A Week of Party Time (3)
Some newbies, deciding they simply couldn't survive alone, had started reaching out for help from other players.
And of course, people who stabbed those newbies in the back popped up just as fast. It was a jungle where pure savagery still thrived, and I found myself shaking my head without even meaning to.
But honestly, I wasn't in any position to just sit there laughing at those people either. My base wasn't going up in flames the way so many of those gallery victims and villains had, but still...
"Commander, here's today's resource status report."
"Mm..."
"We pulled 175 each from three mining ships for a total of 525, but once you factor in the resources going out for ship repairs and base repairs... we're in the red."
"...Ssshh."
If I wanted to hold out more comfortably against those damn pirates, I needed to push the base upgrades further. That was the only way I'd finally get to use the mountain of destroyer and cruiser blueprints piled up on me. The problem, as Jessica's report made painfully clear, was that repairing pirate damage and fixing or replacing ships kept looping over and over.
"Minerals. I need minerals...!"
"Indeed."
Resources were bleeding out in every direction, which meant I was absurdly short on the minerals needed for a base upgrade. Sure, I'd already finished off all the minor upgrades that had been sitting around, but—
Ah, I want it so bad!
That goddamn mineral shortage had me by the ankle and wasn't letting go. I'd been desperate to build extra mining ships, but the shipyard had been locked down churning out corvettes and destroyers with no free slots. Only yesterday had a single berth finally opened up, so I'd swallowed hard, abandoned additional warship production, and hit the button for a mining ship instead.
If that newly built miner sortied before tomorrow and brought in extra resources... then, at last, my base's resource pipeline would finally have some breathing room.
But the next morning, the moment I woke up full of hope—
"Commander, the pirates hit our resource zone this time instead of the base!"
"..."
I wanted to unleash a full-throated roar of pure rage at the developers for stuffing completely unnecessary variations into their event.
I don't take lies.
Seriously. Do not lie to me.
Even with me staring her down loaded with every ounce of that feeling, Jessica did not take her words back.
"Commander... no matter how you look at me, what's impossible is impossible."
"...Haaaaaaaah."
No amount of denial on my part was going to make something that had already happened un-happen. And even if Jessica had tried to walk it back, there was no way I would have bought it anyway.
> Mining ship under attack.
> Executing evasive maneuvers.
> Dumping all stored resources to increase evasion rate.
Ugh, my minerals.
Our ever-enthusiastic status-window guy was already feeding me a live play-by-play of exactly what those pirate bastards were doing. Thanks to that miserable raid, the resources that should have come in at 700 arrived at the same 525 as yesterday. On top of that, we'd just lost one of the zones we'd been mining.
"Commander... what are you going to do?"
"Mmmngh."
I was thoroughly pissed off about the whole situation, but—
> Resource zone under attack
> Enemy forces: Destroyer ×1, Corvette ×2
"Hah... no choice."
"Do you have some kind of plan, Commander?"
"Mobilize two destroyers and eight corvettes. Wipe out every last one of the bastards that hit our resource zone."
"Understood, Commander."
Sitting still wasn't an option either. This was no time to burn hours hunting for a new resource zone, so I immediately dispatched forces to reclaim ours. At the same time, I ordered repairs on the mining ship that had limped home half-dead.
"Still, it's a relief the mining ship managed to make it back alive instead of getting completely destroyed."
"You're right about that."
Lose some resources, so what? Beats having the ship blow up and having to build a new one. Mining ships were bigger than your average cruiser by design, which meant the resources required to produce one were way more expensive than a destroyer. Better they didn't explode if at all possible. Ideally, of course, they'd bring the resources home with them too, but...