Lord of War (5)
Caught all at once in a situation where enemies were pouring in from every front, the galaxy’s idle commentators were already declaring that the Warlord’s hegemony was finished…
“In the name of the Lord of War, I command you: from this moment, unleash a total offensive upon every region of Zeltech!”
After entrusting the defense of each sector to his vassal states and the Keshik fleets already stationed there, the Warlord boldly abandoned the vast Mekt-Fuchs territories and poured every remaining force into the Zeltech front—a reckless gamble if ever there was one.
“The Lord of War has spoken! Relay to every ship: turn your bows toward the capital of Zeltech!”
“Burn it all and plunder everything! For the Warlord!”
He even committed the elite Guard Fleet under his personal command, driving the Zeltech expedition forward with renewed fury.
As a result, Mekt-Fuchs—who had already exhausted their heavy-armored fleets and were fighting the Warlord with mobility-focused cruiser forces—suddenly found themselves granted an unexpected respite of peace (?).
“Whew… we made it.”
“Aaaaagh! Somebody save us!!!”
The Zeltech Corporate Alliance, however, found itself abruptly face-to-face with a massive offensive that included the Warlord himself, and their screams filled the void.
Of course, because the Warlord had concentrated everything on a single front, the other theaters rang with screams of a far happier sort.
“Zeltech, we will never forget your sacrifice.”
“Guhhh…”
No—those were not merely screams of relief…
“This is our chance!!!”
“Let’s gooooo!!!”
With the pressure on the front lines suddenly easing, the fleets of every other theater raced to break through the defensive lines while the bulk of the Warlord’s forces were gathered at Zeltech, intending to catch him in a pincer with the Corporate Alliance.
But…
“…Just because we lost to Prosnark does not mean we cannot stop the likes of you.”
The very power that had first shattered the encirclement—the Kerzin Federation—now threw up a true space-defense against the Grand Fleet mobilized by Ztrakhpor.
“What the hell? If you can defend this well, why did you fold so pathetically against Prosnark?!”
The officers commanding the Grand Fleet for Ztrakhpor could not help but voice their frustration.
…
Of course, it was an open secret that the Kerzin Federation’s impressive defensive skill had been forged only after Prosnark cracked their skulls open and threshed their very souls—earned in the desperate struggle to survive.
While the Kerzin Federation waged a genuine space-defense against the combined fleets of Ztrakhpor and Kar-Du, another kind of scorched-earth campaign was unfolding in the south.
“We will not let them take our territory or our resources!”
“If we cannot have them, we will burn them all!”
“Have you people lost your minds?”
Perhaps it was because the Uko’Praknar Interstellar Union—long bullied by other nations—had, the moment they absorbed the independent Republican League, immediately lost their western territories. With the single-minded resolve that if they could not keep something they would rather destroy it, they were systematically wrecking every resource and planet in systems they could not easily defend. It was a performance that perfectly embodied the word “blackened.”
And unlike the Kerzin, these blackened Uko’Praknar still had a reliable ally.
—BOOM!
“It’s the Keshik! The Warlord’s personal guard fleet!”
“Catch them! Eliminate that fleet and we win this entire theater!”
Stopping the allied fleets flooding into the southern region with only Uko’Praknar (plus Ikh Nur Bal) was, by any measure, impossible. So the Warlord, already short on forces, detached one of his Guard fleets to the south. Against a southern coalition fleet that outnumbered them overwhelmingly, they were conducting a mobile guerrilla campaign that called to mind a desert fox riding a tank.
And I had to listen to every last one of these reports the moment my pleasant lunch hour ended.
“…Ugh.”
The stomach I had just filled so contentedly was already sending up the first signals of gastritis again.
“Come on—overall force disparity is five to one. How are they not crushing them?”
“Right? The world is a mysterious place, isn’t it.”
What was this, a World War II-style campaign in space?
Well, even in the game the graphics were 3D, but you actually played on a 2D map, so that part I could accept. But failing to finish the enemy in one stroke with five times the power? That was a serious problem.
“What exactly are our fleets doing that they’re getting whittled down despite that overwhelming advantage?”
When I voiced the question, Riel pounded her completely flat, front-and-back-identical torso in shared frustration.
