Once again it was one thousand five hundred interstellar warships, five Fierce Dragon fleets.
Once again an order arrived out of nowhere.
The five fleets mustered at once.
It was very like the situation more than half a year before.
Only this time their target was not the Dax Empire but the Lanners civilization.
"Quick, quick, quick! Everyone to your combat posts. Don't be nervous; do everything just as we trained. So long as you can meet the standard you met in training, your survival rate can double!" Gulizha was now deputy commander of the Fierce Dragon Mecha Corps, in direct command of the half of the Mecha Corps attached to one interstellar fleet.
His voice rang out over the mecha squad command channel of every interstellar warship under him.
Among mecha pilots as a group, Gulizha the mecha pilot had already become something of an idol.
What mecha pilot did not want to be like him, to make his name in a single battle and change his fate?
From a far corner of the planet, he had brought his whole family straight into the Fierce Dragon Kingdom to live,
living in a detached villa with its own yard, on pay ordinary people could only dream of.
And now he even held the post of deputy commander!
Though it was deputy commander of the Mecha Corps, on the battlefield a man in that post need not go into the fighting himself unless it came to the very last.
Of course, in military merit they could not match the mecha pilots who risked life and limb at the front either.
In the Fierce Dragon army's system of military merit, there was no such thing as sitting back and collecting a great deal of military merit.
Having read out his address, Deputy Commander Gulizha took a deep breath.
He was now altogether different from when he had first gone into battle more than half a year before.
Even his bearing had changed a good deal.
In this half year he had gone into the Fierce Dragon military academy for further study three times, one after another,
all to teach him how to become a commander, and not merely a mecha pilot.
Before, he had only needed to drive his own combat mecha well and complete his combat task.
He had only needed to answer for himself alone.
But now it was different; he had to answer for his unit.
He had to answer for those several hundred combat mechas.
One order of his, one thought, one decision, could change the fate of whether these people got home.
He had climbed up from the bottom; he knew very well that behind these ordinary people's lives stood family after family.
If he could, he naturally hoped to bring more people home alive.
"Deputy Commander, we've stressed it again to the squad leaders of every squad. Nothing will go wrong with this combat mission," his adjutant said beside him.
"Mm. And stress one more thing: because some of our starships this time are new models, their internal structure may not be quite like that of the interstellar warships before. Quite a few mecha squads haven't been aboard more than half a month. Make sure nothing goes wrong. Don't think the things that might go wrong will only be on the battlefield. Often some problem nobody notices turns up right under your nose!" Deputy Commander Gulizha said earnestly.
"Yes!"
Deputy Commander Gulizha looked at the huge hangar space before him, where combat mecha after combat mecha stood parked.
And among them were some extremely special ones:
T4-grade combat mechas!
And he himself was one of the few mecha pilots issued a T4-grade combat mecha!
He gazed at the huge storm-colored combat mecha before him.
It was just like its name!
Thunder-Warrior!
T4 Thunder-Warrior-class Medium Interstellar Combat Mecha
Class: interstellar combat mecha / interstellar fighter
Tech grade: T4
Frame armor strength: 2,000–3,000 units
Shield energy value: 10,000 units
Mecha-mode cruising speed: 40 star-knots
Maximum speed: 60 star-knots
Fighter-mode cruising speed: 800 star-knots
Maximum speed: 1,600 star-knots
Frame height: 36 meters
Mass: 1,088 tons
Crew posts: 1
Frame weapons: six sixty-three-barrel Gatling-type medium beam machine cannons; 500 cells of small missiles; one particle heavy cannon; one Thunder lance (mecha mode only); one Thunder chain-sword (mecha mode only)
He had had this T4-grade combat mecha for under a month.
It was said this was only the first batch, and just a hundred had been delivered,
fewer even than the T3 interstellar warships now.
And because of its size, it could only be carried on T4-grade interstellar warships, or on large T3-grade starships.
