"Commander-in-Chief, these bugs are too vexing. They pose no great threat to our fleet, granted, but the numbers of them are truly too many. To blast them with interstellar missiles is somewhat wasteful, but with regular ship's guns the consumption is very great too." Secretary-Officer Chu Xuan looked at how matters stood with the Owl Dragon First Legion, and said it helplessly.
The hive-race off those planets were like a school of sharks that has caught the scent of blood, and came swarming one and all upon the Owl Dragon First Legion.
Zhao Chen's face was dark; since he had guessed at the fine work Qin Xiaotian had done—
his mood had not been good.
"Can it be established that the great majority of the planets in this system are held by the hive-race?" Zhao Chen asked it suddenly.
Charlotte's expression changed, and she looked at him with something complicated in her eyes.
"It can be established in the main. The number of survivors upon each habitable planet is absolutely no more than 0.001% of the original population!" Secretary-Officer Lilith reported.
Zhao Chen drew a deep breath, and said in a low voice, "We have no time to waste here. Pass my order. Strike the planets along our route directly — and above all those bug-worlds we have not yet stirred up; attack them with interstellar missiles from long range!"
At the hearing of this order, the space about Zhao Chen fell quiet a moment.
"Carry out the Commander-in-Chief's order." Until Charlotte said it in earnest.
And Lilith, Chu Xuan and the rest at once set about giving out the new orders.
An ordinary-seeming order — and yet every one of them understood what lay behind it.
It meant that the Owl Dragon Legion was next to destroy the whole ecology of every habitable planet in this system.
Survivors might yet remain upon them; but in the attack that followed, those survivors would die utterly.
Some tens of thousands, perhaps. Some hundreds of thousands. Perhaps some millions.
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair and let out a heavy breath, as though releasing the feeling pressed down in his chest.
Charlotte stood behind him and pressed at his temples.
"Am I… not yet fit for the post of Commander-in-Chief?" Zhao Chen said it with a bitter smile.
He had given the order; but there was no denying that within himself he was in struggle and in pain.
"No! You are an excellent Commander-in-Chief as you are; you made this decision without any hesitation at all. And as for the pain and the struggle within you— that shows you are a leader worth our following. I do not wish my Commander-in-Chief to become a man cold-blooded and without feeling, who can give an order to destroy a system's planets as he pleases and have no stir of feeling nor weight upon his mind at all. For my sake, and for our Owl Dragon Legion's. Commander-in-Chief, keep that feeling in you." Charlotte said it softly at his ear.
Zhao Chen said nothing; he raised his head and looked at the holographic projection of the space beyond the hull.
By his order, this T4 Blue-Eyes White Dragon-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Battleship he stood aboard had already sighted upon the nearest planet.
The bow cannon charging, and every main and secondary gun trained in one direction.
For all that there were no few hive-race swarms in that direction still.
The main and secondary guns opened fire first.
Some of these attacks struck the larger hive-race units and turned them into so many balls of fire.
And some passed on through, and struck the planet behind them outright.
One could see gyres of 'fireworks' appearing upon the planet's surface.
And now the T4 Blue-Eyes White Dragon's bow cannon stood ready as well.
Charlotte did not ask the Commander-in-Chief again, but gave the order to fire directly.
The Commander-in-Chief carried enough already; some decisions they could make in his stead.
The silver-white beam tore through every swarm along its way, and came down at last like a pillar of light out of the sky, striking the surface of that planet.
The strike raised an enormous fireball spreading outward all about, and the scene of it was for all the world a spark thrown into a field of grass, the flame sweeping out at once on every side.
Destroying every living thing upon the planet!
An attack of that degree could not destroy the planet itself, but it sufficed to change the planet's ecology; and with no hand from outside, this planet would very likely become uninhabitable from this day, and bring forth no life at all for a very, very long time.
"Give the Owl Dragon Second Legion and the Owl Dragon Third Legion the same order," Zhao Chen said in a low voice.
"Yes." Lilith glanced at the Commander-in-Chief, whose gaze had gone deep, and began raising the other two Owl Dragon Legions.
Presumably those two had met with the same case.
Perhaps their commanders had already made the same decision; perhaps they had not.
But with this order from the Commander-in-Chief at least, the weight of guilt in those two commanders' hearts would be a good deal lighter.
"From our present position, how long to fight our way to Qin Xiaotian's home base?" Zhao Chen asked it in no good tone.
"If every system stands in a case like this— it may want a week at the least," Charlotte answered.
"It seems our trump must be brought out." Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes. "Pass my order: once this system is cleared, raise the Owl Dragon Interstellar Missile-Ship Special Fleet at once and prepare for interstellar jump. And notify the other two Owl Dragon Legions: the plan of battle as it stood is revised, and they are to join with us first."
Charlotte took his meaning at once.
The plan of battle as it had stood was a rolling advance on three lines, which would add to the difficulty of the enemy's defense.
But in the case as it stood, all Zhao Chen was thinking of was speed.
He had decided to turn the three lines into one, and to bring forward the hour at which the Owl Dragon Interstellar Missile-Ship Special Fleet entered the field.
On the one hand it quickened the assault's efficiency; on the other, Zhao Chen was truly angry.
He would have given anything now to steer his fleet straight up in front of Qin Xiaotian and put 100 rounds of his Blue-Eyes White Dragon's bow cannon somewhere unmentionable.
"Five days! I give you five days and no more. Within five days we must fight our way to Qin Xiaotian's home base!" Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte and said it with great gravity.
Charlotte said with confidence, "With the arrangement so set, within 100 hours I shall have the Commander-in-Chief looking upon Qin Xiaotian's home base without fail."
"And give the Owl Dragon Fourth Legion and the Owl Dragon Interstellar Stealth-Bomber Special Fleet their new combat orders besides," Zhao Chen said.
And at that same time, Qin Xiaotian, still upon the Starlight Empire's Imperial Capital Star—
learned as well what had happened in his own Snow-Swallow Star Region.
At the first instant he saw the report, he came near to fainting away.
At the outset he was furious, and would have given anything to have Qin Longcheng cut to 1,000 pieces.
For though everything he had done before had been for the Starlight Empire's throne—
he had not gone so far as to be utterly lost to all conscience.
He began trying to raise Qin Longcheng; but Qin Longcheng, of all things, could not be reached.
And in the end only one message came through to him.
"Let Your Majesty rest easy. In the matter of the Snow-Swallow Star Region, the whole of it was Qin Longcheng acting alone and against all counsel. "And upon the day of victory, Your Majesty may use Qin Longcheng's head to quench the fury of the Empire's people!" Seeing this, Qin Xiaotian could not speak for a long while."