"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief: the Owl Dragon interstellar missile ship special fleet has completed the interstellar jump and stands ready. Instructions, please!" The wolf-girl Baixue's video window appeared before Zhao Chen's eyes.
Zhao Chen drew a red circle upon the star chart, taking that remnant of the Demon Race interstellar warships within it.
"This position. Blow it up for me."
"Right you are. Rest easy, Commander-in-Chief. The task is guaranteed done." The wolf-girl Baixue's mouth split into a grin, showing her small tiger-teeth.
Thereafter.
One saw this body of interstellar missile ships, without a single exception, lock every one of them upon the Demon Race interstellar warships opposite.
To speak exactly, it should be 300 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships and one T4 Hell-Angel-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship.
Missile launching installation after missile launching installation came alive.
Interstellar missile after interstellar missile, of every type, stood ready!
And as the order came down from each interstellar warship's captain, every interstellar missile went racing toward its target along the attack lane laid out for it.
Leona and the others, seated in the best places in the house, saw with their own eyes those interstellar missile ships sending out interstellar missiles one after another, one after another.
Shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo—
An astonishing scene, for all the world like a rain of meteor fire.
"This… how many interstellar missiles can this be? How many resources must it consume?" The adjutant beside her gulped.
Leona looked toward the target area upon which this body of interstellar missiles had locked.
Those Demon Race interstellar warships, their electronic systems not yet thoroughly recovered, could not yet raise their star shields.
They could only watch with open eyes as those interstellar missiles drew nearer and nearer to them!
"My God!" The demon adjutant's body swayed a moment, and there was nothing in both his eyes but disbelief.
From this angle of theirs, they could see a strange marvel exactly.
Because that T5 super-starship lay between them and that interstellar missile ship fleet which had suddenly appeared.
Which brought it about that those oncoming interstellar missile strike groups appeared, to their line of sight, to come screaming out from behind that T5 super-starship.
The scene set hearts trembling whether they would or no.
"Quick! Quick! Quick, find a way to get our star-shield defenses up!" the demon commander ordered at the top of his voice.
But the petty officer charged with restarting the star-shield system wiped the sweat from his forehead and said in his difficulty, "The star-shield system on this side will need at least five minutes more to restart."
"Five minutes? I cannot wait five minutes. Those interstellar missiles opposite will not give us five minutes either! I want you to get the star shields up for me now, at once, this instant!" The demon commander seized that demon petty officer outright by the collar of his uniform and roared it out.
The demon petty officer bore his commander's abuse helplessly. This was a thing that could not be altered.
And at this hour, upon the communication system, now recovered to seven or eight parts in 10.
Word had begun by degrees to come in of friendly ships coming under interstellar missile attack.
Even the hull of this flagship, the T4 Demon-Lord-class Interstellar Composite Mothership, began to bear one interstellar missile strike after another without cease.
The demon commander upon the bridge could feel the shaking beneath the soles of his feet.
Were it not for the T4 Demon-Lord-class Interstellar Composite Mothership's vast hull, and the great weight given to its hull defenses, by any estimate it would long since have gone the way of those T4-grade demon warships ahead.
And become, in the interstellar missile bombardment, so many exploding fireballs.
Even the T4 Gargoyle-class Heavy Interstellar Frigate, famed for its defense, could not bear these successive waves of interstellar missile bombardment.
Swathe upon swathe of demon interstellar warships was swallowed in a sea of fire.
And just at this time some part of the demon commander's command functions recovered, and there appeared before his eyes the fleet detail panel of this Demon Race fleet of his.
But at this hour, upon that vast fleet detail panel, above half the roster of interstellar warships had already turned grey.
Which signified that these interstellar warships had all been destroyed.
And of those Demon Race interstellar warships remaining, every one without exception had turned to a flashing red — and thereafter, in a few seconds at the shortest, a dozen-odd seconds at the longest.
That flashing red would vanish away, and become a grey that would never change again.
And the speed of it was exceedingly fast.
In no more perhaps than the space of a blink, some dozens of demon interstellar warships would turn grey before the demon commander's eyes.
In this moment this demon commander, who had held his plans so complete within his breast a while ago, collapsed utterly in his spirit. He sat down before the captain's chair like one out of his wits, staring dully at the 'fireworks' appearing without cease before him.
In these few short minutes he had ridden a roller-coaster of feeling.
First the T5 super-starship's entrance, sweeping away near half his fleet outright.
And then, just as he thought that he too would lose his life beneath that terrible beam.
All of it stopped short, and he thought he had a chance to counterattack after all.
He had even begun to dream of all that was fine.
But very soon all of it was torn to shreds again.
The appearance of the other side's 300 and more interstellar missile ships tore his hope to shreds outright, trod him hard underfoot, and cast him into a pitch-black abyss.
"Warning! Warning! Warning! Whole-ship hull armor integrated strength, 50% remaining…"
Upon the bridge the lighting and certain other functions had come back; but those alarms rising and falling one after another left everyone unable to grow calm.
This round of interstellar missile bombardment went on for several minutes.
Toward the latter half of it, indeed, the overwhelming majority of the Demon Race interstellar warships had in theory completed their restart already.
But in the attacks before that, even where they had not been destroyed outright.
The important modules of these Demon Race interstellar warships had suffered attack as well.
The interstellar warships that could pass successfully through this stretch of dark hours and raise their star shields were pitifully few.
And these Demon Race interstellar warships that did raise their star shields were for all the world like prey that gives off light in the darkness.
They drew more interstellar missiles upon themselves.
And above all those interstellar missiles made expressly for the breaking of star shields.
Which had the star shields they had just spread torn to shreds very soon after; and thereafter the hulls fell in their turn.
A slaughter!
So far as this Demon Race fleet went, this was a slaughter.
Down to the very moment of death, many of the captains had never made out what in the world was happening.
They remembered clearly that not long since they had faced a local civilization's fleet of 150,000 interstellar warships.
And had paid a combat-loss rate of only 10% to destroy them with the greatest ease.
Why?
Why now, in only a few minutes, should they be slaughtered wholly from one side, like prey, in the posture of something crushed flat, by these interstellar warships that had suddenly popped into being?
They could not understand it!
The interstellar missile strike groups came for the present to a pause.
The long interstellar missile bombardment had left this stretch of the region covered in the powdered dust of explosions.
It must be said that the Demon Race's interstellar warships were rather good at taking a beating after all.
There were still a pitiful few Demon Race interstellar warships that had survived.
Such as a T4 Demon-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Battlecruiser!
And just as its captain was celebrating his own escape from calamity, he discovered that the dust in the distance was being pushed aside, for all the world as though by something.
Thereafter.
He saw a scene he would never in his life dare to forget.
That pitch-black, vast T5-grade giant, which in the course of that interstellar missile strike group's bombardment had already arrived here.
At this moment it stood before him.
And some dozens of main guns had already locked upon this starship of his.
"Damn it." The demon captain spat out two last words, and then all before his eyes was covered over by the light of those main guns firing.