It was the first time Medusa and Red Rose had boarded so luxurious and majestic an interstellar warship.
Though they, too, had once been aboard T3-grade interstellar warships, set against this T3 carrier starship before them, it was, quite simply, not a creation of the same era.
"This way, please." The female crew member leading them signaled the two to enter the bridge.
Medusa and Red Rose were both somewhat astonished.
The bridge counted as a rather confidential existence aboard an interstellar warship.
They'd originally thought that that Commander Zhao Chen summoning them would be in a place like a meeting room.
Never had they imagined it would, of all things, be upon the bridge of this T3 carrier starship.
Medusa and Red Rose walked into the bridge; though it was not wartime now, the various departments upon the bridge still maintained a minimal degree of crew staffing, to ensure that this interstellar warship could enter a combat state at any moment.
Medusa and Red Rose walked at a slow pace to the position of the captain's command platform; the captain's chair slowly turned around to face them, and Zhao Chen was sitting upon it.
"Please, be seated." Zhao Chen raised a hand.
Two hovering chairs appeared behind Medusa and Red Rose.
"In summoning the two of you this time, it's chiefly that there are some matters I want to talk over with you." Zhao Chen looked toward Medusa.
"How is the situation in the Reef Star Region now?"
Medusa answered, "All the star systems of the Reef Star Region are now within our control; we've propped up a whole series of interstellar forces close and friendly to us to control these systems. At the same time, we've already prepared to submit a neutrality application to the Galactic Alliance. On the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's side, it's heard they're denouncing us, expressing protest and censure at our act of ambushing their interstellar fleet. But because they're, at present, nibbling away at the resources of other masterless systems, in the short term they have no spare military strength to deal with us."
"Have you tallied the Reef Star Region's resource output?" Zhao Chen asked.
Medusa answered, "After order was restored in the Reef Star Region, from the output of the mining zones in the various parts, along with the other tax revenues and the like, the net earnings can reach 10 billion star coins."
10 billion star coins?
Zhao Chen knit his brows slightly; this was, surely, far too poor.
No wonder that, before, both the Starlight Empire and the Mechanical Race had disdained this stretch of ground — it truly was a barren, unproductive land.
The net earnings of each single star region of the Starlight Empire were several tens of times this.
Zhao Chen paused a moment, then looked toward Medusa.
"How large a population do the Snake-folk have now? And how large a population does the Reef Star Region have?"
Hearing this question of Zhao Chen's, Medusa was taken aback a moment, but nonetheless answered honestly, "If some of the Snake-folk sub-races are included, the whole Reef Star Region has close to 3 billion Snake-folk. And the result of the Reef Star Region's most recent census was a population of 170 billion. The population structure is chiefly humans and beast-folk, with, besides, some other interstellar races."
"Medusa, I need you to do a thing for me. I mean to recruit soldiers in the Reef Star Region — the number unlimited, the race unlimited. The requirements are just two: they must be female, and must meet the recruitment standard." Zhao Chen looked toward Medusa.
Right now, with the Owl Dragon Legion undertaking a grand military expansion, the troop-source was a very great problem.
The Owl Dragon System could already no longer meet it.
But the Reef Star Region did have no small number of qualified troop-sources — and here, on account of its having all along been a land of strife, the folk-temper was fierce and hardy.
No small number of people, with a bit of training, could become excellent interstellar-warship pilots.
As for the matter of loyalty?
Three meals a day, top-tier welfare treatment.
Need one still worry about the matter of loyalty?
"No race limit?" Medusa inquired in curiosity.
Zhao Chen said, "No limit on race; if you Snake-folk have excellent interstellar women-soldiers to recommend, I can take them in on my side too."
This proposal of Zhao Chen's did, on the contrary, greatly move Medusa's heart.
Now the Owl Dragon Legion had become the Reef Star Region's true controller.
Though Zhao Chen had, before, made a great many promises, and had, up to now, all along acted just so — yet if she could slot some Snake-folk interstellar soldiers into the interior of the Owl Dragon Legion, and if, in the future, they could work their way even into the high management echelon, then that would, for the Snake-folk, be beyond doubt an enormous benefit.
