"Hello." Zhao Chen extended a hand.
Midai'er looked at the hand Zhao Chen extended; she'd never imagined that the commander Sister Charlotte spoke of would, of all things, be a weak and puny human — though he was, admittedly, rather handsome.
But in the eyes of a beast-folk, humans were creatures exceedingly weak and cunning, the same as the fox clan.
Were it not for their leaning on interstellar warships and weapons of every kind, she could have crushed a human dead with a single claw.
Midai'er extended her own hand and gripped Zhao Chen's; as though wishing to verify what she thought within her heart, she half-consciously put strength into it.
But the humbled, wincing look she'd imagined on this human male before her did not appear.
He was, still, looking at her with a face full of smiles.
Midai'er went on increasing her strength; but the other party, still, kept his smile.
Midai'er's stubborn White-Tiger-clan temper rose; bit by bit, she brought all her strength to bear — but the other party, of all things, still didn't budge a hair.
"What are you doing?" At this point, an unkind voice came to Midai'er's ear.
Midai'er's tail shot up all at once; she then withdrew her hand, and said with a guilty conscience, "It's… it's nothing."
Zhao Chen smiled and said nothing, not exposing this little white tiger's little maneuver.
Charlotte was no fool; she looked at Midai'er and reminded her softly, at her ear, "The Lord Commander is the person I most revere; this time we'll let it pass, but next time no behavior giving offense to him whatsoever will be permitted."
Midai'er looked at Sister Charlotte in astonishment; she'd, of all things, defend a male so?
This was a thing that had never once happened in the White Tiger clan before.
The Sister Charlotte of back then had been very proud, and submitted to not a single male.
In the rebel army there'd been no lack of generals who'd taken a liking to Charlotte, but without a single exception, they'd all met with a shut door.
"Have something to eat first — order whatever you like." Zhao Chen looked toward Midai'er, and pointed at the food counter.
Midai'er's thoughts were once again drawn toward the direction from which that fragrance drifted; she looked at the row upon row of dish-names on the menu upon that food counter, and was dumbfounded.
"Don't you eat nutrient rations?" Midai'er asked in astonishment.
"Of course not." Zhao Chen shrugged.
Nutrient rations?
The crew of his Owl Dragon Legion hadn't eaten that stuff for a good several years now.
Though there were still some reserves of it in the warehouse, those were readied for special occasions — and more often than not, in the end, when they were nearing expiry, they'd be sold off cheap.
"These… these dishes here can all be ordered freely?" Midai'er was somewhat hesitant; she gulped, but didn't dare make any move.
"You order whatever it is you want to eat." Charlotte, having said this to Midai'er, then began to order for herself.
"A portion of fish-meat dumplings, a portion of double-pepper fish-head, a portion of scallion-braised yellow croaker, and last, a portion of three-fresh noodles with extra fish added on!"
Hearing Sister Charlotte order the dishes with such practiced ease, Midai'er, off to the side, was dumbfounded.
Charlotte looked toward Midai'er, plain and matter-of-fact.
"What'll you have?"
"I… I'll have the same as sister!" Having said this, Midai'er gulped.
Some 10 minutes on.
Upon the dining table where Zhao Chen and the three of them sat, there had already been laid out a whole-fish banquet.
Though these fish were all cleaned and prepared very well, Zhao Chen seemed, for all the world, to have a sense of catching a whiff of fishiness.
And then he looked at the very nearly identical fish-slurping motions of these two big white cats before him — in the space of a dozen-odd seconds a fish would be slurped clean.
On Midai'er's side, one couldn't even catch sight of a fish-bone!
"Midai'er — when you eat fish, remember to spit out the bones!" Charlotte, at her side, gave Midai'er's head a rap.
Midai'er asked, aggrieved, "Do you have to spit out the bones even when eating fish?"
"Of course!" Charlotte nodded in earnest.
Zhao Chen couldn't hold back his mirth; back when Charlotte first came, she hadn't spat out the bones eating fish either.
A little over half an hour later, Zhao Chen happily took delivery of two big white cats with round, bulging bellies.
