Supply

Time flows on, and it never stops.

Because of the lenient and simple conditions offered to the Riken Race, their lives actually improved significantly after surrendering, as they no longer needed to wage war. In addition, the proportion of Intellect and the physical population steadily increased, public opinion was controlled, and any small-scale resistance groups were quickly suppressed.

Therefore, for a long time to come, the Riken Race will not be able to draw the Swarm's attention. Rowan will then have time to think carefully about how to deal with the behemoth behind the Duoqi Race.

After reorganizing his fleet, Dialo had been waiting for an opportunity to deliver a devastating blow to the Swarm.

Unfortunately, he encountered Swarm.

The Swarm were unlike any other civilization he had ever known before; compared to other civilizations, the Swarm were incredibly laid-back.

For example, the Riken Race currently occupies the Binary Star Defense Line, including their Mother Planet and Guiyun Planet, totaling four planets. Even if they have colonies on other planets besides their Mother Planet, their industries are not as complete due to limitations in scale and population.

Therefore, transport ships frequently travel between the planets to deliver supplies and exchange goods. Many of these transport ships are unprotected by warships, making them excellent targets for a surprise attack.

However, because the four planets under the jurisdiction of the Riken Race are relatively close to each other, and there are many defensive facilities and warships patrolling, it is easy for ordinary space pirates to get in and not be able to get out.

Dialo's fleet certainly had the capability, but the Riken Race were not his target, although he had secretly contacted Riken Race. However, the Riken were using the Swarm as a pretext, implying that if he defeated the Swarm, the Riken Race would definitely submit—they were using whatever sounded good. Although he felt something was amiss, he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

However, on the Swarm side, the distances between the bases are vast. The Chuyun Planet Base and the Stellar Near-Orbit Base are separated by the entire territory of the Riken Race, Chuyun Planet Base and the Laze Planet Base are hundreds of millions of kilometers apart.

At such a long distance, if the Swarm makes even the slightest attempt at communication, Dialo can demonstrate the Swarm 'Duoqi Race harassment tactics to them.

Unfortunately, the Swarm's bases really don't need daily communication. Those Biological Weapon, because of their ability to grow stronger while sleeping, usually just lie dormant in space, not even giving the Duoqi Fleet a second glance when it passes by in the distance.

Dialo was extremely helpless about this. He couldn't send out small groups to provoke and provoke them, as they ignored him. He also didn't dare to charge into the Zerg base to fight it head-on, because even the weakest Laze Planet Zerg easily kill him.

The awkward situation didn't end there. The Swarm didn't care about the passage of time, because every day they delayed meant another day of development. But Dialo's situation was different. Putting aside the issue of mission timeliness, which was quite flexible, they could afford to wait several more years. The problem was that their supplies were running low.

Energy and fuel were manageable; they had brought plenty when they set out, enough to sustain the fleet for decades, and even for two more high-intensity wars. But food was running out.

Water is actually easy to solve; each warship has an internal circulation system that can purify all kinds of sewage and domestic wastewater to drinking water standards again. You can just close your eyes and pretend you don't know anything, and it's pretty much the same. But you can't do that with food. You can't just reprocess the waste and serve it on the table.

Although each warship has an eco-pod, warships are warships after all, not dedicated supply ships. The eco-pods are not large in scale. They can only supply the generals' needs in normal times, and there is not much left. They are far from meeting the needs of all the Duoqi People.

Dialo's original plan was to conquer the Zerg and the Riken Race, and then occupy the Riken Mother Planet. Although the Duoqi Mother Planet differed slightly from the Dochi Mother Planet in various parameters, it was still a Life Star. By slightly modifying a piece of land, he could produce food that the Duoqi Race could eat. At the very least, he could directly modify the Riken Race's food rations for their own consumption. In that case, he could stay for as long as he wanted, which was why Dialo only brought two supply ships with him on this expedition.

However, the war is not going well, and due to the possibility of battle at any time, the crew members are all in a state of constant alert, and their daily consumption is extremely high. Although Dialo has made connections with the Riken Race and secretly smuggled some food from Riken Race, the Riken Race does not dare to go too far, and because the two sides do not use the same currency, the Riken Race stopped paying attention to him after "donating" a batch of food to them.

Dialo's magma-like face cracked with rage, vowing to teach the Riken Race a lesson they would never forget, but at this moment, his powerless roar had no effect whatsoever.

However, after these foods are brought back, they still need to undergo various further processing to remove toxins that are harmful to the Duoqi Race before they can be eaten. The process is very complicated, and the Duoqi warships do not have enough equipment to process them on a large scale. Therefore, even if the Riken Race provides unlimited food, it is still impossible for Dialo to get rid of the food shortage.

Even so, Dialo stubbornly roamed the Riken Star System, trying to find an opportunity. Unfortunately, apart from detecting radio waves between the various Swarm bases, which appeared to be encrypted communications, there was no other interaction between the Swarm bases. Moreover, even if there were communications, the encryption methods used were extremely mysterious and complex. Although the Duoqi Fleet intercepted a lot of these communications, it has not been able to decipher any information so far.

Under these circumstances, things suddenly took a turn for the better.

As mentioned earlier, Dialo brought two supply ships with him on this expedition, and they were the largest models among the Duoqi Race. Each ship had Large Ecological Pod, enough to supply the daily needs of 200 warships and their crew. However, because of their enormous size, reaching 3,000 meters in length, much larger than Dialo's flagship, these ships moved very slowly and could not keep up with military operations.

If they were to appear on the battlefield, they would only serve as effective targets. Therefore, during wartime, these supply ships are usually hidden in relatively safe locations within their own occupied territory to provide supplies to the front lines.

Dialo hid his two supply ships in the asteroid belt on the outskirts of the Riken Star System. During this time, the supply ships had produced a considerable amount of supplies, awaiting the fleet's arrival to collect them. If used sparingly, these supplies would be enough for Dialo to roam freely for another year or two.

However, he was well aware that although the Swarm ignored him, they were definitely using various means to detect the fleet's movements.

If they go to resupply, the large-scale fleet transfer will definitely be noticed by the Swarm, and the slow-moving supply ships will be in a very dangerous situation.

Therefore, he wouldn't resupply until he was completely out of resources. However, the two supply ships fully loaded with supplies gave him a lot of confidence.

Thank you Jiyu the 1500 Qidian Coins reward, and thank you for the 100 Qidian Coins reward from Hui Ni Gu Han.