The young cadre looked at the mocking faces around him and said nothing more.
But in his heart he thought his guess was not wholly impossible.
After all, would a commander who had dared strike back at the Devourer Civilization's home universe not dare plan another surprise attack?
……
At this very moment, far from this military-industrial base, in a remote stretch of space,
three interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships lay hidden,
quietly watching every move there.
"One last check of the information. Target seventeen: a hundred thousand interstellar warships are stationed here at present. Within the star system there's a star gate and a star port; if the star gate isn't destroyed in time, the enemy's emergency response plan will send great numbers of interstellar legion fleets through the star gate in a short time to support it. And if we can destroy the star gate here in time, the enemy can only support this place by warp travel, or by special means of delivery. The latter we can't put a time on. But for the former, going by the interstellar legion fleets stationed within a certain radius in the surrounding star systems, within five hours after the enemy finds us, at most two million interstellar warships will swarm in here." The secretary-officer read out the intelligence recorded and looked at the captain.
The captain nodded. "Confirmed, no errors; send this intelligence to company."
"Yes." The secretary-officer at once sent the information back on an encrypted channel.
In an instant, the intelligence had passed to the edge of space at the outskirts of this star system.
There thirty interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships lay hidden.
These interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships were ranged in a ring, as though preparing something.
"Report: every platoon has sent back its last intelligence; it's basically no different from the intelligence before," the secretary-officer reported to the reconnaissance company commander before her.
"Very good; it's about time. Get ready to start our plan. Prepare to start the instruments; release the high-frequency wave in three minutes! At the same time, tell every reconnaissance platoon that from now on the interval for passing intelligence is cut from ten minutes to one minute; if they find urgent intelligence, they may pass it at once, without regard to the time."
"Yes."
At the reconnaissance company commander's order,
some kind of device started up aboard the thirty interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships ringed here.
These devices formed some kind of link in this stretch of space, and at last burst out into some kind of invisible high-frequency wave.
Viewed on certain instruments, a "dawn" would suddenly be seen appearing in the space that had been pitch-black.
And the appearance of this dawn would very soon be found too by the stations monitoring spatial disturbances all over the Devourer Civilization's universe.
For the disturbance was enormous; it could not possibly go unnoticed.
And it was not one or two that appeared, but dozens.
In that instant, to the Devourer Civilization's universe's inspection stations, it was as though a hundred stones had suddenly been thrown into a calm lake; there was no telling how violent the ripples were.
"Warning! Warning! Multiple high-frequency spatial disturbances detected!"
The staff at a main monitoring station found this anomaly,
and at once contacted his immediate superior.
"What is it? Calling me in such a rush." An impatient voice came through, and behind it women's flirtatious laughter could be heard.
"My lord, this is bad! Something big has happened. Our station has found great numbers of high-frequency spatial anomalies!" The staff member reported while running every kind of check, his forehead covered in beads of sweat.
"High-frequency spatial disturbances have happened before. Because of our universe's cross-universe invasions abroad in past years, its universe barrier is fragile to begin with. The least disturbance can affect us. What the hell are you making a fuss about!" the superior said, as though it were nothing new.
But the staff member swallowed and said nervously, "My lord, this time is different from before. This time… this time we've already detected as many as thirty sites of anomalous disturbance. And these anomalous sites appeared no more than five seconds apart. Just… just as if it had been agreed beforehand."
The music on the superior's side stopped, and his voice turned from its earlier laziness to grave: "Are you sure? Look into the coordinates of these thirty anomalous spatial disturbance sites; could they be sites where anomalous disturbances have appeared before, with something like a spatial collapse? But… thirty-odd appearing one after another at once; that truly has never happened……"
Before the superior had finished,
the staff member said in terror, "My lord… it's… it's bad… something huge is about to happen! I just checked carefully whether the coordinates of these thirty sites have anything in common. And I… I found… the coordinates of these thirty anomalous spatial disturbances match exactly our Devourer Civilization's fifty highest-value strategic points!"
At this news, a terrified voice came from the superior's side.
"What? Are you sure!"
"I'm sure; I can send you the related star-chart markings right now."
