Destroy them?
These words were surely far too much of an exaggeration. For, mind you, the people these interstellar transports carried were, if not rich, then noble! Though the great majority were merely ordinary families and merchants, with scarcely any who held a title — a force of this kind was nonetheless not to be taken lightly! And this female captain actually dared to threaten to fire and destroy them outright.
Surely a lie?
The majority of people held that these words of the other side's were an attempt to bluff them, to hoodwink them.
"Preposterous! I simply don't believe you'd dare treat human lives like so much weed-grass. You want to save people — but are our lives, then, not lives too!" the Gao-surnamed merchant retorted.
The female captain said blandly, "By our system's statistics, this starport is, for the time being, within a safe range; for at least half a month it won't come under interstellar-hive-race attack. And to transport you people doesn't require so very many interstellar transports; a few T2 transports are enough. Though this does not, of course, include carrying away those so-called collectibles and goods of yours."
"Enough! I could never let you requisition all my interstellar transports; I'll report this behavior of yours to the Starlight Empire above!" the Gao-surnamed merchant said in anger.
"Then it seems there's no need for us to waste any time." The female captain cut the comm outright, without ceremony.
The Gao-surnamed merchant looked at the people around him with a mocking laugh, and said confidently, "I simply don't believe they'd truly dare fire on my interstellar transports!"
And it was just then, under the eyes of the whole assembly—
that the secondary guns of those three T3 Blizzards began to lock onto one interstellar transport.
"Captain, are we truly to fire?" the deputy captain said with some worry.
The female captain said blandly, "The Commander has said: when it's necessary, one must be decisive. Now we have to bring out some genuine means, or they won't honestly let us take these interstellar transports away. Prepare to destroy one interstellar transport."
"Then which interstellar transport do we hit?" the deputy captain asked.
The female captain looked at the data before her — this was the data of the interstellar transports berthed here and their registered particulars. In the end, she pointed at one T2 interstellar transport.
"This one — what's transported aboard it is all those nobles' and rich merchants' luxury goods and family property. Before firing, send a notice to the crew aboard this T2 interstellar transport, reminding them to board escape pods at once and leave the ship; we'll fire on this ship in 30 seconds! If they don't withdraw, they bear the consequences themselves." This arrangement of the female captain's might already be called doing all that mercy and duty required.
"Why this one?" the deputy captain was somewhat curious. Of so many interstellar transports, why had she picked precisely this one?
"Because it's too ugly," the female captain said without the least ceremony.
The deputy captain was left with no words.
The 30 seconds' time soon arrived. The five medium pulse-laser secondary guns thereupon fired on that somewhat-ugly T2 interstellar transport; five pulse-lasers struck the T2 interstellar transport's hull. In a single moment, this T2 interstellar transport's hull was damaged in multiple places, severely damaged, and in danger of exploding at any moment.
Within the starport.
Everyone who saw this scene was dumbfounded. Never in their wildest thoughts had they imagined that this Owl Dragon Fleet's warships would truly dare to open fire!
Watching that interstellar transport now burning, explosions erupting without cease at one hull position after another, the crew aboard it had by now begun to evacuate. Such an interstellar transport's crew was small to begin with, and the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruisers had used only their secondary guns. Never mind using the bow cannon — had they used even just the main guns, these interstellar transports would, by all estimates, have exploded outright long since.
Half a minute later, this interstellar transport, in the end, couldn't bear it, and exploded. Happily, by that time the crew aboard it had already finished evacuating.
And it was just then that a notice was received by all personnel within the starport.
"This is but a warning. Within 10 minutes, please evacuate all irrelevant personnel from your ships, and unload all irrelevant items. Otherwise, your end will be the same as this interstellar transport's."
Facing this sort of warning once more, everyone's hair stood on end all over; no one dared any longer to slight these words. Because that female captain had shown, through action, that they were not joking.
Beads of sweat stood all over the Gao-surnamed merchant's forehead; he watched, wincing at the pain of it, that destroyed T2 interstellar transport. Though there were no personnel casualties, the things lost aboard it, all added together, came by estimate to a value of close to 1 million star coins. If those cargo-owners were to demand compensation, then on his end he'd suffer no small loss again.
The Gao-surnamed merchant got in touch with that female captain once more; the video window appeared, and he said hurriedly, "That… I'm willing to arrange half of my interstellar transports to cooperate with you."
"It's all of them," the female captain said, brooking no dispute.
The Gao-surnamed merchant gulped. "All is fine too… but the cargo aboard our interstellar transports simply can't be unloaded within 10 minutes!"
"Cargo, under normal conditions, indeed can't be unloaded within 10 minutes; but personnel can perfectly well board shuttles and enter the starport within 10 minutes. As for the cargo aboard the interstellar transports that can't be unloaded — then just dump all of it straight into space," the female captain said without the least ceremony. These time figures they'd long since calculated.
"All of it… dumped… this loss…" The Gao-surnamed merchant sucked in a cold breath.
"If, before this, what these interstellar transports of yours had been carrying were common people — even only 70 or 80% of them — I could have accepted it. But at a time like this, you actually chose to load up these dead objects, and to abandon the lives of several million common folk." The female captain gave a cold snort, not covering in the least the look of contempt on her face. "This is the last time I'll comm you; when the time's up, if the handover work still isn't done, we'll take our own means."
With that, the comm window closed.
The Gao-surnamed merchant clenched his fists in fury. "This pack of cursed fellows! Robbers! Bandits! Owl Dragon Fleet… I will most certainly report you!" But at this very moment, he had no other choice. To keep these interstellar transports, he could only obediently let the personnel aboard them evacuate down; and as for those goods, rather than hand them over for the other side to dump, better he do it himself. That way, he could still find a means to have those luxury goods float in space, awaiting later recovery, and bring the loss down to the very lowest.
The 10 minutes' time arrived. Those interstellar transports, one after another, voyaged to the designated positions off to the side of the three T3 Blizzards. And in the end, following the three T3 Blizzards, they sailed into the star gate, bound for the place they ought to go.
Over on the Gao-surnamed merchant's side, he had, just now, received a great mass of messages sent by the powerful and privileged — every one of them, without exception, from those rich merchants and privileged folk who'd been driven off the interstellar ships, demanding the Gao-surnamed merchant give them an explanation. Seeing this state of things, the people around all gloated over his misfortune. Though they too had a bit of loss, the loss was not great. This Gao-surnamed merchant, for the sake of earning this national-disaster fortune, now stood in all likelihood to lose the very bottom of his family coffers.
"Owl Dragon Fleet! Zhao Chen… I cannot share the same sky with you!" As the Gao-surnamed merchant spoke these words, he was so enraged he all but coughed up fresh blood on the spot.