Zhao Chen, for all the world as though from a god's-eye vantage, looked at the interstellar holo-table before him, his gaze fixed upon his own interstellar fleet. Off to the side was displayed the detailed situation of each single interstellar warship in Zhao Chen's fleet — including its position, its hull condition, its weapons-and-equipment state, and so on. All plain at a glance.
One T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship;
Two T3 Imperial-class Heavy Interstellar Battleships;
Five T3 Phantom Assassin-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bombers;
Five T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships;
30 T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruisers;
100 T3 Triceratops-class Interstellar Heavy Assault Frigates;
And one T2 Queen Bee, five T2 Lion Kings, 10 T2 Snow Mastiffs, and 100 T2 Black Rhinos.
So as to make ready for this campaign in the Reef Star Region, over this stretch of late June and July, Zhao Chen had had Chief Engineer Annie, so far as possible, give priority to commissioning combat-type interstellar warships. And only so had there come to be so powerful an Owl Dragon Fleet as this one now!
And look again at the interstellar warships opposite. Though the number was terrifying, over 90% of them were cannon-fodder-grade T1 interstellar warships.
"This is the enemy fleet's data situation. 60,000 interstellar warships in all; of T3 interstellar warships, close to 100! Of T2 interstellar warships, close to 3,000! Of these, the T3 interstellar warships are chiefly the T3 Specter-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer and T3 Gargoyle-class Medium Interstellar Frigate that Warhammer provided, along with the T3 Cavalier-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer and T3 Nightwatch-class Interstellar Heavy Frigate that Starlight provided. And the two sides' flagships are, in the main, the Starlight-Empire-produced T3 Dragon-Croc-class Medium Interstellar Battleship and the Warhammer-produced T3 War Elephant-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship," Lilith reported.
Zhao Chen looked at the information and intelligence on these interstellar warships. So as to lend support to the Reef Star Region, both the Starlight Empire and the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth had provided some excellent interstellar warships to the interstellar forces they backed.
"If it were the regular army of the Starlight Empire or the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth here, then perhaps I'd treat it in earnest. But these fish-fleets — however many there are, they're no more than a school of fish, that's all," Zhao Chen said, unhurried and methodical.
Lilith, at his side, said nothing. Chitong awaited the order. They knew well the Owl Dragon Fleet's combat power, and so naturally agreed with what Zhao Chen said.
"Reporting! The enemy fleet has begun to close in upon the outer defensive line of the Snake-folk fleet at the Snake-Sovereign Fortress; it's estimated they'll exchange fire within 10 minutes!" a bridge crew member reported.
"Let's wait." Zhao Chen fixed his gaze upon the interstellar holo-table. The joint fleet of the Starlight faction and the Warhammer faction had not yet the least perception that, among the crawling ants they held in such contempt, there was at this moment already a flood-dragon[1] lying in wait.
10 minutes was not fast if you called it fast, not slow if you called it slow.
Soon enough, the interstellar warships of the Snake-folk's forward positions had exchanged fire with the enemy's interstellar warships. Lasers, missiles, solid shells, energy shells, interstellar fighters, interstellar drones… weapons of every kind began to be thrown into the battlefield. The joint fleet's offensive was quite ferocious, with very much the momentum of meaning to wipe out the Snake-folk fleet in one vigorous surge.
Medusa watched the battle with some anxiety; the commanders on the various defensive lines reported to her ceaselessly on the battlefield — and it was, without a single exception, all of it bad news. For, after all, the disparity between the two sides' interstellar warship numbers was simply too great.
"What is he still waiting for?" Medusa looked toward that interstellar fleet that had not stirred a hair; she very much wanted to press him to hurry, but she knew clearly that she had, now, no standing to do such a thing. Medusa bit lightly at her crimson lips. She watched, in the data interface before her eyes, interstellar warship after interstellar warship appear among the battle-losses. In under 10 minutes since the battle's start, their Snake-folk interstellar fleet had already lost close to 100 interstellar warships! Though most of them were T1 interstellar warships. But the speed of this falling was, still, ceaselessly widening. And the enemy fleet was, too, ceaselessly closing on the defensive line; once the Snake-folk line was broken through, these battle-losses would climb at a headlong rate.
