The T3 Dragon-Croc-class Medium Interstellar Battleship · the bridge.
The people upon this interstellar warship's bridge were divided chiefly into two groups: one group the people the Su family had sent, the other the people from the Third Prince Qin Hu's side.
By the original plan, these two groups would work in concert to deliver this T3 Dragon-Croc, smooth and untroubled, to the Imperial Capital Star.
But no one had imagined that the development and turn of all this would, of all things, be so astonishing.
Someone had come to snatch the bride, of all things?
And driving T4 interstellar warships to do it, no less!
And most crucial of all — it wasn't only one!
It was, of all things, three!
When that T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser drew right up beside the T3 Dragon-Croc, the crew upon this T3 Dragon-Croc's bridge were, one and all, tense beyond bearing.
Fight?
But up here, whether the Su family or the Third Prince, neither had handed down any order to give battle.
Not fight?
But the other party had already closed in to this position.
Plainly, they'd come for them.
"Full speed ahead — charge on out! Charge toward the Third Prince's fleet over there!" In the end, the representative the Third Prince had dispatched handed down the order.
The Su family folk, seeing this, didn't think too much about it either; in any case this was an order someone else had given, and they were only there to carry it out.
Should anything truly go wrong when the time came, they could shift the blame entirely as well.
At once, the order was handed down — full speed ahead!
"Report — navigation system malfunction!"
"Report — the energy system is under interference of unknown origin; it's dropping fast!"
"Report — our transmission system has malfunctioned."
"Report — our internal comm system seems to have developed a problem."
The various departments upon the bridge, at this point, suddenly reported up problems of every kind.
This left the Third Prince's representative with a whole face of astonishment; he looked at the Su family's representative.
"What's the meaning of all this on your end? Don't tell me your Su family's interstellar warship was picked up off some roadside stall!"
The Su family's representative wore a face of innocence as well.
"I… I don't know either. This T3 Dragon-Croc was only just procured by our Su family; it rolled off the line this very year, and hasn't even so much as fought a battle. It's impossible… for such problems to appear."
"My two lords — quick, look outside!"
At this point, an adjutant pointed at the image of the outside captured by the deep-space telescope.
There one saw several white interstellar fighters circling round about.
"That's…" the Su family's representative wore a face of puzzlement; these interstellar fighters didn't look like any sort of combat-type fighter either.
"Could these be electronic-jamming interstellar drones? Ones that can interfere with a T3 interstellar battleship… that'd be T3-grade technology at the least…" the Third Prince's representative muttered in astonishment.
"Electronic-jamming interstellar drones?" the Su family's representative muttered the name over.
"This… it's impossible… of this series of interstellar drones, our Starlight Empire has developed only the T2 grade, and T3-grade manned interstellar fighters. Interstellar drones… and, moreover… just now we didn't even detect how they appeared, isn't that so? This is, besides, a T3-grade electronic-jamming stealth interstellar drone!" The Third Prince's representative drew in a gasp of cold air.
This technology… in all likelihood, the Galactic Alliance hadn't openly developed it.
But whether it had or hadn't, in any case this T3 Dragon-Croc's situation now was that it had gone out of control.
"Report — our control system has been hacked. Several of the hatches on the side facing that T4 Vermilion Bird have been opened. It seems… something has invaded our ship's interior." a crew member reported urgently.
The Third Prince's representative gulped; now the comm apparatus was broken too — which meant that even should he wish to contact the Third Prince, it was impossible.
"Activate the emergency procedures — close all hatches!" the Third Prince's representative said in his anxiety.
"Yes!"
Though this interstellar warship had been electronically jammed, a portion of the emergency procedures could still be used.
The hatches between the various compartment-sections began, slowly, to close.
Ka—
Suddenly a sound came; a mechanical arm pressed down against the bridge's great door, on the point of closing.
"The passages inside this interstellar warship of yours are truly cramped. Getting around's a real inconvenience." A voice came forth.
A silver-white T3 combat mecha, hunched down, walked into the bridge.
Ka-zzt, ka-zzt.
The whole bridge seemed to tremble.
Every last person, at this moment, stared dumbstruck at this silver-white combat mecha.
And behind it there appeared, again, a few black combat mecha, smaller in bulk.
"Your mecha are more convenient, after all — you can move about freely in here." Captain Ye Xiaotong looked at the T2 Black Knight-class Light Interstellar Combat Mecha her squad-members piloted.
In here they were just the right fit.
But her own T3 Templar-class Medium Interstellar Combat Mecha was a bit too large in bulk.
Happily, this was a T3 interstellar battleship; had it been some other interstellar warship, in all likelihood she truly couldn't have squeezed in.
Ye Xiaotong maneuvered her mecha slowly to the position of the operation console.
The Su family's representative and the Third Prince's representative both, in their timidity, retreated several steps.
Ye Xiaotong raised her mecha's palm and set it down upon this interstellar warship's comm apparatus; thereafter several lines extended out from it and linked up with it.
"Ahem, ahem, ahem… I am Ye Xiaotong, Commander of the Owl Dragon Legion's Mecha Corps. I declare that this T3 Dragon-Croc is now under our control and occupation. Now, all crew aboard this interstellar warship — use your escape pods to leave this interstellar warship. I repeat, you have but 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, any personnel aboard this interstellar warship who have not evacuated, we shall clear out by hand." Ye Xiaotong's voice carried through to every last department of the whole interstellar warship.
After a brief moment of the crew standing stunned, people began to seek out escape pods of their own accord and leave this interstellar warship.
On the bridge, Ye Xiaotong looked down, from on high, at those two before her whose standing was plainly out of the common run.
"Do you two lords wish to experience my sending you out in person — or will you two ride the escape pods out yourselves?"
Sending them out in person?
The Su family's representative gulped; that was, in all likelihood, a one-way ticket.
Without another word, he dove straight into an escape pod beside him, and after he pressed the emergency-escape button, this escape pod was ejected clean out.
The other, the Third Prince's representative, was silent a short moment, staring at the enormous combat mecha before him.
"To give offense to the Third Prince…"
Before he could get the words out—
an enormous mechanical hand reached straight over, and, to the accompaniment of a blood-curdling scream, flung him into an escape pod.
"My leg's broken…"
Ye Xiaotong looked at that ejected escape pod, and gave a disdainful little laugh.
"The Third Prince indeed. Whatever number of prince you are, none of you is so handsome as our Commander."
And at this very moment, over on the other side, within the domed crystal palace—
"Miss Su Lan, quick, come away with us!" The matron was, at this point, forcibly dragging Su Lan, meaning to pull Su Lan into an escape pod.
But Su Lan struggled, unwilling.
Yet there was nothing to be done — the other attendant-maids round about were too many; and it looked as though she was about to be hauled into the escape pod.
At this moment, the great door of the crystal palace came flying over, and smashed straight into the escape pod before that matron.
A man clad in black exoskeleton single-soldier armor appeared in the doorway.
"Let go — can't you see this beauty doesn't want to go with you!"