"Commander, newest word from the rear. By the report of the patrol fleets charged with the worm-way jump points, no few of the jump points they have found are withering, collapsing, exploding and the like." Lilith came quickly up before Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen said at once, "Set out so, it is most likely that Zhao Wan'er's and Xue Xiaoxiao's action has succeeded!"
Lilith nodded; that was the likelihood.
Only that for some reason or other they could not send the word back at the first moment.
"Pass word to the several fighting legion fleets. End the present plan of battle; all to fall back," Zhao Chen ordered at once.
"Yes!"
Lilith began at once to send these orders down.
Zhao Chen's attack with those three fleet columns had been to draw the enemy's notice from the first.
And that object was now accomplished.
Though the two T5 Leviathan-Sovereigns across from them stood still, so long as the great threat of the Leviathan-Shaman was lifted.
To settle those Leviathan-Sovereigns was only a matter of time.
Rather than hazard enormous casualties now to annihilate the two across the way, better to withdraw first and let the fleets have time to recover and refit.
And then destroy those two Leviathan-Sovereigns and the remaining hive fleets by degrees.
Since the Leviathan-Shaman was annihilated, the initiative of this campaign was already in Zhao Chen's hand.
He had no need whatever to be hasty.
"Contact Charlotte's side and ask how the fighting stands with her. And if it is needful, have T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships carry over such legion fleets as still hold fighting strength, in support!" Zhao Chen thought of Charlotte's legion fleets, for whom he had been anxious all along.
The legion fleets Charlotte led were beyond doubt those bearing the greatest pressure in this campaign.
Held to high-intensity fighting for above near 50 hours already!
And deep within the enemy's mass besides.
Zhao Chen found it hard even to imagine the pressure Charlotte bore.
"Yes!" Lilith knew her Commander's anxiety too, and dared allow no delay in it.
Zhao Chen sat down again in his captain's chair.
Upon his face, so heavy before, there showed at last a smile a little eased; it felt as though the load upon his shoulders had lightened much in this moment.
He could draw a breath at last.
……
"Withdraw?" The high-order angel Berkeley, hearing this order, showed a look of surprise.
He had just got his blood up against the other side, and was on the point of driving up before that T5 Leviathan-Sovereign and having a trial of strength with it.
And that Owl Dragon lord had actually ordered a withdrawal?
First he would not come, and must come; now that we are in the thick of it, he tells us to withdraw?
He should not play a man about so.
"Yes; this is the Commander's order. We are required to quit the present fighting at once. Within half an hour every fleet must be clear of battle!" The high-order angel Jessie said it with some puzzlement too.
The fighting was going well; how should they withdraw of a sudden?
He who said the attack must be made was this Owl Dragon lord, and he who said they must withdraw was this Owl Dragon lord too?
These two high-order angels were full of puzzlement within.
And the angel Tilia, who had more of the news, answered their puzzlement.
"The Owl Dragon Legion has annihilated that Leviathan-Shaman-class Hive Mothership," the angel Tilia said slowly.
At hearing this.
Both high-order angels' faces were stupefied for some seconds.
It was the high-order angel Berkeley who came to himself first. "What? They have killed the Leviathan-Shaman-class Hive Mothership? How did they do it? And why did we not know of this action?"
"They carried out this action keeping it from us?" The high-order angel Jessie frowned, with something of displeasure in her tone.
The angel Tilia, by the intelligence in her hand, told the two what had happened.
And the whole of that Owl Dragon lord's plan.
Including the last action: ordering 15 T5 interstellar warships and a 3,000-hull Owl Dragon interstellar stealth bomber special fleet to fall upon and slay the T5 Leviathan-Shaman-class Hive Mothership.
Hearing it out, there was nothing but disbelief in the two high-order angels' eyes.
"It is madness. This fellow is simply a madman." There was every complication in the high-order angel Berkeley's eyes; he shook his head without cease. "This plan of three steps. Should trouble have arisen at any point of it, the whole board might have been lost. Above all that part where General Charlotte answered for drawing the fire — under 10,000 interstellar warships drawing two Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships and 2 million hive hulls! That is simply an act of going to one's death.
"And that last step: 15 T5 interstellar warships and 3,000 of those… interstellar stealth bombers…
"How could he be certain those would kill the Leviathan-Shaman? And what if it had failed?"
"But he succeeded." The angel Tilia opened her mouth.
Those few plain words left the two high-order angels with nothing to say.
However mad and hazardous the plan might look upon a second reading, in short.
He had succeeded!
That was the fact, and it stood there.
"Make ready to withdraw," the angel Tilia gave the order.
"But since the Leviathan-Shaman is annihilated, why do we not press the victory? By present observation, the enemy's system of command is fallen into confusion, and their working together upon the field is in great trouble," the high-order angel Jessie said in puzzlement.
Were it she, she would likely have ordered the attack pressed at this hour, and destroyed those several T5 Leviathan-Sovereigns while the victory ran.
"If every ship here were an angel starship, what do you think the result would be?" the angel Tilia asked.
"Annihilate every T4- and T3-grade Hive Mothership of the enemy's, of course, and take the victory!" the high-order angel Jessie said confidently.
"And our losses? How much would they be?" the angel Tilia returned.
Which question left the high-order angel Jessie blank, and she fell silent.
The high-order angel Berkeley beside her answered it for her. "If every starship here were an angel starship, we might perhaps take the victory. But we should assuredly pay above half, or even seven parts in ten, in losses!
"And by my watching of the Owl Dragon Legion through this stretch of time, their style of fighting, besides the taking of victory, sets very great store by their own losses and casualties. They will withdraw in good time such of their starships as stand in danger upon a field, and rescue the wounded and the starships of value.
"So their Commander chooses to withdraw at this hour. To wait upon a chance of refitting and re-forming the fleets — and in the next wave of attack they may take the victory all the same, and at a smaller price in casualties." As the high-order angel Berkeley said it, there was something of reverence in his eyes.
The angel Tilia said with feeling, "It seems we have chosen an excellent ally for our Angel Race."