A chi later, the Imperial Space Force's Fengli Fleet arrived at the Dasen Star Sector. The total strength… it was stated as so many warships; recent losses had been fully replenished, and the Imperial Space Force's organization had returned to its complete state.

Not only that, under the declaration of total war mobilization, the Empire was expanding its military on a massive scale. Long queues formed at recruitment centers across the territories, and armories churned out all manner of weapons and equipment day and night. New warships and mechs were manufactured like flowing water, equipped and sent to the new armies.

According to the plan formulated by the Imperial Supreme Command, within the next year, the entire territory of the Empire must enter a full wartime system. All industries and all lines of work must first consider the needs of the war, while simultaneously, the size of the Imperial Space Force was mandated to quadruple within this year, reaching a fleet scale of twelve million.

The Alliance on the other side was the same. The Alliance high command had even issued mandatory conscription orders, forcibly inducting suitable personnel into the military. Resistors would be charged with treason and immediately executed.

Furthermore, the Alliance was hunting down dissidents throughout its territory. Many of these were former Imperial garrisons, possessing considerably excellent combat aptitude. Once captured by the Alliance military, they were immediately brainwashed and converted into soldiers loyal to the Alliance. The Alliance’s military expansion plan was far more aggressive than the Empire’s, demanding the regularization of the standing army to a fleet size of about thirty million within the year. To achieve this, every armory within the Alliance was working overtime, crushed by the military’s enormous orders, not given a moment’s rest.

The Alliance's aggressive posture placed significant pressure on the Imperial high command, but the Empire possessed an advantage the Alliance could not match: the new Awakening Serum.

Due to secrecy and various other factors, the production volume of the Empire’s new Awakening Serum was not high (relative to its massive population base). However, compared to the Alliance, which still had not managed to crack the serum’s production process, this was infinitely better.

This advantage manifested directly in recruitment. The slogan the Imperial military used during conscription was that families of those enlisting would receive priority quotas for the new Awakening Serum—a pull that was nearly irresistible for the Sub-humans outside the Capital Sphere who had yet to awaken.

Imperial warships did not require a high number of crew members. This was because the vessels were equipped with highly intelligent combat robots and combat bio-synthetics, which occupied the vast majority of the grassroots positions aboard the ships. Only a small number of humans were needed to command them for the vessel to operate normally.

For instance, take a carrier-based mech squadron: while the officers were exclusively Imperial personnel, the majority of the mech pilots were combat bio-synthetics. In the logistics and maintenance squadron, most were repair robots; their versatile mechanical arms were hundreds of times more efficient than human hands, their precision tens of thousands of times greater, and they could operate in the vacuum of space without protective suits, making them far superior to humans.

In summary, a large warship required only about a hundred personnel, from officers to soldiers; a medium vessel needed thirty to fifty, and a small vessel merely about ten. Patrol boats and scout craft needed only two or three.

An Imperial fleet would not consist solely of large warships; medium and small vessels accounted for at least eighty percent of the total. Calculating this way, a fully staffed fleet of one hundred thousand warships required a total of about five million personnel, officers and soldiers combined.

The Imperial Space Force commanded thirty such fleets, equating to one hundred and fifty million military personnel. Doubling this twice (quadrupling) after one year would necessitate conscripting four hundred and fifty million people. Given the Empire’s production capacity for the new Awakening Serum, meeting the needs of four hundred and fifty million families within a year was still more than sufficient.

At this time, the relevant departments of the Imperial military had already begun formulating plans for a second wave of expansion, intended to follow immediately after this initial surge.

However, neither the Empire nor the Alliance anticipated how swiftly this civil war would conclude. Their year-long expansion plans were not even complete before the internal conflict ended.

Yang Ying followed the Imperial fleet to the Dasen Star Sector. Due to his exceptionally high standing as a Royal Consecrated, second only to the Commander-in-Chief of the Space Force within the fleet, coupled with the fame he gained from his recent battle against Sandwar, the front-line combat reports were delivered to him daily.

The Imperial Space Force arrived in the Dasen Sector twenty-four standard hours later than the Alliance forces. By that time, the Alliance fleet led by Sandwar had already captured several military strongholds on the periphery of the sector. Their main body, however, was unpredictable, its exact location unknown, lurking like a viper hidden in the darkness, waiting for an opportunity.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Space Force, Duke Da’an, was a notably steady individual. He had also been one of the top Elders in the Senate, but he had consistently sided with the Royal Family. He was one of the staunchest supporters of the Royal Faction within the Senate—the backbone of the Senate’s Royalist bloc.

Upon bringing the Imperial Space Force back, the Empress conferred upon Duke Da’an the rank of Imperial Marshal and appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Space Force.

As a Fourth-Tier Limit existence, Duke Da’an’s experience was undoubtedly extraordinary; commanding a massive fleet was not difficult for him. However, facing Sandwar… Duke Da’an dared not assume victory was assured. “Your Excellency Yang Ying, in your view, where would Sandwar’s fleet be hiding?” Duke Da’an asked. Both he and Yang Ying were aboard the Imperial Space Force’s flagship.

“Sandwar’s forces are double ours. I hear Prince Tieguxin and the others have joined Sandwar this time,” Yang Ying stated. “Gathering the strength of their several Limit experts should allow them to draw out the full power of those six million Alliance fleet ships. In contrast, even if we have more Limit experts, with our fleet size and total energy being only half of theirs, we are at a disadvantage in overall strength. If I were Sandwar, I would seize this opportunity to launch an active assault. It’s also possible they will employ tactical deception to further divide us, securing localized absolute superiority.” “A very reasonable assessment,” Duke Da’an nodded. “We are the defense, they are the offense; the initiative is in their hands now. Since we cannot locate them, I believe the urgent priority is to first pinpoint their position.”