“I think the same thing. It doesn’t make any sense by normal standards.”
Fortunately, the person who could answer my question was surprisingly close at hand.
“It’s actually quite simple, little fleshling.”
“Hmm?”
Alina, who had been listening to our conversation, cut in through the terminal.
“What do you mean, Alina?”
“The coalition fleet forming the southern front currently consists of three main powers—our Seveli, plus Rixi and Loirakan—with the ships of various minor nations providing auxiliary support.”
“I already know that. Summarize the point briefly.”
When I told her not to pad her screen time with things everyone already knew, Alina’s terminal buttons flickered two or three times before she answered at once.
“Simply put, the Warlord’s Keshik fleet is exclusively targeting the auxiliary forces—the ships of the minor nations.”
“…?”
My military knowledge barely extended beyond the famous stuff, so I stared at the terminal with pure incomprehension. Alina’s button blinked once more and she launched into a second explanation.
Most of the detailed content was far beyond what an ordinary person like me could follow; I could barely make out what she was saying…
“So basically it’s something like this, right?”
“Precisely, little quantum core.”
Luckily I had the all-purpose robot and friend of humanity, the AI Riel, standing right beside me.
“I see. So that’s how it is.”
Whenever Riel conversed with Alina I simply tossed in the occasional interjection and watched. Once Alina returned to her own work—
“I’ll be taking my leave, then, little fleshling and little quantum core.”
“Byeee~”
—all I had to do was give Riel an order.
“She gone?”
“Yes, she’s gone.”
“Then hurry up and make me understand what you just understood!”
“….”
An indescribably strange look shot my way from Riel, but—
“What are you waiting for? Get on with it.”
“…Ugh, fine.”
—under my pressure she grumbled and fretted yet still threw herself wholeheartedly into the role of explainer.
When Riel finished, I finally grasped how the situation was unfolding.
“So the coalition fleet, built around battleships, is slowly pushing forward to roll up the front line…”
“Yep.”
“While the Warlord’s Keshik fleet is avoiding any head-on clash with that main force and instead hunting the fleets of the weaker nations that can’t keep up.”
Exactly as Riel said: the relatively fragile fleets of the minor powers were being thoroughly hunted by the Warlord’s elite Keshik.
“And if the main force splits its strength to protect those auxiliary fleets—the minor nations—that would be exactly what the Warlord wants, wouldn’t it?”
“Is that so.”
“Of course. I’m sure the Warlord’s people are hoping we’ll organize our fleets that way.”
I nodded in agreement at Riel’s words.
Of course, the pressure felt on the absolute front line was on an entirely different level from what Riel and I experienced in the rear.
“If this keeps up we’re all going to dieeee!”
“Let me say one thing: did Seveli, Rixi, and Loirakan bring us here just to use us as shields?”
As losses to the Warlord’s fleets continued to mount, the minor nations’ fleets went so far as to announce that if the main body did not come to their aid they would simply turn around and go home.
“Then we have no choice.”
“We’ll detach some of the battleships and cruisers and operate them jointly with those nations’ fleets.”
Contrary to our expectations, political and practical realities at the front forced the coalition to split its strength after all.
Even after peeling off escort forces, the main body was still stronger than the Warlord’s raiding detachments. What had been more than a five-to-one advantage was now merely three-to-one…
“Now they’re an opponent we can actually fight.”
“What?!”
The Keshik fleet, tempered by overwhelming real combat experience, began to stab and flee, stab and flee, stab and flee against the coalition main body, shaving away its strength with endless repetition.
After enough time had passed for that pattern to repeat dozens of times, the front-line forces, the fleet command, and even the leadership back in the home nations became of one mind.
“We cannot keep being toyed with by the Warlord’s Keshik any longer!”
“Keep your heads clear, hold the line, and push forward!”
Using tactics that reminded Arto of the line battles of his previous life, they began to block the Keshik’s mobile warfare and the charges of Uko’Praknar, steadily securing territory step by step.
Yet while the southern coalition fleet was still flailing about in confusion—
“At last, it’s over.”
—the defensive lines laid down by the Zeltech Corporate Alliance met a catastrophic end under the massive offensive personally commanded by the Warlord.