The Reef Star Region · the Kemi System, under the Snake-folk's banner.
"Reporting, Your Majesty the Queen — our First Legion Fleet, Second Legion Fleet, Fourth Legion Fleet, and Fifth Legion Fleet have all arrived, and are now in a state of combat-ready standby!" the snake-woman commander Qingman reported to the Medusa Queen.
"Qingman, how has your First Legion's Second Fleet's training come along? Is the meshing with the newly served interstellar warships going all right?" the Medusa Queen looked toward her own trusted confidant, the snake-woman Qingman.
The snake-woman Qingman, flashing with an excited light, said, "That batch of interstellar warships we took receipt of — we've already completed all the training, and the meshing has gone quite smoothly. The T2 Black Rhino above all — simple to operate; we'd basically and thoroughly mastered it by the very first day."
The Medusa Queen nodded with satisfaction; this fleet she'd cultivated herself was, right now, her killing-stroke trump card. The strongest, originally, was of course her First Legion's First Fleet — which was, as well, her own guard fleet. By rights, this newly procured batch of interstellar warships ought to have been slotted into that fleet. But the First Fleet was, to begin with, an elite fleet, with a combat system of its own. To suddenly throw its organization into disorder at this point was somewhat of a gamble. And so taking the Second Fleet to train up was the more fitting.
By the look of it now, this Second Fleet's array was quite lavish. It was fitted out with three T3 Blizzards, 10 T2 Snow Mastiffs, and 100 T2 Black Rhinos, with the remaining near 200 being, likewise, all "first-rate" T1 interstellar warships. To speak of the three T3 interstellar warships alone — this was a treatment that had originally belonged only to the First Legion's First Fleet, which the Medusa Queen personally led.
At this moment the Medusa Queen, through the feedback image of the deep-space telescope, gazed out at the distant starry firmament it had captured. Her face was somewhat grave.
"Your Majesty the Queen, are you worried that the Warhammer faction's lot will really send troops against our Kemi System?" The snake-woman Qingman had seen through her queen's worry. The Kemi System was not the main system of the Snake-folk's home base — yet, as things stood now, two-thirds of their forces were piled up here. The reason for it needs, of course, no great explaining. This was the Snake-folk's resource system. And, most unluckily, it bordered the territory of the Warhammer faction's Ogre-folk. And this Ogre-folk was precisely one of the Reef Star Region's hegemon powers, and one of the chief constituent forces of the Warhammer faction's three-force bloc.
"Among the Reef Star Region's three factions now, it's the Warhammer faction whose strength is the greatest. And most of this Warhammer-faction lot were, moreover, born in the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth, and so naturally hope to be able to merge into the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth. I've heard that, right now, the Starlight Empire's expeditionary force is the nearest to the Reef Star Region — and so the Warhammer faction's people can't wait. They want to take our Independent faction down first, and then use their full strength to wipe out the Starlight faction. By that time, the raw rice will have been cooked into done rice,[1] the Reef Star Region will openly merge into Warhammer — and the Starlight Empire's side won't possibly tear open its face with Warhammer over a single Reef Star Region. And so this military action of the Warhammer faction's, this time, is, by my guess, going to be for real," the Medusa Queen said in a low, grave voice.
This, too, was why she'd, early on, moved over her four legion fleets — 12,000 interstellar warships, all of them. All for the sake of holding the Kemi System to the death.
Suddenly, at the edge of the radar star-chart, there appeared flickering red dots.
"Reporting — our interstellar reconnaissance ships have discovered a great mass of Ogre-folk interstellar fleets at the system's border!" a crew member reported.
What was to come had come, after all.
The Medusa Queen drew a deep breath. "Convey my order — the First, the Second, the Fourth, and the Fifth are to enter wartime state. Spread out into battle formation! And, at the same time, get in contact with the other systems, and with the Bramble Free Trade Group's side — have them ready to lend us support at any moment!"
The Medusa Queen stared at the ever-more-numerous starship signals upon the starship radar.
"No matter what — the Kemi System cannot be lost!"
"Yes!"
The Snake-folk's interstellar fleets at once spread out into battle formation, making ready to meet the fighting to come.
