The T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser's second cluster-laser bow-cannon shot fired out. The great blue beam pierced through the pitch-black cosmos and slammed once more into that star shield. But this time the shield began, little by little, to grow unstable. It meant its energy supply had started to fall short.
Some seconds later, the shield was punched clean through!
The blue cluster-laser struck the T3 Flame Lion King's bow-cannon position outright. One could see the whole bow cannon begin to break apart and split open, and at the last be pulverized within the cluster-laser!
"Warning! Shield energy fully depleted…"
"Warning! Frontal hull armor is under attack… frontal hull armor about to be destroyed…"
"Warning! Hull bow-cannon weapon module destroyed!"
But up on the bridge, Scarface had long since vanished without a trace; in one corner of the bridge, several empty escape pods could be seen. Thereupon the whole bridge was pierced through by the cluster-laser! Seen from the outside, it was as though this T3 Flame Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Battlecruiser had been bored through, end to end, with one great gaping hole.
"It's simply incredible… in a bare span of under five minutes, it actually annihilated a battlecruiser of the same class!" Fang Xiuli covered her mouth in astonishment.
Commander Chitong stared at that blue-and-white warship, her feelings within somewhat tangled.
The next half hour was the "cleaning" of the battlefield. Working in concert, the T3 Blizzard and the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company wiped out the great bulk of the enemy fleet; only a small number of warships got away. Zhao Chen gave no order to pursue — after all, he had but a single warship, and it was still best to err on the side of caution.
With the fighting over, Zhao Chen looked at this somewhat bedraggled interstellar mercenary fleet and sent a comm request. It was accepted almost in the very next second. A video window appeared before Zhao Chen; on the other end was none other than Commander Chitong.
"Commander Chitong, it's been a long while." Zhao Chen greeted her.
Commander Chitong bowed deeply to Zhao Chen. "Chitong, here, on behalf of Bloody Mary, expresses her thanks to you. Thank you for coming to save us."
"What's that worth mentioning? We are business partners, after all," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
"Was it from Li Yaqi that you learned I'd run into danger?" Commander Chitong looked at Zhao Chen and asked.
Zhao Chen nodded. "That's right. It was by leaning on the intelligence Li Yaqi provided that I knew roughly where you'd come under attack; happily, my luck held, and I found you soon enough."
"Truly, I thank you with all my heart. If not for you, this fleet of mine would likely have been unable to leave here at all today." Commander Chitong's gaze dimmed somewhat. And even so, in this encounter she'd still had some crew fall; the thought of it left her seething with resentment.
"Now's not the time for thanks piled on thanks. The battle may be over, but there are still a great many matters to deal with. We need to leave here as soon as we can," Zhao Chen reminded her.
"Yes." Commander Chitong bit her lip lightly; she seemed to be wrestling with something.
"Commander Chitong, whatever misgivings you have, you can tell me." Zhao Chen could see Commander Chitong seemed to have something weighing on her mind.
"By rights, I ought now to be escorting these interstellar transports on to your Owl Dragon System — this being, after all, what we agreed. But… just now I'm rather worried for my home base. Since my fleet's whereabouts have been betrayed, my home base is in all likelihood in grave danger now too, so I'd like to…" Commander Chitong's expression was conflicted.
Unlike the Fire Salamander clan of the Reef Star Region earlier, with their fixed domain and home base, the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company had no fixed home base; out of considerations of safety, their home base was exceedingly well hidden.
"I know what you're thinking. Let's do this. Here's my suggestion: your interstellar fleet proceeds as originally planned, escorting the interstellar transports, along with the wounded from this battle, to the Owl Dragon System. And you ride my warship to this home base you speak of," Zhao Chen proposed.
Commander Chitong said with concern, "But there may well be moles within my fleet… if your warship leaves, I can't rule out that these moles might contact the enemy fleet to stage a comeback!"
"For the moles, I have a way of dealing with them. Aboard my warship there's an instrument that can detect moles; Commander Chitong, you need only do as I say, and in half an hour at the most we can roughly root out those moles," Zhao Chen said.
Commander Chitong looked at Zhao Chen in surprise; she'd never imagined he'd have this sort of means, too. Though she was somewhat worried for her home base, half an hour was no great length of time; and the fighting having only just ended, her fleet did need a spell to regroup as well.
"Very well."
Next, Commander Chitong, while ordering the fleet to regroup where it stood, set about doing as Zhao Chen directed.
"Relay the Commander's order — every crew member of the whole ship, personnel included, all to the hangar bay to board shuttles! Don't ask why — move, quickly!" a voice rang out aboard one of the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company's T2 warships.
Though full of questions in their hearts, the crew nonetheless did as ordered, one and all. Boarding the shuttles, they discovered to their surprise that the shuttles were in fact bound for that T3 warship which had come to their rescue.
The shuttles berthed in the hangar bay, and Commander Chitong's voice rang out, bidding them come down off the shuttles and stand in neat, uniform ranks within the hangar. They raised their heads and looked at the man sweeping his gaze over them from the hangar's second-floor platform, and at Commander Chitong.
Commander Chitong looked down at the puzzled crew below. "This gentleman at my side is His Excellency the Commander who saved us; His Excellency has even specially prepared meals for us. You've all had a hard time of it in this battle; once you've collected your meals, you may go back."
At first the mercenary company's crew were baffled — just what sort of operation was this? Even if it was a matter of handing out meals, those could be sent straight to each ship; why go to all this bother? But the moment they laid eyes on the boxed meals, one after another, they very nearly began to drool — for those were fine delicacies, made all of natural ingredients. This trip hadn't been for nothing; one by one they went to collect their boxed meals.
Commander Chitong looked then to Zhao Chen at her side.
"Next batch," Zhao Chen said with a shake of his head.
As one shuttle after another sailed into the hangar, the mercenary company's crew happily collected their boxed meals and left. The whole thing went very efficiently — yet all this while Zhao Chen had never once said just who the mole was. This left Commander Chitong much puzzled: whatever means did Commander Zhao Chen have that could pick out a mole?
Before long, Zhao Chen's gaze came to rest, fixed, upon one particular person.
"Third row, the fifth," Zhao Chen said in a low, heavy voice.
Commander Chitong looked at the person Zhao Chen indicated — it was the deputy captain of a T2 battlecruiser, quite a high post, and one of the trusted confidants she prized highly. Commander Chitong couldn't quite believe this person was a mole; she opened her mouth, then shut it, but did as Commander Zhao Chen said all the same, ordering her subordinates to go arrest that deputy captain first.
That deputy captain noticed the gaze from the hangar's second-floor platform, and saw, too, a squad of people already walking toward her. At once she drew a laser pistol, taking as hostage a crew member of the same ship who stood beside her, still at a loss for what was happening.
"Nobody come near! Nobody come near! Anyone who dares come near — I'll kill her!"