Zhao Chen looked at this queen she'd once been, before him.
That's right — the queen she'd once been.
"I can grant your request. But the proper procedures can't be skipped; I'll arrange for you to study aboard a T3 Goddess Academy-class Starship, and once you've passed all the assessments you may join the Owl Dragon Legion. As for whether you can accomplish your revenge — that will depend on your own ability. And you must be clear on this: the moment you set foot aboard an Owl Dragon Legion interstellar warship, your identity is no longer any Snake-folk queen, but an interstellar warrior of the Owl Dragon Legion."
Medusa stood up straight, and made a military salute to Zhao Chen: "Thank you for granting it."
With that, Zhao Chen had a crew member see to the arrangements for Medusa's study aboard a T3 Goddess Academy-class Starship.
Zhao Chen watched Medusa's retreating figure leave the bridge.
The Holy Radiance Empire would never imagine that this man was about to shape, for them, a nightmare!
To utterly shatter their faith.
"You have no misgivings about her being the Snake-folk queen? Though she may step down as queen, there are certain facts that can't be changed," Lilith said from the side.
Zhao Chen said mildly: "Our Owl Dragon Legion grows more and more vast; in the future, on our own strength alone, we certainly can't keep a system this large running. We must, within this system, build up a pyramid structure — we ourselves the one and only apex of that pyramid. We need a batch of people, or powers, with real strength and whom we can at the same time trust, to help us govern this pyramid. The White Tiger clan, the dwarf race, and even the Xu family of the Morton Star System — all are choices we can cultivate for the future. I know the bonds between Medusa and the Snake-folk can't be severed by the mere matter of a queen's title. But this is precisely the result I want; in this way, the ties between the Snake-folk and our Owl Dragon Legion can grow all the closer."
Lilith nodded; she understood the thought in the Commander's heart.
"Besides, we truly are short of top-tier talent of this sort just now. The fleet is expanding too fast; base manpower, for the moment, we needn't worry over. But high-level command talent is beginning to run into shortage," Zhao Chen said.
Because the Owl Dragon Legion's recruitment requirements were rather stringent — and, on top of that, on account of taking only women — suitable senior commanders were in very short supply.
This, in the future, was a problem the Owl Dragon Legion would need to solve.
"Lilith, scatter out our T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Reconnaissance Ships. Besides the Starlight Empire and the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth, we must now keep an eye on the Holy Radiance Empire's side too."
"Very well," Lilith answered.
"As for the matter of our Owl Dragon Legion 'taking over' those ownerless star systems — how are the arrangements coming?" Zhao Chen asked after this most important matter of the moment.
"The deployment and arrangements have already begun. Because some of the systems are rather far off, and have no star gates, it's projected that the 'takeover' of all the ownerless star systems will be completed within half a month at the latest," Lilith answered.
"This stretch of time, I reckon, we'll all have our hands full." Zhao Chen rubbed at his temples.
The Starlight Empire's civil war; the hidden piece within the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth; and the garrisoning of those ownerless star systems.
A vast game of chess had already begun to unfold, slowly, before Zhao Chen's Owl Dragon Legion.
…
Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth
The legion fleets of the three tribes were slowly pressing their battle-line forward, destroying, bit by bit, the interstellar warships of the rebel army that held stubbornly opposite.
An eagle-headed, human-bodied beast-folk commander watched the scene of the battlefield before him with a light laugh: "Rebel army, they call it — a pack of rotten fish and rotten shrimp. For the likes of these, never mind our sending out near 50,000 interstellar warships. Let me handle it alone, and there'd be no problem at all."
"Don't be careless. The business of the Black Wolf Tribe's home star being bombarded, its military star-port destroyed — have you forgotten it?" a Giant Ape beast-folk in a video window beside him reminded.
"That's a blunder only the foolish Black Wolf Tribe would make. Come to that, their strength doesn't remotely rise to the level of a great tribe. Were it not that they put in a great deal of effort in the toppling of the White Tiger tribe's regime, they'd never have become one of the twenty great tribes," the Golden Eagle commander said with a sneer.
"All right, whatever the case. Once we've carried out this combat task, we may yet be in time to catch up with the main fleet-group for this expedition against the Starlight Empire. The reason the Beast Emperor ordered us to clear out these rebel-army remnants was precisely to keep the Black Wolf Tribe's business from happening again; no one wants his own backyard to catch fire while he's off on a distant campaign, does he?" the Pig King commander said mildly.
These three were, precisely, the supreme commanders sent by the three tribes charged with this task of clearing out the rebel army, each in command of his own tribe's fleet.
For within the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth, in a joint operation of this sort, one might cooperate — but to have one's own legion fleet obey another commander's dispatch wholesale was impossible.
Usually it was the appointed supreme commander who gave the orders, and then the commanders each tribe appointed below him who had their own tribal fleets carry out the combat tasks.
"Ah… ah… my lords — these rebel-army tribal fleets will very soon be wiped out by us. That matter you lords promised me before…" In a plainly smaller video window off to the side, a Horned-Wolf beast-folk — a wolf-face with a single horn upon its brow — said with an ingratiating smile.
"Rest easy. Since you've sold out your allies, we'll give you what you want," the Pig King commander said, looking with contempt at this betrayer of the rebel army.
The Golden Eagle commander eyed this Horned-Wolf beast-folk mockingly: "If not for the intelligence the Horned Wolf chief furnished, we might not so easily have taken these rebels down."
The Horned-Wolf beast-folk looked somewhat awkward, and could only give a dry laugh where he stood.
"A pity that only half the rebel army's strength is here this time; three more rebel-army legion fleets have left," the Pig King commander said, somewhat displeased.
"Don't fret. Trash of this sort — clearing it out is simply too easy," the Golden Eagle commander said with disdain.
"Report! To the rear of our interstellar fleet, at coordinates [redacted x,y], we've discovered an interstellar legion fleet numbering 5,000 ships. They're holding position, seemingly observing the situation on our side. This is imagery filmed by our dispatched reconnaissance drones. These interstellar warships are suspected to be those of some of the rebel-army tribes not present here!" a crew member suddenly reported.
This set the three Warhammer commanders' eyes alight; they at once began verifying the reliability of this intelligence, and had that Horned-Wolf beast-folk help them make out whether these were the interstellar warships of their former 'comrades.'
"That's right! Yes — these are our revolutionary… rebel-army interstellar warships. This one is that Bull-Head commander's flagship… this one is…" the Horned-Wolf commander said in excitement.
Now that he was already a traitor, these people were his own ledger of merits; naturally he hoped he could destroy the more.
"It seems they've come back just in time, scouting out our situation here. Since they've come, then this time we bag them all in one net! Pass my order — split off 30,000 interstellar warships, divided into three fleets: one to drive straight in from the front. The other two to close in as pincers from both flanks! Without fail, wholly annihilate these rebel-army interstellar fleets!" the Pig King commander gave the order; he was the supreme commander of this joint operation.
The other two had to heed his commands.
Neither the Golden Eagle commander nor the Giant Ape commander had any objection; they at once began directing this two-pincer combat task.
In their eyes, this was no more than a simple combat task.
Near enough to an ordinary drill!