T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser · the bridge.
Zhao Chen walked onto the bridge; Lilith and Charlotte were waiting for him.
"It's three T3 hive mother-ships that have appeared, isn't it." On the way here, Zhao Chen had already gotten a rough grasp of the present situation.
He knew three T3 hive mother-ships had come.
Zhao Chen sat down in the captain's chair; beside him Lilith raised a hand and called up a holographic interstellar-battlefield image.
This holographic interstellar-battlefield image could enlarge any zone, be viewed from any angle, even magnify the enemy's model.
Of course, this came with a premise: the other party's energy signal had to be an "individual sample" existing in the database, or one for which imagery had already been gathered.
In the holographic interstellar-battlefield image, the T3 Blizzard was positioned beyond the planet, and not far off was a fleet of hive mother-ships.
A pitch-black mass, giving one the feeling of a storm about to break.
Lilith raised both hands and made a motion of drawing the hive-mother-ship image larger; soon she'd pulled the hive mother-ships near, each one seeming right before Zhao Chen's eyes.
And several frames of different colors appeared.
Blue frames marked the T1 hive mother-ships, green frames the T2 hive mother-ships, red frames the T3 hive mother-ships.
Beside them was detailed data besides.
T3 hive mother-ships: three.
T2 hive mother-ships: 15.
T1 hive mother-ships: 310.
"The count's already the equal of one of our standard corps-grade interstellar fleets," Zhao Chen muttered.
By the Galactic Alliance's standardized fleet scales:
30 ships could form an interstellar small-fleet.
300 ships could form a corps-grade interstellar fleet.
3,000 ships could form a legion-grade interstellar fleet.
But scale did not equal fighting strength.
If you were an all-T1-and-T2-grade force, then even with a legion-grade interstellar fleet, a paltry all-T3-warship interstellar small-fleet could wipe you out entire!
Quantity and quality — in interstellar war, neither could be spared!
"The T1 and T2 hive mother-ships aren't worth fearing; the key is still those three T3 hive mother-ships." Zhao Chen looked at the holographic interstellar-battlefield image, thought a moment, and asked, "Can we avoid the fight?"
The present task was still evacuation.
Even if he wiped out all these hive mother-ships here, he'd have no leisure or time to gather the spoils.
"By our system's simulation, those T2- and T1-grade hive mother-ships are manageable. But with those three T3 hive mother-ships present — and they've blocked our optimal evacuation route, and formed a crescent encirclement— —our T3 Blizzard's entry into 'Blizzard Extreme-Cruise Mode' has an acceleration phase, and they very likely will seize that window to attack us. The least misstep and a hull module is destroyed, which would affect our follow-up evacuation," Lilith answered by the data the ship-system had analyzed.
Zhao Chen looked to Charlotte. "Then we have only one choice, don't we?"
Charlotte raised a hand and called up the T3 Blizzard's ship data.
Star-shield energy 92% remaining, 43 interstellar drones remaining, 45 Blizzard Light Interstellar Missiles remaining, ammunition-resources 93% remaining.
"As things stand, we have no fear of a fight. So long as we wipe out those three T3 hive mother-ships, we can leave in far greater safety," Vice-Captain Charlotte said, her gaze firm.
Zhao Chen's mouth curved up; looking at the three T3 hive mother-ships in the picture, he sat in the captain's chair with one leg crossed over the other, one hand propping his chin. "Then let's fight one battle before we go. It's yours, Vice-Captain Charlotte."
Vice-Captain Charlotte straightened up, a picture of readiness for battle. "Understood, Commander."
Then Vice-Captain Charlotte began handing down a series of combat tasks across the bridge: "Raise speed to 150 star-knots; steer toward the hive mother-ships. The Blizzard-class Heavy Cluster-Laser Bow-Cannon, begin charging! Interstellar drones, begin launch, fly escort with the ship. All remaining combat modules, await orders at any moment!"
"Speed 150 star-knots, heading [redacted x,y], done," the piloting crew called.
"43 Blizzard Interstellar Drones launching… launch complete!" the crew in charge of the interstellar-drone module said.
"The four-cell interstellar missile launch-silo is ready! Done!" the crew in charge of the missile silo pressed a few buttons.
On the T3 Blizzard the four missile-silo gates opened once more, four Blizzard Light Interstellar Missiles poised and ready!
"Blizzard-class Heavy Cluster-Laser Bow-Cannon begins charging; time required, 30 seconds! …30, 29, 28…" With a series of operations by the crew in charge of the bow-cannon—
—the T3 Blizzard's bow-cannon began to blaze with blue light, countless blue particles gathering at the muzzle, blazing ever brighter!
"Ship main-gun combat module — ready!"
"Ship secondary-gun combat module — ready!"
"Ship close-in-gun combat module — ready!"
The crew in charge of the remaining ship-weapon modules called out one after another.
On the T3 Blizzard's hull surface those main guns, secondary guns, and close-in guns trained their muzzles one after another in a single direction, poised and ready!
"30 seconds and our ship enters the enemy hive mother-ships' attack range!" Lilith said at his side.
In the holographic interstellar-battlefield image before Zhao Chen, the projection standing for the T3 Blizzard drew steadily nearer that stretch of projection standing for the hive-mother-ship fleet.
Zhao Chen watched it all from his god's-eye vantage, for all the world as though watching a sci-fi blockbuster.
At this moment Zhao Chen couldn't help marveling once more that a T3 quasi-military-grade warship truly was, in its every performance, wholly unlike a T2-grade warship.
And just then, Zhao Chen saw dense bug-swarms howl forth from those hive mother-ships, thick as a scene of "locust swarms."
At the same time, on one side of the data panel, the numbers standing for bug-race units began to climb without pause.
The T1 flying-bugs, from a starting few tens of thousands, in the blink of an eye became a few hundred thousand, and a few seconds more turned into a full few million — and still the number climbed without let-up.
The T2 Thorny Serpents' count kept rising too, from 1,000 to 3,000 to 5,000, and at the last reached a full 10,000!
And besides these two, this time two more frames appeared.
T3 Self-Detonating Beetle!
T3 Corrupted Wyvern!