He clenched his fist, his tone growing increasingly grave.
"That wasn't meant to intercept our attack; it was meant to delay our advance! They are using those fortresses to pin down our forces, giving them enough time to secretly deploy portable stargates in the rear. They are fighting for precious time to allow the subsequent ten Sequence Fleets to teleport in!"
As soon as Zhou Yushen finished speaking, General Cheng Zhanyu, commander of the Hurricane Fleet, immediately chimed in.
"If the remaining ten Sequence Fleets actually manage to teleport through the stargates..." He paused, his voice filled with urgency. "Combined with the Sequence Fleets already stationed in the Opal Star Sector, the enemy's total force would be a full twenty Sequence Fleets!"
He looked up at everyone present, his expression becoming even more severe.
"We currently only have nine Sequence Fleets. Even if we add the four that can be deployed from the Savis Star System, that's only thirteen in total. A combat power gap of seven entire Sequence Fleets is a chasm that cannot be easily bridged!"
"Hiss..."
A collective intake of breath echoed through the conference room, and everyone's face turned pale.
Seven Sequence Fleets meant a combat power disparity of over seven hundred thousand warships! Seven hundred thousand warships was an overwhelming force, a tide capable of drowning everything. No matter how ingenious the strategy or how powerful the generals, how much of that gap could be closed in the face of such absolute numerical crushing? What chance of victory would they even have?
The attendees looked at one another, their expressions as heavy as if a giant boulder were pressing on their chests. The oppressive atmosphere in the room climbed to a peak once more.
In the midst of this suffocating silence—
Bang!
A loud crash erupted, shaking the conference table.
General Xue Zhenhai, commander of the Greedy Wolf Fleet, slammed his hand down and bolted upright. His broad palm struck the table with such force that the water glass in front of him jumped high into the air. His face was flushed with rage, his eyes wide and bloodshot, his voice carrying an irrepressible, towering fury.
"Those damn Imperial barbarians!" He gritted his teeth, the anger in his voice nearly exploding. "Do they really think the Ten Stone Starfield is something they can just pluck from a pocket whenever they want? They actually dare to trade away the interests of the Ten Stone Starfield? Pure delusions!"
He let out a cold laugh, his voice growing louder. "Wait until I lead the Greedy Wolf Fleet and smash right into their nest. I'll take a vacuum cleaner and suck the top of Cassius Reinhardt's skull right off!"
"I want to see if that guy's brain is filled with nothing but shit to let him spout such arrogant nonsense!"
As his voice trailed off, the conference room fell into a brief silence. Everyone was stunned. Then, some couldn't help but lower their heads, their shoulders shaking as they stifled laughter.
Xue Zhenhai's crude yet cathartic outburst acted like a stone shattering the extreme tension in the room. The group gradually calmed down.
General Zhou Yushen's expression remained as stern as iron. He spoke, his voice low but carrying a ruthless determination of someone who had burned his bridges.
"If this intelligence is accurate, we have no choice. We must strike first!" He paused slightly, his tone becoming even more resolute. "We must destroy all the Meteor War Fortresses on the border and break through the Imperial defensive line into the heart of the Bushman Star System before the Empire completes the deployment of their portable stargates—and before those ten Sequence Fleets teleport through."
"Then, we will completely destroy every single one of those deploying portable stargates. Leave none!"
Finally, he emphasized his words. "No matter the sacrifice, even if we fight until only one warship remains, we cannot let their plan succeed!"
"General Zhou is right!" General Cheng Zhanyu immediately agreed. "We are racing against time now; every second counts!" He looked at everyone. "If we wait for those ten Imperial Sequence Fleets to teleport through and form an encirclement, it will be too late. Our total mobilizable force is only thirteen Sequence Fleets. We simply cannot stop the frantic assault of twenty Imperial Sequence Fleets. At that point, the Ten Stone Starfield will truly be in imminent danger!"
Cheng Zhanyu's words were like another boulder pressing on their hearts. The air seemed to solidify, permeated by a sense of despair.
However, amidst this suffocating silence, Xue Zhenhai suddenly gave a cold snort, his tone full of disdain and arrogance. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaned back slightly, and glanced sideways at the others.
"Twenty to thirteen, so what? You think having more people makes you special?"
"As long as every one of our warships can achieve an exchange ratio of 1.54..." He paused, lifting his chin, his arrogance nearly overflowing. "Forget twenty Sequence Fleets—even if there were thirty, we could still handle them easily and beat them into a bloody pulp!"
The room fell into a brief, stunned silence. The attendees looked at each other, many wearing expressions of embarrassment and helplessness.
An exchange ratio of 1.54?
Everyone present was a battle-hardened commander; no one knew better than they did what that meant. When the equipment levels and the quality of the officers and crew were roughly equal, achieving an exchange ratio of 1.2 was already top-tier performance, enough to be recorded in military history.
An exchange ratio of 1.54 was a complete fantasy, a number one wouldn't even dare to imagine. Unless the opposing Imperial commander was a complete and utter moron who didn't understand basic tactical deployment, it was simply impossible to achieve.
Of course, cases like the Pluto Fleet, with an exchange ratio exceeding 200, were a different story entirely. After all, that had already transcended the realm of human capability.
In this subtle silence, Lu Chengfeng, commander of the Sirius Fleet, spoke slowly.
"I am inclined to believe that the Empire will indeed deploy portable stargates in the Bushman Star System. After all, multiple pieces of intelligence corroborate this, so the credibility is high."
He shifted his tone, adding a hint of skepticism. "However, the idea of fifteen Sequence Fleets of reinforcements is a bit far-fetched. I find it unlikely."
Meeting the gaze of the others, Lu Chengfeng continued, "Those top Imperial families do indeed have many private soldiers. But they have always been masters of calculation. Why would they deploy fifteen Sequence Fleets at once for the Ten Stone Starfield, which is far away and has no direct interest to them?"
"This deal is far too costly." He spoke with certainty. "Those people are all profit-driven vampires. They recognize only interest, not sentiment. They never make a losing trade, and they certainly wouldn't willingly pave the way for the Reinhardt Family."
His words were logical, grounded, and hit the nail on the head. Hearing this, the others nodded thoughtfully. Lu Chengfeng was right; the Imperial families had always been selfish. Such a large-scale deployment of troops was indeed contrary to common sense
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