Stellaris from the Automata Era

After the words fell, the other tree people were stunned for a moment, then quickly threw away their weapons and surrounded the two traitors with a common hatred, apparently intending to die together.

'Bang' By the time they finished all this, the land giant's thigh had already arrived in front of them, and then it paused noticeably.

It lowered its head, a movement that should have been impossible given the Colossus's body structure, and the weapon equipped with the ray flashed with a strange light as it charged.

"No, everyone, follow us!" Seeing the obvious attack posture, the two traitors reacted instantly, immediately raised their hands above their heads and made a French military salute.

Soon after, the other tree people also began to replicate in a similar manner.

After they all surrendered, it seemed to trigger the judgment of the Colossus program. The rays that were accumulating power disappeared and it raised its head.

Then he passed everyone and began to move deeper into the area.

"Huh..." After making sure it was safe and watching the giant statue getting farther and farther away, the captain finally breathed out a breath of oxygen.

It thought calmly for a moment, then looked at the traitor and whispered, "You should have connections to Earth. Tell them that as long as they don't kill me, I happen to know a small path that leads to the General Administration Office."

All the tree people's expressions instantly turned strange. "You, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, actually betrayed me too."

.....

"Tell everyone I don't want to hear any messages today."

In the meeting room, the chief of the tree people turned over his chair and faced away from everyone, as if he wanted to block out all the conversations. Everyone at the scene looked at each other in confusion.

The battlefield is now on the verge of collapse. From the beginning, we were fully expecting the fleet from the capital to come to the rescue, but now we have become a little numb.

The capital always has various excuses to shirk responsibility, such as being on the road, having a breakdown, or undergoing major repairs. Recently, there was even an outrageous excuse that it was inappropriate to resort to force during the ruler's birthday banquet.

After all possible excuses had been used and no more could be found, an elder finally came and explained the situation to the chief officer.

"I need you to hold out until the entire fleet is reorganized. I'm not saying that without any back pain." It whispered to itself.

It originally thought that as a production planet, it should attract enough attention. After all, their land is not big, with only such a small galaxy.

However, no one expected that the upper echelons of the capital would be so bold as to transform the production capacity star into a 'fortress star' to create more time.

The idea is quite good, but for the current tree people, time is indeed more precious than resources.

As long as they can gain half a year, no, just three months, the capital will have the confidence to completely defeat the Earth.

But they never thought that the planet could not even withstand a three-month attack.

The thinking of those tree people is still stuck in the ancient times. They rely on advanced technology, powerful computers, and factories to continuously produce autonomous weapons to ensure that they can hold on.

Not to mention half a year, if it really exists, it can stay firmly in place until the earth's supplies are exhausted.

But don’t you see what time it is now?

Science has been castrated, and most powerful weapons only exist in documents and memories. Computers are half-crippled, and all fire control requires human experience to aim. Autonomous weapons... these can be produced, but as soon as they leave the factory, the unhappy machine spirits may kill their own people first, and they cannot be controlled at all.

Not to mention that the lack of fleet support has already caused the morale of his men to waver.

At this point, if we want to win, I'm afraid we can only let the superiors of the capital planet wear helmets and come to the battle in person.

"I have done my best. All that remains is to face my own death." The chief officer sighed.

According to the latest news, the Earth's army has advanced to a distance of less than 700 kilometers from the headquarters. Although it sounds a bit far, it may actually be within the range of other people's artillery fire. The entire planetary capital is in danger.

Even if it could actually retreat to a deeper area later, it would be meaningless.

Fighting stubbornly will only lead to more deaths.

"In order to prevent the Earth from issuing an extinction policy, tell the rear areas to stop producing weapons. Go straight to getting daily necessities, and then dig a hole in the ground to hide yourself." The chief officer turned the seat over again and gave some instructions, then turned it back after doing all this.

That's all it can do.

Many places have planned underground shelters, including a small number of underground factories, which are used during the most dangerous times for the tribe.

Now is the time to use it.

But in fact everyone knows that this is an immovable coffin and the final burial place.

I don’t know how many people can survive this time?

It's ridiculous that nearly 30 billion tree people on the planet couldn't stop nearly million humanoid troops. Although there were almost no military personnel and they did have to bear a large part of the blame, wasn't the real problem the navy's defeat?

In this era of interstellar warfare, if the navy cannot achieve victory, the army will have no chance of achieving it.

'boom'

The chief officer's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an explosion in the distance, and the noisy discussion behind him also paused.

The chief officer turned back again, but did nothing. He just stayed there quietly, supporting the conference table with his hands. He knew that if something really happened, someone would come to report to him.

Sure enough, a messenger soon broke into the meeting.

It stared at the person running towards it, its face heavy. "What happened?"

Although it has been said before that it does not want to hear any information today, dealing with emergencies has become its instinct.

"Our operating plant just had an explosion, but the on-site investigators reported that it was not caused by a plant malfunction. They found a large amount of iron filings and gunpowder residue at the scene."

"I understand. You go down first." The chief officer nodded.

It seems that my guess was correct. The planetary capital has entered the range of the earth.

It looked at everyone in the meeting. "It's none of my business. Please continue your discussion."

At the same time, in a secret place where the explosion occurred, there was a conversation going on.

"Is this how you conduct stealth operations? Killing witnesses with missiles?"

"Just asking, have we been discovered?" 7B patted the auxiliary machine beside him and responded. "Don't worry, I've found these tree people are very slow these days. They will basically treat this kind of explosion as an accident."

"I believed you! I finally know what caused the explosion on our first day on this planet. I was saying the orbital bombardment hadn't even started yet, so where did the noise come from?"

P.S.: The Treeman's delaying plan wasn't impossible. According to the then-chief officer's later recollection, if it had retreated further, it could have delayed the battle a little longer. However, knowing it was doomed, it no longer had the heart to continue the battle. —By, Excerpted from the Second Volume of the Earth Federation War History