The Ogre commander was dumbfounded; he watched those three Snake-folk T3 interstellar warships pressing ever nearer his own command ship.
"How can this be? What in the world are those three interstellar warships! Why do they have such powerful bow cannons!" the Ogre commander shouted.
The adjutant at his side wiped at the sweat on his brow. "This… we're not too clear on it either; there's no data or information within our database on this class of T3 interstellar warship, nor on that class of T2 interstellar warship…"
"Damn it! Muster me the surrounding interstellar fleets — besiege them!" After handing down this order, the Ogre commander added, moreover, one more order — that his own command ship slowly withdraw, and keep a safe distance.
And the stretch of local battlefield that came next staged what is meant by a truly crushing, steamroller style of warfare!
Three T3 Blizzards and 100 T2 Black Rhinos, for all the world as though their eyes had gone red with blood-lust.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
These starship captains, in the free-flowing, exhilarating slaughter, felt their minds gradually filling with the craving for battle.
Too satisfying!
The interstellar warships they themselves commanded in battle were simply too satisfying; never before had they commanded interstellar warships so excellent. For the first time, they discovered that interstellar combat was, after all, so simple a thing. Either you took your interstellar warship and rammed it straight into the enemy ship — the enemy ship's hull armor was like so much foam, utterly unable to withstand a few collisions from their great black horns. Or you used the main guns, secondary guns, and bow cannon to take aim at an enemy ship within firepower range, and then had only to press the fire button, and admire the fireworks of the explosion off in the distance.
Simple!
Just this simple.
"Before true interstellar warships, combat is a thing just this simple." Zhao Chen delivered his verdict, light and unhurried as a passing cloud.
This Snake-folk interstellar fleet, in a single hour of fighting, had annihilated five times its own number of the enemy! And that included a dozen-odd T3 interstellar warships! One could put it thus: in this battle, of the T3 interstellar warships the Warhammer-faction interstellar fleet had lost up to now, 80% had been destroyed by this one fleet — and 80% of those, moreover, had been annihilated by those three T3 interstellar warships. Its battle record could be called brilliant indeed!
"This battle is already over." Chitong, at Commander Zhao Chen's side, said blandly.
Zhao Chen, too, nodded with satisfaction.
After close to five hours of fighting —
On the surface of it, it was still the Warhammer-faction interstellar fleet's side that held the upper hand. The Snake-folk interstellar warship side's losses had reached 6,000 ships — already close to half its interstellar warships lost. And the Warhammer-faction interstellar fleet's lost interstellar warships had reached a count of 5,000. A gap between the two sides did still exist; from the data alone, it was, beyond doubt, the Warhammer-faction interstellar fleet's side that held the upper hand.
But look at the data closely, and one would discover something. Of those losses, a full third had been annihilated by that one Snake-folk interstellar fleet — and this one Snake-folk fleet, moreover, would "pick its targets." By now they'd already come to disdain those T1 interstellar warships; the targets they locked onto were very nearly all T3 interstellar warships and T2 interstellar warships. This directly resulted in the Warhammer-faction interstellar fleet's T3-interstellar-warship loss rate reaching, up to now, 50%! Its T2-interstellar-warship loss rate exceeded 50%, with losses reaching 800 T2 interstellar warships — half of them having met with the savagery of that class of T2 interstellar warship with the great horns. On the contrary, it was the T1-interstellar-warship loss rate that was the lowest, at a bare under 15%!
And what did this show?
It showed that, though the Warhammer-faction interstellar fleet's losses looked, numerically, no great thing, those were, one and all, losses that cut to the sinew and broke the bone! On the contrary, the Snake-folk interstellar fleet — the overwhelming majority of what it had lost was T1 interstellar warships. And those three T3 interstellar warships of resounding battle-merit still stood staunch and unbowed. The hundred T2 "big black horn" interstellar warships, too, had lost merely a dozen-odd, and no more.
To go on fighting this way — even should they win this battle, it would be a victory the Warhammer-faction interstellar fleet could not accept. For they were, after all, still counting on a great decisive battle with the Starlight faction afterward.
In the end, this interstellar campaign lasted merely five hours before it drew to a close with the Warhammer-faction interstellar fleet's withdrawal, leaving behind a whole field of interstellar-warship wreckage.
"How did it feel to watch?" Zhao Chen looked toward Chitong beside him.
"Numbers and nothing more — combat efficiency abysmally low. Had they even some combat caliber, that would be one thing; but every last one of them is the sort to trim his sail to the wind, showing up here for the sake of profit. An interstellar fleet of this kind can't make it onto the stage of a great campaign," Chitong said without the least courtesy.
This, just this, was the vast, yawning gap between a fleet of professional soldiers and a motley interstellar riffraff-fleet of every stripe and sort.
"Suppose the role of the Snake-folk interstellar fleet in this battle were swapped for our present Owl Dragon Fleet, and the commander swapped for you — how do you reckon this interstellar campaign would end?" Zhao Chen inquired of Chitong.
Chitong gave a light laugh, and, lifting her head, said, "Then I'd see to it that these 30,000 interstellar warships of the Warhammer faction's came and did not return."
To hold fewer than 300 interstellar warships in hand, and yet dare speak of 30,000 interstellar warships coming and never returning — by all estimates, it was only the commanders of the Owl Dragon Legion who'd dare speak words of this sort. And this confidence, too, sprang from these very interstellar warships they served aboard!
Just this brazen!
"All right. We have, one might say, gotten a measure of the strength of these so-called 'hegemons' of the Reef Star Region. And that queen has, too, gotten a look at the strength of our interstellar warships. Next, I'm going to go 'show a little care and concern' for that queen," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
At the same time, all the interstellar fleets of the Owl Dragon Legion had arrived at the Lion King System, and had already begun making ready for their next step of action.
……
Over on the other side, the battlefield of the Kemi System.
"Reporting — the Warhammer-faction interstellar fleets have all withdrawn from the Kemi System. We've dispatched some interstellar reconnaissance ships to trail behind, to make sure they return to their own systems." the adjutant reported to the Medusa Queen.
"Sweep the battlefield with all speed — haul back every interstellar warship that still has repair value. And at the same time, make haste to repair our damaged interstellar warships. The Second Fleet of Qingman's above all!" the Medusa Queen handed down her orders.
"Yes."
At this moment, a video window popped up; opposite was precisely that snake-woman Qingman she'd just mentioned.
"Your Majesty the Queen." Upon the snake-woman Qingman's face there still brimmed a kind of joy, hard to hold in check, that comes in the wake of a frenzy.
"Qingman, you performed very well just now." the Medusa Queen praised with satisfaction.
"It's all owing to Your Majesty the Queen's wise and brilliant command — and to these interstellar warships of such surpassing performance!" the snake-woman Qingman said in excitement.
The Medusa Queen inquired, "How did your fleet's combat situation turn out this time?"
The snake-woman Qingman rose to her feet and reported, "Reporting, Your Majesty the Queen — in this campaign, my Second Fleet annihilated close to 2,000 enemy ships, including 18 T3 interstellar warships and 500-odd T2 interstellar warships. The fleet lost 37 T2 Black Rhinos. One T3 Blizzard is severely damaged, and 27 T2 Black Rhinos are damaged to varying degrees."
The Medusa Queen knit her brows slightly; this batch of interstellar warships she'd purchased hadn't even been warmed up yet, and already over half were damaged. This couldn't help but bring that man to her mind.
Such powerful interstellar warships — if only she could get him to join the Independent faction's side.