From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 482 Franklin's Little Trouble
"Mr. Franklin, we may be in trouble."

A slightly anxious voice came into Franklin's ears. He put down the terminal in his hand, raised his head and looked at the person with bloodshot eyes.

The dirt and scars on his face could not hide the immaturity in his eyes. The combat uniform, which was obviously one size too large, made his body look even thinner. The combat exoskeleton that covered most of his body made him look a little uncoordinated.

It was as if this outfit wasn't supposed to be on her.

This is Franklin's assistant, Anna Eleanor, who was also his junior at the Federal University of Economics and Political Science.

Before the large-scale armed rebellion in the Rubyon galaxy began, the daughter of a high-ranking federal official, who had always had a good impression of Franklin, chose to follow Franklin's footsteps and came to the Rubyon galaxy for an internship despite her family's strong opposition.

After the large-scale armed rebellion broke out, she assisted Franklin in completing a series of impossible "feats", pulling the initially weak team to its current size and becoming one of his most trusted people.

"Miss Eleanor, I've told you many times, just call me Franklin."

When he saw that the person coming was Eleanor, Franklin, who had been looking at the recent summary with a serious expression, relaxed a little and his tone of voice became softer.

"That won't work. As the leader of this team, you must have enough authority, so I have to pay attention to every detail."

Eleanor's tone was still serious. She clearly understood her position as Franklin's assistant. She also did not forget why she came to see Franklin. She continued:
"We currently control fifteen large cities, including Payne, Onri, Mitala, Huey, and Taram. In addition to the city of Ptolemy where we are now, the logistics departments of the temporary city halls of each city have issued warnings that their reserves are too low. The most important issue is food reserves, which are about to reach the red line.

According to the report from the logistics department, after the repair of the protein synthesis factory and hydroponic tower in the last city failed, we lost all means of food production. Even the most basic protein energy bars cannot be produced. After the food collected on the market is consumed, emergency reserve warehouses have been opened in various places, so our food reserves have been in a state of 'only in and no out' during this period. "

Listening to Eleanor's report, Franklin's expression returned to seriousness: "Close to the red line? How long can it last?"

"Each city has different emergency reserves and population, so the duration they can last is also different. Some can last half a month, while others can only last seven or eight days."

"How could it be so fast?"

Franklin could not help but clench his fists, and an unprecedented feeling of powerlessness surged up. He had never thought that in this era when material supplies were already in excess, he would encounter a "food crisis", a problem that humans claimed to have completely solved a hundred years ago.

The existence of automated farms, protein synthesis factories and hydroponic towers was originally intended to prevent food shortages in human colonies developed on alien planets. Later, it became a "tradition" of human urban design and planning.

Even later, in order to further optimize the living environment and completely distinguish between the residential and industrial areas of the city, various factories, including large food processing plants, were moved to the outskirts of the city or satellite cities.

The two most basic facilities, protein synthesis factories and hydroponic towers, will still be retained inside major cities to ensure food supply in critical situations.

After Franklin organized a team in an almost legendary way with his personal ability and gradually took control of sixteen cities including Ptolemy, the infrastructure such as protein synthesis factories and hydroponic towers in these cities also played an extremely critical role.

Especially after another recently rising "warlord" gradually took control of the industrial areas around these cities, making it impossible for Franklin and others to obtain various materials from these places, these infrastructures greatly ensured that the food supply in the city was not affected.

It can be said that if it were not for the existence of these infrastructures, even if Franklin had already formed such a large team and became a dominant force on Rubion V, he would collapse in a minute due to the problem of basic material supply. But now, this thorny problem has been truly put on the table, waiting for him to solve.

Franklin and his men knew that this food crisis was man-made. After the first protein synthesis plant and hydroponic tower were professionally blown up, they knew they were being targeted.

However, no one expected that the other party was planning to force them into a desperate situation from the very beginning.

Due to the maintenance of the main expressways between cities and the rigid requirements of the outer defense line, Franklin and his staff were left with only a tiny amount of mobile forces after allocating their limited forces.

In this case, these precious troops also need to be allocated to protect the sewage treatment plants and water recycling plants in various cities. After all, compared to food, clean water is a higher priority for human survival.

The people who targeted Franklin obviously thought of this, and then they began to attack protein synthesis factories and hydroponic towers in various cities without restraint.

The professional-level infiltration and blasting methods not only proved that the other party was once a military or even elite force, but also made the food crisis faced by Franklin increasingly serious.

Until today, after losing the last food production facilities, the food crisis has become the biggest problem.
Franklin naturally considered taking over the food processing plants around the city, but the "warlords" who occupied these areas clearly had armed forces that were no match for the guerrillas he had encountered before.

After attempts to attack from all directions failed, Franklin ordered the garrisons in various cities to stop attacking and instead switch to a full defensive posture.

Although they had an advantage in manpower, the armed forces, which were mainly composed of ordinary police, armed police and the first wave of counterinsurgency troops, still found it difficult to break through the defense line that was obviously built by the elite main force.

The two sides were in a stalemate. It was difficult for Franklin's side to take the area controlled by the other side, and the other side was unable to break through Franklin's defense line which was well prepared and had an advantage in manpower. The problem of weak combat quality of the troops reflected in the offensive battle obviously did not have such a great impact in the defensive battle.

But such a stalemate was obviously extremely disadvantageous to Franklin, especially after the problem of food shortage broke out, various other derivative problems also followed.

The "warlord" who besieged Franklin in this way was also full of patience, just watching quietly, waiting for the day when the city's defenses collapsed on their own.
"This seems to be the problem that General Lampard has set for us." Eleanor frowned and said, "He uses this method to achieve 'defeating the enemy without fighting', waiting for us to fall apart because of the food problem, or even have to bow to him."

The 'General Lampard' that Eleanor mentioned was the name of the warlord, but both Franklin and she had always believed that he was not a real general.

After all, the generals of the Rubion galaxy garrison are now hiding in the space city or starport, and dare not approach the orbit of Rubion V, let alone come down to the ground.

So they guessed that he should be a grassroots commander, but he was called a "general" only after the team continued to expand.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I have to say he did."

Franklin shook his head, and was entangled in this thorny problem.

(End of this chapter)