At the same time, the other two Sovereigns, on learning of this, made similar arrangements at once too.
Whether or not the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's legion fleet groups had really broken in, at the least every due preparation and deployment had to be made.
In a matter like this, better to believe it than not.
After all, these targets of attack were the very foundations of their Devourer Civilization.
If even a third of them were damaged, that was something they could not accept; it would have an enormous effect on the Devourer Civilization's military industry, an effect that might last ten years, twenty years, or even longer.
So they would never allow such a thing to happen.
And so,
the three Sovereigns' legion fleets of the Devourer Civilization all sprang into motion because of this sudden event.
That made the whole Devourer Civilization's universe seem very "chaotic" all at once.
Apart from those in the army, most people could not understand what on earth was happening.
Was the Devourer Civilization about to invade some other interstellar universe again?
But this was different from before too; before, when the Devourer Civilization invaded other interstellar civilizations' universes, everything was fully prepared and went step by step in order.
Not in such a rush as now.
And the cleverer ones had already roughly guessed that this was surely no military movement to attack some other interstellar civilization's universe,
but that some interstellar power was attacking the Devourer Civilization.
Above all some people within the Troll Monarch's territory, for something like this had happened half a year ago.
That time, the seven star systems they had used as bridgeheads for invading the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had been struck back at in a raid by the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
On learning then that the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's interstellar legion fleets were striking back, every legion fleet left in the Troll Monarch's territory had been mobilized in an emergency,
and sent at once to support the seven star systems.
How alike the situation then was to the situation now!
…………
An important strategic star system.
A Devourer Civilization interstellar corps fleet was sailing slowly out of here, heading off in one direction.
They had naturally received orders from above to go at once to the site of the anomalous spatial disturbance, find out exactly how things stood there now, and then decide the next step.
Three thousand interstellar warships streamed out one after another, making for that direction at top speed.
"Report, Commander: at our present speed, we expect to reach the target area in ten minutes at most," the secretary-officer reported to the corps fleet commander before him.
The corps fleet commander nodded with satisfaction, then said, "Tell everyone not to drop their guard; every interstellar warship is to be ready for battle."
"Yes." The secretary-officer answered, but soon asked carefully, "My lord… is this really the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire invading us? The Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire has some strength, true, and caught us off guard in the first campaign against us. But there's still a difference of kind between their strength and ours. How would they dare attack us first?"
By the end, the secretary-officer's tone was all astonishment and bewilderment, unwilling to believe such a thing.
The corps fleet commander drew a deep breath, and a look of memory and fear showed in his eyes: "That's because you lot have never truly fought the Owl Dragon interstellar legion fleets. That crowd truly are a pack of madmen, madmen of very great fighting quality, and these madmen also have the strongest set of interstellar warships in the known universe. If it weren't for their shortfall in numbers, never mind us: all the interstellar powers in the known universe together couldn't be a match for them. When you fight them, you can feel that the enemy hasn't the least gap, not the slightest weakness. And the only way to beat them is head-on, destroying the interstellar warships opposite one by one. A way of fighting like that, you should be able to imagine, costs the attacker very dearly. And mind you, the fighting power of Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships is there for everyone to see; even if you lot haven't seen it, from the combat data on Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships put together over these six months you ought to have a rough idea. And here's one thing I'll tell you now: when you truly face an Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire legion fleet, if you don't have five times as many interstellar warships as they do, I'd advise you to withdraw at once, unless you've had a do-or-die order from above. And even if you have five times as many interstellar warships as the Owl Dragon legion fleet opposite, you can't drop your guard in the least. Because that crowd of madmen, even facing a hopelessly one-sided battle, will fight on at any cost, and in the course of it, if you show the least weakness, those madmen will bite a chunk out of you without the least mercy. When you fight that crowd of madmen, every nerve in your head has to be strung tight every moment."
The secretary-officer looked in astonishment at the fear in his corps fleet commander's eyes.
The corps fleet they were in had been founded lately; two-thirds of it were new recruits.
And this corps fleet commander was a veteran, dropped in from above.
As far as he knew, it seemed his old corps fleet had been very nearly wiped out, but because he had shown no fault on the battlefield,
this corps fleet commander had not been held to account; instead he had been moved from a front-line combat fleet to a legion fleet like theirs, stationed in a star system: you could call it putting him out to pasture.