Deputy Commander Gulizha touched the pendant at his collar, which held the family photo his wife had given him,
taken in the yard of the house he had newly bought.
The whole family was in it.
Everyone's faces were completely different from before.
The children of school age had started school, and his wife and parents had grown used to life here.
The future was all so good.
Seeing so good a life, Gulizha knew all the more clearly
that he still had to put in more effort; he still needed more military merit.
So this battle was extremely important.
"New fellow. Though it's our first time fighting side by side, I believe we can begin a new legend together." Gulizha ran his hand over the shell of the T4 Thunder-Warrior-class Medium Interstellar Combat Mecha before him, feeling a touch unlike that of the T3 combat mechas.
Beep-beep-beep-beep.
At this point red and yellow lights flashed through the whole hangar at a certain rhythm.
This was telling all combat personnel that the starship was about to pass through a star-gate.
"All mecha pilots into your mecha cockpits. All reserve mecha pilots, to your assigned positions and stand by!" Deputy Commander Gulizha ordered.
Then he at once climbed into the cockpit of his own T4 Thunder-Warrior-class Medium Interstellar Combat Mecha.
This T4 Thunder-Warrior-class Medium Interstellar Combat Mecha had long since been started and was on standby.
The moment he came in, every interface around him switched on.
He took a deep breath, and it was as if everything around him fell quiet.
He called up a video window:
the view outside the starship.
Only officers of his level could view it,
and only part of it.
From the picture he could see, he could make out the three hundred interstellar warships around them.
Among them were several shapes of enormous size,
including the starship he was aboard.
As far as he knew, for the sake of uniform fighting strength,
the few T4-grade interstellar warships had all now been assigned to the Fierce Dragon First Fleet he was in.
The intent was plain:
in this campaign, the Fierce Dragon First Fleet he was in would be of crucial importance.
That was why, before the campaign began, he had said those things to the mecha pilots he had brought out: so that more of them could survive!
The Lanners Civilization
First Naval Port Fortress
This was the Lanners civilization's largest naval port fortress; basically most interstellar warships returning from the battlefield would come here for overhaul and maintenance, to prepare for the next war.
And these days, this naval port fortress could be said to be run off its feet.
Great numbers of interstellar warships pulled back from the front-line battlefield were lining up to get into the docks for overhaul and maintenance.
"I can't take any more. Let me rest a bit." A rather older mechanic slumped to the floor, his face plainly ghastly white.
"Hey, hey, hey. It's nearly our work group's turn. Don't slack off. The consequences for slacking off right now are serious." His partner beside him glanced around; the overseer was not there, and he warned him in a low voice.
"Kill me if you can. I haven't gone off shift for a whole week straight. When I rest, it's four hours in the dormitory next door. I feel like half my life is gone."
The man sniffed at himself: "The smell on me, even perfume can hardly cover it now. On average we're inspecting and repairing three interstellar warships a day. My brain can hardly hold up anymore."
"What can you do about it? It's not as if you don't know how many interstellar warships have come off the front-line battlefield. Over ten thousand. We're the lucky ones. Our stage only inspects and maintains some simple problems. The badly damaged ones sent to the docks, now those people are truly run ragged. I hear dozens of them have collapsed outright. Right now there aren't nearly enough hands. The higher-ups have started hiring in a rush. The original requirement was at least three hundred hours of study at the institute to get a post like ours. I hear now it's only thirty hours. Even so, there still aren't enough people. Want a rest? That's harder than wanting to die."
Hearing his partner's words, the man could only cover his face.
"How much rest time is left?" he asked helplessly.
"About five minutes, I'd say, until the next starship comes in and finishes docking." His partner glanced at the time.
"I'm going for a smoke. Without a smoke I really can't hold up." With that, not waiting for his partner to agree, he headed for the smoking area.
When he got to the smoking area, it was already thick with smoke.
People on break from every work post were smoking here, or using other things to keep themselves awake.
