That battle years ago at the Morton star gate, alongside the Owl Dragon lord, had always been the thing Xu Yifan took for the pride of his life.
Li Wei saw the settled resolve in the man.
And smiled slightly. "Good! When this campaign is over, I'll stand you a drink."
"You're a man of great means; then I'll not stand on ceremony over it," Xu Yifan said with a grin.
And just then, word came to Li Wei from a subordinate.
"Report — a great body of hive-race craft reconnoitered, the number estimated above 50,000! And one energy signature of the most terrifying kind, forecast to be a Leviathan-Monarch-class Hive Mothership! And besides those, 30,000 imperial warships found!"
Hearing this—
Li Wei looked at the Xu Yifan opposite in mockery. "Lord Xu, there's still time to go if you like; you've heard how the enemy stands, I take it."
"No more nonsense. My fleet enters its combat positions this instant. And I hear you were the Owl Dragon lord's classmate. Whether it's true or not, I mean to weigh it up properly." Xu Yifan looked at him in provocation too.
The two had had little to do with one another, but being of like age there was ever a sense between them of a kindred regard.
"Warning! The hive-race fleet and the imperial fleet are 15 minutes from our line!" the adjutant said.
Li Wei said in earnest, "Order every fleet to first-grade combat readiness. By no means whatever are these cursed bugs to get past our line!"
Xu Yifan clenched his fists, and there was tension and excitement glinting in his eyes; which put him for all the world back in that day's fighting at the Morton star gate.
Only a pity that his abilities did not allow him to fight shoulder to shoulder with that lord again.
But at the least, he could hold the rear for that lord!
The time went by, little by little.
A black mass of hive-race craft appeared within the deep-space telescope's range of observation.
Wherever the eye fell there were Hive Motherships, near enough — from T4 Hive Motherships great as asteroids down to T1 Hive Motherships a hundredfold and a thousandfold smaller.
And with hive-race troop-forms thick past counting besides.
Which gave one a terrifying sense of being pressed down upon.
And behind these hive-race fleets there was besides an imperial fleet, wholly out of keeping with them.
Aboard one T4 Starlight Emperor-class Medium Carrier Starship · bridge.
Marshal Zhong Yan, one of the Empire's Five-Star Marshals, sat in the captain's chair, looking at the distant line that was, to his eyes, laughable.
"Report the enemy's numbers." Marshal Zhong Yan said it with a cold laugh.
"Report — the enemy have built defensive positions, with a number of defensive satellites and installations within them. And 8,000 warships besides. The great majority T2-grade, with a small number of T3s!" the adjutant answered.
"8,000?" Marshal Zhong Yan treated it with contempt. Defensive power of that order, set before his imperial fleet and the hive-race fleets, was as brittle as a sheet of thin paper.
"Use the equipment to pass the order to the hive-race fleets. Have them open the attack and destroy every warship opposite!" Marshal Zhong Yan said.
With their growing familiarity with these hive-race fleets under His Majesty's hand, Zhong Yan and the other marshals had all of them grown used to the hive-race's existence.
There might be some loathing and resistance at the bottom of their hearts, but it had to be granted that these hive-race fleets truly were a fighting race exceedingly well suited to a battlefield!
And above all to serving as cannon fodder!
For which they could hardly have been more fitting.
He could imagine already what would happen shortly: those bare 8,000 enemy warships would come apart after a single round of the hive-race's attack.
His Majesty had given him 10 days to destroy the Northern Goose Group.
10 days?
There was no want of 10 days; 10 hours would be enough to level the Northern Goose Group!
The order went down.
The hive-race fleets opened the attack first, a black mass of them charging forward like the roaring of mountains and the rising of seas.
And the Northern Goose defensive fleet, facing that assault, was not the least dismayed.
Until the hive-race fleets came within a certain range.
Whereupon interstellar missiles came screaming out of the defensive positions, one after another, and fell upon the hive-race fleets.
And the firelight of the blasts swallowed one Hive Mothership after another!
"Report — the Northern Goose First Missile Echelon has completed its attack!" a subordinate reported.
"Resupply at once; the remaining four missile echelons are to attack in rotation. And mind: the hive-race fleets must be held beyond the red line without fail!" Li Wei pointed at three lines upon the holo-table.
The green line, which the hive-race fleets had only just now touched.
Then the yellow line.
And the red line, which stood very near indeed to the closest defensive position; should the hive-race fleets rush this far, they could all but deliver a ruinous blow upon the Northern Goose defensive fleet.
And the reason Li Wei had confidence of holding the enemy—
was the trump Zhao Chen had granted him earlier.
Production rights over the T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship!
Earlier, Zhao Chen had opened production rights over the T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship to the Northern Goose Group.
And Li Wei had at once begun producing this missile ship in quantity.
Why had the Owl Dragon Legion risen?
Why had it worked wonder after wonder upon the battlefield?
It rested upon interstellar missile ships.
From the T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship to the T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship.
In the earliest days, even when Zhao Chen had granted the Northern Goose Group technical authorization for the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser—
he had not at the time opened the T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship.
That being on account of the particular nature of interstellar missile ships.
And afterward, having the technical authorization—
Li Wei had sat up through the night going over the whole body of data on the T2 Lion King, and having finished it, was too excited to sleep for several days.
Too practical for words!
One could produce one's own interstellar missiles, and set them together with a missile ship — which was simply an engine of slaughter.
And after that, T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships were built in quantity, and a portion of them sold outward.
They served in the Chu family's legion fleets, the North Wind Star Region's fleets, and the Princess Royal Fleet.
But the greatest number of them was in fact still with the Northern Goose Group!
A full thousand in service!
Just so.
Of Li Wei's Northern Goose defensive fleet of 5,000 warships, one fifth were T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships.
And with a very ample stock of interstellar missiles besides.
And even without the stock, with 20,000 T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships at his back, was he to worry over having no missiles?
Heh, heh, heh. What a joke.
Li Wei divided these thousand T2 Lion Kings into five echelons, so that a staircase bombardment could be laid on.
And he gave the order besides that interstellar missiles were not to be spared.
Once resupply was complete, they were to go on firing for him!
Fire as much as could be fired.
And whichever T2 Lion King had put out the greatest number of missiles by the campaign's end would have a great reward besides!
Beyond the Northern Goose defensive fleet's line, the blasts of the missiles formed sea after sea of fire.
Splendid past all measure.
And Hive Motherships without number came apart in four and five pieces beneath those blasts.
Only now had the war formally begun!