The first to open fire was still the Qian family's side — the battle positions set out beforehand, those combat satellites, those combat bastions.
The weapons they mounted, being under no limit of bulk, ran far beyond the range and the power of warships of the same technical grade.
And after that came the attack the Chu family's fleet loosed.
To look at it, the assault was a strong one.
But under the interception systems of 10 T4 Paladin-class Heavy Interstellar Missile-Escorts, every attack of any high threat was cut down by interception missiles.
And what attacks remained fell upon each warship's all-around star-shield, and did no harm worth speaking of either.
For the weapons opposite ran, at the very most, to technology of the T3 grade.
While on this side they were T4-series warships to a hull!
The T4 Gorgon-class Heavy Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship · bridge.
A captain of a most graceful figure stood before the captain's chair, and those long legs of hers had a flavor all their own besides.
"Report — every gun position stands ready!"
Hearing her subordinate's report—
Captain Qingman spoke. "Open fire!"
The 400 Gorgon-type particle-energy heavy-cannons mounted upon this T4 Gorgon-class Heavy Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship fired in the same instant, and in the same direction!
400 'meteors' trailing light went racing away forward at very great speed.
Their trajectories being fixed, they were easily intercepted.
But their speed of flight was exceedingly high, so that as often as not, by the time an interception struck home they were already upon their targets — the more so with the enemy's interception technology so far behind, which let them cut down only a very small part of it by good luck.
And the remainder, uninterrupted, struck home.
And burst in one great roar!
In the space of a few breaths, several dozen combat satellites and combat bunkers were destroyed.
And near 100 T2 warships destroyed outright besides.
Had there been no line of combat satellites and the rest covering them, this one round of the guns alone would have been enough to destroy half the Qian family's fleet!
Though at this hour, watching the splendid scene of the blasts in the distance—
Captain Qingman could not keep from flicking out her own forked tongue; and the next second she covered her mouth again.
And reproached herself within for not having kept her feelings in better hand.
She was of the snake-folk, and had been one of the fleet commanders under Queen Medusa's banner.
By a turn of chance before this, she had had a stretch of cooperation with Commander-in-Chief Zhao Chen in the Lion King System, back when he commanded the Owl Dragon fleet.
And once Medusa chose to join the Owl Dragon Legion, a number of the snake-folk's senior officers, Qingman among them, threw themselves into the Owl Dragon Legion without hesitation.
Having fine combat experience and command ability to begin with, and the Owl Dragon Legion being desperately short of senior command talent, Qingman had in the space of a few months been promoted several times over, and become captain of a T4 Gorgon-class Heavy Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship.
"Every main gun entering charge state — complete!" the adjutant reported.
"Hold present speed and heading. All 200 fully automatic high-density quad-mount energy point-defense guns to full-power defensive state! The enemy's chief target in what follows will very likely be this ship!" Captain Qingman made her dispositions for what came next — though this worry of hers was somewhat needless.
Because the enemy were weak enough to have no power of answering at all.
Qian Dafu had been frightened by the blasts a moment ago, and had put a hand over his eyes without thinking.
But happily, by his own earlier disposition, his flagship lay at the rear of the battlefield; what burst were the warships ahead, and his flagship took none of the overflow.
For all that, having seen this wave of the attack with his own eyes—
Qian Dafu was astonished outright.
"Report — we have lost near 100 warships. Above eight in 10 of the combat installations in the defensive position are destroyed!" the adjutant cried in terror.
"What is… what is… what is that warship! How can it possibly… hold firepower… so terrifying." Qian Dafu dropped back into the captain's chair and stared blankly at that warship of unknown model in the picture, covered over with gun-muzzles.
And this scene was no more than a beginning.
That T4-grade interstellar battlecruiser of unknown class, leading two T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruisers, charged at very great speed, meaning to cut through the flank of the Qian fleet's formation.
And their output of fire was more terrifying still.
Any Qian warship they locked upon was, near enough, one shot and gone!
Come once within range, and there was but the one end: destruction.
The Qian warships did try to answer, but the enemy were T4-grade warships with all-around star-shields; there was no telling when their attacks would ever break a shield down.
And at the same time, that great mass of the interstellar drone swarm had flown as far as the position of those dozen-odd warships.
Had the crews aboard those dozen-odd warships looked out through their viewports, they would have seen the drone swarm, thick past counting, overtaking them and racing on ahead.
Like a black storm!
"Young house-head! Matters look ill; we must withdraw to the Sacred Lancer Legion's fleets and have them join the fighting. The loss of these Qian warships is a small thing — but nothing must happen to you!" the adjutant warned him now.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! You're quite right. Pass my order at once: every T3 warship is to withdraw at full speed toward the Sacred Lancer Legion's 900 warships." Qian Dafu gave the order to withdraw without hesitation.
Having seen the drone swarm and that terrifying interstellar gunship, whatever appetite for battle this interstellar merchant had in him was quenched already.
His own small life mattered more.
Fighting and the rest of it could be left to the Sacred Lancer Legion to do.
The Qian fleet still on the line little knew that it had already been abandoned by its master.
They were at this hour still sunk in the dread of that black mass of the drone swarm bearing down upon them.
Their defensive weapons fired at full, attempting to intercept the drone swarm.
And now the last straw that broke the wall within them appeared.
For upon the surfaces of those drones there appeared star-shields!
And all-around star-shields at that!
"T4… these… these are every one of them T4 interstellar drones!" the captain of one Qian T2 warship roared in hysterics, his eyes full of nothing but dread.
300,000 T4 interstellar drones!
The all-around shields they mounted were not very high in energy value, granted; under a T2 warship's sustained attack, a shield could still be torn open and the body destroyed.
But… but destroying one T4 interstellar drone cost so much time as this.
And opposite there were several hundred thousand of them.
While the weapons they mounted, striking a Qian T2 warship in front of them, could blast a great hole clean through it with near enough a single shot.
One small formation of 300 drones could dispose of a T2 warship easily, and with zero losses guaranteed besides.
This drone swarm, thick past counting, was like locusts passing over a country.
Wherever they went, the Qian family's defensive installations were destroyed to the last, and not one Qian warship came through alive.
In the space of a few short minutes, the defensive position the Qian family had prepared with such care was destroyed to nothing.
And what stood next before these 300,000 drones was the Sacred Lancer Legion's 900 warships.
That commander of the Fifth Fleet, watching the drone swarm come swarming on, had gone blank in the eyes and cold in all four limbs.
How could there be…
how could there be so many interstellar drones…