Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 645 - 641: A Political Career is Very Important

Chapter 645: Chapter 641: A Political Career is Very Important

If human sociologists knew about the current state of the Apollo Civilization, they might be shocked, a Fourth-level Civilization still plagued by significant internal strife—it’s simply beyond imagination!

But upon closer consideration, it’s not that strange... Civilizations that haven’t experienced much hardship are often like this.

As an Affiliated Civilization, if its cohesion is too strong, it’s easy to pursue a path of independent development, and what Sovereign Civilization would feel comfortable with that? Only a civilization fractured and ridden with fierce internal struggles among its upper echelons, where leaders are overthrown every few years, can be considered an excellent Affiliated Civilization.

A handful of historians within the Apollo Civilization concluded after their investigations that these phenomena of civilizational division were deliberately cultivated by the Sovereign Civilization in ancient times!

A divided civilization is often easier to control than a unified one.

There is racial hatred within the civilization, and thus the appeasement mindset is stronger, leading to a natural brain drain, with talents serving the Sovereign Civilization.

But these scholars are of little influence and can do nothing about it; politicians, too, turn a blind eye to these issues, since any attempt to heal these wounds could directly result in their removal by the Sovereign Civilization.

So, it is foreseeable that this racial hatred will continue for the foreseeable future.

Newborns in the Apollo Civilization are educated on these matters from an early age, with racial hatreds written into their textbooks.

The most outstanding scientists opt to join the Sovereign Civilization to conduct scientific research.

Because of historical reasons and close modern interactions, a significant portion of the grassroots members feel grateful to the Sovereign Civilization, making it impossible for even the Supreme Governor to betray the Sovereign Civilization.

This is control, the true means to control a Level-4 Civilization!

If you seize their history, you seize everything!

In summary, if Big Squid leaders make significant errors, they too will be dismissed from their positions—of course, these need to be significant errors. In general situations, they still have considerable autonomy. Only their own kind can manage their own kind better.

"But damage to a War Star definitely counts as a significant error!"

The entire civilization only possesses two War Stars; should one be damaged, this faction may decline as a result. On the other hand, to retreat from battle without engaging would definitely expose them to political rivals who would ruthlessly humiliate them and be criticized as "cowards" and "soft squids" by various media outlets; that’s a naked truth.

A full withdrawal would mean the complete end of their political careers!

After much debate, these Big Squids finally made a decision: they must fight!

But exactly how to fight, how to deter the opponent, and how to seize more benefits is an art unto itself... They didn’t want the War Stars to engage in battle and suffer significant harm.

Discussion turned to this point, these Big Squids couldn’t help but feel troubled, and this was the main reason for their vacillation here.

They still hoped that the New Human Civilization would capitulate.

"We must seize the benefits before the other side completes their engine!"

...

Three years of constant trial between them flew by in a rush again...

For humans, these were three very precious years.

Never had time been so precious!

With ongoing conflicts and increasing frictions big and small, a full-scale war could break out at any time. Yet, in such conditions, Engineers continued to press on with production, whether it was various drones or the Planet Curvature Engine, everything was being manufactured at top speed...

In summary, the New Human Civilization has persisted until now!

The Planet Curvature Engine is now more than 89% complete!

"Sigh, just finish quickly, finish quickly..." Zhang Yuan felt very restless. Nearly every senior government official was restless under the strain of this prolonged stalemate.

Sometimes people even wanted to pay a few AmiBa Points to hasten the enemy’s withdrawal. Nevertheless, this plan was ultimately vetoed.

Ye Kaifu looked over the complete set of engineering blueprints and explained, "There’s no rushing it; it’s estimated that it will take another four years for the Planet Curvature Engine to reach preliminary completion, where it can be barely usable. The maximum speed would be 1 times the speed of light."

"Once we get to a safe place, we’ll need to completely perfect this War Star. Indeed, this isn’t a good construction site."

"Four years?"

Looking down from above the planet, one could see towers standing tall on the planet’s surface, emitting regular bursts of light from time to time.

These were the Planet Curvature Engines.

Ye Kaifu asked, "How’s the situation ahead? How long can we hold out?"

Zhang Yuan said with a worried tone, "It doesn’t look good. The enemy’s military deterrence continues, and they’re unwilling to leave without gaining something. So there are always drones entering the border to probe, which has led to several incidents—some minor, some more serious—and there have been casualties..."

"Casualties, huh?"

"Yes..."

"I estimate that, in the end, we’ll have to engage in a medium-scale war. Only after confirming they can’t consume us without losses will they be willing to leave."

"A medium-scale war!" Ye Kaifu was greatly shocked; a medium-scale war meant that humans would have to commit half their military forces.

Mobilizing half the military forces would be almost as bad as mobilizing all of them.

"There’s an even greater chance that they will launch a full-scale attack before the Curvature Engine is fully completed... That would be far more dangerous."

"So we can’t afford blind optimism."

New Human Civilization had been in a state of war mobilization for so many years, and the public had grown somewhat accustomed to it.

Under such pressure, it truly was a baptism of the soul. In the beginning, many had trouble sleeping, filled with anxiety, but they quickly resumed normal work schedules. Since the decision had been made and the non-fighters had already left, what was there to fear?

War is the greatest disaster, but only through war can the fruits of human labor be preserved!

"The first real military clash occurred two years ago, as the Apollo Civilization became increasingly brazen in crossing the Human Air Defense Identification Zone, with some spaceships crossing an entire astronomical unit!"

So, after warnings proved ineffective, the Human military took drastic action!

If they didn’t take drastic action, the game wouldn’t be playable anymore.

This time, it was the humans who fired first, directly blowing up some of the enemy spaceships that had intruded into the Air Defense Identification Zone.

The second incident involved a small group of new human spaceships being attacked while patrolling the border!

It was retaliation!

As for the third conflict, it was a series of retaliatory counterattacks organized by humans after being attacked at the border.

These incidents were small skirmishes with casualties, but the conflict did not escalate, and the spaceships involved in the combat were only of the Guardian and Destroyer Levels, not on a large scale.

Zhang Yuan sighed, "Looking at the results now, the deterrence effect of that Planet Buster explosion was still decent... It prevented the enemies’ War Star from charging in recklessly."

"But if this keeps going on, with you retaliating against me, and me retaliating against you, it will quickly escalate to total war... There must also be a series of disputes within the Apollo Civilization."

"It’s just uncertain how many more days this calm can last."