The Commander-in-Chief's flagship.
Zhao Chen watched the interstellar holo-table before him, where the field was taking shape in real time.
"The fighting in every region goes well enough. But there is one problem: to this hour the enemy fleets meeting us frontally number only 100,000 warships! The enemy have some defensive installations to lean on, granted, but on these warships alone they cannot possibly hold off our frontal assault on the whole line. By the word from the Princess Royal Fleet-Group, whose advance runs fastest of all, 10 hours more and they will drive into the Starlight Central Star Region's border system numbered A49!" Secretary-Officer Chu Xuan said beside him.
"Which is to say that Qin Xiaotian's card, that hive-race fleet, has not yet been played." Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes.
"Yes." Chu Xuan nodded, and said in concern, "We suspect Qin Xiaotian may be brewing some other plan!"
"And how stand our 50 T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships?" Zhao Chen asked.
Chu Xuan raised a hand, and 50 blue points appeared at once upon the holo-table at differing positions; these blue points ran mostly in groups of several, and followed the Owl Dragon Legion chiefly, though a few went with other fleets of the Princess coalition.
"All 50 T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships stand to at present, and can carry out a projection task at any moment," Chu Xuan said.
These 50 T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships were one of Zhao Chen's cards!
With these 50, whatever plot or plan Qin Xiaotian might have, Zhao Chen had the means to answer it.
"Report! Qin Xiaotian's hive-race fleets found!" Secretary-Officer Lilith reported urgently from the other side.
"Appearing at what positions! And is there any sign of their Leviathan-Monarch-class Hive Motherships!" Zhao Chen asked at once.
Secretary-Officer Lilith pointed at the holo-table, where four red cloud-masses had appeared.
Those denoting hive-race fleets.
"Three bodies of the hive-race have appeared so far. The positions are, respectively, behind the Princess Royal Fleet-Group's field! The number is estimated at 50,000 hive-race craft! The target should be the Princess Royal Fleet-Group. No Leviathan-Monarch-class Hive Mothership found. The second position is the Chu Wen system, the Chu River Star Region's second system; the number is estimated at 50,000 hive-race craft. The target should be the destruction of the Chu family's industrial base within the Chu Wen system. No Leviathan-Monarch-class Hive Mothership found. The third position is the Morton system in the North Wind Star Region, very near the Northern Goose Group's starship manufacturing base; the target should be the Northern Goose Group! There are traces of a Leviathan-Monarch-class Hive Mothership, so the number of hive-race craft cannot be established. The fourth position is in the boundary space outside our Owl Dragon System; but the positions where the wormholes appeared are rather scattered, and the present estimate is at least 30,000 hive-race craft!" Lilith said gravely.
Zhao Chen knit his brows. All four of these targets of attack had been chosen with great precision.
One might say they had taken his side seven inches down — for the targets struck were, beyond doubt, of the greatest importance to them.
"Which is to say that Qin Xiaotian holds near 200,000 hive-race craft in hand now!" Zhao Chen reckoned it.
All along, how many hive-race craft Qin Xiaotian actually held had been a riddle to Zhao Chen; and that was Qin Xiaotian's card.
"So it stands at present." Lilith nodded.
Chu Xuan entered a string of figures beside her. "Which makes, upon the field now, 200,000 hive-race craft and 100,000 imperial warships."
"What matters most now is how we answer the case before us. The fighting in these four places — how are we to handle it!" Zhao Chen stared at those four red cloud-masses upon the holo-table.
"Just so; and this will bear upon whether our own plan of battle is to go forward," Lilith said gravely.
Damn the man.
Qin Xiaotian was playing a trade of houses with him!
Even trading in that fashion, Zhao Chen had confidence that the win would still be his.
But Zhao Chen had no wish to win a victory of that kind.
"With the strength in our hands, we must sort out what is urgent and what is not," Charlotte analyzed calmly beside him.
And so saying, Charlotte marked a '1' first at the Northern Goose Group's position.
"The Northern Goose Group's industrial base is of the greatest importance to us; it cannot be lost."
At Charlotte's putting the Northern Goose Group first rather than the Owl Dragon System, nobody present raised any objection.
Not that they were unconcerned for the Owl Dragon System.
But that they trusted the Owl Dragon System's defenses; and that earlier campaign, when it was attacked, had been a test of exactly those defenses.
The Owl Dragon System had carried out its combat task in full.
And after that, the Owl Dragon Legion's defensive constitution had gone through a round of upgrading besides, so that it was less in question still.
Then Charlotte marked a '2' at the Chu Wen system.
Chu Xuan knit her brows, and looked at the Princess Royal Fleet-Group. "The Chu Wen system matters a great deal to our Chu family, but I am concerned for the Princess's side…"
"The Princess's side has 150,000 warships. Not the equal of our Owl Dragon Legion, granted, but they use Owl Dragon-line warships too; and facing an encirclement of hive-race craft and imperial forces, never mind winning at the last — holding out a good while is no problem at all. And through that time we shall keep close watch on the fighting there; should anything truly change— we can send fleets to support them at any moment." So Charlotte analyzed it.
Zhao Chen nodded; there was much reason in Charlotte's arrangement.
"So your thought is that the lightning strike on the Snow-Swallow Star Region goes forward." Zhao Chen looked at her; this had been his own thought a moment ago.
The lightning strike on the Snow-Swallow Star Region was the strategy as laid down, and the core of it.
The whole strategic plan existed for that one step; everything else might change, and only this might not.
"Yes." Charlotte pointed at the Snow-Swallow Star Region upon the holo-table. "The Snow-Swallow Star Region is Qin Xiaotian's home base, and holds their research base besides. Over the past while we have sent no few T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ships to reconnoiter it. But their core areas are patrolled exceedingly often, and the anti-stealth equipment is exceedingly dense, so that we could get no detail whatever on the substance of their research, nor on the particular state of the hive-race fleets. The defenses laid out there are powerful — far beyond those about the Imperial Capital Star. And now Qin Xiaotian means to play a round of 'trading houses' with us. Very well. Then let us see which of us takes the other's lifeline first!" There was a light of battle glinting in Charlotte's eyes.
"Give your particular dispositions directly," Zhao Chen said.
Charlotte's fingers moved without pause across the holo-table, and her mouth set out one strategic disposition after another — with some changes still from the plan of battle as it had originally stood.
Such is a battlefield: only by answering the change as it comes can one win!