Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 961

Chapter 952: Unequal Treaty

The progress of the offensive against Comoros due to the unequal treaty is not stagnant, but is slowly creeping forward.

However, this problem is not the core reason for the Alliance to compromise.

The most core reason is the fire in the heartland.

The Dark Eldar raiding team is heading to the real universe from the port they control. The Alliance controls tens of thousands of worlds, and each of the five major fronts has its own war goals and is gathering in various strategic directions. And in the inner heartland of the Alliance, there is not no military force.

First of all, there are the planetary defense forces of each planet. Although these forces are under the overall strategy of the Alliance military, the training level of the local defense forces of each planet is much stronger than that of the imperial era, and the equipment is much better. However, they are still no match for the regular Alliance Army.

When fighting against the Dark Eldar, these planetary defense forces are not very effective.

But at least the number of defense forces of each planet is still there. Some equipment removed from the Alliance Army, along with planetary dignitaries, are relatively responsible for their own safety and the security of their industries. Alliance-appointed planetary governors are also relatively responsible. If they have the resources, they’ll pool their resources and try to assemble an elite guard corps.

While the numbers may be small, the opposing Dark Eldar attackers are often fewer, so they can still be effective.

The situation is even more dire with the navy.

While the Alliance navy is certainly powerful, it’s mostly deployed on the front lines of the five major armies, or escorting transports delivering supplies to the front lines.

Space defense capabilities are somewhat weak in the Alliance’s heartland,

though some are still available.

Broadly speaking, they can be divided into three categories: planetary defense navies, sectoral defense navies, and armed merchant ships serving Alliance caravans.

The first category, planetary defense navies, is similar to planetary defense forces; they are naval forces raised and built by the planets themselves. These planetary navies, however, are subject to more restrictions. On the one hand, their construction must be approved by the Alliance Admiralty and fall under the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Command.

While planetary defense forces are theoretically also under the jurisdiction of the Alliance Army, there’s a significant difference between the two. The Alliance Army generally doesn’t bother overseeing the defense forces, at best recruiting from within them. This is considered a political achievement for the planetary governor and the Planetary Defense Command, a path to promotion and wealth, and they don’t object.

Most planetary officials in the Alliance are temporary officials, a significant difference from the old Empire, where planets were the private property of the planetary governor.

But the navy is different. The Alliance Admiralty not only directly requisitions planetary fleets and adds them to the frontline combat order, but also directly assigns combat missions to them and even directly appoints and assigns their commanders.

Furthermore, the Alliance Admiralty imposes limits on the size of planetary fleets,

primarily to prevent corruption and, secondarily, to prevent rebellion.

After all, planetary conditions are the most uncontrollable. Under Alliance rule, the probability of such a situation is lower than elsewhere, but it’s not completely impossible. If a planetary attack were to occur, the losses would be immense if both its military and navy were fully equipped and powerful.

Of course, even without these resources, maintaining a sizable naval fleet on a single planet’s financial resources is inherently unrealistic. One or two destroyers, accompanied by three or four frigates, to guard against alien pirates, is often quite sufficient. The

primary defense of the Alliance’s heartland rests on the second component: the Sector Navy.

The Sector Navy’s nature is similar to that of the planetary fleet, subject to the same, if sometimes even stricter, regulation than that of the planetary fleet. The difference lies in the fact that the sector government has the financial resources to support a larger fleet, while the central government also provides some financial support. Decommissioned or repaired second-tier vessels are sometimes assigned directly to the Sector Fleet.

After all, a resident fleet of considerable combat capability within a sector is essential.

While not every world possesses a planetary fleet, every sector has a Sector Fleet, varying in size depending on the sector’s importance and the pressure it faces.

Furthermore, a star region is incredibly large.

Small ones contain two or three hundred worlds, while larger ones contain five or six hundred.

Even at full speed, a full traverse would take at least half a month, and at most two months. A full traverse of the star region would take two or three years, and that’s considered fast. If the fleet were to spend a few days on key planets, or if they were to conduct operations or activities, the situation would be even more challenging. Once they slowed down, the speed would be very difficult, and completing a traverse in ten years would be impossible.

