"One portion of premium brisket! One portion of premium beef shank! One portion of premium marbled beef! One portion of premium ox pizzle—"
A small figure was busy at the table where the grilling ingredients were laid out, stuffing portion after portion of food into her own enormous backpack.
And just then, a hand held out a portion of premium ingredients before her.
Annie took it as a matter of course and stuffed it into the pack.
But the next second her whole body went stiff.
For there before her, crouched at her side and wearing a smile, was the Commander-in-Chief.
That smile, to Annie's eyes, had something of a demon's smile in it.
At once, for all the world like a child caught out in some wrong, she shoved the backpack round behind her.
But that backpack stood a full two meters high — taller than Annie herself.
With a body like Annie's, there was no possibility of hiding it.
Seeing the Commander-in-Chief stretch a 'devil's claw' toward her, Annie shut her eyes at once and made ready, in dread, to take her punishment.
But the 'punishment' she'd imagined never came. She felt only a large hand pinching her chubby little cheek.
"Now, I hear that our own Chief Engineer Annie, in the campaign not long ago when the Owl Dragon System met with invasion, held to her post and feared no danger, and ordered every last interstellar industrial ship to see to the production of combat resources without fail. And that anyone quitting their post without leave was to be dismissed, without exception!" Zhao Chen said.
Annie opened her eyes and looked at the Commander-in-Chief, who was looking back at her and smiling.
"You… you… aren't angry?" Annie asked in a small voice.
Zhao Chen could not keep from laughing. "What have I to be angry about?"
"I stole— took this food?" Annie pointed behind her at her own backpack.
Zhao Chen gave her cheek another pinch. The girl's read on people was a little low; did she truly take him for some miserly boss? Those few times he'd teased her before had only been in fun, or to spur her along.
"You like eating these? Then in a while I'll have A-Na get 10 times this much ready, and you can take the lot back with you," Zhao Chen said, offhand.
Annie's eyes flew wide of a sudden, light blazing in them, her little mouth slightly open, gazing at the Commander-in-Chief as though she gazed upon God.
Was this truly the Commander-in-Chief?
She couldn't be dreaming, could she?
Zhao Chen looked at Annie, and then looked around. "How is it I don't see Nana anywhere?"
"Nana's still overseeing the work. The newest batch of T4 interstellar warships is about to come off the line and into service, and she isn't easy about it — she's been holding to her post this whole while." There was a slightly guilty air about Annie as she said it.
She knew that where attitude to work was concerned, she was no match for this little sister of hers.
Ordinarily she wouldn't have minded, but with the Commander-in-Chief having just handed her so great a reward, Annie could not shake the feeling of one who has taken and is now beholden.
After all, the welfare and treatment she drew as chief engineer already stood at the very ceiling of what the Owl Dragon Legion offered.
"A new batch of T4 interstellar warships?" Zhao Chen's eyes lit. Those would be the several T4 classes he'd redeemed and handed over to them at the end of last year.
Reckoning the time, the first batch's building was indeed near finished.
During those two campaigns not long past — had this batch of T4 interstellar warships been able to come off the line and into service then, the Owl Dragon Legion could have won a greater advantage still on the battlefield.
"When they come off the line and into service, send me word. If I have the time, I can come over and have a look," Zhao Chen said.
"Very well." Annie nodded; there was nothing unexpected in the arrangement.
But what Zhao Chen said next made Annie's eyes go wide, and she stared at the Commander-in-Chief without blinking.
"And while we're about it then, I'll hand over the technical blueprint for the T4 Golden Eden-class Starship to all of you, and you can set the production tasks in order."
That one remark of Zhao Chen's, tossed out in passing, left Annie gazing up at the Commander-in-Chief with longing in her eyes.
"T4… Golden… Eden?" Annie gulped.
"That's right — Golden Eden." Zhao Chen smiled and nodded.
Praise in words alone went nowhere near far enough; Annie had to be given something to strive toward as well.
"For now we take our rest and our holiday here. Once the Golden Eden is built later on, we'll shift it there. And by then the output of specially supplied ingredients will rise too — there may even be finer varieties to be developed." Zhao Chen went through the whole tally of the Golden Eden-class Starship's merits.
