"950 star-knots!" Chu Xuan couldn't hold back an excited cry — but then found, to her embarrassment, that Zhao Chen and the other crew around all wore looks of perfect calm.
As though she alone were the one who'd never seen anything of the great world.
Uh…
What was with them?
Were they not the least bit stirred?
This matched the fastest speed of a T4 warship — and by a T3 ship at that!
Were word of this to get out, it would be enough to send this T3 ship shaking through the whole Starlight Empire.
Still, to match wasn't as good as to surpass; and if it could break 1,000 star-knots, that would be the moment history was made.
Chu Xuan went on watching that speed with anticipation.
955 star-knots!
And just as she was hoping the speed would keep climbing—
—suddenly, of all things, the speed began to drop.
"Why's the speed starting to drop!" Chu Xuan asked without thinking.
Zhao Chen looked at Chu Xuan with the sort of gaze one gives a fool, and pointed at the star-map beside them. "Can't you see we're nearly at the two academies' fleet's last signal-coordinate position?"
Only now did Chu Xuan realize that, because she'd been so fixed on the speed a moment ago, the cursor standing for the ship and that last-appearance coordinate of the two academies' fleet had already drawn very near on the star-map.
Chu Xuan said nothing, a touch embarrassed, and inwardly lamented the pity of it — she hadn't gotten to see this ship's very top speed.
By what she'd just seen, the T3 Blizzard, under this Blizzard Extreme-Cruise Mode of whatever-it-was, should have had strength to spare — very likely it could have broken 1,000 star-knots.
"Begin exiting 'Blizzard Extreme-Cruise Mode.'" Charlotte gave the order.
"Understood; exiting and shutting down 'Blizzard Extreme-Cruise Mode'…" the crew reported.
Because the speed had been so great, this deceleration couldn't come to a stop in an instant either; it took a full few minutes before the speed was brought down to 210 star-knots.
By the course laid out in advance, once the speed was normal, the T3 Blizzard's position was exactly the two academies' fleet's last signal-coordinate.
"Report — 'Blizzard Extreme-Cruise Mode' has shut down."
"Report — ship weapon modules deploying."
As it exited 'Blizzard Extreme-Cruise Mode,' the T3 Blizzard's hull weapons showed themselves once more.
And at the same time, multiple energy signals appeared on the ship's radar.
"Report — three T2 hive mother-ship signals and 12 T1 hive mother-ship signals have appeared in three directions. These bug-swarms are bearing down on our direction. The first bug-swarm is projected to meet our ship within half an hour!" Secretary Lilith reported this important news.
Now came the crucial pass.
Zhao Chen's ship was, at this moment, near enough set within the "hive"; he had to seize the time to find the two academies' teachers and students and get them out — every minute of delay was one more minute of danger.
"Scan the surrounding planets; detect every comm frequency around! And issue an all-channel broadcast." Zhao Chen gave the order.
The interstellar bug-race's magnetic field could jam signals, but at close enough range a little signal could still be received.
He looked at the star-map: in this stretch of the region there were one planet, two dwarf planets, four moons, and 180 asteroids.
Supposing the two academies' fleet truly were here, that search range was considerable.
But for now, all Zhao Chen and the others could do was wait.
Time passed, bit by bit.
One minute… three minutes… five minutes…
In that span Zhao Chen and the others did indeed receive comm signals several times, but they were all calls for aid sent by local residents of the Water-Lily Star System, or by interstellar powers.
For these people, Zhao Chen too could do nothing; his ability just now reached only to saving his own sister and meeting the System task's requirement.
Seven minutes… eight minutes…
The distant bug-swarms drew nearer and nearer on the ship radar; once tangled up by these swarms, it would, for the T3 Blizzard, be beyond doubt the most dangerous situation.
Nine minutes…
"Hiss, hiss, hiss… We are… survivors of the Northstar… Academy and Heaven's Glory… Academy fleet; we request support… we request support…"
The comm crewwoman suddenly cried out, glad with surprise: "Commander — we've received a comm from the two academies' fleet!"
"Connect it at once, and lock the comm's coordinate location," Zhao Chen said at once.
"Yes!"
A video-comm window appeared before Zhao Chen, but it was very blurred — the person on the other side simply couldn't be made out.
"Wonderful! At last someone's received our call! May I ask — are you an imperial fleet come to save us?" The other side's voice came, glad with surprise; at the first instant they took it to mean an imperial-military fleet sent to the rescue.
"We're not the imperial military; we…" Just as Zhao Chen began to speak, the comm cut off.
"What happened?" Zhao Chen looked at the comm crewwoman with knit brows.
The comm crewwoman said, at her wits' end, "Not sure, but by the look of it the trouble was most likely on their end; the comm cut off one-sidedly. But just now, going by the other side's comm signal, I've locked their coordinate location. It's the seventh planet of this Water-Lily Star System!"
Zhao Chen at once called up the star-map.
The seventh planet of the Water-Lily Star System!
Zhao Chen pointed at that planet on the star-map; as ill luck would have it, it lay right at the very edge of the T3 Blizzard's ship-radar detection range.
The one stroke of luck was that it wasn't in the direction of those several bug-swarms.
"Go there at once!" Zhao Chen gave the order.
The T3 Blizzard at once advanced toward this seventh planet; relying on the T3 Blizzard's high speed, it soon came to where the planet was.
Looking down from above, one could see on this planet's surface several T1 hive mother-ships, along with a great deal of starship wreckage — plainly a great battle had been fought.
One could even see, on the planet's surface, an enormous "scar," like a crimson iron chain lashed down upon it.
But look closely, and one would find that was no "scar" — it was a fallen space elevator!
By the look of it, this planet's space defenses had thoroughly fallen; it had entered the phase of ground combat.
And bear in mind, for the interstellar bug-race, ground combat was near enough the interstellar bug-race's main battlefield!
Unless you carried out orbital bombardment of the planet, otherwise… it was very hard to win against the sheer numbers of the interstellar bug-race's ground troops — unless you threw in a vast quantity of forces!
"Can you lock the detailed position?" Zhao Chen looked to Lilith.
Lilith soon called up the detailed coordinate position of that signal on the planet — one could see it lay amid a range of mountains.
"Not good — detected a great many bug-race ground troops mustering around the signal position, and there's a small clutch of bug-race at the signal position too; by the energy fluctuations, they should be in the thick of fierce combat!" Lilith reported, tense.
"Commander — though entering the planet's atmosphere will bring great danger to our ship, it's the fastest way we have to save them now, because without taking the ship in, a shuttle alone simply can't charge through." Charlotte cautioned.
Zhao Chen looked at the bug-swarm shrouding this planet; it was indeed just as Charlotte said — a hazy grey mass, fearsome to behold.
T1 and T2 warships, being small in size, could enter a planet's atmosphere, but ordinarily a T3 warship would never go inside a planet unless forced to; that would greatly impair the ship's combat power, and consume energy to an extreme degree besides.
But now Zhao Chen had no other choice.
"Enter the planet's atmosphere; make ready for battle!" Zhao Chen gave the order.
The T3 Blizzard opened its secondary-gun firepower full-bore; a great many bugs were killed off, opening a corridor for the T3 Blizzard, and it charged straight down toward this planet!
That scene was as majestic as a comet about to strike a planet.