Afterward, among the three powers, the Frey civilization expressed its willingness to talk.
The Fierce Dragon civilization's side said it needed a week or more to prepare.
In the end the three powers settled on the final time of the meeting.
To others, this was only a perfectly normal meeting for three-way cooperation.
Little did they know
that the Fierce Dragon civilization had already quietly begun massing its interstellar fleet.
Marshal Chu Xuan pointed at a route on the star map: "Take this route, using warp travel. We expect to reach the outside of the Frey planet in five hours. At present around the Frey planet there are arms factories they've built, and about seven hundred interstellar warships stationed. Besides that, according to the firm word we've received, the Frey civilization has some kind of blood-sacrifice ritual. Through the ritual they can directly summon biological interstellar warships. So once we attack, the most urgent task is to destroy these blood-sacrifice altars; only that can keep them from being driven to desperate measures and summoning T3-grade interstellar warships. For this operation, we'll mass three hundred interstellar warships and ten T3 interstellar warships. In number of interstellar warships we fall short of the enemy. But the quality of our interstellar warships far surpasses theirs. At the same time we're the attacking side. We can catch them completely off guard. Is that all understood!" Marshal Chu Xuan looked at the assembled officers.
Everyone nodded.
Marshal Chu Xuan's gaze turned to ten officers.
These ten officers held rather special posts.
They were all captains of T3 interstellar warships!
"The combat mission for the ten of you will be very important. You'll be our vanguard, striving to destroy their star fortresses and their main starships, tearing open a gap in the enemy's defenses, and winning us the greatest gains in the shortest time! If your attack goes wrong, it will affect our whole fleet's battle plan. So I need you to make one hundred percent sure nothing goes wrong. Any problems!"
"We guarantee to complete the mission!" the ten captains said in unison.
Hearing this answer, Marshal Chu Xuan nodded with satisfaction.
Marshal Chu Xuan glanced at the time: "Three last hours of preparation left. Dismissed; go back and get ready."
Fire Lydia stood up, put on her uniform cap, walked out of the meeting room, and headed for the dock.
"Fire Lydia, how's your ship's preparation going? This time I'll beat you for sure!" A woman officer popped up beside her, looking at Fire Lydia curiously.
"Then let's see." Fire Lydia looked at this good friend of hers, a classmate from her intake at the Starship Academy, who often competed with her for marks in every respect.
"Hmph!" The other tossed her head and ran quickly toward her own starship.
Fire Lydia's pace did not change; she raised her hand
and opened a page.
It was the interstellar warship she had taken over a week before:
a T3 interstellar warship!
Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser
Ship type: Interstellar battlecruiser
Tech grade: T3
Hull-armor strength: 1,500 units – 1,800 units
Star-shield energy value: 13,000 units
Cruise speed: 210 star-knots
Warp engine: Grade-6 warp engine
Hull length: 998 meters
Mass: 300,000 tons
Crew posts: 200
Ship weapons: one Blizzard-class Heavy Cluster-Laser Bow-Cannon, four 2,500mm-caliber Medium Electromagnetic Railgun main guns, sixteen Medium Pulse-Laser secondary guns, seventy-two Medium close-in guns, four-cell interstellar missile launch-silo (50 Blizzard Light Interstellar Missiles), fifty Blizzard Interstellar Drones
Special performance: Blizzard Extreme-Cruise Mode
The T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser.
At first, when Fire Lydia saw this starship's information, she had been somewhat surprised.
After all, an interstellar battlecruiser by rights should be heavy or medium.
This one was actually light.
A light interstellar battlecruiser: without thinking, she had taken it to be no main starship, something with big problems.
But after truly taking over this starship and putting it through a few trial runs, she had fully understood why the Fierce Dragon fleet would build this class of T3 interstellar warship.
It was said to be cheap to build, with a short build time.
Most important of all, this class of interstellar warship could play a very great part in small-scale fleet battles.
It was the class of ship the Fierce Dragon fleet needed most now.
