Interstellar missiles by the hundreds of thousands rained a blanketing firepower strike down upon those remaining thousand interstellar warships of the Third Prince fleet.
These interstellar warships' star shields were, for the most part, near enough gone; they could rely only on their own hull armor to withstand this wave of the attack.
And of them, the priority target of the attack was those several T4-grade interstellar warships.
The anti-air cannon fire of the two T4 Starlight Emperor-class Medium Carrier Starships blazed at full force, trying to intercept every interstellar missile that took aim at them.
"Warning! Warning! Warning! Star-shield energy at 1% remaining; star-shield energy insufficient… about to shut down…"
Upon the bridges of both T4 Starlight Emperor-class Medium Carrier Starships, this same voice rang out at very nearly the same moment.
And as several interstellar missiles exploded upon their star shields, these two carrier starships' star shields dissipated along with them.
And this meant that the remaining interstellar missiles could strike, directly, the hulls of these two carrier starships.
Exploding flame after exploding flame appeared upon the hulls of the two carrier starships.
Look closely, and one would find that the landing-points of these interstellar missiles were nothing carelessly arranged — all of them had undergone detailed calculation and deployment.
First was to destroy the emplacements of those defensive cannons, leaving these two carrier starships without any interception or defensive capability whatever.
And next were a few key positions — the carrier starships' bridges, the ship engines, and the channels and hangars for the interstellar fighters and interstellar drones, and the like.
A few interstellar missiles might, perhaps, have no great effect on so colossal a thing; but now, these interstellar missiles came sweeping in by their numbers, for all the world like a raging storm.
1,000… 10,000… 100,000…
An enormous fireball welled up: that was the one remaining T4 Boreas-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship next to them, its hull armor pierced through by several interstellar missiles, which had struck straight into the magazine — setting off a sympathetic detonation within the interstellar warship.
The whole T4 Boreas-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship had, by now, lost its combat ability, reduced to a target that could not move; from time to time, exploding fireballs and gouts of smoke flared up here and there across its hull.
Following hard upon the T4 Boreas-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship was one of the two carrier starships.
On account of the vast number of interstellar missiles bombarding it, an enormous crater was blasted straight into the middle of the carrier starship's hull — and that, too, was the position where the bridge lay.
Only a pity — this was not Qin Hu's flagship.
Qin Hu, at this moment, was slumped limp in his own captain's chair, wearing a self-mocking, half-crazed expression, savoring the sight — captured by the deep-space telescope — of the missile bombardment outside.
In his hand he still held a wine bottle: the fine vintage he'd originally readied to celebrate the victory of this revenge.
Who could have thought that, of all things, he'd be drinking it in a scene such as this.
At this moment the whole bridge was a scene of utter chaos; the people of a few individual departments even tried to flee by escape pod.
But under so terrifying an interstellar-missile bombardment outside, these escape pods were for all the world like a single leaf upon a sea-surface beneath a raging storm — torn to shreds in the blink of an eye.
"Zhao Chen, Zhao Chen, Zhao Chen…" Qin Hu, his two eyes bloodshot, drank his wine as he muttered this name from his mouth.
In the end, he drew a golden laser pistol from his waist, and leveled it at his own head.
"My brother will surely avenge me! I'll be waiting for you down below!" Qin Hu gave a cold smile, and thereafter squeezed the trigger.
Fresh blood, together with the shattered wine bottle, dripped down onto the floor beside the captain's chair.
Not long after this, the bridge of this T4 Starlight Emperor-class Medium Carrier Starship, too, was struck and exploded — becoming the third of this class of carrier starship to fall since it first rolled off the production line.
The second had likewise been destroyed just now by the Owl Dragon fleet; and as for the first — that was a matter from the time of the First Prince's fleet's ambush, the culprit unknown to this day.
After this round of interstellar-missile bombardment ended, the Third Prince fleet, which had originally had 1,000 ships left, was, at this moment, all but gone.
