Avalon Siege (3)
> It's one thing if they just brawl it out — but they're literally swinging their own ships' turrets around and trying to open fire.
> If we don't put a stop to the mercenary companies' infighting immediately, the entire fleet could fall apart before the day is out!
This fucking bullshit.
I could not tolerate the kind of chaos that forced a railroaded, no-right-answer choice event like that into existence.
> Option 1: Drag the instigator out and make an example of him. — SELECTED
> ↳ Negative traits applied to five mercenary captains and their troops. Desertion probability increased.
I picked Option 1 on the spot and decided to thoroughly wreck the ringleaders as a public example.
And while I was busy putting out those fires…
My fifty-thousand-strong fleet and I finally located the target chosen in place of Tannhäuser — Avalon Fortress — and prepared for battle.
Avalon Siege. (3)
After slogging through all that miscellaneous nonsense and somehow making it to the vicinity of Avalon Fortress, I opened the status window to get a detailed read on the place.
Borderline, as always.
True to form, the info window wrapped up its explanation at the most frustratingly borderline level of detail. Even so, it was enough for me to figure out how to crack this godforsaken hub city.
"There's only one thing we have to do. We absolutely cannot let those damn fortress combat fleets come out."
"And how exactly do you plan to stop them?"
As for the method itself—
"I will not be elaborating further."
"Oh, come on."
Something about explaining any more felt like I'd be turning into one of those over-explaining nerds, so rather than spell it out for Jessica, I decided to just run the plan I'd cooked up on my internal CPU and take the fortress that way.
Of course, if I dropped a teaser like that and then clammed up going into the operation, I'd probably spend the entire battle fielding Jessica's whining-disguised-as-questions. So I tossed one more line at her puzzled face.
"Kidding. In this operation, Neranzara is genuinely going to be the key piece."
"Heh."
Figuring that was answer enough, I finally committed to a full assault on Avalon Fortress.
Meanwhile, at the same time—
Over in the gallery that Icarus had been too busy to check, a whole crowd of users was watching his city assault with rapt attention.
[gif of the fleet situation filmed from extreme long range]
And it's not even some trash Level 1 or Level 2 outpost — he's going after a Level 5 city-class fortress.
Absolute chad move. Holy shit.
[footage of Icarus's fleet approaching the city and deploying into formation]
Damn, the popcorn's gonna taste amazing for this one.
So hyped to see how he fights this.
And it wasn't just passive spectating — every one of those users was a player-commander who had to run their own fleets. So all across the gallery, people were running their own analyses of exactly how Icarus planned to crack a city solo.
And then, a short while later…
[gif of a massive missile volley launching from a fifty-thousand-ship fleet spearheaded by the Hresvelgr]
Beautiful.
Including the twelve strategic missiles launched from the Hresvelgr-class arsenal ship's platforms, every ship in the fleet that wasn't a carrier loosed millions of missiles in a single coordinated volley. They streaked forward trailing long white contrails, then literally erased one of the fortress's permanently deployed outer patrol fleets before slamming indiscriminately into the fortress's outer armor plating.
— KRAAA-BOOOOM! KRAAANG!
— PHOOOM! KRAANG!
— VVVWWWWOOOOOOM!
Hit by a sudden ambush launched from beyond the fortress radar's detection range, the outer defense systems started exploding one after another under the indiscriminate bombardment. Users uploading near-real-time footage to the gallery and chat rooms let a few people immediately crow about their superior foresight.
But that didn't last long.
Unlike the one patrol fleet whose ships had been literally annihilated, the rest of the vessels had been docked inside the base hangars.
[the fortress turns into a firestorm under missile and torpedo bombardment, and massive numbers of patrol fleet ships start boiling out of hidden hangars]
Whoa.
How many is that even, holy shit.