Chapter 1541

The Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought No. 2 · the bridge

"Report: we'll enter combat range in one minute, and be able to attack the enemy's Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer directly!"

"Report: all the interstellar drones and interstellar interceptors we recovered have finished their turnaround. They can be launched onto the battlefield again!"

"Report: all gun emplacements ready; we can attack at any moment."

"Report: every module on our ship has been checked; no problems at all. We can carry out any combat operation!"

On the bridge, every department was reporting on its tasks at a feverish pace.

They all knew very well, naturally, how important the combat task they were about to carry out was.

It was also the chance for their Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought to win great merit in this first showing.

An interstellar warship of their grade really stood on its own on the battlefield; destroying enemy interstellar warships was only a number in a battle report.

After all, you were a quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship; when people saw that,

they naturally thought it was just the task you ought to complete, and if you failed to complete it, the fault was yours.

So it was very hard to carry out a combat task that would astonish everyone.

It had to be a combat task of the same grade.

And now just such a chance lay before them!

The enemy's quasi-T7 Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer!^[1]

A combat task like this, an opponent like this:

let this one slip, and who knew when the next would come?

So Huo Feifei set great weight on it, and the other major-general captain surely felt the same.

Huo Feifei brought up the short introduction to this interstellar warship.

She had already read it more times than she knew,

but she still liked to read it; she could even recite the figures on it backward,

and still she liked to read it,

for it was like looking at her own child.

And for this combat task, as with three of the other quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts,

the thirty thousand quasi-T7 standard medium-range interstellar missiles on their No. 2 had not been used before now.

It was all for this moment.

Before this, the interstellar interceptors and interstellar drone swarms had shown themselves, but had kept their strength intact as far as they could.

That too was all for this moment.

"Pass on my order: every department, be twelve times as sharp as usual. What comes next is the time to show what our Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought is worth. His Majesty the Emperor didn't put so fine an interstellar warship into our hands to be a pretty mascot; he wants to see how it bears itself on the battlefield! Don't let His Majesty the Emperor down!" Huo Feifei, usually a rather calm young woman, could not keep the excitement out of her voice now.

Then she took a deep breath and said seriously, "Prepare to launch all interstellar drone swarms and interstellar interceptors. All interstellar missiles and interstellar gun emplacements to combat state. Lock on to the enemy ship! Lock on to the one and only enemy ship of this battle: the enemy Drought-Fiend Sovereign's flagship, the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer!"

"Yes!"

Every department went into motion at once.

From this quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought, all three thousand quasi-T7-grade Silver-Scarab-class Unmanned Medium Interstellar Interceptors flew out.

After their brief turnaround, they were all in their best condition, ready to meet the real prey to come.

The thousand squadrons of Bronze-Scarab drone swarms came swarming out too, like so many black swarms of insects.

At this moment, every gun emplacement on the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought locked onto the super-giant ship drawing nearer and nearer opposite,

their target this time,

the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer!

At this moment the other quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought, No. 5, was making the same arrangements as Huo Feifei.

Seen this way, it was as if two golden arrows were aimed at this Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer.

And the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer, in the middle of its own legion fleet, naturally had no room at all to dodge.

"Damn it," the Drought-Fiend Sovereign swore under his breath.

Through the viewport of his starship's bridge at this moment, he could even see the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts on either side directly.

For this interstellar warship was truly huge, and its hull was painted golden yellow besides; even from far off it looked like a golden jewel flashing there without pause.

"So you want to deal with me. Let's just see how strong this quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought of yours really is, Owl Dragon Emperor! It's only two of them. Let's cross swords!" The Drought-Fiend Sovereign knew there was no dodging this now.

And since there was no dodging it, he would just have to take the blade as it came.

But in truth the Drought-Fiend Sovereign was not afraid at heart.

He knew the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts opposite were no weaklings; one alone might even really be stronger in a fight than his own Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer.

But on the battlefield, it was not only a matter of comparing the two sides' interstellar warships.

Many outside factors counted too.

Right now, for instance, the enemy's two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts were surrounded by his own fleet.

And to think of eating his Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer in a short time with only two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts thought far too little of his Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer.

And once the fight dragged on too long, the interstellar stealth bombers that had made the surprise attack to cover the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts would naturally be reduced to wreckage under the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet's counterattack.

After all, the interstellar stealth bomber's weakness as a ship type was that it could not keep up high-intensity fighting; nearly all the weapons on its hull were single-use.

So the longer the fighting dragged on, the worse it was for these Owl Dragon interstellar warships.

What was more, before long the Troll Monarch's legion fleet's forty thousand interstellar warships would arrive on the battlefield in support.

By then the whole course of the battle would change.

