Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones-Chapter 358: Purple Moon Tactic

During this process, Tom also did not forget to continue developing technology.

Of course, due to insufficient materials, some costly experiments could not be carried out, so he only focused on theoretical research, mathematical reasoning, and calculations.

Time flowed silently, and in the blink of an eye, several decades had passed.

The two fleets, in this chase-and-escape, had already traveled dozens of light-years.

Inside the meeting hall of the spaceship, all the high-ranking officials of the Purple Moon Civilization looked solemn.

"This Bluetoth Civilization is really... really like a sticky worm; once it latches on, you can’t shake it off..."

Purple Moon Leader thought bitterly.

Sticky worms are a very disgusting type of insect on the Purple Moon Civilization’s home planet, possessing high stickiness, and once touched, they will cling.

Originally, they thought the Bluetoth Fleet would give up on its own after ten or several decades, seeing that it couldn’t catch them. But they didn’t expect them to actually chase them for decades and seemingly continue to do so.

It’s just some human captives! Is it worth it?!

What’s the difference between what you’re doing and disgusting sticky worms?!

At this moment, Purple Moon Leader wished he could strangle every single ship in the fleet that relentlessly followed behind them.

But...

He finally suppressed his emotions and said with a hint of dejection, "The material reserves in the fleet are already more than half consumed. We must plan ahead for stopping at a solar system for replenishment.

Let’s discuss what to do about the Bluetoth Fleet."

Silence filled the meeting hall; no one spoke.

What else could be done?

Once they stopped at a solar system for replenishment, before they could even finish, the Bluetoth Fleet would arrive at the system, and they would still be entangled, unable to escape.

Time was already tight for reaching the Star Gate, and if they were entangled again, they would likely miss it.

Seeing that no one spoke, Purple Moon Leader struggled internally and slowly stood up.

It seemed... there was only one way.

"Does no one have any suggestions? If that’s the case... execute the rear-guard plan."

The rear-guard plan...

The High Priest suddenly looked up: "Doing this will expose our secret!"

Purple Moon Leader whispered, "If we are entangled by the Bluetoth Civilization again, there’s also a high probability that our secret will be exposed."

The High Priest gritted his teeth, silent, but his mind was racing.

In a moment, he also let out a long sigh.

There was truly no other way.

"I... agree."

"Agree."

All the high-ranking officials of the civilizations raised their hands in agreement.

Thus, just one month later, of the approximately 2.5 million large and small manned warships in the Purple Moon Civilization Main Fleet, 2 million slowly detached.

Along with them, countless supporting unmanned combat forces, transport ships, material ships, logistics support ships, etc., also detached, as well as... a full 400 large, comprehensive residential spacecraft that combined combat control functions.

The total number of residential spacecraft in the Purple Moon Civilization Main Fleet was over a hundred thousand.

A mere 400 residential spacecraft seemed like nothing at all.

But watching those 400 residential spacecraft gradually depart from the Main Fleet, all the high-ranking officials of the civilizations felt such heartache that they nearly bled.

Because every person carried within those 400 residential spacecraft was a qualified warrior, or a field engineer, field scientific advisor, military officer, and so on.

Of the entire civilization’s hundreds of billions of people, there were only less than a billion such high-level talents.

And now, 800 million were being sent out at once!

How many of these 800 million elites would return after this mission?

How many would perish in space, never to return to the Civilization Main Fleet?

Gazing at this massive fleet gradually moving away, Purple Moon Leader’s dark red hands clenched tightly together.

"Bluetoth Civilization, just you wait. Once this matter is over, I will make sure every single person in your civilization dies a horrible death!"

...

These events occurring within the Purple Moon Fleet were quickly detected by Tom.

At this moment, even Tom was startled.

"What’s going on?!

2 million warships and their supporting combat forces! Actively detaching from the Main Fleet, then decelerating. Is it, is it to carry out a rearguard mission, to prevent me from continuing the pursuit, to buy time for the Main Fleet to escape?

This tactic is relatively easy to understand, but, but...

Your entire Main Fleet only has about 2.5 million warships in total, and now you’re sending out 2 million at once?

Your massive Main Fleet will only be protected by 500,000 warships?

And your supplies aren’t plentiful, are they? Giving at least half of your supplies to this rearguard fleet... aren’t you afraid of starving to death along the way?

Most importantly, the distance is too far, so you can’t use remote control to operate the warships, which means you can only put the warriors who operate the warships into the rearguard fleet.

Those who can carry out rearguard missions are all elites, right?

Such a dangerous rearguard mission, sending out so many elites, wouldn’t these warriors themselves... resist?"

At this moment, even Tom couldn’t help but feel some admiration for these Purple Moon.

Such a tactic is simply impossible for ordinary civilizations to execute.

Sending hundreds of millions of elites to carry out such a dangerous mission at once, even if the civilization’s internal system could approve it, would those carrying out the mission themselves agree?

If not handled well, this could even trigger unrest affecting the entire civilization, leading to civil strife!

But the Purple Moon Civilization just sent out hundreds of millions of elites like that—the fact that they were ultimately sent out means that the warriors themselves had already agreed.

If they disagreed or harbored resistance, they wouldn’t have been sent out at all. The reason is simple: once there’s resistance, combat effectiveness will inevitably be low. In such a situation, what’s the point of sending them out?

To what extent is the internal integration of this Purple Moon Civilization?...Perhaps it’s only second to an existence like me, right?

Seeing a fleet coming to block him and carry out a "rearguard" mission, Tom truly became serious.

These are warriors who view death as coming home, warriors who, from the moment they set out, were prepared never to return to their civilization, never to return to the Main Fleet. These are warriors who, to cover the Main Fleet’s escape, willingly placed themselves in peril.

