"Enough," the Black-God Sovereign said, cutting the Drought-Fiend Sovereign off outright.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign shut his mouth at once too.
They were the three Sovereigns, but the Black-God Sovereign's standing had always been a grade above.
What was more, the Black-God Sovereign had come in support now, so naturally one had to mind his mood.
The Black-God Sovereign went on, "This is no time for me to sit here listening to you say all this. Since the problem has arisen, think how to solve it, rather than complaining over and over here."
When he had said this, the Black-God Sovereign looked at the Drought-Fiend Sovereign.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign paused, and said, "Naturally so. What dispositions do you have in mind for the fighting ahead? I'll work with you in everything here."
The Black-God Sovereign was silent a moment, then said, "Since our great army has come here now, we will naturally not end this battle easily. The Owl Dragon legion fleets opposite must pay the price they owe. From now on, move every interstellar legion fleet and every strategic supply that can be moved. Make this battlefield our main one. Tie down the Owl Dragon legion fleets opposite at any cost, above all that Owl Dragon Emperor's guard fleet! The Owl Dragon Emperor's flagship is right there; whether or not the Owl Dragon Emperor is aboard, so long as we can cripple or even destroy that flagship of the Owl Dragon Emperor's opposite, we can crush the Owl Dragon legion fleets' pride."
"Yes, yes, yes. We must beat the Owl Dragon legion fleets opposite. Make them pay what they owe. We can't let them withdraw so easily!" the Drought-Fiend Sovereign said through gritted teeth.
His hostility toward the Owl Dragon legion fleets now was not the least bit weaker.
After all, having been beaten black and blue by the Owl Dragon legion fleets opposite, with his own flagship in this ghastly state now,
how could he not want revenge?
"We tie the enemy down first, and when the reinforcement fleets after us arrive, we form an encirclement. We'll make this star system a prison battlefield for the Owl Dragon legion fleets, through and through. A meat grinder!" the Black-God Sovereign said slowly.
The several commanders agreed one after another.
And so
the interstellar legion fleets the Black-God Sovereign had brought began slowly spreading into battle formation, and the Soul Altars started working at this point too, beginning to take in the soul power produced on this star-system battlefield and condense it into pitch-black interstellar warships!
To judge by the situation, the Devourer Civilization's side was gradually steadying the scales of this battlefield.
But the Owl Dragon legion fleets' cards were gradually coming out too.
The Black-God · the bridge
"Warning! Warning! Warning! Multiple abnormal spatial fluctuations detected!"
"Warning! Warning! Warning! Multiple abnormal spatial fluctuations detected!"
"Warning! Warning! Warning! Multiple abnormal spatial fluctuations detected!"
Warnings rang out on the bridge, and the officer in charge of this called out in a hurry, "Report: a great many points of abnormal spatial fluctuation have appeared in the open space on the battlefield's flank."
The Black-God Sovereign knit his brows slightly, looking at the abnormal fluctuation points rippling back and forth like waves on the star map.
Then he said, "Watch them closely; report anything at once."
"Yes."
"Lord Sovereign, then should we keep up the pace of our attack?" the adjutant beside him asked carefully.
The Black-God Sovereign narrowed his eyes in thought, then said, "The Owl Dragon legion fleets surely have a card in hand. Very likely it's their interstellar hive-race fleets. But only half a year and more has passed since the last campaign. We can't be sure how many interstellar hive-race fleets they still have. So we need to watch carefully now. Pass on my order: slow the fleets' advance for now, and act as the moment allows."
"Understood."
At this moment, on the flank of the interstellar battlefield, sights like wormholes appeared one after another.
At first glance one might have thought holes were opening in the universe one after another; and, it must be said, there was a strange beauty to it, as though the world were ending.
And after these wormhole sights had appeared one by one, hive motherships came following close behind them, one after another!
These hive motherships did not pour out very fast, but there were enough of these wormholes, and the hive motherships kept coming out without slowing at all, as if there were endless hive motherships inside the wormholes.
In a short few minutes, a great hive-race fleet had appeared in this stretch of space.
In numbers, set in any other interstellar civilization's universe, it was no smaller than any plague of bugs in history.
And mind you, among these hive motherships even T6 hive motherships appeared.
And hardly a single T1- or T2-grade hive mothership could be seen.
