The Little Skeleton?
Hearing that name, Gu Xiaoxiao was brought up short a good while.
And then she looked hurriedly to the Zhao Chen beside her and said, "My lord Commander-in-Chief, the Qian family's fleet is very strong indeed. When I came here before, the Qian family's people were still boasting of it in front of me. Among the Qian fleet about the Qian main planet now there are several T3-grade interstellar warships! And with the T2-grade warships besides, the number of them comes to 300! You have only the one warship here — a single beam cannot hold up a roof. Please make haste and withdraw. Any longer and it will be too late!"
Gu Xiaoxiao was truly alarmed now for Zhao Chen and this Little Skeleton.
For before their eyes, the warships of that Qian fleet were closing about this Little Skeleton on every side!
Zhao Chen folded his arms and looked out at the scene beyond the viewport with appreciation, and said, easy as a passing cloud, "Set your mind at rest. Nothing will come of it."
Seeing that this Commander-in-Chief wore so unruffled a look, Gu Xiaoxiao was worried in earnest.
The enemy had 300 interstellar warships!
"Has anyone got dried beef, or duck necks?" Zhao Chen called out suddenly to the women of the crews about him.
At once one of them came hurrying over pushing a little cart of snacks, with no few drinks besides.
Panther-Girl even had a portable sofa readied for Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen settled himself comfortably upon it, took out the duck necks he was fond of from that heap of snacks, and said to the crewwoman in thanks, "Put all of this on my account; I'll transfer it across to you in a while."
"There's no need, no need." The crewwoman waved a hand over and over, her cheeks a little flushed. To be able to share her own snacks with the Commander-in-Chief left her feeling happy enough to die; what were a few coins worth beside that?
Xue Xiaoxiao too plumped herself down beside Zhao Chen without ceremony, and set both hands to work at once digging out the snacks she liked, and even stuffed a packet of prawn crackers at the Gu Xiaoxiao standing blankly nearby.
"We always watch from the bridge; it's a rare thing to be in the hangar. Let's have a change of view for once," Zhao Chen said with satisfaction.
Gu Xiaoxiao stood holding her prawn crackers, and something in her was quietly collapsing.
At this hour, those 300 Qian warships outside had brought every ship's weapon they had to bear on this unidentified vessel whose call-sign on the open channel was the Little Skeleton.
The captains of these Qian warships had learned as well what had happened in the Qian family's City in the Sky.
The people aboard this Little Skeleton had dared to carry off the Qian family's betrothed!
Which was slapping the Qian family's face on the Qian family's own ground!
"Open fire!"
"Shoot!"
"Destroy this Little Skeleton that doesn't know its own measure!"
The Qian captains gave the order to attack one hard upon another.
300 Qian warships, with weapons of every color — lasers, solid shell, interstellar missiles, energy beams and the rest — all swarmed together upon the Little Skeleton.
Within the City in the Sky, the Qian clansmen were watching the scene in excitement.
As though they saw already the scene of that Little Skeleton destroyed.
But the next second!
A circular curtain of light closed about the Little Skeleton's hull.
Every attack the 300 Qian warships had loosed was stopped dead by that curtain of light.
And within it the Little Skeleton was safe and sound!
"That's a star-shield!"
"An all-around star-shield! This is a T4-grade interstellar warship!"
"Heavens above, a T4 interstellar warship turning up in our Stellar Alliance — who under the sky is this!"
The guests talked it over in astonishment among themselves.
The expressions on the Qian family's people were finer still; every one of them watched the scene in disbelief, unable to credit what was happening at all.
"A T4-grade interstellar destroyer. In the intelligence on the Owl Dragon Legion I had before, there was no such warship class."
President Guiji sat aboard her own shuttle, looking at that warship in the distant battle wrapped in its curtain of light — like the moon held up by all the stars — and was much astonished.
She had gathered no little material on the Owl Dragon Legion here.
Including several T4-grade warship classes that had appeared in the Sacred-War Duel; but never had she heard that the Owl Dragon Legion had a T4 interstellar destroyer of this kind.
Which made President Guiji understand why that lord Commander-in-Chief had acted with such boldness.
In the Stellar Alliance, a T4 interstellar warship was an existence that simply crushed all before it.
"Just how many cards does this Commander-in-Chief keep hidden in his hand?" President Guiji had grown very curious indeed about this legendary Owl Dragon lord.
Not only excellent in military ability, and possessed of a great many wholly new starship technologies—
but holding enormous power in interstellar trade besides.
Over these last few days, those interstellar traders the Owl Dragon Legion had arranged had already begun working with the Star-Shark Guild.
Before, she had known only that the openings behind these traders were large; it was only after truly working with them that she came to know how enormous that power was!
Far beyond everything the Qian family had promised the Star-Shark Guild before.
Which set President Guiji's mind a good deal more at rest — at least she had not chosen the wrong road for the Star-Shark Guild.
The Little Skeleton · hangar.
Zhao Chen watched the points and spots of light upon the star-shield beyond the viewport, drinking calmly from the drink in his hand and gnawing at a duck neck.
"Rather pretty, that."
"Dull stuff. With those little popguns they have the face to call themselves interstellar battleships. Can't even break a shield. Pass me that chicken foot and the pig's trotter!" Xue Xiaoxiao's mouth was running with grease at this hour, and her hands were slick with it, and she gave not a thought to anything of a lady's bearing.
While Gu Xiaoxiao looked at the scene beyond the viewport like a wooden chicken.
"This is… this is a T4 interstellar destroyer?" Gu Xiaoxiao came back to herself and asked it in astonishment.
Zhao Chen nodded.
Gu Xiaoxiao asked further, "Then why is she called… the Little Skeleton… that name?"
Gu Xiaoxiao's words were rather veiled, but what she meant came to no more than this: a T4 interstellar destroyer!
And you go and give her a name like that — is it not doing the ship rather an injustice?
"Her class is the T4 Skeleton-King-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Destroyer. As for the naming — I thought the name had a pleasant sound, so I gave her that, offhand." Zhao Chen thought nothing of the name.
Names were all so much wind in any case; whether one is strong or not rests on a warship's firepower!
"It's time we hit back! Let this pack of Qian family people learn what this Little Skeleton is worth!" Xue Xiaoxiao said in excitement.
Having taken one wave of the attack on purpose, this T4 Skeleton-King-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Destroyer now brought her every weapon system to life!
Above 300 ship's guns, each locking upon a Qian warship in its own quarter.
And with the captain's order on the bridge, this Little Skeleton began to give out her roar.
Qian warship after Qian warship began to be destroyed, one on the heels of another.
The scene of those warships bursting one after another like fireworks was, if anything, very well suited to the festive day the Qian family was keeping.
Only that the cost of these 'fireworks' would likely have Family Head Qian Feng sick with grief enough to bring up blood.