Escort the eldest miss home?
These somewhat abrupt words left Zhao Ruyue and the rest a whole face of bafflement.
"Who are you? Whom is it you mean to escort? How did you get into our internal comms?" Zhao Ruyue asked the other party with a knitted brow.
In a situation where she hadn't given consent, the other party had directly patched into her internal comms.
This showed that their internal comm network had been intruded upon — and, moreover, wholly without their being aware of it.
Earlier, on account of the traitors, their external long-range comm system had malfunctioned, unable to communicate with the outside world at long range; and that had been one thing.
But now, of all things, someone had, openly and brazenly, intruded upon their internal comms as well.
Their comm system truly did need an upgrade.
The white-furred commander cast an eye over Zhao Ruyue — for all the world as though she could see directly into the very bridge environment where Zhao Ruyue was — and said, "We've come, of course, to escort you, this Miss Zhao Ruyue. As for our identity — your present environment is of uncertain reliability, and I cannot explain directly. But I think she should be able to make you trust us. And as for the matter of intruding upon your fleet's internal comms, it's a bit complicated, and there's no time to explain now."
Just as the white-furred woman officer finished speaking —
The comm window she was in split into two.
Within the other comm window there appeared a young woman.
When Zhao Ruyue saw that young woman, she was dumbstruck.
"Wan'er?"
"Big sis! Big sis, it's wonderful that you're all right!" Zhao Wan'er, in her excitement, looked at her own eldest sister, and even hopped up and down happily several times before the captain's chair.
"When Bro said you'd met with trouble, I was worried half to death. I truly was afraid I'd never get to see you again."
Bro?
Zhao Wan'er's brother — who else could that be.
Zhao Ruyue's head cleared all at once; she looked at those somewhat familiar interstellar warships upon the interstellar holo-table.
The names of those interstellar warships surfaced, one by one, in her mind.
The T2 Black Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy Assault Frigate, the T2 Snow Mastiff-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship, the T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship, the T3 Blizzard…
No wonder she'd found these interstellar warships so familiar — for she had once paid close attention to the information of every single one of the Owl Dragon Fleet's campaigns, and had studied the data of these interstellar warships who-knew-how-many times.
Though these interstellar warships had, just now, wiped away the Owl Dragon Fleet's crest, and adopted a black hull paint-scheme, employing besides some camouflage upon the hulls — she still, all the same, recognized these interstellar warships.
"Is it Zhao… is it he who had you come to save us?" At this moment, within, Zhao Ruyue still rather didn't dare to believe it — didn't dare to believe that this was, of all things, real.
"The moment he learned that you, Big Sis, were in danger, he at once handed down the order to us to hasten with all speed to lend support. Only, in his current situation, he couldn't make it here in time," Zhao Wan'er said.
"But… the two places are this far apart… and our being ambushed happened less than a day ago. How did you get here in time?" Zhao Ruyue felt it unreal.
And this, above all, was the reason.
To hasten from the Owl Dragon System to this system where they were — even by the fastest route within the Starlight Empire — would need at least three days' time.
Unless Zhao Chen had foretold, ahead of time, the news that they'd be ambushed, then this was, in theory, simply impossible to make in time.
"Eldest miss, these matters — once we're safe, we'll explain them to you slowly. Right now, the most important thing is to first get you rescued out of here!" Charlotte put in.
Zhao Ruyue forcibly held down the curiosity within her, and looked toward Princess Qin Xiaolei at her side.
Charlotte added, "Rest your heart at ease, eldest miss; the order the Lord Commander handed down to us is this: to ensure your and the little Princess's safety, and, so far as possible, to bring the currently surviving Princess's royal fleet out with us!"
Princess Qin Xiaolei, off to the side, showed an expression of astonishment; from a moment ago to now, she had been immersed in astonishment.
She was no fool.
She had, of course, recognized Zhao Wan'er, this younger sister of Zhao Ruyue's; and at the same time, from the other party's talk and forms of address, she had guessed at the identity of this interstellar fleet that had come to rescue her.
The Owl Dragon Fleet of the Owl Dragon System!
That man with whom she'd had a single passing acquaintance at the starship arms-purchase conference over half a year ago.
Princess Qin Xiaolei had never, never imagined that, in the moment of her own life-and-death crisis, it would, of all things, be that man who became her life-saving straw.
"What do you need us to do?" Zhao Ruyue at once put away her emotions, and looked at Charlotte gravely.
Since she knew the identity of this fleet, then the identity of this white-furred officer before her she had, of course, guessed at as well.
It was a great general under the command of that younger brother of hers.
Charlotte said in earnest, "We have one round of interstellar missiles remaining. Next, we'll launch a second round of interstellar-missile bombardment; the range of this round of interstellar-missile bombardment will cover the area where the Princess's royal fleet is. This is our bombing-area map. What I need is for your interstellar fleet to break out swiftly toward our direction, while at the same time evading these bombing zones! The rest of the matter, just leave to us." As she spoke, Charlotte transmitted a bombing map to Zhao Ruyue.
Zhao Ruyue cast an eye over it; upon it were marked out in detail the coordinate-positions to be bombed, how many interstellar missiles there'd be, along with the time of the explosions, the duration, the range of the effect, and so on.
All of it exceedingly detailed.
But one must know — this was, after all, the very area where the Princess's royal fleet was; the moment the bombing was the least bit off, it might well bomb their own interstellar warships.
Casting one's mind back to the scene of the interstellar-missile bombardment they'd witnessed earlier — if that scene were to fall upon their own heads, could their interstellar warships withstand it?
The result could well be imagined.
This was dancing atop the very head of the god of death.
But at present, Charlotte was their one and only life-saving straw, and their one and only chance too.
"Very well; we'll carry out this combat plan." Zhao Ruyue nodded, transmitting this bombing-area map to every single surviving interstellar warship, and swiftly plotting out the breakout sailing route.
Zhao Ruyue stressed to her subordinates in earnest, "On no account deviate from the route! In the course of the breakout, the moment any accident occurs, we'll have no chance whatsoever to rescue a friendly ship!"
The subordinate nodded heavily, understanding clearly the meaning of these words; she repeated them to the captain of every single interstellar warship below.
Zhao Ruyue didn't know whether Charlotte's missile ships were accurate or not; she could only demand that her own interstellar warships' navigation have not the least deviation.
At the same time —
Charlotte called up the comm with the wolf-girl Baixue.
The wolf-girl Baixue had undone three buttons of her own top, exposing the white shirt within and the skin beneath the gaps of the shirt, an excited expression upon her face besides.
"At the predetermined time, carry out the attack plan. Mark it well! The impact points and the explosion times of the interstellar missiles cannot have too great a deviation!" Charlotte stressed.
The corner of the wolf-girl Baixue's mouth curled upward, exposing her wolf-fangs; she vowed with the most solemn assurance, "General, set your heart at ease — my missiles have never once bombed off-target!"
Time was gathered up, bit by bit.
At the very moment the time reached the point the two sides had agreed upon —
The remaining half of the T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships' interstellar missiles launched forth, one after another, trailing tail-flames.
And at the same time, the Princess's royal fleet, which had all along held a defensive formation, began to break out toward the direction of the Owl Dragon Fleet!
Were one to look from the interstellar holo-table, the two of them were, wholly and utterly, advancing toward each other!
Zhao Ruyue's T4 Boreas was, wholly and utterly, charging straight for the interstellar missiles.
Every female officer upon the bridge held her breath and gathered her nerve.