Ch.163Victory☆ Requires Much Contemplation (2)

Along with the report from the patrol fleet that was almost completely destroyed except for one ship, and the reconnaissance results brought back by an Azukran-class frigate at great risk.

Plus the scan results from the amazing f**king <Graviton Detection Radar> that cost 155,500 minerals.

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<Graviton Detection Radar>

<A cutting-edge radar with exceptional performance that allows the Commander to perform real-time 3D mapping and track enemy fleets in your sector.>

<Provides mini-map functionality.>

<Capable of real-time enemy fleet position detection>

<Real-time monitoring of enemy and allied unit status>

<Warning! Some stealth vessels cannot be detected even by the Graviton Detection Radar!>

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I was able to calculate the approximate force structure of the invading clan.

“Let’s see, so only the capital ships have clearly identifiable user markers?”

“Yes, the rest are difficult to identify with the Graviton Detection Radar.”

“Hmm… so there are definitely only 3 people with battlecruisers, and one separate user managing all the light carriers.”

“And among those 3 with battlecruisers, 2 have 3 ships each, while the other has only 1.”

The enemy fleet structure was essentially like this:

The ones who brought 3 battlecruisers had filled out their fleets exclusively with battlecruisers and heavy cruisers.

Since 3 ships totaled about 90 points, they must have filled the remaining 300 or so points entirely with heavy cruisers?

And the user with only 1 battlecruiser was responsible for the remaining heavy cruisers that the other two couldn’t cover, along with various small ships and 5 confirmed “resource harvester=repair ships.”

Similarly, another user brought 3 light carriers along with an escort fleet and repair ships with their remaining points.

Naturally, I could tell that the remaining user had filled their fleet exclusively with “small ships” like light cruisers and destroyers.

“Hmm, so in that fleet, at least half the destroyers and all escort ships… are managed by just one person.”

“Are they planning to fight with strict division of labor?”

And it was right there that I found the “gap.”

As I formulated a rough plan in my head for how to crush them…

“Jessica, gather all the other Superhumans immediately.”

“Yes, Commander.”

I decided to summon my lovely Superhumans and begin preparations to properly mess with these guys.

==========

The next morning.

The commanders of clan “Unity” were checking their fleet’s anti-air formations while monitoring their advance.

“Wow, this is disgustingly slow.”

“What can we do? It’s a formation designed to counter carrier aircraft attacks, so of course mobility gets sacrificed.”

Despite their brilliant start where they destroyed most of the opponent’s reconnaissance and patrol fleets, their advance was incredibly slow and leisurely.

If someone from clan Humanity had been watching this situation, they might have exploded with rage…

But even if that happened, the Unity clan had plenty of excuses ready:

-“But what if we just advance recklessly and get swarmed by carrier aircraft like we saw in the gallery?”

-“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”

Remembering what they’d seen in the gallery about Icarus’s “Kraken-class,” their vigilance had skyrocketed.

Rather than advancing recklessly, they decided it wasn’t too late to wait and see what that vicious (?) 3rd-ranked player would do.

In order to preserve their precious capital ships, they maintained a thorough anti-air formation.

-“Time is on our side anyway, right? Agreed?”

-“Agreed.”

These supposed invaders, without even raiding nearby resource zones, had spent an entire day standing still and observing the situation, effectively giving Icarus time to prepare and sharpen his knives.

Of course, that was now in the past.

Currently, the Unity clan was cautiously advancing while maintaining an extremely vigilant defensive posture with an anti-air formation that resembled a fortress made of ships.

But as they themselves had mentioned, the specialized anti-air formation they’d adopted out of excessive concern about carrier aircraft didn’t just fail to provide mobility buffs to the fleet.

It actually applied severe mobility debuffs, causing them to advance at a pace comparable to a slug.

Of course, no matter how slow they were, they would reach Icarus’s base within a day or two at most.

And since Icarus’s greatest potential threat—unlimited mercenary hiring—was impossible for at least a week, and the Pirate Empress and her fleet were confirmed to be absent…

As mentioned above, with the firm belief that time was on their side, they were advancing with an extremely leisurely attitude.

However, this Unity clan, maintaining their “self-proclaimed” thorough defensive posture as they advanced, had a major problem they hadn’t noticed:

Though they called themselves a clan, they were actually just a “temporary” clan formed by randomly selecting 5 users with decent combat power from those who had secretly left the Humanity clan during its “factional division.”

As a result, organic cooperation between them was nonexistent.

Of course, being rankers who had placed within the top 500 and 1000, they had their own individual skills.

But they could only manage “basic” cooperation.

Since they hadn’t worked together for a long time, they kept showing awkward coordination in ambiguous situations.

Unlike their outward appearance, the defensive power that should have been organically formed between each user’s formations was severely lacking.

And so, having abandoned so-called “teamwork,” they continued to advance steadily when suddenly…

“Goliath,” who had only one battlecruiser and was responsible for being the backbone of the entire fleet, screamed when he saw numerous dots appearing on his fleet radar.

“Shit! Carrier aircraft incoming!”

“Where?”

“Where?!”

“They’re coming this way!”

Naturally, upon hearing Goliath’s communication, the Unity clan members recalled the overwhelming carrier dominance of the Kraken they had seen in the gallery.

They frantically ordered “RamuRamu,” the small ship user, to send anti-air destroyers, showing a panicked response.

But that didn’t last long.

-Brrrrrrrrrt! Boom! Bang!

“Huh? These carrier aircraft are just melting away.”

“What?”

“What’s going on?”

As Icarus’s carrier aircraft were shredded by Goliath’s fleet’s anti-air network before RamuRamu’s anti-air ships could even arrive, the Unity clan users were momentarily stunned by the scene they hadn’t expected at all.

==========

At the same time, inside Icarus’s Astral Base command center.

“Aww, those poor carrier aircraft.”

“Can’t be helped.”

As the light carrier aircraft (Level 1) I had deployed and was controlling melted away, Jessica showed a very sympathetic reaction.

I reassured her that everything was going according to plan and quickly ordered the carrier aircraft to retreat.

Of course, if I just mindlessly ordered them to retreat, it was obvious they would all be shredded due to the pathetic evasion performance of Level 1 aircraft.

So I personally controlled some of them, drawing aggro by randomly spraying rockets (instead of torpedoes and missiles) to cover the retreat of the other aircraft.

Of course, no matter how hard a user tries to control them, they couldn’t last long in a situation where their fundamental performance was so poor.

By the time the other aircraft had retreated while taking damage, the squadron I was controlling had been completely annihilated.

But perhaps because hundreds of carrier aircraft were shredded without inflicting any proper damage despite direct user control…

Eventually, the enemy fleet that had been crawling like a slug while maintaining a thorough anti-air formation began to change.

The fleet with 3 light carriers and the fleet containing 7 battlecruisers separated, and then, unlike before, they began to seriously increase their speed.

Realizing that they had taken the bait exactly as planned, I decided to proceed to the next phase of my plan.

==========

And at the same time as Icarus was observing the Unity clan’s actions and formulating his evil(?) plan…

…or rather, a few minutes earlier.

The Unity clan, after being momentarily bewildered by Icarus’s carrier aircraft being destroyed more easily than expected…

“Hey, is Icarus’s carrier aircraft thing just a bluff?”

“Could be?”

They were making a choice they would absolutely regret if they could see their terrible future.