After that, the Southern Sacred Fleet-Group withdrew meekly and did nothing at all.
The Owl Dragon Legion sent a T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ship to trail them a while, and once it was certain there was no threat, pulled back as well.
On the other side, Zhao Chen led his own Owl Dragon fleet back first to that Qian family slave planet.
The fighting here had all come to its end.
Whether the slave planet or that star-port, both were now wholly within Zhao Chen's grasp.
"The great bulk of the Qian family's fleet has been cleared away. But a small handful of the Qian fleet escaped, fleeing toward the Qian main system. Does the Commander-in-Chief wish them pursued?" Chu Xuan asked it of him over the video comm.
As for the Qian family, the author of it all, Chu Xuan naturally wished them rooted out clean; merely destroying these Qian fleets could not let out the anger in her.
"The Qian family's account we shall certainly settle with them in full. The monk may run, but the temple cannot. Have every warship stand down where it is for three hours first, and make good the combat stores," Zhao Chen instructed.
"Yes." Chu Xuan's eyes lit, and she set about arranging the stand-down at once.
Zhao Chen ran an eye over the combat reports gathered in.
Out of this campaign: above 2,800 Sacred Lancer Legion warships destroyed, above 200 taken.
Above 290 Qian family warships destroyed, above 30 taken.
And besides that, prisoners from the Qian family and the Sacred Lancer Legion — the numbers being very great, they were still being tallied.
On the Owl Dragon Legion's side there were no warships lost; the losses ran only to interstellar drones and fighters.
Casualties among personnel came to under 100 — near enough to be disregarded.
"Commander-in-Chief, the internal system data of that Sacred Lancer flagship we brought back — the wreck of the T4 Retribution Angel-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship — along with every device aboard capable of storing data, have all been scanned and examined." Secretary-Officer Lilith's holographic image reported it to him.
Hearing this, the Saint Cana beside Zhao Chen turned a look of concern that way.
"Copy the useful intelligence data across to me," Zhao Chen said.
"Yes."
Secretary-Officer Lilith soon sent a copy over.
Zhao Chen tossed it to the Saint Cana beside him with barely so much as a glance at it.
Taking that palm-sized data device, Saint Cana looked at him in astonishment.
"What's in there may be of use to you," Zhao Chen said. As to its contents, Zhao Chen cared nothing at all.
Were there truly anything important in it, Lilith would have told him.
The great bulk of it, presumably, came to no more than leads on certain cooperation between people inside the Holy Radiance Empire and Qin Xiaotian's side.
"Was that thing found?" Zhao Chen looked at Lilith, asking after what he truly cared about.
Lilith shook her head and said, "By some of the data intelligence we've gathered— at that star-port, the representative Qin Xiaotian sent handed a data case over to that Sacred Lancer Legion commander. We searched the wreck of that flagship and found no data case. But in scanning the ship's internal network we found that 10 minutes before she was destroyed, a body of encrypted file data was sent out; and from the direction and position of the receiver, it can be inferred to be the Southern Sacred Fleet-Group that was coming up at the time."
"Can the content sent be recovered?" Zhao Chen asked.
Lilith said, "The data was deleted and broken very thoroughly. It cannot be recovered."
Zhao Chen was not overly disappointed; he had reckoned on this long since.
He looked round at Saint Cana. "So now you fairly understand why that Sacred Lancer Legion was so utterly abandoned? That Southern Consul had got the thing he wanted. Only a pity for that Commander Heller — had he not been in such haste to transmit this data to the Southern Consul, he might have had some hope of living. But once he'd sent the thing out, there was no road left for him to live by."
Saint Cana understood his meaning.
This so-called data was the Sacred Lancer Legion's value!
The Sacred Lancer Legion had been all but annihilated; and with the value of this thing gone besides, then to open war with the Owl Dragon Legion for its sake was indeed without any necessity.
And that body of data was presumably very important; so the Southern Consul, weighing it, had chosen to take the thing he wanted and turn for home.
"What could that data be?" Saint Cana asked with knitted brows.
"Hive-race technology, surely. The technology for controlling Hive Motherships, for instance… or else… the technology for opening a cosmic wormhole!" Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes, and there was something cold in his tone.
"Opening a cosmic wormhole! That Prince Yan of yours has such a technical capability?" Saint Cana was startled.
The interstellar hive-race was a threat not to the Starlight Empire alone; the Holy Radiance Empire had always been very wary of its existence too.
For in the Holy Radiance Empire's own history there had been several serious interstellar hive-race attacks.
And all along, the appearance of cosmic wormholes had been random, and past controlling.
"I am not certain. But those several irregular cosmic-wormhole incidents that appeared in the Starlight Empire make me suspect Qin Xiaotian has the technology. Or else his holding so many Hive Motherships… does not add up." Zhao Chen said it as a supposition.
Saint Cana fell silent; she looked at the data disc in her hand. She had looked over the information in it as well, and in the main there was nothing important there either.
At the most it showed that the Saint-Disciple family truly had dealings with Qin Xiaotian too deep to be fit for a decent man.
But that could work no great effect upon the Saint-Disciple family.
"Once you're back, you would do well to urge your Imperial Council of Elders. Hive-race technology — a thing of that kind isn't to be trusted, and had far better not be studied. And the more so as it came from that fellow Qin Xiaotian… would you truly dare take that away and study it? Do you truly suppose Qin Xiaotian would hand over so fine a technology out of pure goodwill?" Zhao Chen did not forget to give the reminder at this point.
Saint Cana looked at him in surprise; she had not thought this man would give her a word of warning.
"The Holy Radiance Empire counts as a latent enemy of mine. But I understand better still that the interstellar hive-race is the more threatening enemy. At least a war between your race and mine, once the other is beaten, does not end in slaughtering them to the last and wiping the race out." Zhao Chen thought back on the fighting against the interstellar hive-race.
That fighting… had been too oppressive a thing; he truly had no wish to go through several more of them.
"Wait… you said once I'm back?" Saint Cana came to herself suddenly, and looked at him in astonishment. "Do you mean by that that you're letting me go?"
Zhao Chen shrugged and said calmly, "And if I don't let you go, would you be wanting to go on eating and lodging free at my expense? That won't do at all! Though if you wished to join my Owl Dragon Legion, I could give it some thought."
And so saying, Zhao Chen looked Saint Cana up and down and smiled slightly. "As it happens, I feel I'm still a few secretary-officers short. Well? Care to consider it? Working for me is a very happy business, you know."
System task: protect 'Saint Cana's safety'.
Task complete!
The task reward may be claimed — the 'T4 Shadow-Demon-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bomber' technical blueprint.