Preparing for the Tannhauser Assault (2)
"I've heard the same, Commander."
"Me too!"
"Ah, so you lot already know about it."
Led by Lepahn—the commander blessed with a pair of large, beautiful breasts—Belial and Tiamat had come looking for me together. And then they pulled out a plan I had completely forgotten about.
"If you truly cannot load every last resource from the base warehouses, why not make use of the transport holds on your ships?"
"…Transport holds."
"Exactly. Even the destroyers you've stripped bare for combat can each carry resources in the thousands."
That was it. The plan was nothing more than stockpiling resources in the transport holds of the ships that currently made up my main fleet.
"Jessica, how much can we stockpile if we use the fleet's transport holds?"
"Hmm… one moment. Excluding the Kraken and Hresvelgr, which don't have transport holds—tallying the rest of the ships gives us about 1.2 to 1.3 million."
"Hmm."
"For reference, I didn't include the mining ships we use for resource extraction, or the transport destroyers."
After hearing that, Jessica and I put our heads together again and ran the numbers hard.
"The base's own resource warehouse holds 16.5 million. Using every ship's transport hold regardless of fleet designation adds roughly 1.5 million."
"So 18 million, and if we spend about 30,000 Gold the way you suggested, we'd get another 700 to 800 thousand on average."
"Being generous, call it 19 million—about 14 million in minerals and 5 million in rare resources?"
"That tracks. It'd buy us exactly one more day."
No matter how we calculated it, hiring four times the mercenary force we'd contracted last time would leave us with literally one day of survival after the hire.
"We need to hold out for at least three days, no matter what."
"Commander, for that you'd need to secure at least another 6.5 million minerals and 1.2 million rare resources from over there."
Trying to solo a Level 7 stronghold instead of a Level 5 really was driving home just how brutal this was going to be.
But right then, something I had completely forgotten about surfaced in my mind.
"Ah, wait—Jessica?"
"Yes, Commander?"
"Come to think of it, we haven't been pulling the gacha much lately, have we?"
"Not 'much'—you haven't pulled it at all."
That was true. Between the mercenary-company gacha(?) we'd been forced into recently, my random-pull quota had been satisfied, and I'd completely forgotten about it. But it had been nearly three months since the last time I'd spun the gacha—and only now did I realize that roughly a hundred multi-pull tickets for the Dimension Causal Fixing whatever-it-was had piled up.
Of course, spinning the gacha and walking away with a hundred resource boxes would basically mean a total dud. Normally, posting that on the gallery would get you roasted as instant front-page mockery material…
Please, gacha. Give me a hundred glorious resource boxes…!
Since there was zero chance of me pulling anything good anyway, and in our current situation even one extra hand would help, I shot up from my seat and headed straight for the gacha machine.
But as always, that absolute garbage piece-of-shiiiiit gacha machine refused to give me what I wanted.
> Rare Resource Box ×15
> Common Resource Box ×45
> Common Equipment Box ×40
You—you absolute bastards!!!
Not a chance. A full forty of them were equipment boxes—even selling them for Gold, I'd be lucky to scrape together four or five hundred Gold total. And most of the rest were Common Resource Boxes, so opening them wasn't going to yield much either.
"This is…"
"Haaah…"
"Even being generous, we're looking at maybe 100 to 150 thousand, Commander."
"Yeah."
With a truly heavy heart and a thoroughly shredded spirit, I returned to the command center, sat down, and resolved to just do the work I had to do.
But right then—
Beep-beep! Beep-beep!
"Huh, Commander."
"What."
"Princess Luka says she'd like an audience with you—or a direct communication. Shall I accept?"
"Princess Luka?"
"Yep."
Lately, aside from her hobby of fleet production, our Space Kaiju princess Luka had been distinctly lower in presence. Why was Her Princessness looking for me now?
Plenty of questions, but no reason whatsoever to refuse—so I nodded at Jessica's words and agreed to meet with Princess Luka.
A short while later.
"Ahem, ahem! Icarus—it has been quite some time since we last met in person!"
"I was thinking the same thing, Princess Luka."
Appearing with Oxianor as her escort, Princess Luka's appearance was… how to put it. Unlike her first look—when she'd worn living heavy armor that made the phrase "princess knight" fit perfectly—she now wore a light, fluttering white dress, her long hair gleaming gold. Combined with the crown-like horns, she gave off a distinctly comfortable impression.
And that comfortable feeling wasn't just on my end. Princess Luka herself wore a far more relaxed expression than the last time we'd met.
Looking at her, I couldn't help but wonder about how much the princess had changed since before.
"By the way, Princess—you're dressed much more comfortably than last time."
"This? Well, this place isn't so threatening that my escort needs to stay transformed into armor at all times."
At my question, Princess Luka made a gesture as if thanking me for noticing, and pointed to the bio-suit—slash escort—she was wearing.
"I see."
"Indeed it is so!"
Once that preliminary exchange was over, Princess Luka got straight to why she'd come.
"Ah, yes—this lady has sought you out for no other reason."
"Hm?"
"In truth, upon hearing that you alone seized a powerful stronghold—unlike other commanders—Her Majesty the Queen declared that a gift must be bestowed upon you!"
"…Oh."
And right after those words, an event message I hadn't seen in quite a while floated up before my eyes…
At last, your trust with the Space Kaiju faction has surpassed +100.
Accordingly, the Space Kaiju faction has decided to send you one Behemoth-class Mobile Ship Breeding-Growth Platform as a gift for one whose relationship with them can fairly be called "special."
Naturally, as this is a reward, no separate escort fleet is required—it will be delivered directly through your base's teleport system!
In addition, resources and currency are being sent as a gesture of continued goodwill!
Behemoth-class Mobile Ship Breeding-Growth Platform ×1 Acquired!
Comprehensive Resource Supply Bio-Container ×1 Acquired!
Oh.
Apparently I'd already crossed 100 trust with the Space Kaiju faction without realizing it. First things first, I fired off a snappy loyalty salute to Princess Luka, who'd descended in person to deliver the news.
"Commander! A reaction from the fortress's large-scale warp system!"
"Oh, it's already here!"
"Having been elevated to a special relationship, is it not only proper that the reward arrive swiftly?"
"Ooooh."
Barely five minutes after the event message appeared, I beheld a massive, magnificent ultra-giant space cocoon—and a relatively smaller space cocoon beside it. Watching something that would cut so cleanly into the upcoming stronghold assault, I felt my mood soar on the spot.
"My heart is pounding."