Somewhere in the interstellar fringe space of the North Wind Star Region.
Here there was next to nothing; the vast majority of the place was one stretch of pitch black. Anyone not skilled at interstellar navigation would surely lose all sense of direction here! And just now, in this very tract of country where scarcely a soul ever trod, a running battle was breaking out.
An interstellar fleet numbering a full 200 ships was being pursued by close to 100 interstellar warships. That's right — 200-odd ships, pursued by nearly 100. Except that of the former's 200 ships, nearly 200 were T2 interstellar transports; fewer than 30 were combat-type warships. These interstellar warships all bore Bloody Mary's emblem upon their hulls. This was precisely the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company, which held a cooperative relationship with Zhao Chen!
In fact, before they came under enemy attack, they'd originally had a full 300 interstellar warships — 250 interstellar transports and 50 interstellar warships, uniformly T2! And fighting to this point, never mind the transports scattered or destroyed — the T2 combat-type warships alone had lost over a third of their number, and the remaining two-thirds were in no rosy state either. Having on the one hand to screen their own transport fleet, and on the other to give battle to the enemy, they were somewhat stretched thin.
"Commander! Dragging these transports along, there's simply no getting away!" a female adjutant at Chitong's side said, anxious.
Chitong stared at the enemy fleets that ringed her on the star map. 100 interstellar warships. 50 T2 warships, 50 T1 warships — and one T3 warship! That T3 warship above all was a ship of no small fame: reckoned throughout the Starlight Empire the foremost T3 battlecruiser — a T3 Flame Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Battlecruiser! Mind you, this T3 Flame Lion King was standard issue in the Empire's military; its combat power could well be imagined. Yet who'd have thought it would turn up among this fleet come to hunt her down. Its speed was quite something!
And it was precisely on seeing this T3 warship that Chitong knew this time the odds were grim indeed — and, most important of all… that someone had sold her out! For the enemy to fix on her fleet's whereabouts with such flawless accuracy, they had to have gotten the intelligence in advance; there was, within her own mercenary company, an inside man for the other side. And now, she'd no time at all to root that inside man out! Which meant the enemy could go on receiving word of her fleet's movements without cease. How was she to escape?
Chitong looked at her own fleet. She herself did not fear death, but she could not be reconciled to it — not for her crew, not for those children she'd rescued. And above all, she wanted to drag out the one who'd betrayed her! But it seemed it was already too late for that now.
"Pass my order: in a moment each interstellar warship is to break out on its own," Chitong said in a low, heavy voice.
"But if we do that, Commander, then you…" the female adjutant looked at Chitong with some worry. If each broke out on its own, then Chitong's flagship most likely wouldn't get away — because the inside man was in all likelihood aboard Chitong's own ship! And the enemy's first target was certain to be the flagship Chitong was on!
"Xiuli, I'm sorry… had I known it would come to this pass, three months ago I'd never have transferred you here to serve as my adjutant. You needn't die together with me. There may yet be some hope of living." Chitong looked at the female adjutant she'd raised up herself.
Fang Xiuli's eyes reddened faintly as she looked at Commander Chitong. "Commander… what are you saying? To go to my death at your side is Xiuli's good fortune. Three years ago, had you not rescued me out of that slave-trading interstellar fleet, I'd not know to this day whether I were alive or dead! This life of mine — it is all yours!"
Chitong looked at Fang Xiuli and gave a faint smile.
Just then a crew member beside her reported, "Report — there's a comm request coming in; it seems to be from an enemy warship!"
Chitong narrowed her eyes. "Put it through."
"Yes."
A video window appeared before Chitong. On the other end sat a burly man in the captain's chair, one of his eyes a mechanical eye, and across his whole cheek a sword scar — exceedingly savage to look upon.
"Commander Chitong — no ill befallen you since we last met, I trust."
"I wondered who it might be. So it's you, you scar-faced cur," Chitong said coldly.
The scar-faced man stroked the scar on his face, then stroked his mechanical eye. "Do you still remember how this scar of mine came to be? Back then I'd merely killed a few dozen disobedient slaves — and you went and set upon me with a sword right there in the starport, wounded my face, and blinded one of my eyes into the bargain! This grudge, I've kept it in mind all this while!"
"What a pity. If only my sword had been a few centimeters longer back then — I could've run it clean through that revolting skull of yours," Chitong said flatly.
The scar-faced man did not take offense at her words. On the contrary, he said with a light laugh, "All the better, in fact. In truth I'd not care to watch you meekly surrender — that would be far too dull. I'd sooner capture you and your crew and torture you bit by bit. I hear your crew are mostly women, aren't they? Perfect… I know of the filthiest, most revolting red-light district of any starport. When the time comes, I'll first let my brothers enjoy your crew, then pack them off to that place — to suffer the cruelest usage there is. Let them hate you, their commander — for if not for you… they'd never have suffered this nightmare! Hahaha…"
Chitong watched him with cold eyes, taking no offense at his words; on the contrary, all the more calmly she said, "You had best pray you can kill me today. Otherwise, I promise you this — though it be to the very ends of the earth, I will never let you go; and should you fall into my hands, I will use my sword to sever your tendons one by one!"
"Hahaha… don't tell me you still fancy you have a chance to live? In a place like this, who could come to save you? Let me tell you — you and your Bloody Mary will die here today without fail. Even the King of Heaven himself could come, and it would do no good!" the scar-faced man said, insufferably arrogant.
Chitong said nothing. In truth she knew well enough that this was the reality of it. This time, she might genuinely be beyond all deliverance. She hoped only that her subordinates might escape as far as they could — and that, even if they could not escape, they would on no account fall into the hands of this pack of human filth.
"Struggle, then! Struggle in the face of death! And pray you don't fall into my hands!" the scar-faced man said with a savage grin.