There's a Lot to Think About for Victory (4)
Of course, what they were really worried about was the moment they charged in recklessly.
The instant a teleport strike from the Kraken's carrier craft slammed into their rears — the blind spot for most of their ships — the carefully assembled fleet would start blowing apart, and they'd end up eating every last scrap of humiliation on the menu.
"But look at those fighters right now. Not even the whole fleet — just one guy's AA net melted hundreds of them."
"And midway through you could tell a player was frantically manual-controlling them, and they still all melted."
"Hmm."
Icarus's carrier craft had dissolved far more pathetically than any of them had expected.
"Hmmteresting…"
"Yo, what if we just push like this?"
"Agreed."
"If we drag this out too long, the Humanity guys are gonna lose their damn minds."
Worry over their backers in the Humanity Clan flying into a rage.
"Plus, think about it — the mercenary office is shut down right now."
"Yeah."
"If we stall around and some bullshit event pops the office back online sooner than expected, we might get completely wrecked."
"Oh, true."
The thought that the second the mercenary office normalized, Icarus might ignore resource income and stockpiles entirely and dump dozens of mercenary companies on them with zero brain cells involved…
"Just got word from Humanity side — that bastard sent the Pirate Empress and her fleet over to where the Loki Clan is."
"Guess he hired them out as external mercs or something."
…combined with the realization that Icarus's fleet strength had dropped far more than they'd anticipated.
"Ah, so time wasn't on our side after all, man."
"Man? I'm reporting that."
"Ah."
"This is not the time for that. Looks like the opinion's basically settled — let's wrap this up and move."
"Right."
The Unity Clan discarded the timid posture they'd held until now and began moving in earnest to smash Icarus flat.
"Alright, so Goliath, Dolphin, and Bayraktar — you three have battlecruisers, so just push straight at the base."
"Okay."
"Got it."
"Yep yep."
"Then I'll flank?"
"Okay."
Of course, they had no intention of fighting a death match against the third-ranked player. Separate from advancing a bait-slash-main fleet large enough that Icarus would have to sortie most of his forces — mercenaries included — just to stop it, Marshmallow would peel off with his light carriers as a detached force, circle around, and hit Icarus's base directly to force a surrender. Ramuramu would primarily screen the main fleet and support Marshmallow's group as needed. With that plan locked in, they picked up the pace of their advance.
But while they were busy hammering out countermeasures against Icarus — a bunch of people who barely coordinated trying to force a plan into shape — our Icarus had already finished recharging the fighters that had been ground down.
On top of that, watching the situation unfold, he saw the enemy fleet drop its AA formation for a charge formation… and at the same time, the light-carrier player meant to hold air superiority for the fleet peel off onto a separate flanking route.
"Ang gimoring."
"What kind of exclamation is that supposed to be?"
Finally letting out that… exclamation(?) at the sight of them taking the bait, I decided it was time to put the operation into motion for real.
And that plan was none other than…
"Alright, from here on out it's not the light-carrier fighters — the absurdly well-leveled Kraken fighters are going in~"
"How truly horrifying."
Deliberately send level-1 fighters to loosen their guard, then commit the Kraken and its craft — which had power-leveled so aggressively over the past week that they'd become absurdly strong — and serve them a grand, ceremonial Big Screw-You. The so-called Carrier One-Tool Operation.
If you looked at it closely, it was basically the same bread-and-butter approach I'd used against other players before.
"Kraken and light-carrier fighters all launched?"
"Yes, Commander."
"Split the Kraken fighters into three waves, then commence the attack as planned."
"Understood."
Of the three thousand Kraken fighters divided into three waves: Attack Group 1 would trail behind the leading light-carrier fighters, slip past the enemy AA aggro, and put in damage. Attack Group 2 would wait until Group 1's assault had bloodied the enemy fleet, then teleport in for a rear strike. And finally, Attack Group 3 — filled mostly with fighters rather than bombers — would go with a fleet including about four mercenary companies and pick an air battle with the light-carrier player.
"Commander, wouldn't it be better to hit their main fleet with Attack Group 3 as well…?"
Jessica, of course, pulled out select-and-focus against my operational plan.
"I thought about that too, but throwing in one more Kraken attack group doesn't seem like it'd scale the effect exponentially."
"Ah."
"Plus, that leaves us with no way to check the light carrier's fighters."
"Ah, right."
Instead of concentrating force for marginal gains, I chose to pin down the light carriers — three of which could spit out roughly one Kraken attack group's worth of craft — and focused on the unfolding battle. Just in case, I also sortied the main fleet, including Battlecruisers No. 1 and No. 2, along with the remaining mercenary companies.
And a short while later, the Unity Clan's main battlecruiser squadron…
"Yo, more fighters incoming."
"Recharge already done?"
"We did drag our feet pretty hard."
…was snorting at the gnat-like fighters flying straight at them.
"Fleet AA, open fire!"
"Sweep those gnats off the board!"
Of course, snorts aside, they had no desire to watch their precious ships take scratches from a bunch of pathetic flies. So they poured massed AA fire at the incoming craft in a free-for-all — without even forming up into an AA formation this time. And under that net, the fighters melted away like ice cream once again.
"Now I get it. Those fighters are trash."
"Agreed."
Watching craft dissolve even without the fleet AA buff from a proper formation, the word "caution" regarding fighters melted out of their heads just as thoroughly as the ice cream.
Which is why the three players leading that fleet — Goliath, Dolphin, and Bayraktar — made no preparations whatsoever when they saw the next wave of roughly one thousand fighters coming right after.
And immediately after that—
"Uh, oh shit?!"
"Why aren't those bastards going down?!"
—they paid the price for that complacency.
While Icarus's level-1… no, by now roughly level-5 light-carrier fighters melted and held aggro, the Kraken's fighters — all level 50 and above — drifted in untouched by the fleet AA net and came screaming in.
Unlike the light-carrier craft, Kraken fighters were hard to shoot down even one at a time without the buffs of an AA formation. And battlecruisers and heavy cruisers were ships built for fleet decisive action, not for swatting tiny, high-maneuverability flyers — their individual AA was slow and weak. The combination produced a result.
—KRAAAANG! BOOM! CRASH!
"Uh, shit?!"
"KYAAAAAANG!!"
"No fucking way, my heavy cruiser!"
Battlecruisers might be weaker than battleships as meat shields, but they were still tougher than cruisers. The heavy cruisers, on the other hand — exposed to the full suite of torpedoes, bombs, missiles, rockets, and every other armament hanging off the Kraken's organic bombers — melted in a full-blown catastrophe.
"AAAAARGH THE HEAVY CRUISERS ARE MELTIIIIING!"
Under an airstrike on a completely different level from anything they'd imagined — no, anything they'd experienced — the three heavy cruisers on the outermost edge failed to weather the assault and went down on the spot.
"KRAAAAH!! Light carriers! Light carriers!"
"Fighters! Get air superiority NOW!!"
Terrified by the insane damage output, the three players frantically called for support from the light carrier that had been flanking…
"Uwaaah."
"He's coming to save us!"
"No, I'm under attack right now too."
Unfortunately, the light-carrier player they'd been so desperately hunting for air cover was himself exposed to a surprise attack from the Kraken's third attack group and four mercenary companies. Far from providing air cover for the main fleet, he had to worry about his own fleet's survival first.
If there was one silver lining for the main fleet players…