"Dean, sir — a T3 ship of unidentified model has appeared outside our academy starport! By the fleet-crest information on the ship, the database scan turns it up as the Owl Dragon System's fleet-crest!" a teaching-assistant instructor ran into the dean's office and reported the news, tense.
"The Owl Dragon System? Isn't that Zhao Chen's fief?" Vice-Dean Hong cried out.
Dean Qin raised a hand and called up the scene outside the academy starport, holographically projecting that very warship.
"What a gorgeous ship!"
"The whole-body streamlining is excellent; under ordinary-engine travel it can greatly boost speed!"
"By the hull structure, it should be an interstellar battlecruiser."
The teachers and professors present soon fell to analyzing this warship.
"Everyone — now is not the time to study starships. This should be Cadet Zhao Chen's ship; by his intent earlier, he means to pilot this ship to the Water-Lily Star System to save people!" Vice-Dean Hong said anxiously.
"So it's a T3 ship — what of it? That place is thick with interstellar bug-race. One paltry ship, once it charges in, meets only the fate of being smashed to powder! This Zhao Chen has a bit of gift, but he truly doesn't know when to advance and when to hold back." an instructor gave a cold snort.
"But he's a fine seedling, after all; this crisis has cost us more than half the elite students of the two academies' fleet. We can't stand by and watch yet another fine seedling go to his death," a woman instructor said with worry.
Dean Qin nodded and said, "Find a way to intercept this ship. As for rescuing the two academies' fleet — we'll deliberate at length."
"Yes." Within the office, the teachers and professors went on discussing measures against this affair.
On the other side, Zhao Chen and the others, aboard the shuttle, entered the T3 Blizzard's hangar.
"Quick — to the bridge!" Zhao Chen came off the shuttle and at once walked out of the hangar.
Though this was the first time he'd been aboard the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser, a great many of its zones and functions he'd known like the back of his hand long ago.
Reaching the gallery outside the hangar, Zhao Chen at once used his clearance to summon a maglev elevator.
Though the T3 Blizzard was under a kilometer long, its interior twisted and turned; to walk from stern to bow took at least a dozen-odd minutes.
At a critical moment, that could delay things considerably.
So aboard the ship were dedicated "maglev elevators" for passage — like crystal elevators, clear and translucent; step inside, name the department and place you want, and you're guaranteed arrival within a minute!
"What gorgeous inner space." Stepping into the maglev elevator and looking through the transparent glass at the ship's interior scenery outside, Chu Xuan was left breathless by this inner space once again.
It was hard to imagine this was a combat-type ship; it was more like a work of art.
But when Chu Xuan set foot on the bridge, she was more astonished still.
The whole bridge was an oval structure, holographically projected imagery of the ship's exterior all around, giving one the feeling of standing amid the cosmos itself.
The bridge could be seen as a five-tier structure, each bridge department attending to its own duties, ensuring the ship's operation.
The captain's position was at the bridge's center, from which one could look directly upon every department.
Like the hull's exterior paint, the ship's interior and bridge were done chiefly in white and blue, giving one a very comfortable feeling.
"Commander, sir — the T3 Blizzard, Ship One, is ready; please give your instructions." Charlotte stood before Zhao Chen.
Before coming, Zhao Chen had already transmitted her the full contents of this task.
Risky as this task was, as a proper subordinate she knew well that a soldier's bounden duty is to obey orders.
"You serve as vice-captain, Lilith as secretary. Plot the course at once; destination — the star-gate of the system nearest the Water-Lily Star System, and after that, the outer zone of the interstellar-bug-race-controlled region within the Water-Lily Star System!" Zhao Chen walked straight to the captain's position and sat down in the captain's chair.
Charlotte and Lilith stood at Zhao Chen's two sides.
Lilith set about her task, swiftly plotting the optimal course.
Charlotte, meanwhile, reported the T3 Blizzard's condition to Zhao Chen: "Blizzard, Ship One, has completed only 30% of its trial-voyage task so far, but the hull runs entirely normally. The crew are all the crew of the former Blizzard Zero, along with a portion of beast-folk veterans with many years' crewing service. For ship combat, there's no problem at all. The ship's combat supplies are all sufficient; to fight one great campaign is no problem whatever."
Because a great many of the Blizzard Zero's combat systems and modules were similar to the T3 Blizzard's, Charlotte had trained a batch of reserve crew aboard the Blizzard Zero in advance; once the T3 Blizzard rolled off the line into service, these crew could go straight aboard and to work!
Zhao Chen nodded, satisfied — with Charlotte to handle these matters, he truly had a great deal less to worry over.
"Very good!"
Zhao Chen opened the T3 Blizzard's data page.
Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser
Ship type: Interstellar battlecruiser
Tech grade: T3
Hull-armor strength: 1,500 units – 1,800 units
Star-shield energy value: 13,000 units
Cruise speed: 210 star-knots
Warp engine: Grade-6 warp engine
Hull length: 998 meters
Mass: 300,000 tons
Crew posts: 200
Ship weapons: one Blizzard-class Heavy Cluster-Laser Bow-Cannon, four 2,500mm-caliber Medium Electromagnetic Railgun main guns, sixteen Medium Pulse-Laser secondary guns, seventy-two Medium close-in guns, four-cell interstellar missile launch-silo (50 Blizzard Light Interstellar Missiles), fifty Blizzard Interstellar Drones
Special performance: Blizzard Extreme-Cruise Mode
Zhao Chen swept it a glance, well content.
Though the Blizzard was nominally a light warship, the weapon modules it mounted rivaled a heavy warship's.
And its weapon types were most diverse, well suited to all-round combat.
Take this single-handed rescue operation — it could scarcely be better suited.
Most important of all was the T3 Blizzard's "Blizzard Extreme-Cruise Mode," a special function the T3 Blizzard was fitted with.
Under ordinary-engine use, it could boost speed to between three and five times over.
That speed could rival even a present-day T4 interstellar cruiser's!
This too was why Zhao Chen had the confidence to carry out this rescue task.
"Report, Commander — we'll spend 35 hours crossing 19 cosmic star-gates to reach the Lantian Star System in the Azure Star Region. The Lantian Star System is the system currently nearest the Water-Lily Star System. After reaching the Lantian Star System, we can use warp travel to reach, within a day and a half, the outer zone of the interstellar-bug-race-controlled region in the Water-Lily Star System. After that, we use ordinary engines to head for the coordinate position where the two academies' fleet last appeared. This voyage is estimated to take three days at the least!" Lilith soon marked the detailed course she'd plotted on the star-map, and reported it to Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen swept it a glance; the broad direction was near enough the same as what he'd thought before.
Three days — that was 72 hours.
From the hundred-hour mark, Zhao Chen still had 28 hours in hand.
"Then by this course — set out!" Zhao Chen gave the travel order.
Charlotte and Lilith at once began carrying out the command.
"Warp-engine course pre-set complete; next comes the acceleration phase; warp travel begins in 10 minutes. Within 10 minutes, all crew enter deep-sea mode! Repeat — within 10 minutes, all crew enter deep-sea mode!"
On the bridge, white-jade-colored hibernation pods surfaced, one after another.
A voyage of peril, thus begun!
Target — the bug-swarm!