Northern hive line · Reverse Scale ace fleet group.
"The latest news: the first Supernova Ultimate Bomb has been detonated. It destroyed two-thirds of Hive Nest No. 1, the core region included. Clearing up the remnants will take about ten-odd days more," a subordinate reported to Charlotte.
Charlotte nodded. "It looks as if His Majesty's advance is going very smoothly. The first Hive Nest dealt with inside half a month. With the combat experience gained from destroying the first Hive Nest, destroying the second is only a matter of time."
The staff officers nodded one after another.
That was indeed how things stood.
It would go about as expected, around the end of July.
"The Order hive-race remnants on our side number fewer than three million now. Outside the Angel Line, only about five million are left. Clearing them out is only a matter of time." Charlotte looked at the interstellar holo-table.
Once these Order hive-race were cleared, they had only to return within the Empire's borders and clear out those undead armies.
And the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire would be settled and at peace once and for all.
"Everything is going smoothly, yes. But we must not let our guard down either. Keep on your toes. Even at the last stage of a war, we must be in earnest!" Charlotte said gravely, looking at the staff officers, whose faces had relaxed.
She knew these people were all very tired after this long stretch, and all wanted to ease off a little.
But Charlotte knew too that the string must not go too slack, and so it fell to her to keep reminding them.
"Yes!" the staff officers said together.
Charlotte looked at the interstellar holo-table, and stroked her belly again.
She herself was of the warlike white-tiger beast-folk.
But as a mother, she wished all the more that her children might live in a peaceful age without danger.
All of a sudden!
Perhaps it was some bond between them.
Charlotte felt a pain in her belly.
The fierce pain bent Charlotte double, a hand bracing herself on something beside her.
For an ordinary woman, such pain could have made her faint on the spot.
"Grand Marshal!" The staff officers beside her at once noticed that something was wrong with the Grand Marshal.
The Grand Marshal had always been of very strong constitution, never ill, never in pain.
Now she was suddenly in such agony,
and the Grand Marshal's due date was near besides.
Everyone understood at once what was happening.
"Stand back! All of you, stand back!" came a sharp shout from beside them.
The medical petty officer who had been guarding her at her side all along came over.
With her were several medical staff as well.
"By the plan made beforehand, you take over the Grand Marshal's work. The Grand Marshal is in our hands," the medical petty officer said gravely.
The staff officers, after their first alarm, had recovered themselves now.
They cast worried looks at the Grand Marshal, but stood aside like good soldiers all the same.
"The Grand Marshal is in your hands."
With that, they went back to their posts one after another.
For some while to come, the Grand Marshal would be unable to return to her post.
All her work would have to be theirs.
"Put the Grand Marshal on the mechanical stretcher." The medical petty officer began directing a medical robot.
The medical robot came up close beside Charlotte and slowly eased her from standing to lying on her back.
It formed a hovering medical bed then and there.
At the same time it put out monitoring instruments that touched Charlotte's body, watching her condition.
Charlotte bit her lip lightly, bearing the pain.
"Grand Marshal, remember what we taught you before! Deep breaths, deep breaths." The medical petty officer hurried along beside the hovering medical robot-bed.
Medical crew had already run on ahead.
"Make way! Make way!"
Outside the bridge, a hover-lift prepared specially for this was waiting.
The medical petty officer had readied it specially for Charlotte's delivery,
on standby at all times.
The medical team escorted Charlotte onto the hover-lift.
And at once pressed the address already entered.
Medical Bay No. 1 of the Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought.
It had been closed to all else for this period, with all the medical staff and equipment the delivery needed made ready there.
To these medical staff, the Grand Marshal's delivery was nothing less than an epic battle.
Not that the task was so very hard.
But that it was so very important!
So important that not the least slip could be allowed.
From the moment Charlotte felt the pain to her transfer into Medical Bay No. 1.
It had taken less than 100 seconds from first to last.
"Her waters broke a minute and a half ago. But because the Grand Marshal was wearing the special maternity garment, it caught them," the medical petty officer told the obstetrician there.
At the same time she opened the clothing on Charlotte's body.
On her lower body could be seen something like a little skirt.
The medical petty officer pulled a small cord at the side, and the skirt came undone.
But a large patch of blood could be seen on the skirt.
"The mother's condition is good in every respect. Prepare for delivery." The obstetrician examined the Grand Marshal's condition, then had her medical staff prepare for the next step of the delivery.
Ordinarily, in this age of technology, the success rate of human childbirth had reached 99.99%.
But given how special this delivery was, no one dared take it lightly.
Charlotte clenched her hands, her teeth set hard, beads of sweat already on her forehead.
She had never imagined that having a baby would hurt this much.
Yet for all that, she did not cry out once.
……
Zhao Chen was directing the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's main fleet groups in the attack on the second Hive Nest.
Compared with the first attack, this second one was more efficient.
For everything was familiar by now.
It need only go forward step by step.
Zhao Chen picked up the cup beside him and raised it to his lips without thinking.
Suddenly water ran down onto Zhao Chen's shirt.
Zhao Chen looked at the spilled water; the front of his clothes was soaked through.
"Commander?" The Panther-Girl came over beside him and looked at her commander's soaked clothes.
"It's nothing." Zhao Chen set the cup down and started his clothes' cleaning function, and soon the soaked clothes were fresh and clean again.
His mind had wandered for a moment just now.
But such a thing had never happened before.
What was wrong with him today?
Had he been too tired lately?
Zhao Chen rubbed his temples.
Suddenly a video window popped straight up.
It had popped up without permission.
And it had been able to pop up directly on Zhao Chen's communication channel.
For now only those Zhao Chen had authorized had that access.
It was Lilith!
"Big Sister Charlotte is giving birth!"