A firework vast beyond all measure blossomed within this stretch of the star-vault.
"This… what is this?" The demon adjutant was astonished past measure, looking at the vast fireball before him past all belief.
Marshal Serpent King too wore a face of disbelief; he shook his head without cease and said, "How is this possible?
"Though a warship ram, at the most the ordnance stored within her sets off in sympathy; but it can by no means come to such an effect as this!
"This…"
The force of that burst comes already to the equal of one shot of a quasi-T6 Destroyer's bow cannon.
And its compass is wider besides — an attack of area, after the manner of an explosion.
The firework appeared swiftly and dispersed as swiftly.
In the place where the firework dispersed, that Machine Race T5 battleship could no longer be seen; there drifted about only scattered wreckage of a warship.
The star-shield stood yet, but one could see that the shield's light was plainly less than before; and upon the hull of the quasi-T6 Destroyer beneath that shield's protection there were now many pits, as though she had been struck by meteors.
Which shows that in that warship's bursting just now, the mighty energy loosed in a short instant had briefly torn open the star-shield's defense, and worked some degree of hurt upon the hull it guarded.
"Reporting — quasi-T6 Destroyer-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship, ship K017: star-shield below the yellow warning value of 30 percent!"
The demon adjutant, receiving this word of a sudden, reported it to Marshal Serpent King with some alarm.
For upon that field of the Angel Race's before, a quasi-T6 Destroyer had fallen in battle.
And so thereafter a rule was set.
That a quasi-T6 Destroyer upon a field, once her star-shield energy value falls below 30 percent, must withdraw from the first line, and may go upon a field again only when her shield energy is restored.
Which is why, upon this field of the Machine Race's royal court, not one quasi-T6 Destroyer has to the present been recorded as fallen.
It is precisely for the warning of the cart before them that the Demon Race is exceedingly wary.
For at present the quasi-T6 Destroyer is their trump, and a strategic resource exceedingly precious besides; and to be short even one is a very grave matter.
And commonly upon a field the captain of a quasi-T6 Destroyer will not wait until the yellow warning value shows before preparing to withdraw, but will make ready early.
This case, coming so of a sudden, shows well enough that the bursting of that Machine Race warship just now had brought this quasi-T6 Destroyer's shield energy down as by a cliff's edge.
"Pass my order: quasi-T6 Destroyer ship K017 is to withdraw from the forward field at once, and every Demon Race warship about her to cover her at whatever price!" Marshal Serpent King ordered gravely.
He has marked by now that the object of these T5 battleships rushing of a sudden into their legion fleets may be these very quasi-T6 Destroyers.
And they have proved by the fact that this Machine Race T5 battleship holds a power enough to threaten a quasi-T6 Destroyer.
The order to withdraw was given, but it was already too late.
Upon the heels of the first T5 Prisoner's suicide burst, very soon a second reached her own critical value, her shield energy on the point of being spent to the last.
"Reporting — T5 Prisoner-class Heavy Interstellar Assault Battleship, ship T0122: star-shield energy 10 percent remaining.
"Will initiate the Mad Prisoner plan.
"Ends."
The course of it was as before: first the last wave of overladen attack from every weapon, and then the starship accelerating to the assault once more.
This time the Demon Race warships about her sought every means to attack and intercept this mad Machine Race T5 battleship.
But this T5 Machine Race battleship bore up under the gunfire of the many Demon Race warships about her; though her star-shield dispersed, though her hull armor was blasted to tatters, she carried out her last task of battle without wavering.
And another vast firework appeared.
And at the same time the same case arose with the other four Machine Race squads, which opened this manner of suicide attack upon the quasi-T6 Destroyers marked for them.
Glittering fireworks blossomed one after another.
There was a beauty of another kind in it.
Ah-Yin, watching all this from the rear, found tear-tracks running from her eyes.
She raised a hand and touched at that line of warm tears upon her own cold cheek.
Strange… weeping should be a thing belonging to carbon-based life.
And for the greatest gain, such sacrifice is a thing that goes without saying; within the reckoning it is the right thing besides.
Why… why should she then feel so wretched?
Within Ah-Yin's breast there was a feeling past telling, that could not be described at all, and that she had never known before.
Wretched — truly wretched.
So wretched that she could not draw breath at all.
She wished to roar, to cry out; but when the sound came to her throat, it would not come forth at all.
"Reporting — the first Prisoner group has completed its task of battle, and destroyed one enemy quasi-T6 Destroyer-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship.
"Price paid: three T5 Prisoners; the remaining twelve T5 Prisoners of the group prepare to withdraw, and request covering fire."
A voice came across the channel of communication.
And only then did Ah-Yin see that firework more glittering yet, which lasted far longer than those before it.
One saw upon the side of a quasi-T6 Destroyer's hull, her star-shield lost, a vast scar of explosion; and the whole quasi-T6 Destroyer was as though struck by a meteor, with sympathetic bursts still going off in many places.
This quasi-T6 Destroyer had lost her power to fight.
Ah-Yin turned her eyes to a picture at the side — the picture of the last quasi-T6 Destroyer being destroyed, which she had missed for her wandering thoughts.
But that was not the only quasi-T6 Destroyer to fall.
At this moment the seventh Prisoner squad, leaning likewise upon the sacrifice of several T5 Prisoners before them, had blasted open the star-shield of the quasi-T6 Destroyer they had marked.
But the quasi-T6 Destroyer's hull armor is stubborn still, and upon the firepower of T5 Prisoners alone she could not be destroyed in a little while.
And just at this time a T5 Prisoner, like the elders before her, of a sudden quickened, and rushed straight at the quasi-T6 Destroyer marked for her.
Every weapon upon that quasi-T6 Destroyer's hull was at this moment bombarding wildly the battleship coming at her.
Which left this T5 battleship's bow blasted to tatters outright, and yet could not alter the fact of the ramming.
All saw with their own eyes the striking together of these two warships, and a vast firework welling up!