The Dragon-folk tribe had at present, by open reckoning, 200 legion fleets; and by the Dragon-folk tribe's military system, every 10 legion fleets — 30,000 warships — were formed into one fleet group.
Which is to say, the Dragon-folk tribe had 20 fleet groups, each of 30,000 warships.
But to make out from so brief a video image which of the Dragon-folk tribe's fleet groups these were showed well enough the Black Fox chieftainess's keenness of observation.
Which made Zhao Chen give this handsome Black Fox matron a second look besides.
The Black Fox matron felt Zhao Chen's gaze, and smiled at him faintly.
This woman…
She gave one the feeling of a fruit ripened through — as though water might be pressed from any part of her at any moment.
Set beside her, Lilith seemed a good deal the more youthful.
The video image began to turn, becoming a view of the field from the flank.
From this angle one could see the array on the Owl Dragon Legion's side.
Set against the two Dragon-folk fleet groups opposite, 60,000 warships in all, the Owl Dragon Legion here had a bare 3,000; in array the gap was no small one.
But some scented, too, from the very air of these 3,000 Owl Dragon warships, a certain wrongness.
Those with study in ship technology above all.
"These… could they be… all T3-grade warships?" one councilor asked, shaken.
Charlotte's gaze went to Zhao Chen, as though asking the Commander-in-Chief.
Zhao Chen's finger stirred slightly.
Charlotte thereupon lifted her head and squared her chest with pride. "This is the Owl Dragon Second Legion: 3,000 T3 warships, and above 100 T4-grade warships."
An uproar!
Astonishment!
"Every one of them T3-grade! A single lord of the Starlight Empire has a fleet so powerful as this?"
"And 100 T4 warships besides? Our Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth, counting every last one, has only 1,000 T4-grade warships!"
Charlotte heard one of them say the Warhammer had 1,000 T4-grade warships, and gave a contemptuous laugh, and added mildly, "These hundred T4 warships are T4 in genuine truth — not any manner of quasi-T4."
The meaning in Charlotte's words everyone understood well.
The Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth claimed openly to possess three T4-series warship models, and to hold the greatest number of T4 warships among the Galactic Alliance's three great empires.
But in truth two of those three were merely quasi-T4.
And the one genuine T4 warship was only a T4 Ankylosaur-class Medium Interstellar Frigate.
A frigate, no more.
Though the Revolutionary Army councilors present heard this, they did not wholly believe it; that a single legion fleet should have 100 T4 warships, and genuine T4 warships at that, they truly did not dare credit.
"Chieftainess Hu Ya, you were able to make out these two Dragon-folk fleet groups at once just now. You must surely know their combat data well." Charlotte looked to Chieftainess Hu Ya.
Chieftainess Hu Ya understood Charlotte's meaning, and set it out for them all. "By the intelligence I have. Of the 60,000 warships of the Dragon-folk Thirteenth Fleet Group and the Dragon-folk Seventeenth Fleet Group— there are roughly 60 T4 warships. Beyond that, 6,000 T3 warships; the rest are all T2-grade."
Hearing these figures—
everyone looked with concern toward the video images of the field.
They wished to know what would happen next.
"Sister, does… does the Owl Dragon Legion have any chance of winning this fight?" Midai'er drew close to Charlotte and asked it in a low voice.
Her last contact with the Owl Dragon Legion had been over a year ago; the Owl Dragon Legion had not had so many legions then.
So she had no clear notion what degree the Owl Dragon Legion had developed to.
"What you should ask is whether those two Dragon-folk fleet groups opposite can survive — and how long they can hold before they withdraw," Charlotte said mildly.
Midai'er looked at her sister Charlotte in astonishment; in her sister's eyes she saw a kind of pride.
Not even when her sister Charlotte commanded her own Dragon-Tiger Legion had she worn such a look.
Which made her more curious still: to what degree had that man's Owl Dragon Legion, unseen for over a year, developed, that it could make her sister so confident?
Within the video image—
the Owl Dragon Second Legion's warships had opened out into a combat formation and stood where they were, unmoving.
The two Dragon-folk fleet groups on the other side had spotted the Owl Dragon fleet too, but did not cease sailing; instead they opened out into a crescent combat formation.
A formation of that kind lets as many warships as possible stand upon the foremost line.
Because the Warhammer's fighting style is the charge — they even keep the boarding action in their manner of war.
The councilors within the conference room held their breath, tense over what was to come.
For these were Dragon-folk fleet groups. From the Revolutionary Army's founding to this day, they had never once crossed swords upon the field with a full Dragon-folk fleet group.
And now, opposite, there were two entire — 60,000 warships.
"Those are… interstellar missile ships! How can there be so many of them?" A sharp-eyed councilor noticed something, and pointed at the middle of the Owl Dragon Second Legion's position.
The missile-launching installations of missile ship after missile ship started up.
And thereafter interstellar missiles went out trailing tail-flame, in such numbers… that they came on toward the Dragon-folk fleet groups like a meteor shower.
The interstellar frigates on the two Dragon-folk fleet groups' forward line at once made ready to intercept.
And among them was the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's one genuine T4 warship, the T4 Ankylosaur-class Medium Interstellar Frigate.
But there was nothing to be done: the missiles coming on were truly far too many.
Tens of thousands of them, without a break.
Seen from the flank, it was wave upon wave of a meteoric rain of fire washing over the Dragon-folk fleet groups' positions.
"This… how many interstellar missiles is this…" Even Chieftain Ted was frightened.
Zhao Chen put out a figure mildly. "Near 5 million interstellar missiles… and besides… these are all T3 missile ships."
Within the conference room there was silence again for several breaths.
Near 5 million T3 interstellar missiles.
They watched, in the video image, the Dragon-folk fleet groups' forward positions swallowed by the flame of the missiles' bursting, and that flame beginning to spread toward the fleet groups' middle.
Which showed that the forward line's frigate interception plan had failed utterly.
For this was not a few tens of thousands of missiles, but 5 million.
"How much… must this cost?" Midai'er gulped; what she thought of was the expenditure of resources behind it.
"Some 60 billion star coins," Zhao Chen said, sketching it lightly.
60… 60 billion star coins!
The councilors stared, dumbstruck.
60 billion star coins — there was no telling how many warships that could build; and this man before them had, without so much as batting an eye, flung it out as interstellar missiles.
Zhao Chen took in the look on every one of their faces.
He was satisfied; this effect he had spent several tens of billions on had not been wasted.
What he had not said just now, in fact, was that the one launching this round of missiles was not the Owl Dragon Second Legion at all, but the special fleet that fought alongside it.