"Ready yourselves to meet the Owl Dragon Legion's interstellar-missile bombardment!" Marshal Cao Jianye, watching the Owl Dragon Legion's fleet draw nearer and nearer across the way, gave the reminder once more.
As for the Owl Dragon Legion's combat style, they had studied it thoroughly this while.
It was nothing more than seizing the advantage by crushing firepower — near enough no technique to speak of.
In the video window at Cao Jianye's side was the commander of the North-Expedition Second Main-Fleet Group, fighting in concert with him — Marshal Lei Dachuan.
Lei Dachuan said with a cold laugh: "Marshal Cao, no need to be so tense. How many interstellar warships does the Owl Dragon Legion even have — and how many do we have! Over 100,000 interstellar warships laid out right here! Even if we let that fellow Zhao Chen bombard us with interstellar missiles, how long would it take him to sweep across the whole lot? Even if one round of his firepower bombardment could destroy 10,000 of our interstellar warships outright. So what? Let him bombard us two or three rounds more, and our warship numbers still hold the advantage. 120,000 interstellar warships to beat a trifling 3,000. In all my life I've never fought so comfortable a battle." Marshal Lei Dachuan was brimming with confidence, as though he'd already annihilated the whole Owl Dragon Legion here.
Cao Jianye shot a glance at this "colleague" of his, and said blandly: "Best to be a touch careful all the same. Even if we win in the end, the future Majesty's Starlight Empire will still need great numbers of interstellar warships. Outside there are still the Holy Radiance Empire and the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth eyeing us like tigers; the fewer interstellar warships we can lose, the more it counts as a contribution to the future Majesty."
Hearing this, Lei Dachuan said no more; but that expression of his was enough to show he thought nothing at all of the Owl Dragon Legion across the way.
"Report — our fleet will enter firepower range in three minutes."
"Report — our interstellar escort-ships are ready for interception!"
At the very front positions of the two fleet-groups was a great mass of interstellar escort-ships.
By rights one shouldn't arrange so many interstellar escort-ships at a fleet's vanguard, but there was nothing to be done: the Owl Dragon Legion they faced had interstellar missiles for its stock-in-trade.
So great numbers of interstellar escort-ships were naturally needed to intercept them.
"Ready for battle!" Marshal Cao Jianye commanded.
3,000 interstellar warships — victory was in hand, yet care was still needed.
For the foe was, after all, the legend-steeped Owl Dragon Legion.
But so long as their fleet numbers held the advantage… then…
"Warning! Warning! Warning! Unstable reactions detected in the surrounding space!"
A sudden alarm rang out once more.
Cao Jianye and Lei Dachuan changed color.
"It closely resembles the earlier unstable spatial fluctuation!" a crewman reported.
Again?
Cao Jianye at the first moment took this to be the follow-on reinforcement warships the Owl Dragon Legion had coming; by their projections, the Owl Dragon Legion ought by rights to have at least 5,000 interstellar warships.
Yet the Owl Dragon Legion across the way now had a trifling 3,000 — near half short of that.
Could they have kept a hand in reserve?
"Fleet, advance at even speed, don't panic! Whatever situation appears in a moment, carry it out per our original plan!" Cao Jianye relayed the command to the commanders of his various fleets.
At this moment, the Owl Dragon Legion and the two fleet-groups had already entered regular firepower range; but because the two fleet-groups' vanguard was made up of interstellar escort-ships, of short range, the main-force warships behind them could not yet launch attacks.
Strangely, though, the Owl Dragon Legion side had likewise not been the first to attack.
The atmosphere turned uncommonly odd.
The spatial-fluctuation warning had gone on sounding for half a minute already.
And then eight golden lights flashed past, and an astonishing scene appeared before the two newly appointed marshals!
Tens of thousands of meteor-streaks flashed and vanished, and where the meteors vanished, engine light-rings appeared one after another.
A sheet… a sheet… a sheet…
A count monstrously vast!
And all of them positioned in the star-sky behind the Owl Dragon Legion.
Because of the considerable distance, all Cao Jianye could see were those rice-grain-sized rings of light — small, yes, but there was no help for the sheer number of them.
Dense past counting, sheet upon sheet of them.
As though they'd formed the Owl Dragon Legion's golden backdrop.
"What… on earth is that?" Cao Jianye could not help rising to his feet.
Interstellar warships?
No!
Impossible!
How could the Owl Dragon Legion possibly have so many interstellar warships.
"Quick! Use every scouting means there is — tell me just what that is back there!" Cao Jianye bellowed, half-hysterical.
His subordinates set to at once.
Then came scouting of every kind.
Interstellar scout-ships, interstellar scout-craft, deep-space telescopes, and the rest.
All to probe just what these "points of light" were!
Soon, image after image came through.
They were the rough outlines of interstellar warships, one after another.
One captured frame showed, moreover, sheet upon sheet of finished interstellar warships, giving one the feeling of black clouds bearing down on the walls.
It left one unable to draw breath.
And most crucial of all!
These interstellar warships bore, of all things, not the Owl Dragon Legion's fleet crest.
And this crest — familiar to them, yet one they dared not believe.
That was the Princess Legion's fleet crest!
"It's the Princess… the Princess Legion?" Marshal Lei Dachuan felt it beyond all reason.
Never mind that the Princess Legion had suffered gruesome losses in its earlier flight.
Just speak of this vast multitude of interstellar warships before them — how could that possibly be the Princess Legion.
No!
This was impossible!
At this very moment, in these two marshals' hearts, there were far too many things they were unwilling to believe.
Or perhaps… it was that they dared not believe.
"Re… re… report…" the crewman in charge of the radar system, his face ashen now and beads of sweat on his brow, stammered in his nerves, unable for a moment to get the words out clearly.
Cao Jianye stepped up and gave him a slap: "Report your head off! Can't even get one clean sentence out — I see this post of yours is about to be—"
Before Cao Jianye could finish, he was left dumbfounded by the cursors thick as ants on the starship radar.
Beside them was a column of numbers climbing without cease.
That was the count of newly appeared interstellar warships their fleet system had detected.
Scan after radar scan, it was fixing on the most accurate figure.
64,234
81,134
119,995
……
In the end, this number froze at six digits, its leading two digits frozen too, at "12."
"A… a… 120,000 interstellar warships." Cao Jianye's body could not help giving a shudder, his eyes filled with disbelief.
……
At the same time.
The missile-launch apparatus of the 50 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships activated.
And as a video window popped up before Zhao Chen, two familiar faces appeared before his eyes.
"His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief — the Imperial Princess Fleet-Group is in position to the last ship!"
At the same instant, that excited voice rang out from another window.
"Interstellar missiles — launch!"