Seeing the conversation veering off in an unexpected direction, Knox promptly interrupted it. However, the earlier discussion about real-ti strategy gas wasn’t entirely without rit. After all, real-ti strategy gas were developed to simulate various war scenarios, and many of the tactics in these gas evolved from real-world strategies. Translating ga tactics into real-world strategies wasn’t out of the question.
The so-called “tower defense” strategy involved building a large number of defensive structures in the early stages when one’s forces were at a disadvantage, in order to protect other buildings and support units.
While this porcupine-like strategy lacked offensive power, it had its own advantages. It artificially created a favorable terrain advantage, delaying the situation until one’s own forces gained the upper hand.
However, this tactic wasn’t actually pioneered in gas. It had been docunted as far back as the ancient wars fought on planets by various races. Regardless of its origins, the current situation did seem to align sowhat with the Swarm’s approach.
“Maybe we should report this speculation to the higher-ups.”
“You don’t actually think your brain is better than those of the strategists who specialize in tactics, do you? Whatever you’ve thought of, they probably figured it out centuries ago.”
“Hmph, if they were as good as you say, we wouldn’t be sitting here having this pointless discussion. Besides, they’re working with second-hand information. How can their conclusions be as accurate as ours, based on firsthand experience on the front lines?”
Knox nodded, agreeing with both sides of the argunt. In the end, however, he lowered his head and edited a ssage before sending it out.
“Seriously, though, if—and I an if—the Swarm really has so kind of trump card that destroys our ships, what should we do?”
“What else can we do? Fight to the death, of course. The Swarm doesn’t take prisoners.”
“Sigh, is there really no other way?”
“If it were like the beginning, where only a few of our ships were in this situation, then the outco of these few ships wouldn’t affect the overall course of the war. We’d be the sa—if we failed, we could just abandon ship. There are plenty of other ships around for us to land on. But as we’ve already discussed, the Swarm has now divided the large battlefield into countless small ones. The outco of one or two small battles won’t determine the overall direction of the war. But what if all the ships are dragged into this ga? Based on our current experience, who do you think would win the war? Looking at the bigger picture, how many of these small battles do you think would go our way?”
Gale’s lengthy speech once again dampened the squad’s morale. But she wasn’t wrong. Each small battle was separate yet interconnected. If the proportion of lost small battles reached a certain level, it would affect the entire war.
Moreover, when everyone was involved, even if they failed and abandoned their flagship, where would they go? Escaping would only an moving from one small battlefield to another.
The Confederation’s strategy departnt was also engaged in heated discussions about this. Although they weren’t on the front lines, they were close enough to receive nearly real-ti firsthand intelligence. Naturally, they had reached conclusions similar to those of Knox’s squad.
“The Swarm’s intentions are quite clear. From the very beginning, they never planned to defeat us in a firepower exchange.”
“Exactly. All their previous actions were just to delay the war until it reached this point. Now, it’s us who are in an unfavorable position.”
“This is all the fault of the intelligence and reconnaissance departnts. If they had discovered the Swarm’s plans earlier, we wouldn’t be in this awkward situation.”
“It’s too late to assign bla now. What we need to discuss is how to break out of this situation.”
“The Swarm ticulously prepared for this, sacrificing so many combat units to set this up. It’s not going to be easy to break through. I can’t think of any good solutions at the mont.”
“Actually, the solution is simple. If we can find a way to detect those traps, we can clean them up before the Swarm is fully prepared.”
“That’s right. The fact that they haven’t launched an active attack yet ans they’re not ready. This is our last chance to turn the tide, and we must seize it.”
“Everyone knows that, but how? Who can co up with a thod?”
“What about our research departnt? They’ve been well-fed and well-paid all this ti. Why haven’t they found a solution yet?” one of the strategists shouted.
“You try it!” a research scientist participating in the discussion as a special consultant retorted angrily. “Don’t you know? We can’t dissect the Swarm’s technology. Without dissection, we can’t quickly figure out how they operate.”
“So there’s no other way?” another strategist asked.
“Sigh,” the scientist sighed. “Right now, we can only use crude thods. We’ll keep modifying our detection instrunts based on their behavior and then test them.”
“How long will it take to produce results?”
The scientist frowned. He really didn’t want to answer such a pointless question. But considering everyone’s tense nerves, he suppressed his urge to vent and sighed again, shaking his head. “It’s hard to say. It could be the next second, or it could take months, or even years.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have that much ti,” the strategist said, thinking that “the next second” was unlikely. Even taking a middle estimate, it would be far too long. With the initiative in the Swarm’s hands, no one knew how long they needed to complete their preparations. Were they really going to lose this victory?
“Is there any way to speed this up?” the strategist asked, unwilling to give up.
Surprisingly, the scientist nodded in response. “There is!”
“What is it?”
“We need live Swarm units. Only then can we conduct rapid experints instead of relying on luck for every new result,” the scientist said, shrugging.
The strategist understood what he ant. The instrunts modified by the research departnt had to be tested to see if they worked. But to conduct these tests, they needed live Swarm trap units.
The problem was, no one knew where these traps were hidden. The only way to test the new instrunts was when the traps activated, and by then, it would be too late.
Worse, once the Swarm’s trap units were discovered, they would imdiately launch suicidal attacks, leaving no chance to capture them alive.
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