How powerful a combat force can such warriors unleash?

Even though his technology had advanced greatly compared to before, even though his side’s material reserves were more abundant than this fleet’s—because they had also allocated at least half to the Main Fleet, while he could use all the materials of his entire fleet—even though his side’s warship numbers were also greater than theirs, Tom dared not be the slightest bit careless.

Perhaps with a single misstep, he would be annihilated by this fleet!

At a distance of tens of trillions of kilometers, Tom began his preparatory work.

Warships detached one after another from the aerospace carrier, activating their energy shields to counter the impact of interstellar particles during high-speed travel. Material ships were emptied one by one, large amounts of fuel, combat materials, etc., were added to the warships, and numerous factories began to hum, preemptively producing more combat materials for contingencies.

Even the Unified Force Field related components, though not immediately laid out, completed all preparatory work before laying.

Under these circumstances, that Purple Moon Fleet finally approached to within a few hundred million kilometers of his side.

They still maintained a speed of approximately over a thousand kilometers per second relative to his fleet, and while continuing to decelerate, countless energy cannons had already been activated.

Innumerable energy cannon projectiles at this moment achieved unprecedented super-high speeds. Because their muzzle velocity was superimposed with the warship’s own speed, their speed instantly surged to several thousand kilometers per second. Their kinetic energy alone was enough to penetrate a mountain!

Facing this overwhelming torrent of energy cannon projectiles, Tom responded with full effort.

Countless spy satellites, warship radars, and other systems collaborated closely, meticulously monitoring every projectile attempting to approach their side. Then, interceptor missiles were launched one after another, detonating those energy cannon projectiles while they were still in transit.

All spacecraft, whether civilian or military, simultaneously raised their energy shield power to the maximum under normal conditions.

But even so, in this first engagement, hundreds of thousands of facilities of various sizes were still destroyed.

Tom showed no weakness, immediately maneuvering his warships to launch an offensive as well.

Under a cruising speed of up to 85% of light speed, and under the impact of endless high-energy interstellar radiation and dust particles, the massive fleets belonging to two civilizations engaged in a desperate struggle at this moment.

As soon as the battle began, Tom noticed that the Purple Moon Fleet seemed to be intentionally expanding the battlefield and reducing warship density.

"This is to counter my Unified Force Field..."

Tom immediately understood.

After all, the smaller the coverage area of the Unified Force Field, the higher its average lethality. Now that the Purple Moon Fleet was expanding the battlefield, the lethality of the Unified Force Field would decrease.

"It doesn’t matter. Anyway, I don’t plan to use it right now. Besides, reducing warship density will inevitably affect your offensive, and I’m happy to see that."

Tom concentrated on maneuvering his warships, setting up layer after layer of defenses around the Main Fleet, doing his utmost to resist the attacks from the Purple Moon warships.

That’s right, at this moment, Tom adopted a completely defensive stance, looking entirely like he was passively taking a beating.

The Purple Moon Fleet had the overwhelming upper hand, practically suppressing them.

But Tom felt no anxiety in his heart.

Why attack now? The opponent’s material reserves were not as abundant as his own, and time was on his side, so what was the rush?

As long as he could hold on, the opponent’s material reserves would slowly deplete, and that would be the time for his counterattack.

The current situation seemed like he was being suppressed, but Tom’s various defensive lines were like the toughest energy shields, no matter how much they were attacked, they remained impenetrable.

From the overall war situation between Tom and the Purple Moon Civilization, Tom was the attacking party, and the Purple Moon Civilization was the defending party.

One chased, one fled.

But at this moment, in this particular battle, the Purple Moon Civilization was the attacking party, and Tom became the defending party again.

One attacked, one defended.

The relationship between offense and defense flexibly changed according to the development of the situation, both attacking and defending, and at the same time, both defending and attacking.

Time slowly passed in this fierce battle, and every moment, large amounts of warship wreckage, damaged satellites, torn metal armor, and other substances were scattered from the battlefield.

And in this process, the cruising speed of 85% of light speed never changed.

As a result, behind the battlefield, a debris field gradually formed, extending for trillions of kilometers.

This debris field also maintained a super-high speed of over 80% of light speed.

It is likely that even a peak Electroweak Civilization venturing into this debris field would face the complete destruction of their spacecraft and the extinction of their civilization. Even an early Strong Nuclear Civilization would suffer heavy losses before being able to escape.

If these debris were to collide with a star, and if there were intelligent civilizations around that star, even if that intelligent civilization had developed to the early Electroweak stage, it would be annihilated by the star raging due to the impact.

Looking at this debris field, Tom sometimes even thought about a question.

"The higher the civilization level, the stronger the combat power, and the greater the impact on the environment.

A mere debris field created by a Strong Nuclear Civilization’s battle can have such a huge impact on cosmic space, even leading to the demise of an early Strong Nuclear or a peak Electroweak Civilization.

Then... how much impact will the battle between the Red Star Alliance and the Space-level Demonic Eye have on cosmic space?

After destroying the Purple Moon Civilization and ending this matter, I should still follow the Cloud Civilization’s advice and leave this star field as soon as possible."

At this moment, the fierce battle was still ongoing, and the scale of that debris field continued to expand.

Tom gradually perceived that, perhaps because their supplies were about to run out, the Purple Moon Fleet’s offensive was becoming fiercer with each wave.

By this point, the Purple Moon Fleet seemed to have launched a general assault!

They no longer cared about material consumption or casualties. They mobilized all available warships and launched a truly do-or-die charge against Tom’s defensive line.