The Warhammer faction's joint fleet · flagship · bridge.
An Ogre sat in the captain's chair.
"Reporting — the Snake-folk's four legion fleets, 12,000 interstellar warships, have spread out into battle formation. And at the same time, the other side has, on the public screen, warned us to withdraw from the Kemi System at once, or else they'll regard our action as a declaration of war! And bidden us bear the consequences ourselves!" the Ogre deputy captain reported from the side.
The Ogre fleet commander sneered and spread wide his two arms. "Bear the consequences ourselves? Those puny little snakes — what standing have they to speak such words? A paltry 12,000 interstellar warships, and they mean to fend off our 30,000! Let them see just how it is we wipe them out! What 'Medusa Queen' — I'll clasp a collar about that neck of hers, and make her my most base and lowly slave! Convey my order — the whole legion fleet, launch the attack!"
"Yes!"
"The whole legion fleet, launch the attack!"
30,000 interstellar warships, 10 legions, advanced mighty and vast. Their target aimed straight at the Snake-folk legion fleet waiting in full array in the distant firmament.
The Snake-folk flagship.
"Your Majesty the Queen, the other side has paid no heed to our warning, and is bearing down toward us at full speed! It's estimated that in 15 minutes they'll enter our firepower-coverage range!" the adjutant reported from the side.
The Medusa Queen rose to her feet, and in this instant, upon the bridges of every interstellar warship, and in the various departments of the ships, there appeared the video image of the Medusa Queen.
"Warriors of the Snake-folk — the enemy now means to invade our territory and our homeland! Let them get a taste of the venom-fangs of us, the Snake-folk. In the face of every invading foe, we fight to the death without cease!"
"Fight to the death without cease!"
"Fight to the death without cease!"
After a round of wartime mobilization, the Medusa Queen at once looked toward three other large video windows and 30-odd small ones. Those were the various legion-fleet commanders, and the 10 corps-grade fleet commanders under each of them.
"In this battle we take defense as our main line; seizing our chance, we'll counterattack in local sectors, using a superior force to interpenetrate and cut apart the enemy's fleet! This task I entrust to the First Legion's Second Fleet." The Medusa Queen laid out the battle plan in brief. Her gaze came to rest upon Commander Qingman. This battle — a battle of the few overcoming the many — hinged, in its crux, upon whether Qingman's fleet could attain the anticipated combat objective.
At this moment, apart from the two sides joined in battle, there was, moreover, another pair of eyes attending closely to the situation of the war.
The Owl Dragon System · T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship · bridge.
Zhao Chen looked at the holographic interstellar holo-table shifting in real time before him; upon it were spread the some 40,000 interstellar warships of the two sides joined in battle. From the area the interstellar fleets covered alone, one could see that the Warhammer faction outnumbered the Snake-folk side by close to three times over!
At the same time, on the two flanks of the interstellar holo-table there appeared, besides, some battlefield data — chiefly the grades of the two sides' interstellar warships.
On the Snake-folk side: four legion fleets, 12,000 interstellar warships. Of these, 23 T3 interstellar warships, 700-odd T2 interstellar warships, and the rest all T1 interstellar warships.
By contrast, the Warhammer-faction joint fleet the Ogre-folk led: 10 legion fleets, 30,000 interstellar warships. Of these, 30 T3 interstellar warships, 1,500-odd T2 interstellar warships, and the rest all T1 interstellar warships.
An onlooker would, in fact, discover something: so it turned out that this whole great show of array was, all of it, T1 small-fry underlings? For, after all, the Reef Star Region was no regular army; it was a stretch of star region that, before this, no one had thought worth a glance — and so there simply weren't many high-grade interstellar warships in it. At its most flourishing of old, the whole Reef Star Region's T3 interstellar warship count had come to a mere hundred fifty-odd — and those all a batch of old antiques, at that. A few hundred T1 interstellar warships were enough to occupy a single planet and set oneself up as a king. It was somewhat like the peasant armies of the ancient days of Zhao Chen's former life: their actual combat power low, with barely a few among them who could fight. The show of array looked fearsome, but in reality there was only the sheer number to it. This, too, was why, after the Mechanical Race's withdrawal, these hegemons of the Reef Star Region had at once made ready to go pay their respects at some stronghold's gate — they knew well, themselves, that this bit of strength of theirs wasn't worth a mention before the regular armies of the three empires.
Back to the battle situation at hand.
"Chitong, how do you read this battle?" Zhao Chen looked toward another spectator at his side.
Chitong looked at the interstellar holo-table and said, "Had it not been for that batch of interstellar warships you sold the Snake-folk before, then the Snake-folk would, beyond doubt, lose this battle without question. Indeed, it might well be a crushing rout!"
"Oh? And with this batch of mine, then — what changes?"
Chitong pointed at the comparison of the two sides' interstellar warships. "The two sides' actual T3 interstellar warship counts don't differ by much — and the Snake-folk have our three T3 Blizzards, which is, without anyone quite seeing it, a killing-stroke trump card. Then look at the T2 interstellar warships — these, in fact, are the mainstay force among these interstellar powers; those T1 interstellar warships, however many there are, are but capering clowns. Should the situation shift the least bit, and things go wrong, those hastily patched-together T1 interstellar warships will, for the most part, beat their retreat and flee without the slightest ceremony. And the Snake-folk's T2 interstellar warships are but half the opponent's! A gulf of disparity!"
Chitong paused here, and pointed at a certain position in the Snake-folk's interstellar fleet; magnified, one would discover that there had gathered 100 T2 Black Rhinos. Around them, besides, were three T3 Blizzards and 10 T2 Snow Mastiffs.
"But among these 700 T2 interstellar warships, there are 110 T2 interstellar warships of ours — and that makes it a different matter altogether. For all the world like a single devil's chili-pepper mixed into what looks like an ordinary dish!"
Chitong went on, talking away with ease and assurance. "Look at the Medusa Queen's disposition — she's slotted all the interstellar warships purchased from us into one single fleet. This is her most sagacious choice; had she added the interstellar warships evenly into the fleets under her, then, on the contrary, they'd have been of no use at all. As it is now, this interstellar fleet is a dagger with its edge concealed. It is, as well, the key to the Snake-folk interstellar fleet's whole battle! If this dagger is well used — plunged straight into the enemy's belly, and before the enemy has even reacted, straight off scraping a hunk of flesh from the enemy's very heart-meat — then the win or loss of this battle would be very hard to say. And so, how this battle turns out in the end is a matter of how the Medusa Queen wields this dagger."
Zhao Chen smiled and said nothing; Chitong's thinking marched in step with his own, without their having conferred. These interstellar warships he'd handed to the Medusa Queen — even the weakest among them, the T2 Black Rhino — set here in this place, the Reef Star Region, were an existence like unto a dimension-reduction strike.[1]
Zhao Chen stared at the interstellar holo-table.
At this point, the forward positions of the two sides' interstellar fleets had already collided together. Very plainly, the Snake-folk fleet adopted a defensive formation, while the Warhammer-faction interstellar fleet began to take on a semicircular encirclement of the Snake-folk fleet — and was, moreover, advancing with the posture of moving toward a full encirclement. Because only thus could all 30,000 of their interstellar warships have room to be brought to bear.
And it was just at this moment that that Snake-folk First Legion Second Fleet Zhao Chen had been attending to all along, at last, made its move.
The good show was on!