Blue-Crystal Star-Port.
"Report — our combat resources are at 30% remaining; the interstellar warships' loss-rate is over 50%, and only 10,000 interstellar warships are in good combat condition; the rest are all somewhat damaged."
"The Owl Dragon Legion is still locked in fierce battle with the hive-race fleet. By what we've observed so far— —the count of Owl Dragon Legion interstellar warships lost has already passed 300! The count of Hive Motherships wiped out is around 30,000, including one T4 Hive Mothership. At present the Hive Motherships remaining number 60,000-odd! As yet, no T4-grade Owl Dragon Legion interstellar warship has fallen." a subordinate reported the various combat conditions to Commander Zhao Ruyue.
Zhao Ruyue stared at the situation on the interstellar holo-table.
The Owl Dragon Legion's fighting had gone on for over five hours.
The Owl Dragon Legion's defensive formation had shifted from single-direction defense to a four-sided defense state.
Because the vast hive-race fleet had already formed an encircling structure around the Owl Dragon Legion's defensive formation.
But, if one had observed the past several hours' fighting closely, one would find the Owl Dragon Legion had all along been in a fighting-while-moving state.
The interstellar-warship formation, at an average cruise speed of 100 star-knots, circled the Blue-Crystal Star-Port in a wheeling battle, and had by now covered near half a lap.
This combat style — Zhao Ruyue soon grasped the sense of it.
Chiefly for several reasons.
First: it could avoid the too-numerous Hive Motherships and hive-race corpses and interstellar-warship wreckage on the battlefield forming cover that would threaten the Owl Dragon Legion's firepower; a moving battle could naturally avoid this.
Second: in the course of moving, an interstellar warship on the outer rim, its hull in poor condition, could withdraw into the formation, and a friendly ship could take over its combat post.
Third: naturally, to keep the hive-race fleet from forming an unbreakable ring of encirclement.
Though the Owl Dragon Legion looked encircled at present, in truth the strength of that ring was uneven; most of the Hive Mothership fleet was in one direction, while the hive-race fleet on the other side was thin in number.
And the reason for this was likewise the Owl Dragon Legion's ceaseless moving.
"But if the fighting goes on like this, once combat resources are consumed to a certain degree, however mighty the Owl Dragon Legion, it too will suffer major losses. There's simply too much bug-swarm…" Zhao Ruyue said in worry.
100,000 Hive Motherships — an exceedingly vast figure.
Though for now it couldn't wipe out the Owl Dragon Legion, as the Owl Dragon Legion's warship firepower kept weakening, the scales of this battle would naturally tilt.
Besides, Zhao Ruyue had an uneasy feeling.
For she felt the hive-race fleet before her seemed to be deliberately waging this war of attrition — as though waiting for something.
This left Zhao Ruyue on edge.
Time slipped by, bit by bit.
For the Owl Dragon Legion's situation Zhao Ruyue was much worried, but she now had scarcely the leisure to look after herself.
"Warning! Warning! Warning! A powerful energy-fluctuation detected in the distance!" Suddenly, the star-port's radar chief cried out in terror.
Because of the Owl Dragon Legion's appearance, the blockade on the Blue-Crystal Star-Port had weakened greatly, and the star-port radar's detection range had recovered to its normal level too.
This far surpassed the radar equipment interstellar warships carried, and could detect a farther range.
Zhao Ruyue at once brought the image-window before her; at the edge of the radar-scan image before her had appeared a huge point of light, and that point of light was moving at an astonishing speed.
That direction was exactly the Owl Dragon Legion, now in bitter battle with the hive-race fleet!
"This is bad! Notify the Owl Dragon Legion at once!" Zhao Ruyue cried in alarm.
And even as she gave this word, in fact the Owl Dragon Legion side had discovered the anomaly too.
A huge green "comet" shot in from the distance; along its attack-path, some Hive Motherships and hive-race units that hadn't time to evade were even "melted" by this "comet."
This green "comet" was plainly headed straight for the interstellar missile ship position at the center of the Owl Dragon Legion's formation.
The Paladin-class Heavy Interstellar Missile-Escort No.022, defending precisely this zone, at once made an emergency response.
"This is Paladin No.022; I'm Captain Wu Chun'er, executing the emergency defense plan — surrounding ships, cooperate!"
"All interstellar missiles fire — intercept and wear down the incoming enemy attack!"
The Owl Dragon First Legion's 30 in-service T4 Paladin-class Heavy Interstellar Missile-Escorts now opened their Paladin star-shield matrix modules, a huge light-curtain shrouding the surroundings of the Owl Dragon First Legion.
Ordinarily this defense mode wouldn't be used against the hive-race, because it was poor value for the cost.
But now, with the sudden situation, it was exactly what was needed.
Besides this Paladin No.022, every interstellar escort-ship around that could spare itself was now finding every means to assist the defense.
Interstellar missile after interstellar missile, and the close-defense guns' fire, all struck that incoming green "comet."
These interstellar missiles' explosions could, to a degree, lower the intensity of the enemy's attack.
Boom!
Wu Chun'er felt the tremor of the hull beneath her; though the attack was still some distance from the interstellar warship, and had only struck the star-shield, the huge impact-force still reached the Paladin No.022 where she was.
"Warning! The enemy attack has extreme penetration; our star-shield matrix may be unable to intercept it — it's about to be pierced through!" the crewman monitoring the star-shield matrix reported in tension.
Wu Chun'er looked at the star-shield matrix's simulation data-graphic; she could see, on that circular dome of sky, a small red dot had appeared, the star-shield energy there most unstable.
Precisely the spot where the green "comet" struck.
"In 60 seconds, the star-shield energy in this zone will be pierced, and the enemy attack will strike our ship! But there's still time to evade now!" the crewman said.
Wu Chun'er was silent a moment, then handed down a command: "Turn the hull — face it toward the incoming attack!"
What?
Hearing this command, no few crew on the bridge were dumbfounded — frozen utterly still with disbelief.
This meant they were to take this attack head-on, of their own accord.
"Relay my command — start the abandon-ship procedure! All crew in non-essential posts, use the escape pods and abandon ship at once!" Wu Chun'er said.
"Captain…" a crewman froze.
An old crewman beside her held her back, pointing at the green "comet's" attack-path on the interstellar holo-table.
"If we evade— —this attack will pass over us and strike straight at the interstellar missile ships behind! So the captain means to use our ship to take the attack head-on!" the old crewman said.
The crewman understood what this meant; her eyes rimmed red, she looked at the old crewman.
For the old crewman was in an essential post — one of those crew who must remain aboard the interstellar warship to the very last moment.
"Quick, to the escape pod — any later and there'll be no time." the old crewman urged.
The crewman forced down her grief, gave a military salute to the backs of the old crewman and Wu Chun'er, then entered the escape pod.
"This is the duty of us interstellar escort-ships." Wu Chun'er held her head high and her chest out, staring at the green "comet" swelling larger and larger beyond the distant viewport.
……
"Report — the Paladin No.022 is destroyed; the captain has fallen, 20% of the ship's crew perished, the rest abandoned ship and escaped in time; the interstellar medical ships are in the midst of the rescue," Lilith reported.
Zhao Chen said nothing; he stared at one window — that of the farthest T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth-Recon Ship, which had captured an image of the attacker.
That was a huge, terrifying creature!
Even a T4 Blue-Eyes White Dragon-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Battleship, set before it, seemed exceedingly tiny.
That was a behemoth out of the abyss.
A T5…
Hive Mothership!