"Send me a copy right now. I'm coming back to the station now. And… issue the highest-grade alarm at once, this minute!" The superior swallowed and gave the order at once.
There was only one possibility for this: some enemy meant to launch a surprise attack on the Devourer Civilization, and every target of the attack was one of the Devourer Civilization's important strategic points.
If the enemy achieved this aim of attack, it would surely make the Devourer Civilization suffer a heavy loss.
At the very thought that someone might try to attack the Devourer Civilization,
he felt it was beyond belief, wholly impossible to believe.
But now that these leads and this information were set before him, even the possibility he least wanted to believe,
he had no choice but to believe, and sound the alarm.
Otherwise, if it came out afterward that they had known how things stood and sounded no alarm, that would be dereliction of duty, and their whole station would go before a court-martial.
The other monitoring stations had basically made the same arrangements one after another, and alarms sounded in turn.
And with alarms coming in from so many monitoring stations at once, naturally someone at once reported it to the three Sovereigns.
For so many alarms were rare in all the time since the Devourer Civilization was founded.
It had always been their part to attack and invade others; when had it ever been anyone else's turn to strike back at them?
The Troll Monarch looked at the subordinate kneeling before him. "What? You say every monitoring station in the territory under our command has sounded the alarm!"
"Yes! The first inspection station to sound the alarm did so a minute and a half ago, the latest ten seconds ago!" the subordinate reported nervously.
The Troll Monarch frowned.
He had never foreseen this sudden situation.
And all this pointed to the worst turn there could be, which was beyond doubt one thing: someone was launching an invasion of the Devourer Civilization!
Those anomalous spatial sites were all the enemy's bridgeheads!
Who would dare attack the Devourer Civilization's universe at such a time?
Unwilling as he was a thousand times over to admit it,
at this moment there was only one power in the Troll Monarch's mind that would dare do such a thing:
the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire!
"Madman; that fellow is a madman through and through." The Troll Monarch cursed aloud, but in his heart he dared not take it lightly in the least.
He stood up at once and ordered, "Pass on my order. The whole of our territory goes into a first-grade state of war at once. At the same time, inform the other two Sovereigns of the situation. Have the legion fleets nearest these anomalous spatial disturbance sites send at least one corps fleet to the target sites at once to see how things truly stand! And send interstellar legion fleets urgently to those strategic points that may come under attack, to make sure these strategic points stay safe whatever happens! Whatever happens, none of these strategic points may be lost."
At this point the Troll Monarch paused, seemed to think of something, and added, "If the pressure of defense is too great, defend the strategic points of higher priority first!"
"Yes!"
His subordinate passed these orders on.
The Troll Monarch looked gravely at the interstellar map of the Devourer Civilization's universe before him; on it, thirty-odd places were flashing now.
If each of these thirty cursor sites stood for a target the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire meant to attack,
it was truly too shocking, too unbelievable.
Mind you, when their Devourer Civilization had launched its first wave against the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, they had dared open only five battlefields in the first stage, and only later raised it to seven.
And now, if the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire truly meant to open thirty battlefields at one go in attacking the Devourer Civilization's universe,
what did that mean?
Opening a battlefield was no simple matter of sending legion fleets to fight.
In a campaign, every additional local battlefield made the difficulty of battlefield command soar for the attacking side.
And this was fighting across universes besides.
If that Owl Dragon Emperor were no madman, he could never have allowed such an attack.
Then a look of madness came over the Troll Monarch's face. "Owl Dragon Emperor, if you truly dare do such a thing, I ought to thank you. Thank you for giving me a chance to wipe out my humiliation so soon. I'll entertain you and your legion fleets properly. I'll make sure you and these legion fleets of yours come in and never go out!"
All along, the defeat in the earlier campaign had been a shadow hanging over this Troll Monarch's heart.
At every moment he had longed to attack the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire again.
But the other two Sovereigns, on the grounds of careful preparation, had kept putting it off until now.
It had truly cost him all appetite for tea and food.
And now, just as he was dozing off, someone had brought the pillow right up to him.
How could the Troll Monarch not be glad!