Over on Charlotte's side, the disposition of the Owl Dragon First Legion's coming combat task had begun, and that wanted a little preparation time.
Zhao Chen, over on his, looked into the battle losses of the Owl Dragon Second and Third Legions to this hour.
"The Owl Dragon Second Legion has to this hour lost above 500 warships in all, a loss rate reaching 15%; but because the crews of some of our severely damaged warships withdrew in good time, the survival rate of the crews aboard those fallen warships runs as high as 67%, and the crew actually lost comes to some 59,000. The Owl Dragon Third Legion stands somewhat better than the Second: above 300 warships lost, a loss rate of around 10%, with crew lost coming to some 36,000." Secretary-Officer Lilith gave Zhao Chen the figures he had asked for.
Near 100,000 lives given.
Zhao Chen was silent a moment; the look on his face did not alter.
This should be the greatest number of lives given at once since the Owl Dragon Legion's founding.
Had that piece of black-tech not been in hand, these hundred thousand and more would have been truly, genuinely dead.
"Our combat materials stand at 36% remaining; the fighting that remains is estimated to want 30% of our combat resources, so by present appearances it can meet our fleets' needs. Baixue's interstellar missile special fleet, after the steady expenditure of the defensive action before the attack, can barely manage one more saturation missile strike," Secretary-Officer Chu Xuan added by way of explanation.
"Are our Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships ready? They are the key to our withdrawal; there must be no trouble whatever with them." Zhao Chen warned.
"Set your mind at rest, Commander-in-Chief. We shall need at most 15 T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships to project the whole of these warships of ours out smoothly. And we have 20 on call at present! These Lucent-class Jump Ships stand arrayed and ready as well; so long as the jump requirements are met, they can execute the jump task at any moment," Lilith said.
An interstellar jump has its requirements.
The first is that in the span while the Lucent-class Jump Ship is starting up, it must suffer no interference, or the jump will break off.
For which a stretch of starry space must be cleared.
And kept in a state of "no-fly" for a span of time.
"That's right, Lilith. How many jump ships have we left that can still be used?" Zhao Chen asked.
Lilith called up a data window, upon which stood the state of all 50 T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships — their use, and their positions.
"To this hour, 23 T4 Lucent-class Jump Ships have been used and have entered their reset-cooldown phase. The remaining 27 are on standby: 20 of them here with us, and the other seven upon other fields."
Zhao Chen ran an eye over the state of these Lucent-class Jump Ships. It was thanks to these trump cards in hand, too, that Zhao Chen had dared carry out so mad a combat plan.
"Then what follows is Charlotte's to see to." Zhao Chen looked to Charlotte, who was directing the Owl Dragon First Legion.
The new combat task had already begun to be laid out down the line.
The Owl Dragon Legion, which had stood in a triangular defensive position, began slowly to change; the Owl Dragon First Legion formed a conical attack formation.
Crossing beyond the Owl Dragon Second Legion's line, it took the initiative and pressed an attack upon the mutated hive-race.
And at the same time, the other two Owl Dragon legions were both working in concert with the First Legion's movement.
This "Owl Dragon blockhouse," which had held fast and unmoving, set sail once more.
And the direction of its advance was precisely that interstellar military fortress where Qin Longcheng made his last defense.
But it must be borne in mind that among the hive-race fleets locked in the hard fighting between them there was still one Leviathan-Monarch-class Hive Mothership, and it was slaughtering away at the mutated hive-race about it.
For the mutated hive-race to destroy it was very hard; but for the Leviathan-Monarch to destroy all the mutated hive-race was very hard too, and this had brought the two of them to a kind of uncanny balance.
And the Owl Dragon First Legion, which had held its strength in reserve until now, brought out at this hour the whole of its fighting power — its very speed of sailing climbing without cease.
Qin Longcheng noticed the Owl Dragon Legion's movement too.
He supposed the Owl Dragon Legion meant to send him off with their own hands; he sat in the captain's chair and said nothing, for by now he had given up resistance altogether.
Set against being killed by mutated bugs, being destroyed by the Owl Dragon Legion was, in fact, rather a fine thing.
But what he had not looked for was that as the Owl Dragon Legion's fleets came slowly on, there was a deviation in their heading.
They were, of all things, not sailing straight for that last military fortress of the Snow-Swallow; they would merely pass it by.
Qin Longcheng was taken aback a moment; he looked at the Owl Dragon Legion's track, and that direction…
He understood — it came upon him all at once.
That heading was toward this system's two stars.
If he had not guessed wrong, the Owl Dragon Legion would make its interstellar jump between the two stars.
Because two stars amounted to cliffs and precipices standing upon either flank; even the mutated hive-race must reckon with a star's searing heat.
Which greatly reduced the area the Owl Dragon Legion had to defend and hold off, and would make it far easier, when the hour came, to clear the space an interstellar jump required.
Stop them?
The thought had not failed to rise in Qin Longcheng's mind; it was that he truly could not do it now.
All around him were mutated hive-race; his warships were falling one after another, and some mutated hive-race had even boarded this military fortress.
He had no power whatever to stop the Owl Dragon Legion.
The Owl Dragon Legion's fleets sailed slowly on, going first around the zone where the mutated hive-race and the hive-race fleets fought their fierce battle.
Zhao Chen looked at that powerful Leviathan-Monarch's energy signal upon the ship's radar.
Before this, many had supposed that the greatest threat here was this Leviathan-Monarch; yet Zhao Chen paid this Leviathan-Monarch no mind at all.
Who says that facing a powerful enemy, one must destroy it?
I can go around.
The mutated hive-race here were enough to keep this big fellow busy a good long while, and which would win and which would lose was not yet settled.
Before long the Owl Dragon Legion's fleets had sailed to the position nearest that military fortress Qin Longcheng held; the two would cross and pass one another.
But the fates of the two were wholly unalike.
The one was walking toward death; the other would leave this place and go on to a new field.
Qin Longcheng turned his head aside and looked out beyond the bridge's viewport, but could see only a blackened mass, for wherever the eye fell there were mutated hive-race.
Yet he knew the Owl Dragon Legion's fleets were in that quarter.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
And at this moment an electronic window sprang open of a sudden.
"Snow-Swallow First Research Institute detected in a state of danger. Initiating Plan M. Countdown: 1,000 seconds…"
A red countdown panel appeared before Qin Longcheng.
Upon this panel was an uncanny mark, and this mark Qin Longcheng knew: it was one of the Doctor's research projects.
"What is this? Did I not say we were not to activate this!" Qin Longcheng demanded of his adjutant.
The adjutant said, dumbfounded, "We didn't activate it… this… this seems to be a background program starting by default."
"Shut it down at once!" Qin Longcheng ordered.
The adjutant at once sent men to see to it, but the answer soon came back.
It could not be shut down.
Qin Longcheng's face was black. He had meant to do one good thing before he died, and it had come to this after all.
Wait… this thing ought not to start of its own accord, unless… that fellow… had arranged it…
For this was, after all, a thing of his own making!
Qin Longcheng's face darkened; he had not thought that even at the point of death he would be played by that fellow the Doctor.
Qin Longcheng was silent a moment.
He had decided: he would play the Doctor in turn.
You do your worst on the first of the month; do not blame me for doing mine on the fifteenth.
And by then, with the Owl Dragon Legion's attention fixed upon the Doctor, His Majesty might yet have a chance!
"Get me in contact with the Owl Dragon Legion's Zhao Chen — say I have a secret concerning hive-race technology to tell him!"