The first exit from warp travel came on the seventh day after the fleet set out; all was normal.
Once those T1 starships had finished their rest and refit, the fleet entered its second warp-travel state once more.
But this time, Zhao Chen and the rest did not wake on the preset fourteenth day — they were roused by the starship system's warning tone.
"Warning! Warning! Warning! A warp jammer has been detected on the warp-travel route. The starships will exit warp-travel state at the same frequency. All starship personnel, return to combat stations at once!"
"Warning! Warning! Warning! On the warp-travel route… return to combat stations at once!"
"Warning…"
At the first instant, Zhao Chen woke; the whole bridge gave off a glaring red light, and the mechanical woman's-voice warnings filled his ears.
Zhao Chen at once stepped out of his hibernation pod.
"Cough, cough…" Lilith came out of her hibernation pod a touch unsteadily; a waking in so urgent a case left her body needing a little time to adjust — though it was only a matter of seconds.
"Lilith — have every member of our fleet at combat stations within three minutes; all starships to grade-1 combat-readiness state! And have the Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship deploy every interstellar drone at once!" Zhao Chen gave his orders swiftly.
"Yes!" Lilith set off then and there to pass along the commander's orders.
At this the flashing red light on the bridge was shut off by Zhao Chen too, and the piercing warning tone ceased.
The crew returned, each to her combat station.
Zhao Chen, meanwhile, was studying the suspicious signals on the starship radar with care.
"Damn it — how could there be a warp jammer here!" A video window popped straight open; the smoking uncle was cursing.
The flagships of the several fleets had all been incorporated into a single fleet-command network, so the several fleet commanders could hold video communication quickly, the better to confer.
And that warp jammer, as the name implied, was a thing rather like a roadblock: once activated, it could form an interference field within which no warp travel could be conducted, and every warp-traveling starship whose preset track ran along this route would be forced out of warp state, one and all.
"Send out the interstellar escort ships at once to scout the surroundings!" The leather-clad woman, dropping her usual coquettish air, spoke with a grave face.
"No need to scout — the enemy has already appeared." Zhao Chen's deep voice sounded; on his starship radar, suspicious energy signals had been the first to surface.
He synced this radar intelligence to the other starships — the smoking uncle, the leather-clad woman, and Shen Bing among them.
On Shen Bing's side, she at once fed these energy signals into the database to filter and compare.
Until signal data of a matching frequency came up.
"They're Mechanical Race warships!" Shen Bing cried out in alarm.
The other several commanders had come by the same data as well.
"Damn it all — how do we run into Mechanical Race warships here!" The smoking uncle's face was ugly.
"Do we retreat?" the leather-clad woman said in a low voice.
"Too late — they came prepared. The Mechanical Race warships surfacing on the starship radar are closing in to surround us from five different directions. We've been ambushed," Zhao Chen said heavily.
The smoking uncle threw away the cigarette in his mouth and said, his face dark, "Since we can't run, then there's no choice but to fight! Out with it — how do you all mean to fight!"
Zhao Chen said nothing, his gaze still fixed on the starship radar, muttering something under his breath, it seemed.
"I knew this pampered young noble had no combat experience. The moment it comes to real blades and real guns, he's frightened clean out of his wits," the smoking uncle said with contempt.
The leather-clad woman swept a cold glance over Zhao Chen. That manner she'd shown him earlier had likewise been because he was likely some rich young master — and she knew well that such rich young masters, on a true battlefield, were for the most part all show and no substance, a spearhead of tin.
Shen Bing opened her mouth, meaning to speak up for Zhao Chen.
But she had only a paltry single T2 starship; here she had next to no say.
"Damn the lot of it — if you don't want to die, you'll heed my orders. Gather all combat-type starships together at once; we wipe out the Mechanical Race warships in one direction first, and then wipe out the Mechanical Race warships in the other directions!" The smoking uncle gave his order outright.
The leather-clad woman signaled her agreement too.
But Shen Bing said, worried, "Yet if we do that, a defensive gap opens on one flank of the interstellar transport fleet — struck there by Mechanical Race warships, they'll take terrible losses!"
"Little girl, this is a battlefield. It's not that schoolhouse of yours. On a battlefield you trade a certain price for victory — and those interstellar transports are the price we must bear. If you don't want to die here, do as I say!" The smoking uncle was, at this moment, the very picture of a fiend.
He gave even Shen Bing a bad fright.
"Let's just do as he says." The third-class NCO in charge of the interstellar transport fleet now stepped forward too, and said in agreement, "I've already sent messages for aid to the Quicksand City Interstellar Fortress and to Northern No. 3 System, each in turn. For the nearest interstellar fleet to come to our support will take 24 hours at least. So long as we can hold out 24 hours…"
"What rot is that, 24 hours. My starships will have been blown to blossoms long before!" the smoking uncle groused.
The third-class NCO fell silent and said no more — for it was indeed the fact.
"No — I think we have a better way."
Zhao Chen, who all along had said nothing, now spoke up.
"Little brat, if you want to keep your life just now, hold your tongue!" The smoking uncle lit himself another cigarette, and spoke with a fierce, overbearing air.
Zhao Chen, on the contrary, didn't turn a hair; his tone level, he said, "Right now the Mechanical Race warships are split into three groups in all, in different directions; I'll number them as formations one through three. Each formation has 10 warships — 30 starships in all, and every last one of them a T2 starship! If we do as you say, uncle, and mass our forces to attack the Mechanical Race warships in one direction — will the enemy then not mass their forces to encircle and annihilate us? Let any two groups of Mechanical Race warships close together, and that's 20 T2 starships — no small threat."
Relying on the advanced starship radar, Zhao Chen had by now let everyone see the detailed coordinate positions of the enemy ships.
In three directions, 10 cursors each were bearing down at terrific speed upon the interstellar transport fleet at the center.
Just now, Zhao Chen had been waiting precisely for this intelligence.
"What in the end are you trying to say!" The smoking uncle knit his brows, much put out that Zhao Chen was disordering his plan of deployment.
"Rather than gather our forces in one place, I think we should adopt a divide-forces tactic! Use our weaker ships to hold up and delay several groups of the Mechanical Race warships, while our stronger ships wipe out one group of Mechanical Race warships first, then move to support the other battlefronts — and in the end annihilate every one of these Mechanical Race warships!"
Zhao Chen pointed at those three dots on the starship radar, for all the world like a hunter fixing his eyes on three quarries.