"You boy — everything here is T2 ships; where would a star-shield come from." The smoking uncle shot him an eye-roll.
Where would a T2 ship get a star-shield — a star-shield was standard-issue tech for T3 ships.
The adjutant said urgently, "It really is a star-shield! That T2 carrier really has a star-shield! Boss, look for yourself! I'm not lying to you."
"I'd say you're the one about to die and seeing things. If a T2 ship's got a star-shield, I'll eat my star— eat— eat—"
The smoking uncle looked toward the picture, out of patience — but his expression froze in that instant.
Five seconds…
10 seconds…
Watching his boss, seemingly with a pause button pressed on him, the adjutant called out, "Boss… Boss… Boss?"
The smoking uncle stared, unblinking, at the half-transparent energy shield in the picture, thrown up before one side of the T2 carrier.
That was, beyond mistaking, the star-shield that T3 ships possessed!
"It really damn well is a star-shield!" The smoking uncle rubbed at his eyes, still unwilling to believe all he was seeing.
But a picture doesn't lie — and that star-shield was doing its work.
The Mechanical Race warships' firepower output fell like raindrops upon the star-shield, and was all of it held off, forming ripple after ripple across the shield's face.
"Could that be a T3 carrier?" The smoking uncle knit his brows — but even the smallest T3 Light Carrier was a kilometer and more in bulk; how could there be a T3 carrier of under 500 meters.
Yet that star-shield left no other explanation.
The smoking uncle kept scratching at his head — this truly was a strange young noble.
That escort-ship class was strange enough, ramming the enemy ships outright with no care for its own life, its own hull none the worse for it.
And now this carrier was more astonishing still, bringing out, straight off, the star-shield tech that only T3 ships had!
"Damn it all — can't work it out, so I won't," the smoking uncle muttered, vexed, but a smile soon surfaced on his face. "By the look of this, maybe that noble boy's whole tactic really can come off!"
"But Boss… our situation over here… doesn't look too good." The adjutant looked at the battle on the starship radar, a hard look on his face.
The smoking uncle knit his brows. "What — can't these starships of mine even hold out half an hour?"
The Mechanical Race ships were of high quality, true, but so long as the formation was set, holding half an hour at the cost of small, localized casualties should be no problem.
"It's that Mechanical Race group the woman's fleet was charged with. It's near enough finished off the fleet-remnants that stinking woman abandoned — and once those ships have all fallen, that Mechanical Race group is bound to threaten us! One Mechanical Race group is trouble enough for us, and now we have to face another Mechanical Race group at the same time…" The adjutant left it unsaid.
The smoking uncle showed a thinking look — this was indeed a hard problem.
"Whatever comes, we take it a step at a time. If we flee like that woman, then there's no living for us anywhere in the Starlight Empire. To carry out an imperial military task and turn deserter… that price is to be put on the wanted list of the whole Galactic Alliance!" The smoking uncle was sour the moment the stinking slut came up.
By the strength of the noble boy's fleet, plus the woman's fleet, so long as they'd fought in concert—
—there'd have been every chance of victory.
That stinking slut hadn't so much as glanced at the situation before she ran.
Fool!
"Eh, eh, eh! A T2 warship's appeared in that battle direction!" The adjutant suddenly pointed at a point of light moving on the starship radar.
The smoking uncle fixed his eyes on it, and said in surprise, "It's that schoolgirl's ship… these young folk… truly not to be judged by looks."
Shen Bing's T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, like a lone wolf, had set itself athwart the space between the interstellar transport fleet and that Mechanical Race group which had wiped out the leather-clad woman's fleet-remnants.
The leather-clad woman's fleet-remnants, having made no effective battle preparation at the fight's start, had been thrown into worse disorder still once the Mechanical Race ships attacked — like headless flies.
Six ships were wiped out to the last, become wreckage adrift in the cosmos.
And of those 10 Mechanical Race warships, apart from some damage to their hulls, not one had fallen.
Having wiped out the quarry before them, the 10 Mechanical Race warships locked their target on the T2 Hyena barring their path.
"Captain… they're… they're… coming!" Liu Lili reported, tense.
Shen Bing drew a deep breath, her gaze fixed on the 10 Mechanical Race ships in the picture. "For the sake of the larger picture, we must do all that falls to us to do. All hands, make ready for battle!"
"Understood!" The crew aboard the ship, tense within, steeled themselves all the same to meet the fight.
The crew Shen Bing had recruited were, the great majority, ordinary folk with a bit of ship-piloting skill — before, they might have piloted T1-grade civilian ships and no more.
Only after Shen Bing offered favorable terms had they chosen to join her ship.
There were also academy commoners like Liu Lili, from the Northstar Starship Military Academy.
"Keep the ship in a high-speed maneuvering state! Main guns, secondary guns, ready!" Shen Bing gave her battle orders.
She began to steer her T2 Hyena into the fight.
Shen Bing didn't, dazed, send her ship charging headlong into the thick of it.
One against 10 — she had no such power.
What she had to do was stall for time as best she could, so she kept her ship always within a certain safe range, able to give the enemy ships a measure of harrying fire, drawing the enemy fleet's attention.
It was like dancing on a single-log bridge.
The least misstep, and one might plunge into the abyss.
At first Shen Bing's T2 Hyena could just barely hold, but soon the 10 Mechanical Race warships gradually formed a crescent ring of encirclement.
At the same time, the fire of their main and secondary guns began, by degrees, to land on the T2 Hyena's hull.
"Report — our port hull armor has taken gunfire; hull-armor strength at 90% remaining."
"Report — our forward hull armor has taken attack; hull-armor strength at 85% remaining."
"Report…"
The soldiers all across the bridge could feel, at this moment, the ship pitching violently, and could hear at their ears a sound from the hull like a "moan of pain."
Suddenly a still greater sound came; the whole bridge shook violently several times over, and some crew, unable to keep their feet, pitched to the floor and were knocked head over heels.
"Report — our port hull armor has taken enemy main-gun fire, local hull armor gravely damaged; the adjoining compartments have begun evacuating crew and are sealed off!"
Shen Bing's expression was grave, her forehead beaded with sweat.
At this moment her T2 Hyena's overall hull-armor strength was near 50% damaged!
And the enemy ships drew ever nearer her ship, which meant the attacks to come would be fiercer still.
Her ship's fall was only a matter of time.
Could it be… that she was truly to die here.
For the first time Shen Bing felt a deep helplessness; that strong-willed self of hers, in truth, longed as well to pour out her troubles to another, to have someone to shield her.
She couldn't help thinking back to the Northstar Starship Military Academy, to that starship-duel affair between Zhao Wan'er and the Heaven's Glory Academy student.
Zhao Wan'er had had an elder brother to stand up for her, to settle the matter for her.
How she wished she too could have such an elder brother, like a harbor from the storm.
"Report! Detected — three enemy ships' main guns have locked onto our ship; the enemy's attack cannot be evaded!" Liu Lili cried out, staring at the operation page flashing with red light.
Shen Bing closed her eyes, a touch despairing.
I'm sorry, Grandmother.
Your little Bing may break her word this time.