T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship · bridge.
Zhao Chen looked at the two video windows before him — Charlotte and Chu Xuan, respectively. Both were making their preparations in tight, urgent haste.
"Chitong, by the combat plan Charlotte's laid out, how great a chance of victory do you reckon there is?" Zhao Chen asked Chitong beside him.
In truth, once Chitong had learned of Charlotte's combat plan, she'd begun, in her own mind, to run the deductions over and over.
"If this plan were executed by an ordinary interstellar fleet — relying on a bare 400 warships to try to cross a swarm of tens of millions and slay the enemy's flagship — it could quite simply be called riddled with holes, an idiot's daydream, with almost no possibility of success. Because it makes extremely high demands on the warships' performance, and on the fleet's ship-to-ship coordination and combat bearing! But this time, the ones executing this combat plan are the Owl Dragon Fleet and the Chu family fleet! And at several important nodes of the whole plan, Lady Charlotte has, moreover, made detailed arrangements, drawing up several sets of combat contingency schemes."
Chitong's blood-red eyes carried a trace of madness. "This crazy plan — for us — has, on the contrary, a full 10-in-10 chance of victory!"
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair, a trace of a smile showing at the corner of his mouth; he stared fixedly at that T4 Hive Mothership. For all the world like a hunter staring at his prey.
"Then let the good show begin."
At the moment the Owl Dragon Fleet and the Chu family Third Fleet stood ready, a comprehensive battle-square, centered on the carrier starship and the interstellar battleships, took shape. The T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship lay at the center, and around it, moreover, were five T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships. Then came the five T3 Phantom Assassin-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bombers, along with the T3 Andromeda-class Interstellar Medical Ship and the T3 Virgo-class Heavy Interstellar Supply Ships. These warships made up the formation's core region. And beyond the core region, the three T4 Boreas-class Heavy Interstellar Battleships lay at three positions along the direction of attack, presenting a triangular stance — which could let their attack efficiency be maximized. After that came the various formation-modules, mixed-formed of the Owl Dragon Fleet's other warships and the Chu family Third Fleet's other warships.
400 interstellar warships, all told, took the initiative and charged out from the fourth defensive line.
"Attack!" Chu Xuan gave the order to attack.
The 150 T3 Nightwatch-class Interstellar Heavy Frigates lay on the outer side of the fleet formation, protecting the whole fleet's advance. Behind them were the 50 T3 Cavalier-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers, delivering firepower output without cease, annihilating the nearing swarm one after another. Under the attack of an interstellar fleet of such high quality, though the swarm held the advantage of numbers, a gap was, in an instant, torn open in its assault all the same. Zhao Chen and Chu Xuan's "joint fleet" began to press on toward the target.
"The hive-race fleet's numbers are vast, but its individual combat power is, in fact, very weak. So in the short term, the massed assault our fleet has gathered up — these swarms simply can't block it. But if the whole assault is dragged out too long, then we'll fall into the quagmire of the bug-sea tactic. Time is important!" deputy captain Chitong explained at Commander Zhao Chen's side.
Zhao Chen nodded.
Time!
This too was a core requirement of this tactic Charlotte had drawn up. From the start of the attack to the annihilation of the combat target — best completed within 15 minutes, and on no account exceeding 20 at the most. Then, spending 10 minutes withdrawing back to the fourth defensive line. Which was to say, over the whole of this combat plan, the combat duration could not exceed half an hour. Otherwise, be it the Owl Dragon Fleet or the Chu family Third Fleet, they'd be submerged and spent utterly by that terrifying bug-sea tactic of the swarm!
"And there's one more point to the whole plan — that is, the route of our attack, which is also the route we're to withdraw by. It must be ensured to remain within our control all the while; this is our line of retreat, and our lifeline as well!" As Chitong spoke these words—
around the attack route, several interstellar warships "fell behind." They were small fleets composed of T3 Flame Dragon-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers, T3 Shortsword-class Medium Interstellar Cruisers, and T3 Nightwatch-class Interstellar Heavy Frigates. Each time the joint fleet broke through a stretch of distance, several such small fleets would "fall behind." At the positions where they fell behind, they'd form a battle-square, and there mount a blocking action against the surrounding swarm, ensuring that the channel the joint fleet had just torn open would be maintained — and not be re-occupied by the swarm!
"This is very risky; once this line of retreat is cut off, then when the time comes for our fleet to try to withdraw, it'll be hard upon hard." As Chitong spoke these words, she felt her very blood boiling. Far too crazy a battle. Set against a battle of this kind, her time before as an interstellar mercenary was, quite simply, like children playing house! This was a true interstellar battlefield!
"If it were merely those few models — the T3 Cavalier-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, the T3 Nightwatch-class Interstellar Heavy Frigate, and the T3 Shortsword-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser — then I genuinely couldn't guarantee this step of the plan would go smoothly. But with the T3 Flame Dragon there, I can entrust my own back to it with an easy mind!" Zhao Chen said.
The T3 Flame Dragon-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, within Zhao Chen's System mall, didn't count as the strongest T3 interstellar destroyer. But set in the Starlight Empire — indeed, within the whole Galactic Alliance — its combat power could be counted an existence of the very first rank.
At this very moment, at those garrisoned defensive positions, a fierce battle had already erupted. And the T3 Flame Dragon, before Zhao Chen, this its true "master," displayed its combat power!
The weapon system the T3 Flame Dragon was fitted with was two 1,000mm-bore quad-mount medium railgun energy main guns, eight medium electronic rapid-fire secondary guns, 32 medium pulse-laser secondary guns, and 96 medium point-defense guns. Were one to study the T3 Flame Dragon carefully, one would discover a trait of its weapon system. Its weapon system's combat power was not very strong. But! What it employed were all energy-type weapons — from the main guns to the two kinds of secondary gun, all of them energy-type weapons! And what did that stand for? It meant no need for physical missiles of every various model; it needed only to be fitted with a corresponding reserve of energy, and the energy, by way of converters, would be formed into different required energy formats and then transmitted to each attack-weapon module to charge and fire.
And the T3 Flame Dragon-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer had one trait: its energy-system reserve capacity! It was 10 times that of an ordinary T3 interstellar destroyer, and twice even that of the Starlight Empire's T3 Dragon-Croc-class Medium Interstellar Battleship! So vast an energy system meant the T3 Flame Dragon was an exceedingly "enduring" interstellar warship! You could say it wasn't fierce! But absolutely no one dared to question its capacity for sustained output on the battlefield! At the Empire border, there'd been several times when a battle ended, and the other interstellar warships around it had rotated through several batches, and yet this T3 Flame Dragon still held on at the line! This had led no small number of the crew serving aboard the T3 Flame Dragons to "grumble," privately, that this T3 Flame Dragon had drastically increased their workload, forcing them into overtime!