And in a stretch of deep-space cosmos not far off, a single interstellar warship lay hidden there.
A T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Reconnaissance Ship · bridge.
Zhong Xiaoxia looked at the interstellar radar before her, along with a whole series of detailed intelligence round about. One could say that she was more familiar with the fleet situation just now than the Snake-folk themselves — the position and movement of every single interstellar warship, and so on. Indeed, even those of the invading Warhammer-faction interstellar warships. Every department across the whole bridge was busy integrating this battlefield intelligence.
Zhong Xiaoxia looked around her; she'd already grown used to all this. But the first time she'd set foot aboard this interstellar warship, and been appointed its captain — possessing the permissions to know the greater part of this interstellar warship's performance information — she had, all the same, been dumbstruck. This interstellar warship far outstripped the several T3 interstellar reconnaissance ships she'd learned of in her textbooks!
She was of down-and-out noble stock — the smallest daughter of a side branch within the family; it was by leaning on the private savings her mother, being a concubine, had scraped together that she'd been sent to study at the Northstar Academy. Happily, she'd proved a credit to herself, displaying a very strong learning ability at the academy, and had, all along, completed her six years of studies on the strength of scholarships. She'd even had the good fortune to join the training mission of the two-academies fleet — and it was in the course of that mission's chance encounter that she'd had her first contact with that man. She had seen the scene of that man coming to the battlefield in person to fight. She had seen the scene of that man, aboard his own interstellar warship, protecting his crew without the least regard for the enemy's noble status. She had, too, seen those sumptuous foods — and it was only after she'd quietly inquired of that interstellar warship's beast-folk crew that she'd learned that this was the crew's normal fare. She could scarcely believe it. Who could have imagined that that interstellar warship would, of all things, furnish its crew so fine a welfare treatment? To be able to hold a post aboard that interstellar warship — what a happy thing that would be.
A chance of just this kind soon fell, too, upon her own head. At the time of her graduation, she'd been pondering her own future destination. Was she to return to the star system where her family was, casually find some job, and then obey the marriage the family arranged, becoming the wife of yet another noble scion? Or was she to join the Empire military, and seek out a sliver of future opportunity? And it was just at this time that she'd learned, at the academy, of the news that the Owl Dragon Fleet her fellow student Zhao Chen had founded was recruiting crew. Almost without any hesitation whatsoever, she'd directly chosen to enroll. Her marks weren't of the very top rank, but she counted among the ranks of the superior students, and so she'd smoothly joined the Owl Dragon Fleet. For the first three months, she'd served aboard a T2 Black Rhino. Afterward she was promoted to deputy captain of another T2 Black Rhino. And at the end of last year, she became the deputy captain of a T3 Blizzard. Leaning on several military merits, and her outstanding showing, her rate of promotion was exceedingly swift. In her leisure hours, she'd, moreover, at the Goddess Academy that the Owl Dragon Fleet had established, raised her own abilities, keeping hold of her identity as a "superior student." Until, two months ago, Commander Zhao Chen had personally summoned her, and appointed her captain of this T3 Silver-Rat No. 1 ship. At the time, she'd felt as though she were dreaming.
The words of the deputy captain beside her drew her thoughts back in.
"Captain, we're now on the line with the Lord Commander," the deputy captain said from the side.
Captain Zhong Xiaoxia at once looked toward the video window off to the side; opposite was Commander Zhao Chen. She at once saluted, and reported, "Reporting, Lord Commander — my ship is, by order, carrying out a reconnaissance mission in the Reef Star Region. Right now, within the Kemi System under the Snake-folk's banner, the Warhammer faction's near 30,000 interstellar warships mean to take this Kemi System. The Snake-folk's Medusa Queen personally leads four legion fleets, 12,000 interstellar warships, to meet the battle here! I will broadcast this interstellar campaign for you in real time!"
"Very good." Commander Zhao Chen looked, light and unhurried as a passing cloud, at the interstellar holo-table before him — for all the world as though he were there in person, in the thick of it.
And at this very moment, the interstellar warships of the Owl Dragon Legion had already begun to head, one after another, for the Lion King System.