New Strategy, New Thinking

In a fleet 326 light-years from Baron Star, countless crew members lay quietly in their hibernation pods. Only a small number remained awake outside them.

The fleet's deputy commander stood on the bridge, studying the projected battle damage report, and could not help reminding the fleet commander beside him.

"We have already committed enormous resources to this war."

"But it is worth it. We cannot let the Swarm take Baron Star," the commander said.

As he spoke, the commander looked at the projected live feed of the war on Baron Star and said with absolute resolve, "Besides, as long as we drive the Swarm creatures off Baron Star, we can recover all those lost resources."

Seeing that the commander had made up his mind, the deputy commander said no more. The commander then gave the order.

"Keep sending in more fleets. Concentrate our efforts on breaking through the Swarm creatures' blockade from a single direction!"

"Understood!"

The subordinate at the console replied.

The Galactic Alliance had adopted a new technology that combined faster-than-light communications, allowing crew members to remotely control spacecraft across light-years.

The crews only needed to hide far away to pilot warships and wipe out every last enemy.

As a result, the Galactic Alliance no longer cared about casualties or morale after each fleet engagement, because there was no need to consider those issues at all.

Even worse, the Galactic Alliance had also adopted certain deceptive measures to confuse the Swarm.

Hollow-shell warships were, as the name suggested, simple empty warships. They had no weapons, only light armor and an inefficient warp engine, while their appearance was identical to that of genuine Alliance warships.

When these warships appeared on the battlefield, the Swarm could easily mistake them for enemy fleets and pour firepower into them.

This allowed the Galactic Alliance's real warships to escape disaster and launch several more attacks.

More importantly, these hollow-shell warships were easy to build. Their materials were utterly cheap and careless, with no consideration given to durability or combat capability.

However, although the Swarm had not noticed it, the Black Curtain still forced the Galactic Alliance to expend tremendous resources to destroy a single planetary creature.

After all, damaging a planetary creature's Black Curtain barrier required pouring vast amounts of energy into creating a singularity, using it to make the Black Curtain's psionic power difficult to wield any longer.

"What is going on? Has the Galactic Alliance gone mad?" Kasha asked in confusion.

Kasha truly could not understand the Galactic Alliance fleet's suicidal reinforcement tactics.

In past battles, the Galactic Alliance fleet would soon be forced to retreat because of excessive losses.

This campaign was being fought in an entirely different style.

Just as Kasha was about to call for reinforcements, Lu Shang issued an order through the Swarm network.

"That's enough, Kasha. Bring the planetary creatures back."

"Huh? Why?" Kasha was even more confused.

Although the Galactic Alliance fleet had adopted a suicidal style of fighting this time, Kasha did not care, because the Swarm was even more willing to throw its life away than they were.

Did they want to trade blows?

Then let them have a go and see who was more fearless of death!

Yet Lu Shang had ordered a retreat halfway through.

Lu Shang answered, "I already know what new technology the Galactic Alliance is using. There is no need to clash head-on with them. It is not time for the decisive battle yet, so let the Galactic Alliance have this victory for now. We'll take it back next time."

After retreating from the battle on Baron Star, Kasha voiced her dissatisfaction to Lu Shang through the Swarm network.

"I need an explanation. This was clearly something reinforcements could have resolved, yet you ordered me to retreat."

Baron Star held enormous strategic significance for the Swarm. Its material resources were exceptionally abundant. If the Swarm could consume it and hatch planetary creatures there, then the Galactic Alliance would no longer be a problem.

"The Galactic Alliance fleet no longer has people dying in it. Do you know that?" Lu Shang asked in return.

"What do you mean?"

Still somewhat angry, Kasha froze at Lu Shang's question.

Lu Shang explained, "It means there are no longer people operating those warships from inside. They may be remotely controlled, or perhaps operated by AI. If we keep fighting with this information gap, the Swarm could easily suffer."

"During the battle just now, I observed the destruction of those warships through the Swarm network. Not a single one left behind a corpse of an intelligent life-form. And there were some other strange things about this battle as well."

Kasha calmed down. "Is that why we retreated?"

"No," Lu Shang said.

"Uh?"

Kasha was momentarily speechless, unsure how to respond.

Lu Shang said, "That alone was not enough to warrant a retreat. The main reason is that the Galactic Alliance will very likely change its strategy as it applies this new technology. I want to minimize our losses so we can deal with the Galactic Alliance's upcoming strategic changes."

"Take out your paper and pens. I'm going to teach you a new strategy: 'They fight their way, we fight ours,'" Lu Shang told the Overminds through the Swarm network.

"How is this different from the previous strategy?" one Overmind asked in confusion.

Lu Shang answered, "The previous strategy emphasized unity. This one emphasizes offense. It is about using our strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses."

"Seize the rhythm of war through offense. Do not fall into the enemy's rhythm. Do not focus on confrontation; use our strengths to strike at the enemy's shortcomings and weak points."

After hearing this, the Overminds all picked up pens and wrote down everything Lu Shang said.

Under Lu Shang's constant educational lash, they had all developed good study habits.

After Kasha finished writing, she carefully examined her notes and asked Lu Shang in confusion, "Is this strategy really that powerful? It doesn't seem very useful."

"It sounds simple to you," Lu Shang said. "Wait until the enemy uses it on you, and you'll understand what kind of nightmare it is."

Under Lu Shang's command, large numbers of planetary creatures launched surprise attacks on the major administrative planets of the Galactic Alliance nearest the occupied regions. This time, they no longer considered the divisions between the Galactic Alliance's various factions. Whoever was closest got attacked.

When the Babel Swarm launched surprise attacks now, the administrative planets were no longer so uneasy. Some were even a little excited.

After all, once they were infected, they could escape the deadly cosmic war. For the people on those administrative planets, was there anything better than that?

Obviously not!

Who in their right mind enjoyed having Planetary Devastation used on them, or getting wiped out when someone blew up the sun?

Only lunatics liked that sort of thing!

When planetary creatures appeared at the Galactic Alliance's major administrative planets, the Galactic Alliance fleets stationed within those star systems were told by the administrative planets to get lost, while the planetary creatures were welcomed with open arms.

This time, the Babel Swarm's planetary creatures shouted a slogan that none of the administrative planets' governors could understand.

"Everything is for love and dreams!"