Zhao Chen had set up swift channels of communication with the two Angel Kings besides.
And so before long the holographic images of the two Angel Kings appeared before Zhao Chen.
"Owl Dragon's lord, do you reach us for the business of the Demon Race?" The Holy Angel King guessed at Zhao Chen's object.
"It has to do with it, but not wholly.
"The case of your front's standing off against the Demon Race I understand already.
"What I need now is that you attack of yourselves!" Zhao Chen said, his face set.
"Attack of ourselves?" The Holy Angel King looked at Zhao Chen in surprise.
The War Angel King beside her asked in perplexity likewise, "Though I too would very much like to attack of ourselves, and let out the ill humor of before.
"Yet our Angel Race's legion fleets have not wholly recovered.
"And to attack of ourselves at such a time.
"Would cost us very much."
Even the War Angel King, warlike as he is, has some misgiving at this moment.
From which one may imagine how great the losses those campaigns before worked upon the Angel Race.
Though they have now the support of great Owl Dragon military purchase orders, in a bare few months they cannot recover for all that.
"I know your state as it now is.
"But for you this is a chance in war that comes rarely once.
"Intelligence has reached me that the Demon Race has drawn off a million warships and opened an attack upon the Machine Race, and there are signs they may move more demon legion fleets besides.
"And that million Demon Race warships set before you is in high likelihood a feigned attack upon you, to cheat you, and keep you from striking them at this stage and wrecking their true plan of battle!" Zhao Chen set out the case as it stands.
Set against the Owl Dragon's network of intelligence, the Angel Race's is of course far behindhand, and the more so within the Machine Race's own one-mu-three-fen plot of ground.[1]
"What? The Demon Race has opened war upon the Machine Race?
"This… how is this possible!
"Has that fellow the Demon King gone mad!" The War Angel King found it hard to believe.
Zhao Chen set out his own conjecture. "The Machine Race may at present, for some cause, stand in a state of weakness; and with the Demon Race's having come by some aid besides, and holding a great quantity of warships, and quasi-T6 warships.
"They would take this chance to strike the Machine Race, and drive straight into the Machine Race's royal court!"
"Quasi-T6 warships? You say the Demon Race holds quasi-T6 warships?" The War Angel King cried out again.
In these few short minutes, this intelligence he has learned is simply like a thunderclap out of a clear sky.
Zhao Chen raised a hand and put out several stretches of the picture-material he had come by.
"This is a heavy interstellar battleship named the quasi-T6 Destroyer-class; two are confirmed at present.
"But by our conjecture the Demon Race has five at the least!
"And it is by leaning upon this sharp weapon in their hands that the Demon Race dares attack the Machine Race's territory of themselves, and even point straight at the Machine Race's royal court," Zhao Chen said, his voice low.
"Whence should the Demon Race come by quasi-T6 warship technology?" The War Angel King muttered it to himself, hesitating.
The Holy Angel King said, as though in thought, "If the case stand so.
"Owl Dragon's lord, ought we not rather now to sit upon the hill and watch the tigers fight?
"Let the Machine Race and the Demon Race strive together, and we take this very chance to recover our own strength; and when they have settled the winning and the losing, then put in a hand."
Did he not know those secrets of the Machine Race, this notion of the Holy Angel King's Zhao Chen would wholly agree with and understand besides.
Zhao Chen opened his mouth, and would have spoken, and did not.
He does not know whether he ought now to lay bare those matters of the Machine Race to these two Angel Kings.
That secret, for this universe as it now is, may be a bomb.
Zhao Chen was silent a while, and then looked gravely at the two Angel Kings opposite. "I know that to your thinking.
"The Machine Race and the Demon Race are the same threat.
"But let me ask you: is the Machine Race truly the same as the Demon Race?
"In these several thousand years past, can you not see that the Machine Race has several times over held the power to destroy any interstellar force among us?
"Though I do not know for what cause they have not put out a hand.
"Yet at the least it shows that they have at present no notion of rooting us out.
"And the Demon Race?
"They study an evil technology of life-energy, and their aggression is exceedingly strong!
"Give them but the chance and they will enslave any interstellar power that has ever stood their enemy.
"And now the Demon Race has out of nowhere produced a quasi-T6 warship, and declared war upon the Machine Race of a sudden — there is an air of the uncanny throughout it.
"And if the Demon Race be truly let to beat the Machine Race, and even master the resources and industrial bases within the Machine Race's dominions, do you think.
"That we could play the so-called yellow bird behind the mantis that stalks the cicada?"
It must be said, Zhao Chen's words carry no little force of impact.
Both Angel Kings were silent, and for a long while said nothing.
"And besides, as I said before, this is a rare chance in war for your Angel Race.
"While the Demon Race and the Machine Race are now fighting, you may take the moment to open an attack, and seize back those star-system territories that were lost.
"And above all those important districts of resources and mines.
"Let you but take them back and restore production, and is that not a great good for the Angel Race!" Zhao Chen set out his analysis. "And even should the Demon Race send legion fleets in reinforcement.
"You may perfectly well make some other arrangement then.
"If the Demon Race be unwilling to give up those resource star regions and sends heavy forces, that must assuredly work upon the case of their war with the Machine Race.
"And you may withdraw your forces; you not only take no loss whatever yourselves, but have made the Demon Race sick besides.
"The enemy of our enemy is our friend.
"This saying, I believe, you two must understand."
Having heard out these words of Zhao Chen's.
The two Angel Kings exchanged a glance.
"We must discuss it."
"Time waits upon no man, my lords," Zhao Chen reminded them.
The communication was broken off for the present.
Lilith beside him looked at her Commander and asked, "Commander, are we then at this time to send legion fleets to take part in it?"
"Not for the present; for the campaign of last year, our losses were too great.
"Until the critical moment, we are not to send out troops of our own motion," Zhao Chen said. He could hardly explain that this was for the sake of his own T6 warship!
"But if we send no troops.
"And yet urge the Angel Race to send theirs — will that not set them thinking?" Lilith thought upon that point.
Zhao Chen said, "I shall explain it to them; and then we may sell them more Owl Dragon-line warships at a discount."
To send no troops in direct intervention, and furnish weapons and equipment only.
This is Zhao Chen's mission choice.
One believes that upon such help as this, whether the Machine Race or the Angel Race, they should be able to hold out three months.
And after three months, not only is the quarterly mission complete, but Zhao Chen's Owl Dragon Legion will in the main have finished its resting besides.
And the Owl Dragon Legion in its full strength shall take the Demon Race at one breath!
This is Zhao Chen's plan.