The rebel army — that is, what Chieftain Ted and Charlotte and their people called the "Warhammer Revolutionary Army" — was at present sunk in a trough, its interstellar-fleet numbers not so much as a tenth of what they'd been at their peak.
There had, even, appeared several bands of turncoats, bought over by the various Warhammer tribes.
In the Warhammer Revolutionary Army's most recent operation, too, it was on account of a turncoat's betrayal that the White Tiger tribe's revolutionary-army fleet came to suffer such grievous losses — which was how the present state of things had come about.
"By the look of it, then: the revolutionary army has few resources, no stable territory of its own, no way to keep replenishing itself with advanced interstellar warships — and this has left it simply no match for the tribal fleets of the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth. Is that how it stands?" Zhao Chen inquired.
Chieftain Ted nodded.
"That is indeed how it is. Originally we'd thought that, while the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's front lines were locked with the Mechanical Race, we might make some gains. But now the Mechanical Race has suddenly withdrawn its forces, and this has left the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth with all the more strength to spare for dealing with us. Were it not that the twenty great tribes are all scrambling to seize the resources of those masterless star systems, they'd long since have massed their fleets and wiped us out to the last. By our own forecast, within three years, the revolutionary-army forces across Warhammer won't even be able to muster an interstellar fleet worth the name."
"Father…" Charlotte looked at her own father, her heart aching for him.
She, too, had once been a member of the Warhammer Revolutionary Army; she, too, knew full well the revolutionary army's true state.
Charlotte could not help but glance toward her honored Commander.
In the revolutionary army's present plight, the one and only possibility of breaking the deadlock lay with her Commander alone!
But she was merely a general; she couldn't have the Lord Commander go aiding another empire's revolutionary army for no rhyme or reason — the more so when it was such a hopeless shambles.
"Suppose your revolutionary army had those advanced interstellar warships of mine — or even the somewhat lesser T2 interstellar warships. Could you raise the banner and rise up once more?" Zhao Chen suddenly asked.
Charlotte was taken aback.
Chieftain Ted looked at Zhao Chen with a touch of astonishment.
Midai'er, meanwhile, said half-consciously, "Of course that'd be no problem. Never mind the Lord Commander's T3 interstellar warships — if we had in hand T2 interstellar warships like the T2 Black Rhino, the T2 Snow Mastiff, the T2 Lion King, then dealing with an ordinary Warhammer tribal fleet would be no problem at all. Warhammer's interstellar-fleet numbers are large, true, but every last class of them is only average in combat power, and as for quality — better not to speak of it. The ship-manufacturers who supply the great tribes with interstellar warships can count it a good day if their warships don't blow themselves up the moment they fire the guns. Every manner of non-combat attrition is a common sight."
What Midai'er said was all fact.
The Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's starship-industry foundations were uneven and patchy.
They barely managed to keep pace with the technological level of the other two empires.
And in such a case, their starship quality suffered from grave problems: often, for a component of the very same performance, the one they turned out would be far bulkier than that of the other two empires — and utterly without any grace of form.
In the eyes of the other two empires, the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's interstellar warships were a byword for "big, dumb, black, and crude." Because their star-shield technology was poor, they were especially fond of piling on hull-armor thickness, and fonder still of the boarding action.
Yet Warhammer's interstellar warships were, all the same, the best-selling starships among the various small- and mid-sized interstellar powers outside the three great empires — and even among the interstellar pirates and interstellar mercenary legions.
Why?
The price was cheap!
For an interstellar warship of the same grade, Warhammer's ran a good deal cheaper than the Starlight Empire's or the Holy Radiance's — cheaper, in some cases, by several times over.
Warhammer's fleet philosophy was simply this: my interstellar warship's performance can't match yours, so I'll pile it on by numbers — I'm cheap in any case, and even some interstellar soldiers, given a bit of training, can be hauled up onto the starship battlefield.
This was, perhaps, a kind of clan-born gift of the beast-folk: whether on the ground or up in the heavens, exceedingly warlike, with cheap sources of manpower.
By comparison, Zhao Chen's interstellar warships left even the Starlight Empire's same-grade interstellar warships several streets behind — to say nothing, then, of these Warhammer ones.
"Chieftain Ted, then let me speak plainly. I have a notion: I can sell you these interstellar warships." As Zhao Chen said this, he raised a hand.
The holographic images of every interstellar warship in the T2 series appeared before General Ted's eyes.
General Ted looked at these interstellar warships and gulped.
But he very soon brought his emotions under control, and looked at Zhao Chen coolly.
"His Excellency the Commander is willing to sell us these interstellar warships? I take it this is hardly so simple a matter as doing business."
For if it were merely a matter of selling interstellar warships, one need hardly come all the long way from the Starlight Empire to the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth to do the selling.
General Ted was not wrong to think so — but what he didn't know was that Zhao Chen's present circumstances were rather particular.
Zhao Chen's interstellar warships could not be hawked far and wide within the Starlight Empire; his one and only customer there was that great moneybags, the "little Princess." But selling these interstellar warships in Warhammer was no trouble at all — with such a distance in between, for any word of it to make its way back would likely take a good several years.
And even should someone truly trace it to Zhao Chen's door — separated as they were by the whole breadth of heaven and earth — Zhao Chen need only hold his tongue, and the investigating alone would eat up several years more.
By that time, just who called the shots in the Starlight Empire was anyone's guess.
And the most important reason Zhao Chen meant to sell his own interstellar warships to the Warhammer revolutionary faction was, still, to lay out his dispositions for the future.
"I come from the Starlight Empire; my present circumstances are rather particular. In helping you, my aim truly isn't only to sell these interstellar warships. I want you to sow chaos through the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth — to leave them, at some stretch of time in the future, without the strength to reach a hand into whatever may come to pass in the Starlight Empire. Call it, if you like, a bargain struck between us," Zhao Chen said mildly.
Charlotte's eyes lit up; at once she grasped the Lord Commander's intent.
In the future the Starlight Empire was bound to fall into civil strife, and the two great empires would, in all likelihood, seize the opening to press in.
And on account of their geographic position, the Chu River Star Region and the North Wind Star Region would become the very frontmost battlefields facing the two great empires head-on — caught in a pincer from both sides.
Were the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth mired in ceaseless internal chaos, then it would, at that juncture, have no leisure to meddle in the Starlight Empire's affairs.
"Father, I trust the Lord Commander. This is the one and only way out for our White Tiger tribe and for the revolutionary army!" Charlotte said, unshakably firm.
There was, even, a further thought in Charlotte's mind.
Suppose the Lord Commander did covet the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth — well, by the Lord Commander's character as she'd come to know it these two years, what would be the harm in his taking the throne as the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's own monarch!
On account of this thought, Charlotte's tail even swayed a few times of its own accord.
"But the distance between the two regions is too great; transporting the interstellar warships…" General Ted worried.
"The transport I'll see to — delivery right to your door. So long as you have the money, or the resources, that's all it takes," Zhao Chen said with a light laugh.
Off to the side, Midai'er's two eyes shone, as she called back to mind those marvelous interstellar warships!
"Don't be fooled by how wretched we look now — in various places we've hidden away no small store of plundered resources and wealth; it's only that, before, we never had a fitting channel through which to buy starships. That being so, I am willing to cooperate with His Excellency the Commander!" General Ted said firmly.
The corner of Zhao Chen's mouth curled faintly upward.
Those great tribes of the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth could scarcely have dreamed that a terrible seed had, in this very moment, all unknown to spirit or ghost, been buried right there at their side.