Next to that hull's sheer bulk, the quasi-T7 Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer was nothing to look at.
Probably only the hull of the quasi-T7 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship could compare with the quasi-T7 interstellar warship opposite.
And seeing these five interstellar warships come out of the five rings of light, the Drought-Fiend Sovereign knew at once what they were:
the quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had only just brought out at the start of this year,
the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought!
"So that's the card you were hiding. Five quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts, and with the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group alongside them, they could indeed make a showing no weaker than my Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet. But I wonder how much real strength there is in this quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought of yours, and how much is padding." There was no fear at all in the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's voice at the sight of these five quasi-T7 interstellar warships of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire;
if anything, there was more eagerness.
He was very excited to be able to try this quasi-T7 interstellar warship of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's for himself.
It was a habit of the strong.
A duel against the strong could stir up far more feeling in them.
Fighting that was nothing but slaughter could satisfy the somewhat twisted urges in their hearts only for the moment; once it was past, there was only a deeper emptiness.
Only a high-quality duel like this could give them a real sense of satisfaction.
Just then, behind these five quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts, rings of light lit up one after another.
These rings of light were no space jump this time, but the engine halos of interstellar warships, one after another.
And the interstellar warships that appeared were interstellar stealth bombers, every one!
In each of the five directions there were ten thousand of these interstellar stealth bombers.
And on the frontal field, on both flanks of the Owl Dragon guard fleet, there were another ten thousand of these interstellar stealth bombers.
By the look of it, those five quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts meant to lead the interstellar stealth bombers behind them in a frontal charge.
A charge led by interstellar stealth bombers was something rarely seen even in the history of war.
For the strength of the interstellar stealth bomber as a ship type lay in fighting hidden, falling on the enemy by surprise, and then pulling back fast.
In a frontal fight, their performance was not even as good as an interstellar destroyer's of the same grade.
After all, the two had been meant for completely different roles from the moment they were designed.
"Hmph. A comical tactic." The Drought-Fiend Sovereign gave a cold smile, unimpressed by the enemy's tactic of forcing ducks onto a perch.
Forcing a ship type unsuited to the frontal field onto the frontal field was beyond doubt a way of seeking one's own death.
"Pass on my order: every legion fleet, prepare to meet the enemy. Destroy every Owl Dragon interstellar warship before us. Be wary of the enemy's quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts. And don't let the enemy's interstellar stealth bombers come too close; the weapons these interstellar stealth bombers carry are all medium- and short-range. So long as they don't get too close, they'll have nothing to use them on at all!"
What the Drought-Fiend Sovereign said did make a great deal of sense.
Both the Owl Dragon Emperor and Zhao Waner herself knew this very well.
If they could have had their way, they would not have wanted to use the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group on this battlefield either; but the fact was that the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire truly had no troops left to send now!
As it stood, on this battlefield the Owl Dragon legion fleets' side had an Emperor's Guard Fleet of three thousand interstellar warships, with ten thousand interstellar stealth bombers.
And on the flanks there were five more combat squares, each led by one quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought, with about ten thousand interstellar stealth bombers following behind.
It could be said they were split into six combat zones.
On the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's side, the hundred thousand interstellar warships had also taken up battle formation, and were advancing slowly.
The main thrust was aimed at the Emperor's Guard Fleet ahead, for that was where the Owl Dragon Emperor's flagship, the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship, was.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign knew very well what the highest-value target on this battlefield was.
At the same time, he was guarding against attack from those five quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts around him.
For they were the only unstable factor on this battlefield at present.
He knew only that the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had this quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship; so far he had no data on it at all, still less any experience of it in real combat.
So he had to be careful and cautious.
Meanwhile, aboard the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship on the other side,
Zhao Chen watched this scene calmly. The strategic aim of this lightning strike on the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet was to cripple or even destroy the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet opposite in the shortest possible time.
If the quasi-T7 Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer could be destroyed too, that would be best of all.
"Pass on my order: the Emperor's Guard Fleet is to enter combat state. Carry out combat contingency plan three." Commander Xiong Xiangxiang gave her battle orders on the command channel.
