The Owl Dragon lord's flagship — conference room
In the space of a bare five hours and more.
The Hundred Beasts Alliance tribal leaders invited to the VIP spectators' gallery had at this hour wholly altered that skeptical attitude of before.
What their mouths said most often now was: incredible, hard to believe, is this real?
And words of that kind.
Up to the present a great many of them could not believe the fact before their eyes, and even doubted whether this might be a play the Owl Dragon lord had staged for them.
In the space of a bare five hours, the Owl Dragon Legion had left the Black Tiger Star Region all but paralyzed.
Above half its interstellar warships had already been destroyed.
And what few Black Tiger legion interstellar warships remained were putting up a resistance without meaning.
And this had cost the Owl Dragon Legion a bare five hours and more.
What is a lightning war?
This is a lightning war!
"Well? How does it feel?" Chieftainess Hu Ya, seated beside the veiled figure in black, asked it in a low voice.
The other did not speak.
"What, do you still not believe in my choice? The Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's old order is thoroughly finished. That man has entered the game in the Warhammer, which means the Warhammer will certainly raise a true revolution." Chieftainess Hu Ya said it with some excitement.
The veiled figure in black gave out a hoarse voice, from which one could not tell whether it was a man's or a woman's. "I acknowledge that the Owl Dragon Legion is very strong. But the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth is no soft persimmon either. By the look of things at present, the Owl Dragon Legion's logistical capacity, and above all their reserve of interstellar missiles, is very plainly insufficient. Or else, in this military operation, when attacking those target points— the Owl Dragon Legion could perfectly well have used interstellar missile ships to attack across a broad front. But very plainly they did not. They used them only at certain necessary local fields."
"You are not wrong. The Owl Dragon Legion has only lately got started, and to run so vast a war machine gives one something of… the feeling of a small horse pulling a large cart. But by my understanding of the Owl Dragon Legion's present situation— though the Starlight Empire now has an empress, the actual control lies in this man's hands. Which is to say that behind him there is an empire's worth of resources to be moved," Chieftainess Hu Ya said.
"That problem is only a small problem. The largest problem lies here: do you dare be certain that once this man controls the Warhammer, he will not establish another order that enslaves us?" the veiled figure in black returned.
Chieftainess Hu Ya said gravely, "I have used every method at my disposal to investigate the Owl Dragon Legion, the Owl Dragon star system, and that Owl Dragon lord. By the intelligence I have obtained so far. The Owl Dragon lord is not that sort of man; he will create an environment fit for every race to live in. Or else, do you suppose that old white tiger Ted would be willing to follow the Owl Dragon Legion obediently? Think back to when he raised up the Revolutionary Army — you know that foul temper of his well enough. The more so as he now has his own daughter Charlotte following that man. These signals are plain enough, surely. And even setting all this aside — the Owl Dragon star system you cannot reach. But of the Reef Star Region you can surely learn a thing or two. The power behind the Reef Star Region is the Owl Dragon Legion. Set against the chaos of before, the Reef Star Region's order has now been greatly improved; and the living conditions of the local races and powers alone have quite simply been turned upside down!"
The veiled figure in black fell silent.
And after a long silence said mildly, "I must consider it further."
"You… you obstinate old thing!" Chieftainess Hu Ya grumbled.
"You had better go and see to your daughter now. By the look of it she has fallen to quarreling with that Owl Dragon lord. Come to that, your daughter's temper is exactly like your own; there is nothing she doesn't dare do." The veiled figure in black said it teasingly.
Chieftainess Hu Ya looked over, and sure enough she saw her own daughter Hu Xin'er seemingly 'quarreling' with Zhao Chen over something or other.
Over this stretch Chieftainess Hu Ya had noticed besides that this daughter of hers seemed unable to stomach the Owl Dragon lord at all — though plainly the two of them had had no contact whatever before.
She had asked Hu Xin'er, and Hu Xin'er had had no answer either.
Chieftainess Hu Ya rose and walked over.
And having come close, she understood what the two of them were quarreling about.
Though to call it a quarrel — it should rather be called a one-sided argument on Hu Xin'er's part.
"General Charlotte cannot be let go on like this. If she opens a revenge attack upon the Black Tiger home star— then hereafter, those tribal peoples we attack will certainly resist us to the death! This is most unwise. How is it you do not understand my meaning!" Hu Xin'er was so anxious she was stamping her feet.
She had seen that Charlotte had the impulse to take revenge upon the Black Tiger home star, and had wished to contact Charlotte — and had been dissuaded by Zhao Chen.
"I know your meaning, and I can understand it. Speaking from a rational standpoint. Bombarding the Black Tiger home star will indeed open a gulf between us and those tribes that bear the Revolutionary Army a grudge. And when we come to recover the whole Warhammer map afterward, more trouble may arise from it. Whereas if Charlotte gives up bombarding the Black Tiger home star, and so lets the Black Tiger tribe feel the White-Tiger tribe's mercy— then in the fighting to come they may be induced to surrender and join our camp, yes? And even after a unified order is established in future, they may be brought to blend into us the faster. Whereas otherwise they may in future resist our government." Zhao Chen set out Hu Xin'er's thinking mildly.
"Since you understand all this so clearly, then why will you not contact Charlotte? You need only, upon your standing, give the order to General Charlotte, and she will certainly obey it!" Hu Xin'er said anxiously.
Zhao Chen looked toward the Black Tiger home star's field upon the interstellar holo-table.
"I shall not hand down an order of that kind."
"You… how can you be so impervious!" Hu Xin'er was beside herself.
"What you say has reason in it; but by the same token. Do you know the sea of blood-hatred the White-Tiger tribe have borne these years? He who has not known another's suffering should not urge goodness upon him. Charlotte is mine; whatever choice she makes, whatever order she hands down. I am willing to bear any consequence for her." Zhao Chen said it calmly.
Hu Xin'er was at once at a loss for words; all at once she understood why General Charlotte should be so loyal to this man before her.
Chieftainess Hu Ya at this point came to stand beside Hu Xin'er as well, and laid a hand upon Hu Xin'er's shoulder.
Which gesture meant that Chieftainess Hu Ya would not permit Hu Xin'er to say another word.
At this very moment, at the Black Tiger home star.
"Report. The T4 Banshee-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ship has started up the signal-jamming matrix; no communication signal whatever within that area's range can be transmitted out."
"Report. The T4 Banshee-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ships and the T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ships have established a blockade net about the Black Tiger home star. No flight apparatus of any kind can escape the area!"
"Report. The coordinate positions of every enemy interstellar warship have been confirmed. Our interstellar warships stand ready for battle; awaiting instructions."
Report after report reached Charlotte's ear.
Charlotte sat in the captain's chair, her expression shifting between light and shadow as she looked at that shining Black Tiger home star opposite.
"Open the attack. Destroy every Black Tiger interstellar warship that resists."
The adjutant hesitated a moment, and asked in a low voice, "Commander, is an attack to be launched upon… the Black Tiger home star?"