It had to be said, the quality of the imperial navy's fleet was quite high.
Once Commander Chu Xuan's order came down, the 30 ships disengaged from battle at the greatest possible speed, holding, even in retreat, a very safe withdrawal formation.
The T2 Guardian-class Medium Interstellar Frigates kept covering the rear the whole while, against any mishap.
But the mishap they'd feared did not come.
100 T2 Killer-Bee-class Medium Interstellar Drones, covering 20 T2 Hornet-class Heavy Interstellar Drones, closed on the onrushing swarm.
The hundred T2 Killer-Bee-class Medium Interstellar Drones at once brought autocannons and missiles to bear on the bugs, blasting swathe after swathe of them to pieces.
At the same time, the 20 T2 Hornet-class Heavy Interstellar Drones released the timed charges they'd readied in advance, after which all the drones withdrew at once.
The bugs, naturally, would not let the prey before them go; like a black tide they came sweeping on.
And just as the swarm gave chase, those timed charges detonated one after another, forming a "net of fire."
It left the pursuing bugs, for a moment, blasted every which way and unable to find their bearings.
T2 Hornet-class Heavy Interstellar Drone · the bridge.
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair, watching the battle magnified before him through the deep-space telescope.
Though back at the Northstar Starship Military Academy he'd studied the material on the interstellar hive-race in his coursework—
—to truly see it with his own eyes, to see these interstellar creatures' way of fighting, still brought a jolt of awe, a shudder in the heart.
Above all for anyone with a fear of dense clusters — the sight before him would likely have them breaking down on the spot.
The interstellar hive-race's way of fighting was a rather particular one.
The Hive Motherships were large in individual size, a kind of bio-starship.
But their mobility was unremarkable, and the bio-plasma cannons, bio-torpedoes, and the like they chiefly used held, against a same-tier warship, no real advantage.
It was their singular hive structure that gave them a fighting style and tactics all their own.
The Bug-Sea Tactic!
A single T1 Hive Mothership carried some 10,000 T1 flying-bugs.
And a single T2 Hive Mothership carried 100,000 T1 flying-hive-race and 1,000 T2 sting-snakes.
The flying-hive-race and the sting-snakes were the Hive Mothership's worker-soldier units.
The former were rather like winged mantises, each about the size of a human, capable only of close combat.
The latter were long snakes bearing the marks of the bug-kind — no taller than a man, but very nearly 10 meters in body length, able at close range to spew a highly corrosive acid.
Both could leave the Hive Mothership to survive and fight in the environment of space, and their speed of movement was extremely swift!
At the same tier, apart from an interstellar frigate whose speed could just barely match them, no other class of ship could keep pace!
These units the general run of people called, simply, "bugs."
Though these bug workers were graded T1 and T2—
—their true combat strength fell, in fact, far short of that mark.
A single T2 sting-snake, for instance, pitted against a T2 Hornet-class Heavy Interstellar Drone—
—the T2 Hornet could crush it with ease!
But!
When these bugs came at you, it would not be one, or 10, or 100, but thousands upon thousands, sweeping at you like a tide.
Unless you could wipe them out entirely, then so long as some portion of the bugs latched onto your hull and chewed through it, near enough every interstellar soldier inside that ship was done for!
And these bugs knew no fear; they answered only to instinct and to the Hive Mothership's commands!
Wave on wave, they threw themselves at the target!
This way of fighting bore, in a sense, some likeness to a carrier starship.
Those bugs were the Hive Mothership's interstellar fighters.
"Report — the first-echelon T2 Hornet-class Heavy Interstellar Drones and T2 Killer-Bee-class Medium Interstellar Drones have all released their charges; making ready to return," Lilith said at his side.
"Have these Hornets and Killer-Bees complete their landing and resupply as fast as they can, ready for a second-echelon attack. And in three rotating echelons, deploy the 300 T2 Baby-Bee-class Light Interstellar Drones," Zhao Chen ordered.
"Yes." Lilith set about relaying the captain's orders.
The imperial-navy fleet, who'd been worrying whether these interstellar drones could hold off the bugs, were, at this moment, all astonished by the drones' showing.
"These interstellar drones' combat strength is in no way inferior to same-tier interstellar fighters!" Commander Chu Xuan marveled.
The female adjutant, too, had by now caught sight of that carrier starship — its hull painted yellow and black, its very lines rather like some kind of insect, sharing a curious kinship with the interstellar hive-race across from them.
"What carrier starship is this? How is it I've never seen it before?" The female adjutant called up the ship database and fed the image of the carrier before her in to be scanned — only to come back with no record at all.
"There's no entry whatsoever in our database." The female adjutant was surprised.
Commander Chu Xuan looked at this carrier starship, and, recalling what that man had said, murmured gravely, "Let's hope this captain truly can turn the battle around."
Two mere ships — how could he possibly? the female adjutant thought to herself.
Unless they were two T3 ships, that might be another matter.
"Come to think of it — weren't there two ships? How is it there's only one carrier here? Where's the other ship?" The female adjutant suddenly said in puzzlement, eyeing the ship radar.
There was no energy signature of a second ship on it.
Where was that ship?
……
Asteroid P331.
Dozens of T2 Seahorse-class Medium Interstellar Transports hung berthed above the asteroid, shuttle after shuttle ferrying the people up to the transports without cease.
"Thank heaven! You've finally come." The asteroid overseer looked at the arrived transport-fleet commander with tears near enough streaming down his face.
"We're only carrying out orders. Get your people moving on the evacuation, quick. Our time's short; the moment the interstellar hive-race close to within the warning range, we must pull out!" This fleet commander squeezed out a thin smile.
"Good, good, good! We'll seize every moment to evacuate — two hours! No! We'll finish the evacuation within an hour and a half!" the asteroid overseer vowed, striking his breast.
"The faster the better, in short!" the transport-fleet commander said impatiently.
It wasn't that he'd wanted to come; a pack of madmen had driven him here at gunpoint with a ship's cannon.
Since he was here now, he could only carry out the evacuation dutifully.
He hoped only that that hateful man could hold out a while longer, so that they could pull out safe and sound.
Though the dark thought in his heart—
—rather hoped that the man and his damned ship would end up feeding the bugs on the battlefield yonder!
"Best they feed the bugs after we've made our clean getaway! Yes! Just so!" he cursed inwardly.