The Northern Goose Group's field.
The state of the Northern Goose defensive fleet's fighting was graver by far than the Chu Wen system's!
For here there was a quasi-T5 Leviathan-Monarch-class Hive Mothership presiding.
Across the defensive depth the Northern Goose fleet had laid out one could see asteroid after asteroid destroyed, and the wreckage of warships drifting here and there.
What little remained of the Northern Goose defensive fleet could only fall back upon the last line.
And behind that line stood the Northern Goose Group's industrial base.
"This cursed crew have dragged us out so long!" Marshal Zhong Yan looked at the state of the field in vexation.
Destroying the Northern Goose Group's industrial base did now seem a thing that would come as water finds its channel.
But the course of getting there left Marshal Zhong Yan thoroughly dissatisfied.
A fight he had thought would be finished in 10 hours.
Dragged out to now — and there was no telling which 10 hours this was.
And the enemy, leaning upon a bare 5,000 warships to begin with, had cost them near 15,000 Hive Motherships and 5,000 imperial warships!
Were that to get out, it was simply a slap at his own face as a marshal and a commander.
And in the course of it he had found out too why the other side had been able to drag on this long.
The first reason was the T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships' unceasing missile attacks.
Marshal Zhong Yan believed that over this span the missile ships opposite had absolutely dropped above 100 million missiles here; the consumption in missiles alone was an astonishing figure.
Had it not been for those missiles, terrifying in number and astonishing in power, the bare 5,000 warships opposite could never have held off his host.
And the other reason was that the other side, leaning upon the Northern Goose Group's starship works, had of all things gone on supplying the field with warships without a break.
The Northern Goose defensive fleet upon the field looked to have only 5,000 warships; but in fact these last days had produced at the least 10,000.
Happily, all of them T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers, not warships of any particular threat.
But that had its own advantage: they made very low demands upon crew, and their value for money was exceedingly high.
Once a T2 Tibetan Mastiff came off the line, crew were arranged aboard directly, and it was made a fighting unit at the greatest speed there was.
Which meant that this Tibetan Mastiff class had been sent onto the front line by the Northern Goose defensive fleet wave upon wave.
As often as not, a newly built Tibetan Mastiff's life might not pass 48 hours.
And there was one on record that set a 'service record' of under half an hour.
And it was under the Northern Goose defensive fleet's resistance, stubborn as this, that their assault had been put off to today.
"Today! Today! You are to tear the cursed line opposite wide open for me, and destroy every interstellar industrial ship of the Northern Goose Group!" Marshal Zhong Yan said with his fists clenched.
And the greatest reason for his confidence was that that quasi-T5 Leviathan-Monarch had now steamed within range of fire of the Northern Goose's last line, and could threaten what remained of the defensive fleet directly.
Before this quasi-T5 Leviathan-Monarch, the small fry in front of him could not hold out at all!
Today every enemy ship could be destroyed without fail!
"Report — a great body of warships has suddenly appeared behind our fleet, and the hull blazons are the Owl Dragon Legion's!" the adjutant reported urgently.
"What! The Owl Dragon Legion? Is the Owl Dragon Legion not supposed to be tied down in the Snow-Swallow Star Region? How should they appear here!" Marshal Zhong Yan was greatly astonished.
The Owl Dragon Legion's formidable fighting ability he had seen for himself in the first civil war.
For all that one legion fleet held a bare 3,000 warships, it could kill an enemy several times its number without leaving a scale of them.
Thinking back on it now, there was some fright in it still.
"It does not appear to be the Owl Dragon First, Second or Third Legion," the adjutant answered.
Marshal Zhong Yan knit his brows. "Can it be a newly established Owl Dragon Legion?"
He had heard the Owl Dragon lord possessed a very deep starship industry — the Northern Goose Group was itself something he had reared.
To rear up one more Owl Dragon Legion within so short a span was not an impossible thing.
But an Owl Dragon Legion reared in a short span should not have fighting power reaching the degree of its three elders.
"Pass my order. The rear ranks of the imperial fleet and the rear ranks of the hive-race fleet are to turn about at once and defend against the Owl Dragon Legion appearing behind us. On the frontal field, keep up the attack. The enemy's Owl Dragon relief has come for one end — to stop us wrecking the Northern Goose Group! And I mean to have them watch, wide-eyed, while I destroy the Northern Goose Group!" Marshal Zhong Yan said with a savage grin.
Under Marshal Zhong Yan's arrangement, the whole fleet split in two, making ready to fight fore and aft at once.
While that quasi-T5 Leviathan-Monarch went on pressing the Northern Goose defensive fleet!
Owl Dragon Fourth Legion · T4 Fallen-Angel-class Super-Heavy Carrier Starship, Ship No.1 · bridge.
Su Lan stood at the command platform, and before her was the holo-table of the interstellar field.
"The enemy has split into two roads, meaning to engage us on one hand while destroying the Northern Goose Group's last line on the other!" The adjutant looked at Commander Su Lan nervously.
This was the Owl Dragon Fourth Legion's first true action; and though she had served as captain and as secretary-officer aboard other starships—
to assist a commander in directing a whole legion fleet was her first time at it.
"Happily we have not come too late." Su Lan looked at the tottering Northern Goose defensive fleet.
Su Lan looked round at her own adjutant, a beast-folk with fluffy brown fur and round ears.
She was a beast-folk — of the squirrel folk, it seemed — by the name of Song Xiaxia.
She had been a year and a half with the Owl Dragon Legion.
"Xiaxia, don't be nervous. Simply take all of this for an ordinary battle and it will serve." Su Lan looked at her adjutant Song Xiaxia and comforted her.
Song Xiaxia drew a deep breath and looked at Su Lan with admiration; the two were of like age, and yet Commander Su Lan could face all of this so calmly — truly splendid, and no wonder she was equal to a legion commander's post.
What Song Xiaxia did not know, in truth, was that Su Lan was very nervous within as well.
But she knew that her nervousness must not be seen by her subordinates.
"Execute the regular combat strategy. The interstellar gunships and missile ships deliver the fire strike first; the carrier starships launch the drone swarms and the fighters; after which the escorts and destroyers, in concert with the battleships, roll the line forward. And the cruisers and battlecruisers stand ready at any moment to cut in and carve the enemy's formation apart!" Su Lan gave the orders calmly.
"Yes!" Song Xiaxia set about laying it out at once.
Three T4 Gorgon-class Heavy Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ships and 50 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships locked upon the target area.
And the attacks of both began together!
A bombardment that blotted out the sky swept over the imperial fleets and hive-race fleets under Marshal Zhong Yan's hand.
Marshal Zhong Yan looked at the enemy's powerful suppressing fire, and minded it not at all.
"Wait, then! Wait until your Northern Goose base is destroyed and my quasi-T5 Leviathan-Monarch comes back — and then I'll give this crew of you something to see!"
In Marshal Zhong Yan's plan, he would take the Northern Goose industrial base first, then turn about and gather his whole strength to annihilate the Owl Dragon Fourth Legion before him.
Tick.
In the radar system beside Marshal Zhong Yan, one exceedingly tiny signal point flashed by — its individual return area about that of a shuttle!
The crewman watching the radar did not notice it; and even the ship's system took it for an escape pod or a shuttle or some such object upon the field, and raised no alarm.