Therefore, the entire fleet couldn’t operate together, and they had to be divided into smaller squadrons.

The combined planetary and star region fleets formed the basic defense mechanism for a star region. At the cosmic level, there were no dedicated fleets; the security of the entire cosmic region fell under the responsibility of the Alliance Navy’s General Headquarters. In the event of a cosmic-scale conflict, the Central Army’s fleet would be deployed. The responsibilities of the cosmic navy commander were more like a coordination center. If a problem arose within a star region and couldn’t be resolved, the commander would attempt to mobilize forces from other star regions for support before the Central Army arrived.

In addition to the homeland defense system, another force available for deployment is the armed merchant ships of the Alliance’s caravans. While their primary function and mission is to conduct business, serving as the lifeblood of commerce within the Alliance, their armed forces can be mobilized to counter the enemy when necessary. This is

especially true since the Alliance’s caravans are valuable prey for the Dark Eldar.

However, using this inner-space defense system to counter Dark Eldar raiding parties, which simultaneously pursue targets across multiple universes and even numerous star regions, and conduct unrestricted warfare, presents a real challenge.

Honestly, numerous Dark Eldar attacks have been thwarted, and their probability of failure is actually quite high.

The problem, however, is that while these defeats are numerous, the cost is also low!

This is primarily due to their strategic flaws.

The Dark Eldar are not stubborn.

According to the intelligence currently available to the Alliance through prisoners, the unrestricted warfare in the Manifest Universe is being conducted by a coalition of over fifteen major Darkskin families, led by Isara of the Dusk Fang.

Their strategy is remarkably cunning. Their raiding fleets are even more finely divided than human armies. They choose their targets with extreme caution, and if they sense a threat, they flee, never engaging in a head-on attack.

Once they succeed, they aim to inflict as much damage as possible.

Imagine a planet suddenly attacked by fifteen black-skinned ships. This planet is relatively poor, with a population probably under a billion, an army of perhaps less than ten million, and a global defense system. It has no navy, and its orbital defenses are relatively underdeveloped and underdeveloped.

In the eyes of the universe, and the Alliance’s entire political system, it resembles a “village.”

Suddenly, they were attacked by the Black Skins. Their elite troops descended, beheading and assassinating officials, causing chaos among the planet’s leadership. They then looted vital supplies and, using various weapons, massacred civilians.

This lasted for about ten days, and when the supporting fleet was still two or three star systems away, they decisively withdrew.

Before leaving, they could launch another orbital bombardment.

How could they defend against this?

Extremely difficult.

Whenever the assassination attempt failed, the ground raids were met with strong resistance from the defense forces, or the orbital defenses intercepted during orbital bombardments or the release of weapons like the Extermination Order, the Dark Eldar would decisively admit defeat, abandon their targets, and flee.

On rare occasions, the Alliance’s fast fleets caught them and won a victory, but overall, they suffered more losses.

The homeland defense fleet was constantly on the run.

Honestly, this series of Dark Eldar measures was quite successful.

In a sense, the Alliance could almost be considered “defeated.”

How is victory or defeat in a war determined? It simply depends on whether the strategic objectives of both sides were achieved.

From this perspective, the Dark Eldar’s strategic goal of using the so-called Blood Rose Labyrinth and bringing the war to the Alliance’s homeland, acting as a “pesky bloodsucking mosquito,” was truly achieved: they successfully forced the Alliance back to the negotiating table.

Negotiations resumed.

The Alliance, unwilling to give up, made several attempts.

While the difficulties presented themselves and were difficult to resolve, they still had to be addressed.

Even if the ultimate outcome was peace talks, what remained on the table depended on battlefield performance.

The Alliance successfully detonated two Earth-Blast Destroyers within Comoros.

