So one can imagine what happened when these low-grade interstellar warships met the quasi-T7-grade Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts.
Holding the very front positions of the three thousand interstellar warships were, naturally, interstellar escorts.
And these interstellar escorts were facing something entirely different now.
A few T6-grade interstellar escorts, for instance, could just about keep their star-shield force fields up and protect their defensive positions.
But the T5-grade and T4-grade interstellar escorts were not so lucky.
Above all the T4-grade interstellar escorts: even with their star shields up and their close-in guns firing hard to make an intercepting barrage,
what they faced was the fire of quasi-T7-grade Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts, in another class altogether.
Strictly speaking, the two were two and a half generations of technology apart.
As for the T5-grade interstellar escorts, their defenses could hold off the quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts' attacks only briefly.
And the weapons departments of these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts were not firing blindly either.
Each picked fitting targets, and tried hard not to use cannons to swat mosquitoes.
Their three super-bio plasma pulse-cannon prow main guns, for instance, could naturally not be used on T4- and T5-grade interstellar warships.
Those enemies were not worth it.
Only the enemy's T6-grade interstellar warships were fit to be treated to these three super-bio plasma pulse-cannon prow main guns.
And whenever these three super-bio plasma pulse-cannon prow main guns locked onto a T6-grade interstellar warship opposite,
then whatever type that T6-grade interstellar warship was, interstellar escort, interstellar destroyer or interstellar battleship,
and even with its star-shield energy full, it could hardly stand up to these three shots!
In short, whenever these three shots of the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought came, one T6-grade interstellar warship opposite was sure to be destroyed, with no chance at all to strike back.
So the T6 flagship of the commander of the three-thousand-ship garrison fleet opposite, seeing this, pulled back at once to a safe distance and did not dare come near the fight at all.
It was nothing short of a nightmare.
And the T5-grade interstellar warships naturally had fire of their own set aside for them as well.
The thirty-six electromagnetic bio-railgun heavy guns and nine hundred electromagnetic energy main guns were no idle boast; it was these that made the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought's now-famous "golden downpour".
They pounded the T5- and T4-grade interstellar warships opposite with no room at all to fend them off.
"Damn it, how can this be!" The garrison fleet commander's face was deathly pale.
He had expected long before that the two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts opposite, as quasi-T7-grade interstellar warships, would be strong.
But he had never thought they would be this strong!
Strong past all believing!
So this was the strength of a quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship?
"Report: the interstellar warships at the very front of our line are under attack from the enemy ships, and our losses are severe! We can't fend off the enemy's attacks at all; we can't even organize a counterattack because of it," the deputy captain beside him said, somewhat anxious, with terror in his voice.
"In the less than ten minutes since we made contact with the enemy, we've lost nearly five hundred interstellar warships outright. As things look now, our three thousand interstellar warships can hold out less than an hour at most!"
The deputy captain beside him added a warning: "And if the enemy's Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts are holding something back, our defeat will come sooner."
His deputy captain's words no longer sounded like "alarmist talk" in the garrison fleet commander's ears.
For now he had felt for himself how strong the Owl Dragon's quasi-T7-grade interstellar warships opposite were.
They were not to be spoken of in the same breath as the interstellar warships they usually met.
"Then where are our reinforcements? Didn't the Lord Sovereign order that once the reinforcement fleets come through the star gate here, they're to see to our star gate's safety first!" the garrison fleet commander said in a hurry.
In his heart now, the reinforcement fleets had become his last straw to clutch at.
The deputy captain said, "The reinforcement fleets are coming in support bit by bit. On average about three thousand interstellar warships reach our position every hour."
Three thousand interstellar warships of reinforcements an hour.
At first hearing, that might not sound like many.
But mind you, with a star gate like this running nonstop, it came to nearly a hundred thousand interstellar warships in a day.
And what it was sending were the Devourer Civilization's regular legion fleets; it counted as an astonishing capacity.
It was only that what they faced now were the Owl Dragon legion fleets' quasi-T7-grade interstellar warships, which made the pressure feel like a mountain on them.
The fighting power of these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts was truly frightening.
The garrison fleet commander thought a moment and said in a low voice, "The fighting power of these two enemy quasi-T7-grade interstellar warships really is frightening. To hold off their attacks, all we can do now is shrink our defensive area and gather the interstellar warships we have in one place to hold off the enemy's attacks!"
Hearing such dispositions, the deputy captain knit his brows slightly.
It sounded like a plan, of a sort.
But looked at closely, one would see
that this disposition was a double-edged sword. On one hand it might protect the star gate, but on the other, with all their interstellar warships gathered in one place, the enemy could clear them out all the more easily.
Their interstellar warships would be damaged even worse.
But it seemed it was the only way left to them now.
After all, whatever happened, they had to hold the star gate behind them.
"Besides that, pass the word down: the moment the reinforcement fleets arrive, have them join the defense at once," the garrison fleet commander said seriously.
Their own fleet alone could hardly hold off the two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts opposite for long.
