Starting a war is, as has been proven many times over the years, very easy indeed. Finishing a war is very difficult however as the DDS are now facing with the ABBOs. The ABBOs are defeated in many ways. Their fleet has been reduced to a few hundred ships, a large force indeed but only a small fraction of what they started the war with. Events in their own territory indicate a mysterious enemy slowly but surely wiping their empire out so no help can be expected from there.
However the ABBOs are not giving up, they are fighting to the last man or rather drone. They are also trying to make sure a DDS victory will be as costly as possible. The release of radiological material on Delta 9 is an indication that the ABBOs are willing to do anything to hurt the DDS. Now the ABBO presence on Delta 9 has always been fairly small and they should be pacified fairly soon, environmental damage to Delta 9 will be significant but localised.
Malau is a totally different story. The ABBOs have thousands of soldiers on the planet and if they employed the same tactics as on Delta then defeating them will be horrendously costly and would likely render Malau as uninhabitable. The several million UNP civilians on the planet will also be put at serious risk. DDS Army losses are likely to be huge. The alternative, orbital bombardment, would likely cause the same damage to Malau and its population.
That is after the DDS destroy whats left of the ABBO fleet of course. Even best case estimates suggest the DDS would lose over 20 ships and maybe many more. It is likely the ABBOs will employ mass suicide tactics. Defeating the ABBOs may cost the DDS the majority of their remaining battle fleet, the majority of their land forces and Malau is likely to be destroyed at huge civilian cost.
The DDS could of course try and wait the ABBOs out, but wait for what? The ABBOs have no understandable agenda apart from hurting the DDS. The ABBOs are likely to begin measures to force the DDS to act. There are already reports of the ABBO forces on Malau, which hitherto have largely ignored the Malau population, are beginning to harass them. What if the ABBOs began exterminating the population? The UNP would force the DDS to attack, and the DDS might end up shattered beyond repair.
Who would be a DDS Commander? AP will have to decide soon what the DDS does.