Annie's eyes blazed, as though she saw the fine days to come already.
"I'm going this instant to put in the overtime with Nana!" Annie said in excitement — but her glance at the food laid out about the grounds, and the way her feet would not quite commit, betrayed her mind well enough.
Zhao Chen laughed. "The overtime won't be the poorer for this little while. Eat first, then go. And take a bit over to Nana while you're at it — mind you remind Nana to get some rest."
"Very well!" Annie nodded, over and over.
As to the T4 Golden Eden-class Starship.
Zhao Chen had in fact long been ready to redeem it. The T3 Silver Eden-class Starship could no longer meet the demands of a commercial map that kept on widening; the Eden Grain-Trade Group's sales had all along stood in a case of demand outrunning supply.
After all, the markets it touched were too many. Besides the Starlight Empire there were the Holy Radiance Empire and the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth — and on the Warhammer side in particular, with revolution having broken out in a good many places, grain had become a commodity in urgent demand.
Zhao Chen walked over to where several of the women were at their war-games.
He came just in time to see one game between Xue Xiaoxiao and Su Lan, and the result was Su Lan with the upper hand as before.
Because Xue Xiaoxiao's grasp of the larger picture was very poor. As often as not she simply trusted to interstellar battleships and drove them headlong into everything. Interstellar battleships could turn in a respectable record, true enough — but this was a duel of legions in the end, and what it turned on was the larger picture.
Add to which that Su Lan went the carrier-starship road, always seeing to it that her own carriers sat in a safe zone, running long-range interstellar fighter bombardment, wearing Xue Xiaoxiao down without let-up — dragging her, by sheer grinding, to her death.
Su Lan would even set out several false carrier coordinates on purpose; and when Xue Xiaoxiao's fleet had steamed over full of vows and certainty, they'd find not a trace of any carrier starship there at all — and what waited for them instead was one more round of interstellar fighters and interstellar drones coming down on their heads.
"Xue Xiaoxiao is very good indeed in her handling of interstellar battleships. But in overall command there's a great deal of room to grow yet. Su Lan is very skilled at legion actions built around carrier starships, and keeps the whole picture in view — but she's over-cautious, and not good at taking the offensive and going out after the chance to strike." Chitong gave her account of it softly at Zhao Chen's side.
Zhao Chen looked at the two women.
Chitong went on to speak of the strengths and shortcomings several of the others had shown over this stretch of time. In the main, across the two campaigns the Owl Dragon Second Legion and the Owl Dragon Third Legion had been through, every one of them had come along a great deal.
"Chitong — with Charlotte away, the military side rests chiefly with you. I need you to bring them along, as fast as you can, into legion commanders who can hold a front on their own," Zhao Chen said in earnest.
Chitong heard the intent behind the Commander-in-Chief's words. She asked, "Commander-in-Chief… are you meaning to expand the forces again?"
"Our interstellar industrial ships' capacity has been brought up now; expansion follows on from that of itself. As things stand the three Owl Dragon Legions are fully established, so what comes next is setting the establishment of the new legion fleets. Warships and manpower aren't much of a problem. The problem, chiefly, is who to pick for legion commanders." There was a helpless look about Zhao Chen as he said it.
Chitong hesitated a moment, then said, "I'll find a way to bring on suitable legion commanders. How many are you preparing to add this time?"
Zhao Chen held up a single finger.
"One legion fleet?" Chitong let out a breath. Then it would be enough to put together the leadership of one legion fleet.
"Expand to 10 legion fleets. Which is to say, seven more," Zhao Chen said.
Chitong drew a cold breath.
Seven, at one stroke?
At the scale they were built to now, would that not mean forging 30,000 Owl Dragon interstellar warships!
Only think of it — such an array.
Three Owl Dragon Legions already held combat power that terrifying. What, then, of 10?
Just at that moment Lilith came hurrying over two steps at a stride, leaned in at Zhao Chen's ear, and said softly:
"Commander-in-Chief, word has just come in. Charlotte means to make a trip back these next few days — she has a matter to discuss with you."