"My heavens — this lad Zhao Chen, he's really something. Earlier he told me he'd forged a fleet-group for Her Highness the Princess; I took it for 20 or 30,000 ships. And it turns out he's whipped up over 100,000 of them, just like that!" Chu Changhe's side, too, had all along been keeping an eye on the Owl Dragon Legion's doings.
After the interstellar missiles' gorgeous performance came, naturally, that dense-packed Imperial Princess Fleet-Group.
"120,000 interstellar warships… just what stage has the Owl Dragon Legion's industrial system developed to?" Chu Xuan, too, marveled at it.
She found that each time her estimation of Zhao Chen rose a notch, he'd contrive to refresh her view of him all over again.
Suddenly Chu Changhe leaned close to the video window and said, all mystery: "Xuan'er, this lad Zhao Chen looks to have no few bottom-of-the-chest tricks. Built the little princess a whole hundred and twenty thousand interstellar warships. Once you've married over there, mind you don't let him fob you off. He'll have to rustle you up 100, 200,000 interstellar warships at the least — don't you agree! And best of all, have this lad rustle me up a few too; our Chu-family legion's gone a good few years without expanding… heh heh heh…"
Watching the incorrigible old rascal Chu Changhe.
Chu Xuan rolled her eyes: "Are you marrying your granddaughter off, or getting set to sell her? And besides — whose granddaughter is worth a few hundred thousand interstellar warships, exactly."
Were this "rumor" to get out, the matchmakers coming to Zhao Chen's door would likely trample his bridge flat.
Marry off a daughter or a granddaughter, and get a few hundred thousand — no, never mind a few hundred thousand, even a few tens of thousands, a few thousand interstellar warships in exchange.
That would be no loss at all!
Just as Chu Changhe and Chu Xuan were talking.
A video window cut in — across it was exactly the Zhao Chen they'd just been speaking of.
"Governor Chu, is the battlefield pressure heavy on your side?" Zhao Chen asked outright.
Chu Changhe waved a hand and said confidently: "Now, lad, don't you go looking down on my Chu family's fleet. Though I have only 30,000 interstellar warships left, to deal with those two fleet-groups across the way — under 100,000 ships — I have more than enough to spare."
"Next I'm going to do a certain thing; you can…" Zhao Chen said a few words, all mystery.
Chu Changhe's eyes lit up; he looked at Zhao Chen with admiration: "You're something, lad — so you'd had it ready long since. This maneuver — I like it; it suits this old man's taste."
Hearing it from the side, Chu Xuan rolled her eyes.
The pair of them, both wily old foxes.
Still, it had to be said — the trump card Zhao Chen played this time was one neither of them had foreseen.
Who could have thought that newly risen military-industrial group was, of all things, one the Owl Dragon Legion had propped up.
Having settled matters with Chu Changhe.
Zhao Chen looked to the shape of the battle on his own side.
"Commander-in-Chief, under our first round of interstellar-missile bombardment. The enemy lost 15,000 interstellar warships outright, with another 5,000-odd damaged to varying degrees. Among the enemy interstellar warships annihilated were one T4 Boreas and 100-odd T3-grade interstellar warships. The two enemy fleet-groups' combined combat power stands at about 80% remaining. Our next round of interstellar-missile bombardment is expected in 30 minutes. The enemy fleet-groups mean to charge our Owl Dragon Legion straight on and take us outright." Lilith set out the present situation from the side.
"The first gift, His Highness the Prince has already received. Next is to unveil our second grand present," Zhao Chen said with a mocking laugh.
Lilith said, in tacit understanding: "Everything's readied and in order; you can start it whenever you like."
So saying, Lilith called up an electronic interface, and in it was a most conspicuous red panel, with a button on it besides — but that red button was at this moment in a locked state, and could not be opened.
"Lilith, you do it. The key is SB741," Zhao Chen said carelessly.
Lilith was startled a moment — that the Commander-in-Chief would hand so important a matter to her.
"Yes." Lilith carried out Zhao Chen's command.
Once the key was entered, that red button's lock was released.
"Don't rush yet — let the fleet-groups across the way charge in a little closer," Zhao Chen said blandly.
"Yes." Lilith nodded, gazing at those hundred thousand interstellar warships still closing in on the interstellar holo-table.
Zhao Chen's mouth curved up, a musing smile surfacing.
"Lilith, if I remember rightly. Li Yaqi reported to us that the count of T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers sold to the Princes' faction over that earlier stretch was 40,000, correct?"
Lilith said: "40,000 indeed; but in the fighting of this stretch, more than 5,000 were lost. The in-service count is 35,000."
"35,000… there's no telling what sort of face His Highness the Prince will pull next."
Soon, exchanges of fire had begun to appear along the Owl Dragon Legion's forward positions.
The two fleet-groups' offensive was fierce; they'd seen, too, that the Imperial Princess Fleet-Group was trying to loop around and encircle them.
The reason they chose to ignore the encirclement and assault the Owl Dragon Legion's positions straight on was, likewise, an order Qin Ming had handed down.
Numerous though the Imperial Princess Fleet-Group was, the great majority were T2-grade interstellar warships, and it had no interstellar missile ships besides.
The greatest threat was still these 3,000 Owl Dragon Legion interstellar warships before them.
So long as they could wipe out the Owl Dragon Legion's 3,000 warships, however great their own losses, it was no matter.
But those two new marshals had never once imagined that a vast trap had already sprung open.
"Save for the carrier starships and the interstellar missile ships, and a small number of interstellar escort-ships taking on the defensive task. The remaining interstellar warships — carry out the assault task!"
Zhao Chen first handed down the assault order.
To charge 100,000 interstellar warships with 1,000 or 2,000 — in an outsider's eyes this was likely a march to certain death.
But Zhao Chen did not see it so; the wellspring of his confidence was a trap he'd laid down long ago.
"Lilith, activate the 'Loyal-Dog Plan.'" Zhao Chen now handed down the command to Lilith.
"Yes." Lilith pressed that red button.
At this, a fluctuation-signal — unseen, unheard — began to spread outward at breakneck speed.
……
North-Expedition First Main-Fleet Group.
A T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, charging out at the very front, had already begun firing its weapon systems at the Owl Dragon Legion's interstellar warships across the way.
The T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer was not the strongest T2-grade interstellar destroyer, but it was absolutely the most practical, the best value for the cost.
Since its debut, its monthly sales records had kept surpassing those of its forebear, the T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer.
First-line Imperial-military fleets might not fit out too many of them.
But the great numbers of second-line Imperial-military fleets and lord-fleets were very fond of this class.
Yet just such a widely favored interstellar destroyer—
—at this moment, all at once, met with an anomaly.
The lights throughout the whole bridge dimmed.
"What's going on? What's going on?" the captain looked in alarm at the pitch-blackness all around.
Soon the emergency power kicked in, dim yellow light illuminating the whole bridge.
"Report — the power system has suddenly gone dead; all power supply is entirely cut off!" a crewman reported the news in a fluster.
"The power system's collapsed? Impossible!" the captain was dumbfounded.
"Captain — a fair few of the T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers around us seem to have hit much the same trouble!" a careful crewman reminded him just then.
The captain hurriedly checked the situation outside the ship.
Sure enough, several nearby T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers were plainly dropping in speed, and had all halted their attacks together.
Their starship engines had shut down too.
"This… this… what on earth is going on…" the captain wore a look of sheer terror, feeling a chill run down his back.
If… if this weren't a case of one or two ships, but the whole fleet-group… then… this was too terrifying.
He'd caught the scent of a conspiracy…