Xue Xiaoxiao stood with her hands on her hips and one foot planted on the captain's chair, the very picture of swagger.
"You are a fleet group commander, after all. Look a little like one." Zhao Chen's voice came from the video window beside her.
Xue Xiaoxiao put her foot down and pouted. "It's not as if I wanted to be fleet group commander…"
"A T6-grade interstellar battleship…" Zhao Chen began.
At once Xue Xiaoxiao stood straight, eyes intent, the picture of upright rectitude. "Rest assured, Your Majesty the Emperor. I will be sure to manage the Fourth Fleet Group well and not fail your trust!"
Zhao Chen paid this speech of Xue Xiaoxiao's no great mind.
That was simply Xue Xiaoxiao's nature; it could not be changed.
Yet her ability was so very good.
In commanding battle under the great fleet-group system, she fell short of Charlotte, Shen Bing and Chu Xuan.
But not by far.
At a time like this, she was the one best fitted to serve as commander of the Fourth Fleet Group.
"How do things stand with your Fourth Fleet Group now?" Zhao Chen asked.
Xue Xiaoxiao went through it point by point. "The Fourth Fleet Group now has 100,000 interstellar warships, formed into a First Legion and a Second Legion of 50,000 interstellar warships each. I command the First Legion myself; the Second Legion is commanded by Lieutenant General Zhong Xiaoxia, whom I chose. The training time hasn't been long, but with the combat experience I had before in the First Fleet Group's Second Legion, in these few days I've already given the Fourth Fleet Group enough fighting power to handle the battle in front of us."
"And your old post in command of the First Fleet Group's Second Legion?" Zhao Chen asked.
"I've handed the command of the First Fleet Group's Second Legion over to Lieutenant General Huang Xiaoting, who was my deputy commander. She's commander of the Second Legion now. I've seen her ability with my own eyes; she's more than equal to commanding a legion," Xue Xiaoxiao said.
Zhao Chen nodded, satisfied.
A handover of a legion fleet like this was a very important task.
If anything went wrong in the handover, it would badly hurt the legion fleet's fighting power, all the more at a stage of the fighting such as this.
"About the combat mission in the Judgment Angel star system. You should be clear on it by now." Zhao Chen fixed his eyes on Xue Xiaoxiao.
Xue Xiaoxiao nodded. "Very clear."
Zhao Chen glanced at the time. "Wait a little longer; the 'parcel' will be here soon."
Xue Xiaoxiao suddenly asked, very gingerly, "Your Majesty, that thing… is it truly… that powerful? If it truly is that powerful, and we carry it in, will we have time to get out? Don't let the fish in the pond get caught in the fire!"
Seeing Xue Xiaoxiao look somewhat faint-hearted,
Zhao Chen said calmly, "Don't worry. An evacuation plan has already been arranged for you. So long as you make no mistakes, you will get out with no trouble at all."
"That's good, that's good. Your Majesty, I'm not afraid of dying, mind. After all, whatever else, I'm an imperial general now. If I 'died in battle', well, we can be revived, true. But wouldn't that set the precedent of a general of our Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire falling in battle? Bad luck, bad luck." Xue Xiaoxiao grinned.
Zhao Chen paid no attention to the lass's glib tongue.
Xue Xiaoxiao snatched the moment to ask one question too many. "Your Majesty, I've heard lately that there are build plans for two new T6 interstellar warships back in our Owl Dragon Star System. Is one of them a T6-grade interstellar battleship?"
Zhao Chen gave Xue Xiaoxiao a sidelong look and asked calmly, "A serving Owl Dragon officer prying into industrial secrets, how many years does that get?"
Xue Xiaoxiao shut her mouth at once and gazed at Zhao Chen with big, watery eyes.
Zhao Chen, naturally, did not hold it against her.
He knew the lass simply had a craving for 'big guns and big ships', and no ill intent.
"Within three months, if it's quick. Within half a year, if it's slow. But even then, ships of this kind will still be very scarce. Not just anyone will get to take one over," Zhao Chen said, with a meaning under his words.
Xue Xiaoxiao said at once, "Well… I'm a fleet group commander, after all; having a T6 interstellar battleship as my flagship wouldn't be asking too much, would it?"
With that, she looked at Zhao Chen hopefully again.
"Depends how you perform." Zhao Chen tossed out the words and paid the lass no more attention.
What this lass's temper was, what she loved.
How could Zhao Chen not know?
Got her!
The two legions of the Fourth Fleet Group, 100,000 interstellar warships in all, joined the battlefield.
In an instant they worked a great change in the course of the battle on the whole of Undead Defense Line No. 1.
Xue Xiaoxiao, perhaps bent on earning her interstellar-battleship credit before His Majesty the Emperor, fought a truly splendid battle.
She pinned the enemy's undead host down there by sheer force and pounded it.
Add to that the practiced coordination of the Emperor's Guard Fleet and the T7 interstellar warships.[1]
The scales of the Undead Defense Line No. 1 battlefield tipped by degrees toward the Owl Dragon's side.
Victory was only a matter of time.
And Zhao Chen was still waiting just then for a 'parcel'.
Soon a T5 Star-Kun-class Super-Heavy Interstellar Transport came through the Star Gate and reached the battlefield.
He looked at this huge interstellar transport.
What it carried this time was no ordinary cargo.
A video-window request popped up.
Zhao Chen clicked to accept.
A woman captain appeared before Zhao Chen.
To see the Emperor's face, this woman captain was plainly very excited.
Had she not been in the middle of carrying out a mission, she would truly have liked a photo with His Majesty the Emperor.
She steadied her feelings.
The woman captain reported formally, "Reporting to Your Majesty the Emperor: we have been ordered to deliver 'Parcel Number One'. Please take receipt."
"Understood." Zhao Chen nodded, and got in touch with his fleet commander, the Panda-Girl.
"The thing has arrived; see to it." Zhao Chen reminded the Panda-Girl, whose eyes still held the thrill of the battlefield.
The Panda-Girl commander came to herself and said at once, gravely, "Yes."
After that, a T6 Lord-of-Thunder-class Heavy Interstellar Destroyer was seen slowly drawing near a certain point on this T5 Star-Kun-class Super-Heavy Interstellar Transport.
From the compartment at that point a connector reached out and docked with the T6 Lord-of-Thunder-class Heavy Interstellar Destroyer's compartment.
No one knew what was happening inside that docking port.
But the captain of that T6 Lord-of-Thunder-class Heavy Interstellar Destroyer was very tense at this moment.
She ordered the whole ship to the highest state of readiness; no crewman of any department was to leave her battle station.
At the same time she watched the connecting docking gangway on the ship's internal monitors.
A thing inside a black cube was brought across along the gangway by a transport vehicle.
With it went a squad of fully armed interstellar Marines.