Without these external props, they truly could not hold up.
What they all talked about with one another was how many starships they had repaired and inspected over the past few days,
which starship had had what big problem, what a nightmare it had been to sort out, topics of that kind.
He lit a cigarette for himself and took a deep drag.
Only at this moment did he feel as if he had come back to life.
On one side of the smoking area was a huge floor-to-ceiling window through which the sea of stars outside could be seen.
This too had been thought of so that everyone could relax here.
In a completely enclosed environment, given long enough, even if the body did not break down, sooner or later the mind would.
Smoking,
he daydreamed of how, once this rush was over, he would rest properly when he got back.
He remembered that technician No. 998 at the port's Club No. 3 was good; last time he had booked her, the feeling had been something else.[1]
This time when he got his rest, he would book her for three sessions straight when he went back!
Just as he was imagining himself and that technician No. 998 sweet on each other,
outside the floor-to-ceiling window, in that stretch of starry sky in the distance, a huge rift appeared almost in an instant, and after the rift appeared,
hundreds of points of light appeared with it!
"Those are starships!" someone cried out.
"Strange, this looks like a one-way star-gate delivery device. But the question is, why use one here? Isn't that just wasting the thing?" someone said, baffled.
"This is bad! It's an enemy attack!" The somewhat quicker-witted ones all understood at this moment.
Anyone using a one-way star-gate delivery device here could only be an enemy attack!
Almost in the next second, alarms sounded through the whole naval port.
Port Command
"What's the situation now!" The port chief hurried in and asked at once.
"Three hundred interstellar warships have suddenly appeared east of our naval port. By hull identification, they can be confirmed as interstellar warships of the Fierce Dragon interstellar civilization. Their interstellar warships are closing on our naval port at extremely high speed, intending to attack our naval port!"
"A mere three hundred interstellar warships and they want to attack our naval port! Pass on my order. The interstellar fleet guarding the naval port is to move out at once to intercept. The interstellar warships scheduled for repair in the naval port, so long as they can still fight, are to form into a scratch formation at once and join the fighting too!" the port commander ordered quickly.
"Yes! Then should the starships in the naval port be moved out?" his adjutant asked one thing more.
"No hurry for now. A mere three hundred interstellar warships can't stir up any waves."
"But what if the Fierce Dragon civilization has sent more than just this one fleet?" his adjutant said, still somewhat worried.
"Even if they send every interstellar warship the Fierce Dragon civilization has, so what? How many starships do we have here? Over five thousand. Add the defenses built around our naval port. What do you think a mere Fierce Dragon civilization interstellar fleet can do to us? The only reason our Lanners civilization came off badly before was that we had to be wary of the Dax Empire civilization, which gave those cunning people an opening to exploit. Now we've joined hands with the Dax Empire. This Fierce Dragon civilization will only be like a clown leaping about, playing with fire and getting burned!" As one of the Lanners civilization's leadership, he already knew of the Lanners civilization's present plan of cooperation with the Dax Empire.
So he thoroughly looked down on the Fierce Dragon civilization's fleet before him.
"Yes!" Seeing his commander so confident, his adjutant said no more.
And so,
the five hundred interstellar warships responsible for the naval port's own patrol and defense, plus the five hundred interstellar warships formed up on the spot:
the Lanners civilization's one thousand interstellar warships were first to intercept these three hundred Fierce Dragon interstellar warships, still some distance from the Lanners First Naval Port!
The commander of the Fierce Dragon First Fleet,
Marshal Chu Xuan, gazed at the thousand interstellar warships opposite.
She swept her eyes over them:
three T3 interstellar warships, three hundred T2 interstellar warships, and all the rest T1 interstellar warships.
The fighting quality of these enemy ships was simply too poor.
"Our task is the main assault. Since we've come, let them get a good look at our strength. Whole fleet, advance. T4 interstellar warships in front to hold the line!"