In the corridor.
Chairman Feng Weihao strode briskly out in front.
"That whatever-it-is T2 Tibetan Mastiff absolutely exaggerated its own warship's performance! How could it possibly be even stronger than our T2 Hyena!" Feng Xiaowei, following his father and elder brother, kept up a stream of doubt against the T2 Tibetan Mastiff there.
Feng Dawei truly couldn't hold it in any longer; he grabbed his younger brother's collar outright and pinned him against the wall. "The intelligence on this time's competitors' warships was handed to you to be responsible for. Why is there not one shred of ship intelligence on this Northern Goose Group!"
Feng Xiaowei looked at his elder brother's savage face and was rather stunned and afraid. "I… I didn't expect it either, that this Northern Goose Group… could actually bring out a… warship like this. I looked at their ship intelligence, and all the various information… was very blurred; I thought they were perhaps just showing their face at this procurement fair…"
"Heh, heh, heh — you thought! You thought! It's all what you thought! And just because of your idiot self-conceit, we've now been caught flat-footed by these people — do you understand that?! Had we but known their intelligence in advance, had we but made a bit of preparation, Father wouldn't have had to raise a challenge outright in a setting like that. Do you know — this is as good as forcing our Hurricane Conglomerate to the very edge of the cliff!" Just now Feng Dawei truly did want to give this younger brother of his a sound thrashing.
"Dawei, that's enough. Saying more now is of no use; the most important thing is how we're to face what comes next. In the ship duel to come, we must win!" Feng Weihao said in a low, heavy voice.
They all knew well that this ship duel was one their Hurricane Conglomerate absolutely could not afford to lose. Once lost, it would mean that the money tree of the Hurricane Conglomerate — the T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer — would from that moment fall! For the Hurricane Conglomerate, that would be a disaster.
"Understood. I'll go now and put our 30 T2 Hyenas through a rigorous inspection. And I'll have our very finest ship crews operate these T2 Hyenas for this ship duel," Feng Dawei said gravely.
"This gamble — our Hurricane Conglomerate cannot afford to lose it." Feng Weihao heaved a long sigh.
……
Meanwhile, over on the other side, Li Yaqi had long since made ready her 30 T2 Tibetan Mastiffs.
"President, this is the situation of our 30 T2 Tibetan Mastiffs; the captains and crews are all ones we've trained over a long stretch, veteran-born themselves, and exceedingly familiar with the T2 Tibetan Mastiff. And whether in background or in ability, there's not the slightest problem with any of them." The secretary reported the preparations to Li Yaqi.
Li Yaqi said in earnest, "This ship duel is being conducted entirely according to real combat; there are certain to be casualties. But pass a word to our crew: should any of them fall, or be wounded, in this ship duel — for the dead, we'll grant their families compensation of the highest grade; their immediate kin we'll provide for into their old age; and any with children, once those children come of age in the future, may join the Northern Goose Group outright! For the gravely wounded, our Northern Goose Group will unconditionally provide the finest medical care, and they may in future rise directly to the management ranks of the Northern Goose Group! And so long as we win this ship duel, every one of them will be rewarded with 300 star coins, and may join the Northern Goose Group directly, taking up a mid-level management post. And should they want none of the above, we can also issue each of them 3,000 star coins outright! To sum it all up in a word: I, Li Yaqi, will absolutely never do them wrong!"
"Understood!" The secretary at once set about passing these words down the line.
For those crew down below, no amount of stirring, spirit-rousing speeches was of any use. Far better the "cold hard silver and gold" that Li Yaqi offered — that was direct.
Five hours' time was neither long, said long, nor short, said short. And over these five hours, this piece of news had already begun, little by little, to ferment. Someone actually meant to challenge the T2 Hyena's monopoly. This was beyond doubt a great piece of news that could set the whole interstellar-warship industry to trembling! No few people set about investigating this Northern Goose Group — and on learning that they were precisely the ship merchant behind that hot-selling T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer of not long ago, they grew all the more interested!
Five hours' time was up, and the view returned once more to this hall.
But on the platform at the center of the hall, several projection interfaces had already appeared, along with a interstellar holo-table. And just now, in a stretch of uninhabited star-region outside the starport, 60 interstellar destroyers, split into two groups, were each entering this combat area. These two groups were, respectively, the Hurricane Conglomerate's T2 Hyena, and the Northern Goose Group's T2 Tibetan Mastiff! And it was precisely this scene that was being relayed within the hall. One could see, upon the hulls of these two groups of warships, the emblems of their respective groups. And as the protagonists of the affair, the Hurricane Conglomerate's Feng Weihao and the Northern Goose Group's Li Yaqi each sat in the nearest seats on the two sides of the stage. The result of this ship duel would mean the future course of development of these two groups.
The host appeared once more at the center of the stage. "Both sides' interstellar warships have now entered the designated combat area; combat will begin 10 minutes from now. The rules, too, are quite simple: within this area, the two sides' warships will engage in unrestricted combat — until all of one side's warships have lost the ability to fight, or one side surrenders and concedes defeat."
Everyone in the hall, just now, was fixing their eyes with rapt attention on the holographic interstellar holo-table, where at either end there were 30 points of light apiece — these standing, respectively, for the two sides' 30 interstellar destroyers.
"So who do you all say will win this duel?"
"Who could know that? If everything that Northern Goose woman said is true, then it's certainly the T2 Tibetan Mastiff with the greater odds."
"That's not necessarily so — after all, no one knows whether this T2 Tibetan Mastiff is genuinely formidable or all empty show. But the T2 Hyena's performance, that we're all well familiar with; it's been the best-selling warship of the past decade!"
Within the box:
Zhao Chen fixed his gaze on the profile of Li Yaqi up on the stage — calm and composed, for all the world like a player at a game of chess. Her whole scheme of the board she had already arranged in full; and all that she'd done was to make her Northern Goose Group and the T2 Tibetan Mastiff burst upon the world with one astonishing cry today. And, at the same time, to snatch away, thoroughly and completely, every last one of the T2 Hyena's sources of custom.
This one battle bore not only on the great order of the procurement. It bore, further, on the future market share of T2 interstellar destroyers throughout the whole Starlight Empire. One prospers, and all prosper; one falls, and all fall! Whether the Northern Goose Group could make the carp's leap over the dragon gate rested on this single battle.
"I declare — the ship showdown begins!" The instant the host's voice sounded, in the video the 30 warships on each of the two sides began to stir into action as well.
The showdown between the T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer and the T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer had formally been joined.
Which, in the end, was the finest T2 interstellar destroyer!