Before, seeing the Troll Monarch suffer defeat in the first campaign against the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, he had thought at most that the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had some strength to it,
along with some luck, and the Troll Monarch's own contempt for the enemy.
For everyone knew that before the war of invasion against the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire began, well over ninety percent of them had not counted the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire as anything at all.
As for the rumors about the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, they had all thought its results came only because the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had dealt with nothing but interstellar civilizations not worth mentioning.
And mind you, what the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire was facing now was the mighty Devourer Civilization, which had wiped out who knew how many interstellar civilizations' universes.
So, high and low, the Devourer Civilization's side had kept to this attitude of contempt.
It could be said that however much they had looked down on the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's military strength then, just so hard had they been slapped in the face afterward.
Back to the present.
Now that they had truly faced the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's military strength, he at last truly admitted that the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire did have this fearsome strength.
It was a strength that truly made one afraid. Who would have thought that an interstellar civilization no one had heard of ten years ago could grow, in a short ten years, to where it was now, past all believing,
with first-rate interstellar warships, and military commanders of the highest fighting quality.
And through the battles the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had fought one after another, it had made "Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships" a brand across a great many universes.
Mind you, in the interstellar warship market now, hang the Owl Dragon-line label on anything at all and it would draw the notice of who knew how many people.
There had even been a whole chain of knock-on effects. Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships, for one, were in fact not so easy to get one's hands on.
And so some cunning interstellar traders would try every means to ride on the "Owl Dragon-line" name.
For example, if some product they sold had any link at all to the companies that built the Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships, they would advertise it as something like "Product So-and-so, made by a defense company that took part in building Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships".
All so that whoever saw it would know: I took part in building Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships.
I have serious defense-industry strength, so you can buy my product without a worry.
That sort of thing was usually just a gimmick, the lowest kind.
And the higher kind?
Besides Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships selling very well on the market, Owl Dragon-line goods on the secondhand market now had a price but no sellers.
So much so that some resourceful people would hurry off to places where the Owl Dragon legion fleets had fought before, all to sweep through the remains of the interstellar battlefields and find some wreckage of Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships there.
And if an interstellar scavenger could find even one piece of an Owl Dragon-line interstellar warship's wreckage, even a single part, he had struck it rich.
For the buyers would find every way to repair the parts and then fit them onto their own interstellar warships, and could then advertise them as interstellar warships using parts from Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships.
And depending on how important the added Owl Dragon-line part was, the interstellar warship's value would differ.
There had once been a case like this: someone, who knew who, had been lucky enough to buy the main gun turret of a T4-grade Owl Dragon-line interstellar warship along with its weapon core,
and not too badly damaged. After finding a way to repair it,
they fitted this T4-grade Owl Dragon-line main gun to the hull of another T4 interstellar destroyer, and the price of this T4 interstellar destroyer doubled outright,
for no other reason than that this interstellar destroyer had been fitted with Owl Dragon-line weapon parts.
That was how things were.
From such a frenzied market, one could imagine how fearsome the Owl Dragon-line interstellar warship name had become now.
"My lord, my lord." His adjutant's voice beside him brought the Drought-Fiend Sovereign back to himself.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign looked somewhat dazed; he was still under the shadow of the Owl Dragon legion fleets' terrible fighting power.
"My lord, what do we do now? By our projections, if we keep fighting like this, it's very likely we and the enemy will both be ruined. We're not fully sure we can beat these two quasi-T7-grade interstellar warships opposite," the adjutant said very anxiously; her palms were covered in sweat by now.
There was fear in her eyes.
She was nothing like the Devourer Civilization officers of the past, invading other interstellar civilizations.
The wheel of fortune had turned, and such looks were showing on their faces now.
"But we have no way back now; we can only fight the enemy to the end," the Drought-Fiend Sovereign said in a low voice. He did not want to say it; he did not want to go on fighting the Owl Dragon legion fleets either.
But this was how things stood now, and he truly had no other choice.
Whether he wanted this fight or not, he had to fight it.
"Report: the enemy's interstellar drone swarms are moving," a soldier reported just then.
"An interstellar air war? Then let's try these interstellar drone swarms' fighting power. Ours are all manned interstellar fighters!" the Drought-Fiend Sovereign said with a grave look, and his eyes were full of hope.
It was one of the few ways he had left to comfort himself now.
He hoped he could catch hold of even one straw, for only so could he keep from breaking down in his fear of the Owl Dragon legion fleets.
Otherwise he truly did not know what he could do.
While the two sides' interstellar warships were locked in fierce fighting, the interstellar air war began too.
The Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought No. 2
"According to intelligence, this interstellar fighter was researched and fitted out by the enemy's Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer specially for that starship. It's a quasi-T7-grade interstellar fighter, called the quasi-T7 Ghost-Soldier-class Medium Interstellar Fighter.[1] There should be about ten thousand of them," the deputy captain reported to Captain Huo Feifei.
While the deputy captain was reporting to Captain Huo Feifei,
the ten thousand interstellar fighters from the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer came screaming in: these quasi-T7 Ghost-Soldier-class Medium Interstellar Fighters.
