"Please set your mind at ease, my lord Comman— Commander-in-Chief! Annie will surely complete these build plans! Annie will absolutely not let the Commander-in-Chief down!" Annie declared with iron conviction.
That firm, unwavering look on her face — one who didn't know better would have taken her for some self-sacrificing model employee.
Zhao Chen thought within: if Annie were sent to learn face-changing opera, that talent of hers would be top-notch, no question.
Annie soon went to making eyes at Zhao Chen again, and, grinning, pointed at that holographic projection of the Creator-class Starship.
Zhao Chen had already introduced this starship's super black-tech to them in detail just now.
And he'd promised Annie besides that, should she round off the new year's build plans in full, he could then carve off a few planets to serve as territory for the dwarf race to live on.
Though the dwarf race now wanted for neither food nor drink, their living environment was still nothing to be sanguine about — for that was, after all, only a man-made habitable zone upon a single planet.
Not a true habitable planet.
Annie might look happy-go-lucky most of the time, but she knew too that her own father, as chieftain of the dwarf race, had always held it his ideal that the dwarves might come to possess a world where they could live in peace for generations.
And now, Zhao Chen had set that very world down before Annie.
What's more, if the Owl Dragon Legion grew stronger yet, then the dwarf race's living environment would naturally be the more secured.
The dwarf race was, by now, wholly reliant upon the Owl Dragon Legion.
So, though Annie's temper was a touch like a child's, she knew too where her duty lay.
"Remember — in building this Creator-class Starship, you must first complete those build plans laid down at the outset! And complete them to quality and to quota!" Zhao Chen naturally knew what that look in Annie's eyes meant.
Annie nodded heavily: "Please set your mind at ease, Commander-in-Chief; we will hold ourselves strictly to it, and make sure these build plans go through smoothly."
In the chat just now, Lilith had mentioned too that from here on the way to address Zhao Chen was to change from Commander to Commander-in-Chief; so Annie now naturally rode the tide and called Zhao Chen Commander-in-Chief.
"Handing all this to you sets my mind at ease. Draw up as soon as you can a detailed build-process plan that fits our Owl Dragon Legion. You must make certain our Owl Dragon Legion develops across every front — its industrial system, its own combat-type interstellar warships, and its finance and trade alike!" Zhao Chen reminded them.
What Zhao Chen put forward was only the outline.
The detailed content still had to be handled by Annie, Lilith, and the rest.
For instance, which interstellar warships to build in the first month, and what raw materials would be needed.
What interstellar warships to build in the second month…
And how to weigh and arrange the capacity split between the interstellar industrial ships and the combat-type interstellar warships.
These were all vital questions; arranged well, they could greatly shorten the time to complete this build plan!
"I'll work in concert with Chief Engineer Annie and Chief Engineer Nana," Lilith said from the side.
"New Year is nearly upon us; this New Year is the same as years past, and yet not the same. As before, everyone gets 10 days or so of holiday — but the various lines of work cannot halt; arrange the rotation-rest system properly! And, 10 days from now! Have all combat-mobilization preparations ready! Have Chitong, Shen Bing, and the rest draw me up detailed operational plans during this stretch of leave," Zhao Chen said gravely.
Next year's January would be no ordinary one.
That was when Chu Changhe would launch the January Offensive.
As the hand behind it all, Zhao Chen naturally had to have every preparation ready.
For the Owl Dragon Legion's swift development next year, this civil war had to be ended as soon as possible!
And Zhao Chen too would meet his new annual task and quarterly task.
——
Galactic Star-Year 3034, January 1st.
Though the Owl Dragon Legion had arranged its New Year rotation-rest, the great majority of other places in the Starlight Empire were wrapped in a most leaden atmosphere.
The first great event to occur was the North Wind Governor's order for a full requisition of interstellar warships throughout the North Wind Star Region: the fleets of every interstellar-territory lord, save for keeping 10% of their warship count to secure the peace of their own star-system territories—
—all remaining interstellar warships were transferred to the border of the North Wind Star Region and the Azure Star Region!
And hard on its heels came the transfer order Chu Changhe formally issued.
All Chu River Star Region fleets within the North Wind Star Region were, as a matter of urgency, wholly transferred away, bound for the border of the Chu River Star Region and the Starlight Central Star Region!
At the same time Chu Changhe ordered that every lord within the Chu River Star Region, save for keeping 10% of their warship count to garrison their territories, send all remaining interstellar warships to the border, there to await the Chu-family legions' orders!
The whole of the Chu River Star Region and the North Wind Star Region was set in motion.
Owl Dragon System · the Commander-in-Chief's office.
Zhao Chen too received the related word at the first moment — and this, moreover, was sent to him personally by Chu Changhe, with the timing of his every step laid out on it.
And having examined it a while, Zhao Chen replied with but a few words.
"Act per the plan."
Zhao Chen kneaded his temples, then raised both hands and spread out the present data on all the interstellar warships of the three Owl Dragon legions.
Every interstellar warship was now at second-tier combat-readiness, and all kept assured of a full magazine.
Ready to join the battlefield at any moment.
This was a fierce beast at its rest!
But now was not yet the moment for him to move — let the shells fly a while yet.
Zhao Chen closed this column, shut his eyes, and entered the System screen.
It was already a new year, so the quarterly and annual tasks had naturally refreshed.
Zhao Chen looked them over.
First was the quarterly task.
Quarterly Task
Task content: have the Owl Dragon Legion directly annihilate at least one hundred thousand interstellar warships of the Princes' faction and its supporters
Zhao Chen knit his brows slightly; annihilating 100,000 of the Princes' faction's interstellar warships was no hard matter.
But the trouble was, it having to be the Owl Dragon Legion that annihilated them — that made the difficulty a touch great.
Chiefly, Zhao Chen worried whether the Princes' faction could hold out to that moment.
It seemed a supplementary battle plan would have to be drawn up to address this quarterly task.
Annual Task
Task One: the death of Qin Ming
Note: subsequent tasks will trigger after Task One is complete
A staged task?
This was the first time Zhao Chen had met with an annual task of this sort; his previous annual tasks had been either very hard or very sprawling.
Take last year's annual task — a full five sub-tasks, and one Zhao Chen had only completed on the very last day.
This time, of all things, he had to complete the first task before he could take up the second.
The biggest problem was that Zhao Chen had no idea at all just how many sub-tasks this annual task held.
That bred a great deal of uncertainty.
As for the task itself, in truth it posed Zhao Chen no great problem.
The Second Prince, Qin Ming, had long since been on Zhao Chen's death-list.
It was only a question of sooner or later.
"Seems there's no choice but to take it a step at a time."