That alone was enough to astonish everyone.
For, as everyone knew, the makeup of the interstellar hive-race's hive fleets rested mainly on the interstellar warships at the bottom.
It formed a quite astonishing pyramid.
And the most numerous by far were T1 and T2 hive motherships; in some hive fleets, T1 and T2 hive motherships made up over ninety-nine percent of the whole hive fleet.
That was why, when people judged hive fleets, they usually spoke of their terrifying numbers and their swarm way of fighting, not of how strong a hive fleet was in battle.
And in battle, hive fleets could turn the planets they took into culture dishes and keep building more hive motherships on them, which earned them the name of the terrible hive-race plague.
From first to last, hive fleets had never been built on the road of elite fleets.
But this hive fleet from the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire was rather different now.
It was now, of all things, heading down the road of an elite fleet, with a fair number of high-grade hive motherships.
Those T6 and T5 hive motherships, for instance, were the very mark of an elite fleet.
And its not sending T1- and T2-grade hive motherships first at the start of the fighting already showed, indirectly, that this Owl Dragon hive-race fleet had given up its old way of using T1 and T2 hive motherships first as cannon fodder to wear down the enemy's fighting power and endurance,
and then using elite hive motherships to destroy the enemy: the sea-of-bugs tactic.
The sea-of-bugs tactic was strong, true, but in some fights it had great limits.
Facing opponents with heavy firepower and great numbers of elite interstellar warships, for instance, opponents like the Owl Dragon legion fleets,
it would not work nearly so well.
Or again, where a fight had to be won swiftly, the sea-of-bugs tactic was plainly unsuited to a swift win against an opponent of equal strength.
And this Owl Dragon hive-race fleet, as remade now, could win swiftly.
With high-grade hive motherships charging into the thick of the enemy, it could put terrible pressure on the enemy early in the fighting.
It was not that this hive-race fleet had done away with its low-grade hive motherships.
Those hive motherships could be used at certain stages in the middle and later parts of a battle.
That was the fighting style of this Owl Dragon hive-race fleet now.
"The Owl Dragon hive-race fleet group's commander, the Hive Princess, reporting. Awaiting His Majesty the Emperor's orders."
On the other side of the video window appeared a slender, graceful young girl.
The Hive Princess wore an Owl Dragon legion fleets' uniform and put on a very serious look.
Zhao Chen looked at this hive-race girl before him.
The years of growing up had brought many changes in this hive-race girl too; she was not quite what she had been when he first met her.
He could even see a good deal of the Owl Dragon officers in her now.
Probably this hive-race girl often went looking for Owl Dragon officers to talk over all sorts of things when she had nothing to do.
And the Owl Dragon legion fleets' officers had no reservations at all about this little sister of another race.
By now they were long used to the Owl Dragon hive-race fleet being there.
"Tell me how your fleet stands now," Zhao Chen said, looking at the Hive Princess.
The Hive Princess stood up straight and answered, "Reporting to Your Majesty: as you ordered, until we received your order our Owl Dragon hive-race fleet group stayed on standby, waiting for your order. Once we received your order, we came at once to support the battlefield. We have a hundred million Owl Dragon hive-race fleet ships here, waiting for your orders at any moment. And if need be, there are another billion hive-race combat units in the Owl Dragon hive-race star region that can be moved."
It could be seen that the Hive Princess was taking this combat task very seriously; mind you, usually when the Hive Princess spoke to Zhao Chen, she did not call him Your Majesty,
but called him big brother.
Now she was saying "Your Majesty" to her big brother Zhao Chen as properly as could be.
That showed the Hive Princess was truly taking this campaign very seriously; she very much hoped to show what she could do before His Majesty the Owl Dragon Emperor, her big brother Zhao Chen!
Zhao Chen nodded and went on asking, "Of the hundred million hive motherships sent out this time, how many are there of each grade?"
The Hive Princess answered, "As ordered before the battle, this time our Owl Dragon hive-race fleet group is using the elite-fleet strategy. These hundred million are divided into two parts. One part is the main fleet of ten million ships, all T3-grade hive motherships or above. That includes 9,900,000 T3-grade hive motherships of every model, 99,000 T4-grade hive motherships, and 9,900 T5-grade hive motherships. Besides those there are 99 T6-grade hive motherships, and one quasi-T7-grade hive mothership, my flagship. And the remaining ninety million interstellar warships form the second, reserve echelon, made up mainly of T2- and T1-grade interstellar warships."