Their airframes were not very big, about the same as an ordinary T6-grade medium interstellar fighter's.
But their airframes used a good deal of T7-grade technology,
in the airframe armor, the airframe weapons and so on.
And what this quasi-T7 Ghost-Soldier-class Medium Interstellar Fighter was best known for was its dogfighting.
For this quasi-T7 Ghost-Soldier-class Medium Interstellar Fighter carried four Ghost-Fire cannons, and in close-range dogfights these four Ghost-Fire cannons could lay down very heavy suppressing fire.
And they used energy technology, firing energy shells.
That greatly lengthened how long this interstellar fighter could stay in the fight, and staying in the fight longer meant this interstellar fighter's fighting power was raised.
Besides that, this quasi-T7 Ghost-Soldier-class Medium Interstellar Fighter was fitted with Ghost-Claw interstellar missiles. How many was not known, but they were quite powerful, meant mainly for interstellar warships or large interstellar air-war targets.
"Only ten thousand. Don't forget how many we have. It's time. Send word to our interstellar drone swarm control group: don't shame our No. 2. At the very least, they'd better shoot down more than the flight control group of No. 5 opposite," Captain Huo Feifei said with a light laugh.
In the Owl Dragon legion fleets, everyone got along with everyone else rather well; no one tried to outdo another over rank, blood, family or background.
But the Owl Dragon legion fleets did have a "rat race" culture,
above all in battle.
Say my interstellar fighter flew three more sorties than yours in a battle, or shot down ten more enemy interstellar fighters, or the like.
Then the side that came out ahead would usually boast about it to its comrades for a long while after the battle.
Such behavior naturally earned eye-rolls from comrades,
but it also made one's comrades-in-arms quietly resolve that in the next battle they would surely outdo this show-off.
Not only among the fighting units at the bottom;
at the level of interstellar warships, and even of interstellar fleets, it was the same.
Do not think that officers in high places were any more "grown-up".
Huo Feifei and the others, for example, would mention their own ship's results in front of the other captains, seemingly offhand, at post-battle seminars or briefings.
"Oh my, I told my flight control group before to hold back a little. There's only so much prey, and if we take it all, what are the sisters on our friendly ships supposed to do? But those girls just wouldn't listen to me. And look, before we knew it, they'd destroyed this many."
Scenes of this kind were everywhere.
The Owl Dragon legion fleets' leadership did not stop this "rat race" culture, and in some cases even egged it on.
For example, after a battle ended,
they would make the best-performing interstellar warships into publicity posters, put up on the planets and starships where interstellar soldiers spent their leave,
so that they could see them while they ate, rested and amused themselves.
That way, those honored naturally felt pride and satisfaction at heart.
And those who saw comrades on the same class of interstellar warship as their own, or even in the same kind of department, win such honors naturally felt a spark of rivalry rise in them.
Why couldn't they?
Why couldn't they be the ones others envied?
And so many crew members, once stung by this, would quietly drill themselves in private.
Perhaps this was also why the soldiers in the Owl Dragon legion fleets were of such high fighting quality:
because of these cultures that had quietly grown up within the Owl Dragon legion fleets!
"Yes." The deputy captain at once passed on Captain Huo Feifei's order.
She contacted the commander of the flight control group directly, and looking at the officer on the screen, said seriously, "Passing on the captain's order. Your unit is to sortie at once and join the fighting, take interstellar air superiority, and support the starship in battle. Besides that, the captain also said she hopes you'll do us proud, and at the least be no worse than No. 5 opposite. Understood?"
The flight control group's leader naturally understood the deputy captain's meaning at once.
The flight control group's leader said at once, "Rest assured, Deputy Captain, and the captain too. My unit guarantees it will complete the combat task, and won't shame our No. 2!"
The deputy captain said nothing more.
The flight control group's department
Inside the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought, in an enormous compartment section full of display screens, over a thousand soldiers sat in their own cockpits.
In truth the Bronze-Scarab drone swarms fitted to the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought could not be called fully unmanned interstellar fighters, because they were operated remotely by people,
though they used the help of artificial intelligence as well.
For it was not one controller flying one interstellar drone, but one controller commanding one squadron of an interstellar drone swarm.
And each squadron had three thousand Bronze-Scarab interstellar drones.
That is, one person had to control three thousand.
It sounded incredible, but it was so.
People had studied before having interstellar drone swarms controlled entirely by artificial intelligence; the Owl Dragon Legion's earlier carrier starships had used that too.
But later they found that, in some respects, piloting by people was better than artificial-intelligence control, while artificial-intelligence control had certain advantages of its own.
So the researchers had wondered how to bring the strengths of both together.
Later, with the hive-race technology added in, they found their breakthrough.
For in hive-race technology there was a thing called "hive consciousness", a very mysterious thing that even the Hive Princess herself could not explain.
And through the researchers' unceasing efforts, by drawing on artificial intelligence and hive technology, they had at last developed this Bronze-Scarab interstellar drone.
It drew on the strengths of every side:
it had artificial intelligence, it fought in the manner of hive consciousness,
and it added human operation besides.
In this way, the fighting power of this interstellar drone could be raised to the highest.
