Zhao Chen looked to Captain Tao Beibei. "Where are we now?"
Captain Tao Beibei at once called up the star map and pointed to their position on it. "We have now entered the region of the Judgment Angel star system. We should be… should be here."
Captain Tao Beibei pointed to a spot on the star map.
Zhao Chen looked at the spot, then compared it with the old map of the Judgment Angel star system.
At this spot, once, a brilliant fixed star should have been visible,
and a dozen-odd celestial bodies: planets great and small, moons, comets and the rest.
But now, all around, there was nothing but Owl Dragon interstellar warships and those undead creatures.
And with no fixed star, the whole star system seemed pitch-dark and chaotic.
"That spot should once have been the Judgment Angel star system's main world, home too of the Judgment Holy Temple Mount, one of the Angel Race's three Holy Temple Mounts. Once one of the Angel Race's three great star systems, in all its glory, and now, of all things, come to this," Zhao Chen could not help sighing as he looked at the scene.
No matter how brilliant a civilization had once been, in this vast universe it might come to nothing in the blink of an eye.
It moved Zhao Chen.
The Owl Dragon of today could already be called the Owl Dragon civilization.
It seemed very vast.
Yet should it meet a more powerful existence such as Order, and have no power to resist.
Then the Owl Dragon civilization, too, might come to the same end as the Judgment Angel star system before him.
"Record the scene here. Send it to that woman, and let her take a good look at her 'masterpiece'," Zhao Chen said abruptly, instructing the Panther-Girl beside him.
"Yes," the Panther-Girl answered.
"How far are we from the target zone?" Zhao Chen looked to the three video windows beside him, two large and one small.
In the two large video windows were Xue Xiaoxiao and the Panda-Girl fleet commander.
In the small video window was that brigadier general, the Marine squad leader.
"We are about half an hour's sailing from the target zone," Xue Xiaoxiao reported.
Zhao Chen looked at the information on the interstellar radar.
"There are more and more undead creatures appearing around us; right now alone there are 300,000 of them. Placing the 'parcel' and preparing our withdrawal afterward will take about an hour. Any difficulty?" Zhao Chen put this to Xue Xiaoxiao.
Xue Xiaoxiao pursed her lips and said confidently, "If it were destroying these undead creatures, that might be a bit hard. But if it's only holding out for half an hour plus an hour, more than enough!"
Seeing Xue Xiaoxiao so confident, Zhao Chen was quite at ease.
What followed went, for the most part, according to plan.
However the undead creatures outside harried them, nothing could check the speed of their advance.
At last the interstellar holo-table showed they had entered the intended zone.
"Sona, you may begin." Zhao Chen looked to the Emperor's Guard brigadier general in that small window.[1]
Brigadier General Sona nodded and at once began the next steps.
First she contacted the bridge. "Captain, please seal the hatches of the several compartments I asked for now. And without my order, no one is to leave their compartment."
"Very well." Though she did not know what this brigadier general was about, the captain did exactly as asked.
Soon Sona could hear the hatches of the several adjoining compartments come down, which meant that without the captain's authorization no one could open the doors of these compartments.
"To Hatch No. 3," Brigadier General Sona ordered her subordinates.
The driver of the transport vehicle set to work at once,
slowly carrying that black cubic 'cargo' toward Hatch No. 3.
Soon the transport vehicle reached Hatch No. 3.
Brigadier General Sona went to one end of the black cube and raised her arm.
On her arm could now be seen something like a bracelet.
She held the bracelet close to the black cube.
At that, a console rose from the black cube on Brigadier General Sona's side.
This was the first key.
One that only Brigadier General Sona held.
"Your Majesty, your key is needed now," Brigadier General Sona said.
"Open holographic communication," Zhao Chen said.
"Yes."
Brigadier General Sona switched her handheld terminal's communications to holographic.
At once Zhao Chen's figure appeared before the black cube.
Zhao Chen laid his hand on the console.
The next second, a black hood rose over the console, covering Zhao Chen's hand exactly.
No one knew what Zhao Chen entered inside that black hood.
Half a minute later,
cracks appeared in the black cube, and light shone out through them, one after another.
Then the cracks opened outward like petals, revealing the real cargo within.
It was a red-and-gold ovoid object, red at the base and ringed with gold filigree.
Seen from afar, one might have taken it for the giant egg of some interstellar race.
Behind the black cube there was also an electromagnetic catapult.
Zhao Chen's holographic image faded away at this point.
Brigadier General Sona went back to her place and entered a string of data at the console.
It was the launch data the electromagnetic catapult needed; once entered, it would let the red-and-gold giant egg be launched to the exact coordinates.
And the time at which the red-and-gold giant egg would activate, and other such data.
Brigadier General Sona soon finished entering it.
"Reporting to Your Majesty: all data has been entered. Once catapulted, so long as there is no other interference along its flight path, it will reach the target position without trouble. And enter a one-hour countdown," Brigadier General Sona reported to Zhao Chen again.
"Very good. Go on with the last stage of your mission," Zhao Chen said.
"Yes," Brigadier General Sona answered.
From now on, her eyes never left the red-and-gold giant egg before her.
Of all the crew and soldiers present, perhaps she alone knew what kind of 'gift' this truly was.
The rest were still kept in the dark; but their professional code as the Emperor's Guard let them carry out, without a change of face, this escort mission of which they knew nothing at all.
Brigadier General Sona took a deep breath.
She reckoned that if she told her subordinates what this thing did.[2]
They would not be able to believe it for a good while.
To tell the truth, even she herself, at this very moment, could hardly believe it.
So small a thing, smaller, even, than the solid shells some interstellar main guns fired,
could, of all things, destroy a star system.
It truly was past belief.
That's right.
It was the great weapon of mass destruction Zhao Chen had been preparing all along.
The T6 Supernova Ultimate Bomb!