Hu Xiner looked at the little beetle before her and swallowed hard; she was not quite used to it.
"By the Emperor's instructions: for now, long-range quantum communication can't be fully restored. But we can pass information through our own hive-race biological neural network, using Morse code. Only important messages, though." The Hive Princess's voice had grown clearer now.
"Understood." Hearing these words, Hu Xiner at last felt the great stone in her heart set down.
Though they could not reach headquarters directly, at least communication could be established, and that gave them something solid to stand on.
"The bad news is that many places along the whole northern hive line are in much the same state as yours. We may not be able to clear out the Order hive fleets around you completely for a while. But after this we'll find a way to send over some reinforcements and ship in some combat supplies. Please hold out, whatever it takes!" the Hive Princess said.
"Please tell His Majesty the Emperor: we of the Owl Dragon Third Fleet Group's Fourth Legion promise that so long as we have a single interstellar warship here, we will hold to the very last moment!" Hu Xiner stood straight and said it gravely.
The communication ended.
Hu Xiner let out a long breath; much of the weariness in her eyes faded, and a little gladness came into them.
"Who would have thought His Majesty had a hive fleet of his own? None of us knew anything of it," the secretary officer said beside her in wonder.
She eyed the bug curiously, half wanting to reach out and touch it, and half afraid to.
"Did the trial communication succeed?" Hu Xiner asked.
The secretary officer at once took out a sheet of paper with several strings of Morse code written on it, done during the trial just now.
"After several tests, there were no problems at all. But it can only carry simple messages."
"So long as it carries messages, that is enough. So long as messages can pass, we are no longer an isolated island!" Hu Xiner said at once, gravely. "Pass this word to every interstellar warship: we have made contact with headquarters. The Emperor and the Grand Marshal have come to the northern hive line in person, and several ace fleet groups are on the move. We do not fight alone! Everyone, hold your posts and fight for the Empire!"
"Yes!" The secretary officer went off, excited, to pass on the words.
She knew very well that at a time like this, to every interstellar warship in every fleet, these words were nothing less than a cup of ice water in the burning heat of summer.
They might not solve the problem entirely, but they could at least quench the thirst for a while.
They gave everyone hope.
And in such straits, hope was a very important thing!
Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought · bridge.
"The Hive Princess has already led the Owl Dragon hive-race fleet in opening two shipping lanes. Only, at their ends, great numbers of Order hive fleets are besieging our Storm Fortress star ports. The Owl Dragon hive-race fleet alone can barely break through the rings for a short while, to pass messages to the fleets garrisoning the star ports; it cannot lift the sieges outright." Zhao Chen pointed to two routes on the star map.
The T5 Starfield Venom-Blast Bugs along these two routes had all been cleared away.
Zhao Chen looked to Charlotte beside him. "Now that two routes are cleared, it is time to launch our counterattack."
Charlotte said gravely, "I will have the fleets go to warp now and hasten to these two star-port fortresses to lift the sieges!"
Zhao Chen did not forget to warn her: "From the intelligence we have so far, the enemy has committed nearly 50,000,000 hive-race ships in all to besieging the star-port fortresses this time. What we knew before was that the two Hive Nests had bred over 100,000,000 Hive Motherships, and that was intelligence from several months ago. How many Hive Motherships there are now, we cannot know. So we must be on our guard against the part of the enemy's Hive Motherships not yet committed!"
Charlotte nodded. "That I know. The enemy also has that means of spatial delivery that looks like the T5 Leviathan-Shaman-class Hive Mothership's, and so far we have not worked out what hive-race technology it truly is. Our lack of intelligence on the enemy is the thorniest problem we have now. I have already sent an instruction to the commanders of every Owl Dragon legion fleet: any Hive Mothership not recorded in the database is not to be engaged unless it must be. If it must be fought, they are to go with great care."
Zhao Chen nodded, satisfied.
With Charlotte seeing to these things, he could indeed spare himself a good deal of worry.
After that came the formal relief plan.
The shipping lanes cleared so far led to Storm Fortress Star Port No. 3 and Storm Fortress Star Port No. 6.
The other besieged Storm Fortress star ports had only basic communications restored so far; the T5 Starfield Venom-Blast Bugs along their lanes had not yet been cleared.
"Medusa. You will commit twenty Owl Dragon fleets, 60,000 Owl Dragon interstellar warships in all, to this relief operation. I will assign two ace fleet groups to support you, one to each force. And for each battlefield we will request 500,000 Owl Dragon Hive Motherships from the Hive Princess's command to fight alongside. We have few forces left to deploy now; even with the Owl Dragon hive-race fleet, it only meets the most pressing need. So once we move, we must end the fighting in the shortest time and lift the sieges of both star ports." Charlotte gave Medusa her combat orders, gravely.
Medusa nodded and vowed, "Rest assured, Grand Marshal. Half of these 60,000 Owl Dragon interstellar warships will come from my Third Fleet Group's First Legion. And I will lead one of the forces myself to relieve a besieged star port. I promise that once we reach the battlefield, we will break the siege in the shortest time!"
"If anything unexpected comes up, report at once."
"Yes."
After that, under Charlotte's arrangements, Medusa personally led ten fleets of the Owl Dragon Third Fleet Group's First Legion to relieve the besieged Storm Fortress Star Port No. 3.
At the same time, Wei Shishi, commander of the Owl Dragon Third Fleet Group's Second Legion,[1] would lead ten fleets herself to relieve the besieged Storm Fortress Star Port No. 6.
It was worth noting that the fleet whose rotation it was to garrison Storm Fortress Star Port No. 6 just then was the one led by the Second Legion's deputy commander.
So Wei Shishi had volunteered for the battle.
In her words, the Second Legion's people who were trapped were hers to save, as the Second Legion's commander.
As for those bugs, if they dared bully the Second Legion's people, then she, Wei Shishi, had to settle the score!
There was a good deal about her still of the fierce protectiveness of her own people that she had shown back when she served in the Starlight Empire's forces.
Beyond that, the Hell-Angel ace fleet group and the Queen of the Starry Sky ace fleet group, which had come to the northern hive line together, received their missions at the same time, each heading to one of the two battlefields to fight alongside.
They were to end the fighting, or bring it under control, in the shortest time possible, without fail!