"Report — several T1 hive mother-ships detected closing on our ship, and a great many T1 flying-bugs and T2 Thorny Serpents! At the same time, the first bug-swarm from outside the planet will arrive within 10 minutes!" a crewwoman reported.
Charlotte at once began deploying for battle.
"Launch the 50 interstellar drones; make ready to clear the bug-race ground units on the surface. Four 2,500mm-caliber Medium Electromagnetic Railgun main guns, 16 Medium Pulse-Laser secondary guns, and 72 Medium close-in guns — free target-search and fire!"
Once the order went down—
—at the belly of the T3 Blizzard's hull, a gate appeared.
Within it hung 50 interstellar drones, long since readied.
These interstellar drones, like so many bats hanging upside-down, dropped in free-fall one after another once the gate opened, spread their wings in mid-air into their full-body forms, and then set about attacking the bug-race units on the ground.
The ship's main guns, secondary guns, and close-in guns, meanwhile, kept up their attack on the bugs around, keeping them from drawing near the Blizzard.
As for those distant T1 hive mother-ships — let one but dare enter the T3 Blizzard's main-gun range, and it met only one fate.
Becoming a piece of "bug-race fireworks."
"Altitude 20,000 kilometers… altitude 15,000 kilometers… altitude 10,000 kilometers…"
As the distance to the ground drew nearer, Zhao Chen could already see with the naked eye the towering mountains below, and the flames rising from distant cities, and the marks of warship after warship fallen to the ground.
The whole land was strewn with the fires of war, riddled and ravaged.
"Altitude 5,000 kilometers… altitude 3,000 kilometers…" Zhao Chen saw, amid a range of mountain ridges, a T3-grade ship — and that T3 ship was giving off sparks of fire.
That was the fire of fierce combat, and one could see batch after batch of bug-race ground units sweeping toward that ship's direction.
Fallen to the ground though the ship was, some of its weapons could still be used; by the look of it, the people aboard were working these ship-weapons, holding off the bugs' attack with the ship for a fortress.
There were, besides, some figures wielding personal weapons, and the shapes of combat-mecha.
"That should be the position!" Zhao Chen threw a glance at the exact coordinate on the star-map radar — it was that very dot.
"Commander — we can send shuttles to rescue the trapped personnel!" Charlotte requested.
"How many people can all our shuttles bring back?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Our ship has only six small shuttles; at the utmost they can carry near 60 people," Lilith said at his side.
60 people.
Which meant one round of rescue wasn't enough; there'd need to be at least one return trip, and the rescue time, first to last, would take at least five to 10 minutes.
"Our Blizzard is carrying T2 Black-Knight-class Light Interstellar Combat-Mecha, isn't it!" Zhao Chen confirmed with Charlotte.
Charlotte nodded. "In the Blizzard's hangar there are three mecha combat squads, 15 T2 Black-Knights in all!"
Before the end of March, over and above completing those construction plans, Zhao Chen had instructed Charlotte that she might build a modest batch of T2 Black-Knights — the things weren't pricey anyway, a single one costing only 10,000 star coins to build.
The built T2 Black-Knights, Charlotte had naturally fitted to the T3 Blizzard as first priority.
"Send these T2 Black-Knights down to cover the withdrawal," Zhao Chen said, and stood up. "Ready me a set of personal exoskeleton combat armor; I'll go direct the ground withdrawal operation."
"No!" Charlotte and Lilith spoke near enough in the same breath.
Charlotte planted herself before Zhao Chen, her expression grave. "You're the fleet's commander; you can't leave the ship — it's too dangerous out there!"
"Dangerous?" Zhao Chen gave a short laugh, and pointed outside. "Are there enemy T3-grade combat units out there?"
"This… no." Charlotte didn't understand why the commander asked this, but answered on reflex all the same.
The strongest bug-race unit detected outside just now was only T2-grade.
"Then I'm in no danger. You take charge of directing the ship's combat here." Seeing Charlotte still meant to stop him, Zhao Chen made a swift shift of position and, near enough in an instant, came around behind Charlotte, at a speed so nimble even Charlotte, a beast-folk, had no time to react.
Then her feet left the ground; robbed of any power to resist, she was hoisted by the scruff of the neck by Zhao Chen and set down in the captain's chair.
"You sit here nice and obedient and wait; I'll be back soon."
With that, Zhao Chen left the bridge.
Charlotte and Lilith exchanged a helpless glance; all they could do now was charge the mecha squad's combat personnel to make certain of the commander's safety.
Still, by the look of the commander's skill just now, guarding himself should be no problem.
But where had the commander gotten such nimble skill? Charlotte, puzzled, rubbed the scruff of her own neck; when she'd been hoisted just now, there had been a strange, strange… feeling to it besides.
Zhao Chen stepped onto the glass elevator, heading for the hangar where the mecha were berthed.
At the same time he opened a timed task the System had just issued him.
Task: By your own strength, kill bugs within the appointed time
Task Difficulty: Grade C
Task Reward: for each kill-count reached within the time (1, 10, 100, 1,000…), a reward by the final kill-tier
Task Time: ten minutes
This was the reason Zhao Chen meant to take the field himself!
Zhao Chen confirmed it with the System: this indeed couldn't be completed using ship-weapons — not even piloting a combat-mecha would do; the only things usable were personal weapons and personal exoskeleton combat armor.
Danger there might be, but to raise his own strength as soon as he could, Zhao Chen had to complete, as far as possible, every System task that appeared! Claim the reward!
A minute later, a figure clad head to foot in pitch-black personal exoskeleton combat armor appeared before rank on rank of T2 Black-Knights standing ready in array.
"Reporting, Commander — Black-Knight First Squad mustered and ready; your orders, please!"
"Reporting, Commander — Black-Knight Second Squad mustered and ready; your orders, please!"
"Reporting, Commander…"
Zhao Chen swept a glance across — 15 women soldiers in combat gear already stood ready in array.
"Enough chatter — make ready to set out!"
"Yes!"
The 15 mecha pilots at once climbed into their respective mecha.
Tap, tap, tap.
The First Squad's captain had only just closed her hatch when she heard a sound from outside the mecha; when she opened the visual feed, she found, of all things, that on her mecha's shoulder the commander stood.
"Commander… what are you doing up there?"
"Going down with the lot of you," Zhao Chen answered.
The squad captain was taken aback, and said in haste, "It's far too dangerous; you'd best take a shuttle down."
By now the hatch had opened, and a mighty gust of airflow rushed into the compartment, yet Zhao Chen stood firm and unmoving on the Black-Knight mecha's shoulder; he could even, at this moment, look straight down at the mountains below, and the battlefield around that ship.
"It's 500 meters from here to the ground; if your mecha jumps straight down, will it break?"
"A mecha won't break from that, of course," the squad captain answered on reflex.
Zhao Chen laughed and patted the mecha's head. "If it won't break, then jump away."
"But Commander, you…" the squad captain was still worried for the commander's safety.
"Enough chatter — I tell you to jump, so jump. That's an order!" Out of patience, Zhao Chen kicked at the mecha's great head outright with his foot.
His hormones had, at this moment, already boiled over — near enough beyond his own control!
He looked at those bugs below as though he were looking at one little darling after another blowing him kisses.
Zhao Chen licked his lips and calmed his restless heart.
The squad captain, helpless, could only work the mecha over to the edge of the hatch and, as she gave the order to her own squad, work the Black-Knight into a leap outward — keeping her eye, all the while, on the commander on her shoulder.
"The hell — this is a real damn thrill!"
Standing on the mecha's shoulder, in the 500-meter heights, Zhao Chen couldn't help crying out.