"Then how are we to handle those people's formal complaints against the Owl Dragon lord…?" the adjutant asked. Had it been merely one or two, that would be one thing, but the number was truly far too many… there were even those holding a Count's title, and, on the Empire military's side, several holding the standing of one-star Brigadier General had filed complaints too. It was only because the adjutant simply couldn't hold it down any longer that he'd found a moment today to report it.
The North Wind Governor asked, careless and offhand, "These interstellar transports the Owl Dragon Fleet robb— no, borrowed — they were all private ones, weren't they, by the look of it? None of them, it seems, was among those chiefly responsible for evacuating and transporting the common people. And even for transporting evacuees, those were high-priced tickets of several hundred to 1,000 star coins, offered only to those rich merchants and magnates."
"Yes," the adjutant said.
The North Wind Governor gave a cold snort; toward these people he too found much to disdain, but there was nothing to be done — Governor though he was, he couldn't truly turn his face and move against these people. Seeing Zhao Chen act so, he genuinely clapped his hands in approval in his heart.
"Since it's borrowing, then there's no problem in it. Let him return them when the time comes." The North Wind Governor waved a hand.
"But… if those lord-officials pursue the matter again and again…" the adjutant said with worry.
The North Wind Governor's gaze concentrated. "If they still mean to pursue it, then pass them this word: this old man would rather like to pursue a few crimes of his own — certain persons' improper command, their flight in the face of the enemy, and their seeing death and rendering no aid."
The adjutant's eyes lit up; so the North Wind Governor meant to protect this Owl Dragon lord with all his strength. Those rich merchants and magnates — which of them dared say his own backside was clean? The meaning of admonition within the North Wind Governor's words was quite plain: this matter passes just so. But if anyone still dares pursue it, then I'll investigate him first! Weigh it out for yourselves.
At this, by all estimates, there'd be few indeed who dared truly to pursue the Owl Dragon lord's culpability.
"The most important thing just now is to hurry and see well to the aftermath of this hive-race disaster. On no account fail to clear away all the hive-race in the shortest possible time!" the North Wind Governor said gravely.
"By everyone's deliberation: to clean out all the systems' Hive Motherships within a month, and to clean out the ground-crawling interstellar hive-race on those planets within half a year!" the adjutant gave a timeframe. Set against the Hive Motherships voyaging out in the interstellar deep, the ground-crawling interstellar hive-race on the planets were exceedingly troublesome to clear out, and relatively more time-consuming.
"Then let it be done so." The North Wind Governor approved of this timeframe.
……
The Sapphire System.
Having gone through fighting and evacuation-and-dispersal work lasting over a full week, all the common people of the Sapphire Third Planet had been safely evacuated! Save for a small portion of people who'd insisted on staying on the planet, unwilling to evacuate, the whole planet had very nearly been carried empty. The once-clamorous streets and cities had, all at once, seemed to fall silent.
"Report — the last interstellar-transport fleet, under the escort of five T3 Blizzards, has begun to withdraw," Secretary Lilith reported.
"Very good; with this, we can be said to be finished." Zhao Chen let out a long breath.
Branch mission three: Sapphire System Third Planet Rescue Battle
Mission completion: 97%.
The mission may be ended; do you claim the mission reward?
Zhao Chen cast an eye over this branch mission's option; it could be counted as completed. He looked again at the data of the other three tasks.
Task one: Destroy thirty T3 Hive Motherships (28/30).
Task two: Annihilate a total of one billion hive-race units (200 million / 1 billion).
Task three: Rescue the common people whose lives are threatened by the hive-race plague; upon reaching a certain order of magnitude, a corresponding reward may be claimed (5 million, 10 million, 15 million, 20 million, 25 million, 30 million people…).
Number rescued so far: 1.8 billion people. 180,000 System points may be obtained.
Task one was only a step short of completion; having heard that some systems still had a few T3 Hive Motherships, he need only hurry over and destroy two of them. Task three had no upper limit; the more people rescued, the more he'd obtain — with time in ample supply, Zhao Chen could go on farming it without cease, and just how much he'd farm would depend on the actual circumstances when the time came. Only Task two's completion rate was relatively low. That was chiefly because, as of now, what Zhao Chen's Owl Dragon Fleet had mainly cleared were the Hive Motherships and the flying hive-race units. The most numerous were the ground-crawling hive-race units; going to those planets already seized by the interstellar hive-race and conducting orbital bombardment could, in fact, complete this task in bulk — so its difficulty was no great thing either.