"Queen — those interstellar warships have made a move! It looks like that class of T2 interstellar missile ship!" the snake-woman Qingman suddenly said in excitement, pointing at the display. That was the class of T2 interstellar missile ship that Qingman the snake-woman had, before, seen with her own eyes in the Lion King System's campaign against the Fire Salamander clan. At this moment this class of T2 interstellar missile ship was opening the missile-launch silos upon its hulls, and within could be seen the interstellar missiles poised and gathering their momentum, waiting for the word.
Medusa's every "eye" was, at this moment, opened round and staring wide.
Thereupon, she watched with her own eyes as interstellar missile after interstellar missile launched forth from these interstellar missile ships, taking aim at the enemy fleet-group of the forward positions. Ball upon ball of exploding fire-light welled up — indeed, even joining together into a single line — devouring those enemy interstellar warships. Though it was the first time she'd seen this scene, the snake-woman Qingman wore, all the same, a whole face of astonishment.
Too terrifying!
This round of interstellar-missile bombardment, though it lasted merely a few minutes' time, inflicted upon the enemy fleet a loss directly reaching 1,000 interstellar warships — and the interstellar warships caught up in it and suffering damage of varying degrees reached, moreover, close to 2,000 interstellar warships. Because these were, after all, T2-grade interstellar missiles. A full 2,500 of them! The most crucial reason was, still, that the enemy fleet's main interstellar warships were all T1 interstellar warships; a cannon-fodder interstellar warship of that kind, basically, so long as it was struck by a single interstellar missile, had not the least possibility of escaping unscathed. Indeed, even one not among the locked-on targets, if it was but a little too near, would be caught up in the shockwave of the explosion.
But at this point the problem appeared.
The might of these five T2 interstellar missile ships was quite ferocious, annihilating over 1,000 enemy ships in the space of a few minutes; but the crux was that the enemy ships numbered 60,000 in all! 1,000, set against 60,000, was still a very great gap.
At the same time —
The joint fleet, too, had been given a "start of fright" by this little interlude.
But there was one person who was very excited. And that was Young Master Sun. Young Master Sun, catching sight of the scene that had once, for a stretch of time, become his nightmare, sprang up from the captain's chair in his agitation.
"Zhao Chen! It's that fellow's interstellar missile ships!"
Young Master Sun's gaze brimmed with murderous intent; he could sense that in that Snake-folk Fortress area there had to be, without doubt, Zhao Chen's interstellar fleet.
"Hahaha… truly heaven aids me — that fellow Zhao Chen's interstellar fleet has, of all things, really appeared here. Very well! Since you come to seek your own death, then I'll grant your wish. And it just so happens that today I'll clean up you and the damned Snake-folk, the whole lot of you, at once." Young Master Sun in his agitation handed down the order to speed up the attack. "The enemy's interstellar missile ships need time to resupply before their next round of assault. Attack at full speed! Attack at full speed!"
This round of interstellar missiles had, of all things, on the contrary, kindled the joint fleet's fervor for the offensive. For, after all, everyone knew well that the interstellar missile ship, as a ship-type, would — after one round of saturation attack — have a very long stretch of "cooldown," needing to replenish the interstellar missiles required, which took no small amount of time. This was the best chance to be had against interstellar missile ships!
But it was at just this moment that the chance Zhao Chen had been waiting for had come as well.
"Reporting — the Third Fleet commander, the wolf-girl Baixue, reports! All the predetermined combat targets have entered the Judicators' firing range; requesting to carry out the 'annihilation mission.'" The wolf-girl Baixue, over in the video window, was holding down the restless stirring within her heart.
Zhao Chen raised a hand, staring at those enemy fleets pressing near beyond the Snake-Sovereign Fortress's combat defensive line; upon them one could see red circle after red circle drawn out — those were the true combat targets. That earlier round of interstellar missiles had been merely a little appetizer, that was all.
"Third Fleet — upon the enemy fleet's designated targets, carry out the coverage-style firepower-strike combat mission!" Zhao Chen handed down the order.
"Yes!"