Monk
"So... counter attack?"
"We would be throwing our men's lives away."
I showed the admirals my intel.
"The problem is one of logistics, the problem is one of numbers the problem is one of tech. Getting in is one thing, the problem is getting back out. We don't have the capability to hold anything right now, and their morale is currently high."
They looked somber.
"So we just build up and wait for another attack."
"We don't control the pace of this war, the enemy does. What we can do is bleed them and continue to bleed them."
"With the UNSC, we could-"
"Even with their help, it wouldn't be possible to take the fight to them. Not in a serious way. Right now we have to turtle up and slowly build up our systems, build up our industry while destroying any fleet they send our way. We need to force them to bleed blood and treasure, and we need to continue that for years... maybe even decades, maybe even generations, until their societal cracks open up enough that we can cause their government to collapse."
"This will not be easy."
"This is a Galatic tier civilization that has been around for thousands of years compared to our hundreds. Did you all think it would be that easy to take them down?"
"So we just continue things as they are."
"Yeah. It's a shit situation, they will throw people at us and we have to kill them and it will continue for a very long time."
I smiled.
"But hey we won a big victory and they felt that. We hurt them and just seriously hurting them like that, that's going to have consequences for them for generations. If we can keep up this pace, and it will take a long time, then in the end they will fall but it won't be by our hand. It will be by their own hand that the Covenant falls."