To even join the Seven Horses Pact was to be pushed into a corner, so the governors certainly weren't going to consider joining the Alliance now.
The Seven Horses Pact was still a military agreement plus a trade agreement. As for the Imperial Tax, it had to be collected by someone, and the governors could ignore it, leaving the Empire to take it up with the Alliance.
But if they were to join the Alliance... They had all heard about the affairs of the Tianma Star Sector. Under the Alliance, although the position of Planetary Governor still existed—as after all, it was a position under imperial jurisdiction which the Alliance couldn't abolish—Planetary Governors within the Alliance were either personally appointed by Alliance leader Gu Hang, or chosen from among high-ranking leaders of the Alliance. Sometimes, the original rulers were selected, but in essence, it was a symbolic role.
Within the Alliance, the role of Planetary Governor had evolved into an honorary, ceremonial position, which did not involve any management of the planets. Even the governors themselves were not necessarily staying long-term on the planets they nominally ruled.
Take the two governors with the last name Fatches; they were joyfully enjoying their days on the beautiful Flying Wing Star.
It was the same with the governors from the Mist Horse Star District as with those from the Eagle Horse Star Sector; none had thought of giving up their own worlds yet.
The Alliance wasn't pressuring them.
No rush, take it easy.
There would be plenty of opportunities in the future for them to freely choose.
Several worlds in the Mist Horse Star District had joined the Seven Horses Pact, but as the Alliance's diplomats frankly stated, the main forces of the Alliance couldn't come over for the time being.
In fact, even handling the issues of the Eagle Horse Star Sector was done in passing.
The main forces of the Alliance were actually on their way to Steel Wing Star. They passed through Eagle Horse III, Eagle Horse VI, and Eagle Horse II, as well as Bruck II. Since they were passing through, naturally, they took care of any problems along the way.
For places not along the path, they could only send a small branch of the Fleet, being extra careful, especially since there were troops being transported. Losing even one ship could mean a massive loss.
For worlds that were both out of the way and on the periphery, like Eagle Horse IV and Eagle Horse V, along with Fire Feather Star, it was impossible to reach them for the time being. However, the problems on these worlds were not particularly severe; the Green Skins were few, and the Defense Army could still hold on.
The main concern was the worsening situation on the battlefield of Steel Wing Star. Tilermungs was becoming dissatisfied with Gu Hang's leisurely progress, wasting time on the journey, and had sent multiple urgent messages.
This so-called deterioration of the situation wasn't really about any drastic changes on the battlefield. The main issue was that Yuan Chengchuan was starting to falter on the ground.
His main forces consisted of the Planetary Defense Force of Steel Wing Star, as well as other Planetary Defense Forces gathered from various parts of the Eagle Horse Star Sector during the war preparations, totaling around fifty million in number.
The Green Skin Orcs, with relentless determination, kept deploying troops to the surface.
The crew numbers of Green Skin warships, compared to those of humans, were much higher.
Actually, so many weren't usually needed. After all, to operate the ships and the cannons, and to keep all the work inside the ship running smoothly, only so many people were necessary. However, the Green Skins often liked to pack their vessels with three to four times the number of humans typical for a Navy Marine Corps, with the excess used for something like 'boarding battles.'
As for Green Skin transport ships, they were more similar to human transport ships. Small transports like the Flying Pig-Class could carry a hundred thousand people at a time; transports comparable to Whale-Class carried two to three million; and large transports like the Giant Belly, nearly thirty kilometers long, could easily transport fifteen million.
This was just standard transport capacity. If things were more cramped, pushed to the limit, and the journey was shorter with less need for life support supplies, these figures could triple or quadruple.
No one knew just how many Green Skins were crammed into the main invasion Fleet in the Eagle Horse Star Sector.
In the ground offensive on Steel Wing Star, the first massive landing alone saw them deploying twenty million. Tens of thousands of drop pods were released continually, and even though more than half ultimately failed to land, millions still touched down, dragging the entire northern continent of Steel Wing Star into the flames of war.
After that, aside from sporadic small-scale drops of a few, or a dozen, rock drop pods, there were two more landings of a similar scale to the first.
Currently, the loud waaagh of the Iron Tooth Orcs on Steel Wing Star, the total estimated number had already exceeded thirty-five million.
In the beginning, Yuan Chengchuan's Defense Army was able to hold on with their numeric advantage and the extensive defensive facilities spread across the planet. But as the numbers between the two sides significantly narrowed and the Defense Army's lack of quality, along with the maintenance issues of the many old fortresses on Steel Wing Star, were exposed.
His original strategy fell through one by one and could no longer be realized.
The idea of systematically eliminating the Green Skin Orcs' living forces was no longer feasible after the second massive landing.
And after losing control over vast areas, the goal of preventing the Green Skins from establishing an ecosystem also became largely subject to chance. If the Tianma Fleet in space had time to bombard, they would; the ground forces couldn't coordinate at all.
After the third massive landing, even Yuan Chengchuan's strategic baseline, which was to secure those precious Anti-Orbit Cannon Fortresses, became extremely difficult to achieve.
Often, after an Orbital Cannon Fortress was invaded by the Green Skins, the surrounding human forces would do everything possible to send troops for defense. After a bloody battle with heavy casualties, the fortress would still end up being captured.