The Snow-Swallow second system
A T4 Star-Radiance-Emperor-class Medium Carrier Starship · the bridge
Qin Longcheng sat in the captain's chair. There was something haggard about him at this hour; half his hair had gone white.
The adjutant at his side looked at the Marshal in his poor state of mind and swallowed in some anxiety.
Across these several days he had watched with his own eyes as Marshal Qin Longcheng went from an imperial marshal of overbearing, free-and-easy bearing to this present figure of some decay.
Had it not been for the imperial uniform he wore, and the five-star marshal's badge upon his breast, anyone meeting him for the first time would find it hard, at a guess, to believe that this was an imperial marshal at all.
And the whole of it went back to the day Marshal Qin Longcheng gave the order to loose that hive-race virus in the systems about them.
"Kh-kh-kh…" Qin Longcheng broke suddenly into violent coughing, and took up a handkerchief at random to cover his mouth.
The coughing stopped; Qin Longcheng lowered the handkerchief, and saw upon it a smear of red.
Seeing it, the adjutant at his side said hurriedly, "Marshal, you are unwell — I shall send for a physician at once."
"Stand where you are. I know what is the matter with my own body. There is no need to send for a physician." Qin Longcheng said it with a sullen face.
The adjutant's steps froze where he stood — anxious for the Marshal's health on the one hand, and on the other not daring to go against the Marshal's order.
For these several days the Marshal's temper had been most unstable; there had even been crew members shot dead on the spot by the Marshal for going against a single word of his.
One of them upon the bridge itself!
Adjutant though he was, no one could promise what a Marshal in this present state of mind might do.
Qin Longcheng threw the handkerchief away. He knew his own state. He was indeed ill — but not with an illness of the body. It was an illness of the heart.
He had a demon in him now.
From the moment he gave that order, the demon had been there.
Those lives above 1 trillion would go on tormenting him until the day he went down to hell.
"How does the field stand now? Can it be assured that the Owl Dragon Legion will not fight its way here?" Qin Longcheng asked it darkly.
The adjutant answered at once, "Your subordinate has, by the Marshal's instruction, drawn every one of the mutated hive-race cultivated in the systems about us onto the Owl Dragon Legion's line of advance. By the latest intelligence we have, the Owl Dragon's three legions entire are encircled by mutated hive-race in the hundreds of millions; far from encroaching upon us here, they can scarcely preserve themselves."
Qin Longcheng shut his eyes.
If so, that was of course best of all.
Your Majesty… I hold it for you…
"Report — latest word! The Owl Dragon Legion has broken through the Eric system and entered the edge-space bordering our own system! Reckoning by the speed of the Owl Dragon Legion's all-T3 warships, they are expected to enter our system in five hours! And behind them there follow great numbers of mutated hive-race besides. Those mutated hive-race swarms are wholly out of control now, and are expected to follow the Owl Dragon Legion into our system!" A comm trooper reported it out of nowhere.
The adjutant's body gave a jolt; he looked in his tension at Marshal Qin Longcheng, who lay back in the captain's chair with his eyes shut.
Several minutes passed.
And the adjutant heard no stir from Marshal Qin Longcheng at all.
He gulped, went to Qin Longcheng's side, and called softly, "Marshal…"
In the next second Qin Longcheng erupted, and had the adjutant by the throat.
The adjutant's feet left the ground; his whole face flushed red with the choking.
And he saw too that Marshal Qin Longcheng's eyes were bloodshot, and his look was that of a devil.
"What did he say just now!"
"Marshal… I… I…" The adjutant could get no words out; his eyes were on the point of rolling back.
And then, of a sudden, he felt air come into his windpipe, and he dropped to sit hard upon the floor.
But he did not wait to come back to himself; he knelt at once upon the ground, not daring to lift his head, and said in humble terror, "Marshal! Just now… just now we received the latest intelligence. The Owl Dragon Legion… is expected to enter our system in five hours. Our… plan… has failed."
"Ha ha ha ha… ha ha ha… ha ha ha…" Marshal Qin Longcheng laughed like a madman.
Everyone on the bridge kept his head down over his own work at that hour; even those with nothing in hand feigned work, and did not dare look the Marshal's way.
"I spent… I spent the good name of my whole life, spent the lives of… living souls in their trillions… and I cannot… cannot… cannot even hold back the Owl Dragon Legion! Why! Why! You tell me why!" Marshal Qin Longcheng, out of his mind, fell to kicking the adjutant where he knelt.
The adjutant lay flat upon the floor, not daring so much as to move; his body hurt, and still he dared not make the least sound.
"Marshal… the Owl Dragon Legion, out of nowhere, produced… great numbers of interstellar missile ships, and leaning upon those missile ships' attacks in echelon, they tore an opening clean out of the mutated hive-race's encirclement. By the observation of the interstellar scouts we sent… the Owl Dragon Legion loosed at the least 1 million… interstellar missiles of T3 grade!" the comm trooper said, hardening himself to it.
"Interstellar missile ships… 1 million… interstellar missile ships?" At this Qin Longcheng seemed to come to himself a good deal.
He went to the holographic interstellar holo-table — the interstellar holo-table blueprinted upon this system of his own.
"By which quarter does the Owl Dragon Legion enter our system?" Qin Longcheng demanded.
The adjutant coughed blood and got to his feet, and went staggering to Qin Longcheng's side, and by the intelligence material in his hands made his edits upon the interstellar holo-table.
Adding the Owl Dragon Legion's line of advance.
"And how much fighting strength has the Owl Dragon Legion left now?" Qin Longcheng asked again.
The adjutant answered with the greatest care, "To this hour the Owl Dragon Legion's losses in warships stand at some 500… but! One may infer that the Owl Dragon Legion's expenditure of combat resources is exceedingly great. And their soldiers, under high-intensity fighting of this kind over so long a stretch, must certainly be weary. While we wait at our ease for a tired enemy — the advantage lies absolutely with us!"
"Only 500 lost… and great numbers of interstellar missile ships still… do you know how many interstellar missiles they have left?" Qin Longcheng looked to the adjutant.
This time the adjutant lowered his head and said, trembling, "That… that… that we do not know either…"
"Just so. Interstellar missiles are the Owl Dragon Legion's trump card. We had it on intelligence before that aboard the interstellar transports and supply ships that travel with their fleets, a very great part of the holds are given over to storing interstellar missiles." Perhaps Marshal Qin Longcheng truly had come to himself; he flew into no rage over the want of intelligence.
Instead he fell to analyzing it coolly.
"However it stands, we must hold this place to the death. Since the Owl Dragon Legion has not been destroyed by the mutated hive-race, then let me destroy them with my own hand!" Qin Longcheng's crimson eyes were thick with the will to kill!