The T6 Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship · the bridge
The time passed little by little; it was only ten minutes,
but here every minute seemed very long.
Perhaps the officers on the bridge all knew full well how great the pressure was now.
Even how often they spoke, and how loudly, had fallen off a great deal.
Zhao Chen sat upon the throne, his face stern.
He was waiting, waiting for Order's next move.
Very soon an hour had passed since the last appearance of a million[1] pitch-black interstellar warships.
Zhao Chen opened his eyes and looked at the 'ink' in the footage of the five battlefields.
It was exactly as before.
Another batch of pitch-black interstellar warships surfaced!
"The order of magnitude should be a million again," Secretary-Officer Lilith said beside him.
Zhao Chen asked gravely, "And the quasi-T7 pitch-black interstellar warships?"
"None yet." Secretary-Officer Lilith's face was grave; she too was watching the movements on the battlefield closely.
But very soon there was an answer.
"There! Quasi-T7 pitch-black interstellar warships have appeared on all five battlefields. The number… the number is still ten quasi-T7 pitch-black interstellar warships!" Secretary-Officer Lilith said at once.
"Still ten quasi-T7 pitch-black interstellar warships on every battlefield?" Zhao Chen was somewhat surprised.
He had not expected the enemy's quasi-T7 pitch-black interstellar warships not to increase.
In truth he had long since made ready to face thirty quasi-T7 pitch-black interstellar warships on every battlefield.
"Yes," Secretary-Officer Lilith said.
Zhao Chen let out a long breath of relief and said, staring at the five battlefields, "Could it be that Order has played every one of its hole cards?"
Secretary-Officer Lilith said nothing; no one could give an exact answer to that.
"But however it is, we can't let down our guard. We must be ready to meet anything that happens! Have Marshal Charlotte settle the battle plan for this phase," Zhao Chen said.
"Yes."
When he had given these instructions, Zhao Chen glanced around the bridge.
He could feel that, after this batch of the enemy's Pitch-Black Legion fleet appeared, everyone had let out a long breath of relief.
Though it was still a million pitch-black interstellar warships, and still ten quasi-T7 pitch-black interstellar warships,
at least it was still within the range that could be controlled.
But the string drawn tight in Zhao Chen's heart did not slacken.
For his instinct told him
this was certainly not all of Order's hole cards.
Since Order meant to launch so fierce an attack on the Owl Dragon Empire, it would certainly use every means there was.
It would certainly not wish to leave the Owl Dragon Empire more time to grow.
So this threat was surely still far from over.
But as for what would happen afterward, Zhao Chen could give no answer either.
For now, they could only take one step and look to the next.
Several minutes passed.
Every battlefield was still within the range of control,
right up until an alarm startled everyone of the Owl Dragon.
"Your Majesty, the latest news. Our T6 Universal Space Dynamics Monitor has detected nearly a hundred points of abnormal spatial fluctuation within the bounds of our universe!" Secretary-Officer Lilith suddenly looked to Zhao Chen with a grave face and reported a very important piece of news.
Nearly a hundred points of abnormal spatial fluctuation!
Zhao Chen's heart jolted; his instinct told him this was the true trump card with which Order meant to overturn the Owl Dragon Empire.
"But the strength of the spatial fluctuation at these hundred-odd points isn't in the same class at all as at the five battlefields before. It's very faint. So even if the enemy means to deliver Pitch-Black Legion fleets, the order of magnitude shouldn't be very large." Secretary-Officer Lilith gave a piece of good news.
"Fix the positions of these small abnormal spatial fluctuation points," Zhao Chen said.
"Yes."
Very soon Lilith had marked every small abnormal spatial fluctuation point on the star chart.
And with that,
looking at the star chart before him, Zhao Chen seemed to see a picture spattered all over with 'ink':
five large blots of ink on it, and nearly a hundred small ones.
Zhao Chen ran his eye over it.
On first observation, the places where these small blots of ink had appeared seemed to follow no pattern.
"Among these small abnormal fluctuation points, three lie within our important star systems, and thirty-seven lie around important star systems. The rest of the fluctuation points are all in ordinary star systems."
When she had said this, Lilith paused, and added, "One of the small fluctuation points has appeared right in the Holy Angel System. And… right in the outer area of the Holy Temple Mount planet in the Holy Angel System. It's the most threatening fluctuation point at present."
