"You've done rightly! Once this crisis of the North Wind Star Region is over, I'll most certainly hold a celebration of merit for you!" The North Wind Governor looked at Zhao Chen with great appreciation.
See there! This was the moral backbone a lord of their North Wind Star Region ought to have. When the North Wind Star Region was in dire straits, to step straight forth, to appear — flinging aside all thought of self — upon the most dangerous of battlefields! Such a spirit, worthy of song and of tears.
"Ah, and — since you've contacted me just now, there's some authority I'd hoped to apply to you for. Because my Owl Dragon Fleet is rushing to the battlefields of one system after another, the need to use the star gates is exceedingly urgent; and at the same time, I've also requisitioned some interstellar transports to relocate the common people from those disaster-struck planets. Take, for instance, this very planet I'm on now: though the situation here is, for the moment, still within my control, at a spot not far from this planet a vast hive-race fleet is even now hurrying this way, and the planet falling and being overrun is only a matter of time. So, in order to be able to rescue more people, I need some authority on my end!" Zhao Chen said in earnest.
The North Wind Governor, without a word more, promised, "No problem! I can instruct it down from here right now — from this moment on, the Owl Dragon Fleet, and the relevant interstellar transports you direct and control, are all to be treated as the equal of Empire military. With the highest priority! And should you meet with a special situation, you may handle it at your own discretion!"
"My thanks, Governor," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
The North Wind Governor said in earnest, "It ought to be I who thanks you, on behalf of those systems you've rescued."
"When the lips are gone, the teeth feel the cold; and besides, I've only done what I'm able to do." Just as Zhao Chen was speaking, off on the distant horizon there surged forth another great swath of bugs. "Another batch coming. Governor, I'll cut our talk short for now."
"Mind your safety." The North Wind Governor reminded him once more.
The comm ended.
The North Wind Governor, though, stared at the pitch-black screen and, for a long while, didn't come back to himself.
"Governor… Governor…" It was only when the subordinate beside him called out that the North Wind Governor at last came back to his senses.
"Are you too worn out?" the subordinate asked.
The North Wind Governor shook his head and explained, "I'm merely a touch ashamed. As Governor, this ought to have been a thing for me to do. I never imagined this young man would be the one to take the very lead — and set against that, the behavior of our other lord-fleets, timid from head to tail, making excuse after excuse, dragging out and delaying the time of their support, is quite simply a disgrace!"
Speaking of this, the North Wind Governor knit his brows and asked, "Of the 10,000 lord-fleet warships that were, by the original plan, to be gathered — how many have arrived and taken position as of now?"
The subordinate said, with some difficulty just now, "As of now… those arrived and in position number only 4,000 warships. As for the remaining 6,000 warships, those lords say they'll need three days to a week before they can… take position."
"Three days to a week? Heh, heh, heh — is it a cross-region campaign they mean to conduct? Tell them for me: I give them only two days! Two days — and if I don't see those warships of theirs appear upon the battlefield, then their heads had best not go on appearing on their necks afterward!" the North Wind Governor roared in fury.
Those "slacking" lords had, little did they know, this time been out-hustled by Zhao Chen.
……
The Sapphire System · Third Planet.
Zhao Chen dragged his body — deeply satisfied, yet somewhat weary — back into the shuttle, and pressed the release button on the single-soldier exoskeleton combat armor upon him. But there was no response at all.
"Commander, perhaps some joint has malfunctioned; I'll help you remove it." A woman-soldier beside him said.
Zhao Chen, though, waved a hand. "No need — I'll manage it myself," With that, Zhao Chen gripped the armor at his chest with both hands, and then, by sheer main force, tore it open! In the end, a set of single-soldier exoskeleton combat armor was declared permanently retired.
Zhao Chen drew a deep breath and sat down beside the porthole, looking at that city below. On this planet, cities of this kind numbered a full several thousand. But there was nothing to be done — the number of interstellar warships Zhao Chen had brought over just now was not great. Happily, the number of Hive fleets that had reached here was likewise scattered and few. Save for those ground-crawling interstellar hive-race fallen upon the planet, whose vast numbers were somewhat troublesome to handle, there was otherwise no very great threat. As for the present T1 Hive Motherships and T2 Hive Motherships, to Zhao Chen's T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser they were merely a matter of destroying them one by one.
"If we hadn't come, this planet of 2 billion souls would have been utterly overrun," Zhao Chen murmured. By the mission's description, this planet of 2 billion population would, within 10 days, fall utterly to become a sea of bugs. Which was to say, Zhao Chen needed to complete the evacuation work within 10 days. This task hadn't made any detailed requirement of how many people Zhao Chen was to evacuate; it had merely charged Zhao Chen with carrying out this task, and would, in the end, grant the mission reward according to the completion rate.
The shuttle entered T3 Blizzard No.1's hangar; Zhao Chen came down bare from the waist up, which left a few of the women-soldiers still at their work quite dumbfounded for a good while. Zhao Chen took a cleaning ball in hand and crushed it, whereupon a swirl of water-vapor wreathed Zhao Chen's body, and soon cleaned his body spotless. The women-soldiers who attended him had a fresh uniform ready, and helped him into it. Zhao Chen, made fresh and new, returned to the bridge of T3 Blizzard No.1.
Charlotte was here, just now, commanding the battle. And Lilith was ceaselessly handling all manner of intelligence information.
"How are the other five Blizzard squads coming along with their tasks?" Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair and asked Lilith.
Lilith at once reported, "By the latest word, the five Blizzard squads are still carrying out their own tasks. By your requirement, these five Blizzard squads each need to complete the combat task of killing 10 T3 Hive Motherships within three days; and if it can't be completed within three days, they're to break off the task and hurry over to the Sapphire System where we are. As of now, though the T3 Blizzards of the five Blizzard squads have taken a certain amount of damage, it's all of little effect, and they're still carrying out their combat tasks."
These five Blizzard squads had been formed in accordance with Zhao Chen's order; each Blizzard squad was composed of three T3 Blizzards, dispatched to the battlefields of the various systems to deal with the T3 Hive Motherships.
Zhao Chen opened his own System mission interface.
Task one: Destroy thirty T3 Hive Motherships (12/30).
By the look of it, the five Blizzard squads were performing quite well; in this bare span of time they'd already completed a count of 12 annihilated.
But the greatest problem just now was the evacuation of this planet's residents.
"How does the situation of the interstellar-transport fleet stand? How many interstellar transports have been found?" Zhao Chen asked Lilith beside him. To evacuate so very many people, there simply had to be a great number of interstellar transports.
"As of now, we've gathered up 500 T1- and T2-grade interstellar transports of various models in all. But the personnel carried in a single trip top out at 5 million! And a single trip, transporting them to a safe place, takes half a day's time," Lilith said helplessly.
Zhao Chen's face sank.
A single trip of 5 million people?
Here, just now, there were close to 2 billion people — which meant over 400 trips! This would need the better part of a year to transport!