Ch.157The World Doesn’t Always Flow in Your Favor. (2)

As Jessica came running with her bouncing rabbit ears and bouncing rabbit chest, before she could even finish speaking—

A blunt event message appeared before my eyes, briefly describing the situation.

—————————————-

<Event>

<Unexpected Accident>

<Details>

<Unfortunately, the pirate fleet that was moving to guard Commander has collided with the ‘Diamond’ clan that existed on their route.>

<The damage was so severe that they decided to abandon the original plan and retreat to the pirate alliance’s main base.>

<Of course, upon hearing this, Pirate Empress Marian immediately called upon other nearby pirate groups to send to you…>

<However, they are coming from much farther away than the original fleet.>

<To avoid collisions with other commanders’ fleets and using warp gates within the alliance for significant detours…>

<It will take considerably more time than expected to reach Commander’s base.>

<Time remaining until pirate fleet arrives for base defense: 7 days 1 hour 53 minutes 47 seconds>

—————————————-

‘Well, we’re screwed.’

I mean, the fleet that was supposed to come protect our base somehow got caught up with another user clan and was completely destroyed.

From my perspective, this was the most unfair of unfair situations…

Fortunately, thanks to our su-per competent Marian’s quick response, additional fleets were coming, which was a blessing in disguise.

…Though the “quick” arrival time being delayed by over a week was extremely disappointing.

Since sometimes people just need to be grateful for existence itself, I decided to be satisfied with the fact that “at least they’re coming!”

The problem was that this threw our plans into disarray in many ways.

As I mentioned just earlier, my shipyards were currently continuing the dismantling of small ships.

And the work to increase our point reserves through that was almost in its final stages…

—————————————-

Fleet Status

Total Points: 280.5/550 points

Aircraft Carrier: 1 ship, 70 points each = 70 points

Battlecruiser: 1 ship, 30 points each = 30 points

Heavy Cruiser: 7 ships, 10 points each = 70 points

Light Cruiser: 3 ships, 6 points each = 18 points

Destroyer: 15 ships, 3 points each = 45 points

Escort Ship: 2 ships, 1.5 points each = 3 points

Patrol Ship: 7 ships, 1 point each = 7 points

Resource Mining Ship: 25 ships, 1.5 points each = 37.5 points

—————————————-

If we exclude the 10 “resource transport destroyers” that had all cargo holds except for one laser turret optimized for resource transport,

Along with 2 heavy cruisers and 2 escort ships that were left in heavily damaged condition without repairs because they were about to be dismantled…

“Commander, don’t we have too few forces left?”

“Hmm.”

“Except for the Kraken-class and Leon-class (regular battlecruiser) with only one ship each, our remaining main forces are just 5 heavy cruisers including the Overseer, 1 Kanhel-class, and 2 regular light cruisers modified for anti-air.”

“That’s true.”

“Plus, if we exclude the resource transport destroyers, or as you call them ‘delivery trucks’…”

“If we exclude them?”

“We only have 5 Azkran-class destroyers and 5 regular patrol ships, right?”

“Hmm.”

“Honestly, I think it’s very dangerous that we directly own only 20 ships total, from carriers to patrol ships.”

Perhaps because our fleet had once contained over 150 ships but was now reduced to less than one-seventh of that number.

From Jessica’s perspective, it was understandable to say something like “haven’t we cut down too much?”

Nevertheless, I didn’t feel any need for a sense of crisis.

“Is there really any need to worry? We’re running 12 mercenary groups that we’ve additionally hired.”

“The Commander is right, Jessica.”

“Ah, Ms. Berial.”

As evident from the attitude of Berial, our base’s foremost expert on fleet command,

The 12 mercenary groups were doing an excellent job of guarding our base, surrounding space, and acting as lower squadrons.

Of course, since words alone lack credibility,

I decided to show Jessica the status of the mercenary groups currently employed at our base, including the newly hired ones.

“Here, Jessica, look at these glowing mercenaries.”

“…Ah, yes.”

—————————————-

<Mercenary Group Employment Status>

<Currently employing 12 mercenary groups>

<Total Ship Types>

<Light Cruisers: 9 ships>

<Destroyers: 22 ships>

<Escort Ships: 49 ships>

<Patrol Ships: 55 ships>

<Daily Resource Consumption: 12,750 Minerals, 1,100 Rare Resources>

—————————————-

Although they consumed a tremendous amount of resources, we had a total of 135 ships at our disposal.

After seeing the mercenary employment status I showed her, Jessica let out a sigh of relief and tried to show a positive attitude.

“I understand, but Commander.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Is there a specific reason you’re keeping those 5 regular patrol ships?”

“That’s a very good question.”

And now that a more practical question came up, I gave a very simple answer.

“Well, we can’t deploy cruisers or mercenary groups against small-scale pirate groups that occasionally show up in speedboats and the like.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Those 5 ships are organized as one squadron, and they regularly patrol this base, the forward base, and the resource zone to block unaffiliated pirates or wild monsters.”

“That’s an excellent idea, Commander.”

But no matter how I tried to patch things up with contingency plans like this,

The basic way we had been dealing with enemies invading us was what?

It was ultimately “since Leonard=pirates handle all the defense anyway, we commit all our forces to offense!”

Now that the thousands of guardian fleet ships that used to be stationed at the base and nearby were gone…

If we didn’t want our base to be robbed, we’d have to station at least 3-4 mercenary groups there.

So I could only hope and pray that during the week until our base defense fleet returned, no one would attack us after seeing my infamous reputation on the gallery.

==========

But after having such thoughts and waking up the next day,

Exactly 3 hours after I sent my small and precious 5 regular patrol ships on their routine patrol…

“…Huh?”

“Jessica, didn’t I tell you that making an ominous ‘huh?’ sound in the morning ruins your luck for the day?”

“Commander, that luck has already flown away, so would you like to hear my report first?”

Despite my scolding Jessica for her death rattle that sounded incredibly ominous,

Seeing Jessica respond so seriously to my joke,

I raised my waist from where I was sprawled on the command seat, rubbed my face with my dry hands, let out a deep sigh, and calmly began to speak.

“Haaaa… what on earth is going on that’s making you act like this?”

“First, please don’t be shocked when you hear this, Commander.”

In situations like this, building suspense meant it was truly a terrible and shocking matter.

As soon as I heard Jessica’s words, I prepared to let out a scream like a 15-year-old girl from my throat.

And right after that.

“Currently, a fleet of about 400 ships with a clan mark we’ve never seen before is entering Commander’s territory, including the resource zone.”

“…”

“For reference, the patrol ship squadron was hit by a coordinated barrage immediately upon contact, and all but one were sunk.”

Faced with a story far more shocking than I had anticipated,

Instead of the 15-year-old girl’s scream I had prepared,

I let out an even younger and higher-pitched scream of a 7-year-old girl.