185: Chapter 185 Losses

Inside the flagship, the three princes of Lux were also startled. They hadn't expected Yuchen to actually dare to use the Origin Cannon at such close range during that battle.

This time, the Origin Cannon struck a transport ship directly, vaporizing billions of soldiers.

After quickly clearing a vacuum zone, the dream star rapidly reached low orbit, and immediately after, the broadside cannons aimed at the ground, launching an Orbital Strike.

A large number of shells exploded on the ground, and mushroom clouds rising from the explosions could be seen even from space.

Yuchen looked at the ground battle report and let out a long sigh of relief; it seemed that at least the ground defensive line could hold out for a while longer.

But the problem was that the Lux Aliens reaching the base of Holy Mountain City was basically a certainty; it was just a matter of time, whether it would take three months or five.

With the ground forces having lost orbital support, the only way to counter the Lux Aliens was to deploy Titan units.

The problem was that unless it was an absolute last resort, Yuchen was unwilling to deploy Titan units, because there was no guarantee whether the Lux Aliens might simply crash an escort ship down, especially if they were desperate to destroy the red hunter.

He was also worried that the Lux Aliens might truly go mad. What if they just threw a destroyer down? In that case, not only would the red hunter be destroyed, but the entire Holy Mountain City would likely be impacted.

Previously, the battle between the Adeptus Mechanicus's ripper and the Lux Aliens' Scarab had caused such great casualties, yet the Lux Aliens had made no move. This was entirely because, on one hand, they were tied down by us, and on the other, the Adeptus Mechanicus's ripper and the Lux Aliens were simply too close; using force sufficient to destroy the ripper would also wipe out their own Scarab.

This was a loss the Lux Aliens could not afford.

Ground.

The inquiry from Commander No. 24 reached the command warship.

The message was ultimately suppressed by the fleet commander, who only replied personally:

"Continue the attack."

After sending the message, the fleet commander thought for a moment and added:

"That attack was merely an accident."

Commander No. 24 looked at the information sent back by the space fleet and took a deep breath.

To be honest, he didn't believe a word of what the command headquarters said; that was just to put his mind at ease.

But he demanded that he must believe it, because this was the best explanation for the incident, and there was no need to investigate the matter further.

Commander No. 24 was silent for a moment after hearing this, then immediately ordered his generals to form a new assault squad and organize the troops to launch another charge.

In the month of combat that followed, the Lux Aliens continued to utilize human-wave tactics, piling forward endlessly.

But unexpectedly, the Lux Aliens's human-wave tactics worked.

As corpses piled up endlessly across the battlefield, the Lux Aliens suffered heavy losses, but in exchange, their territory was constantly expanding.

After this month of fighting, the Lux Aliens had already gained control over nearly one-third of the Rose Plains.

Looking at the map, the Lux Aliens had successfully incorporated the surrounding area into their control, with Hill 75 as the center.

Commander No. 24 looked at the gradually expanding trend on the map and felt much more at ease. It seemed that at least the fleet commander in space hadn't lied to them; there had indeed been no Orbital Strikes during this period, and the first Orbital Strike had just been an accident.

Just as Commander No. 24 was preparing to announce the next wave of attack plans, a Lux soldier handed over a report.

Commander No. 24 took the report and glanced at it.

Commander No. 24 didn't say another word; he reached out directly to stop the adjutant beside him, preventing him from relaying the previous order.

"Suspend all upcoming operational deployments."

The messenger did not hesitate at all and immediately relayed the new order to the frontline officers.

Commander No. 24 looked at the loss report in his hand; in just a few short battles, the total force had lost nearly 7 billion soldiers out of 10 billion.

"Over seven billion people died on this land? What kind of joke are you making? I remember our total troop strength committed to the war didn't even reach 7 billion."

Commander No. 24 quickly asked where these losses had actually come from.

He looked at the statistical report more closely and realized that the Orbital Strikes had directly wiped out nearly 2 billion Lux Aliens.

"What's going on? I don't remember the losses caused by Orbital Strikes being that high?"

The adjutant beside Commander No. 24 quickly explained to him:

"Commander, don't forget, when the troops were approaching the Rose Plains from further away, the Orbital Strikes never stopped."

Those Orbital Strikes were what caused the most damage to the Lux Aliens.

In fact, during the advance toward Holy Mountain City, over 2 billion Lux Aliens had been blasted into dust by Orbital Strikes.

Commander No. 24 heard this, was silent for a while, and then asked:

"How come no one has ever reported this to me?"

When the words were spoken, there was a hint of helplessness in Commander No. 24's voice.

"Why has no one ever explained this matter to me?"

Commander No. 24 couldn't understand why such a significant matter had never been mentioned by anyone.

At this moment, the adjutant beside him spoke the truth:

"I'm afraid our officers have never regarded the soldiers below as living people."

After hearing the adjutant's words, the commander understood.

It was precisely because the officers below didn't care about the ordinary Lux Aliens soldiers, and in their eyes it didn't matter how many died, that such huge losses could be concealed and left unreported.

The commander was silent for a moment, then continued:

"I understand. Then let's delay the original attack plan for now; I need to request more resources from the fleet."

The adjutant nodded upon hearing this.

Commander No. 24 quickly began to operate, and one communication after another requesting additional troop resources was transmitted to the warship.

When the fleet commander saw this, he knew he didn't have the authority to reply, so he immediately passed the message to the three princes.

Lux IV saw it and just tossed the report back casually:

"Tell Commander No. 24 that there will be no reinforcements. They must rely on themselves to take the outskirts of Holy Mountain City; only then will a new round of resources arrive."

"Yes."