A Week of Grace
But at this point, I had completely forgotten one extremely important fact…
Not something about the next stage — the fact that the zone that had chewed through the most solo players in this event was none other than the Central Zone itself.
And that little detail was destined to come back later as a truly catastrophic screwjob for me and every other player…
Unfortunately, neither I nor anyone else had any way of knowing that yet. So for now, all any of us could do was look at those poor bastards and offer the usual reactions — pity, mockery, whatever came to mind.
Anyway, the important thing for the moment was that in that damned Icarus Republic — or rather, just in my territory — the Vanguard’s offensive was completely over. No more waves were coming.
With that settled, players and clans who actually held bases started recovering their forces at breakneck speed, and everyone gradually turned toward preparing for the next stage.
Of course, “preparing” didn’t amount to much for people like us, whose fortress main cannons had simply vaporized the problem for free.
“You people are all so full of energy.”
“Isn’t it also true that you don’t have much to do either, Commander?”
That was the general vibe — even though this was supposedly a combat event, everyone was relaxed and taking it easy.
Of course, that only applied to players like us who had coasted through Stage One on easy mode…
[Image: Every shipyard spinning like mad just to repair fleets.jpg]
At this rate I’m starting to wonder if people even finish repairing their ships before Stage Two starts.
Hell, forget repairs — they haven’t even restored the ships that already got blown up, ffs
The poor solo players had been gutted so thoroughly that galleries everywhere were full of the same mournful observation: at this rate, even if they made it into Stage Two, they wouldn’t be combat power — just warm bodies taking up space, pure filler units.
Heh. That hurts.
In hindsight it was completely obvious.
Maybe the player losses really had been that absurdly severe.
“Oh.”
“That was fast.”
Barely a day into the event — well, more like the second day — that message popped up like the system was cheerfully saying, Congrats, you finished Stage One, nice work~
And the moment it appeared…
Details: Originally, the Grand Cross’s follow-up offensive was scheduled to begin immediately.
However, the Grand Cross’s command AI ran internal simulations and determined that their own losses far exceeded projections.
They have chosen to delay the offensive by roughly one week in order to buy themselves time and regroup.
Time remaining until Stage Two: 23 hours 11 minutes 5 seconds ⇒ 7 days 23 hours 11 minutes 4 seconds(+7 days)
I nodded as I read the message about the extra time.
“Players got shredded so hard the admins just handed everyone recovery time.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Probably? All I can really see is what’s around me and whatever’s on the galleries and community boards.”
“Ah. Fair point.”
And I clearly wasn’t the only one thinking that way — reactions to the message exploded across the galleries.
[Image: Sparkly starlight toad]
They probably thought they dropped a yellow-rank challenge
Instead some people cleared it with zero losses while others got wiped so hard they can’t even show up for the next event
That’s just balance completely faceplanting, so they scrambled and stretched the timer
[Image: Toad flipping the bird]
Thought that was where this was going, didn’t you, you bastards
How about actually balancing your shit
…A few of the reactions were a little weird, but the important part remained the same: players had been given precious time to restore their fleets and Superhumans.
And our delightfully unhinged playerbase was using every second of that unexpected gift to scramble into position for the next event.
One week later.
“Commander, all fleets report ready for sortie.”
“Mm.”
“All the mercenary companies and faction detachments are ready too!”
“Mmm.”
At last, the morning of Stage Two arrived.
I had already restocked the equipment that had been burned through, and topped off the strikecraft and missiles that leveling runs had drained dry.