Three lines of attack.
Near 50,000 Owl Dragon interstellar warships thrown in all told, and 300,000 Angel-line interstellar warships besides!
Just so — Angel-line interstellar warships.
"My lord, I admire your courage. But I would rather call it madness." The high-order angel Berkeley held his own head and looked at Commander Zhao Chen across the video window.
For by their agreement of cooperation before, in this campaign against the interstellar hive-race the Angel Race's fleets were to take Commander Zhao Chen's orders.
The one limit being that clause: once their loss rate passed 30 percent, the Angel Race's fleets would quit the field!
"This plan of battle is workable in theory, but it is very hazardous, very headlong! Perhaps… you have other and better choices." The high-order angel Jessie looked at the outer ring of hive combat units, dense-pressed upon the war sand table before her, and felt her scalp crawl.
Zhao Chen looked at the three angel commanders across the window as lightly as a passing cloud.
"Set your minds at rest; it is still by our agreement before. Once your loss rate passes 30 percent, you may quit this fighting at any time. And to the present your loss rate has but reached 5 percent, has it not."
Of the Angel Race's data Zhao Chen was well informed.
Of the 400,000 angel interstellar warships that had come to this stretch of the universe, 30,000 had been struck off in the fighting with the Demon Race's fleets.
So that what truly went into this campaign against the interstellar hive-race was in fact but 370,000 hulls.
And by that standard, so long as the Angel Race's losses did not pass 110,000, all was well!
To win the Angel Race's aid before, Zhao Chen had held out no few promises.
Not to use it properly would never do.
"Quit the field? By the time we have killed our way into the hive-race's core district, is it a matter of quitting when we please…" The high-order angel Berkeley laughed bitterly.
The angel Tilia cut her companion's words short. "We shall carry out the cooperation as agreed."
It was still the readier thing to talk with this Angel Guard.
"Set your minds at rest; this plan of battle. We shall assuredly succeed! And it is to your advantage as well, is it not? For this is a great threat to the universe, and from this campaign you may gain a great deal of valuable battle data. Since who can say what day such a thing may fall upon your own heads? Though of course I am not laying a curse upon you." Zhao Chen smiled slightly.
Having done talking with these three Angel Race commanders.
Zhao Chen went on watching the case upon the three lines of attack.
The three lines were at this moment like a trident stabbing at its quarry.
The nearer they came to that red district of coordinates, the more one could feel the hive fleets grow in number, and attack with the more disregard for life.
As though gone mad in barring their advance.
In the course of it.
They set outright the highest single-hour figures for Owl Dragon losses and for enemy killed of the hundred-odd hours past.
"In the hour just gone we lost 500 Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships, and 10,000 Angel-line besides. And the number of hive starships we annihilated reached 200,000 in a single hour! And the value of strategic stores we spend hourly has reached 500 billion star coins," Lilith reported gravely to Zhao Chen.
Hearing these reports, Zhao Chen asked, "Is the pressure heavy upon logistics and supply? Have the other hive fleets made any unusual move?"
"The pressure upon logistics and supply is no small thing, but we have coordinated it. Priority of supply goes to the fleets upon the three lines of attack.
"As for the hive fleets' unusual movements, they are of course no small thing either. Because we withdrew the other seven main positions, there has naturally come a tide of attack from the hive fleets in those districts. To the present, 17 small positions on our side have been taken, and 31 given up of our own accord.
"At the same time the number of worm-way jump points appearing in our rear rises without cease. To this moment near 200 worm-way jump points have appeared in all. At the peak, some 50 stood at once. The number of hive fleets appearing in our rear is projected at 300,000 at the least."
Listening to these items of news of Lilith's — simple as they seemed, in fact every hour of them was a burden of a thousand catties.
At any moment the whole might be borne down.
Zhao Chen let out a breath and fixed his eyes upon the sand table. "How long do we want yet to reach the Leviathan-Shaman-class Hive Mothership?"
"By the present rate of attack, we want five hours more, and then we shall see that Leviathan-Shaman."
Little Dragon Girl paused, and added, "But by the newest word we have. Those two Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships left to guard the Leviathan-Shaman have already appeared upon our line of attack. Their presence must slow our rate of advance. And these two Leviathan-Sovereigns are a threshold we cannot go round!"
Zhao Chen's heart sank.
He said in a low voice, "This threshold we shall assuredly cross. Let all go by the plan as first fixed!"
"Yes!"
This mad plan of battle went forward still.
Not the hive fleets alone were mad; the attacking Owl Dragon Legion fleets were near madness too.
Even the Angel Race legion fleets, whose trade here had been forced upon them, had by this moment their eyes red with killing.
Bugs everywhere, bugs to be seen everywhere!
Bugs covering earth and sky, giving them next to no chance of rest.
The chambers of no few starships' guns even showed high-temperature or overheat alarms.
The pilots aboard the carrier starships had every one of them long been in a state of work past overload; not one of them remembered any longer how many sorties she had flown.
She knew only: lift, fight, land, and lift again.
Between them there might be a dozen minutes and more for the fighter's repair and supply, in which she could shut her eyes and rest a while.
That was the only rest they had.
And the like was true at every other post of battle.
Everyone was bearing this weight up.
And at the last!
They came smoothly to the front of the last hard pass.
The Owl Dragon Fifth Legion · flagship.
Chu Xuan, whose eyes were by now shot through with blood, heard at this moment the word her subordinate reported.
"Reporting — the radar has found the signal of the Leviathan-Shaman-class Hive Mothership. In three minutes we shall enter its combat radius!"
"Report this to the Commander, and give the order to the whole fleet." Chu Xuan set her teeth and said it past all shaking. "Make ready to meet the enemy!"