Wheeler

Rowan's guess was correct; the Telo Civilization's fleet halted its advance between the White Grub and Big Horn Star System. The fleet remained stationed, while a formation of one hundred warships broke through and continued towards the Origin Star System.

The warships were moving faster and faster, and the starry sky around the formation seemed to be distorted, giving the entire formation a somewhat erratic feeling.

To the uninformed, this might seem like some kind of advanced induction technology, but the Swarm understands that it's a special phenomenon caused by the Telo's special engine, which pushes the warship's speed above the speed of light.

Although the Telo Civilization is an old civilization in the outer circle, this Warp Engine drive technology is quite advanced. They have only mastered it for a short time, and only warships produced in the last ten thousand years or so are equipped with it. The older warships still use sub-light speed propulsion.

Of the 200,000 ships that set out on this expedition, probably less than 20% are actually light-speed aircraft. This is why their speed remained below the speed of light and could be detected by the conventional Optical Observation system of the Overseer.

What do they want to do?

"Isn't it obvious? They've gone deep into enemy territory alone; they've come to negotiate."

"That's right. Revealing the Warp Engine now is an attempt to intimidate us and gain the upper hand in negotiations."

The Blade discussed animatedly. Since the battles and the conversion of a large number of prisoners into the Riken Race and Duoqi Race, the Blade's forces had grown considerably. Unlike the Rat-folk could only talk the talk, the Intellect of these two tribes had been tested in actual combat. The Duoqi Race, in particular, had several captain-level Intellect with extensive combat experience, which greatly enhanced the Blade' forces.

Rowan nodded in agreement. He guessed that the Swarm probably had never seen Warp Engine before, and the Telo Civilization' demonstration of it would undoubtedly give the Swarm a shock, subtly showing Swarm the technological gap between the two sides and raising their bargaining power.

--

"General Wheeler, do we really need to be so cautious? With our combat capabilities, sweeping away a low-level civilization would be a piece of cake."

"Yes, with all this mobilization, if we only negotiate, the benefits we gain won't even cover the cost of the expedition."

"Bullshit! That Rat-folk civilization is nothing to worry about, but that Zerg is very strange. You've all seen their data. If we rashly advance and the fleet suffers heavy losses, who will take responsibility?!"

Compared to the magma-faced, three-eyed Duoqi Race, the Telo Race's art style is barely acceptable. Their skin is a dark bronze color with a unique metallic texture, and both men and women are extremely muscular, with a two-meter-tall frame and well-defined muscles, exuding a strong sense of masculine philosophy.

At the center of the Telo fleet, a disc-shaped warship with a diameter of over five kilometers was surrounded by countless long, narrow warships, each about three kilometers long.

This is the flagship of the fleet that set out on this expedition. Because it is temporarily docked, a large group of Telo officers have gathered here for a heated discussion.

The Riken Race hadn't even fully developed a single star system, and their internal factions were countless. In contrast, the Telo Race possessed nearly twenty star systems and a population of almost two hundred billion. Their territory and population were several times larger than those of the Riken Race.

Furthermore, the warships deployed for this expedition were drawn from various regions, resulting in a complex web of factions and cliques between and within star systems. These factions consisted of friends of friends, friends of enemies, enemies of friends, and so on, making the relationships between them far more intricate than one could imagine.

General Wheeler, the supreme commander of this expeditionary force, was at his wits' end looking at the noisy conference room, but he had no intention of trying to straighten out their relationships or reconcile their conflicts.

General Wheeler may hold a high position and wield great power, but if he were to rashly intervene as a peacemaker, he would likely only cause trouble. It would be better for him to maintain a detached stance and watch them argue. Anyway, there's nothing else to do right now, so he can just treat it as a comedy show.

Hearing the discussion below, Wheeler couldn't help but think to himself, "If these 200,000 troops were as easy to command as his own limbs, he might have chosen to fight Zerg head-on to gain more leverage. But judging from their current state, they're probably just going to be sent to their deaths."

However, for the sake of unity and friendship among his colleagues, he certainly couldn't reveal his true thoughts. He could only subtly give his subordinate a meaningful look. The subordinate immediately understood and retorted sharply.

Wheeler nodded in satisfaction; this pleased him greatly, and he secretly gave his subordinate a credit. But he hadn't expected those guys to be so relentless.

"So what if they're strange? They're just flesh and blood. How could they possibly be a match for our steel warships?"

"That's right, biotechnology has inherent flaws; it simply can't compare to mechanical technology in terms of strength."

"However, they far surpass our capabilities in terms of quantity, tolerance for error, and repair, and should not be underestimated." Although he was Wheeler's direct subordinate, judging from his attire, he was a major general. But that's not surprising, as the level of this meeting was quite high; those who could attend were at least brigadier generals.

"Hmph, no matter how much trash there is, it's still just trash!" The Telo who spoke remained unconcerned. He was a lieutenant general with factional support behind him, and he wasn't intimidated at all by the fact that the person arguing with him was a subordinate of the expedition's supreme commander.

"The Duoqi People thought the same thing back then, and now they've slunk back." Although they took many precautions and thought they could keep the matter of the Duoqi Third Prince a secret, in reality, after the Epoch Clan showed interest in the Swarm, countless intelligence organizations were watching them. While they couldn't be on the battlefield to observe firsthand, they managed to reconstruct the events through multiple channels. In any civilization with even a slight history, almost everyone has a copy of this information.

"More than two thousand warships, engaged in a prolonged battle despite flawed intelligence and command errors, only to lose half their fleet in the end. Is this some kind of child's play?"

"Why don't you say that the Zerg also lacked intelligence and were wiped out of most of their forces right away? We can't use 'Flaming Red Lips' as an invitation now." This time, it wasn't General Wheeler's subordinate who retorted, but another lieutenant general who took the initiative to join the argument.

"So what? The trash Duoqi Race can fight this Zerg to a standstill, and they're even using the entire force of a star system. With that kind of fighting power, we can crush them with sheer strength, even without using Flaming Red Lips!" The rebuttal was full of firepower.

"Are you genuinely stupid or just pretending? The Zerg have only been establishing themselves in the Riken Star System for a few days. But the place we're heading to is their stronghold. The forces we'll face, in terms of both quantity and quality, are incomparable to those over there."

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