"Is everything arranged?" Zhao Chen looked to the Panther-Girl beside him.
The Panther-Girl answered, "As you instructed, Your Majesty, the interstellar stealth scout ships traveling with us have dropped recording devices at points along the way. Once the T6 Supernova Ultimate Bomb has gone off, they can record the relevant data."
Zhao Chen nodded, satisfied.
Because of the T6 Supernova Ultimate Bomb's peculiar nature, there had so far been only theoretical data on this weapon, and no real data at all.
This was hardly a thing one could simply try out.
So its effects could only be recorded through this first real use.
Time passed, little by little.
Soon the launch time came.
The black cube's base came to life and, by electromagnetic catapult, flung the red-and-gold giant egg straight out.
It was as fast as a comet.
"It has been launched." The Panther-Girl brought up before His Majesty the footage filmed by an interstellar unmanned scout craft following it.
Zhao Chen gazed at the thing, like a work of art.
From its shape alone, it was truly hard to believe this was a terrible weapon of mass destruction able to destroy a star system.
The red-and-gold giant egg, once flung out, soon slowed.
At last it came to hover at one spot.
"Reporting, the parcel has arrived within the designated zone." Brigadier General Sona's voice came through.
"Very good. Your mission is complete," Zhao Chen said in praise.
"Yes." With that, Brigadier General Sona's communication cut off.
Brigadier General Sona took a deep breath; the weight pressing on her chest had lifted completely at last.
She now had no mission left to carry out.
As things stood, leaving this interstellar warship now would only be a bother; she might as well stay here to the end.
Brigadier General Sona contacted the captain, lifted every restriction, and handed full control of this interstellar warship back to her.
Brigadier General Sona brought her squad to the bridge.
"Find somewhere to rest, any of you. Don't get in the way of the bridge's work," Brigadier General Sona told her subordinates.
"Yes."
These Emperor's Guards found a corner and, without putting on any airs, simply sat down on the deck.
"Your mission is all done? Just throwing that thing out?" the captain asked without thinking; then something occurred to her, and she added hastily, "I didn't disobey orders. It just happened that I saw through the bridge viewport that something had been thrown out, on a path just like a comet's."
Brigadier General Sona did not hold it against her, and said with a slight smile, "Yes. My mission was to send that thing out."
"Brigadier General, what on earth is that thing? So mysterious, needing a brigadier general like you to escort it in person, and a T6 interstellar warship to guard it the whole way. Ahem… if that breaks the secrecy agreement, just pretend I never asked," the captain did not forget to add.
"What it is, I cannot say. But I think you will all know soon enough. It is only a pity that none of us will have the chance to see that sight with our own eyes." Brigadier General Sona tossed out a remark with a head and no tail.
It left the captain none the wiser.
After that she asked nothing more; curiosity was allowed, but crossing a certain line was not.
For the next hour,
Xue Xiaoxiao's Fourth Fleet Group set about its arrangements all around this zone, and the Panda-Girl commander, leading the Emperor's Guard Fleet, assisted.
They had to hold off the undead creatures closing in around them,
while placing interstellar mine after interstellar mine in the designated zones.
At the same time, the several thousand T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships that had come with them began powering up, ready to carry these interstellar warships out by spatial jump.
An hour was neither long nor short.
Though the undead armies surging up around them grew ever more numerous, and the T6 undead creatures among them again reached thirty-odd.
Holding the line was still more than manageable.
"That should do it." Zhao Chen folded his arms and spoke lightly.
"Reporting, all Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships are ready. They can take every interstellar warship through spatial jump at any moment!" the squadron leader in charge of all the interstellar jump ships reported to Zhao Chen and the other two commanders.
"Then it is time we left," Zhao Chen said.
"Prepare to withdraw! Five-minute countdown." On her side, Xue Xiaoxiao gave the order without hesitation.
Then T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships arrived among the interstellar warships, one group after another; they were to carry these interstellar warships home.
The three-minute countdown[1] soon neared its end.
As one interstellar fleet after another asked leave,
those T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships, amid halo after halo of light, vanished from this star region with the interstellar warships that followed them.
One group, another group… and then another.
The space on this defense-line battlefield laid out by the Owl Dragon Fourth Fleet Group and the Emperor's Guard Fleet, which had seemed 'crowded', grew steadily roomier.
Close to 100,000 Owl Dragon-series interstellar warships dwindled by degrees to tens of thousands, then to thousands.
Zhao Chen's flagship was in the second-to-last group to withdraw.
Zhao Chen had wanted at first to withdraw with the very last group.
But the proposal met strong objection from Xue Xiaoxiao and the Panda-Girl fleet commander.
In the end, Zhao Chen agreed to go with the second-to-last group.
The part Xue Xiaoxiao was with would withdraw last.
Zhao Chen took one last look at this star system, at the undead host, at the red-and-gold giant egg in the empty space at the center of the defense line.
The giant egg had begun to crack now, as though something within were about to break out of its cocoon.
It was only a pity that Zhao Chen could not see with his own eyes the instant this mysterious thing 'bloomed'.
But the electronic sentries placed here would send back the footage they recorded, at least until they were destroyed.
With a sudden flash of light before Zhao Chen's eyes, the view before him came back again.
Before Zhao Chen now lay the familiar Undead Defense Line No. 1.
Chu Xuan sent a communication request at once.
"All went smoothly. Now we need only wait," Zhao Chen said lightly.
Chu Xuan let out a long breath; more than the plan going smoothly, what mattered most to her was that Zhao Chen had come back safe.
Then the last part of the fleet, the part Xue Xiaoxiao was with, appeared as well.
By now, how things stood in the star region of the Judgment Angel star system could only be seen through the footage sent back.
Zhao Chen watched several video feeds.
It could be seen that the undead armies, after the Owl Dragon interstellar warships withdrew, were still trying to attack.
Perhaps they had noticed that glowing sphere at the center too.
But the interstellar mines laid there went off one after another, slowing the undead armies' advance.
This brief stretch of time was enough for the T6 Supernova Ultimate Bomb to bloom!