Of course, now that the bad news was out of the way, came the good news.
Now that reports from the Ring of Miracles had finally reached the galaxy, the situation at Unity Fortress and throughout the Dawn Star Sector went without saying. From what they could tell, Yang Xiyi still controlled more than half of Unity Fortress.
What was more, on Onomia and Yaochi, the Commonwealth Marines had even struck first and won an annihilation victory—one rarely seen even during the War of Independence.
Looked at that way, aside from the Ring of Miracles, the Commonwealth was actually holding the upper hand on quite a few fronts. If each front counted for one point, their side was far ahead. The advantage was theirs!
Yu Lian would have liked to reassure everyone that way, but he knew that General Connaris's blunder had completely thrown away the slight strategic balance they had spent a whole year painstakingly planning and fighting to establish ever since the Marauders' Great Expedition began.
He was beginning to worry about Teacher Yang and the others. On the Ring of Miracles, the hundred thousand troops under Lieutenant General Seyo and Major General Marlowe had become an isolated force. But what of Teacher Yang and Kent at Unity Fortress, Hachiman on Onomia, Simon and Meng Jiao on Yaochi, and even the forces at New Lushun and New Jade Gate? Hadn't they all become isolated forces, too?
In the space age, without warships, even the most brilliant ground battles still left you stranded on an isolated island.
Yu Lian asked, "Any news of Major General Maklov and Brigadier General Bonaparte's Thirteenth Fleet? Also, when the Battle of the Ring of Miracles began, we should have had four or five task groups away from the main fleet. Have we made