"Hmph. Arrogant creatures. I'll show you that this decision of yours was a mistake. As it happens, I'm rather taken with this glittering gold interstellar warship; there happens to be an empty spot in my trophy collection." The corners of the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's mouth turned up slightly.

He paused, then opened the ship-wide command channel: "Every department of the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King, listen well. The Drought-Fiend Ghost-King now enters the highest combat state. All weapons to combat state. Launch all interstellar fighters; all interstellar missiles set to firing state!"

"Yes!"

At this moment, this Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer made its own series of preparations for battle.

The belly of the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer slowly opened, showing interstellar fighters hanging upside down, one after another.

That's right: this interstellar multirole destroyer was not only a destroyer.

The Drought-Fiend Sovereign had made a whole series of changes to it,

and added a great many things onto it, including the ten thousand interstellar fighters here now.

And they were all T6-grade interstellar fighters, every one.

These fighters, called the Ghost-Soldier-class Medium Interstellar Fighter, were no weaker in combat than the interstellar fighters on real carrier starships.

And a load of ten thousand was more than many purpose-built carrier starships carried.

Now, on receiving the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's order, the Ghost-Soldier-class Medium Interstellar Fighters were dropped out one after another.

They had been folded up; once dropped, each one spread its wings in midair, taking on its full form.

After all, this was an interstellar destroyer, and the space inside was not so ample as a carrier starship's, so the way these ten thousand interstellar fighters were stowed had been chosen to save as much space as possible.

Besides that, on the top of the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's hull, hatch after hatch opened, showing pitch-dark missile silos one after another.

Counted carefully, there were fully eight hundred of these missile silos.

Beneath every missile silo was an interstellar missile ready to fire.

As for how many interstellar missiles were hidden inside the hull of this Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer, no one knew.

At the same time, at the skull on the prow of the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer, the skull actually split in two, showing an enormous prow gun hidden inside!

The prow gun slowly extended; particle light began to spread over it as it built up its charge.

Judging by the size of this prow gun and the way it worked,

it was without doubt a battleship-grade prow gun.

Perhaps it was also out of thought for what this prow gun used up in battle that it had been made hidden like this, not to be used in ordinary fighting if it could be helped,

and brought out only when it was needed.

Besides that, all around the hull appeared over a thousand main guns, secondary guns and rapid-fire guns of different models!

Anyone who did not know would never have thought this was an interstellar destroyer.

It carried more weapons than even an interstellar battleship.

Terrifying, truly!

It could be called armed to the teeth.

At the same time, outside its hull, there appeared, of all things, three layers of star-shield defense.

That's right!

Three layers of star-shield defense.

This was very rare among almost all interstellar warships; even interstellar escorts, made specially for defense, seldom had such a capability.

Three layers of star-shield defense, unless backed by three completely independent star-shield power sources, would be very wasteful if one source were split three ways.

And if it had three independent star-shield defense systems with their own power, that meant this interstellar destroyer's defense was very terrible too.

The captains of the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts, as its opponents, had naturally noticed all of this as well.

"Major General Mu Baiqing, you've seen all the analysis data on that interstellar warship opposite, haven't you?" Major General Huo Feifei looked at a video window beside her.

This was the captain of the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought No. 5, Mu Baiqing, an Imperial major general like her.

Major General Mu Baiqing nodded and said seriously, "It's worthy of being a super-flagship of one of the three Sovereigns. Nearly every one of its capabilities has been reworked and maxed out."

"We can't take it lightly. But at the same time we have to have enough faith in our Golden Scarab, too. This is our Empire's first mass-production quasi-T7 interstellar warship," Major General Huo Feifei said, first giving her own ship a little praise.

Then she looked at Major General Mu Baiqing. "Have you decided on our battle strategy?"

Major General Mu Baiqing smiled and shrugged. "Attack, attack, and attack again. I can't think of any other strategy; after all, in this combat setting, we're deep among enemy ships with no friendly ships to support us, and our fleets' fire support can't reach this far. There's no question of coordinating anything."

Major General Huo Feifei said with a smile, "You think the same as me. Since there's no tactical coordination to be had, we may as well carry the attack through to the end. Our two Golden Scarabs take one direction each, and think of nothing else. We just attack. Within fifteen minutes, we'll see who breaks through first!"

Major General Mu Baiqing raised her eyebrows; even over the video link she could feel the fighting spirit the other could not hide.

The corners of Major General Mu Baiqing's mouth turned up slightly, and she said rather provokingly, "Little sister Feifei. In our simulation training before, of all five Golden Scarab crews, you were the one who cared most about scores. Every time you fought for first place. Whenever you didn't come first, you'd go back and drill your crew hard. If your No. 2 doesn't get to shine this time, won't that make you unhappy? Little sister Feifei."

