The Dragon-folk Tenth Fleet Group — flagship
Robert paced back and forth upon the bridge in agitation, his expression anxious.
At this point the communication he had waited so long for came through at last, and a holographic image appeared before Robert.
"Leona! Excellent — I never thought it would be you come to relieve us. Quickly! Quickly, think of something. Your uncle cannot bear another second in this cursed place." Robert looked at Leona anxiously.
Seeing this uncle of hers in so worthless a state, Leona truly had anger with nowhere to put it.
But what was to be done, her mother having only this one younger brother — whom she doted upon as though he were a son besides, granting him every demand he made?
With ability of his sort, in her own hands, never mind supreme commander of a Dragon-folk fleet group; had he been made captain of a single interstellar warship she would have felt her warship insulted.
"Why have you not simply broken out?" Leona demanded.
"Broken out? How is one to break out? The Owl Dragon Legion has laid down great numbers of warp interceptors on all four sides of us — those things… are far too advanced. 100 times more advanced than our Warhammer's. It is not that I have not tried. Only a few days ago I quietly arranged for 300 interstellar warships to make warp navigation and attempt a breakout. And the result! Intercepted outright — and annihilated entire the very next second! That crew… that crew even transmitted the footage of the fight to me…" Robert's eyes were nothing but terror.
One could see he now had no will to fight whatever.
"Then break out all together; let those 20,000 ships of the other tribes' fleets cover you. You have 30,000 interstellar warships of your own. I do not believe the Owl Dragon Legion's fewer than 20,000 combat-type interstellar warships can truly stop you!" Leona urged.
Robert shook his head in panic. "No! No! We are now wholly under the Owl Dragon Legion's close surveillance. A small-scale breakout might do; at a large-scale breakout they would attack us at the first instant. Their… interstellar warships are too… too powerful!"
This coward.
Leona cursed him inwardly. In truth she cared nothing for this uncle's life or death; indeed, had the man not been her uncle, having caused the loss of a Dragon-folk fleet group of 30,000 interstellar warships—
she would have wished to send him before a military tribunal.
Had he been able to die in the course of a breakout, she could then naturally have given her mother some accounting of it.
But she had not thought that this fellow, a fleet group's supreme commander no less, should now be frightened into so craven a state by the Owl Dragon Legion.
"Then let us do this. You go on holding the deadlock with the Owl Dragon Legion. We are already in contact with the Holy Radiance Empire; in a month at the most, the combined army of our two sides will attack the Owl Dragon Legion." From the bottom of her heart Leona was unwilling to negotiate with the Owl Dragon Legion.
Which was why, the moment she received this task, her first thought had been to find a way through by way of her uncle.
"No, no! We cannot possibly hold out a month." Robert shook his head again and again.
"Why?" Leona challenged.
Robert at once opened the floodgates, for all the world like a bullied child pouring out his troubles before his mother.
The Dragon-folk Tenth Fleet Group had by now been trapped above a week.
And under ordinary conditions the living stores carried aboard a combat-type interstellar warship suffice for the living needs of everyone aboard for three months; in certain special expeditionary cases a year's worth is prepared.
As for water and the like, they have internal recycling systems, and ordinarily there is no trouble there.
Add to that the interstellar supply ships and interstellar transports accompanying the fleet, which can take on wartime resupply duty.
But over this week the Owl Dragon Legion had not been idle.
First there was the long-sustained dispatch of interstellar drone swarms of every kind to harass the Dragon-folk fleet group — not truly attacking you, but harassing without cease; when you were on guard it withdrew.
And if you were not on guard in time, it would take the chance to fire off a few shots.
Besides that there were two further classes of interstellar warship — interstellar stealth scout ships and interstellar stealth bombers — which came and went like ghosts, launching attacks upon their fleet.
On the very first day they had, with deliberate aim, destroyed every one of their interstellar supply ships and interstellar transports and other auxiliary-type classes.
And after that came a succession of attacks upon the internal systems of certain interstellar warships.
Striking at the ships' engine positions, for instance, at their energy-cycling systems, and so on and so forth.
"For reasons I cannot say, the Owl Dragon Legion seems very familiar with the construction of our interstellar warships. These interstellar stealth bombers and interstellar stealth scout ships can commonly destroy our important program modules with great efficiency. As of now, of our 50,000 interstellar warships here, the overwhelming majority have suffered some degree of impairment. A third of them are worst hit: they have taken electromagnetic interference, which has ruined the food-storage compartments aboard, and great quantities of food have expired and spoiled past use. And then the water-recycling systems are a chief object of their attacks as well; near enough every interstellar warship is now under water rationing. Our fleet's condition worsens by the day; we cannot possibly hold out a month! Leona, hurry and think of a way to save your uncle." Robert said it pleadingly.
Leona knitted her brows; she had not thought the Owl Dragon Legion had done so much.
Small wonder her uncle's condition should be so poor.
By his account, even if they truly held out a month, the 50,000 interstellar warships here would presumably have little combat power left by then.
"I understand. I shall negotiate with the Owl Dragon Legion's side. At the least, I shall guarantee your safety, Uncle." Leona said it helplessly.
It seemed this negotiation of hers with the Owl Dragon Legion must be held after all.
Which put Leona in a very poor humor.
Robert's words of gratitude opposite she found grating past all bearing, and she cut the communication outright.
Leona sat in her own chair, her expression one of disgust.
It was a long while before she calmed herself and said to the subordinate beside her, "Get me the Owl Dragon Legion's supreme commander."
"Yes."
...
"This concerns the handling of the war criminals upon the Black Tiger home star. As you instructed, all war criminals due for execution have been escorted to the site of the Black Tiger Sacred Mountain." Secretary Lilith reported these matters to Zhao Chen.
There was besides an image shot from high above, looking down upon the Black Tiger Sacred Mountain.
What had been a stretch of scorched earth had at this hour, astonishingly, turned blood-red.
And everywhere one could see lances standing upright there, and upon these lances bodies, one after another, dead in wretchedness.
At a glance there were several thousand at the least.
And in the middle of this basin there had even appeared a lake — but that lake was formed of fresh blood.
Besides this, one could see in several areas Black Tiger tribe war criminals undergoing punishment.
Those scenes were too wretched to look upon, for all the world like a hell on earth.
Zhao Chen looked at all this without changing color.
This was precisely what he wanted. He would not slaughter the Black Tiger tribe to the last; what he wanted was to carve this fear deep into the Black Tiger tribe, and to let the other tribes know it.
This was the consequence of angering Zhao Chen.