"Then does that mean we have a hope!" Liu Lili asked happily.
Shen Bing, though, said gravely, "But there's a problem in this plan."
"What?" Liu Lili asked, blinking.
"Not enough firepower! The T2 Black-Rhino's firepower is gravely lacking. If it relies on that ramming tactic of its own, that's very useful against T2-grade ships. But against a T3-grade ship, how long will it take to so much as wound that T3 Black-Iron-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer's hull armor? And in that time, the T2 Black-Rhinos may well be picked off one by one by the T3 Black-Iron!" Shen Bing clenched her fists.
"Then… then what do we do?" Liu Lili was flustered again.
Shen Bing stared at the video picture; she was waiting on Zhao Chen's arrangement.
Since Zhao Chen dared do this, he was sure to have his follow-up hand!
T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship.
"Report — the five T2 Black-Rhinos have reached effective 'short-range assault' range! Though all five have hull damage to varying degrees, it doesn't yet affect their overall combat power!" Lilith reported.
"Execute the second step of the battle plan!" Zhao Chen said gravely.
"Understood — the commander's order! Executing the second step of the battle plan!" Lilith passed Commander Zhao Chen's order down the line.
On the battlefield the five T2 Black-Rhinos began, near enough in the same instant, to accelerate; though the hull armor of each was scored with wounds — cracks near a few dozen meters long, even — it had not the least effect on their speed.
The five T2 Black-Rhinos moved into a half-encircling formation and set to swarming the T3 Black-Iron.
The 50 T2-grade 300mm-caliber heavy close-in guns mounted on each T2 Black-Rhino began to pour out fire in unison.
Were it an ordinary T2 ship, it might long since have been shot into a starship sieve.
But a pity — this was a T3-grade ship.
The star-shield unfolded and held off the attack from one direction.
The attacks from the other directions fell on the T3 Black-Iron's hull armor, and pockmarks like raindrops began to appear across it — many in number, but truly little in killing force.
"Ready to ram!" T2 Black-Rhino Ship One's captain was first to give the order.
Speed rose once more, and the great black horn slammed hard into the T3 Black-Iron's hull armor.
But that boring-through wound seen on T2 ships did not appear — only a small gash!
Herein lay the measure of a T3 ship's hull armor: it was of another order entirely from a T2 ship's.
The other T2 Black-Rhinos too began, one after another, to ram!
At the same time the T3 Black-Iron's secondary guns began to fire back, and its recharged Pulse-Laser main gun took aim at these enemy ships pressed to its body.
One T2 Black-Rhino's forward armor was blasted straight through into a great hole — luckily the T2 Black-Rhino's hull armor was stout enough, or it might not have been so simple as a mere great hole.
But at this rate, it couldn't withstand many more shots!
"The firepower shortfall is laid bare." Shen Bing bit lightly at her lip, her worried heart hanging in the balance once more.
Faced with this state of things, Commander Zhao Chen didn't turn a hair.
"Initiate the third step of the battle plan!" Zhao Chen said.
"Understood — initiating the third step of the battle plan!" Lilith began to pass the order down.
The order went through.
An astonishing sight appeared: on the five ramming T2 Black-Rhinos, several compartments in the ships' bellies opened one after another, and little things were launched forth, one after another.
"They're interstellar drones!" Shen Bing knew at a glance what these launched little things were.
They were, beyond mistaking, the T2 Queen Bee's interstellar drones!
50-odd T2 Killer-Bee-class Medium Interstellar Drones and 15 T2 Hornet-class Heavy Interstellar Drones in all!
The five T2 Black-Rhinos that had been ramming now ceased ramming, and instead used their close-in guns to lock down the T3 Black-Iron-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer's close-in gun fire!
Under the T2 Black-Rhinos' covering fire, those T2 Hornet-class Heavy Interstellar Drones took aim at one of the largest hull-breaches the T2 Black-Rhinos had rammed open, and dropped their bombs, one after another.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
If there'd been human crew aboard this T3 Black-Iron, they'd surely have heard the roaring of their own hull, like an explosion.
After a single round of bombing by the T2 Hornet-class Heavy Interstellar Drones, the breach — not so large before — was, all at once, widened dozens of times over!
Then a still more astonishing sight appeared.
The T2 Killer-Bee-class Medium Interstellar Drones, one after another, began to dive, striking that torn-open hull-armor breach at terrific speed.
Bursts of explosive flame flared and were gone in an instant.
"These interstellar drones carry explosives!" Seeing that flash of explosion, Shen Bing judged at once that these drones carried explosives!
Explosives plus the airframes' own detonation — the force went up a further tier!
10 drones… 20… 30… 40…
One would find that the weapons systems on one side of the T3 Black-Iron's hull had ceased firing — a sign that its weapons-system module had gone down.
And at this moment, the drones' suicide attacks had not yet stopped.
After the T2 Killer-Bee-class Medium Interstellar Drones ended their suicide runs, the T2 Hornet-class Heavy Interstellar Drones dove down in their turn, and became one more of those blooming, ball-shaped flares of explosion!
Liu Lili covered her mouth in astonishment. "This…"
"This is Zhao Chen's arrangement! The T2 Black-Rhino's firepower loadout is lacking, so he had the interstellar drones hidden in advance inside the T2 Black-Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy-Assault Escorts' compartments. The T2 Black-Rhinos carried them in close to the T3 Black-Iron, and then launched the bombing and, after it, the suicide assault!" A stirred, excited light flashed in Shen Bing's eyes.
The explosion's fireball and gun-smoke dispersed.
The hull armor on one side of the T3 Black-Iron now bared the cross-section of the inner compartment hatches; from afar, that hull breach looked for all the world as though a chunk of flesh had been cut from a great black fish, laying bare the fish-bones within!
At this moment, the T3 Black-Iron's end was already plain to see: faced with the T2 Black-Rhinos' encirclement to come, it would, at the last, "die with its grievance unavenged."
It had likely never dreamed that it, a full-fledged T3 ship, would be ganged up on and brought down by a pack of T2 ships.
After that, the T2 Black-Rhinos, mustered once more, joined the uncle's fleet for a final cleanup of the remaining Mechanical Race warships.
This battle, which had run near an hour, was over at last!
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair and let out a long breath.
"Lilith, tally the battle losses. Then arrange for the T2 Black-Rhinos to patrol the surroundings; in our present state there's no choice but to wait here for the relief force to arrive." Zhao Chen instructed.
"Yes!"
Task: Escort the interstellar transport fleet
Task Difficulty: Grade B
Task Reward: 20 task points and 5,000 System points
Bonus Task: Preserve as many T1 interstellar transports as possible (279/300)
Task complete; task reward may be claimed
Zhao Chen's System prompted that the task was complete.
Since there was nothing on just now, he might as well claim the task reward to steady his nerves.
Task reward claimed: 20 task points and 5,000 System points
Bonus Task: 279 interstellar transports preserved. Task completion rate: 93%
Bonus task reward claimed: obtained the technical blueprint for the T2 Lion-King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship
Zhao Chen started up with a jolt!
An interstellar missile ship?
The ship type known as the interstellar arsenal ship!