Clan Chief Bagin stared blankly at the 'child' before him, who was trying to remove the helmet from her head.
"Ouch... ouch... Commander... sir, this... this... helmet... won't come off..." The 'child' clutched the helmet on her head, pulling at it as if trying to uproot a carrot, but no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't budge.
Zhao Chen was speechless.
Could it be that this girl's intelligence and talent were all focused on the technical side?
But that didn't make sense either—the Powered Exoskeleton Combat Armor was also a technological product.
Zhao Chen reached out and pressed a button on Annie's neck. The helmet covering her head automatically split open, revealing a large head.
"An... Annie! It really is Annie!" Clan Chief Bagin trembled as he stepped forward, his hands shaking uncontrollably.
Even in battles where death seemed certain, the clan chief had never shed a single tear. But now, tears streamed down his face.
"Dad!" Annie looked at her father with emotion. She had thought she would never see her family again in this lifetime, yet here they were, reunited.
Overwhelmed with excitement, she tried to rush toward her father.
But the next second, she fell flat on her face.
"Cough, cough, cough...?" Annie spat out the dirt from her mouth and looked miserably at her trembling, disobedient legs—a result of the high-altitude jump.
She shot a resentful glance at the commander.
Zhao Chen averted his gaze. This had nothing to do with him.
After all, when he had first landed in this manner, his legs hadn't given out.
"Annie, are you okay!" Clan Chief Bagin rushed forward in three quick steps, helping up his eldest daughter, whom he had missed dearly for over half a year.
"I'm fine, it's just that my legs went a little weak after the landing," Annie said, standing up with a bitter smile.
Clan Chief Bagin looked Annie up and down, pinching her chubby cheeks. "Annie, I thought you must have suffered greatly these past six months outside, but how did you even manage to gain weight?"
With her five meals a day in the Starship Dining Hall, each portion three times the size of others, it was no wonder she had gained weight.
Strangely enough, despite eating that much, Annie had only grown slightly rounder.
This physique made many Female Crew Members envious.
Zhao Chen watched the reunited father and daughter from the side.
Though he was reluctant to interrupt their joyous reunion, given the current situation, he stepped forward and said, "Clan Chief Bagin, the joy of your reunion may have to wait a little longer.
First, we need to deal with the matter at hand.
Many of your Dwarf race clansmen are still suffering under the oppression of the Fire Salamander Tribe!"
Clan Chief Bagin wiped the tears from his face and looked at the Human Race man who had descended from the sky.
"Might I ask who you are?"
"Let me introduce him. This is Commander Zhao Chen of our Fierce Dragon Fleet. He saved me..." Annie briefly recounted everything she had experienced before.
Upon hearing that Zhao Chen had purchased Annie from slave traders, Clan Chief Bagin was overjoyed and quickly said, "Thank you so much, Commander."
"Let's get down to business. I need you to provide me with the locations of all surviving members of the Dwarf race. I will gradually dispatch Mecha troops and Stellar Drones to rescue them.
At the same time, I need you to try your best to contact those Dwarves. Prioritize your own safety; if they are already surrounded or threatened by the Fire Salamanders, they can surrender temporarily. I will rescue them!"
When he spoke these final words, Zhao Chen's expression was very serious.
Looking at the bodies of the Dwarf warriors who had fought bravely around him, his heart was filled with rage.
Although this might be his first encounter with the Fire Salamander Tribe, Zhao Chen's impression of them was extremely poor.
These damned lizards actually slaughtered his future technical employees!
Every single one of them was a treasure, you know.
"Understood, I will ensure the message is relayed!" Clan Chief Bagin nodded repeatedly, then cautiously reminded, "Um... Commander, the Fire Salamanders' interstellar fleet is not to be underestimated.
They possess a T3 Arkham-class Medium Starship Battleship.
It was precisely by relying on this T3 interstellar warship that they managed to annihilate our Dwarf race's interstellar fleet in such a short time."
Zhao Chen looked up at the sky, where the clouds seemed to have been pierced open—the direction from which the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser had just departed.
"That T3 Arkham-class Medium Starship Battleship will soon become history."
Clan Chief Bagin was taken aback. He quietly asked his daughter beside him, "Annie... how many starships has this Fleet Commander of yours brought this time?"
Annie held up one finger.
"One hundred?" Clan Chief Bagin felt somewhat reassured. If it were one hundred, led by that T3 interstellar battlecruiser from earlier, there shouldn't be much of a problem.
Annie shook her head.
"Ten?" Clan Chief Bagin frowned slightly. Ten was also acceptable; they must all be high-quality starships, right?
Annie shook her head again and said something that left her father speechless: "One. Just that T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser from earlier."
"One?" Clan Chief Bagin's eyes widened.
"Dad, don't underestimate the Commander's T3 starship. It's super, super powerful!" Annie put her hands on her hips, as if she had built that starship herself.
"Charlotte, is everything okay on your end?" Zhao Chen maintained communication with Charlotte on the bridge of the T3 Blizzard.
"Don't worry, Commander. These guys aren't even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth." Charlotte's voice came through, brimming with confidence.
With Charlotte's assurance, Zhao Chen felt completely at ease.
Now, what he had to do was recruit employees. Zhao Chen looked at Clan Chief Bagin with a smile, his eyes nearly narrowing into slits.
Then he glanced at the Dwarf warriors behind Clan Chief Bagin—short in stature but each one robust and strong.
...
T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser · Bridge
Charlotte stood before the captain's chair, where Commander Zhao Chen usually sat. In front of her was a holographic virtual display of the entire battlefield.
One starship faced three to four hundred starships.
The Fire Salamander Tribe's interstellar fleet had completed its assembly.
From a God's perspective, the T3 Blizzard had its back to the planet behind it, confronting the Fire Salamander fleet advancing in a net-like formation.
"Deputy Commander, the scan of the enemy fleet's starship information is complete."
The enemy possesses one T3 interstellar warship, fifty-seven T2 starships, and the rest are all T1 interstellar warships.
Among them, the T3-class starship is a T3 Arkham-class medium interstellar battleship, while the T2-class interstellar warships are..." Secretary Aili was reporting the enemy fleet's data beside her.
Charlotte, however, directly interrupted Secretary Aili's following words, her eyes fixed solely on that T3 Arkham-class medium interstellar battleship.
"Aside from this T3 interstellar warship, the names of the other starships are unimportant—they're nothing more than a pile of scrap metal," Charlotte said coldly.