The Black Tiger chieftain's eyes were bloodshot, his whole body trembling, the fur upon him standing near enough on end.
"Chief… chieftain… we have received a video message sent by the enemy fleet; do… do you wish to see it?" a subordinate said with great care.
"Open it for me!" the Black Tiger chieftain said through gritted teeth.
The video message was opened, and a video window rose before the Black Tiger chieftain.
This footage had several viewpoints; by the look of it, it had been captured by certain interstellar scout ships and interstellar scout craft.
Into the quiet of the footage its 'protagonist' soon came.
10,000 interstellar warships.
The Black Tiger chieftain recognized these interstellar warships at the first moment.
They were precisely the three Black Tiger legion fleets he had arranged for his son to take in relief of the Black Tiger King Naval Port — among them his Black Tiger tribe's most elite force, the Black Tiger King Legion.
The Black Tiger King Legion had great numbers of T3-grade interstellar warships in service, and above 100 T4-grade interstellar warships.
It was the strongest existence among all the Black Tiger tribe's legion fleets.
"Chieftain Durut, it has been a long time. I wonder whether you still remember me." A voice came through, and at one side of the footage there rose a figure seated in a captain's chair, dressed in military uniform.
White fur, a keen look in the eyes, and tiger-fangs that showed the moment she spoke.
This Black Tiger chieftain Durut naturally knew who this person was.
The Valkyrie of the White-Tiger tribe, Charlotte.
"Durut, do you know what the wish of every soul in our White-Tiger tribe has been all these years? It is to avenge our wrongs. You may not remember this place?" Charlotte pointed within the footage at the three Black Tiger tribe fleets sailing there.
Black Tiger chieftain Durut looked carefully, and in an instant it was as though his whole body were steeped in ice water.
He saw in the distance of the image a planet broken to pieces, with a belt of meteors formed about it besides — meteors that had all of them originally belonged to that planet's surface.
"So you have remembered it. That planet was once our White-Tiger tribe's home star. What a beautiful planet it was. In those days our White-Tiger tribe wished to build a better living environment for our tiger race. My grandfather cared nothing for the color of anyone's coat, or their eyes, or how long their fangs were. As he saw it, all of us belonged to the tiger race! He wished to build a mighty tiger race, and for its sake he shared our White-Tiger tribe's technology with you without the least grudging. He even founded a college of higher learning upon that White Tiger home star, and invited the people of your several clans to come and study there. But it is a pity my grandfather did not know. That the technology he imparted would in the end be used by others to destroy that planet! By you! Durut, you betrayed our White-Tiger tribe. And at the last you even sent fleets to carry out an orbital bombardment of our home star lasting seven days and seven nights. And reduced that planet, once so lovely, to the state it is in now!" As Charlotte spoke on, her fangs could not help showing, and a low growl came out of her, her eyes nothing but killing intent.
Black Tiger chieftain Durut said nothing, because what Charlotte said was fact.
For the sake of his own Black Tiger tribe he had betrayed the White-Tiger tribe, and with the Giant Lion tribe's backing had overthrown the White-Tiger tribe's rule.
Perhaps on account of that dread he felt toward the White-Tiger tribe, he had wished to destroy everything connected with them.
And in the end he had handed down the order to bombard that planet, once the most developed civilization within the tiger race.
For seven days and seven nights entire!
"If I remember rightly. Among those who took part in the military operation to bombard the White Tiger home star in that year was your Black Tiger King Legion, was it not? As it happens, today I am here. Let your Black Tiger King Legion pay that blood debt, for the White Tiger home star and for the untold thousands of White Tiger people upon it whom you slaughtered!" With that, Charlotte's gaze went to one side, as though she were speaking to someone.
"Pass my order. Open the attack."
As the order was handed down.
Black Tiger chieftain Durut noticed the Owl Dragon First Legion's interstellar warships, laid in ambush there long since all around.
The first to open the attack were naturally those 50 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships.
The effect of the bombardment was not so magnificent as that of the special missile fleet fitted out with 300 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships, granted.
But against three legion fleets opposite, 10,000 interstellar warships, it was more than sufficient.
And after the interstellar missile ships' attack—
from three directions, three T4 Gorgon-class Heavy Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ships thereupon launched a second round of fire!
Interstellar heavy gun after interstellar heavy gun roared, tearing those Black Tiger tribe interstellar warships apart without mercy.
The three Black Tiger legion fleets' interstellar warships were being destroyed at a speed the naked eye could follow.
Black Tiger chieftain Durut's gaze went unfocused. He raged, he stormed, he wished to curse that stinking bitch opposite aloud.
But he found there seemed to be one more feeling in his heart besides.
Fear.
After this came the Owl Dragon First Legion's regular operational procedure.
Interstellar cruisers and interstellar battlecruisers charged forth, thrusting through the enemy fleet's disordered formation and cutting it apart.
Carrier starships put out interstellar drone swarms and interstellar fighter swarms, seizing command of interstellar airspace and attacking the enemy's interstellar warships.
Interstellar frigates began forming a ring of encirclement about the enemy fleet.
Interstellar destroyers and interstellar battleships took on the final clearing task.
Though there was something different this time.
A very few of the Black Tiger legion's interstellar warships, in the very act of engagement, suddenly fell silent.
And at such times there would commonly appear about them a terrible and lovely shape.
The T4 Banshee-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ship.
These briefly disabled Black Tiger legion interstellar warships were soon pierced through the hull from every direction — fore, aft, left, right, above and below — by T3 Triceratops-class Interstellar Heavy Assault Frigates closing in.
And after that came the dispatch of mecha units for boarding action.
Which took every Black Tiger combatant aboard those ships under control outright.
Among them the Black Tiger King Legion's flagship!
Which was, indeed, an object of particular attention.
At this the Black Tiger chieftain Durut understood at last why his son's corpse should be upon the interstellar warship opposite him at this hour.
Charlotte had done it deliberately.
Black Tiger chieftain Durut watched the footage to its end; from the middle onward it played at accelerated speed.
It was quite simply a one-sided slaughter.
10,000 interstellar warships beaten down by the enemy's 3,000, wholly without the power to strike back.
The fighting time from first to last was, roughly, under half an hour!
The Black Tiger King Legion fleet, Durut's own pride, was for all the world like ants trodden underfoot; those hundred so-called T4 interstellar warships served no purpose whatever.
"Chieftain Durut. Next, it is time we settled our full account." Charlotte's voice sounded again — and that ice-cold voice seemed to cross the space between them and stab straight into Black Tiger chieftain Durut's chest.