Zhao Chen looked again at the holographic interstellar holo-table of this whole undead battlefield.
With the Judgment Angel star system at its center, six battlefields had formed around it.
So far, the undead host had sent out an undead host 1,900,000 strong.
It could not be ruled out that there were still undead creatures within the Judgment Angel star system.
So the total of undead creatures was likely on the order of over 2,000,000.
On these six defense lines, by contrast, the Owl Dragon Empire's legions had committed only 200,000-odd interstellar warships in all.
The gap in numbers between the two sides had reached an astonishing ten to one.
Just then Chu Xuan's video window came up again.
No doubt because the main axis of attack had appeared.
"Your Majesty," Chu Xuan began.
Zhao Chen cut straight in. "I have already made arrangements. Rest assured, reinforcements will reach Undead Defense Line No. 1 within ten minutes!"
As it happened, Undead Defense Line No. 1 was held by none other than the Owl Dragon Second Fleet Group's First Legion, which Chu Xuan led, and she herself was there in person.
"Chu Xuan, how do things stand on the battlefield now?" It was the first time Zhao Chen had asked about the state of the battlefield.
Chu Xuan reported every particular to Zhao Chen point by point.
"Nearly forty combat hours have now passed. Apart from Line No. 3, where the loss rate has reached 18%, the loss rate on every other line is only 10%. Our total losses come to nearly 30,000 interstellar warships. Enemy killed number 500,000 undead. Among those 500,000 undead are six T6 undead-grade combat units and a hundred and fifty T5 undead-grade combat units. The great majority are still T4 and T3 undead creatures. Leaving aside those infected on the battlefield, they have sent no T1 or T2 undead creatures. By the look of it, they do not fight like the interstellar hive-race, sending out every force they have, even T1 combat units, as cannon fodder. That we have held the defensive fighting to where it stands is largely owing to the deterrent fire of our interstellar missile ships and interstellar gunships on the lines. So long as that level of deterrent fire can be kept up, the lines will for the most part have no great trouble. Of course, there is one precondition. The undead armies on the various lines must not grow explosively in number. Line No. 3 took an increase of 200,000 undead, and it was only because I found a way to draw off 30,000 interstellar warships to support Line No. 3 that the line did not fall into great disorder."
With that, Chu Xuan looked to Zhao Chen.
What she had laid out plainly meant this: whether Line No. 1 could hold against this wave of 500,000 undead now appearing.
Bore directly on how the whole battlefield would develop from here.
And among them were at least fifty T6-grade undead creatures besides.
"Once I reach the Line No. 1 battlefield, we will talk it over in detail," Zhao Chen said in a low voice.
"Yes."
……
Line No. 1 battlefield · Owl Dragon Second Fleet Group, First Legion.
Chu Xuan looked at the interstellar war holo-table before her, a trace of weariness in her eyes.
"Marshal. This time, outside our defense line, there is an undead host of 500,000, and among it fifty-odd T6-grade undead combat units. If this undead host attacks our Line No. 1 directly, our Line No. 1's firepower will not hold out even three hours before the line collapses!" a staff officer said softly at her side.
Several other staff officers stood beside her as well.
These days a staff was set up beside every commander, to help the commander with battle deployments and battle plans.
After all, to command the operations of tens of thousands, or a hundred-odd thousand, interstellar warships,
one commander's head alone would certainly not be enough.
"What we know at present is that His Majesty the Emperor's Emperor's Guard Fleet has 1,000 interstellar warships. Over ninety percent of them are T5-grade interstellar warships, and the rest are T6 interstellar warships. It has to be admitted that His Majesty the Emperor's Guard Fleet is very strong in fighting power. But… if it is used against the undead host of 500,000 bearing down on us across the way, it is still… somewhat short." A staff officer who paid close attention to data pushed up her glasses.
The glasses were not for nearsightedness; in this age there was no longer any such thing.
On the glasses she could see a great deal of whatever data she wished to see.
They were a kind of small computer system carried about the person.
"As for reinforcements, His Majesty the Emperor said he would see to them. We need only do what we ought to do. The rest… we need only trust His Majesty the Emperor," Chu Xuan said earnestly, with not the least doubt in her voice.
Ever since that time at the Northstar Starship Military Academy, when she had leaped without a second thought aboard that Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser, she had trusted this man without condition.
Even now.
Seeing their marshal take this attitude, the staff officers naturally said nothing more.
Before long,
a small fleet came down onto this front.
Interstellar warships in white livery with gold-filigree dragon patterns appeared, one after another, before everyone on this defense line.
The hull livery of these interstellar warships was very special.
Put simply, it was an 'exclusive skin'.
Only interstellar warships that had joined the Emperor's Guard Fleet could wear this hull livery.
The captains of other interstellar warships, seeing these interstellar warships, looked on with envy, every one of them.
To join the Emperor's Guard Fleet, and have one's own interstellar warship wear this livery, was something they all longed for past hope.
Chu Xuan, too, swept her eyes over these interstellar warships just then, and for the most part had the measure of them.
The Emperor's Guard Fleet had, in name, 1,000 interstellar warships.
But in fact the combat interstellar warships numbered only eight hundred-odd; the rest were all auxiliary interstellar warships.
But though they were only eight hundred-odd interstellar warships.
These eight hundred-odd interstellar warships were not to be slighted either.
What Chu Xuan paid most attention to was the T6-grade interstellar warships.
The T6-grade interstellar warships alone numbered, astonishingly, thirty-six!
An unbelievable number!
Most likely all the T6 interstellar warships held by the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's other legion fleets put together did not come to as many as the Emperor's Guard Fleet had.
And among them were several T6 interstellar warships she had never yet seen.
By the word Chu Xuan had received, these were presumably the newest batch of T6 interstellar warships off the production line.
No wonder His Majesty was so confident.
But if it rested on these T6 interstellar warships alone.
Holding the line to the death was no problem; but to go on with the counteroffensive plan.
That would be somewhat hard, and Chu Xuan frowned slightly.