Ten thousand years?
When Zhao Chen heard this span of time, he was somewhat dumbfounded.
Could this be a war that had happened ten thousand years ago?
That time, would it not be the period when the Gaia Empire yet existed?
Zhao Chen looked at Hive Princess, who was still eating with her head down.
Ten thousand years?
Could this little fellow live so long?
"Little Bug, your lifespan, do you know it?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Lifespan?" Hive Princess raised her head, her mouth all a-shine with grease. "That depends upon the rank at which the bug stands. Short as a dozen days or so, long as several thousand years, there are all of them. And the high-grade hive-race have besides the power of hibernation; in a state of hibernation the speed at which their own lifespan runs out can be greatly lessened. At the rank of Granny Bug, broadly, I have never seen one die of age. Those of great years all enter a state of hibernation, and then go on existing, until some danger appears to the hive-race. Then these forebears of the hive-race wake, and fight for the hive-race."
Zhao Chen was surprised; he had not thought the hive-race possessed such a capacity besides.
No wonder Order would cut the hive-race down root and branch, by the look of it, it too had marked the threat the hive-race were.
"Then, Little Bug, do you know how to go to your universe? Or rather, how to fix the position of your universe?" Zhao Chen asked.
The little bug said without thinking, "I do; one need only use universe-positioning technology. But the relevant hive-race units are needed."
Zhao Chen had thought at first whether he might draw some advanced technology out of this little fellow from a T6 hive-race civilization.
But thinking of it now, theirs was biological technology, a wholly different branch upon the tree of technology from the Owl Dragon's.
This made Zhao Chen give up the notion.
"Are you going to send me home?" Hive Princess looked at Zhao Chen in excitement.
Zhao Chen's tongue was tied for the moment.
If this war had happened ten thousand years ago, then the universe Hive Princess came from had very likely been destroyed or occupied by Order already.
What was more, Zhao Chen had at present no technological power for cross-universe sailing.
Zhao Chen said frankly, "I am sorry; at present I have no technological power for cross-universe sailing. Nor do I know at what position your universe lies. So for the present I cannot send you back."
Hearing Zhao Chen's words, Hive Princess lowered her head, seeming somewhat cast down.
But perhaps she had guessed at this possibility already, and so she did not grieve much, but only kept silence.
"But you may follow me now. At my side I can protect you, and can satisfy your daily needs besides. These foods, for instance," Zhao Chen said.
"Truly!" Hive Princess looked at Zhao Chen in all earnestness at once; this table of delicacies before her had truly made her eat so happily that she thought no more of home.
"Of course." Zhao Chen nodded, smiling.
An innocent smile spread over Hive Princess's face.
From this point, Zhao Chen's business trip might be counted at an end for the present.
After making a further investigation of this region's field of battle and gathering data, and after fixing this region's coordinate position by the Black Great-Wall Base's signal torch,
Zhao Chen's Owl Dragon Guard Fleet began the voyage back.
This return was a good deal more convenient than the coming.
Because the rough distance of the sailing was known, warp could be used directly.
Under warp's acceleration, the Owl Dragon Guard Fleet returned to the Black Great-Wall Base after above ten hours.
"Report, warp sailing mode is ended. The fleet is yet five minutes' sailing from the target area," the deputy captain reported to Zhao Chen.
"Let the interstellar scout ships go first; we follow behind. Do not take it lightly," Zhao Chen warned.
They had been gone near a month.
Though he did not think that within this short month any earth-shaking change would befall the Black Great-Wall Base,
a little care could not be wrong.
Before long, the latest intelligence was sent over.
It concerned the Black Great-Wall line's field of battle.
The Black Great-Wall Base was still in the hands of the Machine Race garrison, but the situation upon the line at present was somewhat less than hopeful.
Set against the time when Zhao Chen and the rest departed.
The Pitch-Black Legion fleets had plainly pressed forward a few degrees, and had even destroyed two stretches of the Black Great Wall.
"Within the Pitch-Black Legion fleets there has appeared a batch of thirty T6 interstellar warships, formed into one attack array. Relying upon these thirty T6 interstellar warships, they have torn open the Black Great Wall's outermost line, and are attacking still," the little succubus secretary officer reported the case in detail.
At the same time, the pictures of the battlefield were transmitted back as well.
Set against a month before, one could indeed plainly see that one position of the Black Great-Wall line had fallen away not a little, as though an apple had been bitten once.
"Commander, what do we do now?" The little succubus secretary officer looked toward Zhao Chen, awaiting the Commander's next instruction.
"Since we have come all this way. And since this Pitch-Black Legion fleet is fated to be our adversary as well. Not to try our hand, would that not be something of a waste?" Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes, the corners of his mouth rising slightly. "Pass my order. The Owl Dragon Guard Fleet is to make ready for battle. But remember well, we must not grow fond of the fight; a battle of attrition is the main thing. Record the combat data in detail; this may perhaps help us in answering these enemies hereafter."
"Yes!" The deputy captain went off in excitement to make the arrangements.
For near a month of this business trip, they had watched others fighting at their side while they themselves could only look on with dry eyes.
These captains, petty officers and crew of theirs had long since grown impatient past bearing.
All of a sudden,
an alarm sounded from the Hades' bridge.
A shadow-image of the artificial intelligence appeared at Zhao Chen's side.
"Alarm! Alarm! Alarm! An exceedingly strong energy fluctuation is detected in cabin U02; deal with it at once, deal with it at once!"
This was the Hades' artificial intelligence, rather stiff in its speech, not so advanced as the Dragon Emperor's artificial intelligence.
Zhao Chen heard the information the artificial intelligence reported.
Cabin U02……
Was that not the cabin he had arranged for Hive Princess!
"Carry on with the combat operation; this matter here I take upon myself." Zhao Chen, without a second word, left the bridge.
He hastened toward cabin U02.
Cabin U02 was a deputy captain's cabin, next door to Zhao Chen's own captain's room.
It was the bedroom Zhao Chen had arranged for Hive Princess.
And now, in cabin U02, an exceedingly strong energy fluctuation had appeared?
That must in great part be by reason of that Hive Princess.
Zhao Chen soon came outside the door of cabin U02, and used his authority to open the great door outright.
The lights within the room flickered, and a sound of bug-chirring could be heard besides.
"Lights!" Zhao Chen commanded the intelligence within the room.
"Intelligent equipment within the room has failed… intelligent equipment within the room…"
Screens as it were snow appeared about Zhao Chen, and within them the sound came broken and intermittent.
Zhao Chen knit his brows and walked slowly in.
When he came to the sitting room, he saw an astonishing sight.
Upon one side of the sitting room was a vast floor-to-ceiling window, and outside the window was the prospect of the universe.
And within the sitting room it was already as it were a field of battle.
A figure stood erect there.
The figure, a meter high, hung in the air; but behind her were black web-like lances, one after another, and it was by these black spider-lances that she could float in mid-air.
At this moment, Zhao Chen's eyes met this little fellow's.
It was Hive Princess's face!
But in this moment, Zhao Chen could be certain: this was assuredly not Hive Princess!
For within those eyes there was a savage air, there was fury, there was the breath of slaughter!
In the next second, this fellow gave out a rending bug-chirr, and came howling toward Zhao Chen.