"Lightning-Wraith Hull No.001 has completed the spatial fold-jump; all normal."
"Lightning-Wraith Hull No.002 has completed the spatial fold-jump; all normal."
"Lightning-Wraith Hull No.003…"
Zhao Chen heard these three captains' reports.
They came through Charlotte's command system, by which Charlotte directed the several Owl Dragon legion fleets, and this portion of interstellar warships besides.
And at the same time Zhao Chen could "sit in" upon the whole of it.
These three were precisely the T5 Lightning-Wraith-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Cruiser, one of the two mass-production T5 interstellar warships Zhao Chen had brought out before!
And they were the three rushed out in this batch under the labors of Zhao Chen and the rest.
As for why they should appear here out of empty space, that rested upon the "sub-grade space-jump engine" they carried.
Though it cannot fold space over the very great distances the T5 Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought can, it can fold space within a certain compass — a gelded version, as it were.
And this lane connecting the Warhammer and the demons has, upon its flank, a district under cosmic disaster the year round, which leaves the space here often unstable.
For an interstellar warship sailing in this district, warp navigation is the only means of long-distance travel.
But when Zhao Chen and the rest came here to lay the ambush, they discovered something.
The instability of the space here was not so terrible as they had imagined.
If a spatial fold-jump were made across only a very short distance, there was no great risk in it.
Take these three T5 Lightning-Wraith-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Cruisers: the distance they jumped was in fact one that regular starship engines could have sailed in under 20 minutes!
Exceedingly close!
Only that this 20 minutes' distance happened to lie wholly beyond what the enemy's starship radar could detect.
Having got this information, Charlotte had made a small arrangement.
Her principle being that to show the enemy weakness upon the field is what lets you beat him the more effectively.
So it had been with the T5 Chaos-Knight; and so it was with the T5 Lightning-Wraith.
And now was the time for these three T5 Lightning-Wraith-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Cruisers to do their work.
The three T5 Lightning-Wraiths stood there like three gods, barring the above 2,000 Demon Race interstellar warships the Red Demon Fifth Legion commander led.
"What are three T5 interstellar warships to me — am I to fear you! Attack still; charge at full speed!" the Red Demon Fifth Legion commander said through his teeth, handing down the order.
But just at this moment, out at the field's edge, a "rain of meteor-fire" came sweeping in.
And the position it struck was precisely the district where the Red Demon Fifth Legion commander was.
"Interstellar missile attack detected in transit — attention! Attention!"
Upon the bridges of every demon interstellar warship in this district the alarms sounded.
"This is bad! Break off the attack; intercept the incoming interstellar missiles with everything!" The Red Demon Fifth Legion commander, recalling that terrible scene of before, changed his order at once.
His order was handed down in good time.
But there was no help for it — beneath a fire-strike so terrible, there are things that cannot be altered.
This district became a "sea of fire" outright.
"Heh heh heh, we made it in time." The wolf-girl Baixue set one foot upon her captain's chair, watching that scene of bombardment far off, her mood as easy as could be, her tail spinning like a fan.
And this flagship she was aboard, a T4 Hell-Angel-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship, was firing interstellar missiles still, one after another without a break.
But this sort of joy is brief.
Some minutes later the 300-odd interstellar missile ships in this district fell silent, as though the things that had roared like wild beasts a moment ago were no ships of theirs at all, and they were only so many quiet maidens.
"Ah — over already." The wolf-girl Baixue shook her head, her appetite unsatisfied.
Interstellar missile ships are grand, they are; only the grandness never lasts long enough.
And after a single salvo they need a great deal of time for interstellar-missile resupply, which means they can only look on at the fighting through that stretch.
Joy and torment together, truly.
And no sooner had this fire-strike group finished than the three T5 Lightning-Wraith-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Cruisers opened their own attack.
Their principle being just this: while you are sick, take your life!
Though this is an interstellar cruiser, the firepower it is fitted with is terrible indeed, far surpassing the T5 Chaos-Knight next door.
Surpassing even the T5 Blade of Terror opposite, which belongs to the interstellar-battlecruiser type.
For it is fitted with 38 heavy railgun mains, 300 heavy electromagnetic-pulse rapid-fire cannon, and 300 fully automatic medium electromagnetic close-in guns.
The bearing of that charge might be called ten paces, one ship destroyed; a thousand li, and never a pause.[1]
And with the interstellar missiles' fire-strike just now besides, this portion of demon T4 interstellar warships had lost near a third of their number; the remaining two thirds survived, but their star-shield energy was very nearly spent.
And with a disordered array on top of that, these three T5 Lightning-Wraith-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Cruisers dealt slaughter on every side; and for a time the demon interstellar warships could not even form an effective counterstroke.
"Be calm! Be calm! Re-form the array upon the flagship as center!" the Red Demon Fifth Legion commander cried out without cease upon the command channel.
But at this hour the demon interstellar warships that could keep calm and recover themselves quickly were very few indeed.
And at this time, upon the other side, the Red Demon Fourth Legion commander met with the worst case of all.
Because the support here was late in coming, and late again.
And with the Owl Dragon First Legion joining in besides, the demon fleet upon the Red Demon Fourth Legion commander's side was in utter disorder.
And amid this disorder, several keen blades pointed straight at the Red Demon Fourth Legion commander's flagship!
By the time he came to himself.
He discovered in astonishment that of those 10 T5 interstellar destroyers, six had, at some point none could say, driven right up before him.
Before any response could be made.
These six T5 interstellar destroyers' rams struck the star shield of this T5 Blade-of-Terror-class Medium Interstellar Battlecruiser.
Bear in mind that this T5 Blade of Terror's star shield had already taken the T5 Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought's main-gun attack before this, and had no great store of star-shield energy left of itself.
And with the particular capability of this T5 Chaos-Knight-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Destroyer besides.
Once the "Chaos War-Lance" struck the T5 Blade of Terror's star shield, it began drawing off the star-shield energy at an astonishing rate.
"This… this…" The Red Demon Fourth Legion commander watched that star-shield energy falling at an astonishing rate.
From green it turned yellow in the blink of an eye, and then, in under half a minute, to red.
"Support! Have the other interstellar warships support us at once!" the Red Demon Fourth Legion commander roared in panic.
The other demon interstellar warships, seeing their own flagship threatened, thought to support it as well.
But there was no help for it — the firepower of the Owl Dragon First Legion and the T5 Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought to their front was simply too strong, and in any short time no great number of interstellar warships could be pulled back at all.
And the few that were pulled back could do nothing, in any short time, against a T5-grade interstellar destroyer's star shield.
Very soon this T5 Blade-of-Terror-class Medium Interstellar Battlecruiser's star-shield energy was drained to nothing.
Six T5 Chaos-Knight-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Destroyers, like a wolf-pack that has fixed upon a lamb, bared their fangs.
"Assault!" The six T5 Chaos-Knights' captains handed down the order very nearly at the same moment.
Six Chaos War-Lances drove straight at the prey!