"Besides that, I'll find a way to contact the Lord Sovereign, and have the Lord Sovereign arrange for the other reinforcements on every road to give us some support too, as far as he can," the garrison fleet commander said, at the end of his rope.
His eyes went out through the viewport to the two golden interstellar warships far off, still loosing their golden downpour; there was fear deep in his eyes.
"My lord… perhaps you needn't worry so much. These two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts are strong in battle, true, but however strong they are, the time comes when their fighting resources run out. What's more, they're fighting our thousands of interstellar warships; can their energy and ammunition really never run dry? Perhaps as the fighting goes on, these two Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts' fighting power will keep falling," the deputy captain said beside him just then, comforting him too.
His deputy captain's comforting words did make the garrison fleet commander feel a good deal better.
But they still had no idea at all what the enemy they faced really was!!!
………………
The Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire
The Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire at this moment had declared a second-grade state of war, but because the fighting was not within the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's borders,
and because the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had been through a great many battles before, the people there had gradually grown used to such times.
And now, across the whole Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, apart from the defense industry being rather busy, nearly every other trade, and the daily life of the planets, went on just as always, with no great upheaval or difference.
The biggest effect was on the defense industry just mentioned.
And if any trade besides the defense industry was affected,
it was naturally the raw-material industries that supplied the defense industry. To keep defense production going, every raw-material industry kept quickening its pace of production while making sure of its own production tasks.
And those in charge of this side of things were, naturally, the interstellar companies and groups under the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
So far, of all the resource-producing areas within the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's universe, only thirty percent were run directly by the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's government.
At a glance, it might seem the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire did not hold its own important resources.
But in truth, of the remaining seventy percent, over fifty percent were run by interstellar groups the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had invested in or worked with.
Take the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's largest privately run group now, the Northern Resource Extraction Group: at first hearing, a quite unfamiliar name.
But in truth, the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire held seventy percent of it behind the scenes, and the remaining thirty percent was held jointly by private businesses led by the Northern Goose Group.
But the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, holding seventy percent of the profits, did not run this Northern Resource Extraction Group itself; it handed the right to run it entirely to the merchants who held the remaining thirty percent of the profits.
These interstellar traders were better suited than it was to running such production businesses.
And professional matters should be left to professionals, so Zhao Chen handed all this management work over to these interstellar merchants; on the government's side, it only set up some oversight departments to keep watch.
And then it collected its profits on time.
These interstellar traders, for their part, could earn handsome profits too, with the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire as a great backer besides, so naturally they had no objection at all, and were very glad of such a way of working together.
At this moment, on one of the Northern Resource Extraction Group's mining planets:
"The price before was plainly thirty-seven a ton; how is it only thirty-five a ton now that we're here?" Someone in a face mask pointed at a transport truck behind them and spoke loudly to the person in the booth opposite.
And not far off was an interstellar transport.
This was a resource planet, and mining resources here was divided into a few stages.
One was the workers and equipment doing the mining; this stage was handled mainly by the Northern Resource Extraction Group.
Another stage was transport.
And transport had two parts: interstellar transport, and transport on the planet.
Interstellar transport needs no explaining; the Northern Resource Extraction Group would contact interstellar transport fleets it worked with especially, and use their transports to load heaps of resource ore here and carry them to the factories that needed them.
And before that, the stage of transport on the planet was split into two parts:
one was the Northern Resource Extraction Group's own transport convoys, and the other was private convoys the planet's people organized themselves.
For as a rule there would be some natives on a planet, and you had to give these natives some jobs, or chances to earn money.
If they only wanted work, they could perfectly well take one of the Northern Resource Extraction Group's jobs on this planet and draw the pay that came with it.
But some were not content with so little income; they wanted to earn more.
So they were given another channel:
they would buy their own transport trucks, go to the resource sites to load materials, and then carry them to the interstellar transport ships' loading points.
They would bear the responsibility for transport over this stretch, and all the risks, in exchange for a handsome income.
The profit per truckload for these private transport convoys was more than for the former.
For only that way would they be spurred on,
and be willing to work more.
It made a healthy cycle.
But there were risks in it too.
The price per load for private transport convoys was not fixed; every so often the transport fee changed.
And if you did not get your load to the transport ship on time, part of the fee would be docked as well.
So some unlucky contractors not only made no money, but lost a great deal.
Even so, plenty of people were still willing to take part.
After all, most people hope for a chance to get rich overnight.
And now this transport convoy stuck here was facing just this problem.
The worker in the booth pointed at several figures on a sheet beside him and said, "I'm not pushing your price down on purpose. Look for yourselves: on the way here your losses were over 3%, and by the rules some of the transport fee has to be docked. You all know these rules. Making a scene with me here does no good. Either hand over the goods now, or get lost."
The worker spoke impatiently.
"We went through a storm on the planet; that's why it happened. And the convoy just ahead of us had losses like ours too; why don't they get docked!" The one demanding this sounded like a woman by her voice; she was very angry.
