"Curse it, how has it turned out like this. What are we to do now!" Murong Qiao paced back and forth upon his own bridge in his anxiety.
"Their relief came so fast. Who could have thought that Song Qingshan would come."
"As matters stand now, the number of interstellar warships on the two sides is near enough level. And Song Qingshan's warships are in full condition, while we have been engaged this while past; the two are not upon one line at all!"
The representatives of the other two families were in a fever of anxiety just then as well.
For they had never supposed that a case they had held for a certain victory.
Should now have turned out like this.
And that they might even fail to kill Song Chen.
For if they could not kill Song Chen in this attack.
Then their three families would be swept out of the Alliance and leave not a trace behind!
"What do the people of the Hamos universe say? Can they send further relief across? Come what may, we must kill Song Chen here today. Today it is his death or our destruction!" Murong Qiao is no match for his father in cleverness.
But he saw very well how matters stood.
They were standing at the cliff's edge already.
And had no choice left.
"Since a while ago we have not been able to reach the commander of the Hamos universe's fleet!" someone said.
Murong Qiao checked a moment, and looked at that window which had kept the link open, and which had gone dark at some point he did not know.
His heart sank.
He sent several requests to speak, and near enough every one was refused.
And with that, an uneasy foreboding filled his heart.
For to those fellows from the Hamos universe,
this raid having failed was at the most one failure.
Their Hamos universe might take long counsel again and plan for the next time.
But their three great families had no chance whatever to begin again.
"These cursed barbarians. I knew they were not to be trusted!" Murong Qiao flew into a rage.
But this time he had it wrong.
"Look there! The Hamos universe's fleet has gone mad suddenly and is driving straight at the defensive ground Song Chen's fleet holds! That battle formation of theirs takes no account whatever of losses; it is for all the world as though they were going to their deaths!" someone had marked what was happening on the field.
The interstellar warships remaining to the Hamos universe's fleet,
began charging the defensive ground at any cost whatever; and if a warship in front were destroyed, the warships behind would without the least ceremony put a knife into the hull of their own consort and break it to pieces.
For the reason that the lane of passage must not be blocked.
Though there might be fighting men still alive within that warship.
"What is it they mean to do?" Murong Qiao was dumbfounded, and stared blankly at the scene.
And at this he called to mind that, before the operation, when he was in talk with that commander of the Hamos universe's fleet.
That interstellar race who looked for all the world like barbarians.
The man had said one thing at the last.
That in the dictionary of the Hamos universe's fighting men, a mission holds only completion, or death.
And no other choice!
So what was this of theirs now?
The answer was very soon made plain.
Once the Hamos fleet had driven in within a certain distance of the guard fleet's defensive ground,
all of a sudden, warship after warship began to blow itself up.
To blow itself up?
Seeing this, every man there was dumbfounded.
What play was being acted here?
Nor did Song Chen naturally know either.
And at Zhao Chen's end, who had been quietly watching the battlefield's data all along.
He had marked this strange business as well.
And when he used his means at the back end to look into certain figures.
He found the place where the thing was wrong.
Which was that the fluctuation of space about those exploding enemy warships was very greatly out of the ordinary!
In the ordinary way, the energy a warship's self-destruction gives out will shake space somewhat, but not by so much as this.
Otherwise, when some hundreds of thousands of warships give battle, would the universe not be 'punctured through' easily enough?
So the self-destruction of these warships now was beyond doubt no ordinary thing.
But Zhao Chen was not certain either what the other side was about.
Until he saw one figure come to a critical point, and come level with the frequency of another figure.
A wormhole!
The enemy were making a wormhole at the guard fleet's very position!
Zhao Chen's heart gave a jolt.
He had never supposed this universe held black technology of such a kind.
First they use warships to which certain black technology has been added, and blow them up within one region, to loosen that space.
And at the last, using a secret weapon carried aboard some warship, they build a wormhole directly within that space.
And it must be understood that a wormhole built on the moment is very unstable indeed.
And that warships drawn into it may very well be torn to pieces outright by the turbulence of space.
Such was the enemy's plan.
A plan where the fish dies or the net breaks.
Zhao Chen knew the enemy's purpose now, but there was no other course left to him.
Zhao Chen could only run quickly toward the combat hangar.
And at the same time he sent an order to every interstellar fighter pilot.
'All hands are to board their own fighters at once; should anything whatever occur, begin the emergency procedure for abandoning ship.'
This was the one thing Zhao Chen could do.
Though Song Qingshan had charged Zhao Chen with keeping Song Chen safe,
Zhao Chen's standing here was in the end no more than that of an interstellar fighter pilot, a colonel, the leader of a flight group.
He needed to pass a check even to enter the bridge.
He could only look to himself first.
And could but hope that Song Chen would look out for his own fortune.
Or rather, hope that this starship was tough enough in the hide.
And very soon the thing Zhao Chen had foreseen came about.
In a certain region, space began to fall in upon itself and twist.
The feel of it was for all the world like watching a floor cave in; and there was a drawing force that pulled at everything about it and would have it in.
"Curse it, this is a wormhole!" Song Chen started up, having marked it as well.
"Quick, break out at full speed!" Song Chen gave the order.
For to go into a wormhole is to have one's living or dying unknown.
But as matters stood now, the position of Song Chen's flagship was an awkward one.
Since by their earlier reckoning the flagship's place lay at the very middle of the defensive ground, which had been the safest place before.
But the wormhole had appeared in that very spot now.
And to break out, the friendly ships about them must cut their way out first.
The more so as the enemy's warships were swarming in all together, and giving them no chance whatever to break out.
The scene of it was odd past telling.
Those within would get out.
Those without would get in.
And the parts of the two sides seemed in that moment to have changed about again.
"Report: Black Rose No. 1 is drawn by the wormhole's pull and is losing way!" a petty officer reported in haste.
Song Chen sat in the captain's chair with a darkened face.
He drew a deep breath. "Send those documents I prepared, the whole of them, to Song Qingshan. And after that… we can only look out for our own fortune."
Matters stood as they stood.
And what came next could only be left to fate.