The interstellar hive-race were a kind of creature that seemed to appear out of thin air; there was no intelligence to be had on them at all, only that they were warlike by instinct, that they would devour, half-unthinking, any living thing within reach of their senses — that there were even cases of them devouring their own kind.
Should they descend upon a planet, then for every living thing on that planet it meant a doom from which there was no escape.
And the interstellar hive-race generally appeared together with the emergence of a cosmic bug-nest.
The cosmic bug-nest — to this day there was no scientific explanation for its appearance.
It went by other names besides: the cosmic rift, the interstellar fissure, and the like.
It was as though a crevice had opened out of nowhere in the fabric of the cosmos, and the interstellar hive-race would come pouring out of it to launch their assault on the surrounding worlds.
If left unchecked, these interstellar hive-race swarms would, once they'd devoured every living thing on a world, breed yet more of their kind, and then spread outward toward the surrounding planets and star systems.
The lifespan of a cosmic bug-nest was not fixed — some long, some short, some large, some small; nests of different scale spawned interstellar hive-race of correspondingly different scale.
On this the researchers of the Galactic Alliance had already worked out a system of classification.
They graded a cosmic bug-nest from low to high: tier one, tier two, tier three, and so on.
The grading standard ran parallel to that of T1 technology, T2 technology.
For in their engagements with the interstellar hive-race, people had found that certain powerful individual bugs possessed strength on a par with an interstellar warship.
And these bugs were called… Hive Motherships!
A Hive Mothership would carry a vast host of interstellar hive-race into battle, conquering and slaughtering one world after another.
Zhao Chen ran back over, in his mind, the portion of bug knowledge he'd learned at the Northstar Starship Military Academy.
"On this mission, then — is there any detailed information?" Zhao Chen asked Charlotte.
Charlotte shook her head. "I've only heard the general news; the details I don't yet know."
Zhao Chen thought a moment, then said to Charlotte, "Go make ready at once — have Blizzard Zero and the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship load a full complement of military supplies, and be ready to leave port at the fastest possible speed!"
"Leave port? For where?" No sooner had Charlotte asked than it dawned on her, and she looked at Zhao Chen in surprise. "Captain, you couldn't be…"
"Do as I've said; I'll go find a way to learn more about the situation now," His piece said, Zhao Chen went straight to the T2 Queen Bee's bridge.
Charlotte, for her part, went to Blizzard Zero to pass down the order.
In Zhao Wan'er's absence, the two of them each had charge of one of the two ships.
Reaching the bridge, Zhao Chen at once contacted a certain someone.
"Good day to you, Mr. Zhao Chen; I'm the starport liaison, registry number CC11. What service might you require?" On their third meeting, the woman in charge greeted the man before her with a smile.
"Do you know about the cosmic bug-nest?"
The woman was taken aback, then nodded. "You mean the cosmic-bug-nest incident around asteroid P331?"
"Unless there are two cosmic bug-nests in this star system of yours, then that's the one," Zhao Chen said.
"If you'd like to learn the details, you can go to the headquarters where Arctic Fox Starport posts its missions; there's a briefing there," the woman answered.
"I have no time for that. Right now I need to learn everything about this mission as fast as possible — and I need to take on this mission as fast as possible besides," Zhao Chen said.
"You mean to take on this mission?" The woman gave a start. It had been half an hour since the bounty was posted, and the starport's chief liaison had personally asked several of the private-fleet and adventurer-fleet commanders berthed at the starport — and not one had been willing to take it.
"That's right," said Zhao Chen.
The woman said, "Taking on the mission is no problem, but by procedure your fleet must first be registered, and…"
Zhao Chen said, "I want it as fast as possible! Get it all done within 10 minutes."
"10 minutes?" The woman's face showed her difficulty. "These procedures are required, in part with a view to your fleet's own safety…"
Beep, beep, beep.
"Your account has received 1,000 star coins."
The woman had just received a deposit notice; she cut it a glance, then met the eyes of the holographic Zhao Chen, the two of them understanding one another without a word.
"Given the special nature of this mission, we can go through the emergency channel; I'll find a way to arrange it for you, and give you an answer within 10 minutes. And I'll send you all the mission's intelligence first." Having said all this at the greatest possible speed, the woman cut the comm with Zhao Chen straightaway and went off to work the emergency channel.
It was the same everywhere, sure enough — money greased the wheels.
Zhao Chen paid it no more mind; he set to reading the mission intelligence the woman had sent.
This was a thing that had happened three hours earlier, in a remote reach of the Arctic Fox star system, where all at once a tier-2 cosmic bug-nest had appeared.
On learning of it, the lord of the Arctic Fox star system had at once given the order, dispatching a fleet to wipe out these interstellar hive-race swarms.
But as luck would have it, a large part of the imperial navy once garrisoned in the Arctic Fox star system had been transferred away not long before.
And the Arctic Fox star system's own lord's fleet had been sent to another border battlefield to carry out a minor operation.
So at present the Arctic Fox star system had only a single small imperial-navy fleet garrisoned here — and that small fleet had already hurried to the scene, but the interstellar hive-race were simply too many, and it could in no way put them down alone.
The Arctic Fox star system had at once sent for aid to the surrounding systems and to the Governor of the North Wind Star Region.
The North Wind Star Region was one of the Starlight Empire's eight great star regions, holding sway over 63 star systems — among them the Owl Dragon Star System, the Northstar system, and the Arctic Fox star system.
But reinforcements to the battlefield took time; the soonest any relief force could arrive was a full 10 hours off!
And by the Arctic Fox star system leadership's simulated reckoning, within those 10 hours this host of interstellar hive-race would reach the inhabited worlds within range — three asteroids and one moon, a total population of 70 million.
The first to come under attack would be the 5 million people on asteroid P331.
Among the Arctic Fox leadership there were now two voices. One held that they should abandon asteroid P331, fall back to the other more populous worlds, and hold out until relief arrived.
The other held that P331 could indeed be abandoned — but that all 5 million people on P331 must be evacuated first.
And the latter happened to be the view of the commander in control of that one remaining small imperial-navy fleet — a commander who had acted first and reported after, driving the fleet straight to asteroid P331.
And who had demanded that interstellar transport ships be dispatched at once to begin evacuating P331's populace.
But by the system's reckoning, that imperial-navy fleet alone could in no way see all 5 million of P331's people safely evacuated in the face of the interstellar hive-race's assault.
And so that imperial-navy fleet commander had hit straight upon an idea: since the lord's fleet and the imperial navy alike were, for now, unable to reach them, then call on the civilian fleets for support.
Hence this bounty mission now.
The bounty came to a full 500,000 star coins, and the fleet commander had further guaranteed that all ship losses and expenditures in the battle would be borne, every one, by the imperial navy.
Zhao Chen rubbed at his chin. In truth, whether the people were saved or not he didn't much care; he could hardly risk the lives of all the people aboard his two ships just to save others — he was no savior of the world.
But…
The corpses of the interstellar hive-race were worth a great deal; their bodies held all manner of resources — moving treasure-vaults, one might call them.
And as luck would have it, Zhao Chen's pockets were short of money just now.
Add to that the system mission…