Chapter 716 - Royal Family's Missing Fleets.
Having nothing to lose, Zosia requested, 'Queen, please compare the data of the royal family's regions in the same way.'
The royal family still owned almost an entire quarter of the empire to themselves.
In their territory, it was split into many regions and governed by different leaders to keep things in order.
There were more than forty regions without counting the Mariana region at the center of the territory, where the capital planet was situated.
So, when the Queen Ai displayed two holograms for each region, it covered almost the entire office.
Zosia didn't bother to read them on her own as she requested, 'Queen, tell me the differences between them.'
'Zetron Region is missing eighty warships and one battalion from a two star supernova fleet.'
'Coflal Region is missing thirty warships from a nine star nova fleet.'
'Tustriosia Region is missing forty-five warships from a supernova fleet.'
As the Queen Ai kept comparing the data from months ago and the updated version, Zosia's heart skipped a beat in alarm.
She named more than thirty regions and all of them were missing from 1% to 9% of their fleet in the past months!
'Gleap Swington Region is missing a hundred warships from a one star supernova fle…'
'That's enough.' Zosia stopped her before she could finish the last region.
She had heard more than enough to realize that something fishy was going on.
If only a couple of fleets were missing from a region or two, she wouldn't have batted an eye. But from every single region?
She would be a fool to ignore it.
'Queen calculate the total of missing fleets please.' She requested swiftly.
'Three thousand Warships and two battalions.'
Zosia took a deep breath after hearing such an alarming number.
That's a five star supernova fleet gone missing without anyone knowing about it!
What's worse, it was accompanied by two mother battalions.
God knows if they were modified heavily just like the other one.
Zosia couldn't sit still when she had absolutely no idea the location of such a massive fleet.
She quickly called over her assistant and updated him of her findings. Just like her, he was spooked by the whole thing.
"I want you to recruit a trusted investigation task force and tell them to try their best to find the current location of those missing fleets or their destination." Zosia warned with a strict tone, "Ask them to be as secretive as possible. We can't alarm the royal family that we are on to them."
Zosia didn't know if this missing massive force was the royal family trump card prepared for the Toppoki region or not.
But still, it was better to act ignorant on the matter, so if the royal family went forward and used this force, she wouldn't be startled.
In fact, she would be prepared to counter it.
"On it!" The assistant nodded his head and left hastily.
He knew that it would be difficult and time-consuming to investigate this matter…Especially, when they needed to be careful not to expose themselves to the royal family.
Sadly, they didn't have a lot of time.
The Toppoki region has been quiet for too long and god knows when the invasion would restart.
'No wonder they were lying low.' Zosia concluded, 'They were waiting for the arrival of their reinforcement as well.'
Zosia felt a sudden chill at the thought of a five star supernova fleet ambushing them during their battle.
Everyone thought that the royal family fleet would get crashed when the alliance's reinforcement arrives.
After all, they sent a two star supernova fleet.
But now? Zosia knew that nothing but humiliating defeat await them if the royal family's ambush succeeded!
What's worse, they would be able to invade the Maganda Tribe region successfully with two supernova fleets.
To provide support, they would need to wait at least a couple of months before the second reinforcement arrives.
By that time, the Maganda Tribe region would have been already infiltrated by thousands of warships!
Based on Zosia's calculation, the hidden fleet should have already crossed half the Toppoki region if they traveled at the speed of light.
The distant between the royal family territory borders and the Toppoki region wasn't that far.
In fact, the Toppoki region was one of the many separating nodes between them and the royal family.
That's why it was easy for the royal family to reach the wormhole.
Still, Zosia believed that it should have taken them a couple of months even if they traveled with the speed of light.
The hidden fleets had disappeared for over three months now!
Zosia knew that she couldn't keep this information to herself.
She set up a meeting with the other heads of the anti-royality alliance and exposed her findings and also her dreadful prediction.
"Good work, Zosia." Maganda Chief praised, "If we have been in the dark about this, my region would have suffered heavily."
"This is not the time for complements." Zosia said with a stern tone, "We need to pull a supernova fleet from a Sheyrus region to balance things out."