The Hive Princess set out these figures very earnestly.
It could be seen that she took these figures very seriously; she truly thought of herself as an Owl Dragon officer making arrangements here.
And from this string of figures alone one could see the elite-fleet course the Owl Dragon hive-race fleet group was taking now.
"Very good. From now on, your Owl Dragon hive-race fleet group isn't to rush into the fighting; gather on the battlefield's flank first and build a battle position. Wait to see whether the Black-God legion fleets opposite make a move. When they make their next move, wait for my order to act," Zhao Chen said.
Hearing she could not fight right away, the Hive Princess's whole bearing went flat at once; she pouted and said, "We still can't fight yet?"
"Don't worry; you'll get your chance to act," Zhao Chen said to comfort her.
Hearing Zhao Chen's comforting words, the Hive Princess did not complain; she only looked at Zhao Chen and said earnestly, "Then any combat task there is, you have to give it to us first!"
"All right, I'll remember." Zhao Chen could do nothing with this mischievous hive-race girl either.
Sure enough, that deep-rooted temper of hers was still there; she couldn't keep up the act for long.
"Hee hee hee. Then I'll be waiting for big brother's orders." The Hive Princess blinked, then hung up.
Zhao Chen looked at Secretary Lilith beside him, and the two of them smiled at each other.
And Secretary Lilith, unable to hold back, looked at Grand Marshal Charlotte on the other side of another video window and asked, somewhat puzzled, "Sister Charlotte, there's one thing I don't understand. We have the Owl Dragon hive-race fleet as a trump card in hand. And the Owl Dragon hive-race fleet can make its own wormholes; it sends fleets a bit slower, but well enough for lightning strikes on some star systems. We could perfectly well move these hive-race fleets right now to attack other star systems inside the Devourer Civilization. The Devourer Civilization's three Sovereigns opposite would have no chance at all of holding off those attacks."
Grand Marshal Charlotte explained with a smile, "In truth, Zhao Chen and I have talked this over in private many times before. You're quite right: we do have the chance to spread these hive fleet groups over every star system of the Devourer Civilization at one go and wreck the order of the planets there. But you have to know that the star systems without legion fleets garrisoned to defend them don't matter much to the Devourer Civilization's three Sovereigns to begin with. If we wreck those star systems, the three Sovereigns might not even blink. Then what would be the point of our wrecking them? The three Sovereigns aren't merciful people; they won't repair those star systems after the fighting, or spend resources caring for the victims whose homes were wrecked. Then the star systems we'd attacked would only suffer for this war. Is that what we want? Is the purpose of our making war destruction?"
Lilith was at a loss for words.
"We could do it, but plainly, doing it would gain us nothing besides showing our strength and violence to the Devourer Civilization's native races. Instead it would have many drawbacks; those native races, for instance, would be hostile to us in future, and think us cruel interstellar destroyers too. Mind you, our aim from start to finish has never been destruction. And one day in future we may overthrow the three Sovereigns' rule; then we may even have the chance to take over this universe, and then those star systems will all be ours. And who will bear the responsibility for repairing those star systems then? If our wanton attacks before made the natives of these star systems hostile to us, wouldn't that be lifting a rock only to drop it on our own feet? So Zhao Chen and I agreed that in this campaign we won't attack and wreck strategic targets that do nothing for us. It's not some saintly mercy; it's that all of this will be ours in future, and since it will be ours, naturally we need to take good care of it. After all, rebuilding all this takes a great deal of money and resources too."
When she had said this, Charlotte looked at Secretary Lilith opposite with a smile.
The meaning in the smile was very plain.
You, Secretary Lilith, are the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's housekeeper, so naturally all these repairs will be up to you.
When the time came, the one doing the accounts and paying out would still be you, the housekeeper.
"You two do have a point." Secretary Lilith shrugged, which counted as accepting their reason.
It did make sense, true.
Would you wreck something that will be yours in future?
Of course no one would do such thankless work.
If anything was to be wrecked, it would be the star systems that could affect them while they attacked,
such as the star systems where the three Sovereigns were, and the important resource and strategic star systems.
