Chapter 1122: Chapter 613, Founding World_2
It also saved Gu Hang the trouble of stationing occupation forces on each world, thereby dispersing his troops.
His main forces, at the beginning of January, arrived at the first key target of the Alfonso campaign: Alamita.
This was one of the three major Founding Worlds of the Alfonso Sect, and once the place where Moro served as Founding General.
Gu Hang remained cautious.
Even though he had encountered little resistance and captured sixty worlds along the way, it was worth noting that the Alfonso Star Domain was quite expansiveâlarger than the Dragonhawk Star Domain, with seven hundred worlds, less than a tenth of which had been taken by the Alliance.
Moreover, the Alfonso Sect was still formidable.
Even though Sage Dubo led a major wave of defeats, the sect still retained a substantial amount of power.
In terms of ships, they still had at least two Mechanical Arks: Alfonso I and Alfonso III.
They also had at least two battleships remaining.
Of course, this strength was significantly diminished compared to the expedition to the Proudclaw Cosmos.
However, on the ground, their troop strength remained considerable.
If the Alliance wanted to seize a Founding World and the opposition was resolutely defensive, the amount of force that would need to be deployed to ground combat would be enormous.
Even orbital support would be difficult to execute.
The Alliance wasnât like the Green Skins, who could bomb everything to rubble and still find a way to thrive amidst the wreckage. Destroying a Founding World would negate Gu Hangâs purpose of fighting a ground war.
What he sought was the productivity of the Founding World!
Nevertheless, the fight had to happen.
They started with an initial attempt at persuasion, but the results were unsatisfactory.
The entire outer defenses of Alamita, including the planetary surfaceâs orbital cannons, were fully prepared for war.
Despite internal pest infestations, as a proud Founding World, they would not surrender easily without a fight.
Gu Hang expressed patience and refrained from launching a military offensive, opting instead to maintain pressure by besieging the area.
Dragging the conflict out was not realistic.
From Gu Hangâs perspective, he consistently avoided committing troops for an all-out battle across the entirety of Alamita.
However, he had to display such an intention, and even more importantly, demonstrate the capability to execute it, in order to truly avoid a war of attrition.
The failure of the first wave of persuasion was not a problem; the Allianceâs hundred-plus agents who had infiltrated Alamita ahead of time were already highly active.
Their situation provided great reassurance to Gu Hang.
They were close to operating openly.
By all logic, with the enemyâs forces besieged, shouldnât they have purged the agents planted within their ranks?
If the agents had remained too well-hidden, it would have been impossible; however, with them essentially operating out in the open and yet not being apprehendedâor more likely, with no ability to apprehend themâit revealed a lot of underlying issues.
There were bad actors among their populace.
It was inconceivable that no one was sheltering or protecting these Alliance agents.
Furthermore, it wasnât just one or two individuals, nor limited to the lower and middle ranks. Otherwise, the Alliance agents wouldnât be conducting relatively public political networking activities without being arrested.
Beneath Alamitaâs defiant facade of resisting to the end, turbulent undercurrents surged.
A solid fortress is always easiest to breach from within.
The Alliance Intelligence Center, right under Gu Hangâs nose, was conducting intense operations. They continually compiled and analyzed directives from the ground, received from agents, turning them into actionable professional insights.
For instance, identifying targets who could be swayed, who could provide sanctuary for the agents, who could help the agents access higher-ranking figures, who were wavering in their stanceâŠ
Such directives, in turn, guided the agentsâ actions.
Among them, individuals originally belonging to the Alfonso sectâs âmechanicsâ played a significant role.
If not, even with the Allianceâs intelligence capabilities, they could not have uncovered so many secrets of Alamita or identified so many personnel in such a short time.
Wasnât Moro still around?
Having served as Founding General of Alamita before, he knew far too much.
Moreover, it wasnât just him alone.
The people gathered by the Alliance along the campaign included many former âmechanicsâ of Alamita, ranging from Mechanical Priests to Dominant Bishops, across various hierarchical levels.
Most of them shared one characteristic: being labeled as Moro Lineage.
After the Great Sage Moro was captured and imprisoned, many of these people naturally underwent their own round of purges.
As a Founding General, Moro had plenty of loyal followers, and even after one round of purges, many remained untouched.
Later, when Arno rallied his loyalists to rescue Moro and succeeded, Moro himself fled, but many of his followers left trapped in Alamita had to endure yet another round of purges.
And this time, the purge was especially severe.
Many were executed, many imprisoned, yet a significant numberâuncertain whether connected to Moro Lineage or not, but suspected to beâwere exiled.
From the sixty Alfonso worlds the Alliance captured, many of these exiles were rounded up.
While they might not have been staunch Moro loyalists in the pastâbecause if they were, theyâd either be dead or in prisonâthey certainly were now.
After all, theyâd already been branded as Moro Faction by Alfonso; what more was there to worry about?
Previously, it had been a disaster;
Now, it was an opportunity!
And these individuals, living in Alamita for countless years, naturally provided a wealth of suggestions to the Allianceâs intelligence department, aiding their operations.
Unfortunately, the current analysis suggested that directly securing Alamitaâs peaceful surrender remained highly unlikely.
It was the Hawk Faction, under the will of Great Sage Valuk, and their two major purges that had severely weakened Alamitaâs Moro-affiliated political and military powers.
Following this, Valuk had dispatched his own people to replace key positions across the planet. Attempting to turn them was highly challenging.
Even though Alamita seemed abandoned and Alfonso fleets had not stationed significant mobile forces here.
However, it was rumored that fleets were already being assembled from Bostan Starâthe largest of Alfonso Sectâs three Founding Worlds.
Meanwhile, the sect had already reached out to the Princess Star Domain for reinforcements, with Humphrey Paolo promising to send support.
The longer Alamita managed to hold its ground, the more reinforcements would arrive from all sides.
Thus, they possessed both the will and the value to resist, making those Hawk Faction âmechanicsâ unwilling to surrender, bent on holding out to the end.
Alongside this analysis, another action proposal was delivered to Gu Hangâs desk.
After reading through the action plan, Gu Hang sent copies to Moro, two Battle Group Leaders, and the Chief Glory Guard Officer, asking them to review it and convene for a meeting to share their opinions.
Half an hour later, the meeting began; an hour later, the resolution was issued:
Screw them!
The operation leader was New World Torch Battle Group Commander Leo Moratti, who strongly recommended himself and requested to personally take part in the fight.
Gu Hang considered carefully and granted his request, but also assigned his highly trusted Chief Glory Guard Officer, Eeyore Lacroix, to assist with the operation.
Lacroixâs role was to collaborate alongside Moratti, though he was effectively tasked with overseeing Moratti on Gu Hangâs behalf.
To be blunt, although Moratti held the title of Battle Group Leader, his experience was sorely lacking. He had only recently become an Interstellar Warrior, about half a year ago. While he was already the first among New World Torch warriors, had the veteran Wang Mengsong as an advisor, displayed tremendous talent, transformed subpar recruits into squad champions, and even inspired breakthroughs nearing Battle Group Champion-level performanceâŠ
Nonetheless, he couldnât escape the reality of his inexperience. Although Wang Mengsong had ample experience, Gu Hang simply didnât trust him.
Yet opportunities for growth had to be provided, and Gu Hang was willing to give them.
Of course, it wasnât blind trustâLacroix was the contingency plan.
Though an ordinary human, Lacroixâs combat prowess already rivaled that of some skilled Interstellar Warriors.
ââââ
Itâs here.
Thereâll be another chapter at midnight.
My wife teasing me like crazy beside me is driving me nutsâŠ