The meeting ended.
The last batch of replacements arrived on time as well.
Zhao Chen picked his recruits and brought them back to his squadron as he always did.
What followed was the same training and teaching as ever.
And just as the group leader had said, a day later.
The outward communication network of every low- and mid-ranking soldier aboard the mother ship was locked.
Most likely only certain commanders and officers on the bridge kept the right to reach the outside.
Such caution was enough to show how important the coming classified mission was.
Zhao Chen stayed in the training room, watching the pilots training on simulators now that there were no combat tasks.
And turned this classified mission over in his mind.
This war between two universes had been going on over a month.
In truth, in interstellar wars between great powers,
wars lasting months, even years,
were quite ordinary.
Indeed, before this universe was unified, some interstellar powers might have had hundred-year wars, thousand-year wars.
After all, short of the critical moment,
without complete certainty,
no one is willing to throw in everything at any cost!
But Zhao Chen could broadly guess why.
He raised his hand, and before him appeared the material on this universe's past month that he had captured before the 'network cut'.
And he had written a data-analysis tool of his own besides.
It was all about 'alien incursions'.
One could see that in this month.
Alien incursion events had risen exponentially.
Their frequency and force in this one month alone exceeded the whole of last year.
Where something is out of the ordinary, there is always a devil behind it.
Zhao Chen suspected that the Alliance's leadership had sensed the moment of a mass alien incursion drawing near.
And that before the crisis came.
They wanted to seize that small universe's resources,
to build more powerful warships from them, even T7-grade warships.
So taking the small universe,
mattered above all.
And the sooner the better!
For no one knew when those aliens would invade in force!
Most likely this classified mission was bound up with taking the small universe.
And might well be the decisive battle.
Dee-doo, dee-doo, dee-doo.
Just then the compartment where Zhao Chen and his squad were flashed with red light.
"All hands: every crew member to first-degree readiness. All personnel to your combat stations."
Then came the voice of a crewman from the bridge.
Zhao Chen rose at once and said to the squad members who had not yet reacted, "Everyone, back to our ready room at once. Be ready to fight at any moment!"
"Yes!"
The squad members hurried off toward the ready room.
In the corridors of every section, soldiers could be seen running.
Zhao Chen soon reached his squadron's ready room.
Some of his soldiers had already got back.
They were dressed, helmets in hand, seated in their places.
Zhao Chen glanced at the time.
Three minutes still.
By the ship's regulations for emergency readiness, once first-degree readiness was declared.
Every combatant had to return to her combat post within five minutes.
Past that time, the soldier concerned was punished!
Happily, every soldier of Zhao Chen's Eighteenth Squadron was back within four minutes.
Zhao Chen glanced at the squadron roster.
Then pressed the ship's internal communicator: "Eighteenth Squadron, three hundred and ninety-eight, all present. Awaiting orders."
Cao Zhenlong's voice came from the other end.
"Received. Stand by where you are."
Zhao Chen said nothing more.
And only waited quietly in the ready room.
Everyone in the room had gone quiet too.
Some, perhaps nervous, were wiping away sweat.
Time seemed to pass very slowly just then.
Zhao Chen suddenly raised his head, his gaze seeming to pass through the hull and see something.
Their mother ship was using some kind of spatial jump technology.
Because Zhao Chen had been through many spatial jumps before, and knew starship technology well,
and with a super soldier's intuition besides,
he felt it.
Which meant they must be readying some classified mission, and making for some battlefield.
Only it was a pity that Zhao Chen, lieutenant though he now was, ranked low to middling aboard the mother ship.
And could not know very much.
About ten minutes later.
A video window suddenly appeared in the ready room.
On the other side was not Cao Zhenlong but their wing commander, that old lieutenant colonel!
"All fighter pilots, all group leaders, all squadron leaders. I am Hong Qing, wing commander of this mother ship's fighter corps. You are about to carry out a combat mission of the first importance. We will strike a military base vital to the enemy. Our mother ship, and other carrier starships. Will form one super flight group; your task is to escort interstellar bombers to that target base. In the course of it, destroy every enemy unit you see. Once the task is done, return."
Hearing this, no one felt much stirred.
For it seemed a very simple combat task.
Fighters escorting bombers.
"In this operation you will have to cross a super meteor belt. Within that belt, our intelligence indicates. There may be some enemy fortlets, or defensive installations, fighter bases and the like. You must destroy them and pass through. At the target base, three thousand interstellar warships stand guard, with defensive installations besides. You must contend with those three thousand warships and still protect the bombers so the task is done."
Hearing this second half,
no few felt as though they had dropped into an ice pit.
Not only must they cross a super meteor belt the enemy had seeded,
they must also face three thousand warships guarding the target base.
Warships, not fighters!
Zhao Chen frowned.
This mission was nine parts death to one of life!
It must be understood that even grade for grade.
One interstellar warship can easily destroy thousands, even tens of thousands, of fighters,
because the star shield vastly increases a warship's defense.
"This mission is very dangerous, but it is vital to our Star Alliance. So the Leader has sent down a special order. Any fighter pilot who returns safely from this mission. If a petty officer, is promoted two grades outright. If a junior officer, one grade outright. And if you show outstanding kills in the fighting, there may be other rewards besides!"
At this reward, no few soldiers who had been worried a moment ago now had greed in their eyes.
Two grades at once from one battle!
As the saying goes, under a heavy reward there will surely be brave men!
And not without reason.
This reward heartened them greatly.
But Zhao Chen's face did not change.
For a mission of this difficulty, a squadron like theirs, never mind being wiped out; to bring two in ten home would be cause for congratulation.
Now one could only hope that none of the enemy warships guarding it were T6 grade!