Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 953

Chapter 944: Holy Terra Can’t Wait

“Such a major strategic decision is certainly not mine; it’s Mr. Gu’s.”

“Then let me talk to Gu Hang in person.”

“Of course.”

Xiong Lei wouldn’t put any obstacles in Robert’s way.

He’d even anticipated that with the communication equipment already set up, Robert could easily connect Gu Hang’s psychic communication to his ship.

Without further ado, Robert directly presented his opinion once again.

He believed it was time to discuss a truce with the Dark Eldar envoys.

Naturally, Gu Hang refused.

As Xiong Lei had said, such a major matter wouldn’t be his own decision; it must have been Gu Hang’s opinion.

Robert wasn’t impatient. He calmly inquired, “Why? I’d like to know the reason.”

He knew Gu Hang had his own considerations, and he could even guess at some of them. But he still trusted Gu Hang and wouldn’t dismiss his ideas as worthless or insignificant as those of ordinary people. Therefore, he needed to listen carefully to see if Gu Hang had any ideas he hadn’t considered, or if he could convince him.

Gu Hang was also very direct.

“Entering Comoros isn’t easy,” Gu Hang said with a sigh. “The Dark Eldar! Tracking them is difficult enough, let alone the chance of conquering Comoros.”

Robert said, “Eradicating a single alien, especially one that poses less of a threat to humanity and the Imperium, isn’t worth such a significant investment.”

“Yes, you’re right. But the greatest value here isn’t destroying an ancient race. If it were just a single Dark Eldar, they wouldn’t be worth the effort. But the greatest value here isn’t this race, or even the destruction of a single alien.”

“Veil Gate technology? Don’t we already have it? We can just hold onto this port, not necessarily launch a full-scale attack on all of Comoros.”

“It’s not that simple.” Gu Hang shook his head.

He found Robert’s knowledge of psychic powers and the supernatural very… shallow.

He patiently explained.

Robert was the only one worthy of such an explanation.

How crucial is the Veil Gate technology itself? Not really. This is essentially a “gate-opening” technique, but the most crucial aspect lies in the value of the city of Commorra itself.

This city, remnant of countless millennia ago, nestled within the Veil, is almost the last vestige of the once-dominant Eldar empire. Despite the Eldar’s countless millennia of survival, even if they were given a few more tens of thousands of years, they would not be able to reestablish a new Commorra.

Its very existence is unique in this universe.

With Commorra, human fleets can traverse the same freedom and speed as Dark Eldar fleets. Interstellar travel using large-scale Veil portals is far more efficient than the far more risky Warp and Astral Tunnel travel. The

only problem is scale.

The number and scale of Veil portals that can be opened is limited. It took two months to operate 1,500 warships using seven portals.

This is because seven portals are relatively few and small in size.

The newly completed, large-scale Veil portal is expected to be able to replace the previous seven.

However, a new problem arose—the continuous opening of the portal pushed the entire port to its limit.

Opening the Veil Spiritual Portal required a continuous output of immense energy from the port.

Energy was a relatively simple matter, as it was a precious commodity for the Dark Eldar. Comoros produced no resources; the Veil wasn’t barren, but rather utterly empty. All materials, substances, and energy had to be acquired from the real universe and transported in.

Maintaining such a massive city naturally required constant plundering by the Dark Eldar.

However, for the Alliance, this burden wasn’t significant. Resources and materials could simply be brought in via transport ships.

The Alliance had established numerous stellar energy plants in numerous star systems lacking colonization potential. The most dramatic one practically encircled an entire star, akin to a Dyson sphere.

Of course, at this point, they were no longer considered stellar energy plants. While Dyson sphere technology essentially consisted of countless stellar energy plants, when the scale reached the point where it could envelop an entire star, the sheer number of plants was enormous. Even the simplest system, when pieced together at this scale, becomes technically incredibly difficult.

This is a brand-new technology, an epic feat unearthed during Gu Hang’s ten-draw streak of a billion-level system.

While the construction of a Dyson Sphere renders the rest of the solar system completely worthless, the immense energy output it generates significantly alleviates the Alliance’s energy pressures.

Currently, several new Dyson Spheres are under construction. Furthermore, even before their completion, the individual power plants will be operational.

In short, the Alliance has more than enough energy to sustain the operations of Comoros, let alone the current Queen’s Rose Port at full capacity. However

, while this energy is sufficient, the port itself has a limit on the number of Veil Spirit Portals it can open: the port’s capacity.

The Dark Eldar have eleven medium-sized ports of similar size in Comoros, three larger ports than Queen’s Rose Port, and over forty smaller ports.

“…So, only by controlling all of these ports, or even a large portion of them, can we execute strategic maneuvers.”

Robert fell into deep thought.

He recognized the problem.

Controlling just one Queen Rose Port wouldn’t be enough. Even if the new Veil Spirit Gates were built, doubling the port’s throughput compared to the previous seven gates, deploying a fleet of 1,500 warships would only take a month.

Time was a relatively manageable issue. After all, under normal sailing conditions, a fleet might only need a month to cross a single star field—and that star field would have to be relatively small, otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to cross.

But the problem was that using the Veil Gates for such transport meant only one ship could pass through each gate, unlike Warp or Astral Tunnel travel, where a whole fleet could arrive upon completion.

This was a significant difference.