Studies showed that this Bronze-Scarab interstellar drone still could not match a manned interstellar fighter of the same grade,
but in value for the price it outdid it dozens of times over.
First of all, it was small, strongly armored and heavily armed, and it had the close-combat mode of the hive-race combat units added besides.
Most important of all, it was very cheap to build; it still cost what an interstellar drone cost, and using these new technologies had not raised the price.
What was more, the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought had a production line for these Bronze-Scarab interstellar drones inside it; so long as raw materials were ample, it could keep turning out Bronze-Scarab interstellar drones, with no need for resupply from interstellar supply ships,
or for going back to port to resupply.
The flight control group's commander stood on the highest command platform; to her, where she stood now was her "bridge".
She looked around her, at the interstellar drone pilots under her, about to fight for this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought for the "first time".
She opened the department's internal command channel.
She said, "In thirty seconds, every interstellar drone in every unit launches. Get ready now, and listen to me nag at you a little while you do. In training before, you all said I was too strict with you, that I made you drill ten times over for a single mistake. I know you all call me the Abbess of Annihilation behind my back.[2] I don't care about any of that, so long as your skills and tactics improve and you do better on the battlefield. Some of you may think: why demand so much? We fly interstellar drones; there's no pilot aboard; if one gets destroyed, it gets destroyed. You may be right. The loss of those interstellar drones is nothing to our Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, not even worth mentioning. Great numbers of interstellar drones will come in to replace them later; I only have to put in a request. No one will even blame you. But I still have to tell you: where are we now? On a Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought! This is the only mass-production quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship our Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire has at present. What does that mean? It means our Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's pride; it's our Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's face to the world. And we, as one of the main weapons departments, are part of this interstellar warship. If you make mistakes on the battlefield, nobody gets hurt, but the task that should have been ours may take more firepower, or even need other combat units to take it on. On the large scale, that affects the course of the battle. On the small scale, when the results are tallied after the battle and others see what No. 2's flight control group achieved, what will they say? They'll say our whole flight control department failed in its duty, and it will hurt No. 2's standing among the other Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts in line too. So if you're carrying that attitude, today will be your last chance to fight for this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought. I'm telling you here: anyone whose results fall short goes back after today, every one of you. Here, we in the flight control group can do without any one of you. And there are plenty of interstellar drone pilots outside with their eyes on your seat, plenty of people willing to show their gifts in your place and win the glory that would then be theirs. So think it over for yourselves, how you'll fight this battle. Don't come crying to me once the war is over. In training, I'll give you countless chances. Here, you get only one. Understood?"
The flight control group commander's words rang in everyone's ears.
"Understood!" Everyone's voices echoed through the compartment, deafening.
They knew very well their commander was not trying to scare them.
It was the elimination system they were under.
What was needed here was elites, not ordinary people.
This was a quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship, a post that countless people longed for.
The three thousand people here had been picked from millions of candidates.[3]
So if even one of them were sent back to her old unit, more people, better people, would take her place.
For the flight control group, nothing would be lost.
The loss would be theirs.
For this might be the only chance in their lives to board a quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship and fight for it.
'Ding. Interstellar drone bay doors opening; drone launch beginning. All operators, begin linking.'
A mechanical voice began to sound.
In every operator's cockpit, a countdown could be seen just then, along with three red lights.
The three red lights marked different stages of readiness.
When the first went out, the interstellar drone pilots were to go to standby, and their neural link would begin.
When the second went out, the interstellar drones were entering the launch-ready stage, and starting to link up with the interstellar drone pilots who would control them.
When the third went out, it was time for the interstellar drone pilots to go into combat.
Very soon, honeycomb-like compartments could be seen opening one after another on the hull of the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought; it was interstellar drones that were stored in these compartments.
And the way they were stored was rather special.
Each squadron of interstellar drones was stored in a many-sided object like a beehive, and launching the interstellar drones in fact meant flinging out this beehive object.
As it was flung out, the object would spin fast, and the folded interstellar drones could be seen thrown out of it one after another, quickly unfolding into their full form.
In the end, all three thousand Bronze-Scarab drones were launched in under three short seconds, forming one combat squadron.
And just then, on the side of the interstellar drone swarm pilots, every one of them wore a helmet and entered a state of neural link.
In their consciousness, at this moment, their bodies and minds existed together with these interstellar drones; they could give these interstellar drones any command at once, and when need be could even take over control of them.
This method was in fact a model of the hive structure.
In the researchers' studies, they had found out early on
that the hive structure's way of fighting suited this interstellar drone swarm way of fighting very well.
In this way they could bring out their own fighting power to the full, and fight more efficiently,
just like a hive.
But for the interstellar drone swarm pilots, it was in fact a way of fighting that put great strain on the mind.
So training an interstellar drone swarm pilot was, strictly speaking, about the same as training an interstellar fighter pilot,
and the former depended more on talent.
And in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's selection of interstellar drone swarm pilots now, over two-thirds were in fact chosen from serving interstellar fighter pilots,
since that saved a great deal of time and cost.
These interstellar fighter pilots already had sound air-combat skills and tactics.
They needed only to learn how to switch to controlling interstellar drone swarms.