The Lion King System.
Zhao Chen, leading his own interstellar fleet, had made it back at last. Happily, the Fire Salamander lot hadn't yet launched their attack; the Lion King System remained calm and untroubled.
The Owl Dragon Temporary Base, outside the Lion King System's third planet.
One could plainly see that two T2 Iron Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships had already extended their work platforms — and among them were even two warships all but finished.
Summoned, Charlotte and Secretary Aili took a shuttle to the bridge of Zhao Chen's T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser to talk over what came next. On the bridge, Zhao Chen looked with some surprise at the warships in the video feed, nearing completion within the two T2 Iron Hammers' work platforms.
"You've given me quite the surprise." Zhao Chen looked, rather astonished, at Charlotte beside him.
Charlotte pointed at Secretary Aili beside her. "This was all her arrangement, but owing to the poor comms, it wasn't reported to you in time. And with the urgency of reporting the Fire Salamander business, it got overlooked."
Secretary Aili said at once, stiffly, "I'm sorry, Commander — I took it upon myself without asking your leave…"
"No, you did very well. I'd been wondering whether our fighting strength would fall short in this battle. But these two warships you ordered built have raised our fighting strength by a great margin!" Zhao Chen looked at Aili with approval.
Those two T2 Iron Hammers were building, unmistakably, two T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships! And by the look of the work, they could likely roll off the line for trials this very day.
By Secretary Aili's account: because of the authority Zhao Chen had established earlier in the Lion King System, the powers on the various planets had since come "paying tribute" with no end of fine things — raw-material resources most of all. And the two T2 Iron Hammers dispatched to the Lion King System, having finished the repair work on the original Owl Dragon Fleet, had time on their hands. The resources for building the star gate were nowhere near enough yet, so Secretary Aili had simply ordered the construction of two T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships. After all, the T2 Lion King's superb showing on the battlefield before was plain for all to see. Apart from being something of a money-burner, its combat power was truly terrifying! And with the dwarf planet close by, Chief Bajin gladly took on the construction of some of the low- and mid-tier components, which greatly hastened the two T2 Lion Kings' construction.
Of course, Secretary Aili's arrangements hadn't held up the Lion King System's T3 Radiant Moon-class Star Gate construction — for the great quantity of raw materials hadn't yet arrived. By the word Zhao Chen had received not long ago, the Owl Dragon Star System had already received a batch of raw-material resources delivered by the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company; the Owl Dragon System's T3 Radiant Moon-class Star Gate construction was proceeding normally. And several T2 Moose-class Heavy Interstellar Transport Ships, fully laden with raw materials, were on their way to the Lion King System; these could guarantee the coming T3 Radiant Moon-class Star Gate construction here.
But the first pressing matter was to deal with the trouble the Fire Salamander clan brought.
"To business — do we have detailed intelligence on the Fire Salamander clan?" Zhao Chen asked. That the Fire Salamander clan would take revenge and strike back, Zhao Chen had foreseen. But he hadn't expected it to come so fast; interstellar war, after all, wasn't something one could wage at the drop of a hat. It was under two months since the Fire Salamander clan's last drubbing — and they'd recovered already?
"On this point, I have the latest intelligence to tell you. The situation may be far worse than we understood before," Charlotte said gravely.
Zhao Chen waited for the rest.
Charlotte went on, "About a week ago, we received a piece of intelligence, and afterward confirmed it ourselves — it's genuine. The content: the Fire Salamander clan has joined with three other interstellar powers — the Cerberus Interstellar Pirate Company, the Black Boar-folk, and the Gebo clan. The number of warships exceeds 3,000! And the number of T3 warships is not five, but 10!"
Zhao Chen knit his brows. 10? That far outstripped his expectations. However many T1 warships the enemy had, Zhao Chen feared them not at all. The only things to heed were the enemy's T2 warships, and above all their T3 warships. T3 warships were the force that posed a threat to Zhao Chen's Owl Dragon Fleet.
"But there's one thing that barely counts as good news: of these 10 T3 warships, five are frigates, and the rest are one cruiser, two destroyers, and two battleships. And their class types are all rather old, outdated models," Charlotte said.
"And the number of their T2 warships?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Close to 800."
10 T3 warships and close to 800 T2 warships, with the remaining nearly 2,500 all T1 warships. All of this far outstripped Zhao Chen's expectations.
"The Fire Salamander clan could muster this many warships?" Zhao Chen didn't understand. By what he and the others had learned before, the Fire Salamander clan shouldn't have that kind of power.
"That's exactly the point that has us baffled too. The one who provided us the intelligence said they must see you in person to explain it," Charlotte said.
"See me? Oh — the intelligence you just gave me, that came from this person who wants to see me?" Zhao Chen asked.
Charlotte nodded. "About a week ago — by then we already knew the Fire Salamander clan meant to come after us again, so we'd begun readying the fleet — someone got in touch with us through Chief Bajin, and told us the intelligence just now. They also said they wished to work with us, but on the precondition that they must speak with you personally," Charlotte said.
Zhao Chen thought. In the Reef Star Region, he and his had basically no connections at all. For someone to seek him out for cooperation just now — it couldn't be for his personal charm or the like. The likeliest thing was that they wanted to borrow a knife to kill. The Fire Salamander clan, on its own power, could never have gathered so vast an interstellar fleet; there had to be a power backing them. And very likely, the one seeking to work with him feuded with that power behind the Fire Salamander clan.
"Do we know the background of this person who wants to work with us?" Zhao Chen asked.
Charlotte put up an emblem — a circle at the center, with nine snake-heads spiraling out around it.
"One of the first-rate interstellar powers of the Reef Star Region: the Snake-folk! And the one who wishes to speak with you is their queen — Medusa."