A fleet could take a month to complete the journey, and if the enemy learned of this and mobilized a large force to block the gates, the entire force would be doomed.

The Dark Eldar had never worried about this issue. After all, their military operations were relatively small-scale, consisting mainly of piracy, guerrilla warfare, and petty theft. Fifteen hundred warships operating together, if they could muster only fifteen, was already a significant undertaking. While

this was fast

, it was completely insufficient for humanity’s most crucial large-scale, mobile deployments.

According to estimates, to deploy a legion in a single day, for example, the capacity would need to be thirty times that of the Queen’s Rose Port.

Wouldn’t that require occupying every port in Comoros?

Robert briefly wondered if he could be less greedy.

But at the same time, the immense temptation made it impossible to give up.

Even if the entire Comoros were occupied, the Veil Gate couldn’t replace existing conventional shipping. A thirtyfold increase in throughput wouldn’t matter; a human naval corps would still need a day to deploy. But the largest-scale human space travel isn’t military operations, but rather the vastly larger number of transport ships, navigating countless planets.

The Veil Gate can’t handle this. It’s not just a matter of scale; the cost is prohibitive.

A giant transport ship can take its time delivering a cargo of food or basic ore. Time constraints are relatively low, but the cost of delivery is more important. But once the Veil Gate is opened, delivering such a fully loaded transport ship to its destination would consume excessive energy, making it uneconomical.

However, sometimes the key lies in the rapid deployment of military power.

With the Veil Gate currently under construction, with dozens of ports on Comoros operating simultaneously, a massive expeditionary force of 1,500 warships could be deployed to any point in the universe within a single day. Its strategic value would be unprecedented!

Three thousand ships in two days, fifteen thousand in ten!

No matter what major event occurred, humanity would be able to respond and handle it with lightning speed.

This expedition from the Infinite Star Region to Terra had taught Robert a lesson, leaving a deep impression.

But what if Comoros were in human hands?

The expedition ceremony would be over in the morning, and the army would reach Holy Terra by evening!

But Robert quickly lost himself in his reverie.

He shook his head and said, “This vision is indeed very tempting, but how many years will it take us to conquer Comoros?”

He didn’t need to explain the battle situation to Gu Hang; he was sure Gu Hang knew it all.

Currently, the human army had only conquered less than one percent of Comoros, and they were already feeling mired in a quagmire.

How could they possibly conquer it all?

Furthermore, the Dark Eldar were being pushed to the brink of extinction. Could this former overlord of the universe, who had survived for countless millennia, still have some powerful trump cards? If they were pushed to the limit, no one could predict the magnitude of the subsequent pressure.

“What’s more…” Robert raised a new question. “I agree that if we can capture Comoros, then no matter the cost or time, it’s worth it. But if it takes too long, what will happen to Holy Terra? No one knows how much longer Holy Terra can hold out after a hundred years of darkness.”

“Ah…” Gu Hang sighed. “I do know the general situation on Holy Terra right now. I don’t know the details, but overall, it’s not ideal.”

This was another gain for the Alliance’s Western Expeditionary Force after entering the Imperial Holy Territory.

In the past, when the Scarlet Scar was at its most ferocious, Gu Hang had difficulty crossing this “natural phenomenon”—a terrifying phenomenon even in the Warp—to explore the situation on the other side.

But with the Alliance army on the other side, having conquered half of the universe so far, Gu Hang’s connectivity with that side has improved significantly.

He can even communicate with the Alliance Embassy on Holy Terra.

However, the results have been less than favorable.

After the catastrophe, Holy Terra has also experienced great turmoil.

The living needs of a trillion-person population are enormous. Water, food, consumer goods… many of these require external trade. After the severance of contact, even after the Holy Terra authorities took relatively active steps to reach out, the overall situation remained extremely tense. Famine, water shortages, energy shortages, and shortages of consumer goods erupted across the planet.

This crowded world, home to a trillion people, and serving as the center of the human empire, was a target of constant scrutiny and covetous attention from external evil gods.

Cults and unrest abounded on Holy Terra.

This wasn’t simply due to external influences; the severance of contact with the outside world also jeopardized Holy Terra’s ability to control the entire empire, leading to a massive political disaster. Fierce struggles ensued between various political factions on Holy Terra, as well as within some local factions within the central territories that had established contact with the outside world.

This is the tragic part: the more urgent and imminent the situation, the less likely humanity will unite. There’s a high probability that, under the pressure of annihilation, they will engage in a frenzied struggle.

The Alliance Embassy was declared illegal decades ago. Many Alliance staff and subordinates sent to Holy Terra have been severely persecuted. Now, only a very small number of people insist on hiding in various places, but a hundred years is too long, and it has been several generations, and not many people still remember the responsibilities of their fathers to the Alliance.

Even if they remember, they may not care.

Gu Hang now only knows that with Holy Terra as the center, there are rebels everywhere in the surrounding space; there are also rebel actions inside Holy Terra. The cult members are corrupting rapidly, and even in the bottom of the hive city of Holy Terra, there are real warp demons active.

This is a huge powder keg, which may be blown to pieces at any time because of a certain fuse event.

There is indeed an urgent need for a person like Robert to take charge there.

“Holy Terra may not wait until we conquer Comoros.”

When saying this, Robert was a little anxious and a little sad.

(End of this chapter)