As Zhao Chen was pondering the coming strategic deployment, Lilith had already seen to the pre-battle mobilization and preparation work.
"All the Owl Dragon Fleet's interstellar warships can enter combat-readiness status within half an hour; all strategic materials are fully prepared!" Lilith moreover laid out for Zhao Chen a list of the situation of all the Owl Dragon Fleet's warships.
In truth there was no great change from that military operation at the end of last year — because what had been built in January was all auxiliary-type interstellar warships. Who could have thought this whatever-it-was hive-race plague would suddenly crop up? Still, with Zhao Chen's present array of force — never mind putting down these interstellar hive-race swarms — the ability to protect himself amid it all was certainly there.
"The 20 T3 Blizzards and the five T3 Phantom Assassins all deploy this time. Considering the gap in speed between the T3 warships and the T2 warships, this time we won't act in unison. The T3 warships set out first. The T2 warships follow after. The T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship will voyage to within the Arctic Fox System's interstellar fringe space and stand by; just assign it 10 T2 Black Rhinos for escort. At home, leave 10 T2 Black Rhinos and one T2 Blizzard Zero, and that will do. The remaining 40 T2 Black Rhinos, 10 T2 Snow Mastiffs, five T2 Lion Kings, and one T2 Queen Bee form the second combat echelon." Zhao Chen laid out his combat deployment.
At present the T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship was still in a stage of secrecy, and to make it public a bit later was naturally best. And the T3 Phantom Assassin was itself an interstellar stealth bomber; relying on its stealth performance, it was, on the contrary, exceedingly well-suited to Zhao Chen's present situation — fighting alongside the fleet without any need to worry over being discovered by others. As for arranging the T3 Phoenix in advance within the Arctic Fox System's interstellar fringe space, that too was for the sake of the "just in case" — should there truly be need, it could use the star gate to rush straight to the battlefield; within the North Wind Star Region, a matter of half a day at the slowest, and a few hours at the fastest.
"Understood; I'll relay it down." Lilith at once went to convey Commander Zhao Chen's intent.
Zhao Chen, just now, was pondering one problem. And that was the matter of hunting and killing 30 T3 Hive Motherships. The T3 Hive Motherships were scarce in number. The lord-fleets under the North Wind Governor's command, and the Empire military, would surely take them as their chief target of attack; and if Zhao Chen acted even a little late, whether he could gather up 30 T3 Hive Motherships' kills would then be anyone's guess.
"The first task has to be seized in good time." Zhao Chen rubbed at his chin, and at this point a somewhat crazed notion surfaced in his mind.
The time came, and the Owl Dragon Fleet, prepared and ready, set off.
……
The North Wind Star Region · the North Wind main system · the Governor's residence.
"How does the situation stand now?" The North Wind Governor looked at the star chart of the whole North Wind Star Region before him. One could see that, across the various systems of the whole North Wind Star Region, patches of red zones had appeared; and were one to look with attention, one would find that, at some spot within a red zone, there'd be one, or even several, points of an extreme red.
"As of now, the number of cosmic bug-nests has expanded to 89! And new cosmic bug-nests keep appearing without cease. Of these, six are tier-3 cosmic bug-nests, 18 are tier-2 cosmic bug-nests, and 65 are tier-1 cosmic bug-nests. The systems affected have already reached 39!" A subordinate at his side reported nervously, and then updated several more red zones on the star chart before the North Wind Governor.
At a single sweep of the eye, close to a fifth of the North Wind Star Region was red zone — and it carried, moreover, a momentum of expanding outward without cease.
"For so very many cosmic bug-nests to appear, densely, in so short a span of time — this is unheard of!" The North Wind Governor knit his brows.
"Indeed. At the present rate of things, in all likelihood it will, in the end, break past 100 cosmic bug-nests! What's feared now is… whether a tier-4 cosmic bug-nest will appear! A tier-3 cosmic bug-nest we can still cope with, but if it's a tier-4 cosmic bug-nest… that could even endanger the safety of the whole North Wind Star Region!" the subordinate said with worry.
The North Wind Governor said in earnest, "How is the execution of the full-star-region mobilization order coming along?"
"As of now, apart from the affected systems, the other systems can, all told, draw and dispatch around 10,000 ships of lord-fleets. But considering that two-thirds of them are T1 warships, of not very great use on the frontal battlefield — those that can truly be deployed to the frontal battlefield against the interstellar hive-race are fewer than 3,000 warships!" the subordinate said.
"3,000… this too is within expectation; after all, mustering the lord-fleets is only a stopgap measure to buy time. The most important thing is still the state of the Empire military's mobilization. Our North Wind Star Region has three legion-grade Empire military garrisoned here — close to 10,000 warships; how does their situation stand?" the North Wind Governor asked.
"The three legion-grade Empire military have been ordered to support the disaster-struck systems, but the systems struck by the hive-race plague truly are far too many. Relying on the three legion-grade Empire military alone to come to the rescue is still somewhat insufficient," the subordinate said with worry.
"I've already reported the situation to the Empire's side, requesting that Empire military from several of the surrounding star-regions be dispatched to come to the aid of our North Wind Star Region!" the North Wind Governor said in a low, heavy voice. "Whatever it takes, we must bring the extent of this loss down to the very lowest. On no account may we let a tragedy like a hell on earth play out in our North Wind Star Region!"
"Yes!"
……
It was already the third day since the North Wind Star Region had come under interstellar-hive-race attack. By now, no small number of planets had been invaded by the interstellar hive-race, and interstellar-hive-race battles great and small had broken out in every quarter, with victories and defeats on all sides.
Against some hive-race fleets that had only T2 Hive Motherships, the local interstellar fleets could still cope, more or less. But if it were a matter of dealing with a hive-race fleet that had a T3 Hive Mothership, then it was an entirely different state of affairs. A hive-race fleet with a T3 Hive Mothership could only be hoped to be annihilated by relying on an Empire military fleet. But at present, the Empire military fleet — this firefighter — had, alas, no way to be in two places at once.
The K3000 System.
Here a tier-3 cosmic bug-nest had appeared, and this had led to the place being harried by a T3 Hive Mothership. A number of planets had already fallen. Just now the situation was for all the world like a plague, beginning to corrode the whole K3000 System!
Outside the K3000 System's Sixth Planet.
This planet had an exceedingly beautiful ring; but just now, beyond the ring, an exceedingly brutal and bloody battle was raging. A lord-fleet coalition on the scale of 1,000 interstellar warships was resisting a dark, dense mass of a hive-race fleet. And within that hive-race fleet, one could see two T3 Hive Motherships!
A great quantity of bugs came sweeping toward the lord-fleet coalition, blotting out the very sky. And it looked as though the coalition's line of defense was on the verge of collapse.
"Report — our left-flank line has been broken!" a crew member cried out in terror.
The coalition fleet's commander wore a face full of terror; he looked at the star chart, and could see that on one side of the defensive line a gap had appeared, and that dense, teeming bug life-signals were pouring into this gap. The scene was terrifying beyond all description. Their interstellar warships hung by a thread!
"It's over… it's utterly over…" The coalition fleet's commander went ashen in the face.