Zhao Chen fielded the two group leaders' astonished questions,
while glancing at the old lieutenant colonel beside them.
Just as he thought, it had roused others' suspicion after all.
A man who had been altogether ordinary, suddenly showing so great a gift.
How could it not?
Zhao Chen looked at the old lieutenant colonel and explained, "It may have had to do with the circumstances at the time. Our base came under alien attack. An old ground-crew hand I respected very much was killed. He had always looked after me. Before I flew out to fight that last time, it was he who told me himself to take a light-blade, in case of need. So, having watched the old man die with my own eyes. I felt such anger that my hands seemed to move on their own. All I wanted was to kill those aliens. My earlier results truly were quite ordinary. Perhaps that was because I hadn't much drive then. I'm a man who takes things as they come. Give me a suitable place to be and I'm content. Interstellar fighter pilot, ground-air fighter pilot, either would do. So in those earlier assessments and selections I was quite casual. Which is why my results then didn't pass."
Having said it, Zhao Chen shrugged.
Seeing Zhao Chen's manner,
the old lieutenant colonel still had some doubts, but he broadly believed him.
After all, this was a man the General had placed here; whatever his doubts, it would not do to say much.
"Cao Zhenlong. He came up through ground-air fighters, but his gift and his skills are very good. I believe that with a little training he can become an excellent interstellar fighter pilot. Get him into your flight group before this combat mission as soon as you can. He may be able to help you then," the old lieutenant colonel reminded Cao Zhenlong.
Cao Zhenlong straightened at once and said, "Rest assured, we always look after a gifted newcomer with care. And as for this combat mission. Our Third Flight Group will bring back results enough to convince everyone!"
The old lieutenant colonel glanced at Cao Zhenlong, said nothing more, and left.
After that, Cao Zhenlong chatted a few words with Zhao Chen as well.
But as group leader he naturally had much to see to.
So he charged Lieutenant Zhang again and again to look after Zhao Chen, and left as well.
"I'd never have guessed you'd done anything so splendid. No wonder you did as you did when you were learning the controls just now. You really do have a very high gift." Lieutenant Zhang looked at Zhao Chen with shining eyes.
It was as though he were seeing some genius.
"Luck, only luck," Zhao Chen said modestly.
"Come, I'll take you for something good to eat. A welcome for you, and to settle your nerves after what happened just now. Don't worry. So long as you're in our Third Flight Group, no one will dare make trouble for you!" Lieutenant Zhang's temper truly was fine.
Just so: to know a unit's temper, look at its leader.
The unit Cao Zhenlong led was like this.
And his subordinates were naturally like it too.
Whereas over on Li Jian's side, it was wolves and rats in one den.
Zhao Chen did not stand on ceremony, and went with Lieutenant Zhang to eat in the starship's canteen; in the end Zhao Chen paid.
Lieutenant Zhang was nearly beside himself about it,
until Zhao Chen said it was only right.
Lieutenant Zhang had stood up for him and forfeited a month's pay for it.
What was one meal against that?
Hearing this, Lieutenant Zhang seized Zhao Chen and called him brother outright.
Over the next few days Zhao Chen mostly played the part of a man learning to fly an interstellar fighter,
from unfamiliarity at first to practiced skill after.
Though Zhao Chen was deliberately hiding what he could do, he still left Lieutenant Zhang marveling.
Once Zhao Chen's flying was wholly up to standard, Lieutenant Zhang put him straight into the flight squadron he led himself.
Each flight group had three thousand interstellar fighters, divided again into ten flight squadrons.
Each squadron was made up of three hundred interstellar fighters.
And of these squadrons, three were elite squadrons.
The leaders of the elite squadrons were, without exception, the flight group's deputy leaders.
For someone like Zhao Chen to join an elite squadron the moment he arrived was exceedingly rare.
And Zhao Chen soon received his first combat mission.
"All pilots of Third Flight Group, Second Squadron, assemble!"
"All pilots of Third Flight Group, Ninth Squadron, assemble!"
……
The calls to assemble came.
Starship pilots in full kit stood in ranks in the compartment beside the hangar.
Zhao Chen looked at Lieutenant Zhang, standing at the head of their own unit.
Before Lieutenant Zhang was a large holographic screen.
On the screen was Cao Zhenlong's image.
Cao Zhenlong was in fact standing at the head of the ranks too.
But in a body of over three thousand it was hard to pick him out, and most people watched the holographic image.
"This combat mission. Is an attack our Star Alliance will launch upon the other universe. In the course of it we belong to the Third Fleet Group, and we will be responsible for contesting interstellar air superiority while the fleet group fights. And we will use a rotation among the air groups. A number of mother ships will form one air group, ten groups in all. Each group's combat shift is three hours. We are in the first combat rotation. So our responsibility is great. Once we are at combat stations, every fighter pilot must stand by at her post. Ready at any moment to fly out and fight. I believe our Third Flight Group's pilots are the finest of all!"
At this point Cao Zhenlong paused.
His face grew grave. "You have all heard about what happened. The Fifth Flight Group's people have had their eye on our third place a long while. And in the last few missions we have not shown well. The wing commander has already spoken. If our showing in this mission is again not good enough. Our Third Flight Group's title will belong to someone else. Can you stand by and watch our Third Flight Group's title taken from us?"
"No!" the soldiers of the Third Flight Group shouted.
A flight group's ordinal was not only a measure of strength.
It was standing and honor too.
To put it plainly, when there were good things going, those above thought first of the flight groups placed higher.
So this place in the order mattered greatly.
"Good! This time our Third Flight Group will use its results. To wipe out the shame!"
"Wipe out the shame!"
"Wipe out the shame!"
Zhao Chen shouted along with those around him.
The Zhao Chen of before had always been on a bridge.
The few times he had gone to the front line in person, it had been with the interstellar Marines.
An occasion like this was a first.
And it had, he had to admit, a certain novelty about it!