Chapter 975: Chapter 526, Major Changes_2

At this time, the Alliance felt no pressure. The mainstream opinion believed that with the Empire gathering such formidable strength, the current situation favored the Empire, and the rebellious Iron Fury Stone was already in a countdown to destruction.

Whether the Alliance participates in the war is no longer important; not participating might even mean one less force to share the spoils of victory. Furthermore, they could use this as a point to attack Prime Minister Galaraldo… why not?

The ‘continuous meetings’ Tadeusz mentioned referred to this stage.

The Alliance was also anxious, worried they might not make it in time to claim a piece of the pie; in Holy Terra, Galaraldo was feeling anxious too, having contacted the Alliance several times to inquire whether there was a need to change strategies.

And it was during this phase that Gu Hang, as the supreme leader, made a decisive statement: continue to maintain the previous strategy.

Under his leadership, the Alliance maintained strategic composure.

Subsequently, the changes in the overall situation began to confound people.

In the initial months, the Empire’s forces on both the southern and northern fronts were booming, forcing even Humphrey Paolo to temporarily avoid their edge.

Although no decisive battles were fought, the Empire’s side recaptured several rebellious planets with great strides, significantly boosting morale.

The Iron Armor Battle Group avoided confronting the Empire’s forces, preserving valuable living strength, but perhaps at the cost of undermining their previously employed ‘strategic notoriety’.

People began to murmur that although Iron Fury Stone created a great momentum, compared to the Empire’s massive might, they were still just a regional power confined to a corner. This wasn’t even the Empire fully mobilizing its war machine; they could deploy more forces if necessary. Yet, as of now, Iron Fury Stone seemed on the verge of being unable to hold on, so how could anyone trust them?

The previous situation where the Iron Armor’s forces arrived and territories surrendered without a fight was no more.

On the contrary, in the Northern Front War Zone, a Star Sector of over a dozen worlds, interconnected, straightforwardly raised the banner of correcting the chaos. Local forces began resisting officials and garrisons dispatched by the Iron Armor, actively connecting with the Empire’s grand army.

The Northern Command, led by the Black Cross Army’s Yeerma Youyin Marshal, agreed to the request and left this matter to a company of the Infinite Corps participating in the Northern Front War Zone’s operations.

When this group of Blue Armor Warriors arrived in the targeted Star Sector, the initial situation was relatively smooth. A hundred elite warriors from the nascent corps, highly formidable, coupled with the fleet and Star Realm Armed Forces under their command, quickly reversed the local ‘rectification’ forces being violently suppressed by the Iron Armor forces.

It was estimated it wouldn’t take long to reclaim the entire Star Sector.

Just when everything was going smoothly, a fierce riot suddenly erupted in the lower levels of one of the Nest Capital Worlds within the Star Sector.

A Cult sect emerged, causing trouble at this time.

Initially, the Infinite Warriors didn’t take it seriously. The Iron Armor forces hadn’t been cleared, which was undoubtedly the highest priority issue. A Nest Capital World’s lower-level Cult revolt… to be honest, similar rebellions are happening across the Cosmos Domain all the time.

It’s a problem, but evidently not a high-priority one.

However, developments quickly surpassed people’s expectations.

Subsequent intelligence reports indicated most of the rioting rebels were human, but the local Planetary Defense Force also reported some abnormalities, stating there were some non-human entities among the rebels.

Their appearance seemed like a fusion of humans and certain insects, with skin in hues of purple, blue, or green, certainly not resembling anything normal humans could possess.

These entities often held middle or command-level roles within the Cultists’ organizational structure.

This point could not be ignored.

Before the Infinite Warriors could detach from suppression operations on another planet, the situation deteriorated irreparably.

A large number of Void Insect Species began appearing among the Cultists, and the entire world lost contact within a short period.

Soon after, when the Infinite Warriors realized the seriousness of the situation and took ships to urgently head for the star system, they encountered an Insect Nest Fleet at the jump point of the star system.

This was an ambush they never foresaw, resulting in a disastrous defeat for the Infinite Warriors, with no survivors.

Following quickly, this Insect Nest Fleet launched a ferocious assault, rapidly rampaging throughout the entire Star Sector and starting offensives against adjacent Star Sectors as well.

Coincidentally, the region rampaged by the Void Insect Species’ Insect Nest Fleet was precisely blocking the Empire’s northern forces’ line of attack solidly.

Coincidence?

No one thought so.

The situation on the Northern front instantly intensified.

This Insect Nest Fleet wasn’t very large in scale, at least not compared to particularly large Insect Nest invasions in the Empire’s history.

However, it was entirely sufficient to mire the Northern front, led by Marshal Youwin, into a stalemate.

Brutal warfare erupted on dozens of planets instantly. From the starmap, it seemed to have drawn a jagged, irregular line in the northern part of the Spiderweb Domain.

The Void Insect Species doesn’t reason with humans; they are a threat that cannot be ignored, aggressively advancing northward. Humans cannot overlook the threat these mindless insect beasts pose, lest they devour everything in their path, destroying every planet they traverse.

It was initially intended to suppress rebellion, but from that moment, the Northern front inexplicably turned into a scenario of fighting desperately against the Void Insect Species.

Almost simultaneously, the Iron Armor Battle Group amassed strength, launching a series of counteroffensives on the Western front.

The Iron Armor Battle Group almost committed their full strength.

On the Western front, not only did the forces of three different renegade Interstellar Warrior groups appear, but critically, according to battlefield reports, the Iron Armor Battle Group itself deployed at least tens of thousands of Interstellar Warriors on the West front!

This is equivalent to the strength of ten Battle Groups under normal circumstances!

These defectors in black and gray armor repeatedly used superior forces to defeat multiple Phoenix Subgroups and even incapacitate them.

In a skirmish to suppress reinforcements, they even entirely annihilated a company directly from the Phoenix Legion!

The previously triumphant Western front, instead of advancing further into the heart of the Spiderweb Domain, was driven out.

Battle Group Leader Su Lie wasn’t renowned for nothing; he quickly regrouped the forces and seized opportunities to deliver severe blows to the Iron Armor, halting the overall frontline’s collapse.

But he wasn’t a miracle worker either. There remained a significant disparity in the Interstellar Warrior strength comparison between both sides.

Under the Lord of the Phoenix, the existence of Interstellar Warriors spanned six different Battle Groups, yet they never fully mobilized. Each Battle Group sent, at most, one or two companies, and no more than five or six. All combined, the number of Interstellar Warriors never surpassed two thousand at peak force.

In preceding battles, the casualties exceeded eight hundred.