At the mention of those who had fallen, there was something complicated in Charlotte's look.
Zhao Chen clapped her upon the shoulder. "Set your mind at rest; we have received all their life-signals."
Charlotte nodded, but there was a darkness in her eyes still.
For though she knew these crew might be revived, she knew too that among them a small number of interstellar warriors might never set foot upon a field again.
To the present there has been a figure for it.
Of all those revived, near 0.5 percent of the crew, upon a first revival, withdraw forever to the second line through post-war traumatic stress.
And the more times a crew member is revived, the higher the risk in this.
And certain of them, though they be given counsel of the spirit, may yet carry a shadow of the mind their whole lives; there have even been cases of suicide.
So that, though they know their crews may be revived.
Within the Owl Dragon Legion's high command it is wished, where it may be allowed, to lessen the deaths among those under them.
Perhaps this too is because of the Commander they have; his spirit has infected them.
"How stands the rest of it?" Charlotte put away her own grief and asked.
She had not forgotten her responsibility; she was still the highest military commander of this great campaign.
Zhao Chen threw Lilith and Little Dragon Girl beside him a glance.
The two told Charlotte the newest state of the field, and with the Dragon Emperor's several functions to help, let her come in the shortest time to as detailed an understanding as might be.
Before this she had had only some brief intelligence, and being besides sunk in a bitter fight, had of course no time to analyze the other fields in detail.
Half an hour later.
Charlotte looked toward Zhao Chen. "By the case as it now stands, we hold in the main the advantage and the initiative in this swarm campaign. It remains only how we shall end this swarm tide."
Zhao Chen was silent a while, then said, "My requirement is very simple: before the end of June, every one of the interstellar hive-race outside this district is to be cleared away entire!"
Zhao Chen drew a circle upon the sand table about the cosmic bug-nest.
As for why the end of June.
That was of course because of the time limit upon Zhao Chen's quarterly mission.
"The end of June… it is now the middle of May. There is a month and a half to the end of June.
"Next we let the several legion fleets that have come back refit some week, complete their logistical supply, and recover their capacity for battle.
"And within the month that follows we may set three stages of an attacking plan. Each attack to be fixed for the present at a week.
"Within that week of attack we compress the interstellar hive-race's held district ring by ring.
"And with a set purpose, launch decapitations upon the surviving T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships."
Charlotte very soon set out her own thought.
Little Dragon Girl beside her said thereupon, "In theory there is no trouble whatever in my sister Charlotte's strategic plan. And through the intervals between each time of attack, our legion fleets may be given time to refit. Which can greatly lessen our losses upon the field."
Zhao Chen nodded in satisfaction. "Then let a detailed plan of battle be drawn up upon Charlotte's thought."
So saying, he fixed his eyes upon the great red stretch of the sand table.
The true plan of clearing was truly begun!
……
Galactic Star Calendar, May 23.
The legion fleets of every side, their refit complete, formed 10 large attacking fleet columns, and above a hundred small ones.
In the main it was the defensive policy of the great and small positions turned over.
Only that this time it was used in the attack.
Within the first cycle of attack.
Charlotte led the Owl Dragon First Legion herself, and while attacking gathered elite fleets and launched a sudden stroke, killing two T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships!
At the same time the Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought went out again with the 15 T5 interstellar warships to hunt, and in a bare seven days slew three T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships.
Whence the number of T5 Leviathan-Sovereigns among the hive fleets, from the 11 at the outset, and after the two Charlotte slew one upon another before.
Came now to four remaining.
Perhaps sensing the danger, these four drew their own formation in.
Little knowing that these four remaining Leviathan-Sovereigns had become the most dazzling targets among all the Owl Dragon Legion's senior commanders.
Galactic Star Calendar, June 3.
As the second stage of the attack opened.
The Holy Light Empress fleet groups, led by the Empress Saint Cana herself, working with Shen Bing's Owl Dragon Fourth Legion, slew a T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Mothership.
The next day Chu Xuan's Owl Dragon Fifth Legion and Medusa's Owl Dragon Sixth Legion worked together to surround and kill another.
At which the two remaining Leviathan-Sovereigns withdrew outright to the neighborhood of the cosmic bug-nest.
And these last two T5 Hive Motherships Zhao Chen could of course by no means let go.
Galactic Star Calendar, June 18.
The second cycle of attack being ended and the refit complete.
The Owl Dragon Legion led the allied army in the third attacking action — that is, the last.
In a bare five days.
The Owl Dragon Legion and the allied army drove the remaining hive fleets in the main into the Redeemer's Star System, where the cosmic bug-nest lies.
That was the new name the Empress Saint Cana gave this star system.
Whether it was because of a heart seeking redemption in Saint Cana, for the Holy Radiance Empire's failure to handle this disaster before and the great numbers of the common people who died of it, there was no telling.
To look at, it seemed all was over?
Do not forget those two T5 Leviathan-Sovereign-class Hive Motherships.
Zhao Chen formed an elite fleet, led by the 15 T5 interstellar warships, with a great quantity of missile ships to give firepower support.
And at the last, beneath that fierce gunfire, the final two Leviathan-Sovereigns fell one after another.
Even their carcasses were dragged out of the place by starships Zhao Chen appointed to it.
Within the star system the cosmic bug-nest covers, no few of the interstellar hive-race remain.
But to clear these creatures away entire here is impossible.
So long as there is no way of closing this cosmic bug-nest, this trouble cannot be settled.
There is nothing for it but to copy the plan of handling used at that Grade-4 cosmic bug-nest in the Starlight Empire's Xueyan Star Region.
With this Redeemer's Star System at its center, and 12 star systems about it, the whole was marked out as a star region under military control.
Legion fleets of the Holy Radiance Empire will garrison here for the long term.
And clear away at set times such hive fleets as appear.
By all of which this swarm disaster seemed to have come to a close.