As the four red marks upon the war sand table, marked as quarry, gathered together like so many small streams.
The yellow cursors upon the outer ring, standing for the Machine Race fleets, had by now formed a ring of encirclement, and blocked the road of breaking out besides.
And to the holy ground's border there remained under five minutes' sailing.
"Hmph. These carbon-based lives who dare offend against the holy ground. I shall destroy them utterly!" The gilt-headed mechanical commander gave out a cold, grim voice.
In this moment the Machine Race warships gathered here came to a full 700,000!
And the Owl Dragon Legion fleets across from them were but 400,000!
Very nearly double the one against the other!
In this moment the hunter's bow seemed already leveled upon the quarry.
But in this moment the so-called quarry bared its fangs as well.
Of a sudden!
Upon the starship radar before every mechanical commander, cursors appeared in sheets at the outer edge.
"Reporting — energy signals found that seem to be Machine Race interstellar warships!" the adjutant reported beside it.
"Machine Race warships of our own? Are they reinforcements the lord Prophet has sent?" the gilt-headed commander muttered in surprise.
"No… no, they are not warships under our Prophet." As the adjutant said it, its red eyes flickered a few times — with something, of all things, of the look of human eyes.
Not their Prophet's warships, and Machine Race warships still.
Then the answer was plain enough already.
"Impossible; those warships will not enter this district!" The gilt-headed commander denied it on the instant.
For it knew that this holy ground is, to those pedantic factions of intelligent life, a forbidden ground!
They dare not come here; once they come, the holy ground will cleanse their minds.
It is only a pity, as the Prophet has said, that this effect works only within the holy ground's compass.
Otherwise the whole Machine Race might be raised up, and the lord Prophet's great vision accomplished!
At the outset, that false leader of the Machine Race too had sent warships slipping in here, but all had failed.
And from that time the two sides seemed to hold to an unspoken rule of not troubling one another.
"But… they are there now, past all doubt," the adjutant said helplessly.
A starship radar cannot lie.
"Then contact the lord Prophet at once, and have the lord Prophet use the Cleansing upon them!" The gilt-headed commander gave a cold snort.
"Yes." The adjutant went at once to do it.
Very soon the adjutant came running back in haste and reported, "This is bad — we have only now found that our outward communication channel is under interference!"
"What? The outward channel? Why was it not found before!" the gilt-headed commander rebuked it.
"We do not know either; the last time we contacted the base it was still as it should be. Just now, when I tried to contact the base, the head of the communication department found the communication under interference. And it is only toward the base; communication in every other direction is as it should be. It is… it is as though someone had drawn a screening net between us and the base!" the adjutant said, with its face set.
In this moment they felt a chill down their backs; mechanical lives though they are, they truly had that feeling now.
To have cut their communication channel with neither god nor ghost knowing of it?
However proud this gilt-headed commander may be, it grasped now that something was not as it should be.
"Run an antivirus and a check upon the whole fleet's systems at once!" the gilt-headed commander ordered.
"Yes!"
And in the course of it, those Machine Race warships appearing behind them drew nearer and nearer, and would shortly be within the two sides' firing radius.
And at this time they discovered besides what these Machine Race fleets, appearing of a sudden, truly were!
For upon the hulls of these warships stood one same fleet blazon.
And they all knew it.
That is one of the Machine Race's elite legion fleets.
The Silver-Wing Mechanical Angel Legion!
Taking its orders directly from the Machine Race's highest will!
In this moment these mechanical commanders grasped how grave the case was.
And the gilt-headed commander could not to this moment make out why they dared appear here!
Even the Silver-Wing Mechanical Angel Legion cannot enter the holy ground.
This the Prophet had said with his own mouth.
Never mind that elite fleet: even were that highest will herself to enter the holy ground, there would be but one end for her.
But… but… but why should they be here!
And just then the gilt-headed commander marked something.
It looked at the war sand table before it.
"What is this? How are our coordinates unlike what they were a moment since!" the gilt-headed commander roared.
The adjutant looked closely; sure enough, these coordinates were unlike those it had seen a moment before.
The position they now held lay outside the holy ground's compass.
As though their earlier position had been shifted bodily outward.
Yet what they had looked at before had plainly been within the holy ground's compass.
"Our systems have been broken into!" The gilt-headed commander lowered its voice, forcing down its rage.
That is now the one reason that can be made to fit.
By some means the enemy had broken into their starship systems.
And quietly altered the coordinates and the heading, so that their Machine Race fleets should suppose themselves still within the holy ground's compass — when in truth they had long since left the holy ground's system!
They had walked out of it themselves.
"Base carbon-based lives.
"And those stubborn ones who keep company with carbon-based lives!
"The lord Prophet spoke truly: the Machine Race of today is rotten, and wants the great Mechanical Prophet to cleanse it!" The gilt-headed commander muttered something now, half raving.
Nothing at all like an intelligent mechanical life; more like a fanatic of some faith.
"My lord, the most important thing now is how to handle this case!" the adjutant said in reminder beside it.
The gilt-headed commander said coldly, "What if they do run in the same stream?
"Taken together they are but 900,000 warships; they are not to be feared!
"I said to the lord Prophet before that we should attack of our own accord.
"This falls out as the very first step of our cleansing of the Machine Race!
"Order every ship to make ready for battle, and destroy these enemies!"
While the Machine Race fleets upon this side made ready for battle.
Upon the other side.
"Well? I said I could lure them out. Though — can these 500,000 warships of yours hold off the seven hundred thousand-odd across from them?" Zhao Chen looked through the video window at the mechanical beauty he had met once before.
One of the two he had seen that day: she of the silver hair ornaments.
"Let my lord set his mind at rest; the Silver Mechanical Angel Legion is no ordinary Machine Race legion fleet. As for these Machine Race traitors who go against the highest will, I have all along longed for a chance to clear them away with my own hand. My thanks to my lord for giving me this chance." Ah-Yin's voice came without feeling.
"Then this place is left to you." Zhao Chen smiled slightly.
Thereafter he gave his four Owl Dragon legion fleets their orders: at the first chance, to quit the field.
A quarrel within another's house is not one we shall put a hand into.