The five Golden Scarab crews all knew one another rather well.

After all, before the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought rolled off the line into service, the five crews had trained together, and had had competitive simulation training too.

And many times it had been Huo Feifei and Mu Baiqing fighting it out for the top.

Mu Baiqing was the steadier and calmer of the two, and being a few years older than Huo Feifei in service, she had richer battle experience; she won more often than she lost.

The corners of Huo Feifei's mouth twitched; this "old friend" of hers was good in every way, except that she sometimes needled her.

But that was also, in a way, a means of stirring up a teammate's fighting spirit.

Huo Feifei said with easy grace, "Sister Mu, if you lose this time, don't go crying about it."

Mu Baiqing and Huo Feifei looked at each other and smiled.

Very soon these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts had made every preparation for battle.

Three quasi-T7-grade interstellar warships began a battle all their own.

The interstellar interceptors and interstellar drone swarms around the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts did not attack at once;

they circled around the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts,

and let the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts charge at the very front and attack the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer first.

First to strike were the three super-bio plasma pulse-cannon prow main guns fitted to each Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought.

At the prows of these three main guns shone three golden balls of light like suns; it was energy the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought had stored up long before.

Now each huge golden ball of light was fired off at tremendous speed,

like three golden suns!

No, six golden suns, rather.

From two directions, three golden suns each fell upon the star shield of the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer.

Even from far off, the dazzling light of these six golden suns striking the star shield could be seen.

The Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer was not idle either; it began bringing its own starship's weapon modules to bear.

Twelve prow main guns could be seen aiming at the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts in the two directions.

Both were called prow main guns,

but the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's prow main guns were not in the same weight class at all as the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought's prow main guns.

The bore size alone differed by four or five times!

The only thing that could compare with the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought's prow main guns was the hidden super prow main gun fitted to the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer.

But this super prow main gun had not fired yet; it seemed not yet to have chosen which target to attack.

For a super prow main gun of this kind, if it fired solid shells, would need a fairly long interval between shots.

So every shell was very precious, and could not be fired at will.

Both sides were pouring out their attacks.

Besides that, the interstellar warships of the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet were not idle either; seeing their boss's interstellar warship bullied by two enemy ships, they naturally all joined in to help.

But that help was paid for, mostly, with their own ships' "lives".

After all, this was a battle of quasi-T7-grade interstellar warships, and even the T6-grade interstellar warships of the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet that joined it could hardly stand up to high-intensity fighting at that level,

still less the other, T5-grade interstellar warships.

Besides those three prow main guns, each Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought had thirty-six electromagnetic bio-railgun heavy guns and nine hundred electromagnetic energy main guns attacking without a break.

And both major-general captains had given orders

that for the next fifteen minutes, unless a gun emplacement could no longer run or something happened that forced it to stop,

every gun emplacement was released from all limits and would run overloaded, at any cost, firing at the target interstellar warship.

It could be said that this truly was at any cost, seeking only to destroy that quasi-T7 Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer opposite!

That was the two major-general captains' thinking.

And as their opponent, the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer naturally felt this pressure clearly too.

The Drought-Fiend Sovereign looked grimly at a number before him that kept falling.

Before him was a data panel with three different circles drawn around a model of an interstellar warship.

Beside one of the circles a number could be seen falling steadily; it showed the outermost star shield's energy being used up.

"Report: at the enemy's current rate of attack, our first star-shield force field can hold out four more minutes at most!" the adjutant beside him said nervously.

Four minutes.

The Drought-Fiend Sovereign's face was grim; he muttered, "I did expect before that this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought opposite would be strong. But only now that I've felt it for myself do I know how truly terrible this interstellar warship's firepower is."

Mind you, each of the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's three layers of star-shield energy was very solid.

Even a Devourer Civilization interstellar legion fleet some three thousand strong, ringing the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer and attacking without pause,

would have to keep attacking for at least fifteen minutes to break a single layer!

But now the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts opposite, with the firepower of only two ships, could cut that time to five minutes.

And there were two more star-shield defenses left after that, which meant

these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts needed only fifteen minutes to break the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's star-shield defenses completely.

At the thought of this, the Drought-Fiend Sovereign felt a chill run down his back.

What in the world was this Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, that it could develop such powerful interstellar warships?

If… if… this Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire were given some more time to grow, then, to say nothing else,

with only more of these Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts fitted out, its strength… even the Devourer Civilization probably could not resist it.

The Drought-Fiend Sovereign turned this over silently in his mind.

Now he was a hundred percent sure that, whatever happened, this Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire must not be allowed to keep growing.

No! Its very existence was a huge hidden danger.

That was the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's verdict on the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire now.