The Avalon Siege (1)

By the time I was ready to start a base siege, I realized I could amass somewhere between two and two-and-a-half million minerals plus nearly a million rare resources all told.

That ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was more than enough to make it work — and the thought left me feeling genuinely, privately delighted.

The Avalon Siege. (1)

After the mini-event ended, I gathered resources with manic, single-minded enthusiasm — hoarding, stockpiling, and stacking them higher still.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, the gallery had been buzzing about some clan or other collapsing, but I'd been too buried in faction quests to spare the time to look.

Anyway — a little over two weeks. More precisely, about twenty days?

I'd privately wondered how much I could even scrape together in that short a window. But once construction of the Air Command finished and, at the same time, repairs on the large carrier finally wrapped up…

"Jessica. Report on current stockpiled resources."

"Including the resource crates Commander just opened, that comes to three million minerals and seven hundred fifty thousand rare resources."

"Mm. Nice."

Astonishingly, our base had piled up more than three million resources.

Of course, the reason the haul had exceeded my expectations was exactly what Jessica had just said — I'd cracked open every last resource crate I'd been hoarding for ages. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Separately, I'd also botched my own math and failed to account for some of the resources coming in through quests. On top of that, clearing a recent beast-faction quest had netted me another hundred thousand minerals and about ten thousand rare resources.

The important point was this: we now had more than enough. And to drive the final nail home…

"All right — from this moment, we're cleaning out the trading market's resources~"

"Wooow."

With Jessica's thoroughly soulless cheer at my back, I invested twenty-five thousand Gold — more than originally planned, counting what I'd earned from the mini-event — and bought a massive batch of top-tier resource crates to crack open.

A short while later…

Just shy of two million minerals and over a hundred thirty thousand rare resources. I nodded at the haul and decided to have Jessica confirm exactly where our base stood now.

"Jessica. Full base resource report."

"Exact current totals: five million seventy-one thousand nine hundred fifty-two minerals, and eight hundred ninety-two thousand five hundred ninety-four rare resources."

Confirming a stockpile on a scale I'd never experienced before left me briefly overwhelmed with satisfaction — then I moved straight to the original plan, heading for the base's Mercenary Dispatch Office.

"Oh, Lord Icarus? You haven't visited in a while. It's been some time."

"Mm."

"Finally thinking of hiring some new mercenaries? As it happens, quite a bit of intel has come in lately on mercenary companies started by some very spirited types."

Faced with a dispatch officer who looked for all the world like a bartender, I dropped onto the sofa, ignored the catalog he casually slid my way, and spoke with complete confidence.

"Five million minerals. Eight hundred fifty thousand rare resources."

"Excuse me?"

"With that, hire every mercenary company you can for up to five days. Right now. All of them."

"Excuse me?"

The slick smile on the dispatch officer's face cracked wide open — but only for a moment. Once he grasped the situation, he broke into a full-faced grin, snapped a perfect ninety-degree bow, and immediately began summoning mercenary companies.

And before long…

— hubbub hubbub hubbub

— beep beep honk

"Wow, there really are a lot of them."

"Yeah. There are."

Maybe it was the sheer number of mercenary companies that had scrambled in at the dispatch office's call. Looking out at the pirate fleets already on station — our existing mercenaries plus the defense fleet Marianne had sent — packed so densely nearby that you could half-jokingly call it tens of thousands of ships, I felt a crushing sense of pressure just from watching.

And "half-jokingly" was underselling it. When you actually ran the numbers…

Including battleships, carriers, and battlecruisers, the total exceeded forty-five thousand ships.

Paying five million minerals and eight hundred fifty thousand rare resources up front had been devastatingly effective!

Technically, the actual lump-sum hire fee had been two-and-a-half million minerals and five hundred thousand rare resources — but from where I was standing, the sheer scale was enough to leave me breathless with joy.

Add to that the roughly five thousand ships of the Pirate Coalition defense fleet Marianne had stationed here and transferred command of to me — more precisely, about four thousand nine hundred and change. Plus Princess Luca's beast fleet of roughly thirty ships, grown so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠vigorously under her care that it now included a single mid-to-large beast on the battlecruiser scale. And finally, my own main force of twenty-five ships, headed by the Kraken and the Hresvelgr.

The further down the list you went, the more the numbers seemed to drop off geometrically — but put every fleet together and you had a force that any mid-sized clan would have to squeeze itself dry to field.

I peeled off about a thousand ships as insurance against any opportunistic base raids, then prepared to lead the remaining fifty thousand straight for the largest structure in the Central Zone: the Tannhauser Gate Fortress.

But right at that moment, a wave of objections rose up demanding I revise the plan.

"Oppa, no matter how huge your forces are for a single commander… Tannhauser Gate Fortress is genuinely out of the question."

"I agree, Commander."

"…Yeah, that does sound about right."

Honestly, back when I'd been scraped raw, pure white-hot rage had left me blind enough to just try swallowing the biggest city in sight. But looking at it realistically, the defensive power of the Tannhauser Gate Fortress was on a level even my fifty-thousand-strong fleet couldn't hope to crack.

"Mmm…"

"Belial and Marianne are right, Commander."

"You need to remember that the fleet stationed at Tannhauser Gate Fortress includes thousands of battleships alone."

"The fighters launching from the fortress hangars alone would number in the millions. Even under my command, that scale is completely hopeless."

"And if we take even a single volley from the fortress's main batteries, half the fleet could be wiped out in one shot, Oppa."

So we abandoned the physically impossible solo siege of Tannhauser Gate Fortress and instead settled on a nearby stronghold that was suitably large and suitably beautiful — suitably fortified, with a suitably large fleet, and suitably close. A place commonly known as Avalon Fortress. We decided to take every force we'd sortied and push for it.

"All right. To Avalon!"

"Yes, sir."

Meanwhile, at the very moment Icarus was cheerfully sailing toward Avalon with a fleet of some fifty thousand ships…

A passing local player had spotted Icarus's fleet and was already confidently angling for a gank, putting out a call for raid members.

After all, the Central Zone had always been the kind of place that barely tolerated solo play outside of small friend-group clans…