Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 1217

The Wanzhou Star Campaign is a defensive battle, yet the Ironclad is the one taking the initiative to attack.

During the counterattack to the west, Salius and Matins also observed a weakness of the Ironclad—their supply issues.

Although the Iron Armor Battle Group was completely infected and transformed into insects, on the battlefield, the corpses of slain Iron Armor Soldiers had their armor stripped away, revealing their bodies that looked like a hybrid of insects and humans. Deformed skulls and chitinous structures sprouting from their bodies... Further dissection would reveal that even the superhuman organs inside them had changed.

To be honest, these changes made the Iron Armor stronger physically, combining the superior physique of the Interstellar Warrior with the biochemical weapon advantages of the Insect Race.

After insect transformation, their average strength was even higher than some regular battle group warriors.

However, because they did not completely transform into insects, they could not be as self-sufficient as proper insects, which hardly rely on supplies.

Units of the Void Insect Species also get tired, injured, hungry, and run out of ’ammunition’; but when they are hungry, they can eat their fellow species to replenish energy. Their peers do not resist—everything follows the command of node organisms, and lower-level insects have no self-will, naturally they do not oppose.

Their so-called ammunition are super-hard chitin bullets differentiated from their bodies, fired by ’guns’ that are essentially organ symbiotes. They are all biological products and can be provided by themselves. When they run out of ammunition and food, they can even digest unnecessary organs within their bodies, such as decomposing the digestive system into ’bullets’ when they cannot eat and are destined to be cannon fodder for death. Or they evolve by eating fellow species, enemy corpses, and utilizable parts of nature.

The soldiers, gun insects, and similar entities are not so apparent. When it comes to giant biocannons and biochemical tanks, the same logic applies.

The Swarm even has special ’scavenger units’, a group of small insects with only digestive organs that sneak onto the battlefield or surrounding areas at night or during war breaks, specifically tasked with consuming corpses, whether of allies or enemies, for recycling biomass to supply the rear hatching centers.

With this, even under extreme logistical shortages, the Swarm’s fighting power would not be significantly affected. In theory, the Insect Race needs logistical biomass supplies during wars, but practically it almost never reaches a point where their supplies are completely cut off.

Human and Swarm armies have fundamentally different logistical difficulties.

However, the insect transformation of the Iron Armor Battle Group is not so thorough.

Their combat patterns still resemble those of humans.

Basically, all infected are like this. After all, they were only infected by parasites, replacing the brain and modifying the body, not initially designed by the Queen as biological weapons born from hatch nests.

Iron Armor soldiers still need power armor to deliver Interstellar Warrior-level combat power; the blast bomb guns they wield still require explosives to fire; their ships are still made of steel and need fuel, unlike the Insect Race’s biological ships that can fly on their own.

Thus, like human armies, they require similar logistical supplies.

Humphrey Paolo’s current status is unsure, but intellectually he seems clear. Before launching, not only did he hide his troops, but he certainly stockpiled considerable war supplies.

However, fighting has been going on for so long now, much has been expended.

Especially after Matins and Salius combined forces to the west for a fierce counterattack, the intensity of the war surged significantly.

With the intensity up, the consumption of Ironclad’s various war supplies also skyrocketed.

Now, the Iron Armor Battle Group is in a difficult position.

The number of Insect Race emerging from the Princess Star Domain is below expectation and hasn’t exerted enough pressure on the Empire’s side.

This was caused by Gu Hang entering the Princess Star Domain from the Alfonso Star Domain.

The originally intended east-west pincer attack aiming to obliterate the Empire’s Western Front Army was also dismantled due to the alliance by Matins marching north.

Now, they face the most awkward situation.

Previous reserves of war supplies have been heavily expended due to prolonged half-year intense warfare.

Critically, there is no place to replenish.

In the past, how did Ironclad sustain such large-scale warfare, with massive logistical supplies depended on whom?

Firstly, relying on the Alfonso Sect—this ally is a powerful Mechanical Cult Guild possessing not only an entire Star Domain for resource extraction but also three Founding Worlds. Once the production is running, arming an army is certainly achievable.

Secondly, relying on core areas like the Princess Star Domain to provide large amounts of war supplies. After all, before the Princess Star Domain deteriorated, it was their core lair; hundreds of worlds could provide ample resources. As the war expanded, at their peak, the Ironclad nearly occupied the entire Spiderweb Domain, with resources everywhere being mobilized to supply the army.

Now, these two most crucial sources of war resources are all gone.