Not long after Zhao Chen reached Undead Battlefield No. 1.
Word came that the undead legion fleets had launched their attack.
"In every direction?" Zhao Chen looked in surprise at Chu Xuan in the video window across from him.
Chu Xuan nodded and pointed to the holographic interstellar holo-table before her.
"Six lines of attack in all, and on each line of attack there are 200,000 undead combat units. Those include undead starships, and some other undead creatures," Chu Xuan said.
On each line of attack, 200,000 undead combat units.
And Zhao Chen knew Chu Xuan's dispositions on each of the defense lines.
Each defense line was held by very nearly 30,000 Owl Dragon interstellar warships as well, along with some defensive installations built recently and the like.
Though there was no small gap in numbers between the two sides,
on the Owl Dragon Empire's legion fleet side, the interstellar warships were T4 and T5 grade without exception.
And some T6 interstellar warships were posted there as well.
For dealing with these undead legions, there was no problem for the time being.
"No main axis?" Zhao Chen asked.
"We have not yet made out which is the main axis," Chu Xuan said with a frown.
Zhao Chen thought for a moment and said, "It looks, then, as though the undead legions still have forces they have not yet moved. We must be ready for the worst. Chu Xuan, you take charge of battlefield command according to your original plan. Until there is conclusive proof of the undead legions' main axis, the reserve legion fleets are not to join the battlefield for now."
If the reserve legion fleets were thrown onto the battlefield now, it might lessen some of the pressure on the defense lines.
But if the undead legion fleets truly had something held back, they would then be very much on the back foot.
"Yes." Chu Xuan understood what was in Zhao Chen's mind, and at once began giving out tasks for each battlefield.
In truth every fleet had excellent commanders of its own; she need only give the order to fight.
Soon the fighting broke out on every battlefield.
Zhao Chen sat aboard his acting flagship.
It was a T6 Seraph-Ballista-class Interstellar Long-Range Hunter-Killer Ship,
among the newest batch of T6-grade interstellar warships to enter service.
Being so newly in service, they could not yet be fitted into the combat systems of the present fleet groups.
So they had simply been attached to the Emperor's Guard Fleet for the time being, until later arrangements were made and then it was settled where they would belong.
The petty officers and soldiers on the bridge were all very keyed up just now.
Though they were not yet in the fight, their spirit truly was as though they were killing the enemy on the battlefield.
For behind them, on that temporary imperial throne, sat their idol, the man of their dreams.
His Majesty the Emperor of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire!
At this moment a young captain stood beside the imperial throne, her eyes drifting every so often to His Majesty the Emperor, her heart going thump-thump-thump.
The excitement of it far surpassed any battle she had been through before.
"Your name is Tao Beibei?" Zhao Chen spoke just then, looking at this captain of the T6 starship.
Tao Beibei at once stood straight. "Reporting to Your Majesty: your subordinate Tao Beibei, presently captain of ship No. 1 of the T6 Seraph-Ballista-class Interstellar Long-Range Hunter-Killer Ships, rank of brigadier general. Three years in the Owl Dragon legions. When I joined the Owl Dragon legions I was a cadet of the Northstar Starship Military Academy. After that I served in the former First Legion under General Charlotte, the former Fourth Legion under General Su Lan, and the former Eleventh Legion under General Zhao Ruyue. The highest post I have held is deputy commander of a legion fleet."
With that, she gave a somewhat embarrassed little laugh. "But my own talent for command doesn't seem to be very good. Commanding 3,000 interstellar warships I can manage, but commanding upward of ten thousand doesn't go so well. I went back several times when I could to the Goddess Academy-class… that is, what is now the Owl Dragon Royal Military Academy, for further study, but none of it brought much improvement. Then I got a chance to serve as captain of a new-model T6 interstellar warship; though it meant setting aside my standing as a senior officer for the time being, I took on the captaincy of the new-model T6 interstellar warship without a second thought, along with the training and the other duties."
It was plain to see that this Captain Tao Beibei was very nervous.
Zhao Chen had only asked a passing question, and she all but longed to tell him every detail of her whole career.
"Don't be nervous; I'm only borrowing your bridge. You can treat me as air; I won't interfere with your command," Zhao Chen said with a smile, looking at the somewhat nervous Tao Beibei.
"Not nervous, not nervous." Tao Beibei waved her hands again and again, but the beads of sweat on her forehead still gave her away.
"This is your first time commanding a T6-grade interstellar warship in real combat, isn't it?" Zhao Chen asked.
Tao Beibei stood straight and vowed, "Rest assured, Your Majesty. Though this is my first time commanding a T6 Seraph-Ballista-class Interstellar Long-Range Hunter-Killer Ship in real combat, my crew and I have been preparing for a long time, and we are confident that at any moment, against any opponent, we can show what we are made of!"
"Very good. I'll be waiting to see what you're made of," Zhao Chen said, chatting idly.
He went on following the holographic interstellar holo-table Chu Xuan had shared with him.
Every so often he would ask Tao Beibei how she read the battlefield.
From their talk, Zhao Chen could indeed see that Tao Beibei was somewhat weak at battlefield command.
Zhao Chen was no talent in this line either; but from spending so long among such born commanders of the battlefield as Charlotte, Chitong, Shen Bing, Su Lan and Chu Xuan.
He had picked up more or less a little, and could see the gap between the two.
Time passed, little by little.
Zhao Chen saw these undead legions show some behavior wholly unlike before.
Some remarkable T5 creatures, for instance.
As for T5-grade undead starships, to Zhao Chen and the others they could be called nothing new; for the most part they were 'imitations' and 'upgrades' of Owl Dragon-series interstellar warships.
A few looks, and Zhao Chen could tell what the original had been.
So he was far more interested in the undead creatures.
The most numerous among them were the 'Undead Angels'.
This was a newly appeared undead unit type, and a fairly numerous one.
In outline like an angel, but with no flesh and blood, the whole a frame of bones, with bone wings on its back.
In size, several hundred times the Angel Race of today.
An adult of the Angel Race now, for instance, stood about 1.9 to 2 meters tall.
But these Undead Angels seemed to have been made gigantic; every one of them stood over two hundred meters tall![1]
They could not compare with the undead starships, which ran from a few hundred meters at the small end to thousands of meters, and on up past ten thousand kilometers.
But the peculiar shape of these Undead Angels struck a shock of a wholly different kind.
Above all the eerie, ghost-fire-like flames within their skulls, flickering without end.