This Mechanical Race T3 warship's appearance shattered every one of Zhao Chen's arrangements!
"Little brother…" The smoking uncle sent a comm now, his face too gone tense.
"Uncle, you keep settling things over there. The T3 ship I'll take charge of," Zhao Chen said heavily.
The smoking uncle thought a moment, then nodded. "All right — it's yours."
Nor did the smoking uncle ask Zhao Chen to support his own battlefield.
Set against the seven Mechanical Race ships left over on his side — half of them with hulls already damaged, combat power dropped — plainly, by contrast, a single T3 warship was the far greater threat.
And his side could hold out a while yet.
"Boss, this… T3 warship… that noble youth… can he handle it?" the adjutant asked, gingerly.
The smoking uncle drew a deep pull of his cigarette and blew out a smoke ring.
"Report — the database has turned up that T3 warship's model. It's a Mechanical Race T3 Black-Iron-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer!" a subordinate reported.
"T3 Black-Iron… only an interstellar destroyer, true, but… a T3 ship all the same!" the smoking uncle said gravely.
T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship · the bridge.
Zhao Chen's side too had come by the enemy ship's data intelligence.
"The T3 Black-Iron is the interstellar destroyer of the Mechanical Race's T3-series ships, one of the commonest ship types at the T3 grade. Hull length 700 meters; main weapon, one T3-grade Medium Pulse-Laser Cannon. Moderate cruise speed; its hull-armor strength doesn't even match the T2 Black-Rhino's — but it has a star-shield." Zhao Chen's expression was grave.
Look again at the hand Zhao Chen held.
One T2 Queen Bee and five T2 Black-Rhinos.
Six T2 ships against one T3 ship.
Though in the combat history of starships it was not unheard-of for a T2 ship to destroy a T3 ship, that was, more often than not, a matter of the slimmest chance — or of a lucky scavenging on a large-scale battlefield.
In the ordinary case, never mind six T2 ships — even 10! or 20! — were not necessarily a match for a single T3 ship.
"There's no fleeing this; there's no choice but to try." A notion took shape in Zhao Chen's mind.
A very mad notion — very much a gamble.
But there was no other choice; Zhao Chen had Lilith pass his combat plan down the line.
The five T2 Black-Rhinos' captains took the order and began their battle disposition.
"To deal with a T3 ship, we must settle it swift and sure! If it's dragged out, our T2 ships will only be picked off one by one," Zhao Chen said heavily.
"Report — the enemy's T3 Black-Iron has driven into threat range; in two minutes it will enter firing range, able to open its attack on our T2 Queen Bee!" a subordinate reported.
"Move!" Zhao Chen gave the word.
The five T2 Black-Rhinos set out at once.
"The T2 Black-Rhino's armor-strength is formidable, yes — but faced with a T3-grade ship's main-gun weaponry, even it can't hold up under many hits. The gap in tech grade is a considerable one. And the T2 Black-Rhino's strength is close-range grappling and hard fighting — yet that enemy T3 ship's main gun won't necessarily give them the chance to close body to body!" Shen Bing, in the rear now, kept her eye on the battlefield without pause.
She watched the five T2 Black-Rhinos sortie, her expression grave.
Zhao Chen's battle bore straight on their own life and death!
"Then can it really not be won?" Liu Lili asked, worried.
Shen Bing closed her eyes, and in her mind began to model out battle plans.
No good…
This won't do either…
This one still won't do…
What on earth to do! What on earth to do to win!
Could it truly not be done — a T2 ship fighting up a grade against a T3 ship?
Suddenly a mad notion surfaced in Shen Bing's mind; she at once edited her notion into a message and sent it to Zhao Chen.
He soon gave a reply.
Two words.
Thank you.
Shen Bing was taken aback — how could that be such a perfunctory thing to say.
"Look, quick — those five T2 Black-Rhinos have formed a strange battle formation, all in a single line!" Liu Lili suddenly said.
Shen Bing looked toward the picture; the five T2 Black-Rhinos had formed, toward that T3 Black-Iron-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, a "five-stars-in-a-row" battle formation.
And just then, the T3 Black-Iron's Medium Pulse-Laser Cannon fired, loosing a bolt of pulse laser!
Laser-type weapons come chiefly in two forms: cluster-laser and pulse laser; besides these two broad classes there are, of course, some lesser sorts too.
A pulse laser, after a brief charge, looses a laser beam to strike the enemy — short range, moderate damage, but fast in fire-rate, short in the interval between shots.
A cluster-laser needs a long charge, then looses a cluster-laser to attack the enemy ship in a sustained, drawn-out assault — comparatively long range, great damage, slow in fire-rate, and, set against a pulse laser, comparatively long in the interval between shots.
The former are the more numerous, mounted chiefly on escort ships, destroyers, and cruisers.
The latter are great in power, mounted chiefly on battlecruisers and battleships, and take aim at the stronger ships in an enemy fleet — flagships and core ships, for instance!
Against energy defenses of the star-shield sort, they have outstanding destructive force.
The T3 Black-Iron mounted only a pulse-laser-type main gun — but it was T3-grade all the same!
At this moment, a bolt of pulse laser struck home on the first T2 Black-Rhino in the line!
T2 Black-Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy-Assault Escort, Ship One · the bridge.
"Report — forward hull armor overall-damage at 50%!"
"Report — port-forward hull armor overall-damage at 65%!"
"Report — three close-in guns destroyed!"
Ship One's captain, seeing them safely through this round of attack, let out a long breath and gave the order: "Give way!"
"Yes!"
And so, T2 Black-Rhino Ship One gave way from its position, falling back to the very rear of the five-ship line.
Then the second T2 Black-Rhino took the very front.
"He thought of it too!" Shen Bing said, surprised.
"Thought of what?" Liu Lili asked curiously at her side.
Shen Bing said gravely, "Just now I said — the T2 Black-Rhino's armor-strength is high, true, but it can't necessarily withstand several rounds of attack from the T3 Black-Iron-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer. But… if the five T2 Black-Rhinos can hold to a single line, keeping only one T2 Black-Rhino at the very front at any time to bear the T3 Black-Iron's attacks — then perhaps, with the five T2 Black-Rhinos taking turns in concert, they can close body to body with the T3 Black-Iron! The T3 Black-Iron has a star-shield, yes, but it's only a one-directional, ranged star-shield — it doesn't protect the T3 Black-Iron on every side. So long as the five T2 Black-Rhinos attack from every direction, no star-shield can defend against it all. Just now I meant to tell Zhao Chen my notion — but by the look of it, he thought of this somewhat mad tactic before I did, and put it into practice outright!"
Thinking of this, Shen Bing marveled the more at this classmate who'd once buried himself in books.
Was it that he'd changed so greatly — or that, over three years at the academy, he'd hidden himself too deep.