Much to Consider for Victory (2)

Why weren't they moving? Why were they just sitting there?

The enemy's baffling behavior sent a flood of questions racing through my mind — but only for a moment.

The moment word came that Battlecruiser No. 2 had finished construction, I decided to put the enemy's stillness to use and immediately start building Battlecruiser No. 3 for the firepower fight ahead.

But just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as I was about to begin…

Tsk… no. What I need here is a light carrier.

A brilliant operational plan had just flashed through my head, and so instead of another big, beautiful battlecruiser, I went with something else.

It was still big and beautiful — but as the shorter build time made clear, its durability was worse than a battlecruiser's. Hell, it was worse than a regular cruiser's. I started construction on a light carrier anyway.

And since I couldn't exactly sit around waiting three full days in the middle of this mess, I dumped every last rapid-construction charge I'd been hoarding into the job.

Just like that, I cranked out a light carrier that rivaled a battlecruiser in sheer size, then set about stuffing it full of fighters.

Of course, our rabbit-eared Jessica, standing right beside me, was less than thrilled.

"Commander, adding a light carrier in our current situation isn't a good idea, is it?"

"The light carrier, you mean."

"Yes. If you sortie with fighters that haven't been properly leveled, it'll just be a turkey shoot."

"Mm. Fair point."

"And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what you just used was every last rapid-construction charge we had left."

In short: Those fighters are so underleveled they'll melt on contact, so why the hell did you burn all our best resources on this?

I queued up the next project in the capital-ship shipyard that had just birthed the light carrier — the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠conception, no, the construction of Battlecruiser No. 3 — and then said,

"I have a plan for all of this, Jessica."

"…Ah. Yes, sir."

My tone made it clear I wasn't explaining further right now.

And so, while Battlecruiser No. 3 slowly crawled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠its way into existence, I turned my attention back to the enemies who had attacked me — and who were still just sitting there.

"Commander, isn't it possible that massive fleet is just a decoy, and their real force is swinging around to hit the base?"

"I have to say, that does seem rather likely."

"I agree, Commander. With five people of your caliber involved, they'd have more than enough numbers to pull it off."

Belial and Jessica had come to offer advice, working from their own common-sense read of the enemy's completely unprecedented behavior.

Even so, I stayed relaxed.

"Don't worry. They don't have the spare forces for a flanking maneuver."

"What do you mean by that…?"

Belial looked puzzled. I shrugged and laid out the answer.

"I only figured this out a moment ago myself, but — unlike us, sitting pretty on home ground, those guys came all the way out here on an expedition, right?"

"Yes, that's true."

"Which means they would have had to leave a portion of their forces behind to defend their own bases, just in case."

As I spoke, I tapped the command console and pulled up the enemy fleet analysis I'd reviewed earlier, then continued.

"Looking at that, what comes to mind?"

"…That there's a whole lot of them."

"Right. And beyond that, there's one critical problem."

I pulled up each ship's command-point cost alongside the list and kept going.

"Five people brought a fleet worth over two thousand points."

"Yes."

"But at this stage of the game, an individual player's point cap is maybe four to five hundred — six hundred at the absolute most."

"…Ah!"

"I see. So that's what it was."

Once both of them understood what I was getting at, I calmly laid out my conclusion.

"If they also spent points on fleets left behind to defend their bases from other players…"

"Then each commander effectively only brought three to four hundred points' worth of ships."

"Exactly."

Strictly speaking, five times four hundred shouldn't add up to over two thousand, so a few of them had probably brought more than four hundred — but that wasn't the point.

The important thing was that they had committed every spare ship they could spare beyond base defense. Unless some random clan or player showed up out of nowhere as "reinforcements" — the kind of bullshit this game loved to pull — there wouldn't be any flanking force at this stage.

"So for now, we don't need to worry about the enemy swinging around behind us."

"Right. Though… even if they split their forces in half, we'd still have a hard time winning a straight-up slugfest."

That realization didn't make our currently terrible position any better. Jessica, Belial, and I settled back into hard thinking, turning over every possible way to break through this situation.

But at that moment, I noticed one more critical detail…

Hold on. That fleet… why are there only three different player marks on the battlecruisers?

For some reason, five players had shown up, but only three of them owned battlecruisers. And on top of that, the five players weren't sharing a single command-point pool — it was just 400 + 400 + 400 + 400 + 400 stacked together. Their command structure was completely fragmented.

Oh, wait. If I play this right, I might actually be able to use that.

In the middle of this godawful mess, I started to see a crack.

Combined with the report from the patrol that had been almost entirely wiped out — all but one ship — and the reconnaissance data an Azcran-class destroyer had risked its life to bring back…