"How is it I cannot reach the Commander?" Charlotte, her business upon the field settled, looked through the video communication at Xue Xiaoxiao, captain of the T5 Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought, with knitted brows.
Xue Xiaoxiao's appetite from the recent battle was unsatisfied still.
Hearing Charlotte's words, she turned her head and glanced at that empty sofa.
She shook her head and said, "I have no idea."
Charlotte knit her brows slightly. To be unable to reach the Commander was a very rare thing.
"Then what of Lilith?" Charlotte thought at once of Lilith, who kept at the Commander's side.
"Lilith… Lilith is not here either." Xue Xiaoxiao ran her eye over the bridge, and found no sign of Secretary Lilith.
Hearing that the Commander and Lilith were both unaccounted for, an unease rose within Charlotte.
She called up Lilith's contact, and just as she was about to press it.
At the far end of the video window, Zhao Chen's figure appeared.
"I am here. Charlotte, what is it you want with me?" Zhao Chen, standing far off, waved a hand toward Charlotte's video window.
Charlotte's hand, which had been about to contact Lilith, stopped at this.
She watched Zhao Chen walking slowly over to Xue Xiaoxiao's side, and asked in doubt, "Commander, I have been trying to reach you all this while; how is it that it showed as unreachable throughout?"
Zhao Chen was blank a moment, and glanced at his own right hand.
The handheld terminal that had clung to his right wrist like so much sticker was gone without a trace.
It must have been unable to bear his rampage of a while ago, and come apart outright.
"I was just now discussing with Lilith the matter of our Owl Dragon Legion's internal finances. We spent no little in this campaign. And hereafter this Red Demon Legion will most likely come at us again. So we were considering how to get sufficient war-readiness work done in the least possible time. And there is the control of those 15 star regions we have obtained from the several empires; the 10 star regions from the Warhammer and the Holy Radiance Empire are only just come to us, and how to arrange them quickly is an important question as well. While we were talking, I carelessly shut out outside communication. Charlotte, have you some urgent matter to report to me?" Zhao Chen set out what he had just been through in an offhand way — half true and half false.
It was not that he wished to deceive Charlotte; it was simply that the thing had happened so suddenly that Zhao Chen had, for the moment, no idea how to explain it to her.
Still more in a place such as this.
Zhao Chen meant to be honest with Charlotte about it once the two of them were alone.
"I see." Charlotte harbored no great doubt; and by that last sentence of Zhao Chen's she was drawn back to her own business. "It is this: the campaign is in the main over. The enemy's 10 demon legion fleets, 300,000 interstellar warships, have all been dealt with by us. What comes next is the work of clearing the field after the battle."
"Then let us lose no time and go to support Chitong!" Zhao Chen thought of Chitong's and Su Lan's two Owl Dragon legion fleets, still engaged with those three Demon Race fleets.
"The fighting upon their side is over as well. With the several bodies of reinforcement from the Warhammer side working with them besides, the remaining Demon Race interstellar warships were either destroyed or surrendered," said Charlotte.
"Chitong's and Su Lan's legion fleets — how do their losses stand?" Zhao Chen asked in anxiety.
"The two legion fleets each lost about 2,000 interstellar warships; 4,000 interstellar warships lost in all," said Charlotte.
Hearing this loss.
A loss rate of near 70%.
This was the greatest loss any of the Owl Dragon legion fleets had suffered since their founding.
But their part in this campaign had likewise been of the first importance.
At the same time, when Zhao Chen and the rest had departed, the two Owl Dragon legion fleets had already lost 3,000 interstellar warships.
Which meant that in the fighting thereafter, the two Owl Dragon legion fleets had lost only 1,000 interstellar warships more.
"The reinforcements led by Princess Blanche, Chieftain Ted, and Chieftain Big Bear paid 30,000 interstellar warships in dead and wounded," Charlotte added.
Which made it all explicable.
It was these reinforcements arriving in good time who had taken upon themselves the chief combat task, and borne the greater part of the pressure for Chitong's and Su Lan's two Owl Dragon legion fleets.
For the quality of their reinforcing fleets, set against the Demon Race interstellar warships, was no small thing after all.
Were it not that the demons had already fought a fierce engagement with the two Owl Dragon legions before this, it could not possibly have cost a bare 30,000 interstellar warships.
"Ah yes — did Secretary Lilith not come back with you? The handling of the field hereafter, and the relevant post-battle tallies, all want Secretary Lilith's charge." Charlotte looked about Zhao Chen and asked it in doubt.
"Lilith is still at those matters I spoke of just now; she is very busy at present. Those affairs you mention, hand them for the time being to Lilith's secretarial department; she will make the summary at the end," said Zhao Chen.
"Then let it be so. Upon my side, I must still arrange for certain damaged interstellar warships to withdraw in good time for repair, and for the wounded besides. We… have taken heavy losses this time as well." Charlotte's face was somewhat dimmed.
Zhao Chen's mood grew somewhat heavy as well.
Though the final post-battle tallies were not yet out, looking at the field before him he knew that every Owl Dragon legion had paid no small price in this war.
For the enemy had been 300,000 Demon Race interstellar warships, after all.
And there the video communication ended.
Zhao Chen let out a long breath at this.
"Commander, it would seem you are keeping something from General Charlotte." Xue Xiaoxiao, beside him, blinked her eyes and said it of a sudden.
Zhao Chen rapped her on the head outright. "Talk no nonsense; what have I to keep from anyone? When you have time, do not let your mind run on such things; study the fleet command of the several legion commanders properly, and do not suppose you can get away!"
With that, Zhao Chen turned and walked toward his own sofa.
Xue Xiaoxiao put out her tongue at Zhao Chen's back, and muttered, "A woman's intuition is very accurate indeed. And I shall never leave my beloved Hades!"
Sitting upon the sofa, Zhao Chen knit his brows with a guilty conscience.
Was he… so plain to read as that?
Why should even Xue Xiaoxiao be able to feel it — is a woman's sixth sense so accurate?
Those words Xue Xiaoxiao had muttered under her breath behind him just now, Zhao Chen had heard every one.
After injecting the T5 Super-Soldier Serum, Zhao Chen's hearing and his other faculties had all been greatly heightened.
Just now, for instance, while Charlotte was on the communication, he could hear it from far off — happily he had not let Charlotte and the rest grow suspicious at the time.
Zhao Chen leaned back against the sofa, his face toward the bridge ceiling, and covered his face with his hands.
The "after-effects" of this T5 Super-Soldier Serum were grave enough indeed.
There is no guarding against it!