After hanging up the phone, Strange sighed. He had, of course, thought of this plan, but the problem was, when Batman called, it didn't matter which Doctor Strange you were. If he opted to stay, he was bound to take a beating.
Sure, he could unleash his full power, but that would not only waste energy, it would also hardly change Doctor Strange's resolve. Although they'd admit he was strong, Doctor Strange wasn't some character who'd unconditionally submit to strength; he'd still be defiant when necessary. So Strange was caught between acting or not acting.
He sighed and decided to take it easy later. Just acting sufficiently would do, which would ensure his safety while also serving as a lesson to others.
What he didn't know was that a commotion had erupted at Central Command. Because the other superheroes had reported to the Asgard frontline base, and when Jarvis finished tallying the attendance list, it was found that not only had no Doctor Stranges shown up, two teams of the Guardians of the Galaxy were missing, three Spider-Men were unaccounted for, and even the Venom and Eddie from their own prime universe were nowhere to be found.
When Jarvis reported this result to Central Command, the generals were astonished. It was akin to losing two brigades and three battalions of communication personnel, along with the war reporters from above during a ground battle.
The generals cursed in anger and lamented that these people really were born in a fortunate time. In the WWII era, they would've been led to eat bullets because of their mishandling.
But what could they do? It could be explained for the Central Universe officials, but the superheroes from other universes had no sense of organization or discipline, making it impossible to expect them to act like an army.
"Don't go looking for them!" one general called out. "They may not have been captured; in fact, they probably got lost in the cosmos, or saw something novel and got held up. As long as there's no word from Batman's side about any captives, we stay put!"
"That's what I think too," Professor X said, "The Guardians of the Galaxy are nearly impossible to capture silently, and even if the Spider-Men were captured, they wouldn't be killed; at worst they'd be exchanged as hostages later. As for Eddie, with Venom, he likely won't be in significant trouble, probably went to take pictures from behind enemy lines. Wasting resources now to save them could easily spark a chain reaction, so let's not."
"What about the mages?" another general slammed the table and shouted, "All the major forces have withdrawn to the base, where are they? They have to be at least three hours late by now?!"
"There's no way they've been captured. Could they have deserted?" a general asked in surprise, "But now it's a showdown between two Great Worlds, could they really have defected?"
"I think they're just disobeying orders on the battlefield!" another irritable general roared, "These guys have no respect for anything. Do they think we can't fight without them? Immediately move the Ocean-class escort ships and Continent-class destroyers to the secondary front line!"
"Hold on, I'm inquiring," Professor X said, "The Supreme Magician replied that the mages are near an abandoned outpost; they seem unwilling to go to the Asgard base."
"Unwilling?" The others exchanged glances. Their puzzlement wasn't why they were unwilling, but rather the fact that 'unwilling' was even an option on the battlefield.
Professor X carefully chose his words and said, "Each universe is different. In some universes, discrimination by Asgard against humanity is severe, and certain members of the God Clan have caused them a lot of trouble. They also feel that Asgard and humans cannot cooperate, so they didn't retreat with the main forces, but stayed near the outpost."
"But doesn't this derail our plan to divert their firepower?" a general said in distress. "Didn't we brief them on the plan before the battle started? Why didn't they voice objections then?"
"They were disputing leadership within their teams at that time," Professor X said somewhat helplessly, "They didn't even remember the matter until after the main forces withdrew."
"No sense of warfare! No sense of battle! They're just a group of..." One general clenched his fists, refraining from uttering an obscene word. After a moment, he pounded the table and said, "Then let them stay there. Fine, let them act as bait, stir up some commotion, draw the fleet over, and then we'll use the Asgardians to execute a counter-encirclement."
Professor X had no choice but to relay these orders truthfully. Strange also sighed internally: Fortunately, this tactic has flexibility built into it, allowing for easy alterations.
The original plan was to use the human outpost as a forward base to draw the enemy forces in that direction, and then build a very solid defense line there to prevent the enemy from easily breaking through.
At this point, they would make a big show of transferring to the Asgard base, letting the enemy realize the human outpost was abandoned, making any attack on the fortifications meaningless, and thus draw troops to the vicinity of the Asgard base.
And because the constructed Asgard base is mobile, once the enemy's forces are near the Asgard base, it can retreat back to the human outpost, continuing to utilize the previously unbroken defense line.
As for what the point of all this maneuvering was, it was to exploit the enemy's vulnerability in not being able to match them in resource consumption. Even with Apocalypse Star providing energy replenishment for most equipment and ships, this energy is still non-transferable; for instance, Apocalypse Star's energy cannot be converted into Emotional Spectrum energy, so the energy for the Green Lanterns is still limited. Even if Batman brought a lot, it must be used conservatively.
Previously, when Batman moved the Green Lantern Fleet to the defense line near the human outpost, it already consumed some energy. If they were to move towards the Asgard base again, it would consume more energy, and if the Asgard base moved again, even more energy would be spent. Such back-and-forth would yield no results, just wasting energy.