And these star systems, without exception, had long since been written into the list of targets by Charlotte; the thirty star systems set as targets earlier were just such a case.
That was also why this Owl Dragon hive-race fleet group had only appeared here now, of all times.
For one thing, there had been no targets to attack before; for another, this Owl Dragon hive-race fleet group was a trump card in Zhao Chen's hand.
It was a blade in Zhao Chen's hand; so long as this blade stayed in its sheath, the three Sovereigns opposite would always have to be careful and wary, for no one knew when, at what moment, this blade would come down.
That was the purpose of Zhao Chen and Charlotte holding this blade, the Owl Dragon hive-race fleet group, in their hands.
"Then surely you two lords can tell me now what exactly your plan is?" Secretary Lilith looked at Charlotte and Zhao Chen just then, somewhat aggrieved.
For this battle plan, given how tangled the battlefield was, and a cross-universe war at that, no detailed battle doctrine had ever been made public.
All along there had been only a rough plan of action.
Grand Marshal Charlotte had held the direction of the whole campaign all along, and Zhao Chen had played the part of overseer in the middle.
So only Zhao Chen had learned, partway through, roughly what Grand Marshal Charlotte's battle plan and aim were.
Zhao Chen and Grand Marshal Charlotte looked at each other and smiled.
Grand Marshal Charlotte spoke slowly just then: "Little sister Lilith, it's not that we wanted to keep it from you. It's truly that until the very end, we ourselves weren't sure which way this battle would go. We changed it many times along the way. If we'd told you these battle plans early, it might have muddled your thinking. Rather than that, better to let you go on at your own pace, and tell you these things only when we had something to arrange in between."
After a pause, Grand Marshal Charlotte went on, "Before this, we had several different battle plans. The simplest was to wreck the Devourer Civilization's important star systems outright, or else to make a chance to destroy the Devourer Civilization's main fleets on a grand scale. It's only now, since things truly began, that His Majesty and I have truly settled our aim. We mean to destroy and wear down the enemy's legion fleets to some degree, and then wreck some of the enemy's important strategic hub star systems, to badly disrupt some of the transport networks within the Devourer Civilization's universe."
"What? Transport networks?" Lilith was plainly somewhat startled when she heard the term.
She had probably never thought Grand Marshal Charlotte would mean to carry out such a battle plan.
"How do you mean to do it?" Lilith asked curiously.
Grand Marshal Charlotte glanced at Zhao Chen opposite, then said, "For this we owe a great deal to the Phantom Scout ace fleet group. In this campaign, the Phantom Scout ace fleet group not only took on battlefield reconnaissance, but carried out some special tasks as well. With us drawing great numbers of the enemy's legion fleets here, the Phantom Scout ace fleet group can slip into some of the enemy's important hub star systems more easily. For this time our targets aren't the enemy's resources and information, but those transport networks; that is, the star gates of the Devourer Civilization's universe."
Lilith cut in just then: "Wrecking star gates to disrupt the enemy's star-gate network and hamper their interstellar travel, I can understand. But the enemy can't be wholly unguarded. Important star gates, for instance, are surely protected by great numbers of garrisoned Devourer Civilization legion fleets, like the other strategic star systems. With only the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group, those star gates would be very hard to wreck."
To Lilith's doubts, Grand Marshal Charlotte only smiled slightly.
Then she explained, "You're right; if we wanted to wreck the enemy's important star gates in a short time, it would indeed be very hard. But you have to know that our aim this time isn't to wreck the most important star gates. It's to wreck star gates that look unremarkable, but which, once wrecked, can do great harm to the whole Devourer Civilization's star-gate transport network."
As Grand Marshal Charlotte spoke, a map of the Devourer Civilization's star-gate transport network appeared before Lilith.
On it were clearly marked the positions of every star gate, large and small, in the Devourer Civilization.
Work on so vast a scale showed well enough how much effort had gone into completing it.[1]
Without that ace fleet group, so great a body of work could never have been finished in so short a time,
nor so vast a map of the enemy's star-gate network obtained.
This map's strategic importance was no less than that of the enemy legion fleets' plan of defense on a battlefield.
And now, on this map of the star-gate network, several star gates could clearly be seen marked out.