Zhao Chen said nothing.
He glanced at the Eighteenth Squadron's present roster.
A hundred and thirty-eight left in the squadron, and a hundred and thirty-eight who had come after him.
"Old Li. Gather the fighters; don't let them fly about in such disorder. Next I must direct the other flights. Command of the Eighteenth Squadron stays with you." Zhao Chen was back to his old manner, and spoke formally.
"Yes!" Deputy Leader Li's mind eased as well.
Since the thing was settled,
there was no use thinking of anything else.
What was it but a mission of nine parts death?
When they had crossed over and attacked the enemy's warship line, had it not been the same?
And in the end their leader had brought them through alive.
So they trusted their own leader.
With the Eighteenth Squadron's affairs settled,
what remained was naturally the million fighters.
And time waits for no one.
Zhao Chen had to arrange those million craft in the shortest possible time.
These million were not like the Eighteenth Squadron.
That was a unit he had trained himself; he knew it, he was familiar with it.
He could have the Eighteenth Squadron execute any tactical plan in his head.
These million were another matter.
Indeed, every squadron among them was different.
So how to arrange and direct them was a great problem.
"This is Zhao Chen. This is the command channel of the Star Alliance's forlorn hope. All flight group leaders, report your status. Are you all in position and standing by? Any who are not, reach your assigned positions within three minutes. All who are late will be held to have defied orders; their group leader's post is revoked at once and the deputy takes it!"
Zhao Chen's very first order was thoroughly severe,
which sobered a good many of them at a stroke.
Revoking a man's post as group leader outright?
"Mother ship 051, First Flight Group, in position. Awaiting the commander's orders."
"Mother ship 071…"
"……"
More and more flight groups reported in.
At the same time a larger data panel appeared before Zhao Chen.
A command panel of higher performance.
And that only because an auxiliary fighter alongside lent him its capacity; his own craft's brain could never have run it.
A flight group at full strength is three thousand fighters.
And after the fighting, hardly any group was still at full strength.
But these groups were all fighters in good condition,
which showed the general had dealt fairly.
He had not fobbed Zhao Chen off with groups that had been mauled and were in poor shape.
Zhao Chen watched the flight groups' names light one by one.
In the end it settled at nearly six hundred flight groups.
And under Zhao Chen's earlier order, all of them arrived on time.
For Zhao Chen's authority came from the general himself.
Equal to the general in person!
No one dared gamble on whether Zhao Chen would truly do it, so they obeyed and were done.
"I will now redivide you. One million fighters, into twenty fighter clusters. For each cluster I will appoint a cluster leader; I give my orders to the cluster leaders, and the cluster's flights carry them out. Should any cluster leader neglect his duty or fail to carry out an order. It will be treated as a capital offense!"
A capital offense!
Those who heard it drew a cold breath.
Soon the roster of the twenty clusters appeared, and the list of their twenty leaders.
"Each cluster has five minutes to muster. Cluster leaders, set up your own command channels, and make sure that in the fighting an order given is an order obeyed!" Zhao Chen said.
Soon the million fighters began dividing into twenty areas,
like twenty swarms of bees.
-----
The general sat in his captain's chair, looking at the list.
He frowned slightly.
"The files on all the fighter groups, you are sure they were given to him ten minutes ago?"
"Yes," a staff officer answered.
"Then how has he managed to pick cluster leaders so quickly, and so exactly?" The general looked at the list of twenty.
It had to be said, every one of the twenty was an exact choice.
Taken singly, each had ability and a record to speak for him.
That Zhao Chen should know the leaders aboard his own carrier would be understandable.
But these men came from over a hundred carriers.
And he was only a squadron leader; before this he had no authority to look up other ships' units at all.
So had he truly, in a few short minutes, picked these men out of those files?
"This lad. Is it blind luck, or is he truly hiding a fine gift?" the general muttered.
"General, some have begun to question this temporary flight commander's orders. In the time so far he has given two orders, and made defiance of either a heavy punishment, even a capital offense. Might that… might that be going too far?" the staff officer asked hesitantly.
He could see the general thought highly of this young pilot.
An earlier staff officer had tried to bring down the Eighteenth Squadron and been 'expelled' from the bridge outright.
So he spoke of the Eighteenth Squadron very gingerly now, for fear of drawing the fire on himself.
The general frowned, then said, "A soldier's duty on the battlefield is to carry out orders. I have read all of Zhao Chen's orders. There is nothing whatever wrong with them. As for the punishments being heavy. These are extraordinary times, and call for extraordinary measures. And I promised Zhao Chen. That in the command of his fighting, no one, myself included, may interfere. So pass the word. No one is to raise any objection to Zhao Chen's command or orders. Anyone who does. Will be held to have defied military orders. A capital offense!"
The general set the heaviest penalty at the end, which settled Zhao Chen's authority to command once and for all.
Which quietly helped Zhao Chen a good deal; on a battlefield, a commander's authority matters too.
Otherwise, however clever you are.
If you cannot move your own units, it counts for nothing.
"Let us hope Zhao Chen can give us a surprise. Half an hour, only half an hour! I beg it of you!" The general's face was grave, his eyes fixed on the holo-table where the battle was about to begin.
And not he alone; countless senior commanders were watching this.
For it bore on whether this whole military operation could go forward!