Chapter 944, Holy Terra can't wait any longer.
Chapter 944, Holy Terra can't wait any longer.
"Such a significant strategic decision was not my decision, but Mr. Gu's."
"Then let me talk to Gu Hang personally."
"of course."
Xiong Lei couldn't possibly set up any obstacles for Robert.
He had even anticipated that once the communication equipment was set up, Robert would be able to easily connect his psionic communication with Gu Hang to his ship.
Robert didn't waste time with pleasantries; he directly stated his opinion once again.
He believed it was time to have a proper talk with the emissaries of the Dark Eldar about a truce.
Naturally, Gu Hang did not agree.
As Xiong Lei said, such a big matter could not have been decided by him on his own initiative; it must have been Gu Hang's opinion.
Robert wasn't in a hurry; he calmly asked, "Why? I want to know the reason."
He knew Gu Hang had his own considerations, and he could even guess some of them. But he still trusted Gu Hang and didn't think Gu Hang's ideas were worthless or insignificant like those of an ordinary person. Therefore, he naturally needed to listen carefully to see what ideas Gu Hang had that he hadn't considered, or what could persuade him.
Gu Hang was also very direct.
"Entering the Comoros is no easy feat," Gu Hang said with a sigh. "The Dark Eldar are difficult to track down, let alone have the opportunity to conquer the Comoros."
Robert said, "It's not worth such a large investment to eliminate an Xenomorph, especially one that doesn't pose a significant threat to humanity or the Empire."
“Yes, you’re right. But the most valuable thing here isn’t destroying an ancient race. If it were just a Dark Eldar, then they wouldn’t be worth our effort. But the greatest value here isn’t this race, or even eliminating an Xenomorph.”
“Veil Spirit Gate technology? Haven’t we already mastered this technology? We can simply continue to occupy this port, without necessarily launching a full-scale attack on the entire Comoros.”
"It's not that simple." Gu Hang shook his head.
He discovered that Robert's knowledge of psychic and supernatural powers was... not very extensive.
He patiently explained some things.
Only Robert deserves this explanation.
Is the Veiled Gate technology itself that crucial? Actually, no. It's essentially just a technology for 'opening a door,' while the most crucial element is the value of the city of Comoros itself.
This city, nestled within the veil and dating back countless millennia, is practically the last vestige of the Eldar empire that once dominated the universe. Despite the Eldar's countless millennia of history and survival to this day, even if given tens of thousands more years, they could never rebuild a new Comoros.
Its existence is unique in this universe.
With the help of the Comoros, human fleets could move freely and quickly, much like the Eldar fleets. The efficiency of interstellar travel using large veiled portals far surpasses the risks of warp travel and astral tunnel travel.
The only problem is the size.
The number of opening veils and spirit gates is limited, as is the scale of opening them. It took two months to operate all 1,500 warships using seven gates.
However, this is because there are relatively few gates, and none of them are very large.
The newly completed, large-scale curtained spirit gate is expected to be equivalent to the previous seven gates.
However, a new problem has emerged – with the ports constantly open, the entire port has reached its limit.
Opening the Veil Spirit Gate requires the port to continuously output a very large amount of energy.
Energy is relatively easy to manage; it's quite precious to the Dark Eldar. Comoros doesn't produce resources; the Veil of Shadows isn't just barren, it's utterly desolate. All materials, matter, and energy must be obtained from the real universe and then transported in.
To maintain such a massive city, the Dark Eldar naturally had to constantly plunder it.
However, this isn't a significant burden for the alliance. They can simply transport the resources and materials in one ship after another.
The Alliance has built numerous stellar energy plants on many star systems that have no colonization value. The most extravagant one has almost completely surrounded the star, similar to the concept of a 'Dyson sphere'.
Of course, at this stage, it can no longer be considered a stellar energy plant. Although, in essence, Dyson sphere technology is composed of countless stellar energy plants, when the scale reaches the point of covering an entire star, the sheer number becomes staggering. Even the simplest system, when assembled to this scale, presents an incredibly high level of technological difficulty.
That was a completely new technology, an epic technology that came out when Gu Hang did a ten-pull gacha game worth hundreds of millions.
The construction of a Dyson sphere, while rendering other regions outside a star system utterly worthless, has already greatly alleviated the Alliance's energy pressure due to its massive energy output.
Currently, several Dyson spheres are under construction. Furthermore, even before construction is complete, the individual energy plants are already considered operational.
In short, the Alliance has enough energy to keep Comoros running, not to mention the current full-scale operation of just Queen Rose Port.
However, while the energy is sufficient, the number of veiled spirit gates that the port itself can open is limited; this is the port's capacity issue.
The Dark Eldar have eleven medium-sized ports of similar size in Comoros, three large ports larger than Queen Rose Port, and more than forty smaller ports.
"...Therefore, only by controlling all or a large portion of these ports can we meet our strategic maneuvering needs."
Robert fell into deep thought.
He was also able to recognize the problem.
Controlling only Queen Rose Port is not enough. Even if the new Veil Spirit Gate is built, doubling the port's throughput compared to when there were only seven gates, it will still only take a month to deploy a fleet of 1,500 warships.
The time aspect is manageable; it's a relatively easy problem to solve. After all, under normal travel conditions, it might take a month for a fleet to traverse a single star system—and that star system has to be relatively small, otherwise they wouldn't even be able to make it. But the problem lies in the fact that using veiled portals for this kind of transport means that each portal can only accommodate one ship at a time, unlike warp travel or astral tunnel travel, where the entire fleet arrives upon completion of the jump.
