"Report — within the meteor cluster, several interstellar missile ships and some interstellar warships of unknown type have appeared!" a crew member hurriedly reported this news to the Golden Eagle commander.
The deputy captain looked toward the Golden Eagle commander, and said worriedly: "This looks like an enemy trap — they lured us over here on purpose!"
The Golden Eagle commander sat in the captain's chair, and said with disdain: "A trap? Aren't you gilding these fellows' faces a bit too much? Even if this is their trap — with the interstellar warships of a rebel-army pack like theirs, what could they do to us? Even if I put my own head at the muzzle of their ship-cannons, what could they do to me? Strike me dead, if they've got it in them! No need to fret over this; order the whole fleet to keep pressing the advance, and let the interstellar frigates intercept the enemy's interstellar missiles as best they can. I'd rather like to see just how many interstellar missiles this pack of paupers can have."
As for this Golden Eagle commander's 'curiosity,' Charlotte very soon gave him an answer.
A full 300 T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships.
A single T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship, fully loaded, carried 500 interstellar missiles.
And so this came to a full hundred and fifty thousand interstellar missiles.
A single missile cost 600 star coins.
These 300 T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships here, were they to 'clear out the whole stock' in a fire-sale, would amount to near 100 million star coins' worth of battlefield expenditure.
This was a trump card Zhao Chen had readied for Charlotte.
The 300 T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships, positioned within the meteor cluster, did not fire off all their interstellar missiles in a single go.
Instead they took a staged, blanketing method of attack.
For instance, launching 10,000 interstellar missiles per minute in all, they could keep up a blanketing missile attack for a full 15 minutes.
And by the sailing speed of the enemy fleet, they bombarded without cease, from far to near.
A scene of this sort — though it lacked the grandeur of a saturation strike — worked, in this particular battle, quite well indeed.
In General Charlotte's own words: don't go frightening the little darlings opposite too badly; let's take it slow.
One minute of missile bombardment.
The Golden Eagle commander sensed nothing amiss; he ordered the fleet, as before, to press the advance at full speed.
A missile bombardment lasting three minutes.
Now the 10,000 interstellar warships on the Golden Eagle commander's side began to show combat losses within a small compass.
A missile bombardment lasting eight minutes.
The look on the Golden Eagle commander's face had, from its former arrogance and swagger, gradually darkened.
In a bare eight minutes, the 10,000 interstellar warships on his side had already had upward of 3,000 destroyed, with some interstellar warships damaged to varying degrees besides.
"Report, Commander — the enemy's interstellar-missile attack is simply too ferocious. Our interstellar-warship losses are too great!" the deputy captain reported in agitation.
3,000 interstellar warships lost.
That already exceeded the number of interstellar warships lost in the earlier fighting against the rebel-army fleet.
And this was but a bare eight minutes.
It was as though the enemy's interstellar missiles would never run out.
In this moment, that not-so-large meteor cluster far off seemed for all the world like an abyss full of mysterious menace, giving one a feeling of dread.
"Keep charging! And at the same time, contact the interstellar fleets closing in from the two wings; complete the pincer as fast as you can, drive into the meteor cluster, and encircle and annihilate the enemy fleet!" the Golden Eagle commander ordered, his face black.
Having come this far, he had no other choice.
His interstellar fleet was no great distance from the meteor cluster.
Were he now, on account of his losses, to choose to retreat, then in withdrawing they'd still face the ceaseless bombardment of interstellar missiles.
So he might as well have a gamble of it.
He simply refused to believe the enemy's interstellar missiles were truly without end.
He held firm to the belief that, so long as he could hold out for the mid- and short-range starship battle, his interstellar warships would surely be able to destroy the other side!
Hold on!
Hold fast!
Victory would surely be theirs!
But the reality kept slapping him in the face.
The interstellar-missile bombardment went on for another seven minutes.
This, straight off, left the 10,000 interstellar warships under the Golden Eagle commander's command, in a bare 15 minutes of fighting, more than halved!
Fewer than 5,000 interstellar warships remained.
And of these 5,000 interstellar warships that could charge up to the meteor cluster, the overwhelming majority went into battle 'bearing wounds.'
At this moment, the Golden Eagle commander's eyes had gone bloodshot; these 10,000 interstellar warships were, the overwhelming majority of them, the fleet-legion of his own Golden Eagle Tribe.
His heart bled!
"Drive in for me — I want every last interstellar missile ship destroyed. I want to grind the enemy commander's skull to powder!" the Golden Eagle commander roared, reason already lost to him.
But just at this moment, from the interstellar fleets closing in on both wings came, at the same instant, astonishing news.
"Report — a great number of enemy interstellar warships have appeared on our side. The enemy interstellar warships number at least 10,000, and their combat power is very strong — interstellar warships of a kind we've never seen…"
"Report — an enemy legion fleet has appeared on our side too! Heavens — their combat power… it's hard to believe these are actually T2-grade interstellar warships! Reinforcements! We request reinforcements!"
Over the comm channel came the two fleets' cries for reinforcement.
This left the Golden Eagle commander dumbfounded — just what in the world was happening?
What could leave two fleets, each with 10,000 interstellar warships, as though they'd run into a nightmare?
But this no longer mattered.
For the Golden Eagle commander himself was about to meet the very same nightmare.
Around those hundred T2 interstellar missile ships that had seemed so utterly unprotected, there had welled up, at some unknown moment, a batch of interstellar warships of unidentified model.
Upon their hulls, all bore the dragon-and-tiger crest.
100 ships… 300… 500… 1,000…
The number came to a full 3,000!
The T2 interstellar missile ships, their attack task complete, began slowly to pull back.
The Golden Eagle commander could not, of course, let these chief culprits slip away.
But those 3,000 interstellar warships stood athwart his path for all the world like a wall of bronze and iron.
They let him taste, in his own flesh, that so-called terrifying T2 interstellar warship the two pincer-fleets had spoken of over the comm.
A T2 interstellar frigate with a great black horn charged into their interstellar fleet like a demon, cutting and slaying like a thing gone mad; not a single T2-grade interstellar warship could withstand its attack.
Besides this, there were T2-grade interstellar warships of every model, strong in combat power, each with its clear division of labor — every one of them bringing out a combat power that stood fully level with a T3-grade interstellar warship's.
And those revolutionary-army interstellar fleets that had earlier served as the 'bait' were, at this moment, for all the world like kindergarten children watching the grown-ups fight.
In the very center of this battlefield, 'trembling all over,' they took in this interstellar battle.
The Pig-Head commander's eyes went wide; looking at the several battlefield images before him, for a long while he couldn't get a word out.
The Bull-Head commander's eyes had gone bloodshot with excitement, hot breath issuing from his nostrils, wishing he could rush up and join the slaughter himself.
"Too strong! These interstellar warships of General Charlotte's — they're truly too strong."
The other, the Ram-Head commander, was calmly keeping his attention on the other two battlefields.
Those two Warhammer interstellar fleets charged with the pincer were, for all the world as though they'd run into a 'mudslide,' being swallowed up without cease.