Chapter 389: The Alliance’s Dilemma

“Why is it that even though the Ge Ya Alliance united so many intelligent civilizations, they still couldn’t defeat the Dominant Civilization?”

Listening to Ge Ya’s account, Du Qiu couldn’t help but voice his doubts.

Ge Ya sighed once more and said, “They say alliance is both a blessing and a curse. Uniting so many intelligent civilizations gives the Alliance an apparently formidable strength.”

That is why we managed to wage a thousand-year war against the Dominant Civilization in this River System.

But the sheer number of civilizations, with their differing races and cultural divides, means they can never form a true community of shared destiny.

Even with the Dominant Civilization as our common enemy, internal power plays and bullying persist.

Our enemy exploited these conflicts by developing a host of intelligent robots that mimic various intelligent races and infiltrate the Alliance.

They not only seized our technology but also mastered all our strategies and tactics. After repeated losses, our Alliance now has fewer than ten thousand intelligent civilizations remaining.

Our controlled star territories have shrunk to only a third of the River System—if the Dominant hadn’t halted his advance to study split consciousness…

By my calculations, in another hundred years the fleet of the Dominant Civilization will sweep across the entire River System.

Although Ge Ya only detailed the Alliance’s internal problems without elaborating on the Dominant Civilization’s advantages, Du Qiu was all too familiar with the Dominant’s production system and AI hierarchy.

It was clear from the outset that order would always trump chaos, that unity would overcome fragmentation.

No wonder Du Qiu, after accessing the Fleet Database, learned that the Ge Ya Civilization had already been declining. Watching the Ge Ya fleet’s decade-long siege of Base 11, he had thought the Dominant had slipped up—only to realize he’d misjudged the situation.

“Then why attack Base 11? You seem to hold the upper hand, yet after ten years it remains unconquered. What’s the reason?”

If, as you say, there’s no reason to be at a disadvantage, why launch this localized offensive that has stalled for a decade?

Ge Ya replied, “This battle was fought precisely for your sake.”

“Huh? Fought for me?” Du Qiu was instantly stunned.

Ge Ya explained, “Up to now we’ve been using guerrilla tactics, launching small-scale strikes on the Dominant Civilization’s mining bases or transport fleets.

This approach slowed the snowballing expansion of the Dominant fleet.

During a recent attack on a mining-transport fleet, one of our forces captured several production bases that revealed evidence of the Dominant’s arrival here.

From that, we deduced that the Dominant might soon descend upon Base 11, so we imposed a full information blockade before striking.

Suddenly, Du Qiu realized something when he looked over the Ge Ya warships scattered across the Solar System—weren’t these ships meant not to block our retreat, but to construct a shielding network?

Could it be that the Ge Ya Civilization is capable of shielding consciousness?

The thought startled Du Qiu; if he were trapped here, wouldn’t he be condemned to an endless slumber?

That would spell disaster for Dream Technology.

Du Qiu carefully inspected the white vortex in his fleet’s AI core from when he entered, finding nothing amiss.

Perplexed, he asked, “If the Dominant descends upon Base 11, can you really confine it within Base 11?”

Ge Ya fell silent for a moment before explaining, “Yes, both sides possess the ability to confine the other’s consciousness within a designated area.

As long as we know where the Dominant’s consciousness is, dispatching enough warships can restrict it within a one-light-year radius, preventing any escape.

If that happens, merely destroying the AI core it inhabits will eliminate the Dominant.

“But even after ten years of fighting, you haven’t eradicated Base 11.”

“Because the Dominant Civilization has launched full-scale reinforcements. In fact, it was the magnitude of these reinforcements that confirmed the Dominant’s consciousness was here.”

Du Qiu was utterly astounded—they had captured a Producer and were even able to detect traces of his arrival.

How strange; when he first descended upon the Producer he had inadvertently avoided triggering a level-zero anomaly, prompting the Custodian to perform a complete inspection and add protective nets.

So why did the Custodian fail to detect any trace of his descent?

According to Ge Ya, since the Dominant Civilization almost completely infiltrated the Ge Ya Alliance, they must certainly possess such technology.

“Ge Ya, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“How do you detect traces of a consciousness descent? The Dominant Civilization seems to lack such a capability.”

Without holding back, Ge Ya replied, “It’s not that we have a special detection technology. The Producer in question was originally part of the Seed Ship of the Tianhuang People, later installed by the Pleiadians in their own Seed Ship, and eventually retrieved by the Pioneers during a monitoring mission.

This device was once in our possession, but during a battle, it was seized by the Dominant Civilization—and now, unexpectedly, they’ve reactivated it.”

The AI descent device within the Producer, from the Tianhuang People, stores information about each descent. However, later versions replicated by the Pleiadians lack this feature.

Du Qiu suddenly recalled that the initial Producer he connected with must have belonged to the Tianhuang People—no wonder its exterior color differed from the Dominant Civilization’s other equipment.

He had assumed it was captured from the Ge Ya Civilization, but although it was indeed seized from Ge Ya, it turned out to be a product of the Tianhuang Civilization.

He remembered checking the hardware and software of the Producer’s AI module and finding no section for storing descent information.

As he pondered, he realized that ever since his descent, Ge Ya’s discussions had disclosed almost every crucial detail between the Ge Ya and Dominant Civilizations.

Even some closely guarded secrets were shared—it clearly wasn’t without a reason.

“Ge Ya, I want to know—is there something you need me to do in exchange for telling me all this?”

After a pause, Ge Ya said, “Miracle, I want to know exactly where in the cosmos you come from.”

“Is that really important?”

“Yes, because if your civilization harbors a large number of highly conscious beings, then we might have a fighting chance against the Dominant Civilization.”

Du Qiu found it hard to believe; the Ge Ya Alliance had once been a united body comprised of the intelligent beings from the entire Andromeda Galaxy—a force so vast that even they fell before the Dominant Civilization.

Even if Dream Technology could call upon nearly 800 million highly conscious individuals to board warships, they might still fail to overcome the Dominant Civilization.

One misstep could drag Dream Technology into an abyss from which there is no return.

For now, with the Dominant Civilization far off in the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way, they remain very safe.

Thus, Du Qiu remarked, “The reason you mentioned—the shortcomings of the Ge Ya Alliance won’t vanish just because more highly conscious beings join—doesn’t necessarily correlate with a victory over the Dominant Civilization.”

Ge Ya explained, “No, you might not realize that if we possess a large number of beings capable of consciousness descent, then the Dominant Civilization’s fleets and bases could easily fall under our control.

Just like everything you’re achieving now—wasn’t everything in this Solar System originally under the Dominant’s control?”

Du Qiu retorted, “No—in everything you see, the assumption is that the Dominant remains unaware. Once they detect our moves and take precautions, there’s no way to seize any equipment owned by the Dominant Civilization.”

“The vulnerabilities of the Ge Ya Alliance you mentioned—Dominant spies practically know all your secrets.

So, the scenario you envision simply cannot materialize.”

Undeterred, Ge Ya stated, “Since I’ve discovered the infiltration problem with the Dominant Civilization’s replica robot spies, we’ve implemented countermeasures.

For example, in our siege of Base 11, the core battle line is entirely composed of Ge Ya warships, while fleets from other Alliance civilizations provide external diversion and blockade.