Therefore, when Batman did not deploy the Apocalypse Star fleet but chose to have the Green Lantern Fleet scout first, the plan was set in motion.
However, the mages not withdrawing was something management didn't expect. In this case, the Green Lantern Fleet might not follow along as planned but could stay for an all-in attack to try and eliminate the mages. Even if it's not possible to eliminate all, wounding some would be beneficial, as the importance of the mages is significantly higher than that of the Green Lanterns.
If they choose to stay and fight the mages head-on, then the war of attrition won't work, and losses could occur among the mages, which would be the worst outcome.
However, fortunately, the Asgard base can retreat. If the mages can hold off the Green Lantern fleet, they can launch a counter-encirclement.
Thinking of this, Strange patiently said, "Since you're not leaving, we'll fight them here. The opposing side has surely received news of the outpost retreat by now, and as long as we cause some commotion here, they'll definitely come to investigate."
"What are we waiting for then?" Doctor Strange of the Prime Universe waved his cloak and said, "Without those brutish gods, we can do this better."
At the Apocalypse Star's command center, the Prime Universe Batman frowned at the intelligence. He looked at the Prime Universe Flash and said, "Are you sure? There's another base about six light-years away, and everyone has retreated there?"
The Prime Universe Flash nodded and said, "I saw it with my own eyes, and the style of that base is completely different from that of the human race; it should have been built by those gods over there. They have many ships, and they seem very strong."
The Prime Universe Batman quickly understood their strategy. The Main Universe Superman looked at him and said, "Do we still need to deploy more troops?"
"I'm afraid we have to," the Prime Universe Batman sighed softly. Of course, he knew the other side was trying to deplete them. But if they didn't keep up now, they would become more passive, and the Green Lantern fleet could be counterattacked by the superheroes newly regrouped at Marvel's base at any time.
In hindsight, dispatching the Apocalypse fleet would have been better, but there was no real choice. Besides Darkseid and a few generals, Apocalypse Star only had the Demon-like Army, which had sufficient numbers but lacked quality. They couldn't even break through mass-produced defenses, and any extra numbers would just be cannon fodder, not capable of breaking the stalemate.
The current dilemma DC faces is: They are, after all, fighting on foreign soil, leading to deficiencies in many aspects. Therefore, every battle has to be well-fought with tangible outcomes; they can't afford any meaningless attrition, or they'll surely be exhausted.
Under these circumstances, all dispatched forces must be decisive in determining victory, not merely buying time. The forces from Apocalypse Star are better suited to expanding victories already won, for instance, overwhelming isolated enemies with a swarm tactic to avoid injuries among their heroes, or thoroughly cleansing previously destroyed outposts to prevent a resurgence.
Thinking about this, the Prime Universe Batman decided to continue deploying the Green Lantern fleet without utilizing the Apocalypse fleet.
"Hal," he said into the communicator, "lead the Green Lantern fleet to the new coordinates, and upon arrival, hold your position and observe before acting."
"Wait, Batman," Hal's voice seemed to encounter interference, "We've encountered a group of mages."
"What?!"
"We've found a group of mages," Hal repeated, "They are codenamed Doctor Strange, and it seems they're all gathered here, not sure what they're doing. I've already had them surrounded."
The Prime Universe Batman almost immediately realized that the mages staying behind was unexpected since he had communicated with Strange of the Central Universe and knew what kind of person he was, so he concluded that the Doctor Stranges might have had a conflict with the command center and thus did not follow the evacuation orders, staying put instead.
"A good opportunity," the Prime Universe Batman said, "Surround them and take them on slowly. Let's conduct an encirclement to attack reinforcements."
After hanging up the communication, the Prime Universe Batman immediately began making arrangements.
"Superman."
"Here."
"Lead a team of 10 skilled in combat and head west of the outpost's location. Shazam, take a team of 15 to the north of the outpost. Wonder Woman and The Flash, each take five people and head south. Ron, lead a team of 10 to wait near the enemy's mechanical defense line."
"Understood." Everyone responded in unison. The Prime Universe Batman said, "They're unlikely to come from the defense line since the mines haven't been cleared there yet, and they might step on them themselves. West and north aren't the shortest paths either, south is more likely. If a battle breaks out, all personnel from all directions should immediately support it. Make sure it's swift and then return to defensive positions."
The others quickly carried out their orders. The Prime Universe Batman stared intently at the star map and said, "If I were their commander, I would conduct a saturation rescue; the mages are too crucial to risk any loss. Moreover, only by responding from all directions at once can they have a better chance of saving people."
"Aren't you afraid of a counter-encirclement?" Darkseid said with his hands behind his back, standing behind him.
The Prime Universe Batman shook his head and said, "To counter-encircle so many people requires too much force unless they conduct a large-scale fleet deployment, which is hard to achieve otherwise. And assembling the necessary ships takes time—a commotion that The Flash would have detected near Earth and the Andromeda Galaxy long ago. If the ships gather, we retreat. As long as we don't get greedy, there shouldn't be a problem."