As this T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship entered Owl Dragon Prime's atmosphere, one interstellar drone after another was released from it as well.
The combat power of these interstellar drones was, on a planet's surface, an overwhelming thing.
Ordinary combat mecha were simply no match for them.
They could circle the whole planet with ease inside 10 minutes!
On the T2 Queen Bee's bridge, a list lay before Zhao Wan'er.
This was a task Zhao Chen had given her: once the T2 Queen Bee entered Owl Dragon Prime, she was to "invite" every person on this list to the Zhao residence.
Zhao Wan'er still remembered a line Zhao Chen had spoken at the time.
"If you can't bring them alive, then dead will do."
This list was, of course, of every family that had backed the Bao and Cui families in this assassination plot.
The interstellar drones just released were headed straight for these families' residences — they were going to "collect people."
"Sister Charlotte, command of this ship passes to you in a while. I'll take a shuttle down to the Zhao residence," Zhao Wan'er said.
"Mm. Leave things here to me." Charlotte nodded. "But to be safe, I'll arrange a squad of interstellar drones to shadow you at a distance and see to your safety."
"All right."
Zhao Wan'er left the bridge, came to the hangar, and boarded a shuttle.
A shuttle was, in fact, a kind of small interstellar transport craft, generally carrying three to 10 people, with a very small cargo space and no capacity for long interstellar voyages.
But because an interstellar warship, once it entered a planet's atmosphere, could not land—
—one generally transferred instead to this sort of shuttle to reach one's final destination.
Shuttles were small; the smallest were about the size of a car, and fit inside a starship with room to spare.
At this moment Zhao Wan'er was piloting one such shuttle away from the T2 Queen Bee. Looking at the familiar scenery of the planet's surface before her, she soon came to a hushed reach of mountains and streams.
From a good way off she could see a residence set among the peaks, wrapped in a screen of light.
That was her destination.
The Zhao residence.
Zhao Wan'er's shuttle hovered outside the light-screen, within which combat mecha now stood with weapons raised, taking aim at her.
"I am the Zhao family's Third Miss, Zhao Wan'er. The situation is under our control now; you may lower the energy dome," Zhao Wan'er called out over the shuttle's loudspeaker.
But within there was no stir for a good while.
It seemed they still doubted Zhao Wan'er's identity.
Helpless, Zhao Wan'er set the shuttle to auto-hover, then opened the forward canopy and stood straight up, so that those within the light-screen could see her clearly.
Before long, the light-screen came down.
"It really is the Third Miss!"
"The Third Miss has come back?"
"A moment ago I saw the Third Miss's shuttle seem to fly down from that carrier starship — could that be reinforcements the Third Miss has brought?"
In the Zhao residence's courtyard, the Zhao family, who a moment ago had been sick with dread, were now overjoyed and astonished at once — and baffled, too, as to just what was going on.
Seeing the light-screen shut off, Zhao Wan'er piloted her shuttle straight down into the Zhao residence's courtyard.
She stepped down from the shuttle.
The Zhao family at once crowded round.
"Miss Wan'er, what in the world is going on?"
"Just what is the story with that carrier starship?"
"Third Miss, something dreadful's happened in our Owl Dragon Star System — the Bao and Cui families mean to revolt, and they even tried to attack you!"
Zhao Wan'er looked at the Zhao family crowding round her, and said outright, "The situation is basically under control now; so long as everyone stays within the Zhao residence's grounds, there's no danger."
"Wan'er, just what has happened? I heard the Bao and Cui families hired a pirate fleet to attack you and Chen'er. How is it the two of you have appeared here? Did you not run into that pirate fleet?" Old Madam Zhao came out, leaning on her dragon-head cane, and the Zhao family who'd been chattering round Zhao Wan'er tactfully fell silent, one and all.
"My brother and I, aboard two ships, have already annihilated that pirate fleet whole, out around Dragon-Tail Planet," Zhao Wan'er said.
At these words, the whole Zhao family boiled over.
"That pirate fleet's been annihilated?"
"I heard that band of pirates had a full 35 ships, five of them T2-tier. And a mere two ships wiped them out?"
"How is that possible…"
Most of them didn't believe Zhao Wan'er's words.
In truth, had she not lived through it herself, and merely heard such a thing, Zhao Wan'er wouldn't have been willing to believe it either.
"There's no time to explain now. My brother is directing the T2 Blizzard Zero out beyond Owl Dragon Prime, clearing out the ships that followed the Bao and Cui families. He had me direct the T2 Queen Bee down first to take control of Owl Dragon Prime. Second Grandma, set your mind at ease — it's all within our grasp." Zhao Wan'er looked respectfully at the old madam before her.
This old madam was, in standing, in fact higher than Zhao Chen the lord himself.
For she was the younger sister of Zhao Chen's grandfather.
But for reasons of her own she had never married, had lived on all these years, and was still hale of body.
"Chen'er is back as well? And directing a ship in battle?" The old madam was astonished.
The eyes of the surrounding Zhao family, too, held a certain disbelief.
For that was, one should know, the good-for-nothing baron the whole Owl Dragon Star System knew — a man with a bit of book-learning and not a shred of real ability besides.
And now he was directing a ship in battle? You had to be joking.
Zhao Wan'er noticed the looks around her, and her expression darkened somewhat.
"Second Grandma, wait just a bit. My brother will be here shortly," Zhao Wan'er said.
That "shortly" turned out to be near half an hour.
And in that time, everyone witnessed a startling sight.
Two more interstellar warships plummeted together from beyond the atmosphere, hulls ablaze, damage marking them in many places — one of them even with a great, plain hole blasted through its hull.
"Those look like the Bao and Cui families' ships! A T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer and a T2 Grey Wolf-class Light Interstellar Cruiser!" Someone recognized the two ships and cried out.
The two ships came down, striking respectively into a desert and a range of mountains; the crash-explosions threw up great shockwaves, but did the Zhao residence no harm.
And just as the Zhao family were still marveling at this—
—a shuttle descended, no one quite knew when, upon the Zhao residence.
This one was larger than Zhao Wan'er's.
The hatch opened.
A squad of female soldiers in combat dress came out, and behind them came a man the Zhao family present could not have known better.
The Owl Dragon Star System's baron, Zhao Chen.
The female soldiers, laser rifles in hand, escorted Zhao Chen the whole way through the crowd of the Zhao family; the eyes of those female soldiers were sharp, edged with killing intent, and the Zhao family instinctively gave way, opening a path.
Zhao Chen paid the rest of the Zhao family no mind. He walked straight up before the old madam, went down on one knee, and clasped his fists. "This unworthy descendant Zhao Chen has come too late; forgive me for the fright I've given you, Second Grandma."