A Week of Party Time (2)
"They're handing me free destroyers right now. Whether they're pirates or whatever else, shouldn't I be grateful?"
"…"
They were even providing a bulk supply of living scarecrows for our Supers to level up on. How generous could you get?
"They're basically the Giving Tree. Just hand it all over already."
"I-is that so."
And while I was sharing these thoughts, I could see the space pirates' destroyer that our Ignis and Belial had seized, sailing into the base under the protection of Pashtura's fleet, flaunting its imposing silhouette.
At any rate, that was how we wrapped up the first day's raid.
"It's been quite some time since I last saw real combat, but fortunately it seems my instincts haven't dulled."
"I know, right♡ Looks like I haven't lost my touch either♡"
"Truly outstanding combat power, seniors."
Our reliable Supers, of course—
"Combat results: one destroyer captured, two frigates sunk, two corvettes sunk, and zero friendly casualties."
"Mm."
"That was a magnificent battle. Far more impressive than I expected."
Jessica, who'd been monitoring the situation from the command post, looked thoroughly satisfied as well. I let out a quiet sigh of relief at the confirmation that the operation I'd planned had actually worked.
And separate from the operation itself, the fact that everyone had come through unharmed while greedily sucking up experience and growing stronger filled me with genuine joy.
But for all of that, I couldn't simply sit back and celebrate—because this damn pirate uprising event wasn't over. For the remaining six days, they would keep pouring into the base like a boss rush.
And sure enough, about four days after that first assault—
"…I'm exhausted."
"Tell me about it."
I nodded as I watched those once-fresh young women grind their teeth over the pirates' relentless daily plundering.
A Week of Party Time (2)
Summarizing the past five days, including day one, went roughly like this.
Day 1.
Enemy forces: one destroyer, two frigates, two corvettes.
Through our first real battle, everyone's teamwork improved, and so on and so forth…
"Things went easier than I expected. Nice!" — Jessica.
Day 2.
Enemy forces: two destroyers, five frigates.
The exponentially increased firepower put everyone through the wringer, but we managed somehow. Short on personnel and still lacking base upgrades, we scuttled every ship we'd captured for Pashtura's leveling instead of keeping them.
"The enemy's forces just ballooned all of a sudden. Was it always like this?" — Jessica.
Day 3.
Enemy forces: two destroyers, three frigates, seven corvettes.
We'd just finished building one destroyer, one frigate, and eight corvettes of our own, so once again we boarded and seized an enemy destroyer while answering the rest with a frontal engagement powered by Pashtura's devastating artillery skills. That was the plan, anyway—
Until the pirate boss decided he couldn't let us take his ship and overloaded the destroyer's fusion reactor to self-destruct. The two of them barely made it out in time, but the destroyer went down with him. The other one tried to ram and board our destroyer, among other nonsense. All in all, a thoroughly exhausting bunch.
"…This is getting a little dangerous." — Jessica.
Day 4.
This time only three destroyers showed up, so I thought maybe the brain-dead scaling was finally over.
That thought didn't last long.
Instead of shells and missiles, the enemy destroyers mindlessly dumped assault pods of every size and number.
— "Join! The Heldi—"
— "AAAAAAAH"
So this time Ignis had to leap from ship to ship, plugging every breach the pirates punched through, while Belial ran a thorough defensive operation with her puppet units against the ones storming the base itself.
And even that only worked because we'd used Pashtura's power at the start to blow one destroyer out of the sky before anything else. It was a truly nightmarish day.
"When they pushed all the way to the command post, I genuinely thought this might be the end." — Jessica.
And then Day 5.
Every approach from the previous days—except the Day 4 assault-pod drop—got thrown at us all at once. By the end of it, every last one of us was completely, utterly spent.
Needless to say, we weren't the only ones suffering.
[Image of a burning base]
What the fuck, they come once a day now?
I don't even have the resources to repair my ships anymore holy shit
The moment you opened the Community and flipped through the gallery, the overwhelming majority of posts were about how hard it was to hold out through this mess.
[Image of a pirate ship ramming a burning base]
These shitty pirate bastards wrecked my base's power reactor
At least my characters are fine, but all I've got left is one destroyer
Anyone willing to take me in?
[Image of a cramped ship interior packed with all kinds of junk, characters gasping for air in front of it]
Before the base went down, I stuffed everything I needed into the destroyer.
Some people were adopting bizarre methods just to avoid a game over.
It's already the Day 5 raid and I've got literally nothing left—no forces, nothing.
If possible I just want to live with someone else and scrape by for the long haul.