The Fire Salamander ground troops, who'd been in the midst of assaulting the dwarf race's last shelter base, now all stared foolishly at the sky overhead.
One combat mech lifted its great head-shell and watched with its own eyes as the T2 warship that had dropped it down became a fireball, plunging toward the distant ground.
The Fire Salamander pilot inside the mech: Everything was fine on the way here, and now… I can't get back?
The dwarf warriors within the defensive line now noticed some strange goings-on outside as well. At the same time, the enemy's ferocious fire, so fierce before, had weakened considerably just now, and was gradually falling silent.
"What's going on? Why have the stinking lizards stopped attacking?" A dwarf warrior slowly eased his head out from cover to look outside. And he found that where there'd been Fire Salamander warriors before, there was now not a soul in sight. "Strange — where'd they all go?" The dwarf warrior wore a baffled look.
One dwarf warrior, still cautiously huddled behind cover, warned, "Careful, now — this could be some scheme of the stinking lizards."
"The lizards? A scheme? Their brain-cores aren't even as big as my *!" a dwarf warrior said scornfully, then volunteered to Chief Bajin, "Chief, I'll go out and take a look; if anything's up, I'll let you all know."
Chief Bajin nodded, then handed the dwarf warrior an alloy shield riddled with bullet-holes.
Holding the alloy shield up before him, the dwarf warrior slowly walked out from cover, and soon reached a spot outside where he could see the sky. He stood where he was, gazing up at the sky, and said nothing for a long while.
"Little Tree, what's the situation out there? Little Tree?" Chief Bajin called again and again over the comm channel, but there was no reply — only some rather heavy breathing.
At last the dwarf warrior called Little Tree came back to himself. He gulped and said, "Chief… you… you'd best come out and see for yourself… It's a warship… a T3-grade warship!"
A warship? A T3 warship?
Could it be that the Fire Salamander clan's T3 Arkham-class Medium Interstellar Battleship had sailed straight in?
Chief Bajin was greatly puzzled. Weapon in hand, he walked out from cover and came to stand beside the dwarf warrior Little Tree, who stood there in a daze. And when he raised his head to look at the sky, he understood at once why Little Tree wore such a stunned expression.
A T3 warship hung in the air, its close-in guns firing without cease; the Fire Salamander warships within a certain range around it fell one after another, for all the world like rain. The scattered attacks of those Fire Salamander warships, even when they struck the warship's hull armor directly, could do it no effective harm. Besides that, dozens of interstellar drones were attacking the combat mecha and Fire Salamander ground troops below. The Fire Salamander clan's once-unstoppable ground forces were, at this moment, falling in swathes.
That T3 warship was like divine soldiers descended from heaven, scouring the Fire Salamander troops from this planet.
"This… what on earth is happening?" More and more dwarf warriors came out, gazing at the sky with stunned faces.
Boom. Suddenly a great crash overhead — a fireball landed just before the dwarf warriors; it was a Fire Salamander T1 warship… And out of it a Fire Salamander warrior crawled, staggering. Just as the dwarf warriors went instantly on guard, a barrage of fire beat this Fire Salamander warrior into pulp on the spot.
The dwarf warriors gaped at the interstellar drone hovering above their heads. They could see, clear as day, that terrifying autocannon.
Gulp. They stood, not daring to move in the slightest. Should that drone take a notion, it could smash them to pulp on the instant.
The drone seemed to give them a scan, then turned and left, going on with clearing away the Fire Salamander warriors around them.
"Scared me half to death…"
"I feel like I nearly pissed myself — my trousers feel all cold and clammy."
"That drone is absolutely T3-grade! Its firepower's ferocious — it shatters a T1 warship with ease!"
"That warship — by the hull it looks like a T3 cruiser, doesn't it?"
Chief Bajin stared at the warship and shook his head. "No, that's no cruiser. It should be a battlecruiser!"
Just then the dwarf warriors saw the warship sweep swiftly over their heads, drop dozens of little black spheres, and then sail off toward the planet's exterior again, punching out through the atmosphere.
The dozens of black spheres grew steadily larger in the dwarf warriors' view. At last came several thunderous crashes as they struck the ground.
Boom, boom, boom.
Some dwarf warriors lost their footing and dropped flat to the ground. And those "little black spheres" — they finally saw them for what they truly were: mecha, one after another. Interstellar combat mecha!
Chief Bajin looked with unease at these black interstellar combat mecha before him. He didn't know what these mecha of unknown origin, or that mysterious T3 interstellar battlecruiser, were all about. But he understood one thing clearly: that ship and these combat mecha were all extremely advanced, cutting-edge technology — far, far beyond anything the country bumpkins of the Fire Salamander clan could ever lay hands on.
"Hey — we're on the ground now, you don't have to be scared, you can open your eyes." A man's voice came from atop one of the interstellar combat mecha.
Only now did the dwarf warriors notice that on the shoulder of that black interstellar combat mech stood a man in single-soldier exoskeleton combat armor — and by his leg was a "child" who came up only to his waist. That "child" wore a size-smaller set of exoskeleton combat armor, and was clutching the man's thigh for dear life, not daring to let go in the least.
"Are we really on the ground?" A familiar girl's voice came from within that "child's" exoskeleton armor.
Chief Bajin's expression froze.
"We really are on the ground. Would the Commander lie to you?"
"The Commander — you lied to Annie just now! You said jumping down wasn't scary at all… and now… now Annie feels like she's about to wet herself from fright… Annie's never listening to the Commander again… the Commander's a big fibber…"
"Weren't you the one who said you were worried about your parents' safety, that you wanted to get down and see them quickly?"
"Annie could've taken a shuttle…"
"All right, all right, hurry up and get down. Those must be your people. Might I ask — which of you is Chief Bajin of the dwarf race? Or rather, which of you can reach Chief Bajin?" Zhao Chen carried the little one at his side and simply jumped down to the ground; the latter words were addressed to the dwarf soldiers before him.
The T2 Black Knight-class Light Interstellar Combat Mecha, meanwhile, began keeping watch on their surroundings — the instant they spotted any Fire Salamander combat unit, they destroyed it.
"I… I'm the one…" Chief Bajin came tremblingly forward, gazing with something like disbelief at that "child" whose face was hidden by the helmet.
That voice just now… that voice couldn't be mistaken…
And that name… Annie…