"I know what's going through your head right now. You lot guessed right in private. I did take part in that campaign to invade the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's universe. It's a beautiful place, and it's also a place I never want to go again as long as I live; to me, it's a hell like a nightmare. I led my corps fleet under orders to fight the enemy on one battlefield. My three thousand interstellar warships were nothing among the several million interstellar warships on that battlefield. I'd been through battles of that grade several times, and it was on the strength of rich combat experience that I'd risen to command a corps fleet. At first I thought it was a battle like any ordinary attack on another interstellar civilization's universe. The enemy would make a token show of resistance, then be flattened by our interstellar legion fleets, and then we could plunder the wealth of that universe and in the end offer it up to our great being. But from the very start the campaign went in a way no one expected. The Owl Dragon legion fleet groups opposite fought us, and the fighting was fiercer than anyone could imagine. By the rules our Devourer Civilization's legion fleets fight by, in large campaigns we use a rotation system. When we attack, the corps fleets doing the attacking are rotated out to rest and refit after five hours of fighting. And do you know what? In the first rotation alone, my corps fleet went from three thousand interstellar warships to fewer than five hundred. Have you ever seen a sky full of interstellar missiles? Have you ever seen massed heavy-gun fire coming down like a meteor shower? And those terrifying interstellar warships? Among the corps fleets carrying out that task with me at the time, no few were even wiped out outright, without even the chance of rotation. After we were rotated out, I could see terror on the faces of my NCOs and crew. That was a look that had never appeared on the battlefield on our Devourer Civilization's legion fleets. Because in every battle before that, we'd always won by crushing them. Even when the enemy put up some resistance, it was never as fierce and terrifying as that time. It was only five hours, but to my corps fleet it was as long as five months of fighting. We were the lucky ones, not on the front line of the attack. Later I learned that nearly every corps fleet on the front line of the attack had been wiped out. After that the battlefield grew fiercer and fiercer. And my corps fleet, after being re-formed with three other mauled corps fleets, had three thousand interstellar warships again. And was sent onto the battlefield again. To be honest, at the time I didn't want to go onto the battlefield again at all. But everyone knows that shrinking from battle on the battlefield, with us, means one word: death. So we could only grit our teeth and charge. In the second attack I found that not only I, but my fleet and the people of the other three fleets, plainly hadn't the spirit we'd had before; the command channel was deathly quiet. Mostly everyone just carried out their combat tasks like good soldiers, and silently prayed they wouldn't fall to the enemy's attacks. Another five hours. Of those three thousand interstellar warships patched together, a thousand were left this time."
The secretary-officer now saw a deep, far look in this corps fleet commander's eyes.
But as far as he knew, this corps fleet commander was not yet thirty.
He ought not to have such a heavy, deep look.
"I may count as one of the lucky ones. I carried out combat tasks like that twice more. And every time, I lived through it. By rights, someone in my situation, if not for merit then for hard labor, would be more than fit to be a legion fleet's deputy commander." The corps fleet commander gave a self-mocking smile. "But in fact everyone knows: our Troll Monarch killed a great many front-line commanders because of the defeat in that campaign. That I'm alive at all counts as good luck. If my family didn't still need me, and I weren't too young yet, I'd truly want to leave the service and go home. I wonder whether I'll really live through it this time."
The secretary-officer swallowed and said, "My lord… what we were talking about just now: wasn't it whether this really is the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire attacking?"
The corps fleet commander said with a light laugh, "I've said all this and you still haven't understood? That crowd in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's legion fleet groups are madmen; they'll dare do anything. And that Owl Dragon Emperor is a war madman through and through too. Any operational plan that looks feasible to them, they'll carry out! So I don't doubt for a moment that the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's Owl Dragon Emperor would order his legion fleet groups to attack our Devourer Civilization's universe first. So long as, to them, it's worth it."
The secretary-officer understood.
"Then… then what do we do next? If we really do run into the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's legion fleet groups, we……" The secretary-officer panicked now.
They were afraid of dying too.
But the corps fleet commander waved his hand calmly. "Don't panic. Our main task this time is first to find out how things stand at these coordinates. It isn't necessarily to send us to fight. If we find it really is the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's legion fleets, we report it up then. And wait for orders from above. Whether to fight or not isn't ours to decide. You, them, me: we're all only pieces for the great lords above."
The secretary-officer was lost for words; that was indeed how things stood.
It was not something they could change; they were only war machines carrying out military orders; even if they did not want to fight, it was not theirs to decide.
The corps fleet commander, on the contrary, faced it all calmly, his face light and easy.
He had been through that great war, after all; as he saw it, even if those above truly ordered him to block the Owl Dragon legion fleet groups,
he could only carry out that hopeless combat task.
Count the past half year as time he had won back from death.
…………
"Send the intelligence back: an enemy corps fleet three thousand strong is leaving its station, heading toward one of our task sites. Most likely it's coming for us. Ask whether we're to intercept." The captain of an Owl Dragon interstellar stealth reconnaissance ship hidden quietly far off, watching these three thousand interstellar warships, gave her deputy captain this order.
And here there was only a single platoon: three interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships.
No doubt some would be astonished: just three starships, and three interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships at that,
and this captain dared speak of intercepting these three thousand Devourer Civilization interstellar warships?
This captain knew too that it was a mantis raising its arms against a chariot, but so long as it was an order from above, even holding them back a minute or two
would be worth it.
Very soon she had her answer.
"Report: an order has come from the company commander. We're to keep watching from this position, no interception. We needn't worry," the deputy captain reported.
"Mm." The captain nodded, and went on with her task here without a change of expression.
The task they had been sent to the Devourer Civilization for was to scatter these reconnaissance platoons across the Devourer Civilization like so many sentry posts,
their task being to keep every move of every interstellar warship in this Devourer Civilization universe right under their noses.
So once these three interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships carried out a combat task of sacrificing themselves to buy time,
it would mean this sentry post of theirs was gone.
