"Report — on the first battlefield the count of enemy ships destroyed has already passed 6,000 and more; 4,000-odd remain, of which 50-odd are T3-grade interstellar warships. A T3 Blizzard squad has already been dispatched to annihilate them!"
"Report — latest from the second battlefield: 2,000-odd enemy ships annihilated, and we've threaded through and cut the enemy fleet apart."
"Report — on the third battlefield all goes smoothly; the interstellar air-supremacy over the enemy fleet is already in our hands. By the original combat plan, we can wholly annihilate the enemy fleet-group within two hours!"
News from every battlefield gathered here to Charlotte.
Charlotte, her gaze like a torch, stared at the vast interstellar holo-table before her, upon which were the three battlefields in the three directions of the meteor cluster.
To wipe out, in the most effective way, the Warhammer interstellar legion fleet besieging the revolutionary-army base, Charlotte had deliberately set the interstellar fleets of those three revolutionary-army commanders as bait, and chosen this region of the meteor cluster.
Because of the limitations of starship radar, the meteor cluster could, to a degree, screen and conceal the Dragon-Tiger Legion interstellar warships hidden within it.
Charlotte had deployed 300 T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships hidden inside, to pour out firepower once the enemy fleet drew near.
Besides these, there were 3,000 more Dragon-Tiger Legion interstellar warships concealed within — to protect the missile-ship fleet once the missile bombardment was done, and at the same time to carry out the final annihilation of the enemy fleet.
Though in numbers the two sides' interstellar warships were, at that moment, evenly matched, the instant they truly collided, the 3,000 interstellar warships Charlotte had deployed here — for all the world like heaven's own soldiers come down to earth — crushed the Warhammer interstellar warships opposite utterly beneath them.
Besides this portion of the Dragon-Tiger Legion hidden within the meteor cluster, Charlotte had also long foreseen that the enemy commander would ring the meteor cluster about and try to wipe out the 'rebel-army fleet' within it.
And so, in fact, behind the meteor cluster, Charlotte had deployed two more forces of 10,000 Dragon-Tiger Legion interstellar warships each.
The moment the two-wing pincer Warhammer fleets reached their ambush positions, these interstellar warships — undetected by the enemy fleet's starship radar — would swarm out from the meteor cluster at the rear, and, relying on a combat power far surpassing interstellar warships of the same grade, carry out the tasks of assaulting, splitting, and encircling the enemy ships.
With the two sides' ship-counts equal, this combat task proceeded exceedingly smoothly.
Everything was within Charlotte's grasp.
"Sister — your command is simply flawless. In a bare half-hour and less, near 10,000 enemy ships annihilated! And on our own side we've lost fewer than 300 T2 interstellar warships, and not a single one of the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruisers!" Beside her, Midai'er looked at her sister Charlotte in adoration.
This time Charlotte had been sent to command the Dragon-Tiger Legion, and Midai'er served as her deputy, assisting her.
Charlotte said mildly: "The chief reason for this is still these Owl Dragon-series interstellar warships the Lord Commander arranged for us. Were it not that these interstellar warships far surpass same-grade ships in performance, we could never have gained the battlefield advantage so easily."
Midai'er nodded hard, and looked at the operating panel beside her displaying the interstellar-warship data — upon it the name and present condition of each class of ship.
T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser, three ships.
These the Lord Commander had specially arranged for Sister Charlotte.
As for the rest, the sole T3-grade interstellar warship the Dragon-Tiger Legion carried was the T3 Blizzard.
Why?
Two reasons, chiefly: first, the T3 Blizzard was of exceedingly high value for money; second, the T3 Blizzard was a ship-class of strong all-round combat capability, able to take part in most types of interstellar battle.
It could strike, could take a blow, could give chase, could encircle!
The rest were all T2-grade interstellar warships.
| Class | Count |
|---|---|
| T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser | 3 |
| T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser | 300 |
| T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship | 100 |
| T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship | 300 |
| T2 Snow-Mastiff-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship | 1,000 |
| T2 Black Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy Assault Frigate | 20,000 |
| T2 Bull-Demon-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer | 5,000 |
| T2 Wind-Whisperer-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser | 2,000 |
| T2 Hippogriff-Knight-class Medium Interstellar Battlecruiser | 1,500 |
One could see that a fleet establishment of this sort was, in fact, somewhat un-'regulation.' But this was the procurement plan settled on, after discussion between Charlotte and Zhao Chen and the others, by the actual conditions on the ground within the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth.
The four combat ship-classes — the T2 Queen Bee, the T2 Snow-Mastiff, the T2 Black Rhino, the T2 Lion King — were, one and all, interstellar warships the Owl Dragon Legion itself used in its own fighting.
They'd already formed an effective, battle-proven system; Charlotte could simply lift it over and put it to use.
And so, in the numbers of these four ship-classes, the weight had been laid.
As for the other three ship-classes — the T2 Bull-Demon, the T2 Wind-Whisperer, and the T2 Hippogriff-Knight — these were wholly for meeting certain special combat occasions, making up for the shortcomings in the combat system of those first four ship-classes.
They amounted to a kind of patch upon the fleet-group.
And these three ship-classes had originally been redeemed by Zhao Chen expressly for the little Princess's 'order'; as it happened, they could now be hauled over to the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth to be used a while.
Though only a 'patch,' the combat power of these three ship-classes far surpassed the same-grade Warhammer-series interstellar warships!
Besides these combat ship-classes, there was a 300-strong logistical-auxiliary interstellar fleet, made up of interstellar supply ships, interstellar transport ships, and T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships.
In this way, they could both carry out wartime resupply tasks and, at need, directly repair some not-too-severely damaged interstellar warships on the spot, cutting down the unnecessary loss of interstellar warships.
To return to the point.
The unexpected turn the battle at the meteor cluster had taken also stirred the other two Warhammer tribal commanders.
"What's going on? What is that eagle doing!" the Pig King commander stared at the loss-figures of each legion fleet, his face overcast.
"The 30,000 interstellar warships you set him to command, and in this little span of time he's lost 10,000 of them! Curse it — the interstellar legion he's commanding still has interstellar warships of our tribe in it!" the Giant Ape commander pounded his own chest in fury.
The two at once ordered their crews to get in touch with that damned Golden Eagle.
The video comm was fully established.
Before the Pig King commander and the Giant Ape commander could get out their reproaches, the Golden Eagle commander went on the attack first, rounding on the Horned Wolf chief: "How much did you hide from us? How is it the rebel army has 30,000 interstellar warships! And a full 300 interstellar missile ships besides. That damned pack of fellows fired off, over my head at the least, interstellar missiles worth several billion star coins!"
30,000 interstellar warships?
300 interstellar missile ships?
Several billion star coins' worth of interstellar missiles?
The Horned Wolf chief wore a look of utter bafflement — the very picture of "I know nothing at all about it."