The campaign's 200th hour.
The word that the T5 Leviathan-Shaman-class Hive Mothership was annihilated had been confirmed.
And at the same time the legion fleets upon every road began to withdraw from their present fields.
Zhao Chen looked gravely at the war sand table before him, upon which the positions of the several fleet columns, and the state of their withdrawal, were updated in real time.
"By the word we have to the present. Upon our own field, all three fleet columns have smoothly quit their fighting. Though some hive fleets are pursuing still, perhaps because of the Leviathan-Shaman's fall the working together of the several hive fleets has fallen into great trouble, and they have for the moment no new plan of war. So their pursuit is no very great threat to us. In five hours, by projection, the three columns will be back within the district of the original great positions."
Lilith went on from beside them, "Zhao Wan'er's and Xue Xiaoxiao's side have sent word too: having completed the task, they have smoothly quit the engaged district. And the withdrawal went very smoothly; the whole fleet is now clear of the fighting. Of the 15 T5 interstellar warships, not one is struck off; three T5 Chaos-Knight-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Destroyers have hull damage and may need to return to port for repair, though it is not grave. Zhao Wan'er's Owl Dragon interstellar stealth bomber special fleet, of 3,000 hulls, has taken a 30 percent loss in this action — near a thousand hulls destroyed."
At hearing this figure of loss.
Zhao Chen said nothing; for the stealth bomber special fleet, which had borne that final task of attack, he had made himself ready within for heavy losses.
A loss rate of 30 percent was a very good result as it was.
"Watch their withdrawal at every moment and keep in contact; should they want covering, we can draw fleets across to meet them at any time," Zhao Chen ordered.
Lilith set it down, then paused and came to the last fleet. "General Charlotte's legion fleets reported their own case to us ten minutes ago. They have quit the field, and mean to find a fitting stretch of the star-heavens and return by Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships. Their losses… are somewhat grave. The whole fleet went out at 15,000 hulls; perhaps only half will come back."
Zhao Chen nodded slightly. "I understand."
He fixed his eyes upon a beacon on the sand table — the Owl Dragon mixed legion in Charlotte's charge.
They had carried out the hardest task, and had fought within the enemy's array some days together.
Never mind the losses; that they should come back at all was, to an outsider, an astonishing thing.
"Little Dragon Girl, go over the plan of battle to come once more. There is no haste; so long as the hive fleets do not attack of their own accord, we shall hold to the line of the original main positions first, and give the several legion fleets seven days to refit. After seven days we shall clear away the remaining hive fleets bit by bit. And then reckon up the losses of our several legion fleets to this point, and the fighting strength remaining. And the fighting strength remaining to the hive fleets across from us. And in clearing away the remnants hereafter we must take nothing lightly either; we are to destroy those hive fleets at the least loss to ourselves that may be," Zhao Chen charged Little Dragon Girl with this train of tasks.
These matters would formerly have been Lilith's and her secretariat's charge.
Now, with Little Dragon Girl, she could take upon herself the great-data calculation of it, and Lilith and the secretariat need only do the last tenth of the finishing.
"Understood," Little Dragon Girl answered obediently.
Several hours later.
Zhao Chen saw the returning mixed legion of Charlotte's.
Very nearly no hull among them was whole; even the missile ships and carrier starships, which the Owl Dragon Legion always shelters, had bug carcasses and green juices upon their outer hulls.
It was hard to imagine what the picture of that fighting had been.
A figure of light took shape by degrees before Zhao Chen.
By the Dragon Emperor's transmission technology, Charlotte was sent straight to the bridge.
Zhao Chen walked quickly forward and looked at her.
Charlotte stood straight and made a military salute. "Reporting to the Commander, I…"
Zhao Chen took a step forward and caught her in his arms.
In that instant Charlotte's tail stood straight up.
"You have had a hard time of it." Zhao Chen said it low at her ear.
He had seen the blood in the whites of her eyes, her uniform all creased, her fur somewhat in disorder.
Through these days she had likely had no rest whatever.
"Com… Com… Commander… there are a great many people watching here…" Charlotte would have pushed her Commander away; but her strength, that of one of the White Tiger race.
Before the Commander's monstrous strength was of no use at all.
She could only redden and remind him of it.
For all that, Zhao Chen held her some seconds more before he let go.
In that moment no few gossiping eyes about them turned away without thinking.
"You might have a care for the occasion." Charlotte threw Zhao Chen a look of the whites of her eyes with no good humor in it; but the tail behind her swayed, and betrayed the gladness within.
Zhao Chen smiled slightly, and the eyes with which he looked at her were all tenderness.
Charlotte could not bear that look of her Commander's; she coughed, and came straight to the business. "Ahem, ahem, ahem — Commander. Let me report to you the particulars of this action."
Zhao Chen nodded.
"In this action we sent out 15,000 interstellar warships, of which 3,000 were auxiliary types. In combat types, three elite legion fleets pieced together from three Owl Dragon legions, 9,000 hulls in all. And 3,000 hulls besides of the Owl Dragon interstellar missile ship special fleet."
Charlotte set out first the strength employed, then paused and went on, "This action lasted, first to last, above three days. We annihilated above 500,000 hive hulls, and two T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships."
With ten thousand-odd interstellar warships, to meet a swarm of a million and destroy 500,000 of them.
The result might be called brilliant and dazzling indeed.
At this point Charlotte's eyes darkened. "We lost 7,320 interstellar warships, among them 1,300 auxiliary types. Of the ships that came back, three parts in ten are gravely damaged and want a major refit; the other seven parts want checking and maintenance too. In this action we lost above 2.2 million crew in all."