Galactic Star Calendar, year 3031, late October.
Zhao Chen's T3 Blizzard returned to the Owl Dragon System.
Chitong, who'd long been waiting, met with Zhao Chen at the first moment.
"Commander!" Chitong stood before Zhao Chen, by the look of her already unable to wait a moment longer.
"Tell me in detail — the intelligence you scouted out." Zhao Chen looked at Chitong and asked.
Chitong began to recount the matter of the past month, driving the T2 Black Rhino out gathering intelligence. In truth, this process of scouting out intelligence had been of no great difficulty. The slave trade was a major line of business in the interstellar black market, and so, naturally, everyone had dealings with that band of slavers under the Prince Faction. Following the vine to the melon, Chitong had soon discovered that band of slavers' home base. It lay within Starlight Empire territory, in the interstellar fringe space at the junction of the Azure Star Region and the Starlight Central Star Region. By the same starting logic as the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company's original home base, to build a home base in a place like this was exceedingly safe. But no one would have thought it would be at a position this deep within the Starlight Empire. And yet, turning it over in the mind — was this not itself direct proof that this band of slavers was connected with the Prince Faction? With the Prince Faction's protection, this place was, for this band of slavers, on the contrary the very safest spot there was.
"The specific coordinates are at this position — a medium starport! By my observation over a stretch of time, there's at least one legion-grade interstellar fleet, 3,000 warships, holed up here! Though the quality isn't high; only somewhat stronger than those interstellar powers you dealt with in the Reef Star Region," Chitong reported.
"Is there any detailed information on those warships' combat strength?" Zhao Chen asked on.
Chitong said, "On that side, the information we have isn't very complete. But by my estimate: T3 warships, projected at around 30; T2 warships, projected at around 1,000; and the remaining 2,000 are all T1 warships. The count of T1 warships may be somewhat higher, because there'll often be T1 warships escorting fleets of interstellar transports — holding slaves plundered from all over — arriving here!"
30 T3 warships. Had it been before, Zhao Chen genuinely might not have had the assurance to gnaw through this hard bone. But by the end of this year, Zhao Chen would have a batch of T3 warships rolling off the line and into service — including, among them, a main-force warship: the T3 Phoenix-class carrier starship! With a lineup like that, Zhao Chen had absolute assurance of being able to swallow this slaver home base.
Chitong said just then, with some hesitation, "But… if you truly do move against this band of slavers, it may draw no small trouble down upon you. Because behind this band of slavers stands the Prince Faction. Setting aside whether they'll follow the vine to the melon and trace out your information — the very location of the slavers' starport means that, if the battle can't be brought to an end in a short span, one can't rule out the possibility that the Prince Faction will dispatch reinforcements to join the fight. And then your interstellar fleet might well be caught with enemies front and rear."
Saying this, Chitong looked at Zhao Chen. "Your wish to take revenge for us — we've felt it. But if, on account of it, this life so hard-won now were to meet with danger, and you were to run risks for our sake besides… I… truly… don't want that…"
As she said this, Zhao Chen could see that Chitong was genuinely torn. To say she didn't want revenge would be an outright lie. Over this stretch of time, the wretched scene of her Bloody Mary Mercenary Company's home base under attack seemed to surface before her eyes each and every day. And yet… watching those subordinate friends of hers, and the children she'd rescued, live settled and happy lives in the Owl Dragon System, she couldn't bear to shatter this beautiful thing for the sake of her own revenge.
Zhao Chen looked at Chitong and said, firm and resolute, "Chitong, your worry — I understand it. But rest easy; a thing I've promised, I'll absolutely never go back on. I can give you my guarantee: all that we protect will have no trouble now, and will have no trouble whatsoever in the future either. And at the same time, I'll make those people pay the price for the blood-deep, sea-deep grudge they committed against the Bloody Mary home base!"
Seeing Zhao Chen speak so, Chitong was genuinely moved. She truly couldn't make sense of it — why this man would, for her sake and the blood-feud she bore, throw himself in so heart and soul.
And just as Chitong was being moved by Zhao Chen—
before Zhao Chen's own eyes there surfaced that branch mission.
Branch mission: Chitong's Revenge
Content: Investigate and kill the leading figures of the slave-trading organization under the Prince Faction, along with the fleet commander who attacked the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company's home base.
Reward: one T4 starship technical blueprint.
A T4 starship technical blueprint!
Zhao Chen simply had to get this thing! Never mind some band of slavers — even if that so-and-so prince himself stood before him, it would make no difference!
"Still, for the sake of a thorough operation, I need you to scout out more detailed intelligence, and to give me a bit of preparation time. By the end of this year, I'll launch a military operation against that slaver home base!" Zhao Chen said to Chitong.
Chitong nodded in understanding. Zhao Chen looked out beyond the bridge in a certain direction — the construction zone of the T2 Iron Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships and the T3 Furnace-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships, where the Owl Dragon Fleet's new generation of interstellar warships was being built!
……
The stretch that followed, October and November, was, for the Hurricane Conglomerate, beyond doubt the hardest span to get through. Because of the T2 Tibetan Mastiff's appearance, their T2 Hyena was left utterly without orders. Even the old orders from before saw cases of cancellation.
"Big bro… another star-domain lord has broken the contract; they'd sooner pay us the penalty than take our T2 Hyena…" Feng Xiaowei walked into an office, looking at the somewhat listless, dispirited Feng Dawei. Scattered about by Feng Dawei's hand were a great many wine bottles.
"That pack of wretches — before, every one of them was like a lapdog begging us to sell them warships! Pah!" Feng Dawei cursed.
Feng Xiaowei went on, "Our capital chain has run into trouble too. If… if we can't solve the funding problem within a month… our raw-material supply will be cut off, and the research projects on the two T3 warships won't be able to proceed either…"
Hearing this, Feng Dawei covered his own face; this one-time pride-of-heaven simply didn't want to face this shambles, and so it was that he sat here drinking himself drunk.
Just then, a figure walked in.
"Father…" Feng Xiaowei looked at Feng Weihao before him, his hair now half gone white. Over these past month or two, his father Feng Weihao had run about everywhere, all to solve this crisis of the Hurricane Conglomerate.
Feng Weihao walked up before his eldest son, snatched up a wine bottle beside him, and smashed it straight onto his eldest son's head — which left the eldest son quite stunned, staring blankly at his father.
Feng Weihao raised a hand and opened an electronic file. "I've found the funding; our two T3 warships can continue their development. If you're still a son of mine, then pull yourself together again! And take back everything that belongs to our family!"
With that, Feng Weihao turned and left.
Hearing there was funding, Feng Dawei at once perked up — but when he saw clearly the content of that electronic file, he was dumbfounded. What it said was that the Hurricane Conglomerate would receive a sum of financing, but at the cost of 59% of the Hurricane Conglomerate's shares! And the party to it was the Governor of the Azure Star Region, and the Huang family behind Marshal Huang Zhixiong!
Feng Dawei understood: his father had "sold" the Hurricane Conglomerate, and only so had bought their present precarious survival.
"Northern Goose! Li Yaqi! I, Feng Dawei, swear to stand irreconcilable with you; what my Hurricane Conglomerate has lost today, I'll take back tenfold, a hundredfold! The humiliation you've brought me — I'll make you pay the price for it!" Feng Dawei roared in fury!