So, weighing the two, the company commander chose to keep this sentry post hidden.
These three thousand Devourer Civilization interstellar warships naturally went on smoothly to the target space too.
And as they were about to reach that stretch of space,
their starship radar detected interstellar warship energy signatures in that space at the edge of the star system, which ought to have been deserted.
"Report: thirty interstellar warship energy signatures found; they're hovering in place, not moving, and not trying to hide," the secretary-officer said beside him.
The corps fleet commander thought a moment and said, "Send a squad of interstellar reconnaissance drones over to see how things stand. At the same time, the fleet keeps a steady speed as it closes in, ready for battle. And send back how things stand with us now."
"Yes," the secretary-officer answered.
The corps fleet commander's expression was very grave.
When the secretary-officer had passed on the work, he came back, looked at the commander's grave expression, and asked, puzzled, "My lord, I understand Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships are very strong. But these are only thirty interstellar warships; even if all thirty are T5-grade interstellar warships, we have three thousand interstellar warships; are we really afraid of them?"
The corps fleet commander said seriously, "Don't look down on Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships; even only thirty Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships can unleash astonishing fighting power in battle. You may have seen the figures on paper: in that campaign before, the loss ratio between us and the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's interstellar fleets was over ten to one! But mind one thing: that was with us holding an enormous advantage in numbers of interstellar warships. And on the main front, those were all our main interstellar warships! What are these in our fleet now? We have T5-grade interstellar warships too, true, but our overall fighting power counts at most as one of the Devourer Civilization's second- or third-line fleets, never mind everyone's will to fight and fighting quality. I'd guess that if it really came to fighting, the Owl Dragon interstellar warships opposite could even manage a loss ratio of twenty to one, even thirty to one. And if these enemy interstellar warships include interstellar missile ships, carrier starships and the like, the end result is truly hard to say."
Hearing the corps fleet commander say this, the secretary-officer still did not quite dare believe it.
Were Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships truly so terrifying?
Before long,
the interstellar reconnaissance drones sent out sent back the pictures they had taken of the target space.
Thirty interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships could be seen clearly hovering there, as though performing some rite, giving a feeling of mystery and strangeness.
"These seem to be only interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships?" the secretary-officer said in astonishment.
The corps fleet commander was taken aback a moment, then analyzed: "If I'm not wrong, these thirty interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships are sending high-frequency signals to their Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's universe, so that the Owl Dragon legion fleets following can reach this place without the least error!"
"Then shouldn't we use this moment to destroy these thirty interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships?" the secretary-officer said at once. "That would stop the Owl Dragon interstellar legion fleets reaching this position!"
The corps fleet commander shook his head and said, "You're thinking too naively. Since we've found this high-frequency signal, and given the time it took us to get here, the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's side must have found it long ago too. So the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's legion fleets reaching this place is only a matter of time. It has nothing to do anymore with whether we destroy these thirty interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships or not."
"Then what do we do now?" the secretary-officer asked.
The corps fleet commander thought for a moment and said seriously, "Report this up. Until we have orders from above, our interstellar warships are not to make any rash move!"
"Yes!" The secretary-officer went at once to see to it.
Very soon they had an answer.
"My lord, the latest order passed to us from above: destroy every Owl Dragon-line interstellar warship in the area at once. Then keep the area under close watch. Above will send more legion fleets later to support us, ready to give any Owl Dragon legion fleets that dare invade us a crushing blow," the secretary-officer answered.
The corps fleet commander said with a dark face, "Destroying these thirty interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships is no hard thing. But after that, wiping out the Owl Dragon legion fleets that come here: whether that can be done, no one knows. Never mind all that. First carry out the task from above. Pass on my order: our corps fleet goes ahead at full speed, ready to destroy every Owl Dragon-line interstellar warship found. And on no account drop your guard because the ones opposite are interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships!"
At the end, the corps fleet commander did not forget to warn them.
The secretary-officer muttered inwardly: they were only some interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships; a battlefield auxiliary interstellar warship like that, whatever it did, was still only an interstellar stealth reconnaissance ship; could it threaten the three thousand interstellar warships on their side?
……
On the other side, the company commander of this Phantom Scout company had naturally spotted the three thousand Devourer Civilization interstellar warships arriving too.
"An enemy corps fleet of three thousand interstellar warships is coming straight at us; we expect it to come within firing range in one minute. What do we do?" The secretary-officer looked at the company commander.
Because their interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships had all started that device, they could not go into concealment, and so were exposed directly to the enemy's interstellar warships' radar.
"By rights, home should have received the high-frequency signal we sent by now. But this area is where our legion fleets will come in; it can't fall into the enemy's control. Pass on my order: prepare to carry out the planned combat scheme. Until our legion fleets get here, not one of our interstellar warships is to fall back! Be ready for battle!" the company commander barked.
At the order for their own interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships to be ready for battle, this secretary-officer did not hesitate in the least, as if it were the most ordinary order there was.
She passed it on at once.
In that moment,
all thirty interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships swung their bows round, taking up a stance to meet the enemy.
The Devourer Civilization corps fleet arriving saw it too.