"Over these nearly 10 days, how do our combat losses stand?" Zhao Chen asked.
Secretary Lilith reported out some data. "Combat materials such as interstellar missiles, interstellar fighters, and interstellar drones have basically all been spent. As for the remaining ship energy, that's been replenished several times, one after another. The interstellar transports, after evacuating personnel, load the energy blocks we need and return to resupply our warships. So the energy-type weapons can all be used without cease. Reckoned all together, as of now, our total combat consumption has come to close to 10 million star coins; there are close to 100 wounded, but no personnel deaths. Six T2 Black Rhinos are severely damaged, and two of the T3 Blizzards have a certain degree of damage; the damage to the rest of the warships is no serious matter."
At this combat result, Zhao Chen was exceedingly satisfied.
"And how has that other matter been arranged?" Zhao Chen asked about a certain matter. The matter in Zhao Chen's words bore, after all, on the "second-half military operation" of Zhao Chen's Owl Dragon Fleet in this hive-race disaster.
Secretary Lilith answered, "Half a day ago, we received the latest word. All is going smoothly; it's projected that in three hours at the slowest, we can smoothly 'take delivery of the goods.'"
Zhao Chen was much satisfied; he stretched himself and said, "Then relay my order — the fleet is to voyage toward the star gate at an even speed, and the whole fleet's crew are to rest in rotation. These past few days, everyone's been quite worn out."
"Yes."
Three hours later.
In the direction of the Owl Dragon Fleet's voyage, the traces of 10 interstellar warships appeared. Toward the appearance of these 10 interstellar warships, the Owl Dragon Fleet seemed to have anticipated it long since, and made no reaction or move whatsoever. It was only once these 10 interstellar warships had drawn near that the various captains began to take in the sight of this model of warship. Its curves were graceful, but it had none of that combat style to it; on the contrary, it gave one the feeling of a slender, delicate woman. Its hull used an ice-blue paint, for all the world like a slender maiden amid ice and snow. Upon its whole hull there were only some defensive weapons; one could see plainly that what it placed stress upon was its internal storage volume.
T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship · bridge.
Zhao Chen, too, was taking in the sight of these 10 new-faced interstellar warships before him. And it was just then that a video window connected in. On the other end was a somewhat youthful, familiar figure.
"Reporting, Commander — Bessie, by your order, leads 10 T3 Virgos to lend support; please give your instructions!" Bessie the succubus stood up straight and reported.
That's right.
These 10 new faces were precisely 10 T3 Virgo-class Heavy Interstellar Supply Ships. They'd originally been due to be built to completion and enter service at the end of March; but because of the suddenly erupting hive-race disaster, set against combat-type interstellar warships, Zhao Chen was, just now, more short of this sort of auxiliary-type interstellar warship. So he'd temporarily altered the build order, and had Chief Engineer Annie work overtime, hour upon hour, to rush them out. And at last, with the coordination of the two models of interstellar industrial ship — the T3 Furnace and the T2 Iron Hammer — within 10 days, 10 T3 Virgos had been delivered to Zhao Chen.
"Begin — resupply the fleet fully as fast as you can, so that we can carry out the next combat task," Zhao Chen said.
"Yes!" Over on Secretary Bessie's side, she at once began laying out the task. The 10 T3 Virgos spread apart, and around them some Owl Dragon ships, too, began to gather. One could see, upon the T3 Virgos' hulls, one enormous mechanical arm after another extending out, or pipes connecting to the hulls of the other interstellar warships. And all manner of models of intelligent robot and other equipment, too, began to operate, and set about conveying resupply materials to those interstellar warships. There were even, among them, several hundred repair-type intelligent robots, which began carrying out a certain degree of repair work on the damaged interstellar warships. This too was one of the performances of the T3 Virgo-class Heavy Interstellar Supply Ship: it could handle the not-too-severe damage of an interstellar warship on the battlefield.
A perfect nanny-type ship!