Lilith stood upon the bridge, watching without cease over the changes upon the field.
Though Charlotte is the one who guides the command of the field, and the Little Dragon Girl has her rights of assistance besides.
Yet Lilith, as the Owl Dragon Legion's highest secretary officer, holds a right of oversight; and should she find anything whatever amiss.
She has the right to tell Zhao Chen directly.
And though Zhao Chen has never once interfered with Charlotte's rights of command, yet where it is needful, Zhao Chen's order stands first of all!
Ta, ta, ta.
At this time there came from behind Lilith the sound of military boots striking the floor.
Lilith did not need to turn her head to know who was come.
For here, his footfall alone is the most particular of any.
But it differed somewhat from when he went away: the tread was plainly a good deal heavier.
"Commander." Lilith turned her head aside, and saw Zhao Chen come up exactly at her side.
Zhao Chen looked at the interstellar war sand-table before him. "How goes the fighting?"
"The case of the fighting is in the main no great matter different from before.
"The Demon Race's relief is upon the road still, and the case at the several local fields of ambush is much as it was.
"General Charlotte's answer is that it should go forward by the plan as first laid.
"But she requires Ye Xiaotong's Owl Dragon Eighth Legion to end the fighting as soon as may be, and then support the other fields.
"And she has submitted a field report besides: within three hours a further Owl Dragon legion will be drawn from our field here to make ready to meet the relief fleets of the enemy's demon legions!"
The our field here of which she speaks is of course the five Owl Dragon legions upon the field of the Mechanical Divine Church's star system!
"How is the case upon the Mechanical Divine Church's star-system field?" Zhao Chen inquired.
"It has in the main entered upon the stage of sweeping up.
"There remain under a hundred thousand Machine Race warships in a desperate resistance.
"But the field can be turned about no longer — barring the interference of some outside force." That last sentence Lilith added made her meaning plain enough.
So long as the demon legion fleets do not reach here, the case here is in the main a nail driven into a board.
"How stand our five Owl Dragon legions here in their casualties?"
"After several clashes, before and behind, with the Mechanical Divine Church's fleets, the loss rate of the five Owl Dragon legions stands at some 20 percent, and near thirty thousand interstellar warships have been lost in all.
"But the whole fighting strength of the several Owl Dragon legions is still there."
"Which legion fleet stands best in its condition for battle?"
"The Owl Dragon First Legion, of course! And General Charlotte's own meaning, indeed, is that the Owl Dragon First Legion under her own charge should carry out this task of support.
"But she asks your mind upon it for all that."
The corner of Zhao Chen's mouth rose a little; Charlotte is always so. Every time, he has told her that Charlotte, upon a field, may carry out any order whatever without his leave.
Yet most times she goes through this course all the same, and asks Zhao Chen's opinion.
"Approve this plan of Charlotte's.
"And at the same time have her set one of the remaining four Owl Dragon legions to carry out this task along with her.
"Here with us, to deal with a hundred thousand Machine Race warships — what need is there of so many Owl Dragon legion fleets?
"Three Owl Dragon legions left here are enough.
"Were it not for wishing to keep whole what technical information may be had within those mechanical planets, two Owl Dragon legions could take the whole of them by a covering attack of gunfire outright!" Zhao Chen said levelly.
Simply to destroy a legion fleet, or a planetary power, is far simpler than to take and hold a planet or a stretch of star systems.
For in the latter, certain things within that compass must be kept as whole as may be.
Which is why, facing a bare two hundred thousand Machine Race warships before this, Zhao Chen first set out five Owl Dragon legions, near a hundred and fifty thousand interstellar warships.
And now the case here tends in the main toward steadiness.
There is no need for so much concern, and more strength may be drawn off to support other fields of greater weight.
"Commander, did you… meet with something just now?" Lilith, having set out the orders, could not hold it in for all that, but asked Zhao Chen out of her care for him.
Were she no more than a secretary officer, she would not have asked it of herself.
But she has another standing besides, and the care she has for Zhao Chen within her is a thing she simply cannot govern.
Zhao Chen's look was complicated; he said, his voice low, "The business is somewhat complicated; wait until this war before us is ended.
"And then we shall talk of the business in particulars.
"And this war before us — we… cannot afford to lose!"
Lilith, having heard it out, asked no further.
But she could guess in the main that these things the Commander spoke of, and this present change in his feeling, had most likely to do with those broken materials got before from the Mechanical Divine Church's holy ground.
And that in this stretch of absence the Commander should have been in contact with that highest leader of the Machine Race.
And has doubtless come to know something extraordinary.
Upon the other side, Charlotte very soon had Zhao Chen's order and leave.
Charlotte at once ordered her own Owl Dragon First Legion out of the present field, and charged the logistics and supply fleets in the rear to supply and lightly repair the Owl Dragon First Legion's fleet at once.
"Remember: those warships too grievously damaged are to leave the ranks for the present and stay here, and fight alongside the other legion fleets," Charlotte added.
Set against dealing with these remnants of the Mechanical Divine Church here, that other field is the more terrible by far.
And the Owl Dragon First Legion is in an overladen state from fighting on end as it is; and were it to take along besides certain warships whose hulls are in no good case, that would beyond doubt add to the rate of casualties.
"Yes." Her subordinate went at once to carry it out.
Charlotte thereupon began to look through the case of the other four legion fleets.
Properly, as a legion's commander, one has no right to look through the other legion fleets.
But this Charlotte is besides the highest commanding marshal under Commander Zhao Chen within the Owl Dragon Legion!
She holds that right.
Very soon she made her choice out of the four Owl Dragon legions.
And at the same time sent out a request for communication.
Su Lan's video window appeared opposite.
"General Charlotte, upon what business do you contact me?" Su Lan inquired.
"Upon the field of the ambush on the other side, no few demon legion relief forces are about to arrive.
"The pressure upon them there will be very great.
"And so we must go in support.
"The Commander orders you and me to carry out this task of battle together, with the Owl Dragon First Legion and the Owl Dragon Fourth Legion.
"Your Owl Dragon Fourth Legion is to draw out of the field now, and its task of battle to be taken over by the other Owl Dragon legion fleets.
"Be rested and ready within three hours; three hours from now we set out!" said Charlotte.
A thread of surprise flickered within Su Lan's eyes; but her years of experience in the fighting had already prepared her mind for no little, and she said at once, "Understood."
Thereafter one could see that within the fighting against the Mechanical Divine Church's Machine Race fleets, the Owl Dragon Legion drew above a third of its interstellar warships out of the field at a stroke.
Which gave the Mechanical Divine Church's mechanical fleets a chance to draw breath.