The old man pointed at that T2 carrier in the picture. "By the data I've turned up so far— this ship is called a T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship. Before it appeared, neither the Starlight Empire nor the whole Galactic Alliance had, on the surface at least, any information whatever on this ship. And this T2 Queen Bee's owner is a man named Zhao Chen."
As he spoke, the old man called up a personal dossier — the portrait upon it none other than Zhao Chen!
"Zhao Chen, 21 years old, lord of the Owl Dragon System, imperial baron. Fourth-year cadet of the Northstar Starship Military Academy, excellent marks in theory courses. Before this he showed nothing outstanding, all the way up to the past half-year. At the Northstar Starship Military Academy he assembled, out of three old, obsolete ships, a T2 ship named Blizzard Zero! Its speed could reach 100 star-knots!"
Chu Xuan cut in on the old man's words, correcting him: "Top speed over 130 star-knots!"
To this day she still remembered the scene of that T2 ship named Blizzard Zero ramming a Grade-2 hive mother-ship to death.
The old man went on: "After that, he brought out this T2 Queen Bee, and took part in that affair of yours concerning the Grade-2 cosmic bug-nest. At the time this T2 Queen Bee didn't use star-shield tech, but the drones it was fitted with had quite outstanding combat power — among interstellar drones of the same grade and type at present, they'd rank at the very front!"
Chu Xuan nodded, and said, recalling it, "At the time, in the fight against the bug-race, his T2 Queen Bee was under the protection of my fleet, so there was no call to use star-shield tech!"
"Besides these two ships, there's one more." The old man called up the holographic image of a ship — a small black oval-shaped vessel, a great black horn jutting from the fore of its bow.
"This is an escort ship named the T2 Black-Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy-Assault Escort. Back at the Northstar Academy, it once fought a starship duel against a T2 Purple-Rose-class Medium Interstellar Battlecruiser."
"What? An escort ship dueling a battlecruiser?" Chu Xuan was taken aback.
"That's right — and this T2 Black-Rhino won outright! And in this battle here in the video, five T2 Black-Rhinos, in concert with one T2 Queen Bee, wiped out a Mechanical Race T3 Black-Iron-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer! They also destroyed 30 T2 Mechanical ships besides. These six ships took hull damage, but not one fell!" the old man said gravely.
Chu Xuan wore a look of astonishment, and was a long while coming back to herself.
"Grandfather, what is it you're trying to say?" Chu Xuan looked at the old man, puzzled.
Her own grandfather seldom spent so long before her telling of one person — and a young man of barely 20 at that.
The old man pointed at Zhao Chen's portrait. "This man has secrets about him — and he has outstanding gifts as a starship-engineer scientist! I hear you take quite an interest in him too. Since you're unwilling to stay put here— —then I'll give you a task: go draw close to him, and find a way to draw out the secrets he carries. Best of all, get him to cooperate with our Chu family! But if you find he may stand as an enemy to our Chu family… Xuan'er… you understand."
The old man's expression was grave, a fierce edge hidden in the depths of his eyes.
Chu Xuan nodded; she knew her grandfather's temper well. Never mind the picture of a mischievous old child he played before her—
—meeting a matter of weight, he was, beyond doubt, decisive in slaughter and war.
Bear in mind — he'd once been a five-star marshal of the Starlight Empire who, with a single order, had slaughtered over 100 million intelligent mechanical lives within one star system!
And it was because of him that the Chu family held the standing it had today.
"I understand. I'll go and try to make contact with this Zhao Chen." Chu Xuan nodded, accepting the task.
Set against "facing the wall in penance" in the Chu family manor, this task she could well accept.
What was more, she'd harbored a curiosity about this man named Zhao Chen from the first, and now that he possessed a T2 carrier with star-shield tech, her curiosity was greater still!
"I'll arrange an identity for you; you'll go straight to the Northstar Starship Military Academy when the time comes," the old man said.
"Yes."
……
Early March, Galactic Star Calendar 3031.
Zhao Chen's fleet returned at last to the Northstar Star System, a good 10 days later than the originally set time of return.
Fortunately, this escort task had come through peril to safety.
When Zhao Chen reached the Owl Dragon Fleet's temporary base, great changes had come over it since his leaving.
Where before there had been only five T2 Black-Rhinos, one T2 Iron-Hammer, and one Blizzard Zero—
—the numbers had now doubled outright.
At the same time the expansion platforms built by the two T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships looked, from afar, like simple space stations.
Small engineering robots, one after another, worked busily around the hulls under construction in the vacuum environment.
And there were industrial mechanical arms, engineer-controlled, extending out from the T2 Iron-Hammers, assembling and joining certain sections of the hulls.
Most eye-catching of all, naturally, was the construction platform for that T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser.
The expansion zone under construction was several times larger even than the T2 Iron-Hammer's own hull!
The T3 Blizzard had been a month in building; the hull keel was complete, and some important hull modules had begun installation too — one could make out a rough outline of it now.
And on the other side, the T2 Iron-Hammer was building T2 Black-Rhinos in bulk; on that expansion platform there were already five T2 Black-Rhinos under construction!
"Commander." Charlotte's video window popped open; plainly, seeing Zhao Chen return safe, there was a trace of gladness in her eyes.
Without quite knowing when it had begun, she'd already come to hold this man in her heart.
"How are things at the base?" Zhao Chen asked.
"All is normal at the base. Of the 20-million-star-coin raw-material supply you readied earlier, the greater part is already spent! But it can meet the construction-plan needs through this coming March. Completed to date: one T2 Iron-Hammer, one T2 Bronze Eden, five T2 Black-Rhinos. Under construction: one T3 Blizzard and five T2 Black-Rhinos. Before the end of March, five more T2 Black-Rhinos will be completed," Charlotte reported.
By the time Zhao Chen left, Charlotte had already been granted the clearance to know that this T3 ship under construction was named 'Blizzard'!
Zhao Chen's heart settled at once — at this rate of construction—
—completing that quarterly task before the end of March would be no great problem.
"The T2 Bronze Eden is finished?" Zhao Chen was curious about this T2 Bronze Eden-class ship — his money-tree for the fortune to come.
"It is — and a batch of beast-folk I recruited are already at work aboard the T2 Bronze Eden," Charlotte said.
"Then I must go up and have a look!" Zhao Chen at once arranged the next leg of his itinerary.
To the T2 Bronze Eden-class ship!