Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 648 - 644: Final Ultimatum

Chapter 648: Chapter 644: Final Ultimatum

The tense situation of battle continued, with bright spheres of light flickering in the universe, soon resulting in a series of damages on both sides.

"Retreat, retreat!"

"Fall back even further!"

War Stars of the Apollo Civilization, along with most of their large flagships, fought as they retreated, and within the span of a dozen minutes, they had pulled out from the vicinity of the New Human Civilization’s Air Defense Identification Zone. The battlefield slowly contracted, returning to a skirmish zone dominated by drones.

A few curvature missiles, launched urgently, seemed to hit their targets, creating bright spheres of light.

"Report to the officer, the New Human Civilization forces have retreated!"

"Understood, bring up the battle report!"

A group of angry Big Squids began to tally the losses from this local conflict, analyzing the specifics.

No matter how enraged they were, proper military discipline was still essential—if they didn’t even know how many soldiers they had lost and simply counterattacked blindly, it would be utterly ridiculous. This war wouldn’t end overnight; there would always be an opportunity for retaliation.

...

Zhang Yuan and others anxiously awaited the frontline reports.

Their strategy this time was too risky; they really had taken a significant gamble!

They had already discussed it, if the other side didn’t bother with negotiations and charged forward in a frenzy with all their forces, the New Human Side would still need to put up a sham resistance for some time, but ultimately, the main forces would have to retreat quickly to minimize casualties!

After all, on paper, the New Human Civilization simply couldn’t match the opponent.

"How much loss are we willing to bear if a real battle ensues?"

This was the first difficult question they faced.

After some discussion, a 5% casualty rate was the limit people were willing to tolerate. If the enemy really pressed in for a major confrontation, they would hold out briefly, absorbing a maximum of 5% losses in their forces before having to destroy the War Stars and flee completely.

So, this was also the last round of psychological jousting between the two sides!

Betting the opponent wouldn’t dare to barge in and engage in serious combat!

Of course, as things stood, humanity still had a chance of winning this gamble. The Apollo Civilization had been hovering hesitantly at the border, indicating they had many concerns. Moreover, they didn’t know whether humans had more tricks up their sleeve; they merely wanted to gain as much as they could...

Bright spheres of light continued to twinkle in the universe, and some would lose their lives as a result...

"But what of it?"

Zhang Yuan sighed softly. In war, people always die; where does the notion come from that one can fantasize about a bloodless victory?

Even if the humans possessed Virtual World Technology, it still wasn’t possible to transfer a soldier’s consciousness instantly into a computer at the moment of death.

Consciousness Upload had stringent environmental requirements and required several minutes of preparation. Plus, human self-awareness was far from capable of being remotely transferred, so once a spaceship was destroyed, the likelihood of death was exceedingly high!

But to win this war, one had to be firm; only by demonstrating the potential for a greater hand could one exert an imposing presence!

"Ah, yet such a display can’t be too crude, to avoid provoking the enemy into a cost-ignorant retaliation. It’s tricky!"

Half a click later, the war gradually ceased, and the unmanned spaceships the Apollo Civilization had left in the Air Defense Identification Zone were thoroughly cleaned up by the New Human Civilization. It was indeed a rare, significant victory.

After clearing these drones, the large flagships of the New Human Side also hurriedly retreated.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the battle report is out!"

The Captain suddenly spoke, silencing the entire room.

The screen displayed human losses.

Since it was a sudden conflict that started and finished quickly, human casualties were not significant, with some drones lost, along with six Guardian-class and one Cruiser Class spaceship destroyed.

A Cruiser Class spaceship could carry more than 20,000 people, making it a rather large battle unit. However, during this operation, this ship had no crew aboard; instead, it was at the forefront, controlled by Artificial Intelligence, drawing in the enemy’s curvature tracking missiles.

As expected, this large spaceship was completely destroyed by a curvature missile.

Besides this, the loss of 6 Guardian-class ships meant that there had been casualties of at least six hundred human officers, and the probability of death far exceeded that of injury.

Rescuing survivors was extremely difficult; the chance of surviving after a spaceship was destroyed was less than one in a hundred.

Upon seeing these casualties, Zhang Yuan sighed again and observed three minutes of silence.

On the other hand, the New Human Side’s battle achievements were greater. They had destroyed some of the enemy’s spaceships as well as a large unmanned drone hub, which was the high-tech platform obliterated by a "Planet Buster" in one fell swoop.

This was a big deal, worth much more than a Cruiser Class spaceship.

"Indeed... the attacking party does have a greater advantage. This is a major victory!"

"Don’t be blindly optimistic, the balance of power between the two sides hasn’t shifted significantly... Next, they might retaliate."

"There’s not much left to discuss at this point, let’s continue with the plan!"

Zhang Yuan urged, "Hurry up and issue the ultimatum."

"Yes, write an ultimatum. We can’t delay!"

And so, with reluctance, Captain Feng drafted an ultimatum and had the communication room staff send it out.

[Ultimatum!]

[The Apollo Civilization, for unprovoked reasons, has been causing trouble and provoking near our Alliance’s Air Defense Identification Zone for three years... Despite multiple warnings to no avail, we hereby issue this ultimatum!]

[Our side demands that all military forces be withdrawn from our Air Defense Identification Zone within three months!]

Further stated was that if the Apollo Civilization did not leave immediately, it would bear the consequences of a full-scale war that this could provoke, along with other threatening statements.

[A single wrong move leads to the loss of the whole game; the Apollo Civilization would do well to draw back from the brink while there’s still a chance to redeem itself!]

[Continue on this path alone will result in being nailed to the pillar of historical shame! Do not say you were not warned!]

The final message took an unexpected turn, showing some willingness to back down, suggesting that the issue with the "Extra Colors thesis" could still be discussed if there really was a problem.

It was a simple statement but hinted at a willingness to negotiate.

"If the other party isn’t foolish, they should understand the New Human’s message: start fighting right away or begin negotiations quickly. If you neither fight nor negotiate, we’re coming to fight."

This ultimatum also contained some subtle implications; firstly, it used the term "Alliance," which had previously been self-referred to as the New Human Civilization, marking the first historical use of "Alliance."

In any case, let the other side guess!

The second implication is that three months of buffer time was given, not demanding withdrawal within a day or two, leaving room for negotiation and time for talks.

This notion carried the idea of "bluffing." The natural ally of the New Human Civilization, located over one thousand four hundred light years away near the Solar System, with its combat capabilities unknown and at best among Third-level Civilizations, wouldn’t be of much help if a real fight broke out.

There was also a military ally, the quietly developing Tos Civilization, located four hundred light years away. The Tos Civilization might not even be aware of the situation yet!

In short, this was a letter with a semi-threatening nature.

What reaction would it provoke from the other party?

Unknown, truly unknown.

After kicking the ball into the other party’s court, Zhang Yuan took a deep breath and swallowed hard.

Now, the other party’s spaceships were even further away from humanity’s main base, a distance of 4 astronomical units—a distance equivalent to that between Earth and Jupiter. Even with the observation equipment in the Power Armor, it was difficult to make out the appearance of the enemy’s large flagship.

He suddenly realized that he had unknowingly broken out in a cold sweat.

People didn’t know the specifics about the other party’s situation; it was all a gamble.

But equally, the other party did not know the specifics about the human situation.

"What kind of reaction will this ultimatum elicit from them?"