"Report: every department has completed assembly. Ready to sortie and fight at any moment!" A young petty officer stood at Zhao Chen's side and made his report.
This was an adjutant Zhao Chen had picked out for himself.
Zhao Chen glanced at the time.
Nine minutes thirty-five seconds.
Within the span allowed.
"Look at these fellows; they know the worth of time after all," Zhao Chen said with a cold laugh.
Before this, to give him a taste of severity, no few of them had been late on purpose.
And now, having seen for themselves what he was capable of, these men naturally dared get up to no further mischief.
"Pass my order down. All departments are dismissed. But over the time to come I shall run real-combat simulation drills at no fixed hour. Keep your wits about you, every one of you," said Zhao Chen.
"Yes."
Zhao Chen looked at the star chart.
Just now their fleet had passed the first and best[1] of the ambush points.
Just so!
For the true purpose of this real-combat simulation of Zhao Chen's was that, should they meet with an ambush, his interstellar fighter and interstellar drone departments might be brought into a fighting state in the shortest time there was.
Which was why he had arranged these drills particularly.
If no fighting came at an ambush point, then it was a simulation drill and nothing more.
But if they were ambushed, then they could enter a fighting state in the shortest time, and very conveniently.
"So next comes the second ambush point." Zhao Chen sat before his desk with his hands folded together.
The time went by, little by little.
And the whole flight group had the feeling of a blade hanging over their heads.
For that group leader of theirs had said that this round of real-combat simulation was not yet over.
And that in the time to come the drill would be run at no set interval.
Which is to say that no man knew when the next real-combat simulation would come.
Though there were those who held such an arrangement to be a thing done twice over for nothing,
by reason of the ability Zhao Chen had shown, no one dared stand out openly and say so.
……
There was no knowing how long went by.
And just as they were all supposing that this real-combat simulation of the group leader's might be no more than a fright he was putting on them.
Suddenly the alarm sounded again.
Every flight squadron, and the interstellar drone module besides, went over to a war footing.
The hands of the several squadrons hurried off to their own ready rooms.
The First Squadron's ready room.
Leader Cao Bing looked at the time, and frowned at three men who had come into the ready room at ten minutes and eight seconds.
"Halt! What is this with you three? By the regulation, the time for assembly is ten minutes. You are eight seconds late!" Leader Cao Bing rebuked the three of them.
One of them said helplessly: "We were eating in the ship's dining hall, as it happened, and hearing the alarm we hurried straight over. But on the road we ran into another department's watch change, and the gallery was blocked. We… that is how we came to be a little late."
"It was not as though we did it on purpose, and that group leader is plainly making trouble for us. What is the good of a real-combat simulation out of a clear sky?"
"And we were short by those eight seconds and no more."
The other two said it with the air of men wronged, as though they had done nothing amiss whatever.
Leader Cao Bing knit his brows, stepped up, and bestowed a kick upon each of the three.
And rebuked them without the least ceremony: "Blocked? Eating? Are these your reasons for being late? And these 'mere eight seconds' you speak of? Do you know what those eight seconds would mean in a real engagement? They mean your comrade may get no support and be destroyed by the enemy!"
Hearing Leader Cao Bing's rebuke, the three of them could only stand and take their scolding meekly.
At the other end.
"Report: every squadron has completed assembly. But three squadrons ran over their time, though none of them by more than twenty seconds!" the adjutant reported to Zhao Chen.
"Twenty seconds?" Zhao Chen knit his brows.
He said heavily, "Broadcast these late squadrons to the whole force."
"Yes."
Zhao Chen watched the star chart; and just as he was supposing that this time it might be no more than a simulation,
all of a sudden,
the alarm bells of the whole starship broke out at once!
"Group Leader… this… this does not seem to be a simulation. It is a true call to battle!" The adjutant had come back, and said it in alarm.
This Zhao Chen naturally knew.
For at his end he had already received the order for battle from the bridge.
"Pass my order: carry out the plan laid down. All flight squadrons make ready to launch; make ready to release the interstellar drones!" Zhao Chen said no second word, but went over to a fighting footing and began his dispositions.
And at the same time, once the adjutant had gone, he quietly entered this starship's system from behind.
And called up certain files he wanted.
First of all the battlefield star chart.
Upon which several red rings could be seen at the guard fleet's leading edge.
Interstellar stealth mines?
Zhao Chen saw the term that had been reported up.
By the look of it, the warships out in front had run upon interstellar stealth mines the enemy had laid down beforehand,
which are a product of technology at T5 grade.
The principle of them is that of the land mine.
But on an interstellar battlefield they are in truth very seldom used.
For their cost is high.
And that stealth of theirs has a limit of time upon it; once the time is past, the energy the stealth requires is spent to the last.
And the ambush has no effect left in it.
So that to use this weapon, one must be certain of the enemy's line of voyage and his hour of passage, and lay these interstellar mines upon a road he cannot help taking.
Of which conditions not one may be wanting.
But with Song Chen's 'cooperation', the enemy's holding these figures is natural enough.
Under this first round of the ambush, Zhao Chen saw that near thirty of the guard fleet's interstellar warships had taken hurt in one degree or another.
Of which the five that led the way ahead had the energy of their star shields spent outright, and one of them had taken damage to the hull besides.
And at the same time, a great number of the other side's interstellar warships appeared about them.
A thousand and more, by the count of them.
But these thousand were of one kind throughout, T5 grade and above; and among them there could even be made out the traces of the other universe's quasi-T6.
The quasi-T6 Cadaver-class Medium Interstellar Battleship,
which is the one class of quasi-T6 interstellar warship the enemy possesses.
And of these there were a full thirty, or near it!
A full six times the number of quasi-T6 interstellar warships in Song Chen's guard fleet.
By the look of it the enemy had come prepared,
and come precisely to destroy Song Chen.
"Song Qingshan, this task you have arranged for me is no simple thing," Zhao Chen could not keep from grumbling.
And then left his office and went toward the combat hangar.
Every combat hangar was busy at that moment.
Interstellar fighter after interstellar fighter was beginning to lift off.
Zhao Chen walked up to that interstellar fighter of his own.
"Group Leader, are you to go out to fight as well?" The adjutant had come hurrying after him.
"I am a fighter pilot. If I do not go along, what else am I to do?" Zhao Chen asked him back.
"But… in the ordinary way a group leader directs from the rear. With you not here…" the adjutant said, with some worry in it.
Zhao Chen rolled his eyes. "What wanted saying, I have said. The rest of it you can see to for me. And if there is truly something you do not know how to deal with, get in touch with me. That is all."
And with that, Zhao Chen put on his helmet, and at the same time brought the canopy down!