"The hell — what's this boy doing! He's actually had his escort ships give up defending the carrier and take the offensive instead?" The cigarette dropped from the smoking uncle's mouth to the floor; he stared at the five points of light charging out on the starship radar, spraying flecks of spit as he spoke.
But soon he found something amiss.
The five points of light on the starship radar surged in speed all at once — far faster than before!
And the five points, in a crescent formation, were charging straight for that T2 Wolverine-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser.
"What in the world is this boy up to!" The smoking uncle kept scratching at his head; he picked the fallen cigarette up off the floor and made to stuff it back in his mouth.
He'd thought this rich young master's tactic would be the carrier-battle system: five T2 escorts guarding the T2 carrier, then an interstellar drone swarm bombing and harrying the enemy ships without let-up, and victory won at the last.
Yet from the very start, that carrier had become, all at once, a child nobody wanted — not a single escort ship around it!
Wasn't this simply mad!
And soon, he saw a scene more chilling still.
The five points of light of the T2 escorts had, of all things, overlapped with the point of light of that T2 Wolverine-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser across the way.
That was right — overlapped!
"Get me the deep-space telescope feed, now!" The smoking uncle at once demanded his subordinate bring up the battlefield picture.
"Boss, we're… still fighting over here…" The adjutant pointed at their own battlefield.
"My orders are already given and passed down — dragging it out another half hour's no trouble at all! Quit yapping at me, get the picture up!" The smoking uncle went and planted a kick on the adjutant.
Soon the deep-space telescope feed came back.
The smoking uncle's expression froze; even the cigarette in his hand, burnt down to his fingers, drew no reaction from him — until the pain swept over his nerves.
"The hell!" The smoking uncle flung away the cigarette butt in his hand, both eyes fixed unblinking on the picture.
For in the picture, the five T2 escort ships, like five war-lances, had driven into the hull of that T2 Wolverine-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser!
That was right — driven straight into the T2 Wolverine's hull.
And plainly, these five T2 escorts were still accelerating.
For from the five impact points on the T2 Wolverine's hull, cracks had begun, bit by bit, to spread outward — one could even see, clear as day, the compartments beneath the cracks!
The cracks spread by degrees over the whole hull.
This scene plainly left the other Mechanical Race warships without a response; they could only use their few high-precision weapons to attack these five escort ships, for fear of striking their own starship by mistake.
Yet these escort ships' hull armor beggared belief — their weapons could leave only trifling wounds upon it.
This stalemate held near enough two minutes.
Then that T2 Wolverine-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser split apart, the whole ship of it!
That was right — split apart!
From the five impact points, the cracks that had spread out broke clean through, and the ship became so many pieces of starship wreckage.
And so it became the first starship to fall in this interstellar battle.
And to fall in this singular fashion, at that!
"The hell… a starship can be played like this?" The smoking uncle gaped, dumb — what in blazes were these escort ships.
Actually here to play at… at dismemberment?
The five T2 Black-Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy-Assault Escorts, having finished off their first quarry, began to seek their next target.
A T2 Mech-Hound-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer!
The targeted T2 Mech-Hound tried to open distance, but the five T2 Black-Rhinos suddenly put on speed, pouncing and biting like five bloodthirsty beasts.
However this T2 Mech-Hound "struggled," it was to no avail — rather, the more it "struggled," the more zestfully the five T2 Black-Rhinos pressed their attack.
There even came a chilling sight.
Four T2 Black-Rhinos, seizing their chance, jammed their great black horns precisely against the enemy's hull from four directions, pinning this T2 Mech-Hound in place.
The remaining T2 Black-Rhino took aim at the T2 Mech-Hound's weakest point and launched impact after impact.
That great black horn bored through the hull armor at the T2 Mech-Hound's rear without pause.
In this stretch, the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship's interstellar drones hadn't been idle either, launching round after round of attacks against those T2 Mechanical-Sentinel-class Medium Interstellar Escorts.
And these Mechanical Race warships had plainly been thrown into confusion by the enemy's "uncanny" escort ships.
But soon, they made a new battle disposition.
Since your escort ships are so thick-skinned, then I'll leave your escort ships be for now and swarm your carrier — that'll do, won't it!
The remaining Mechanical Race warships at once paid no more mind to that friendly ship being "bullied" by the T2 Black-Rhinos, and charged straight for the T2 Queen Bee.
T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship · the bridge.
"Report — the enemy's six T2 Mechanical-Sentinel-class Medium Interstellar Escorts and one T2 Mech-Hound-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer have locked their weapons systems on our ship!" a crewwoman reported.
"The Queen Bee begins moving at full speed; make sure all these ships' positions stay to one side of our hull! At the same time, prepare to raise our star-shield," Zhao Chen said.
That his T2 Queen Bee dared sit here a lone host of one — it was on something he counted.
Through the deep-space telescope feed, the smoking uncle watched the six Mechanical Race warships' main and secondary guns all take aim at that T2 Queen Bee!
At this his heart leapt into his throat.
A carrier's hull might be comparatively thick-skinned, true — but even so it couldn't withstand six enemy ships attacking in turns, surely!
"Report — that woman's fled with her fleet!" the adjutant suddenly reported.
The smoking uncle knit his brows and looked to the starship radar; the leather-clad woman's fleet, which had been charged with holding off the other group of 10 Mechanical Race warships, had at this moment made a sudden circling turn and simply bolted!
Heedless, utterly, of the 10 Mechanical Race warships at her back.
"That shameless, everyone's-ridden trollop." The smoking uncle spat out a curse; much as he loathed her shameless conduct, there was no choice just now but to watch, wide-eyed, as that fleet of hers fled off.
Yet half her ships were overtaken by the T2 Mechanical Race ships behind — with no battle formation set, their being wiped out was only a matter of time.
At her friendly ships being overtaken, the leather-clad woman's flagship showed not a flicker of hesitation, but fled straight for the deeps of the cosmos.
And at that same moment, on the other battlefield in the deep-space telescope's view —
The six Mechanical Race warships' main guns had finished taking aim, and opened fire, one after another!
Laser bolt after laser bolt shot toward that carrier.
The smoking uncle couldn't bear to watch; he drew a deep pull of smoke and turned his gaze away.
It seemed their escort task, this time, was fraught with peril.
He, a lone host of one, could take it or leave it — but a pity for those brothers of his fleet who'd braved life and death alongside him.
"The hell… Boss! Look, quick! It's… it's… it's a star-shield!"