The Overseer's Normalization

Hmm. Now that is a fascinating story.

In the middle of all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this, one former ranker had somehow managed the absolutely unhinged feat of stealing a Xenobia Empire carrier and was currently on the run — but setting that particular bombshell aside, the takeaway was clear. As long as you put in enough work leveling the strike craft and the carrier itself, the glorious, brainless strike-craft spam that had once let me ruin enemy fleets with pure carrier doctrine was absolutely still on the table.

Which meant what I needed to do going forward was simple: commit fully to leveling and upgrading the Kraken.

At least now I understood how the Kraken was supposed to be operated. And as a bonus, I'd also learned that other players were starting to field not just carriers, but battlecruisers and even full battleships in earnest.

Conveniently, dismantling the fleet that had been chewed up hauling the Kraken-class home had left me with points to spare.

I immediately queued up the additional docking facilities, then turned my attention to something long overdue.

The Overseer — the ship I'd seized from some player whose name I no longer even remembered, the vessel that had served as our fleet's flagship and, aside from Pashtura, our only real firepower platform. We'd plastered it with every piece of equipment we could find and then let Griyanaar run wild with her bio-modifications until its firepower alone was monstrous… while every other aspect of its balance had been thoroughly, comprehensively ruined. The time had finally come to normalize it.

"At last, Commander. This day has come."

"Honestly, it feels like just yesterday that it was only me and the Overseer holding the line…♡"

"Still, at least that ship can finally catch a break, wouldn't you say?"

The moment I gave the order, Belial and Pashtura — and even Ignis, who normally didn't seem to have strong feelings about ships one way or the other — all wore expressions that were equal parts relief and wistfulness.

It was only natural. Unlike the rest of the fleet, this had been the landmark vessel that had lived and fought alongside them, the ship that had kept our fleet alive. Feeling a little sentimental about it was unavoidable.

"Oh my. I've grown rather attached to it, you know."

Our mad scientist, Professor Griyanaar, was no different. Hearing that the Overseer — the ship she'd so enthusiastically mad-modded until eyeballs and tentacles writhed across its hull and its firepower had been cranked to absurd levels — was being restored to stock condition left her looking quietly bitter.

For about three seconds.

"Oh, and Griyanaar — you're going to mad-mod the Kraken too."

"Hmm? Oh my, oh my, oh my — really?"

The moment she heard she got to modify an even bigger, more beautiful Kraken, Griyanaar's usual rotten grin vanished. In its place, a bright, genuine smile — almost too radiant for her small frame — lit up her face with pure, unfiltered joy.

And our muscle-nun Partia, meanwhile…

"All things according to the will of our great Savior. The fleet and we ourselves exist solely by the Savior's word…"

"I see."

She was the living embodiment of the word obedience, so I just nodded and went back to playing the game.

Keh heh heh. That one is the weakest among our rankers. (1)

Roughly a week later—

Hell yeah.

The instant I confirmed our fleet points had finally broken five hundred, I opened the menu for the Large Ship Shipyard — the facility I'd built ages ago and then left gathering dust, never once put to use.

Hmm.

But the moment I actually laid eyes on the buildable classes, a petty frustration settled in. No matter how flashy and magnificent my assault combat carrier was, the large ship shipyard simply could not build full aircraft carriers. I'd known this for three years — no, four years now — and it still managed to sting.

I finally have an absolute unit of a capital carrier and I can't even build more of them?!

Of course, the game had always worked this way. And in real life, owning a ship and being able to manufacture one were entirely different problems. Still, the fact that it insisted on being realistic in the most useless possible places made irritation bubble up all the same.

Separately, if I'd had my way, I would have tightened the belt, stockpiled every resource I could, pushed the base to level 7, and started rolling out battleships or full carriers. But as I'd confirmed on the gallery a week ago, players were already treating large ships like personal cars — casually fielding at least one each.

In that environment, if all I had was the Kraken and the Overseer — now finally calm after its mad-mod removal was entering the final stages — plus the Kanhel-class light cruiser and Azkran-class destroyer I'd bought from the event shop… going head-to-head with players who had entered the large-ship construction race in earnest?

If the Kraken took a proper beating, suffered moderate or worse damage, and got stuck in long-term drydock, then no matter how much the Overseer's raw firepower could match a battleship even in stock condition, it was still fundamentally just a heavy cruiser. Going up against ships a weight class above it was a genuinely hard problem.

Like it or not, if this fleet was going to survive, we needed at least one battlecruiser out of the shipyard right now.

"Commander, you really don't need to justify yourself at such length."

"Quiet, Jessica."