Storm Fortress No. 3.
"Wonderful! General Medusa has come in person with reinforcements to support us. And the Hell-Angel ace fleet group too!" Hu Xiner read the intelligence passed to her in Morse code by the bug on the bridge.
She was overjoyed.
After holding out so long in bitter straits, they could at last see the dawn.
"Pass the order down! Every combat post is to be at the very top of its game. Our friendly forces are just across the way. Our fleet group's supreme commander is watching. Don't you shame our Fourth Legion!" Hu Xiner mastered her feelings and barked the order.
"Yes!"
Once this news had been passed down, the whole of Storm Fortress Star Port No. 3 was as if given a shot of heart stimulant.
In that moment the fighting spirit everywhere grew a good deal stronger.
For they all knew that not far from here, their comrades in relief had already arrived and were fighting shoulder to shoulder with them.
Time passed, little by little.
By degrees,
Hu Xiner could now pick up some short-range communication signals from outside.
Before, the bugs hemming them in had been so many that, even if relief arrived, they could not have communicated with one another normally.
Now that they could pick up some faint, blurred signals from friendly forces, it meant one thing.
The enemy hive fleets surrounding them were thinning!
All of a sudden, Hu Xiner noticed a dense blaze of fire on one side of the battlefield outside.
Flames sprayed, and the shock waves of the blasts scattered not a few hive-race combat units.
And still more Hive Motherships were set alight, like grassland put to the torch, lighting up that stretch of deep black starry sky.
In an instant Hu Xiner felt her very breathing quicken; she knew what that was!
She knew those explosions all too well; she knew those scenes all too well.
Interstellar missiles!
The blanket fire of interstellar missile ships!
Hu Xiner at once ordered the interstellar warships fighting in that sector to watch their fire and on no account hit friendly forces.
"They've come at last!" The secretary officer beside her pressed a hand over her mouth, overcome, her eyes glistening.
They were not afraid to die, but to have relief come when they were an isolated island, that was another feeling altogether.
Soon a gap appeared in the ring around Storm Fortress No. 3. The Order Hive Motherships all around the gap tried to plug it again.
But they could not do it in time.
Instead the gap grew larger and larger.
It was as though a window were slowly opening in the Storm Fortress No. 3 stronghold.
By now Hu Xiner could see the battle outside as well.
The Owl Dragon legion fleets had formed a battle phalanx and were moving at a slow pace.
In the middle of the phalanx, row upon row of interstellar missile ships were arrayed in perfect order.
And a great many of them!
At a rough glance there were nearly 10,000 interstellar missile ships at the least.
Just then, the salvo of those nearly 10,000 interstellar missile ships began.
Interstellar missiles fell like raindrops, one after another, on the enemy's Hive Motherships.
It was as if fire had lit the prairie, blanketing a great swath at once.
Within the blast zone, scarcely a single Hive Mothership remained whole.
Even a T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Mothership could hardly survive an attack of that weight.
Such was the terror of interstellar missile ships!
Just then, communications between the two sides were fully restored.
"This is the flagship of the Owl Dragon Third Fleet Group's First Legion. I am Medusa. If you receive, please answer; if you receive, please answer."
Hearing that familiar voice, Hu Xiner was somewhat moved.
She at once steadied herself and said, "Reporting, General, I am Hu Xiner, commander of the Third Fleet Group's Fourth Legion, under orders to garrison Storm Fortress Star Port No. 3 here. We have fought the enemy hive-race for over 30 hours. Storm Fortress Star Port No. 3 is still under our control!"
"Very good. You have done very well. The Emperor knows of your stand, and has bid me convey to you His Majesty the Emperor's regard. You are the bravest warriors of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire," Medusa said in praise.
Hu Xiner wept quietly, and took the words she had just received.
She put them straight onto the Fourth Legion's internal communication network, playing on a loop over the open channel.
Interstellar warships still held their battle stations.
On their bridges, weary captains heard these words over the open channel and wept for joy.
In a star-port berth, an interstellar warship still trailing black smoke eased slowly into place to await repairs.
Then the starship's hatch opened, and one after another the wounded crew were brought down, laid on medical hover-gurneys, and sent to the star port's medical facilities for treatment.
They heard the voice on the open channel; some of them, though they had lost an arm and blood had soaked their uniforms red, broke into smiles all the same.
In the star port, in a certain workshop compartment.
"Xiaojuan, you have been working for over 48 hours straight. Go and get some rest this minute!" The department head looked, worried, at a crewman who was swaying on her feet as though she might drop at any moment, and urged her.
The girl raised her head, showing a young face not yet twenty.
"I… I'm not tired. This post needs me. I'm a Grade-Six technician, the technical specialty our star port is shortest of right now. I can repair those combat drones here, and the more I repair, the more combat drones can go back to the battlefield. Then the pressure on our comrades will ease a little." Xiaojuan smiled an innocent, guileless smile.
"…… You are the bravest warriors of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire."
Just then, these words came from the open channel nearby.
When they heard them, not a few in the compartment stopped short.
Some were astonished, some delighted, some did not know what to do with themselves, and some could hardly believe it.
"The Emperor actually knows of us?"
"His Majesty the Emperor says we are the bravest warriors!"
"We have not failed the Empire; we have not failed His Majesty the Emperor!"
In that moment cheering spread through a good many places.
"Enough of your grinning like fools. The relief has come. But our fight is still going on. The battle is not over, and not one of you is to let up!" the department head barked sharply.
Everyone at once went back to the work in hand, still grinning.
When the department head looked at Xiaojuan again, she found her standing stock-still where she was.
At once, worried, she stepped over.
And found that Xiaojuan had, of all things, fallen asleep on her feet, with a contented smile still at the corners of her mouth.
It must have been those words she had just heard.
Sometimes what they wanted, these crew and soldiers, was very simple.
Only recognition.
Recognition of what they had done, and of all they had given.
"This silly child." The department head glanced around, then carried Xiaojuan to a free spot nearby so that she could rest there for a little while.
The department head stood and looked to everyone in the department.
"All of you, look sharp. The relief has come, but that does not mean our fight is over. We must not only hold the star-port stronghold; we must beat these bugs that dared attack us!"