Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 963

Chapter 954, Two Factors

Restricting Alliance Recruitment: Of the two major issues, the treaty restrictions are not easy to resolve completely.

After all, during the negotiations, the Alliance promised that the ports it leased would not be used for military operations against the Dark Eldar.

This statement, of course, is accompanied by numerous detailed clauses, clearly spelling out the meaning of “against the Dark Eldar.”

These rules, taken together, essentially block any Alliance route to sending troops to Comoros through these eight leased ports.

This is actually quite reasonable. Expecting the Dark Eldar to use the eight ports, once they’ve been loaned out, to rapidly increase their forces and stockpile them in Comoros is outrageous, and the Dark Eldars would never allow it. They have personnel within these eight concession ports, which are under joint management, and they strictly monitor the Alliance’s use of them. If

the Alliance doesn’t want to renege on the agreement and go to war directly, it can’t do so openly.

However, rules are rules, and there are always workarounds.

For example, the rules allow the Alliance to use the Veil Spirit Gate for military operations, but only for “passing-through” troops. An Alliance army in the real universe can reach Comoros through a Veiled Spirit Gate and quickly pass through another Veiled Spirit Gate to another location in the real universe.

This allows for rapid, ultra-fast maneuvers across vast distances in the real universe. This often occurs when an Alliance army on an expedition suffers heavy losses in a particular battle.

In the past, such a situation would force the entire force to retreat, resting and awaiting reinforcements to replenish personnel and equipment before they could regain their combat effectiveness and resume the campaign. But now, with the Veiled Spirit Gate, they can replenish their forces while fighting.

Sending reinforcements from Alliance Central used to take one or two years to arrive, and then the frontline headquarters would have to deploy these personnel and equipment to various fronts. Now, this time has been reduced to less than a month.

This is undoubtedly a significant change.

During this process, the Alliance can also attempt subtle maneuvers.

Starships are difficult to operate; even small ones are conspicuous and difficult to conceal.

But when it comes to armies mobilizing tens or even hundreds of thousands of troops, it’s much easier.

Companies, even entire regiments, could quietly withdraw from the main force by changing flags, donning civilian clothing, or disbanding their ranks, becoming deployed as defense forces in concession ports or simply going into hiding.

Of course, the Dark Eldar’s oversight was reliable, and they’d repeatedly uncovered the Alliance’s maneuvers and issued stern protests.

Each time, the Alliance issued a solemn apology, stating that the problem stemmed from officers and staff failing to fully understand the terms of the peace treaty, and that they had dealt severely with officers who violated the regulations. These officers were often just lieutenants or captains, company commanders or battalion commanders; a major or even a regimental commander would be considered a significant penalty. And the punishments usually consisted of reprimands or salary deductions.

In response to Dark Eldar inquiries about whether this was the Alliance preparing for another offensive, a move to renege on the peace treaty and rekindle the war, humans categorically denied it.

Believe

it or not, the Alliance simply refused to pay any price.

What could the Dark Eldar do?

They had no particularly effective solution. While the Alliance was violating regulations, they at least respected the peace treaty and didn’t overtly violate them. Unless they found this incident completely unacceptable and sparked another war, all they could do was continue to strengthen monitoring and reduce the frequency of such incidents.

Furthermore, the concession ports still had some treaty restrictions, but in Queen’s Rose and Bodhisattva Port, the Alliance was sending troops to the Comoros with almost unbridled abandon. The Dark Eldars constantly protested, but they always explained that it was to defend the Comoros, to protect the shared property and friendship between the two races.

The peace treaty set a limit on the total number of human troops stationed in the Comoros. The Alliance had signed it in black and white, but so what? So far, every Dark Eldar protest had been met with a simple “it doesn’t exceed the stipulated number” and then rebuffed.

If you insist, then you can investigate.

…

But the other major obstacle hindering the Alliance’s troop increase is nearly impossible to resolve.

The Terran Expeditionary Force is leaving.

The Alliance isn’t unwilling to do so. After all, it was already agreed to with Robert. One of the core reasons for urging peace talks is to expedite Robert and his forces out of Comoros and back to the real universe, to Holy Terra.

And after the peace talks, according to the terms, the Dark Eldar will share with humanity the coordinates of most of the Veil Gates in their possession in the real universe.

This is just like the Alliance’s dishonesty in fulfilling its garrison restrictions, and the Dark Eldar are equally dishonest. Not to mention sharing a majority, Alliance officials believe that the number of gate coordinates they’ve shared is probably only one thousandth of the number they actually control. They’ve provided hundreds of coordinates, seemingly spread out widely, but there must be a vast number of Veil Gates still in their possession, none of which have been leaked to the Alliance.

Faced with the Alliance’s protests and inquiries, they simply stated, “These are all the Veil Gates we possess,” and blocked the Alliance’s advance.

However, among the coordinates they shared, one of the most crucial was a Veil Gate located very close to Holy Terra.

It was located in the system of Taiwei V.

From Taiwei V, a single Astral Tunnel jump would take one to the solar system.

This Veil Gate was located in an asteroid belt on the edge of the Taiwei V system. Due to its distance from human-inhabited planets and the relatively low mineral reserves within the asteroid belt, it was rarely visited.

Even if human ships occasionally arrived, penetrating deep into the asteroid belt was difficult.

The point was that such a move was completely pointless.

But who could have imagined that deep within the asteroid belt lay a small Dark Eldar Veil Gate?

Initially used to transport a few Dark Eldars for reconnaissance, this Veil Gate

was completely incapable of supporting a large expeditionary force, and its throughput was far below standard.

However, this problem was easily solved.

A small fleet, carrying equipment and materials for building a large Veil Gate—”purchased” from the Dark Eldar—arrived on the other side, and then began construction. That was all.

After completing the construction, Robert and his expeditionary force departed.

———

I was supposed to have another chapter before dawn, but I can’t get any more out. I’ll add it tomorrow!

(End of this chapter)