"Burp…" Charlotte gave a belch with not the least regard for her image.
Midai'er, off to the side, asked, careful and cautious, "Sister Charlotte, do you eat things like these every day here?"
"That's right; this is our crew's regular fare. Only, an ordinary crew member's meal-allowance may not be quite this much; for, after all, I'm a senior general of the Owl Dragon Legion — fish to my fill every month!" Charlotte said with an awe-inspiring, majestic air.
Zhao Chen forcibly held down his mirth.
So it turned out that the title of senior general of the Owl Dragon Legion meant, in Charlotte's eyes, merely "fish to your fill."
"Wow!" Midai'er, her two eyes shining with light, looked at Charlotte; she could scarcely believe just what sort of interstellar fleet this was, that could have so fine a welfare treatment!
"Rice-ba— Midai'er, why is it that you and your interstellar fleet appeared in the Reef Star Region?" Zhao Chen cut in on these two sisters' chat, and inquired straight out, opening the door to see the mountain.
Midai'er looked at Zhao Chen warily, and looked again at Sister Charlotte at her side.
"The Lord Commander can be trusted completely. Just as you trust your sister." Charlotte guaranteed.
Seeing Charlotte put it thus, Midai'er, too, began to tell her own story.
"It all has to be told beginning from that ambush-battle of sister's, back in that year…"
As it turned out — that battle in which Charlotte had been betrayed and defeated back then had inflicted enormous losses upon the rebel army; and adding to that the toppling of Charlotte, that spiritual leader, it had, all the more, left the rebel army sunk in a listless collapse, with many of the rebel-army bases destroyed.
From that point on, the rebel army found it hard ever again to organize a large-scale resistance-operation.
They could only ceaselessly hide and dodge, east and west.
And Midai'er, like Charlotte, likewise had a very strong gift for command, and so had had the fortune to command a rebel-army interstellar fleet of 300 interstellar warships.
Stumbling and bumping along, it had come to these recent few months.
Because the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth had dispatched a great many interstellar fleets to the masterless systems the Mechanical Race had withdrawn from, it had caused Warhammer's internal fighting-strength to be diminished by well over half.
And so the rebel army had thought to, taking advantage of this window, kick up a stir once more.
But the upshot was — who could have thought it — they'd, of all things, taken a great loss; the rebel-army fleet, none too numerous to begin with, had had well over half of it worn away again.
And the most important thing was that the home-base planet of the White Tiger tribe — the rebel army's chief tribe — had been exposed, and had come under the siege of the local tribal fleets.
"What? Our tribe's gathering-place has been exposed!" Charlotte cried, a whole face of alarm.
Midai'er bit lightly at her lip, and said with a guilty conscience, "Yes. The last battle I fought was the defense out in the space beyond our planet. But the enemy's fleets were truly too many; we found it very hard to hold on. The chieftain — that is, our honored father — had all our interstellar fleets flee in a full retreat, and get out! And he himself led the warriors upon the planet to hide within the underground bunkers, making ready to fight a bloody war to the last against the enemy's ground forces."
Charlotte grabbed Midai'er's wrist in one motion, and asked, her heart aflame with anxiety, "How long ago was this!"
"A month ago; after fleeing out from our planet, my fleet was pursued, and in the end I fled to the Reef Star Region," Midai'er said.
Charlotte's mood, at this moment, was complex; she was at a loss, her six spirits without a master, worrying over something.
"That Warhammer tribal fleet that assailed you — did it have T4 interstellar warships?" Zhao Chen suddenly spoke up and asked.
Though Midai'er didn't know why this man asked so, she nonetheless recalled it and said, "I remember there seemed to be two of them?"
"Charlotte, your kin are in danger; we can't watch them die and not save them. You go ready the fleet; we'll set out at once, and hasten to the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth to support your tribespeople!" Zhao Chen wore a whole valiant, spirited, high-mettled posture.
Hearing these words, Charlotte's mood was beyond what words could tell; she looked at Zhao Chen in gratitude, all the more resolute in her heart in her resolve to follow the Commander!