Zhao Chen flew his fighter with one hand,
while with the other he began directing the three drone swarms.
The three swarms moved like bees,
ranging about his fighter's flanks and rear.
And his fighter's cannon fired without pause, destroying the enemy drones ahead.
Where?
Where?
Where?
One question was still turning in Zhao Chen's mind.
Namely, where the enemy drones' base could be.
He watched closely how the enemy swarms moved.
And soon noticed a pattern.
A route took shape in Zhao Chen's mind without his willing it.
Yes!
It must be there!
Zhao Chen at once plotted his new course.
But along that course more enemy drones appeared as well.
To spare his own swarms,
Zhao Chen flew all but grazing the surfaces of the rocks.
For that way the enemy's field of attack was cut by a third at a stroke,
which spared Zhao Chen and his swarms no small loss.
At last Zhao Chen found his target.
A rock of very great size.
But on its surface could be seen man-made cave mouths.
Presumably in peacetime those mouths closed, and it looked like an ordinary rock,
opening only at a time like this.
Zhao Chen magnified the image.
Within the mouths of this meteorite base he could see drones hanging upside down, row on row!
They were like bats asleep in a cave.
And he could see enemy drones returning from their attacks to resupply.
Drones are cheap and small.
Which means they carry little ordnance, and their time in action falls far short of a fighter of the same grade.
Which means they must return again and again to resupply, then go back into the fight.
So destroying these drone bases matters greatly.
For then those drones, their ordnance spent, are like beasts that have lost their fangs, and threaten nothing.
But destroying this meteorite base was no simple matter.
There were vast enemy swarms all around it, after all.
The other side had noticed the threat Zhao Chen posed too, and began massing drones to surround him.
"This must be quick!" Zhao Chen put on speed.
And readied every missile his fighter carried.
This time it was Zhao Chen's drone swarms that charged ahead, enclosing him like a falling star!
The enemy drones outside could only wear away at his outer drones bit by bit.
Zhao Chen watched the drone count on his control panel falling fast.
Under three hundred left now.
Zhao Chen frowned slightly.
But having come this far, there was no road back.
At last he closed to very short range of one cave mouth of the meteorite base.
Without another word, Zhao Chen threw out all ten of his fighter's missiles.
Ordinarily, having launched one missile, one needs a little interval before the next.
But Zhao Chen was not launching them.
He flung all ten out like satchel charges,
to fall toward that cave mouth.
Of the three hundred drones around Zhao Chen, a hundred stayed close about his fighter.
The other two hundred followed those 'charges' in toward the meteorite base.
Zhao Chen did not look back; he turned his fighter at once and flew clear.
Soon a huge explosion went off inside the base behind him.
Fire burst out!
It was like a burning meteor.
The blast wave even caught a swath of enemy drones around it,
which bought Zhao Chen his chance to get away.
The enemy's surviving swarms now fixed on Zhao Chen, the author of it all, as though gone mad.
For with no base to return to,
once their fuel ran out, only one end awaited them.
So now they simply went over to suicide attacks.
"Damn it, all I did was blow up one base of yours." Zhao Chen could not help swearing at the swarms closing on him.
Happily he still had his own drones for cover.
Otherwise, with this one fighter, however great his handling, he could not have survived.
But his situation now was dangerous too.
As his drones dwindled.
The cover they gave him dwindled with them.
At this rate Zhao Chen's fighter would go down sooner or later.
Thirty left!
Zhao Chen looked at the last of his drones, and his heart eased.
He even slowed, and turned about outright.
He looked at the enemy swarms coming up behind.
The corners of his mouth turned up.
"Enjoyed the chase? You think you're the only ones with brothers? I have brothers too! Eighteenth Squadron, where are you!"
"Eighteenth Squadron, here!"
Deputy Leader Li's voice came over the channel.
Then a mass of fighters surged up behind Zhao Chen's craft.
Most of them the Eighteenth Squadron's!
Back when Zhao Chen finished his attack and began to withdraw.
He had sent his coordinates to the Eighteenth Squadron's deputy leader, and plotted his withdrawal route.
And had Deputy Leader Li come to his support.
Happily they were all in time.
Zhao Chen smiled as the enemy swarms before him were destroyed one by one under his squadron's charge,
like a wolf pack hunting lambs.
Zhao Chen breathed a long sigh of relief.
But the stone in his heart had not yet settled.
This was only one meteorite base along the way.
Who knew how many more lay in the road ahead?
Perhaps this was the strain one bore as a common soldier.
In battle, never for a moment out of danger's circle.
A wholly different thing from commanding a campaign from a bridge, as he once had!
"Squadron Leader! You're incredible; you took out a meteorite base single-handed!"
"You flew your fighter and controlled three drone swarms at once! My head would have burst!"
"Ha-ha-ha-ha, our leader's the best. I hear the other attack routes are all pinned down by the enemy's meteorite bases. And the few other drone bases destroyed took three to five squadrons working together!"
These young rascals had no shortage of mouth on them.
"Stop talking and press on!" Zhao Chen said with a laughing curse.