The T5 Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship · bridge.
"Where have Charlotte and the rest got to now?" Zhao Chen inquired in his concern.
Little Dragon Girl floated before him and pointed at a cursor moving quickly upon the war sand table.
"They have now left the No. 4 Main Position and are advancing toward the target place of battle."
"Is there any stir among the swarms?"
Little Dragon Girl nodded. "After we drew off this 10,000-hull mixed legion fleet, plain signs of Hive Mothership movement appeared upon the interstellar hive-race's side. Above all these three T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships are moving quickly toward this position. And near 500,000 hive hulls are moving toward it besides."
Lilith said from beside them, her brows drawn, "Set out so, it may be settled that behind this hive-race invasion there truly is a commander. And one watching our military actions at every moment. After we set that 10,000-hull Owl Dragon mixed legion at the No. 4 Main Position by Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships, the enemy, once they marked it, made their arrangements at the first moment. And they have likely guessed the object of this journey of ours besides!"
"Charlotte this time knows there are tigers on the mountain, and goes up the mountain for the tigers." Zhao Chen clenched his fist; there was anxiety in him still.
By Charlotte's plan of battle as laid before.
The content was very simple: a lightning strike.
To launch a sudden attack in the shortest time, destroy or grievously wound several of the enemy's T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships, and break the present balance.
And having done it, to quit the field quickly and lay the next plan.
And all of this action lay within the enemy's controlled compass, filled with some tens of millions of hive fleets; a moment's carelessness, and Charlotte's 15,000-hull mixed legion might well die without so much as a grave!
But this, once confirmed by Little Dragon Girl, was the plan of battle with the highest rate of success at present.
There was no other means.
And for this action's success, Charlotte had volunteered to take the whole command of it upon herself.
As for the No. 1 Main Position, it was left to Zhao Chen, Lilith and the rest.
For in a defensive fight of this steady, step-by-step kind, so long as no mischance arose, the Owl Dragon First Legion could manage it of itself.
And the 3,000 Owl Dragon hulls drawn away were soon replaced by 10,000 hulls in support from the Starlight royal legion fleets.
So that the defensive strength was not much weakened either.
Zhao Chen crossed both hands beneath his chin with the look of a man thinking.
Now, what he could do was only wait.
Wait for word of triumph from Charlotte's side.
And this would be the topmost clash of the two sides within this whole campaign.
…………
The Owl Dragon mixed legion fleet Charlotte led moved at high speed all the way, and drove straight at the coordinates of one T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Mothership upon the sand table.
That Leviathan-Sovereign perhaps sensed the threat as well; it began to close with the nearest other T5 Leviathan-Sovereign, and to gather more hive fleets about itself.
And the neighboring T5 Leviathan-Sovereigns, with the hive fleets under them, were all coming toward this position.
The feeling of it was as though Charlotte's Owl Dragon mixed legion were driving toward the center of a whirling storm.
But because a T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Mothership is far too vast in bulk, its speed of sailing is very slow; so the Owl Dragon mixed legion came smoothly upon the road it must pass before it could join with that other T5 Leviathan-Sovereign!
"Reporting — by our radar's detection, there are at the least a million Hive Motherships here; the number of hive combat units cannot be reckoned. At the same time, besides our target, the nearest T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Mothership and the hive fleets it leads will arrive within the hour. The T5 Leviathan-Sovereigns after it will come up within five hours! Near 5 million hive hulls in all are gathering toward this position of ours!" The succubus secretary reported this field news to Charlotte.
Charlotte fixed her eyes upon the swarm in the distance; her keen gaze seemed to pass through those dense-pressed swarms and see already that T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Mothership within their protection.
"The plan of battle for the slaying of Leviathan-Sovereign No. 4 begins!" Charlotte gave the order.
This 10,000-hull Owl Dragon mixed legion began to move on the instant.
The Owl Dragon interstellar missile ship special fleet · flagship.
Hearing Charlotte's order, the wolf-girl Baixue, that fleet commander, drew up the corner of her mouth in an expression of excitement.
"Make ready — five echelons of interstellar missiles in salvo! First echelon, fire!"
The Owl Dragon interstellar missile ship special fleet, having been through a round of great expansion, had grown from its former establishment of 500 hulls to 3,000.
Fitted with 1,000 interstellar missile ships and 2,000 interstellar escorts charged with their protection.
And in this action, by General Charlotte's requirement, the 1,000 missile ships were divided into five squadrons, to give firepower support in five echelons.
Averaged out, that was a salvo of 200 missile ships at a round; and for all that, the force of it was astonishing indeed.
Interstellar missiles by the million were fired out, and set the swarm across from them alight.
At very nearly the same moment the missiles fired, the Owl Dragon mixed legion charged in, and took control of the swarm district the missiles had destroyed with very nearly no seam between.
And thereafter the other combat-type interstellar warships made this district firm with their firepower.
"Second echelon, fire!" The wolf-girl Baixue gave the order again; and each time she gave it, she would raise her right arm high and bring it heavily down.
Somewhere along the way she had formed this habit.
Above all in a salvo task of above a hundred missile ships.
Some had asked why she made that motion.
Her answer was that the feeling of it was as though she were a goddess of death holding the reaper's scythe: let her hand come down, and the enemy before her would be turned to ruin beneath the firepower.
"Third echelon, fire!"
"Fourth echelon, fire!"
Though this was a mixed legion fleet, they worked together like old comrades of many years, in the closest understanding.
Charlotte's combat-type interstellar warships advanced very nearly under the missiles' own attack; at times the place where a missile burst was very near the foremost Owl Dragon warships.
What a control of the field, and what a capacity for working together, this was.
And with T5-grade interstellar warships holding the front besides.
Very soon Charlotte saw the quarry she had come to hunt.
A T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Mothership 900 kilometers in length!
Though she had seen the pictures before.
Yet when one truly looks upon this giant beast with one's own eyes, the heart within is shaken all the same.