The one requirement that set interstellar drone swarm pilots apart from interstellar fighter pilots lay in the brain's neural domain.
Its development and use could be made up for somewhat by training,
but far more of it came down to inborn gifts.
So the selection stage weeded out a great many people.
And training them after that was rather costly.
To pick people with this gift straight from the serving interstellar fighter pilots, then add some training in the skills of controlling interstellar drone swarms,
and they could be set to fight with interstellar drone swarms: that in itself was a way of very high value for the cost.
What was more, this meant serving on a Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought, a quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship; the great majority of interstellar fighter pilots would never turn this selection down!
…………
At this moment, on the battlefield of the interstellar air war,
when the two sides' flying units met, the quasi-T7 Ghost-Soldier-class Medium Interstellar Fighters made some showing at first.
But as more and more Bronze-Scarab drone swarms gathered around them, it gradually became a picture of the many bullying the few.
After all, one side had only ten thousand interstellar fighters, while the other had the two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts' six million interstellar drones in all.
That meant each quasi-T7 Ghost-Soldier-class Medium Interstellar Fighter had to take on six hundred Bronze-Scarab interstellar drones at once.
There was no room at all to strike back.
Very soon, in the interstellar air war, interstellar air superiority was entirely in the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts' hands.
The Bronze-Scarab interstellar drone swarms had even begun attacking the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's star shield!
That put the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's star-shield defense under still greater pressure!
"Report! The enemy's interstellar drone swarms are simply too strong. Our interstellar fighters can't gain the least advantage fighting them," a subordinate reported to the Drought-Fiend Sovereign.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign clenched his fists.
He felt now as though this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought were covered in spines from head to foot, with nowhere at all to bite.
How could there be such an interstellar warship?
Or rather… why could this Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire have such an interstellar warship!
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "Order all our T6-grade interstellar warships, every one that can get free, to come back at once and block these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts at any cost!"
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign's thinking now was to make sure of the safety of his own Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer first.
Such an order might very well make the outer defense line collapse,
and make the whole Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet's losses greater.
But at least it could make sure of the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's safety.
That was enough.
So long as the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer survived until the Troll Monarch's legion fleet arrived in support,
and the Troll Monarch's flagship, the Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship, reached the battlefield in support,
then they could make the Owl Dragon legion fleets opposite pay for everything they were doing now!
"Report: there are more and more enemy interstellar warships around us. And several enemy T6-grade interstellar warships are closing in on us from this direction. It looks as if the enemy means to hold us up with these interstellar warships," the deputy captain reported to Captain Huo Feifei.
Captain Huo Feifei looked at the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer on the video screen and gave a scornful smile. "I wondered what this so-called quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship could do. Nothing much, it seems. Now that it can't win, it's starting to call for help. As if that could hold us up. Pass on my order: ignore the enemy's T5-grade interstellar warships. If you spot an enemy T6-grade interstellar warship, split off some firepower and destroy it. When need be, use interstellar missiles."
"Yes," the deputy captain answered.
T5-grade interstellar warships were still a threat within control for the quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought.
But if the enemy's T6-grade interstellar warships were allowed to keep attacking, even the quasi-T7-grade Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought might not hold up.
Hence Huo Feifei's arrangements now.
Very soon, in under five minutes,
the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's first star-shield force field could be seen broken.
The attacks to come would land directly on the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's second star-shield force field.
At the same time, the Owl Dragon interstellar warships on the outer ring stepped up their attacks too.
The interstellar warships of the Emperor's Guard Fleet attacked most fiercely of all.
Xiong Xiangxiang naturally knew the pressure on the two quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts that had fought their way into the enemy's midst now, but she had no way to rescue them directly.
All she could do was put more pressure on the enemy on the frontal field, so that the enemy could not move more interstellar warships away to threaten those two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts.
This measure did have some effect.
After all, the Emperor's Guard Fleet had nearly a hundred T6-grade interstellar warships, and the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet had to keep a certain number of T6-grade interstellar warships on this line.
Otherwise the line on the frontal field would collapse in the shortest time.
"Come on, you can do it." Xiong Xiangxiang looked at the far-off battlefield in the midst of the enemy's formation, where the top-grade starships were dueling.
This was all she could do now.
The Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought No. 5 · the bridge
"Report: thirty enemy T6-grade interstellar warships have appeared on our side," the deputy captain reported nervously.
Major General Mu Baiqing said seriously, "They're coming for us. Find any way you can to destroy these thirty T6-grade interstellar warships in the shortest possible time!"
"To destroy these thirty T6-grade interstellar warships in a short time, the best way our staff department has come up with is to use our interstellar missiles together with the interstellar interceptors," the deputy captain said.
"Then do it the way you've planned," Major General Mu Baiqing said.
"Yes."
On the hull of this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought No. 5, missile silos appeared one after another, and in the missile silos sat interstellar missiles, ready.