The worker gave a scornful smile and said, "They had losses, sure, but their losses didn't go over the limit. Happy with that answer? I'm warning you: if you keep nagging me here, don't blame me if I stop taking your convoy's goods from now on!"
Hearing the worker's warning,
before the woman could speak, a man who had climbed down from the truck pulled her back.
"Sorry, sorry. My daughter has a bit of a temper; please forgive her, please forgive her. We have no objection to the price, no objection at all."
As he spoke, the man slipped a pack of cigarettes over quietly to curry favor.
Seeing the cigarettes, the worker tucked them away quietly, then looked coldly at these people. "If you want to make a living here, you should know how to behave. If it happens again next time, don't blame me for not being so polite to you."
When he had said this, and the man had entered the word "Agree", the checkpoint opened and their convoy went through.
At the same time, a payment for the goods went into the convoy's account,
for the sum with the deduction, of course.
Ten transport trucks parked at the loading point, and loading robots at once began unloading the goods.
The man went back to the truck and looked at his daughter, sulking in the passenger seat.
The wind and sand inside the truck were not so bad as outside, and his daughter had taken off her veil too.
This woman's skin was in very poor shape; by her looks alone she might have been over forty.
"Shasha, when will you ever rein in that temper of yours? It's like this every time. We're making our living under other people's hands now; offend them like that, and they have a thousand ways to make trouble for us." The man took off his veil too, showing an aged face.
"Dad, but they're plainly bullying us. How could the convoy ahead of us not have gone over the limit on losses? They're plainly in league in secret!" the woman said, unconvinced.
The man sighed, took the water from beside him and handed it to the woman, comforting her as he said, "Don't you think we know very well what's going on? But what can we do about it? They have the means; they get through without being docked; what can you do?"
"I… I… I…" Several times the woman meant to speak, but each time the words reached her lips she held them back.
She took the water bottle, unscrewed it and poured some down her dry throat, but after a few mouthfuls she looked at her father beside her, whose throat was moving slightly.
She handed the water bottle back and said, "Dad, you must be thirsty too; have some."
"I'm not thirsty, not thirsty." The man shook his head, but his throat still moved.
It could be seen that he really was thirsty.
But on this planet, water cost far more than it normally did.
Because of the mining, this planet was not in good shape; water was nearly lacking altogether, and almost all of it had to be brought in by interstellar transport ships.
So water on this planet was very dear.
"Dad, have a little." The woman's heart ached to see her father like this.
Seeing it, the man could only raise the water bottle and make as if to drink a mouthful.
But in fact only a few drops of water fell into his mouth, and he savored them back and forth in his mouth as if he had drunk from a sweet spring.
Afterward, he screwed the bottle tightly shut in his hand.
"Shasha. After so many years, you ought to see it clearly. We're no longer the Jiang family of the old days; we've lost everything we had. These nearly ten years, our family has kept working, from laboring for others at first, to saving up some money later and building our convoy, and earning more bit by bit. We have this convoy now, and we're a little better off than ordinary folk, but compared with others, we're still ants at the bottom. So when we run into people bullying us, we give way a little and bow our heads. It's nothing. So long as our family can get through, I believe that even if I don't live to see it, at least in your generation, or your children's, our Jiang family can surely rise again. Speaking of which, Shasha, you're really not young anymore; you ought to find a man, marry and have children. With our standing now we can't land the son of some noble house, but finding someone with a bit of a family fortune and some ability is no problem."
Jiang Shasha had been deeply moved, but when she heard her father speak of marriage, impatience came over her face again.
For it was her minefield.
Jiang Shasha said impatiently, "Dad, haven't I told you? I'll never find a man in this life. I may have a child later, but by gene technology. I, Jiang Shasha, can make our Jiang family flourish again without leaning on anyone."
Seeing his daughter like this, Father Jiang said helplessly, "Shasha, are you still thinking about that man? He's the Owl Dragon Emperor now. All that is in the past. It's been ten years now; don't keep thinking about the old days. And on no account think of anything like revenge. Bringing the Jiang family back is still possible, but revenge is utterly impossible. It's very decent of him already not to have wiped us out. It all comes from our choosing wrong back then. If we had chosen to stay in the Owl Dragon Star System back then, we wouldn't have come to this. If I hadn't back then… Ah… The old partners who stayed in the Owl Dragon Star System then are mostly people of standing and name in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire now."
Father Jiang sighed; he talked of letting go, but in his heart he truly had not let go.
Back then, whatever else one said of him, the Jiang family had at least been a power of real weight in a star system.
Life then and life now were as different as heaven and earth.
But regretting it now was no use at all.
After all, there is no medicine for regret in this world.
At most he could dream of fine things in his sleep; every time he woke he wanted to kill himself,
but at least life now was far better than it had been at first.
Jiang Shasha's look was not a good one; of all of them, it was she whom the business of ten years ago had hit hardest.
After all, if those things had never happened, her standing and place now might have been entirely different.
To make her accept such a thing calmly was more than she could do.
However many times she said those things were in the past,
only she herself knew very well that they would never be past in this life; they would wind around her heart forever and ever.