Seeing his own line unable to take a single blow before the mutated hive-race—
Qin Longcheng understood at last, and thoroughly, wherein the hive-race's terrible strength lay.
Left no choice, he could only bring out his last device of all.
"Hive-race fleets — the whole force, press in!" Qin Longcheng gave the order.
30,000 Hive Motherships began to advance; set against the frenzied mutated hive-race opposite, one could plainly see that Qin Longcheng's hive-race fleets here were a great deal more 'composed.'
Of course… that was only up until the two sides collided.
When the hive-race fleets and the mutated hive-race went at one another head-on, the scene of the fighting was savage indeed.
It was for all the world like flinging a pack of war-loving beasts into a single dueling ground.
The hive-race fleets' advantage lay in their considerable number of Hive Motherships, and in their high-grade hive-race unit types.
On the mutated hive-race's side the great majority were low-grade hive-race units; though a rare few had evolved into a form resembling a Hive Mothership, in both number and quality they fell short of the hive-race fleets.
But!
The mutated hive-race's advantage was that their numbers truly were vast beyond measure.
Mutated hive-race in their hundreds of millions came on wave upon wave against the hive-race fleets' Hive Motherships.
One Mothership after another had its body torn at by the mutated hive-race that flung themselves upon it and bit down, and this brought Mothership after Mothership down in succession.
The 30,000 Hive Motherships began to dwindle without cease.
Qin Longcheng looked at the wretched state of the field before him, and then looked at the time.
This war had already run 20 hours.
The deep-space telescopes were essentially of no further use, for his fleets, too, were near enough ringed about on every side by mutated hive-race.
To this hour there remained under his hand fewer than 1,000 imperial warships; with the remnants of the Prince Yan legion fleets as their core, and a Prince Yan military fortress as their anchor point, they had built a last line of defense.
This Prince Yan military fortress, otherwise named the 'Snow-Swallow First Research Institute,' was in fact the place Prince Yan had built earlier for the study of hive-race technology.
This was the one place Qin Longcheng could still hold; beyond it, the planets had already sunk into a sea of bugs.
Over these 20 hours, the 30,000 ships of the hive-race fleets under Qin Longcheng's hand had, fighting hard to this hour, been left with only 3,000 Hive Motherships.
And the mutated hive-race, by contrast?
No one could reckon just how many they had lost; one knew only that their numbers seemed inexhaustible.
For… this was, after all, Qin Longcheng's own handiwork.
Mutated hive-race 'hatched' out of several trillion living souls.
"Does this count as eating the fruit of what I myself have sown?" Qin Longcheng sat in the captain's chair, smiling bitterly.
The adjutant beside him looked at Qin Longcheng; half his hair had gone white, and at this hour he seemed, set against a few tens of hours ago, to have aged 30 or 40 years.
"How do matters stand over on the Owl Dragon Legion's side?" Qin Longcheng lifted his head, his clouded gaze going to the adjutant, his voice grown somewhat spiritless.
The adjutant called up the imagery the radar had scanned.
One could see a triangular zone opposite, with a great many warship energy-signals within it; and set against that radar imagery of 20 hours before—
one would find that there was, of all things, no great difference between the two.
"How have they done it?" There was something dazed in Qin Longcheng's expression.
The adjutant had no words.
20 hours, and their own formation had been battered into a shambles; had it not been for the hive-race fleets holding the array, by now they would, at a guess, long since have been devoured clean by the mutated hive-race.
And yet the Owl Dragon Legion's line opposite was as firm as it had been at the first!
It was truly hard to believe.
Could it be… that the gap between them and the Owl Dragon Legion was truly so wide?
"We've lost…" Qin Longcheng leaned back against the captain's chair, all spirit gone out of him, and laughed at himself. "We have lost, thoroughly and utterly."
The adjutant looked at Marshal Qin Longcheng. He knew that this time they were well and truly finished here; their being wholly destroyed by the mutated hive-race was merely a matter of time.
But the adjutant said, unwilling still to give up, "Even if there is no doubt we must die, at the least we can drag the Owl Dragon Legion onto the road with us! They too must be unable to shake off their present pass now; their being encircled and annihilated by the mutated hive-race is merely a matter of time."
Qin Longcheng shook his head with a mocking laugh. "You think the Owl Dragon Legion will perish together with us? That Owl Dragon lord is not so stupid as that. Since he dared lay out a combat plan so risky, he must certainly have a plan of his own. That plan may cost his Owl Dragon Legion certain losses, but at the least the Owl Dragon Legion will not perish here together with us."
Qin Longcheng's gaze went hard. "Where is the Doctor now! Bring him to me! Whatever happens, he must not fall into Zhao Chen's hands."
Since their present pass held death and no life, Qin Longcheng resolved to destroy everything of any value whatsoever.
The adjutant understood the meaning in the Marshal's words, and went at once to see to it.
He arranged for men to search the research institute within this military fortress for the Doctor.
A dozen-odd minutes later.
They had their report.
"Report — we have searched every area within the institute; the Doctor is not to be found!" a soldier reported.
The adjutant looked to the Marshal in astonishment. "Marshal… the Doctor cannot be found…"
Qin Longcheng laughed despite himself; he covered his face, and there was something crazed in him. "I knew this fellow was absolutely no ordinary thing. He would not help His Majesty for no reason at all. He must have some purpose of his own behind it. His Majesty's cooperating with him was bargaining with the tiger for its hide; I hope only that His Majesty may take in what I said before, and be wary of this fellow."
"Then… that thing left here earlier… are we to activate it?" the adjutant asked with the greatest care.
Qin Longcheng thought of that other research plan in the Doctor's charge; there had been 10 results at the time, and one of them lay within the Snow-Swallow First Research Institute.
By Qin Xiaotian's earlier arrangement, should anything occur that led to the Snow-Swallow First Research Institute's fall, then this thing was to be activated.
Qin Longcheng shut his eyes, and after thinking a while—
he shook his head and said, "Enough. It is enough already. We have done enough as it is. Let us leave this star system a little hope. Though it cannot absolve the sin we bear upon us."
The adjutant fell silent, and stood quietly at the Marshal's side, ready to pass these last few hours together with him.
……
And meanwhile, on the other side.
The Owl Dragon Legion's defensive position.
"By the state of our radar scans, Qin Longcheng's imperial fleets have fewer than 1,000 ships remaining, and the hive-race fleets no more than 30,000. And with them locked in hard fighting against the mutated hive-race now, the situation does not admit of much optimism. In no more than five hours at the most, Qin Longcheng's forces will have fallen entirely upon this field," Secretary-Officer Chu Xuan reported to Zhao Chen.
Charlotte stood at Zhao Chen's side, and said, "It is about time."
"Can your First Legion complete the task? Do you need me to have the Second and Third Legions assist you?" Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte.
Charlotte shook her head, her eyes on the interstellar holo-table. "Over the 20 hours of fighting past, the Second Legion and the Third Legion have been much worn down. Now it is our First Legion's turn to take the baton. Set your mind at rest, Commander-in-Chief — we of the First Legion guarantee the final combat task will be completed!"