There remained only some lucky-starred interstellar warships still eking out their last breath.
The T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruisers threaded through among them, and began to destroy the remaining enemy ships one by one.
In this interstellar campaign, in truth, those 10 T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruisers played a very small role.
It was simply that there'd been no use for them at all.
"Reporting, Lord Commander — the enemy's interstellar warships are all destroyed; this campaign is at an end." Charlotte looked toward the commander and reported.
Zhao Chen cast a glance at the time.
Under three hours' time.
20,000 interstellar warships wholly annihilated here.
Including, besides, five T4-grade interstellar warships.
"Sweep the battlefield; there's no small residual value left in the wreckage of these interstellar warships. Above all the wreckage of those few T4-grade interstellar warships — the resources to be had from dismantling and re-smelting them might well be enough to build a few T3-grade interstellar warships." Zhao Chen looked at those T4-grade interstellar warships in the image, still burning, giving off an explosion now and again.
Because a T4-grade interstellar warship's hull was so enormous, even a large-scale wild bombardment by T3 interstellar missiles would, at most, destroy the ecology aboard it, the weapon systems, the energy systems, and so forth.
But the whole interstellar warship's skeletal structure would still be preserved.
Seen from afar, one could still faintly make out the outer structure of these T4-grade interstellar warships.
"Charlotte, tally up the situation of this campaign," Zhao Chen said.
"Yes." Charlotte at once set to the post-battle tallying work.
"And notify those few interstellar-media interstellar warships over there — they've filmed all there is to film; it's time they left." Zhao Chen pointed at the several onlooker interstellar warships positioned at the battlefield's edge on the star-map.
"Yes." Secretary Lilith at once went to see to this matter.
Zhao Chen drew a deep breath, and sat in the captain's chair.
"I never imagined you were this formidable now." Xue Xiaoxiao looked at Zhao Chen, off to the side, with her eyes ablaze.
"You've not yet seen me at the times I'm more formidable still," Zhao Chen said with a light laugh.
This interstellar campaign had, by a long way, not brought the whole of the Owl Dragon Legion's strength into play — not that Zhao Chen was keeping anything hidden.
It was simply that the Third Prince fleet hadn't been up to it.
Take the T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser — it had had no chance whatever to show itself.
And there were, besides, interstellar warships of the T3 Phantom Assassin-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bomber's sort.
"But the ripples of this matter have only just begun." Su Lan looked toward Zhao Chen, and said, a complex light in her eyes.
Zhao Chen had, "before the very faces" of the whole assembly of the Starlight Empire, killed His Highness the Third Prince.
Though this had been the Third Prince's "private" military action, it was, beyond all doubt, a declaration of war upon the Prince Faction — a declaration of war upon what was now half the realm of the Starlight Empire.
Zhao Chen already stood at the very edge of the cliff; apart from facing the storm about to come, he had no other choice.
"What is bound to come will always come," Zhao Chen said with a light laugh.
He looked toward the two friends before him who'd witnessed this interstellar campaign.
"Have you two any plans for what comes next? Things here with me are, just now, in the very thick of a season of troubles."
"I'm your 'hostage' now, aren't I." Su Lan gave a shrug.
Xue Xiaoxiao, for her part, looked toward Zhao Chen with expectation.
"Classmate Zhao Chen — is your fleet still taking recruits!"
"Oh? You want to join my Owl Dragon Legion?" Zhao Chen looked toward Xue Xiaoxiao.
Xue Xiaoxiao nodded heavily, and then pointed at once toward a distant interstellar warship.
"That one! That one! That class of interstellar battleship — so long as you put me aboard that interstellar battleship, you can have me do anything at all!"
Xue Xiaoxiao had, just now, witnessed the scene of this T3 Imperial-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship firing its guns.
That giant cannon!
At a single glance, it had won Xue Xiaoxiao's heart!
It was, quite simply, the cannon of Xue Xiaoxiao's very dreams!