There's still a big difference between them.
It takes a fleet a month to complete the journey. If the enemy finds out, they can mobilize a large force, block the entrance, and kill us all.
The Dark Eldar have never worried about this issue. After all, their military operations are relatively small-scale, mostly involving piracy, guerrilla warfare, and petty theft. Even if they manage to send out fifteen ships out of a thousand five hundred, that's considered a major undertaking.
That will be quick.
However, it does not fully meet the requirements of the most important human activity: the large-scale mobile deployment of troops.
According to estimates, if a legion needs to be deployed within a day, then the throughput would need to be thirty times that of the Queen's Rose Port.
Wouldn't that mean taking over all the ports in Comoros?
Robert wondered for a moment if he could stop being so greedy.
On the other hand, the immense temptation made it impossible for him to give it up.
Even if the entire Comoros were conquered, the Veiled Spirit Gate could not replace conventional navigation. What good would a thirty-fold increase in throughput be? A human naval legion still takes a day to deploy. The largest human endeavors in space travel aren't military operations, but rather the voyages of transport ships—far exceeding the number of warships—between countless planets.
The Veiled Spirit Gate can't handle this. It's not just a matter of scale; the cost is unbearable.
A massive transport ship carrying food or basic mineral raw materials can travel slowly by road. The time requirement is relatively low; the focus is more on transportation costs. However, once the Veiled Spirit Gate is opened, delivering such a fully loaded transport ship to its destination consumes too much energy, making it uneconomical.
However, sometimes the key is the rapid deployment of military power.
With the current construction of the Veiled Spirit Gate underway, and dozens of ports on the Comoros simultaneously operating, a massive expeditionary force of 1,500 warships could be deployed to any location in the universe within a single day. The strategic value of that would be unprecedented!
Three thousand ships in two days, and fifteen thousand ships in ten days!
No matter where or what major event occurs, humanity will be able to respond and handle it with lightning speed.
This expedition to Terra, launched from the Infinite Starfield, was a grueling experience for Robert, leaving a deep impression on him.
But what if the Comoros were in human hands?
The expedition ceremony just finished this morning, and the army will be able to reach Holy Terra by tonight!
But Robert quickly snapped out of his reverie.
He shook his head and said, "The sight 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 believed Gu Hang was fully aware of it.
Now, the human army has only managed to occupy less than one percent of the Comoros territory, and it already feels like it's mired in a quagmire.
Want to take them all? It's not that easy.
Moreover, the Dark Eldar are being pushed to the brink of life and death. This former cosmic overlord, who has survived for countless millennia, must still have some powerful trump cards up his sleeve. If they are pushed to the limit, no one knows how much pressure they will face in the future.
“Moreover…” Robert raised a new question, “I agree that if we can conquer Comoros, then no matter the cost or the time it takes, it will be worthwhile. But what about Holy Terra if it takes too long? Nobody knows how much longer Holy Terra can hold out after a hundred years of darkness.”
“Sigh…” Gu Hang sighed, “I do know the general situation on Holy Terra now, not in great detail, but overall, it’s not ideal.”
This is another achievement for the Alliance's Western Expeditionary Force after they entered the Holy Land of the Empire.
In the past, when the scarlet scar was at its most ferocious, Gu Hang found it difficult to overcome this 'natural phenomenon' that was equally terrifying in the subspace, in order to explore the situation on the other side.
However, with the alliance army having already conquered half of the space region on the other side, Gu Hang's communication with that side has improved considerably.
He can even contact the Alliance embassy on Holy Terra.
However, the result was not good.
After the catastrophe, there was also great turmoil on Holy Terra.
The living expenses required for a population of trillions are enormous, including water, food, and consumer goods—many of which require trade with the outside world. Even with the relatively proactive efforts of the Holy Terran authorities after the severing of contact, the overall situation remains extremely tense. Famine, water shortages, energy shortages, and shortages of consumer goods are erupting across the entire planet.
This crowded world with trillions of people, at the very center of the human empire, is a place that external evil gods constantly watch and covet.
Cults and unrest have been rampant and frequent on Holy Terra.
Rather than being solely influenced by external enemies, Holy Terra's complete severance of external communication led to a loss of control over the entire empire, resulting in immense political catastrophe. On Holy Terra, fierce struggles raged between various political factions and local factions within the central territories that had regained contact with the outside world.
This is the tragic part: the more urgent the situation, the closer to death, the less likely humanity will become to unite. There's a considerable probability that, under the pressure of extinction, they will descend into frenzied infighting.
The Alliance embassy was declared illegal decades ago. Many Alliance personnel and their associates sent to Holy Terra suffered severe persecution. Now, only a small number remain hidden in various places, but a hundred years is too long—several generations have passed—and few remember their fathers' responsibilities to the Alliance.
Even if they remember, they might not care anymore.
Gu Hang only knows that, centered on Holy Terra, there are rebel forces all over the surrounding space; there are also rebel activities within Holy Terra itself. Cult members are rapidly corrupting, and even in the deepest parts of Holy Terra's hive, there are already real warp demons active.
This is a giant powder keg, which could be blown to smithereens at any moment by a single triggering event.
There was indeed an urgent need for someone like Robert to oversee things there.
"Holy Terra may not live to see us conquer Comoros."
When Robert said those words, he sounded both anxious and sad.
(End of this chapter)