"Have any of the Pitch-Black Legion's warships appeared at these fluctuation points?" Zhao Chen asked gravely.
"Not yet. But the appearance of these 'ink' blots has caused no small confusion in some star systems," Secretary-Officer Lilith said.
"Notify the governors of these star systems and the systems around them at once: announce that they are to go to first-grade combat readiness immediately. Send the Owl Dragon Empire's Household Legion fleets and every region's Great-Lord fleets at once in full support of every danger area. Whatever happens, the danger must be brought under control!" Zhao Chen made his battle dispositions decisively.
"Yes!" Secretary-Officer Lilith went at once to issue these orders.
The Owl Dragon Empire's Household Legion fleets and Great-Lord fleets named in Zhao Chen's order
were, in the Owl Dragon Empire's present military system, military forces of the third and fourth grade.
The Household Legion fleets were often also called the Imperial patrol fleets, or the guard fleets.
In short, they were the fleet strength stationed in each place, or rotated through it.
They used Owl Dragon-line warships throughout, and a great part of them were warships retired from the Owl Dragon Empire's legion fleet groups.
At present they were in the main made up of T3 warships, because the Imperial legion fleets had retired every T3-grade warship completely.
And so the Household Legion fleets too had passed fully into T3 technology.
They had retired all their T2-grade warships to the military forces of the fourth and fifth grade.
So at present the Household Legion fleets were legion fleets made up of T3-grade warships and a small number of T4-grade warships, with very few T5 warships serving as flagships.
As for the Great-Lord fleets, they were the Imperial military forces of the fourth grade, commanded by the lords, enfeoffed marquises, kings and clan heads of each place.
At this grade, military strength differed very widely.
The strong could even match the Household Legion fleets:
the Chu family's legion fleets within the Starlight Kingdom, for one, or the Angel Race's Holy Dragon Angel Legion, and others.
But the great majority still fell a long way short of the Household Legion fleets in strength.
But to return to the matter.
These military forces were charged chiefly with the combat task of protecting each domain's star systems and star regions.
Since the founding of the Owl Dragon Empire, they had seldom had a chance to take action.
But now, facing a strong enemy, Zhao Chen had no choice but to borrow their strength!
……
The Holy Angel System · the Holy Temple Star
The Holy Angel Queen stood on the square outside the Holy Temple Mount; at this moment there was not a cloud in the sky for ten thousand miles.
Her gaze passed through the sky, and she could see, out in space, a 'black spot.'
This black spot could even swallow the light of the star.
So that even in broad daylight like this, anyone on the planet who raised their head could see that point of 'black spot.'
The Holy Angel Queen frowned; she had a bad feeling at heart.
Just then her handheld terminal rang.
A pop-up appeared.
It was from Secretary-Officer Lilith, and it was not an ordinary communication but a mass message.
It told how their universe was at present suffering invasion by a power from outside it; that those 'ink' blots were one of the enemy's technological means of crossing the barrier of the universe;
and that they would also send out a number of pitch-black interstellar warships.
Every star system in which 'ink' had appeared was to go to a state of war at once……
When she had taken in the news,
the Holy Angel Queen understood at once what was happening.
She had long known that the Owl Dragon Empire's Imperial legion fleet groups and ace fleet groups were now all locked in combat with a powerful interstellar power.
That it could make the Emperor send out all the Empire's elite armed forces showed how strong this enemy was.
And now these enemies had appeared in the Holy Angel System.
For this star system it was beyond doubt a disaster.
Just then
a video window appeared.
This time it was a communication channel.
On the other side was a woman in Owl Dragon uniform.
The woman officer gave the Holy Angel Queen a military salute and said, "Your Highness the Holy Angel Queen. By the Emperor's command I lead the Imperial Fifth Household Legion Fleet Group, come to take charge of the Pitch-Black Legion fleet threat within the Angel Race's borders. I will take over in full every engagement within the Angel Race's borders, and take over command of the legion fleets under the Angel Race."
The Holy Angel Queen showed no reaction whatever to this seemingly outrageous demand; she nodded slightly, and said gently, "All shall be as His Majesty the Emperor wills. But for my own part, I beg you, General, to protect the people of my Angel Race. They have been through too much war, and I do not wish to see their homes suffer destruction again. I ask this of you."
