The Fortress Decisive Battle Begins
[Data showing base-holding users took less total damage than solo players.jpg]
Cool?
Obviously you have to factor in total damage and the resource burn that comes with it.
So what, every small ship got shredded and the large ships only got scratched so we're the ones who took the L? That how this works?
Watching them keep flinging evidence at each other like that was, admittedly, a pretty entertaining scrap.
But the longer I stared at it, the more something felt off.
"Commander, I understand that watching the other commanders fight is fun for you."
"Hmm?"
"Is any of this actually meaningful?"
"…Now that you mention it."
The thread kept going round and round about who had paid the more painful price, and sure, that kind of suffering Olympics had its own spectator appeal. But Jessica was right — the second someone asked so what does any of this mean?, the whole argument got extremely thin.
I nodded, accepting that she had a point, and set myself to preparing for the next phase instead of doomscrolling the gallery.
About three days after I made that decision—
An event message that all but said, here, take this precious repair-and-refit window, dropped into view.
I opened the status window, checked the recovery of the ships and the others, then—
"Hmm. Guess there's nothing left for me to do."
"That's right. Even the daily and weekly quests don't have anything for us right now."
One last confirmation from Jessica that my hands weren't needed anywhere, and—
"Then I'm calling it for today! I'm beat!"
"Ah, heading off to rest, then?"
"Yep. So hurry up and follow me."
"Eep."
I grabbed the wrist of Jessica — who was wearing a sleek black china dress as today's costume — and dragged her straight to my room.
"Alright, talk. Where do you want me to put what?"
"In our base resource warehouse… one hundred million minerals…"
"That's not happening."
"Hiiing."
Figuring I needed to recover the mental HP I'd burned staring at cursed images all day, I decided to spend the rest of the evening making Jessica a new rabbit tail and the like.
Time drifted on, and just as everyone was starting to shrug off those ridiculous arguments as just how things were—
Details:
Upon realizing that both its vanguard and main force had been annihilated, the Grand Cross command AI assessed the situation and finally decided to move the mobile fortress itself!
To resolve this unprecedented crisis, all Commanders must join forces!
The Grand Cross's location will be transmitted to every Commander in real time via the minimap on the status window.
Result:
Each zone contains exactly one mobile fortress, Grand Cross.
Its advance route is not fixed; at any given moment, it prioritizes the nearest highest-level base!
If no bases remain, it targets Commanders' fleets.
The mobile fortress's internal shipyards are coming online!
▸ The longer time passes, the greater the Grand Cross's escort forces will grow.
▸ The fortress main gun — the Grand Cross Cannon — is fully charged and ready to fire!
"At last!"
"Mmm, this is huge."
The long-awaited Stage 3 combat message finally dropped — the big fucking awesome decisive battle against the Titan-class mobile fortress Grand Cross. I immediately scraped together every ship and mercenary company I had, leaving only the resource-mining fleet behind.
"And just in case, I should hire a few extra merc companies this time."
"Feeling a little uneasy?"
"Who knows when they'll teleport in and erase my precious capital ships again."
"I agree completely, Commander."
"One wrong move and Kraken or Ouroboros could take a hit."
Hiring mercenary companies en masse for the first time in a while, I threw myself into the long-awaited boss raid with real fire. And I wasn't the only one — almost every player was in the same state of feverish readiness.
[Image of player fleets assembled — at least 10k, honestly looks closer to 30k.jpg]
Holy shit that's a lot of people
And look at all the super dreadnoughts, assault carriers, annihilation ships — absolute units everywhere
[Map of each zone's Grand Cross coordinates and player assembly points.jpg]
Roughly speaking, the major clans of each zone are organizing raids on the Grand Cross right now.
I'll be honest — throwing leftover fleets that already tore through galaxies and galactic groups at a fortress the size of a single star system feels a little off. But hey.