"Reporting — all shakedown items for the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship are complete, at a 100% completion rate. Awaiting the captain's orders." Charlotte, on the T2 Queen Bee's bridge, reported over the video comm to Zhao Chen on Blizzard Zero's bridge.
Zhao Chen nodded, satisfied. "Since everything's ready, then let's set out. Destination — the Owl Dragon Star System!"
"Um… are we truly going to wipe out those interstellar pirates? On the strength of just our two ships?" Zhao Wan'er asked from the far side of the video window, with some worry.
Zhao Chen looked at Zhao Wan'er with a smile. "You've seen all the performance data on the T2 Queen Bee, haven't you? What — you still don't believe?"
"It's not that I don't believe… only… it's just the two ships of ours… isn't it a bit reckless? I… I just worry there might be some mishap," Zhao Wan'er murmured.
The corners of Zhao Chen's mouth lifted. "This operation — there'll be no mishap. Oh, and before we set out, send Jiang Hong a text; ask her in detail about the makeup of the interstellar pirates' fleet, and the makeup of those nobles' fleets. If we can get the data on their ships, better still."
"All right, I'll get in touch with her." Zhao Wan'er agreed.
The comm cut off.
Zhao Wan'er sat in the captain's chair on the T2 Queen Bee's bridge and swept a look around her; even now she found it a little hard to believe she was, of all things, aboard a T2 carrier starship.
And a carrier starship of such fearsome performance, at that.
"Sister Charlotte, do you think… is there any danger in this operation of ours?" Zhao Wan'er looked to Charlotte.
Over these two-odd months together, Zhao Wan'er had come to be on good terms with Charlotte, and often went to her to learn a bit of ship command and combat technique.
Charlotte, for her part, felt no aversion to this girl who didn't look down on their beast-folk, and answered whatever was asked, holding nothing back.
"If we go by the word your hidden watcher sent back — the interstellar pirates plus those would-be rebel nobles' fleets coming to under 50 ships, and the great majority of those still T1 — then this operation is, basically, no cause for concern at all. Unless they had more than 20 T2 ships, or else a T3 ship. After all, just how fearsome a thing this T2 Queen Bee your brother built is — you should know well enough by now." Charlotte looked out over the ship's bridge before her, and said gravely, "This isn't a T2 carrier starship at all. It's a quasi-T3 carrier. For who has ever seen a T2 ship equipped with a star-shield function!"
……
Blizzard Zero · the bridge.
"Warp route pre-set complete; we now enter the acceleration phase, and will enter the warp phase in 10 minutes. All crew, enter deep-sea mode within 10 minutes! I repeat — all crew, enter deep-sea mode within 10 minutes!" Zhao Chen gave the order over the whole-ship broadcast.
As he spoke, the hibernation pods on the bridge all sprang up as well.
In that moment a thought crossed Zhao Chen's mind — he wondered what the hibernation pods aboard the T2 Queen Bee were like to use; better than this assembled ship's, surely.
Little had he thought that the first to try out the new ship he'd built would be someone other than himself.
Still, once he'd built the T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship, the time would come to build out that T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser.
And when that day came, he'd have a genuine, bona fide T3 ship.
The T3 Blizzard! This was the ship-technology blueprint that had never once left Zhao Chen's thoughts, sitting there in his system warehouse.
The appearance of the T2 Iron-Hammer gave Zhao Chen the capital to bring it into being.
"Reporting — of the whole ship's 101 crew, 99 have entered the hibernation pods." A beast-folk crewwoman at his side reported.
This was a temporary aide Charlotte had arranged for Zhao Chen.
"Understood; you enter your pod as well," said Zhao Chen.
"Yes." The crewwoman entered her hibernation pod, and the liquid was injected.
Zhao Chen glanced at the dimming bridge, then at the T2 Queen Bee on the star-map, likewise accelerating into the warp-travel state.
This warp voyage wouldn't be like the last, needing only half an hour.
Rather, it would take a full two weeks!
Because this time, what they were crossing was two star systems.
The Arctic Fox system and the Owl Dragon system lay adjacent to one another — but because the Owl Dragon Star System had no star gate, they could rely only on the ships' own travel to reach it.
From this alone one could see how vital a star gate was to a star system!
Between one star system and the next lay a barren belt where, in most cases, there was nothing at all.
Crossing this barren belt cost a great deal of time.
It was rather like a man of the ancient days trying to reach one continent from another, having to cross a shoreless, boundless sea.
This region had a name of its own too: "star-system edge-space."
Zhao Chen lay down into the hibernation pod — and just as the blue liquid was rapidly filling it, a voice sounded.
Mission triggered: annihilate the interstellar pirate fleet.
Mission: Annihilate the interstellar pirate fleet in the Owl Dragon Star System.
Difficulty: C-rank
Reward: three task points and 600 points
Failure penalty: 600 points deducted
Well, if that wasn't convenient timing. Without a word, Zhao Chen accepted the mission.
And then Zhao Chen sank into hibernation.
Blizzard Zero and the T2 Queen Bee, too, set out from the Arctic Fox system for the Owl Dragon Star System.
————
The Owl Dragon Star System.
On a certain habitable planet, in a manor five kilometers above the ground.
Jiang Shasha was, at this moment, sharing an evening meal with her family.
Her Jiang family might be nobles of the Owl Dragon Star System, but beyond the standing of nobility, their living conditions were only somewhat better than the ordinary person's.
Jiang Shasha looked at the food on the dining table.
One portion of rice per person, along with three portions of green vegetables — in one of which was a nail-sized bit of minced meat, natural food, and the rest artificial synthetic food.
These artificial synthetic foods were done up most lavishly in appearance, all great fish and great cuts of meat; but once you'd eaten them, the flavor was basically no different from one to the next, like so much plastic.
And yet even food like this was a month's worth of meals for an ordinary person outside.
Once, Jiang Shasha might still have taken pride in her family.
But after she'd gone to the Northstar Starship Military Academy and seen the wider world, she'd come to loathe a life like this.
"Father, why won't you join the Bao family and Cui family's plan of action! Once the operation succeeds and that Zhao Chen is done away with, our three families can control the whole of the Owl Dragon Star System! Whether we raise up a lord of our own, or use the Owl Dragon Star System as a stepping-stone to throw in with some other interstellar power — either would be worlds better than the way things are now!" Jiang Shasha's father looked at the old master, unable to understand why the old man wouldn't make the decision. "Or do you still cling to some foolish loyalty to the Zhao family!"
Right up to now, on account of Old Master Jiang, the Jiang family had not joined the Bao and Cui families' plan of action.