Outer district of the P91 military starport
A T4 Banshee-class Light Interstellar Stealth-Scout Ship, in stealth state, was watching the doings here closely.
"Report, Captain. The enemy fleet has begun to move. They should be making their pre-battle navigation preparations!" a subordinate reported of a sudden, aloud.
"Watch closely!" The captain's heart rose into her throat at once.
She had already received the arrangement of the operation from the Commander's side: she must, the instant the enemy entered warp navigation, send word back at once.
Upon receiving that word, the Owl Dragon Legion at the other end would launch its attack upon the three demon legions there at the first instant.
At this hour, time went by little by little.
The captain herself even began watching the enemy's movements, and the air of the bridge grew heavy at this time.
"Report — several interstellar warships have entered warp navigation!" a subordinate cried in excitement.
The captain said nothing, and went on watching.
But a dozen-odd minutes later, a strange thing happened.
The Demon Race interstellar warships that should have followed, though they were carrying out their preparations for warp navigation, put off entering warp navigation and put it off again.
Another half hour and more went by.
"What in the world is this?" The deputy captain looked at the captain in anxiety; this peculiar case had set an unease in them.
"Bring me up the image record from a moment ago — those few interstellar warships that entered warp navigation!" the captain ordered.
Very soon that stretch of image record was played out.
The captain looked at those few models of interstellar warship.
Lying hidden here upon the Demon Race's side this while, she had these Demon Race interstellar warships by heart.
"These are all Demon Race interstellar scout ships, with a few interstellar escorts and interstellar destroyers. This should be the enemy's interstellar scout fleet!" the captain judged.
"An interstellar scout fleet? What is it they mean to scout? They cannot have discovered our plan of operations!" the deputy captain said in anxiety.
The captain knit her brows, and after thinking a while, "Strengthen the penetration of the enemy's communication network; raise the frequency! Above all upon the enemy's flagships and main-force interstellar warships! And order the other T4 Banshees to carry out this same task."
"But in this way we increase the probability of our being exposed!" the deputy captain cautioned.
They were at this moment within the enemy's camp; once discovered, their end could be imagined.
"This touches upon the Commander's and our Owl Dragon Legion's plan of operations. Carry out the order!" the captain said gravely.
"Yes!"
As the penetration of the enemy ships' communication network went forward, the air of the bridge grew exceedingly quiet.
So much so that everyone, without thinking, trod more lightly, spoke more lightly — even breathed more lightly.
Though they knew that behavior of this kind would not expose the interstellar warship.
They did it without thinking all the same.
Time went by little by little.
One hour… two hours… three hours… five hours…
At the last.
One crewwoman cried aloud, "Found it! Found it!"
The captain and the deputy captain did not wait for her report, but came at once to that crewwoman's working post, and looked at a stretch of Demon Race communication she had intercepted.
Its contents set out the plan of operations of the 10 Red Demon legion fleets, and how an interstellar scout-ship fleet had been dispatched to reach the lane's middle, and how the 10 Red Demon legion fleets, upon receiving word that all was safe, would then set out, and would halt at this middle station for five hours.
Having got this word.
The deputy captain let out a long breath. "So that was the way of it. We have it clear at last."
"This is bad!" The captain's face at this moment grew heavy instead, and she handed down an order at once. "This ship is to break off the interception of the enemy's communications; and once we have sailed to a safe place, get in contact with home at once!"
"Captain, what is it?" The deputy captain looked at the captain's face, heavier now than before.
The captain said, low and grave, "I never thought the Demon Race's commanders would be so wary as this. They are not sailing straight to the target point, but have chosen to halt once upon this lane. Which means that the Commander's earlier plan of operations can no longer be carried out. Once they reach this middle position and get in contact with those three demon legions, then if they cannot get through, they will assuredly grow warier still and alter the sailing plan they had fixed. And if they do get through, then those three demon legions have not yet been annihilated by our Owl Dragon Legion — and the result of that may be imagined. The ambush plan that was to follow can no longer go forward!"
The deputy captain saw it all at once: with matters so, the Commander's fixed plan could no longer be carried out.
"Then what is to be done? Do we now inform the Commander that this plan of operations is canceled?" the deputy captain inquired.
"This matter is too important; I cannot decide it. The Commander must be informed, and we must await the Commander's instructions." The captain let out a sigh.
What a fine plan of operations it had been to begin with, and because of this one interlude it could no longer go forward.
Though upon the face of it, it was only a plan of operations miscarried.
It meant that the Owl Dragon Legion hereafter must meet 300,000 Demon Race interstellar warships in a frontal engagement.
She believed the Commander's Owl Dragon Legion feared no enemy; but it meant too that the Owl Dragon Legion would pay a greater price in dead and wounded in this frontal contest.
Which was what no one wished to see.
At this time, every minute and every second was very long for the captain.
At the last, this T4 Banshee-class Light Interstellar Stealth-Scout Ship sailed to a safe position and sent a quantum message home, setting out how matters now stood.
And thereafter came the waiting for the plan from the Commander's end.
Waiting again.
Waiting is forever the hardest thing to bear.
Until the reply came from home.
The reply's content was very simple.
First of all it asked whether it was certain that the enemy's 10 Red Demon legions would halt at the middle point for five hours.
If that piece of information was certain, then the fixed plan was to be carried out.
When the 10 Red Demon legion fleets set out, they need only send word.
"This… the Commander still means to carry out the fixed plan of operations?" The deputy captain covered her mouth in astonishment.
The captain thought a while, and said, low and grave, "The Commander and the commanders have decided to take the risk. If the enemy set out from the middle point, then that is 10 hours of sailing time. So long as our Owl Dragon Legion can, within 10 hours, complete the annihilation of those three demon legions and the setting of the ambush field, the fixed plan of operations can go forward."
The deputy captain said, "But we have only got word that the enemy will halt five hours at the middle position; we have no way whatever of being certain it will be five hours when the time comes. And it will not be as it is now, when we can watch when they set out. Who knows at what hour they will set out after halting at the middle point? And should our Owl Dragon Legion move too early, then once the enemy has the intelligence, does that not likewise make the ambush plan afterward impossible!"
The captain nodded. "In all this you say there is nothing wrong. I think… the Commander must be making ready to lay a wager. To wager upon our Owl Dragon's luck!"