The Empire's Three-Way Split (2)
"The various costumes we received while handling the contest this time."
"...Costumes?"
By shipping over a veritable Pandora's wardrobe packed with every bizarre and erotic creation submitted to the Erosance contest — and even a few things that weren't erotic so much as just hardcore — her standing could climb even higher.
I'll have to bring everyone over later and let them each pick one they like.
At any rate, setting the contest business aside, the second thing I learned was this:
The Stage 8 base upgrade we'd started last week had finally finished.
Stage 8 Upgrade — Complete
> Additional Docking Facility (Minerals 35,000 / Rare Resources 7,000) <NEW!>
> Additional Docking Facility (Minerals 35,000 / Rare Resources 7,000) <NEW!>
> Capital Ship Shipyard (Minerals 165,000 / Rare Resources 68,000) <NEW!>
> Strategic Tactics Research Lab (Minerals 710,000 / Rare Resources 150,000) <NEW!>
> Superhuman Soldier Training Center (Minerals 650,000 / Rare Resources 420,000) <NEW!>
Yeah, those prices are insane.
Building a single docking facility now ate thirty-five thousand minerals and seven thousand rare resources, and the two brand-new auxiliary buildings combined demanded more resources than the base upgrade itself. Jessica and I could only click our tongues, both of us reacting with the same thought — expensive was one thing, but this was too expensive.
That said, we weren't exactly broke at the moment.
> Constructing Additional Docking Facility...
> Time Remaining: 11 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, 30 seconds
So I went ahead and started on a docking facility first, planning to pump out more resource-mining ships as intended. Of course, as that timer made clear, it wasn't something I could use right this second.
After kicking off construction on the Additional Docking Facility, I knocked out today's daily quests and, as always, decided to poke around the gallery.
And by logging into the gallery, I learned the third and final fact of the day.
Which was...
[Zenobia Empire Player Faction Shift Map.jpg]
While the Erosance contest was going on, the Humanity Clan's massive invasion force pushed into Zenobia territory — right while the Magellan Clan still hadn't fully expanded.
And it wasn't just Humanity alone. They brought a whole swarm of subordinate clans with them, yeah.
I'll update as more solid intel comes in, but for now, the players near the Zenobia Empire–Earth Federation border look completely wiped out.
In short: the space-elf territories of the Zenobia Empire — which everyone had assumed would get swallowed whole by the Magellan Clan after they crushed Rotten Water — were now under a full-scale invasion by Humanity, the biggest clan on the server, complete with all their subordinate clans in tow.
Holy moly holy moly.
Of course, as News Boy himself admitted, solid intel was still thin on the ground. So for now I decided to keep quiet and just watch how this sudden Humanity invasion played out.
And less than an hour later, News Boy came back with much more concrete information...
[Current Zenobia Empire Theater Status Map — as best I can figure.jpg]
Here's what I've pieced together so far:
1. Humanity's invasion force alone has over 10,000 players from the main clan. Subordinate clans are unconfirmed, but at least ~150 of them have been mobilized.
2. Roughly half of Zenobia's southeastern sector — the border zone with the Earth Federation — appears to be under the control of Humanity's subordinate clans.
3. Contrary to expectations, though, Humanity's main force hasn't seized that much territory, and more importantly, their advance has stalled.
4. Parts of the Justice Clan's territory have expanded. Probably regular players who freaked out over Humanity's invasion and scrambled to join Justice.
5. Magellan is pushing south. Along the way they've tried to forcibly absorb some clans that were claiming neutrality, and that's caused clashes.
6. Players and small clans caught between Magellan and Humanity have formed a coalition to resist Magellan.
7. And apparently that coalition includes the long-vanished Rank 2 player Raksha, plus former officers from the old Rotten Water Clan.
That's about it?
Everything else is too fuzzy for me to cross-verify, so I left it out — but the situation looks way more complicated than expected.
"Hmm."
"What is it, Commander?"
The sheer complexity of the war situation pulled a low hum out of me before I could stop it. Jessica — who'd been making a very complicated face at a bunny-girl outfit with a carrot-shaped plug attached — looked over with a puzzled expression.
And once she saw News Boy's frontline briefing for herself, she immediately made the same sound I had.
"Uuugh... the situation is extremely complicated."
"You're telling me."
What a nightmare of a theater. They call it Three Kingdoms, but that's actually four factions tangled together, isn't it?
And not just any four — the Rank 1 and Rank 3 clans were both in the mix, making for a truly massive structure. Amid all that, I found myself surprised by the news of Raksha's revival: not only had he survived, he'd planted himself as a key pillar of a whole coalition clan. Then I decided to press X and offer my most half-hearted condolences to the poor Magellan Clan, currently getting a migraine from the absolute dumpster fire that was the Zenobia front.
The Empire's Three-Way Split (2)
And so, after our Icarus had offered his half-hearted condolences, he and Jessica fell into deep philosophical anguish over why Vermouth had even included an ultra-micro bikini (plug-secured design) in the package.
Meanwhile, at some point that was hard to pin down exactly — roughly a few days earlier...
The Magellan Clan, rattled by rumors of a clash with the Justice Clan that had started on the gallery, had hastily pulled out of the monster-infested zone where they'd been expanding. Eager to claw back the time they'd lost in that region, they were just about to start expanding in a different direction when—
"Wee-hahahahaha!"
"Sob sob, dinner was delicious today!"
—setting aside the rank-and-file players running wild, the Rotten Water Clan had functioned as a kind of living restraint simply by existing. Now that Rotten Water and the subordinate clans friendly to them had been obliterated in an instant, the opportunity was too good to pass up.
Under Clan Leader Antares's orders, Humanity launched a massive invasion into the Zenobia Empire's territory.
The scale alone: over ten thousand players from Humanity's main clan, and once you added the subordinate clans...
From battleships down to patrol craft, the vanguard alone fielded a minimum of one million ships. An absolutely staggering invasion force opened a full-frontal offensive.
"Ah, shit."
"What the hell is that number?!"
"Nope, I'm jumping out right now."
The border region — which hadn't seen a major battle since the monster zones, and was mostly populated by small clans and solo players looking for a pastoral vibe — was about to get a very rude awakening.