Chapter 543: The Gap
Over the course of five months, the Yuntu Race had not only depleted more than half of their spare parts inventory but also exhausted their reserves of special ammunition, such as dark energy mines. In a low-intensity war, these issues might not have been significant. A fleet of their scale typically included various supply ships and even portable space factories.
While these factories couldn’t produce entire warships, they could manufacture heavily worn parts and expendable ammunition. During a lull in the fighting, they could set up near a planet and, given some time, replenish their stocks.
However, after five months of continuous warfare, there had been no time for rest or repairs. If not for the Yuntu Race’s technology that allowed them to forcibly enter deep sleep, they would have likely collapsed long ago.
The Swarm, on the other hand, fared somewhat better. Their massive Space Octopuses didn’t require rest, and thanks to the unique nature of their biotechnology, even heavily worn parts could be restored through basic metabolic processes. Damaged tissues could be shed like dead skin and regrown.
Moreover, unlike the Yuntu Race, which was isolated and without reinforcements, the Swarm received a steady stream of reinforcements. Over the five months, the Swarm had replenished over 100 million units of Primordial-class or higher, including 1,000 Desolation-Class Motherships, doubling their original numbers and significantly enhancing their ability to breach enemy lines.
Two more months passed. Although the Yuntu forces in the northwest had managed to break out with at least 10 million warships, their fierce counterattacks had inflicted heavy losses on the Swarm.
However, within the encirclement, the Yuntu fleet’s defensive capabilities had greatly diminished due to the loss of the unmanned drone barrier. With 2,000 Desolation-Class Motherships providing pinpoint penetration capabilities, combined with the offensive coverfire of the main forces, the Swarm successfully breached the Yuntu fleet’s defenses multiple times.
Yet, the Yuntu Race’s decisive use of indiscriminate attacks managed to repel these breaches each time, though at great cost. More importantly, this relentless warfare began to take a psychological toll on the Yuntu.
The Yuntu Race was known for their discipline and decisiveness, as evidenced by their willingness to carry out indiscriminate attacks without hesitation. However, the constant stress of such high-intensity warfare, coupled with the moral weight of repeatedly sacrificing their own, began to drive some Yuntu to the brink of madness.