The T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser · the bridge.
After the comm cut off, Zhao Chen let go of Su Lan's waist.
"My thanks for playing along. I'd estimate that fellow Qin Hu is beside himself with fury right about now."
Su Lan, her face faintly flushed, rose to her feet.
"Aren't you mixing a bit of private business in with the public performance? I didn't hear you say a moment ago that you wanted Senior Su Lan to sit on your lap — only that she'd feed you fruit." Xue Xiaoxiao stood off to the side, holding a fruit-plate, looking at Zhao Chen and Su Lan teasingly.
"Wasn't it just to make the act a touch more convincing?" Zhao Chen said, putting on a face of gravity.
"You… this truly won't be a problem? This campaign…" Su Lan, unwilling to linger on that topic, changed the subject straight off.
"Qin Hu has, after all, 20,000 interstellar warships."
Since Zhao Chen had brought her back, Su Lan had, though she too stayed within the Owl Dragon Star System, spent the greater part of her time living aboard this T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser.
She had not come to understand too much of the Owl Dragon Legion's present combat strength.
As things stood, she'd only seen the 500 interstellar warships in Zhao Chen's hand.
"Have you forgotten what I said just now? Who told you all that I have only 500 interstellar warships? Lilith, give our audience a report on the star cast of this performance," Zhao Chen said with a bantering laugh.
Lilith raised a hand and opened, straightaway, a roster of the Owl Dragon Legion's active-service interstellar warships.
In an instant, several windows popped open, and beneath these windows there were, besides, a whole series of sub-windows.
"Up to now, the Owl Dragon Legion's active-service combat-type interstellar warships number upward of 3,000. Among them are 10 T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruisers…"
As Lilith said this, Su Lan and Xue Xiaoxiao could both see the interstellar-warship-list window.
| Class | In service |
|---|---|
| T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship | 30 |
| T3 Imperial-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship | 40 |
| T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship | 30 |
| T3 Phantom Assassin-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bomber | 50 |
| T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser | 100 |
| T3 Wind-Eagle-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser | 200 |
| T3 Wolverine-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer | 500 |
| T3 Triceratops-class Interstellar Heavy Assault Frigate | 2,500 |
Xue Xiaoxiao looked at this whole column of interstellar warships, their prefixes all "T3-grade" besides, and her mouth fell open wide in astonishment.
For these were no mere few hundred T3 interstellar warships — these were 3,000 and more T3-grade interstellar warships.
True, this number counted for nothing set against the Starlight Empire's total count of T3 interstellar warships.
But the trouble was, others used their T3s as flagships — a single interstellar fleet being fitted with 30 to 50 T3-grade interstellar warships.
4,000-ship legion fleet, then, would have under 500 at most!
Yet here, in Zhao Chen's hands… it was, uniformly, one and all, T3-grade interstellar warships — this Owl Dragon Legion fleet was composed wholly of T3-grade interstellar warships.
And it was fitted, besides, with a full 10 T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruisers!
So high-quality an interstellar legion — Xue Xiaoxiao had never so much as heard of its like in the Starlight Empire, nor, indeed, in the whole Galactic Alliance.
In all likelihood, only the very few most elite interstellar fleets of the several interstellar empires possessed such an array.
"Apart from these, we have, besides, battlefield auxiliary ship-classes." Lilith pointed at another panel of information-screen.
What it displayed was only T3-grade interstellar warships — not that Zhao Chen had no T4-grade ones, but rather that those two T4-grade classes would not be openly put on display here.
| Class | In service |
|---|---|
| T3 Silver Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Reconnaissance Ship | 50 |
| T3 Virgo-class Heavy Interstellar Supply Ship | 100 |
| T3 Andromeda-class Interstellar Medical Ship | 30 |
"You have, of all things, so many T3 interstellar warships!" Xue Xiaoxiao covered her mouth, looking at Zhao Chen in astonishment.
Even Su Lan, at this moment, was fixing her eyes on the numbers of those interstellar warships, and a long while passed before she came back to herself out of her shock.
Before this she'd known that Zhao Chen's Owl Dragon Legion possessed some strength, but she'd never imagined it so strong.
On the strength of these 3,000 and more combat-type interstellar warships, Zhao Chen's military might was enough to rank among the top five among the whole host of lords.
And this was but an imperial marquis?
Likely there were not a few dukes in the whole Empire who could match Zhao Chen's strength.
"Only a pity — the Third Prince this time brought along only five T4 interstellar warships." At this point Zhao Chen came out with a line that left both Xue Xiaoxiao and Su Lan feeling rather baffled.
What — was he now finding fault that the enemy hadn't brought enough T4 interstellar warships?
One had never yet heard of anyone complaining that the enemy's T4 interstellar warships were too few.
It was chiefly that Xue Xiaoxiao and Su Lan didn't know Zhao Chen bore a "mission." The system required Zhao Chen to destroy 10 T4-grade interstellar warships of the Prince Faction, and at present there were only five before him.
Which meant that Zhao Chen, after this campaign was over, would still need to annihilate five more T4-grade interstellar warships before the end of September.
This was to make Zhao Chen take the offensive of his own accord, and go seeking out prey.
The system was stirring up trouble!
But to return to the matter at hand: for now, it was still the campaign before him that came first.
Zhao Chen raised a hand and opened the interstellar holo-table.
Su Lan and Xue Xiaoxiao could see, clear and plain, the simulated image of the whole interstellar battlefield — could see the position each and every interstellar warship of both sides held within this interstellar battlefield.
And at this very moment, around the Third Prince's fleet, those interstellar fleets the Owl Dragon Legion had kept hidden had welled up, hemming the Third Prince's fleet in the middle!
"Lord Commander, our 30 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships are all readied; Captain Baixue requests leave to conduct a saturation firepower strike!" Charlotte, at his side, sought the order from Zhao Chen.
"Attack permitted." Zhao Chen handed down the order, mild and unruffled.
Charlotte at once relayed this order to the wolf-girl Baixue over the comm network.
"The Commander's order — attack permitted!"
Over on the other end, aboard the T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship No. 1 ship's bridge—
"Understood — you all just watch and see!" The wolf-girl Baixue stood before the captain's chair; she raised both her hands, for all the world like a performing musician.
At this moment, before her there surfaced 30 electronic windows, upon which was set out the detailed information of all 30 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships — including the position each held, the starship's condition, and the interstellar-missile launch and storage situations, and the rest.
And, at the same time, the comm systems besides.
The wolf-girl Baixue pressed the comm button, and her voice was relayed, in the first instant, to the bridge captains of these 30 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships.
"Conveying the Commander's order — conduct a saturation firepower strike upon the designated zone! Let our great behemoths roar!" A feeling of agitation filled the wolf-girl Baixue's eyes, her voice trembling a little.
The missile silos of the 30 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships, and the launch-devices bound up with them, began to work; interstellar missile after interstellar missile went screaming out, trailing tail-flames.
The scene was quite a spectacular one.
The wolf-girl Baixue gazed at that sight, her red lips faintly parted, a light panting in her breath.
"What a beautiful sight it is…"