Fire Lydia walked into the dock, boarded a shuttle, and flew the shuttle toward her ship, moored at the anchorage.
Nine hundred ninety-eight meters long, painted blue and white, with a streamlined design, pushing speed to the utmost.
Most important of all, its hull was fitted with weapons of every kind.
Though it was light, its fighting strength was considerable.
A hatch of this T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser opened, and the shuttle flew in.
"Captain." A crew member saw the captain step out of the opened hatch.
"Mm." Fire Lydia greeted him and headed for the bridge.
Behind her, the shuttle folded itself up, then was hoisted away by a mechanical arm.
The hangar was empty all at once.
Fire Lydia walked onto the bridge.
She looked around once.
The crew of every department were at their posts.
Fire Lydia sat in the captain's chair and pressed the all-ship broadcast: "This is the captain; this is an all-ship broadcast. Every department, run one last check and carry out one training drill each. In three hours, this ship will carry out a top-secret mission!"
Time passed little by little.
Fire Lydia checked on every department.
The three hours were up in the blink of an eye.
"All departments to Readiness Level Two," Fire Lydia said earnestly.
The other interstellar warships began forming up at once too.
The three hundred interstellar warships soon finished forming up.
"Confirm the course. Prepare to depart!" Marshal Chu Xuan waved her hand and ordered the whole fleet out.
Zhao Chen looked through the porthole at those three hundred interstellar warships departing, above all at those ten T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruisers.
For this class of interstellar warship, Zhao Chen had rather special feelings.
For at the very beginning, this had been his first interstellar warship, in the true sense, of the interstellar age.
"Your Majesty. The Lanners civilization's side is asking us for the exact time of the meeting." Secretary Officer Barbara came over, glanced at the departing fleet, and asked Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen thought a moment and said, "Stall a while longer. Best of all, make it fall right at the moment our fleet arrives, so it fits our fleet's attack."
"Understood. I'll arrange it right away." Secretary Officer Barbara at once worked out the time and began negotiating with them.
This time
was exactly half an hour after the other side's negotiating delegation set out.
The timing was very well judged.
Zhao Chen looked at Dragon Star, then at the stars of the universe before him.
This war was very important; if it went smoothly, the Fierce Dragon civilization could take full control of the whole star system.
If anything went wrong,
Zhao Chen would lose a very great deal of time in the Trial of the Gods.
Zhao Chen opened the Trial of the Gods page.
Of the Trial civilizations, fewer than seventy now remained.
At this rate,
the final battle among the Trial civilizations would probably come for everyone at around the T4 or T5 level of technology.
Whoever rose to that grade of technology first would hold the initiative in the Trial of the Gods.
And so far the Fierce Dragon civilization had eliminated only one Trial civilization.
And before the Fierce Dragon civilization now, in contact, were three Trial civilizations:
the Frey civilization, the Dax civilization and the Lanners civilization.
Deal with the Frey civilization first.
Then what remained would be the Dax Empire and the Lanners civilization.
——————
The Frey civilization.
A fleet of thirty starships was slowly sailing out of the starport here.
They would be the negotiating representatives the Frey civilization sent out.
The Lord of Frey watched the fleet go from the temple, then looked at the Frey civilization's First Planet beneath him.
"After these talks, we need to speed up our development. The development of every colony planet must be stepped up too. Find a way to bring out more policies. Raise the natives' working hours from fifteen hours a day to twenty. And require by force that every family must have one member join the colonization plan! …" As the Lord of Frey spoke, the subordinate beside him wrote these things down.
When he had finished writing,
even this subordinate asked with some worry, "Master, our policies are growing harsher and harsher now. If this goes on, I worry that the natives' resentment below will grow fiercer still."
"Resentment? What if there is? Can they fly up into the universe and strike at me? If some rebel army really appears, we'll just pick a city as an example, carry out an orbital bombardment with starships, and broadcast the scene live. Let those natives know that here our Frey civilization is king, and my word is the word of the gods. That I let them live is the greatest grace I can show them!" the Lord of Frey said dismissively.