While these two super-explosive bombs couldn’t completely obliterate Comoros like a planet, they at least destroyed two heavily defended urban areas within the Blood Maze. Even the Alliance’s death squads incurred enormous sacrifices to deliver the bombs; Earth-Blast Destroyers themselves were extremely expensive consumable weapons, and their cost-effectiveness was uncertain.

However, the Alliance was also using this method to sternly warn the Dark Eldar: Don’t assume I have no solutions. If, at all costs, we still possess the power to utterly destroy you, we will.

Furthermore, on the interstellar battlefield of the real universe, the Alliance urgently mobilized fleets from all five major fronts.

These fleets are specialized “hunter fleets,” with specialized ship configurations. While the Retribution-class battleship is highly capable in frontal combat and a mainstay of the Star Wars universe, it is far too slow. The equally slow Zhuge-class aircraft carriers are also effectively eliminated.

These hunter fleets are often centered around the fastest Grail-class battlecruisers, supplemented by numerous destroyers, and a smaller number of fast cruisers and light aircraft carriers. They are used to swiftly hunt down Dark Eldar raiding fleets roaming human space.

These raiding fleets cannot be easily withdrawn from the Veil Gates. Many of them remain in hiding, being apprehended and utterly destroyed before or after their operations.

Furthermore, the frequent use of the Dark Eldar Veil Gates has led to the deciphering of the locations of some of them. Human hunting fleets often arrive first, not rushing to destroy the Veil Gate, but patiently waiting at the entrance. When the next wave of Dark Eldar emerges or returns, they suddenly swoop in and ambush them.

This effectively limits the Dark Eldar’s raiding activities in the real universe.

The difficult but progressive battles on both sides emboldened Ambassador Dexa at the negotiating table.

Ultimately, after constant compromise and confrontation, a preliminary peace agreement was reached.

The Alliance will permanently own the currently occupied Queen Rose Port and Bodhisattva Port. The

Alliance will have the right to lease eight ports, including one large port, two medium-sized ports, and five small ports. These ports are located adjacent to Queen Rose and Bodhisattva Ports. The

Alliance has the right to station troops in these leased ports, which will be jointly managed by both parties. A rental fee was negotiated, and it was completely acceptable to the Alliance. Theoretically, using these leased ports for transportation and troop deployment would cost seven times more than conventional energy deployment, but the benefit is that the time required to deploy troops or transport vital supplies is more than a hundredfold reduced.

If humanity demands it, the Dark Eldar will conditionally open the countless Veil Gate nodes they control in the real universe.

The Dark Eldar can trade technology with humanity. Both sides have already listed the relevant technology, but honestly, this item is just a bonus. The Dark Eldars hold human technology in low regard. Whether it’s restricting their military expansion or their own development, the bottleneck has never been technology.

Humans, on the other hand, do desire Dark Eldar technology, but many Dark Eldar technologies are developed based on their own conditions and are difficult for humans to use.

Furthermore, the other side won’t share the truly core technology.

These conditions can basically be considered the Alliance’s gains from this war.

In contrast, what did the Dark Eldar gain?

A ceasefire, and no more beatings.

Trade: They could trade their own products, high-tech artifacts, and port access with the Alliance. Most importantly, they needed basic energy, food, and raw materials.

With these conditions, although the core areas of Comoros remained completely controlled by the Dark Eldar, and most of the ports remained in Hei Pi’s hands, Gu Hang’s goal of storming Comoros, despite paying a huge price, could be considered achieved.

The Alliance now had the ability to utilize the Veil Spirit Portal for large-scale troop deployment!

Overall, humanity was the victor: Gu Hang’s strategic objectives were all achieved.

Hei Pi, on the other hand, gained nothing. They didn’t receive either of the two Children of Prophecy they sought; they suffered a severe beating; and a significant portion of their homeland was ceded, either becoming permanent Alliance territory or a “concession.”

In return, they gained little more than a break from the attacks and a limited trade opportunity that would be strangled by the humans.

For the Dark Eldar, this was undoubtedly an unequal treaty.

(End of Chapter)