"The Crimson Reaper, hull K1019: ready to attack."
"The Spear of Sin, hull K7033: ready to attack."
"The Spear of Sin, hull K5003: ready to attack."
Commander Liu Xiaowei heard the reports of these three warships' captains.
Upon the interstellar holo-table before Commander Liu Xiaowei there appeared points of light, and lines of attack.
These were the attack data the three warships published to the flagship,
so that the fleet's commander might see clearly how each warship's battle dispositions stood.
"Open fire!" Commander Liu Xiaowei ordered without hesitation.
The three T5-grade warships of the strongest firepower now showed what they could do.
Missiles went screaming out like rain, and heavy laser cannon struck toward the target.
That T6 warship's star-shield unfolded as well, and its close-in guns and interception weapons started up one after another.
At the same time its bow cannon, main guns and missiles began to lock upon their targets, and made ready to answer.
"Pass word to all interstellar escorts: make ready to intercept and defend against the enemy's attack. Pass word to the T4 and T3 interstellar missile ships and gun ships: make ready for the second round of fire. Pass word to all T5 interstellar battleships and destroyers: once the second round is over, close the distance with the enemy at your best speed. Pass word to all T5 interstellar cruisers and battlecruisers: stand ready to give battlefield support at any moment! The remaining T4 and T3 warships are to move with the T5s, and are on no account to rush forward rashly!"
The secretary-officer passed the commander's orders swiftly down.
Upon the surface of the enemy T6 warship's star-shield there now appeared blossoms of explosion, one after another.
"Have you begun recording?" Commander Liu Xiaowei looked toward the small staff she had put together for the occasion.
Three technical staff officers were at their reckoning at this moment.
They were tallying the results of their own warships' successful strikes upon the enemy's star-shield, and from that deriving about what energy value this warship's shield held.
This is an unwritten rule within the Owl Dragon Empire's fleets.
Whenever a warship is met with that the database does not record, then where there is opportunity, means must be found to obtain its several data.
And the star-shield's energy data is among the most important of them.
Once it is known, one knows how strong an attack is needed upon the field to tear this T6 warship's shield apart.
And should this class be met with again afterward, the dispositions can be made in far more detail.
But to return,
out of the smoke of the enemy ship's explosions,
laser beams shot forth one after another.
That was the enemy's answer, and one of them was terrible above the rest.
That was in all likelihood this T6 warship's bow cannon.
"Mind the interception!" Commander Liu Xiaowei cried.
Now the T5 King-of-the-Hill-class Heavy Interstellar Comprehensive Strategic Escort came into its own.
Its heavy close-in guns fired without cease, forming a barrage of interception.
At the same time the defensive interstellar missiles, long since made ready, were loosed; and their speed even surpassed the missiles fired by the interstellar missile ships.
For these defensive ships lay no weight upon range, so the flight fuel can go into speed instead, serving to accelerate over a short distance.
Having reached the appointed place, they detonate of themselves, and raise a defensive force-field.
Such a field is meant expressly against energy-type ship weapons.
If a laser strikes it, part of the laser's energy is spent, and so the enemy's attack is defended against.
Intercept! Intercept! Intercept!
Commander Liu Xiaowei's eyes were fixed upon that laser beam which threatened most; and though several defensive missiles had made their interception upon its path.
Against the mighty energy of the enemy's attack, so little interception could not cancel much.
At the last that beam fell upon the star-shield.
A dazzling halo appeared upon the shield.
Commander Liu Xiaowei stared at the place that had been struck.
She did not fear that the shield's energy would be spent to nothing.
For the T5 King of the Hill can build a star-shield defense matrix, which is to say that the shield's energy is supplied not by one warship's shield alone, but by every King of the Hill present.
But its one flaw is that, meeting a single attack of high intensity, some region may be pierced through.
And that was what she feared at this moment.
If it were truly the bow-cannon attack of a T6-grade warship, then in all likelihood this shield matrix would be punched through with a hole.
The matrix would repair itself afterward, and the effect would not be great.
But an enemy laser that pierced through, falling upon some ship of no great defense, might well cripple it, or even destroy it.
Yet the scene she had imagined did not come.
The halo upon the shield dispersed very soon, and the shield was not pierced through at all.
"Report. We have reckoned the strength of the enemy's attack here. It does not reach the T6 starship grade at all!" the staff officer charged with reckoning the enemy's weapons cried aloud.
It does not reach the T6 grade!
"Then what grade does it belong to?" Commander Liu Xiaowei asked at once.
"Stronger than T5; at the most it is a weapon of the quasi-T6 grade!" said the staff officer.
A mere quasi-T6 warship, and here it was sticking scallions up its snout and playing the elephant!
There was no need at all for a second round of fire; the first round alone, from three T5 warships, spent the shield of that quasi-T6 warship opposite to nothing.
Commander Liu Xiaowei changed her orders at once.
The interstellar missile ships were to stand by; the interstellar heavy-artillery ships to open the second round,
the remaining warships to finish it off.
In truth no finishing was needed.
Having lost its shield, this quasi-T6 warship, after one round from the T4 Medusa-class Heavy Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ships, had lost the greater part of its fighting power.
The T5 interstellar destroyers then swarmed in, and destroyed this quasi-T6 warship outright.
"The analysis of the enemy ship's data is out. It belongs to the quasi-T6 grade. Its fighting power is somewhat stronger than that T6 Destroyer-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship the Demon Race brought out before, but it falls far short of true T6 fighting power." The staff officer came forward and reported.
"I understand. Send several interstellar cruisers over to salvage the wreck of the enemy ship; taking it back, we may perhaps make a study of it."
So Commander Liu Xiaowei ordered.
"Aye."
"Commander, the interstellar scout craft we sent out have returned images. The situation… the situation is somewhat particular. You had best see it." The secretary-officer beside her looked at Commander Liu Xiaowei with something of horror.
Commander Liu Xiaowei knit her brows slightly.
By this moment two thirds of that star had been stained black.