"Yes!"
In a stretch of space still some distance from the Frey civilization's First Planet,
three hundred interstellar warships came out of warp travel and suddenly appeared in this space.
"Scan the surrounding space; confirm whether it's safe!" Marshal Chu Xuan ordered.
"Yes!"
"The surrounding space has been scanned; it's confirmed safe. No Frey interstellar warships," a subordinate reported.
"Begin preparing our attack plan!" Marshal Chu Xuan said.
"Yes!"
The three hundred interstellar warships began spreading into battle formation.
"From where we are now, sailing on, we expect to reach the Frey civilization's First Planet in thirty minutes. The gifts we've prepared for them will arrive at the same time too," a subordinate said.
Marshal Chu Xuan glanced at the time; her gaze fell on the star map again, and she pointed at the position of the Frey civilization's First Planet.
"The operation begins. Targets: the Frey civilization's First Planet and that temple of theirs!"
"Yes!"
The three hundred interstellar warships began accelerating forward, their target the Frey civilization's First Planet.
"If we meet Frey interstellar warships on the way, don't fire unless necessary; save time. If the Frey interstellar warships fire on us, destroy the enemy ships in the shortest time. Just as in the plan we drew up: a few interstellar warships stay behind to destroy the target starships, and the main fleet keeps passing through fast! Remember, this time it's a surprise attack, a blitz! Time matters!" Marshal Chu Xuan stressed with a very grave expression.
"Understood!"
Time passed little by little, and this fleet drew nearer and nearer to the Frey civilization's First Planet.
At this point they were bound to meet Frey interstellar warships.
"Are those interstellar warships? They look like the Fierce Dragon civilization's interstellar warships; how could they appear here?" A Frey starship on patrol spotted the Fierce Dragon fleet appearing on its radar!
"This is a star region controlled by the Frey civilization. Your starships are to stop sailing at once!" the patrolling Frey starship warned on reflex.
But these Fierce Dragon starships seemed not to hear the warning at all, and kept sailing ahead at full speed on their own course.
The patrolling Frey starship had already sent the news of these suddenly appearing Fierce Dragon starships to the Frey Temple, and its guns were ready for battle too.
At a single order, they could open fire to intercept these Fierce Dragon starships.
But in truth their hearts were trembling; once they opened fire now, these patrol starships of theirs would become the target of everyone's fire.
One could imagine the result.
The Frey Temple.
"Report! A Fierce Dragon fleet has suddenly appeared in the area outside our Frey First Planet, closing at full speed on our temple and the First Planet," a subordinate hurriedly reported to the Lord of Frey.
"What? A Fierce Dragon fleet has appeared here!" The Lord of Frey understood the intent behind it at once.
His face dark, he said, "That Fierce Dragon civilization lot mean to kill the donkey once the milling is done. Taking advantage of the time of the talks, while we're off our guard, they're launching a surprise attack on us. Zhao Chen, that treacherous bastard. Pass on my orders. All interstellar warships, prepare at once to meet the enemy. The Fierce Dragon civilization's interstellar warships are our enemy now; once they're within range, open fire outright! At the same time, at any cost, these interstellar warships must be stopped. They must not be allowed near our temple and the First Planet."
The Lord of Frey spoke through gritted teeth.
Around the First Planet, besides the temple, there was a whole series of other industrial installations.
Once this place was wrecked by the enemy, the Frey civilization would suffer enormous losses.
"Give orders at once to every altar on the First Planet. Start emergency action at once. Awaken our starships! Prepare for battle!" the Lord of Frey said sternly.
Since the Fierce Dragon civilization's fleet dared to break out at a time like this, it meant they had come prepared.
So the Lord of Frey showed his trump card at the very first moment.
He feared that if he hesitated even a little, his trump card would not even get the chance to appear.
At the same time,
in the Fierce Dragon fleet sailing at full speed,
several of the interstellar warships carried some special weapon launchers slung on the outside of their hulls.