These interstellar missiles very soon locked onto their targets, and then interstellar missile after interstellar missile shot off, trailing flame.
"Report: the first batch of three thousand interstellar missiles, locked on thirty targets, has all been launched."
So the department controlling the interstellar missile launches reported.
Three thousand interstellar missiles divided among thirty targets meant about a hundred interstellar missiles for each enemy interstellar warship to take.
The number did not look very large, but mind you, these were all quasi-T7-grade interstellar missiles,
not the same thing at all as ordinary T6-grade interstellar missiles.
And following behind these three thousand interstellar missiles came three hundred quasi-T7-grade Silver-Scarab-class Unmanned Medium Interstellar Interceptors!
The thirty T6-grade interstellar warships of the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet naturally spotted these three thousand incoming interstellar missiles too.
At once they brought out their defensive fire, trying to intercept these interstellar missiles.
But on the outside of these interstellar missiles, of all things, star-shield force fields appeared one after another!
That's right: every one of these interstellar missiles had a small star shield of its own, to keep it from being intercepted.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Fireball after fireball appeared on the surfaces of those interstellar warships' star shields. These were only T6-grade interstellar warships, after all, not the quasi-T7 Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer.
So under the blows of these quasi-T7-grade interstellar missiles, these interstellar warships either had holes blasted straight through their star shields one after another,
or had their whole star shields used up.
The first happened because the force of the explosions in one local area of a star shield exceeded the star shield's power to balance its energy, which opened a breach in the star shield.
And in a short time, the star shield's repair routine could not mend the breach at once;
it needed a dozen-odd seconds.
And those dozen-odd seconds were the moment for the quasi-T7 Silver-Scarab-class Unmanned Medium Interstellar Interceptors to do their work.
By their astonishing speed, they plunged one after another through these star shields and attacked these T6-grade interstellar warships of the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet.
With the hull armor of these T6-grade interstellar warships directly under threat,
they naturally opened up with all their close-in fire, one after another.
In this life-or-death clash, one quasi-T7 Silver-Scarab-class Unmanned Medium Interstellar Interceptor after another was destroyed and turned into a fireball.
But when these Silver-Scarab-class Unmanned Medium Interstellar Interceptors were hit and put out of the fight, their fallback routine sent them crashing straight into the targets they had locked onto before, in suicide rams,
making their own hulls the last shells fired at the enemy.
And what that won, naturally, was the destruction of these enemy T6-grade interstellar warships one after another.
In only a few minutes, these T6-grade interstellar warships were destroyed one after another.
"Report: all thirty enemy T6-grade interstellar warships have been destroyed. Three thousand interstellar missiles used, nearly a hundred Silver-Scarab-class Unmanned Medium Interstellar Interceptors lost," the deputy captain reported.
Major General Mu Baiqing had in truth known those figures in her heart long before.
The Silver-Scarab-class Unmanned Medium Interstellar Interceptor counted as a quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship, but it was quasi-T7 grade mostly in fighting power.
In defense and staying power, it did not reach the quasi-T7 grade.
In a fight taken slowly and steadily against the enemy, there would not have been so many losses.
But in this fight, which sought to destroy the enemy ships in the shortest time, they were bound to take more losses.
"Warning! Warning! Warning! Second star-shield layer at 3% energy, about to be exhausted."
"Warning! Warning! Warning! Second star-shield layer at 2% energy, about to be exhausted."
"Warning! Warning! Warning! Second star-shield layer at 1% energy, about to be exhausted!"
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign looked at a circle going dark before him.
He knew the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's second star-shield line had been broken too.
Now this Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer had only its last star-shield line left.
"Damn it! Have these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts really stopped caring whether they live? Does that Owl Dragon Emperor mean to trade these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts for this flagship of mine!" the Drought-Fiend Sovereign muttered to himself.
To tell the truth, had he been the Owl Dragon Emperor opposite with such a chance,
trading two of his own interstellar warships for one of the enemy's Sovereigns and a flagship, he would certainly have made just such an arrangement.
But that was only the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's own thinking; in his heart he believed he was worth that much.
What he did not know was that to the Owl Dragon Emperor and the Owl Dragon commanders opposite, a Sovereign like him was nowhere near as important as a Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought.
The reason these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts had taken up such an aggressive stance
was entirely that they believed that, deep behind enemy lines as they were, these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts were fully able to protect themselves, with no risk at all.
At least, for now, that was how it was.
It could only be said that the Drought-Fiend Sovereign rated his own worth too high.
"Damn it, why haven't we broken the star shields of these two enemy interstellar warships yet? Their star-shield energy can't possibly be endless. Under attack from our Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer and a whole crowd of other interstellar warships, why are their star shields still up!" The Drought-Fiend Sovereign pointed at the two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts opposite, still protected by their star shields.