They had only three thousand interstellar warships, but the bearing they put up was not the least bit inferior to the hundred-thousand-strong host opposite.
It looked as if there were not three thousand interstellar warships on this side, but three hundred thousand!
After all, there were over a hundred T6-grade interstellar warships here.
And now, following the combat practice of the Owl Dragon-line legion fleets,
the first thing, naturally, was to set the interstellar heavy-artillery ships to lay down blanket fire.
The T5 Spear-of-Sin-class Heavy Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ships and the T6 Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess-class Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ships were drawn up in a line, and the great guns towering on their hulls were all building up terrible energy now.
As ball after ball of light was fired off, a scene like a meteor swarm appeared.
The energy shells, carrying the breath of destruction, went hurtling at the enemy's interstellar warships.
And it was in just this situation that some of the small fleets among the Emperor's Guard Fleet's three thousand interstellar warships actually went on the attack themselves.
These were the interstellar destroyers, interstellar battleships, interstellar battlecruisers and interstellar cruisers.
Perhaps to outsiders, and even to the commanders of the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet opposite,
the Emperor's Guard Fleet, so outnumbered and with the Owl Dragon Emperor's flagship to protect besides, could surely never attack of its own accord.
That was entirely wrong.
His Majesty the Emperor's safety mattered, of course, but Zhao Chen had also told Xiong Xiangxiang that on the battlefield, winning the fight came before everything.
So long as they could win, any way of fighting at all would do.
And now Commander Xiong Xiangxiang had decided to attack first, and meet the hundred thousand interstellar warships opposite head-on, hard against hard,
to see whose fighting power was greater, and who was the real "Sovereign" here!
The blanket fire of the T5 Spear-of-Sin-class Heavy Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ships and the T6 Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess-class Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ships had a very marked effect.
There were not many of these two interstellar warship classes in service in the Emperor's Guard Fleet, but they were T5- and T6-grade interstellar warships, after all.
Above all the T6 Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess-class Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ships.
Only ten of them were in service in the Emperor's Guard Fleet.
But the firepower these ten put out was nothing short of terrifying!
The 10,000 Wrath-of-Heaven energy heavy guns kept firing without a break, loosing a shell every few seconds,
keeping up high-intensity saturation fire.
Some of the gun barrels were even glowing red, and still they did not stop.
For by Commander Xiong Xiangxiang's order, these interstellar heavy-artillery ships had to keep up ten minutes of saturation fire in the first round of the attack.
That came very close to the theoretical limit of these two interstellar heavy-artillery ship classes.
And why ten minutes exactly?
It was because that was the time the Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships on this side needed to close in on the front of the enemy's fleet.
With the enemy many and themselves few, and each enemy interstellar warship weaker than one of their own,
Commander Xiong Xiangxiang's thinking was to close the fighting distance between the two sides in the shortest time and at the least cost, and bring both sides into a confused melee.
That way they could use the greater fighting power of their single ships to gain the upper hand in the fighting.
Put simply, it was victory out of chaos!
And in the course of this, the charge was bound to raise casualties, for the enemy's interstellar warships were no pushovers either, and were sure to pour down their fire at this stage.
And at such a time, using their own firepower to suppress the enemy's was beyond doubt a form of protection,
leaving the enemy's interstellar warships no chance at all to open fire and attack!
That was also why Commander Xiong Xiangxiang had ordered these interstellar heavy-artillery ships to keep up ten minutes of saturation fire.
"Report: a tenth of our gun barrels have overheated and overloaded. And one of the power engines has been sounding its limit alarm for thirty seconds already!" the secretary-officer reported nervously to the captain of this Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess-class Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship before her.
The Wrath-of-Heaven Goddess's captain glanced at a number window floating before her; a figure was ticking over on it, and it had reached two minutes now.
That meant there were two minutes left of the time Commander Xiong Xiangxiang had demanded.
"Pass it down: not one heavy gun is to stop unless it bursts! Our orders from above are ten minutes of saturation fire, so it's ten minutes, not one minute or one second less. His Majesty the Emperor is watching us from the Dragon Emperor; if we shame ourselves now, we needn't bother staying in the Emperor's Guard Fleet after this," the captain roared.
The secretary-officer said with some worry, "But…"