Crazy Strategies Work—Until They Don't (3)
“···.”
“Can you honestly just ignore the chatter of thousands of other people?”
“That’s a fair point.”
She drove the nail into her own argument without hesitation. I nodded along with Jessica’s words and decided to send the Leviathan Fleet home where they belonged.
And in place of the Leviathan Fleet that would be leaving its post…
“Belial. Tiamat.”
-“Awaiting your orders, Commander.”
-“All the Krakens are ready!”
“Once every superhuman unit from the base is embarked, lead the entire fleet and sortie.”
-“Yes, Commander.”
-“Understood.”
I was going to personally re-educate those reactionaries and reclaim my pride from the idiots who did nothing but run their mouths.
Of course, I had no intention of bringing only my fleet.
I told Jessica I wanted the main force, the mercenary companies, and even the faction expeditionary force.
“And Jessica? Bring the rest of them too. All of my direct subordinates and every base mercenary group.”
“Got it.”
“Oh, right—last thing. Bring Princess Luca’s hobby fleet as well.”
“Uh… the hobby fleet too?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
Whatever else she took in stride, the moment I mentioned the hobby fleet—that is, the faction expeditionary force—Jessica looked flustered for some reason. And it didn’t stop at flustered. She immediately jumped past anything I’d said.
“Then should I ask Marian to sortie the Armada and the rest of the Pirate Coalition fleets as well?”
“What? Why would you do that.”
“Ah, so you’re only taking the hobby fleet, then? I’ll pass that along.”
“You don’t need to spell out the obvious.”
Fortunately, Jessica nodded right away and started relaying the message to Princess Luca over comms. Still, I found myself tilting my head, unable to figure out why our dear JessJess would say something like that when I’d clearly told her I was taking all of my direct fleets.
…Not that it would take long for me to understand her reaction. That revelation simply belonged a little further down the road; for now, all I had was a question mark.
At any rate, once every preparation we could make was finished, the main force assembled with three magnificent dreadnoughts at its head, the three Kraken brothers, Ulong, and Hveli nestled in the center—
“All fleets, status report.”
-“Rodos Mercenary Group here~ All ships green.”
-“Avalonia Security Fleet, sortie preparations complete.”
-“Lemmings Assault Unit, ready to execute flanking strikes at any time.”
-“M-Mecharshetentakel will, uh, do whatever you need…”
—plus the base and direct mercenary groups under four company commanders.
And finally…
“Ah. Right.”
“I’ll… try my best.”
The faction expeditionary force arrived with Oxianor’s blistering warning attached from the jump. Looking at every fleet I could currently mobilize gathered before Tannhauser, I remembered how only a year or two ago I’d been shitting myself trying to survive against fleets of this size—and felt genuinely moved.
Any other player dragging out this much force would be sweating over how to stop a base raid while they were gone.
We’ve got the base defense fleet. We’ve got the Pirate Coalition. What’s there to fear?
Even with me taking every combat-ready force, the base still had Tannhauser’s formidable defense fleet docked and ready—
-“Bwooooo.”
“Mm.”
-“That’s so mean, Oppa-ya.”
“Mm.”
-“You’re taking the monster fleet, so why not my fleet and me?!”
“You’re pregnant. Maybe take a little better care of yourself.”
—plus Marian’s Pirate Coalition fleets (which were strong), pouting with her cheeks puffed out because I’d left her behind. With friends that reliable covering my base, I did a quick circuit of the perimeter, checked the posture, and nodded.
Excellent!
This would do perfectly. I ordered the sortie at once, ready for a pleasant little sit-down with the B554 friends who’d started a rebellion(?).
Meanwhile, at the very moment our Icarus sortied at the head of his entire fleet—
the Date Palm Clan of Base B554 was already in such a panic that the word “surrender” hadn’t even occurred to them…
Title: Lmao they wrecked the kids who started a rebellion LOOL
Author: anon
Body: [gif of Icarus sortying with his direct fleets]
Holy shit, three Krakens and three dreadnoughts for real?
Even the specialty ships add up to exactly three if you count every type.
Guy’s Rank 3 so of course he coordinated everything in sets of three lol
On top of that, when they learned Icarus wasn’t even sending mercenaries—that he was personally coming to beat their faces in—Palm Tree, clan leader of Date Palm, finally clawed some sanity back. The word “surrender” surfaced in his head, and he meant to act on it.
But unlike Palm Tree, who’d reeled his mind back in, the other players were nowhere near that state…
Crazy Bastard Strategies Work—Until They Don’t (3)
> Notice: (none)
— We should surrender
— Hold up, this is actually an opportunity
— ?
— What are you talking about
— People always say Icarus is a ship one-trick, right? So if we throw every fleet we’ve scraped together at him and capture or sink even one of his high-end ships—
— And then?
— That alone would hit Icarus so hard his mental collapses and he quits!
— Ohhh
— Damn that’s actually crazy
— If that happens, other players will be inspired by our stand and rise up en masse
— Hell yeah that’s fire
On the other side of the sanity spectrum, some player was calmly insisting this was their chance and stirring up the rest of the clan. As clan leader—as the one person who’d actually grabbed hold of his mind—Palm Tree naturally tried to shut it down as pure insanity.
Except the guy was surprisingly articulate. Coherent. Almost… persuasive.
A moment later.
> Notice: (none)
— We can do this! (PalmTree)
— We can do this!!