reach the front-line field. Which is near 10 trillion in a single month.
"And further, we have sent certain interstellar warships not worth repairing straight to starports and industrial bases behind the field to be broken up and dismantled, and smelted into the stores and raw materials the front wants; that side can make up something of the gap.
"Beyond this, General Charlotte, the Empress Saint Cana and the Empress Qin Xiaolei all say they will draw further upon the three empires' reserve resources. But by our own prior estimate, the three empires' limit at present can yield only a further 30 trillion star coins. Beyond that, it might throw the three empires' governments into confusion; I do not advise that step short of the last extremity.
"If this campaign goes on as the case now stands, we look to meet a want of combat stores upon the campaign's twenty-fifth day. And the shortfall as projected at present is somewhere between 30 trillion and 50 trillion star coins," Lilith set it out gravely.
A headache.
Were it a matter of starship technology, Zhao Chen had the means to settle it.
But resources and raw materials had all along been the thing that gave Zhao Chen the worst headache.
"By my calculation, as the case now stands, if we go on merely wearing it out. Our rate of victory will fall lower and lower. Supposing the interstellar hive-race do not add to their number hereafter, then even the victory at the last will very likely be a victory dearly bought," Little Dragon Girl put in from beside them.
"Then what means have we?" Zhao Chen asked her.
Little Dragon Girl poked at the corner of her mouth with a finger and thought a moment, then said, "The shortfall of stores cannot be solved. Then the one means is, while our combat stores are still ample, to destroy or grievously wound the enemy's main-force fleets."
Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes. "You mean those 11 T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships?"
Little Dragon Girl nodded. "Yes. By our analysis of the interstellar hive-race, the presence of high-grade Hive Motherships greatly raises a swarm's capacity for battle. And in the course of a battle they can go on producing those hive combat units in an unbroken stream — though the number in the short term is not great. Yet that too adds to our consumption upon the field. If we could annihilate those 11 T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships — though it were but half of them. That too could greatly change the present situation upon our field."
Zhao Chen was silent.
Little Dragon Girl and Lilith said nothing at this point either.
For everyone knew very well that though the road lay before them.
That road was exceedingly hard to walk.
To kill those T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships within the swarm was a thing of exceeding difficulty; a moment's carelessness might well bring enormous losses upon themselves.
Had the hive fleets launched their attack of their own accord, there might yet have been a thread of a chance.
But the hive fleets this time were plainly cleverer than before: the 11 T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships never stirred a hair, and they went on without cease sending a certain number of hive fleets to harass the several positions.
And those numbers were exceedingly nice.
Too many, and the hive fleets would be jammed up in one local field, and could not be used to the best value.
Whereas as it was now, going up echelon by echelon, they could wear away those outer defensive positions without cease.
Set another interstellar race in their place and this would beyond doubt be a way of fighting that bled one white.
But for the interstellar hive-race such losses of strength were nothing at all.
Give them a few star regions and some months, and they could build another hive fleet!
"We can wait no longer. Since the other side will not put out a hand, then we shall force them to it!" Zhao Chen said, with his face set. "Get me Charlotte."
A dozen minutes and more later.
Charlotte's holographic figure appeared before Zhao Chen.
"You will have taken in the case?" Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte.
Charlotte nodded.
"Have you any objection to my thought?" Zhao Chen asked her thought all the same; in the matter of interstellar war, after all, he was not Charlotte's equal.
Charlotte said, with her face set, "By ordinary reckoning, to attack of our own accord is the lower policy. But as the case now stands, to drag on is a slow death; and our strength will be worn down without cease, so that when the time comes we shall not have even this present capacity to attack. So I too hold that we should attack of our own accord. But we must be wholly prepared, to answer whatever may arise!"
Zhao Chen nodded in satisfaction. "I leave the whole of it to you; Lilith, I, and the Dragon Emperor will all work to your plan."