An Angel Queen, facing a general of the Owl Dragon Empire of no more than lieutenant general's rank, and so humble.
It showed how the Angel Race's fate now lay all but wholly in the Owl Dragon Empire's grasp.
"Let Your Highness the Angel Queen rest easy. The duty of us of the Household Legion fleets is to defend every stretch of the Owl Dragon Empire's territory." With that, the woman general took her leave and ended the communication.
The Holy Angel Queen raised her head and looked at the black spot in the sky.
At this moment
many Angel Race fleets stationed in this star system were already guarding the black spot all about it, on the alert.
After that,
the Holy Dragon Angel Legion itself came through the star gate and appeared here!
"Your Highness the Angel Queen!" Commander Tilia's video window appeared before the Holy Angel Queen's eyes. "Your Highness, the Holy Dragon Angel Legion has come in support. Your Highness, please withdraw to a safe place first. The Holy Temple Mount home planet may be caught up in this battle!"
"You should not be contacting me." The Holy Angel Queen looked at Commander Tilia.
Commander Tilia was taken aback; then she understood the Holy Angel Queen's meaning, and opened her mouth without a word.
She had received the order too: her Holy Dragon Angel Legion was to come under the Household Legion fleet's command.
For her own part she truly had no objection to it.
Only, without thinking, she had got in touch with her lady the Holy Angel Queen.
"Do your duty, and that is all. Don't worry about me." As she spoke, the Holy Angel Queen closed the video window outright.
In former days the Holy Angel Queen might have talked a little longer.
But this was just after the Angel Race's rebellion had ended; His Majesty the Emperor had pardoned the Angel Race its guilt and had only cleared away some of the War Angel King's trusted followers.
Though everyone knew the Emperor was lenient,
at so sensitive a time as this the Holy Angel Queen herself dared take no risks, and so she kept her distance from her own military fleets like a good subject.
Still, though she would not interfere in command of the battlefield,
the Holy Angel Queen still had the right to watch.
She called up the footage of several battlefields outright,
not only in this star system before her.
By the word she had,
within the Angel Race's domain, black spots like this one… what the Owl Dragon Legion also called 'ink'…
had appeared in fifteen places!
Suddenly!
The Holy Angel Queen saw 'billows' rise within that point of ink,
as though on a lake once calm, tremendous waves had risen!
But very soon the Holy Angel Queen found that what appeared beneath those 'tremendous waves' were pitch-black warships, one after another.
No wonder the Owl Dragon Legion called it the Pitch-Black Legion; it truly lived up to the name.
And as more and more of these pitch-black interstellar warships appeared,
the news the Holy Angel Queen received was none too hopeful either.
At the black spot above the Holy Temple Mount home planet alone, under the watch of the planet's monitoring equipment,
a number of T6-grade energy signatures had been found, and T5 energy signatures, and all the rest were of T4 grade!
This Pitch-Black Legion fleet was of very high quality!
And its numbers were not to be made light of either:
fully 100,000 warships!
And though the Holy Dragon Angel Legion present had 100,000 warships to hand, all fitted out with Owl Dragon-line warships,
set beside this powerful Pitch-Black Legion fleet the gap was still very wide.
And even with the Household Legion fleet group present,
the pressure was very great.
For the Household Legion fleet group that had come in support so far numbered only 100,000 warships!
The Household Legion fleet groups had the same establishment as the Imperial legion fleet groups:
a fleet group made up of 500,000 warships, a fleet group of ten legions.
And it was said the Owl Dragon Empire now had ten Household Legion fleet groups in active service in all!
Which was to say their size had reached 5 million warships.
Only in quality they fell far short of the Owl Dragon Empire's legion fleet groups.
And now!
This part of the Fifth Household Legion Fleet Group, with the Holy Dragon Angel Legion and some other Angel Race fleets besides,
came to no more than 250,000 warships in all.
Against the Pitch-Black Legion fleet they had the advantage in numbers,
but in overall strength they still fell a good way behind.
If it came to a fight,
their chances were not good!
The Holy Angel Queen grew somewhat worried.
And this situation arose not only here;
it arose too at the 'small ink blots' all over the Owl Dragon Empire!