Learning the intelligence that the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth was about to use force against the Starlight Empire, Zhao Chen at once ordered his flagship to set course for the Lion King Star System.
To use force directly against the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth — with the Owl Dragon Legion's present strength, it hadn't, for the moment, such a capability.
But Zhao Chen had long since laid a card in reserve.
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair, settling his mood.
He still had a great many matters to see to now.
First was the technical reserve needed to build up those ownerless resource systems.
And of these, the most important was star-gate technology!
Though Zhao Chen had the T3 Radiant-Moon-class star gate in hand, this gate wasn't suited to a situation of this kind.
The T3 Radiant-Moon-class star gate was costly to build, of modest throughput, and long in construction time; its one advantage was that it could transport across long distances.
It belonged to the sort of gate deployed on main trunk-lines.
What Zhao Chen needed now was a gate of a branch-line character — short-range, high-efficiency, low-cost gate technology.
In this way, he could establish a star-gate network system held in the Owl Dragon Legion's grip.
Whether for the present needs of resource-mining, or for long-term development in the future, the benefits would be immense.
Zhao Chen closed his eyes and opened his system page.
Host: Zhao Chen
Occupation: Top-tier Starship Engineer
Special attributes: Fleet Luck-Value bonus; Eye of Insight
System points: 650,000 (monthly fleet earnings: 31,000 points)
Task points: 430
Interstellar warships: 5,327
Mission: Annual Mission (incomplete)
Warehouse: T5 Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought; Hades Matrix module; T4 Paladin-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Frigate; T3 Storm-Fortress-class Large Star-Port technical blueprint; T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser technical blueprint…
These system points ought to be enough.
Zhao Chen went straight for the T4-series star-gate technology.
What he chose this time was not the finest gate, but the branch-line gate of the highest value for money.
Though it belonged to the T4 grade, in build cost it came in even below the T3-grade Radiant-Moon-class gate.
Very soon, Zhao Chen found a suitable gate technology.
T4 Voyager-class Medium Star Gate
This gate answered Zhao Chen's present needs perfectly.
First, in build cost — it required a mere 1 billion star coins!
Cheaper by half than even the T3-grade Radiant-Moon-class gate.
And its maximum single-day transit capacity was several dozen times the Radiant-Moon-class gate's; its construction time, too, was exceedingly short — built by a T3 Furnace-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship, one could be completed in a single month!
Expend 600,000 system points and 50 task points to redeem the item 'T4 Voyager-class Medium Star Gate'?
Confirm!
Congratulations, you've obtained the 'T4 Voyager-class Medium Star Gate' technical blueprint
Before — System points: 650,000
Before — task points: 430
Spent — System points: 600,000
Spent — task points: 50
After — System points: 50,000
After — task points: 380
Zhao Chen opened his eyes, raised a hand, and summoned up several technical-encoding windows, editing into them the technical data of this T4 Voyager-class Medium Star Gate.
Several hours later, Zhao Chen finished his work.
He pointed at this technical folder and looked toward Secretary Lilith at his side: "This document — transmit it directly to Nana in a while. Tell her it's the star-gate technology she needs."
Lilith looked at the Commander in some surprise.
So important a technology, and the Commander had it settled this fast?
But then, calling to mind their Commander's past deeds, this seemed hardly anything at all.
"Have we reached the Lion King Star System yet? And where's Chief Ted?" Zhao Chen asked.
"We've arrived; Chief Ted is boarding now. By your instruction, Chief Ted will meet with you and General Charlotte in the conference room," Lilith answered.
"Mm." Zhao Chen rose and made for the conference room.
Zhao Chen walked into the conference room; Charlotte was the first to stand, and Chief Ted at once rose too, looking at Zhao Chen with reverence.
Over this stretch of time spent in the Lion King Star System, Chief Ted had truly come to see the terrifying strength of this Owl Dragon Commander, and held him all the more in awe.
"Sit." Zhao Chen signaled everyone to sit.
"First, let me thank Chief Ted's intelligence personnel for the vital information they've furnished us." Zhao Chen looked toward Chief Ted.
Chief Ted said: "That's thanks in turn to those few T3 interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships you left within the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth. Without them to serve as go-betweens, over so vast a distance, the intelligence could never have been transmitted through so smoothly."
Earlier, when Zhao Chen had rescued the White Tiger clan and pulled them back, he'd not brought home all of the T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Reconnaissance Ships, but had left a few over there to carry out reconnaissance tasks.
And Chief Ted, too, had all along relied on these T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Reconnaissance Ships to pass word to the revolutionary army as a go-between.
"Since Warhammer has already made a move, then we too must make some arrangements. Chief Ted — how has your troop-drilling gone over this stretch of time?" Zhao Chen looked toward Chief Ted.
Chief Ted said with full confidence: "No problem whatsoever. Even were a legion fleet of one of the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's great tribes set before me right now, I'd dare give them a run for it!"
Chief Ted went on to lay out some of the detailed particulars.
"Good, then. Make your preparations. Within three days, I'll arrange for the T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships to send you back to Warhammer. Besides that, I've readied for you strategic materials to the value of 30 billion star coins — enough, it should be, for a stretch of your combat expenditure. And this time, Charlotte goes with you; Charlotte will serve as the supreme commander of your legion fleet. Her word is my word. Over there, she can represent me in full!" Zhao Chen looked toward Chief Ted: "Please pass these words of mine, when the time comes, to the other tribal leaders of your revolutionary army."
Within the revolutionary army it wasn't the White Tiger clan alone; there were other tribes besides, and the leaders of standing came to near 10 in number.
Were Chief Ted alone left to take charge of these, Zhao Chen truly feared he wouldn't be able to hold the room.
And so a man of the Owl Dragon Legion had, without fail, to go and represent Zhao Chen.
The fittest for that was, naturally, Charlotte.
Though to send off this right-hand arm of his brought a certain reluctance, it was for the sake of the larger scheme.
In the short term, there was no great battle for Zhao Chen's side to fight; and besides, even with Charlotte gone, Zhao Chen's side had no lack of generals able to command a battle.
"Commander…" Charlotte looked at the Lord Commander with some hesitation.
To speak truly, she was most unwilling to leave the Commander; but on the other side were her own people and her father.
It made for a very hard choice indeed.
"Then I'll go back and make ready first." Chief Ted, taking the hint, found himself a pretext and left the conference room.
In the conference room there remained only Zhao Chen and Charlotte.
Charlotte let her tail droop — plainly a touch unhappy.
Zhao Chen stepped forward, and stroked Charlotte's head, smoothing down that white fur: "Go, and set your heart at ease; you needn't fret over my side. Besides, I'm arranging three T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruisers to accompany you; pick one of them for your flagship. Remember — over there, whatever happens, you must put the safety of your own life first. Even if the plan on Warhammer's side fails, I don't care in the least. What I must have is you, back whole and unharmed. Should some mishap befall you, then not even 10 Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealths would be enough to make it good…"
Zhao Chen's tone was firm.
Suddenly, Charlotte took a step forward, and rose onto the tips of her toes.
And bit down, in one bite, on Zhao Chen's mouth.
Zhao Chen's eyes went wide.
Oh no… it's bleeding.