"This matter, I'll arrange." Medusa agreed.
As for the little schemes Medusa might have, how could Zhao Chen possibly not have thought of them?
Medusa wanted to plant confidants within the Owl Dragon Legion — and did not Zhao Chen, likewise, mean to assimilate the Snake-folk?
Those Snake-folk interstellar soldiers planted within the Owl Dragon Legion — if, in the end, they gave their loyalty to Zhao Chen and turned their hearts to the Owl Dragon Legion, then in the future, through them, he could, too, thoroughly grasp the Snake-folk.
Zhao Chen looked toward Red Rose at his side.
"Red Rose, your Bramble Group, in the past, all along engaged in the interstellar-smuggling trade. You're very familiar with the hidden, concealed routes among the various empires within the Galactic Alliance, that's so, isn't it."
"Yes," Red Rose responded.
Zhao Chen went on, "I have, among various interstellar forces great and small, some raw-material resources needing transport; because their sources are comparatively special, I hope you can, by covert means, transport these raw-material resources back to the Lion King System in the shortest time possible. Can you do it?"
This was, after all, her own house-and-home skill.
Red Rose was very confident, but she was, too, very prudent; she inquired, "May I know the volume of the cargo to be transported, and the coordinate-positions, and whether there's a time limit on the transport?"
Zhao Chen displayed upon the star chart several coordinate-positions the little Princess had earlier told him of, along with the approximate stored amounts; this was but a small portion of the locations of the 300 billion star coins of raw materials.
"For the moment just these few coordinate-positions; there's no time limit as such, but in a situation of ensuring safety and concealment, the faster the better," Zhao Chen said.
Red Rose cast an eye over the several positions where cargo needed to be transported; the sea-lanes she was most familiar with at once surfaced in her mind.
And thereupon she answered, "The transport is no problem, but the volume of this cargo is somewhat large. Of the ones you've marked, the largest single batch is 10 billion star coins' worth of raw materials. Without enough interstellar transport ships, it might need multiple round trips of transporting. By the several classes of T2-grade and T1-grade interstellar transport ships our Bramble Group is currently equipped with, this batch of 10 billion-star-coin raw-material cargo alone would need at least three round trips, an estimated five months' time."
10 billion star coins of raw materials would need five months.
For one must know, what Zhao Chen wanted transported back was a full 300 billion star coins' worth of raw-material supplies.
Though Qin Xiaolei had said a portion of it was cash flow, Zhao Chen had already demanded she find a way to convert this cash flow into raw-material supplies.
What he wanted now was, precisely, raw materials!
"Interstellar transport ships, I can provide for you." Zhao Chen raised a hand and displayed the holographic projection of a class of interstellar transport ship, along with a brief introduction to its performance.
Red Rose fixed her gaze upon it.
T3 Great White Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport Ship
Red Rose looked carefully over its performance introduction, and in one stroke was dumbstruck.
Its transport capacity was twice that of the largest T3 interstellar transport ship currently within the Starlight Empire, and its normal cruising speed, too, far exceeded the other's; it came, besides, with its own loading-and-unloading robots, which could greatly increase loading efficiency.
And, moreover, the energy-system storage capacity within the interstellar transport ship was exceedingly large, able to ensure that a long-distance voyage needed no docking for resupply.
One such T3 Great White Whale was the match of 100 of the most advanced T2 interstellar transport ships under her command!
"When the time comes, I'll arrange 30 of this class of T3 Great White Whale for you; and if that's not enough, more can be added besides. So long as you complete all the transport tasks I charge you with, these interstellar transport ships will all be yours." Zhao Chen looked at Red Rose with a smile.
Within the smile was a slight touch of hidden meaning.
Red Rose said, her two eyes shining with light, "With this class of interstellar transport ship, then that 10 billion-star-coin batch of raw-material supplies, I can transport back for you in a single month!"