The others agreed with her decision, knowing that they would need more reinforcement to counter the royal family's hidden forces.
Sure, there was no solid proof that they were going to the Toppoki region, but Zosia didn't want to wait until they appear out of nowhere then send additional reinforcement.
It would be already too late by then.
"But, if we did so, we will leave the Silk Isle region and Sheyrus region with minimum defenses." Raka mentioned with a worried tone.
Although he agreed that they needed to act fast, but he didn't like the notion of leaving two regions almost defenseless just to defend the Toppoki region.
"We will send the reserve to cover them simultaneously." Zosia noted, "This time, we have to make sure that our mobilization remain as secretive as possible."
"So, use the same method as theirs and pick small fleets from different planets in the region."
Zosia knew that the instant their mobilization get exposed, it would alarm emperor Rawal and make him reach the conclusion that the alliance had found out about their hidden forces.
After all, what's the point of sending extra reinforcement when the first one was more than enough to deal with a supernova fleet?
"We will do our best to keep it under lids." Berry ensured.
"Secondly, I have already ordered to investigate the location or at least the direction the hidden forces had taken." Zosia informed, "This will help us narrow down their destination. Who knows, they might actually be heading for a different region and all of this to gaslight us into pulling more forces to Toppoki region."
Zosia wasn't stupid to not consider this to be a bait.
She knew that it was a risky move to mobilize her additional troops into the Toppoki region when things hadn't been made clear yet.
But, she really didn't have much of a choice here.
Either trust her judgment and send extra reinforcement now to counter the ambush if there was any…Or, remain passive and wait until the hidden forces appear then defend the targeted region.
If she went with the second decision, there was a high chance of the Maganda Tribe region getting invaded.
Zosia would rather give up on two regions belonging to newly joined backgrounds than let the enemy infiltrate the Maganda Tribe this early in the war.
Naturally, she could allow it to happen and count on the Maganda Tribe forces to deal with them since they still had a strong army to rely on…But, she believed that the notion of successful infiltration on one of the five cores of the alliance would be horrible for morale.
The war was literally still on its first half year…It was too soon to accept such a massive slap in the face.
"Gabriel, update us on your mission." Zosia sneered, "We can't be defending only."
Zosia wanted to hit the region that was missing the supernova fleet since it should have weakened defenses.
Sadly, Gabriel disappointed her with bad news.
"Based on my subordinates extensive investigations, we found out that the troops were moved from the furthest region in the empire."
"Ahh, the wormhole network sure is a huge advantage to them." Maganda Chief sighed in frustration.
He realized instantly that the royal family had taken advantage of the wormhole expressway network within their territory.
You see, the Space Worm had established the wormhole expressway in ancient times when the empire was still a whole.
So, almost every region was connected with the heart of the empire.
The royal family took advantage of this network and brought the troops of the furthest region from the war.
Even if the alliance wanted to do the same, they couldn't. The wormholes connecting them with each other were few and between.
The only way to take advantage of troops from the furthest region in their territory was by entering a wormhole connected with the interior of the royal family's territory and use the one leading to that said region.
Obviously, that's impossible to do since both sides were defending those wormholes with everything they had.
The anti-royality alliance would never reduce their fortification of those wormholes, when they were a direct entry to the heart of their territory.
Every one of those wormholes had at least four defensive stations standing guard and a supernova fleet.
The royal family knew that as well, which forced them into starting their invasion from the front.
It was already difficult to take down a single defensive station. Don't even mention four of them at once.
That's why Zosia was confident that the royal family would not attempt to send out those hidden forces through one of those wormholes while they were busy with the Toppoki region.
"Let's get moving already. We don't know how much time we have left before they restart their invasion." Maganda Chief waved his hand as he disconnected.
The others followed him, knowing that time was out of essence. They still needed to hold a gathering and inform the other leaders in the alliance.
They were obliged to keep them updated before every big decision was taken…Especially the ones involving their troops.
After Zosia was left alone, she brought out the holographic map of the wormhole area in Toppoki region.
Then, she began to plan ahead for all possible scenarios if the hidden forces ended up hitting them as she anticipated.
This time, failure wasn't an option!