Having received massive reinforcements, the Successors adopted a harassment-and-plunder strategy resembling guerrilla warfare. They launched surprise attacks on poorly defended star systems, looted as much matter as possible, prioritized destroying inhabited planets and space structures, and crippled the enemy's industry and civilian facilities.
The enemy fleets would inevitably have to return to defend them. They would continue using surprise attacks and bombardments against the plundering Successors, so even if the Successors collectively entered faster-than-light escape without hesitation upon seeing an enemy fleet, they would still have to pay a certain price.
The cost was not a problem. As long as it did not exceed the amount of matter harvested during their raids, the Successor swarm was not operating at a loss.
If the enemy fleet left a previously plundered star system, the Successors might return and continue gathering material resources from the system they had raided before.
If the enemy population within the star system had not been completely wiped out and the enemy fleet returned to defend it, the Successor swarm would continue fleeing. But if everyone had already been eliminated, the enemy fleet would not receive another distress signal, and the safety of material extraction would increase.
However, the attacking Successors would not necessarily return. That mostly depended on their mood.
Behind this strategy lay another strategic objective: dispersing the enemy fleet's strength.
The enemy was a civilization native to this galaxy. They possessed vast material resources and space forces, along with faster-than-light capability. Their physical technology had reached the point of widespread antimatter use, combined with the Spirit Realm.
They were extremely troublesome. Even though the Successors possessed Ripple Megastructures, powerful tools capable of preventing the Spirit Realm from functioning, they could not gain much of an advantage against such an enemy.
Even if they could not