A Kraken Stuck in the Gate
Unlike Unit 1, which had emerged through Gate One — the largest of them all — Unit 2 had come out through a comparatively smaller gate.
So when three-day-old Kraken Unit 2 received my order, it tried to squeeze back through the same entrance it always used, without a single thought for how much its body had swollen.
It had gorged itself into a state of near indigestion. Its belly had ballooned far beyond the size of its own head — and when I spun the display around at Jessica's report, our Unit 2 was already stuck fast, its plump, jiggling rear end hanging out in the open, thrashing its tentacles uselessly, able to go neither forward nor back.
The problem was the sheer number of ships it had swallowed. Leave it like that, and only two outcomes awaited us.
"Jessica. If we leave that thing alone, what endings come looking for us?"
"Either the Kraken digests the ships, grows larger, and shatters the gate — or it gets crushed to death inside, like a lobster that never managed to molt."
"…"
I found myself genuinely unable to comprehend how an accident like this could still manage to happen, even here… and the moment the battle ended, I ordered a rescue operation to pry Kraken Unit 2 free from the gate first.
Meanwhile, at the same time, most of the players who had finished smashing the Pranksters were heading home, convinced their work was done.
Another crop of Pranksters began quietly raising their heads, burning with the will to claim a base solo just like Icarus and milk it for all it was worth.
Most of the room reacted negatively, of course — then what the hell did we come here for? — but with thousands of users packed into the area, even if only ten percent bought into the idea, that still meant hundreds of people. And if those hundreds started creeping in, the danger to Icarus would be very real indeed.
And the more they thought about it, the clearer it became: every means Icarus had of defending the fortress was spent. Outside of his personal ships, his fleet power had all but vanished. Hit him now, and at the very least a Level 5 base for public use would spring up in the Central District — that thought bloomed fresher and fresher in their minds.
Of course, the moment Icarus actually lost and got driven from the base, hundreds of users would tear into each other in a free-for-all over who claimed it, cannibalizing themselves in the process. But when desire blinds a person, nothing else is visible — and that particular future had, regrettably, not made it into the heads of the users currently edging forward for a strike.
On top of that, one of Icarus's capital ships — a Kraken — was jammed in a gate with its weakness on full display. This was the perfect chance to rush him, they told each other, and every last one of them prepared to charge in without hesitation.
But right at that moment…
—FWOOOOSH!
The moment they saw five thousand pirate ships materialize right in front of Icarus's fortress, banners bearing the mark of the Pirate Empress snapping in the void, the users who'd been quietly testing the waters realized Icarus had been sandbagging again — that he'd watched their every move and played his final card. They ran.
Of course, neither Icarus nor Marianne, who had brought the fleet, had the faintest idea those players had been thinking any of that.
No forced hate, please. Andeo. HotThisTasteShow.
I wasn't sure whether to call the timing good or bad.
Once everything had settled, I watched Marianne return with her personal guard fleet — the one that doubled as her escort.
"Commander, Marianne has finished her business with the Pirate Coalition and come back."
"Mm. I just confirmed it on the screen myself."
She'd brought Leonard with her, too — someone I hadn't seen in quite a while — and the thought crossed my mind that it wouldn't have hurt if they'd arrived a little sooner. From Marianne's perspective, of course, that was pure unfair hate of the highest order, so I scrubbed the unkind thought from my head… and decided to welcome the pirate fleet, Marianne, and Leonard as the force that would protect this place in place of our thoroughly wrecked fortress defenses.
On top of that, a handful of users who'd been lingering for reasons I couldn't quite place turned around and left the moment the pirate fleet arrived — for which I was genuinely grateful.
Hoo… protecting me just in case some other bastards came charging in? Thank you… overwhelming gratitude…!
At any rate, I exchanged greetings with the returned Marianne and Leonard, then left the various deployment arrangements to Jessica.
> 53 clans, including the 'Isekai' Clan, have signaled their intent to surrender to you!
> Effect: Combat status between both sides is lifted.
> As the opposing party has initiated surrender first, you have been granted the authority to set the terms they may accept!
The war-end… surrender message popped up at just the right moment. I decided to calculate exactly how much damage I'd taken from this battle and squeeze them for every last thing I could get.
Naturally, the first thing I checked was the status of my fleet…
Damn.
Right before the battle started, an overflow had pushed my fleet points past 900. The garrison fleet — roughly 40,000 ships — the combat fleet — 500 battleships alone, totaling about 25,000 — and the roughly 1,000 mercenary companies I'd hired in a lump-sum payment of 4.5 million in mineral value had all tanked hard and ground themselves down… and still, half the ships assigned to my fleet had crossed the rainbow bridge for good.
"This is… not an easy situation."
"What isn't, Commander?"
Jessica, already back from handling her work, tilted her head and flicked her distinctive black rabbit ears. I showed her the fleet status I'd been staring at.
"This is our current fleet situation…"
"Oh my."
"One large carrier and one battleship sunk each. Of six battlecruisers, four were completely destroyed."
"…"
"Heavy cruisers and light cruisers… including the Overseer, total annihilation."
"That's an absolutely horrific result, Commander."
And the problems didn't end there.
"Of all things, the large carrier we'd received as a reward earlier got blown up, and the newly built ship is so heavily damaged it's unusable as things stand."
"Hmm, and the battleships?"
"Miraculously, one is completely unscathed. The other has nothing left intact except the power core."