It was something he simply could not understand.
No one in the staff department below could give him an answer just then.
For before this, they too had tried to estimate the star-shield energy of these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts.
Five hundred million units of star shield?
Or six hundred million units of star shield?
They could not be sure how strong this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought's star shield was, but from the attacks landing on this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought they could work out roughly how much damage had been dealt already.
And as time crept on little by little, their estimate broke past their original figures step by step,
until it had broken past a billion units of star shield.
"You can't be telling me this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought opposite has over a billion units of star-shield energy! Our Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's three-layer star-shield defense is only five hundred million units of star shield a layer!" the Drought-Fiend Sovereign demanded loudly.
Just then a staff officer seemed to think of something, and brought up some material from past battles.
And this battle material, without exception, all had to do with that Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship.
"Reporting, my lord. This… this may all have to do with this Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship. This enemy super-flagship has seldom appeared on the frontal field before. So we guessed before that it might be a battlefield-support interstellar warship, for commanding battles, large-scale anti-stealth and the like. At the same time, every one of our legion fleets that has fought the Owl Dragon legion fleets led by this Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship has come to the same verdict: in every battle where this Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship is present, the enemy's Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships are stronger, with their staying power and their defense both greatly increased. Above all the enemy interstellar warships' star shields. So I have reason to suspect that the enemy's Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship can supply friendly interstellar warships with star-shield energy from a distance. That's also why these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts' star-shield energy seems endless, as if it can never be shot through!" the staff officer said, setting out his thinking.
His thinking very soon won the agreement of the other staff officers.
It was the only explanation that made sense just then.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign's face was dark; he pointed at the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship. "So that means that unless we destroy the enemy's Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship first, these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts are invincible?"
The staff officer shook his head and said, "No. In earlier battle reports, even with this Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship present, we could still destroy enemy interstellar warships; it just took more time and firepower. From that we can judge that the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship can send star-shield energy, but the amount it sends is fixed, and may not be very large. So long as we keep attacking, these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts' star shields are bound to give way at some point."
Hearing the staff officer, the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's face did not ease at all. He said through gritted teeth, "Then can you tell me now how much longer we have to fight to destroy these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts?"
To that question, no one present could easily give an answer,
because they did not know either.
Looking at his subordinates standing silent, the Drought-Fiend Sovereign felt as if he had punched into cotton.
His anger had nowhere to go.
"Damn it!" All the Drought-Fiend Sovereign could do was keep cursing under his breath. Then he asked, "When will the Troll Monarch's support arrive?"
"Report: by the time required, about fifteen minutes more. Within fifteen minutes, the Troll Monarch's forty thousand interstellar warships will reach the battlefield," a subordinate answered.
Fifteen minutes more.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign had never felt like this before; a mere fifteen minutes felt so long to him.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "It seems I can only pin my hopes on the Troll Monarch's legion fleet's forty thousand interstellar warships reaching the battlefield to take the pressure off us."
The staff officers all agreed on that.
It was the only chance they had to break the deadlock now.
And until then, they could only keep up the fight as it was, and make sure the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer they were on held out.
"Whatever happens, the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer must hold out. I just don't believe these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts opposite can really drive my flagship to the wall. Move more interstellar warships in to support us, and be sure to put more pressure on these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts! I'd like to see how long those turtle shells of theirs can hold out!"
"Yes!"
The battle of the three super-starships went on.
The Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought No. 2 · the bridge
"Report: we've broken the second star shield of the target starship, the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer. We're attacking its last star-shield defense now. By our earlier calculations, we can break this third layer of star-shield defense in no more than five minutes," the deputy captain reported to Captain Huo Feifei.
Anyone paying attention would have noticed the time had grown a little.
That could not be helped, for some of the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought's fire had been drawn off by the interstellar warships of the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's legion fleet closing in around it.
And naturally that took some of the pressure off the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer opposite.
"How much star-shield energy do we have left? How long do we expect it to hold?" Captain Huo Feifei asked.
"So far, the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship has kept supplying us with star-shield energy from a distance. But the enemy's attacks are fiercer. If things go on as they are, our No. 2's star shield can hold out about five more minutes at most. That's basically the same time it will take us to break the star shield of the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer opposite. But by then we'll be under even more pressure. After all, we're surrounded by enemy interstellar warships watching us like tigers," the deputy captain said gravely.
Captain Huo Feifei naturally knew what her deputy captain meant.
The deputy captain reminded her again: "And there are the four or five minutes left of the time Marshal Zhao Waner gave us. That lines up exactly with these five minutes. That is, if we break the last layer of the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer's star-shield defense in the next five minutes, that will be exactly when Marshal Zhao Waner's fifteen minutes of fighting time run out, and as agreed, the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group's interstellar warships holding our line of retreat will withdraw. By then, if we keep fighting here, we really will be isolated and without help."