Several hundred interstellar stealth bombers appeared all of a sudden, and cleared away outright every Demon Race interstellar warship patrolling within this stretch of the star sea, and every manner of sentry unit besides.
The whole business took no more than a bare three minutes.
For this course of attack Zhao Waner had simulated there is no telling how many times over.
And upon the other four battlefields the case was the same.
Zhao Waner had given her instructions beforehand: within five minutes every patrolling Demon Race interstellar warship must be cleared away.
"Report, every Demon Race interstellar warship and military installation unit within the region is wholly cleared away. The target volume is swept clean!" one under her reported to Zhao Waner.
"Report to the Dragon Emperor that our first step is complete," Zhao Waner said lightly.
"Yes!"
"Send thirty interstellar stealth bombers into the target region; and mind that they go carefully. Whatever they see upon the other side, whatever they meet with. If they can report, let them report instantly; if they cannot report, let them come back. They must return within ten minutes, or they will be counted lost to the last ship," Zhao Waner charged them.
"Yes!"
Very soon the thirty interstellar stealth bombers, made ready beforehand, sailed slowly toward that region which ought to be empty of everything.
This was a vanguard party made up of one T5 Netherworld-Wolf-King-class Medium Interstellar Stealth Bomber and twenty-nine T4 Shadow-Demon-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bombers.
The thirty interstellar stealth bombers had gone into the hidden state beforehand; at the same time every weapon module went to readiness for battle, and the star shields stood ready to open at any moment.
For not one of them knew what in the end lay hidden within that strange space.
Zhao Waner could not see the image of these thirty starships with the naked eye; she could make out where they lay only by the fleet's radar.
She watched them draw nearer and nearer to that region.
"The vanguard party is entering the target region!"
"All starships of the vanguard party have lost signal."
"All starships of the vanguard party, communications cut."
This case had been looked for long since.
And now Zhao Waner could only wait.
At the same time, within the region swept clean before, a body of three thousand Owl Dragon interstellar warships appeared out of empty air, led by a T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ship.
Very soon a request for a video window appeared before Zhao Waner.
She tapped to consent.
The video window opened, and a woman officer appeared upon the other side.
"Report, the Owl Dragon Fifteenth Legion's Tenth Fleet is come by order. My fleet is to be under your command; your instructions, if you please!" The woman fleet commander stood up straight.
Zhao Waner in fact needed to give no instructions, for a great deal of the operation's content had been made known to every combat unit before ever the action began.
"Carry out your own combat tasks; I will not interfere in the particulars of the fighting; you are the fleet commander, and you answer for it yourself. Within that region there is hidden a folded space, or it may be a dimensional pocket. I have by order sent thirty starships in as a vanguard party, and word from the other side will come back within ten minutes, whatever befalls. If no word whatever comes back within ten minutes, they are to be counted lost to the last ship. In either case. Your fleet must enter this region of space, and we will follow you in and act in concert with your operation. Is that clear and understood?" Zhao Waner looked at her.
"Clear and understood. Set your mind at rest, Commander; we will complete the task!" the fleet commander answered.
Just at this moment the radar petty officer beside her cried out.
"Report, one T4 Shadow-Demon-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bomber of the vanguard party is come out of the target region!"
Zhao Waner's eyes lit.
Thereafter a video window sprang open: it was the captain of that T4 Shadow-Demon that had gone and returned.
"What is the case upon the other side!" Zhao Waner asked outright.
And the fleet commander beside her could hear it as well.
"Report, Commander. After we entered the target region. We found a greater space, no smaller than a small star system. There are a great many industrial planets and industrial installations, and star gates and star ports besides.[1] We observed a garrison of at least thirty thousand interstellar warships. After we went across we came under attack from the enemy's ships. We are engaged at present! No quasi-T6 Destroyer-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship has been sighted among the enemy!" This captain reported quickly the important intelligence she had come by.
"All combat fleets, begin the attack!" Zhao Waner called it without a second word.
Thereafter the first to enter the target region was the Owl Dragon Fifteenth Legion's Tenth Fleet.
For they are a regular fleet, and suited to regular fighting.
Whereas Zhao Waner's part, the interstellar stealth-bomber fleet, is the better suited to a sudden assault!
Very soon, after Zhao Waner's own ship had entered that region, the space before her eyes overlapped a moment in a white blur of mist, and then there appeared another wide space.
It was, of all things, a star system!
And stretch upon stretch of industrial bases, industrial planets, star ports and the rest.
At the same time she saw the vanguard party at their fighting.
The enemy had by this moment thrown near three thousand interstellar warships into the fight, and more were hastening up besides from other patrol positions, thirty thousand interstellar warships in all.
And the vanguard party's thirty starships against the enemy's three thousand, by all reason the disparity is past measure.
But happily there was the T5 Netherworld-Wolf-King-class Medium Interstellar Stealth Bomber!
Leaning upon that one interstellar warship of hers, she held the enemy down by sheer force within a short space of time.
And this, be it said, is this class of interstellar stealth bomber's first showing.
Thinking back to when the Commander told her of this class's performance and particulars, she had been dumbfounded.
Netherworld-Wolf-King-class Medium Interstellar Stealth Bomber
Ship type: interstellar stealth bomber
Technology grade: T5
Hull-armor strength: 200,000 units – 210,000 units
Star-shield energy: 8,000,000 units
Cruising speed: 1,200 star-knots
Warp drive: grade-9 warp engine
Length: 5.6 kilometers
Mass: 3,100,000 tons
Crew complement: 300
Ship weapons: 100,000 heavy short-range particle stealth torpedoes
3,000 short-range heavy anti-ship missiles
3,000 short-range heavy cluster bombs
500 optical-mimicry missiles
500 electromagnetic-jamming missiles
500 thermal-jamming missiles
500 smoke-jamming missiles
Special performance: Wolf-King stealth mode (may attack while in the hidden state, without showing itself)
Among these, a great many may be called improved versions of the T4 Shadow-Demon's.
The one vast change is that the hull has gone from light to medium, which means it can carry more weapons.
And more important still: the interstellar torpedoes too can be made to go hidden!
Which had this consequence: that those three thousand Demon Race interstellar warships which, upon receiving the alarm of the assault, were the first to loose their attack.
When the first round of the counter-blow came upon them, could not so much as see the assailant's weapons!
They saw only the halo of light thrown up upon their star shields where the attack struck, and then, once the star shields were destroyed, the assault full upon the naked hull!
This is the true assassin, hidden away within the star sea!