Ch.271Siege Is Not the End (1)

Meanwhile, at the time when all sorts of strange rumors and verification photos were circulating in the gallery…

To be precise, before I posted the fleet acquisition verification photo in the gallery.

What was I doing?

Well, obviously…

“Ohohoho, I like it.”

“It has a much fresher feel to it, Commander.”

—————————————–

<‘Avalon Fortress’ has successfully docked with Astral Base!>

<As the fortress command has been transferred to the Commander’s base, you have acquired the following effects!>

<The fortress’s defensive capabilities are now included in your base defenses!>

<Daily resource acquisition rate has increased!>

<You have acquired the fortress’s shipyard and resource storage!>

<You can now modify parts of the fortress’s internal structure!>

—————————————–

I was in the process of bringing our entire base to the captured Avalon Fortress and docking them together to become one.

Though as a result, the precious emergency base evacuation function would be unavailable for at least a month.

‘The fortress is becoming my base!!’

Unlike before when the base stood alone, now we had a robust base defense fleet and abundant power.

Although I’d spent nearly two years in this world since my possession and had grown somewhat attached to my area…

It wasn’t charming enough to give up a fortress for, so there was really no choice in the matter.

By the way, what happened to those forward bases I had set up near resource zones around the original base location?

—————————————–

<Forward Base #1 Warp Complete>

<Time remaining until full operation: 1 day 4 hours 55 minutes 3 seconds>

—————————————–

—————————————–

<Forward Base #2 Preparing for Warp…>

<Time remaining until warp initiation: 14 hours 17 minutes 36 seconds>

—————————————–

—————————————–

<Forward Base #3 Preparing for Warp…>

<Time remaining until warp initiation: 1 day 18 minutes 59 seconds>

—————————————–

Obviously, I couldn’t just abandon them, so I was spending some resources to relocate them to resource zones near the fortress.

And as for the remaining mining vessels and transport destroyers, once they finished their extraction operations, I had them return directly to the base.

Then I directed them toward nearby mineral regions identified through the fortress command database.

Anyway, even though I’d resolved the immediate resource and base relocation issues…

“Commander, Commander, Commander.”

“…”

“You can’t rest yet.”

“Arrrgh!”

I still had a mountain of tasks to handle.

As a day passed while carrying out operations, I naturally had to terminate the contracts of mercenary groups who had consumed an additional 800,000 minerals and 99,000 rare resources.

I also needed to repair the various defense systems and spaceport gates of the fortress that I had destroyed.

Then there was the reorganization of the resource fleet mentioned earlier.

Repairs for ships damaged by stray bullets.

And dealing with the combat fleet that had surrendered after being trapped due to the gate collapse.

Literally all sorts of things.

==========

Well, I decided to start by terminating the mercenary contracts first.

You might wonder why I wasn’t prioritizing the ‘resource fleet organization’ first… but there was a reason for this.

When hiring mercenaries, the mercenary dispatch office handled everything, so I just had to click confirm.

But when terminating contracts, I had to cancel each one individually.

With over 500 mercenary groups, it took much more time than expected to terminate all those contracts.

And after spending almost an entire day diligently working through the mercenary contract issues…

“Jessica, we have 5 mercenary groups remaining, correct?”

“Yes, together they have 5 battleships and 8 cruisers.”

I had successfully terminated contracts with 507 mercenary groups in a single day, except for 5 groups that I had planned to keep from the beginning.

Although during the termination process…

When I tried to terminate contracts with groups that had carriers… our Tiamat cried “Pweeeng!” insisting we shouldn’t abandon carriers.

Not a chance.

Having just witnessed how those supposedly great fighter—no, interceptor aircraft actually performed, trusting carriers?

That was completely out of the question, which is why I decided to keep only mercenary groups with battleships and cruisers to strengthen our fleet power, as mentioned above.

You might wonder what I planned to do with the smaller ships…

I had my own solution for that, but I won’t go into details right now.

—————————————-

<Mercenary Employment Status>

<Currently employing 5 mercenary groups>

<Total Ship Types>

<Battleships: 5 ships>

<Cruisers: 8 ships>

<Daily Resource Consumption: 2,569 minerals, 150 rare resources>

—————————————-

Because after keeping just those 5 mercenary groups and terminating contracts with all the others…

“Huh? What?”

“What’s wrong, Jessica?”

“Ah, Commander, about those 5 remaining mercenary groups…”

“Yeah, what about them?”

“They’ve suddenly merged into a single mercenary group and are asking to sign an exclusive contract with us.”

“…Exclusive contract? Are they asking to be taken in as subordinates?”

“That’s not wrong.”

Hearing this unexpected news from Jessica, I was perplexed by this event I’d never heard of before.

But only for a moment.

The idea of accepting them as subordinates—meaning they would become completely part of my fleet—made me hesitate.

“Five battleships and eight cruisers would be an excellent addition to our forces… but do we have enough fleet points to handle that?”

“We don’t.”

With battleships costing 40 points each and cruisers 30 points each…

If this unified mercenary group joined our fleet, we would need a whopping 440 points…

‘Such a shame.’

Since it was realistically impossible, I was about to tell Jessica to reject their contract request.

But then…

—————————————-

<Event>

<Exclusive Contract with Mercenary Group!>

<Details>

<The 5 mercenary groups chosen by the Commander have decided to unite.>

<With similar fleet compositions, they have decided to merge into one large mercenary group called ‘Rhodos Mercenary Group’ and wish to form an exclusive contract with you.>

<Of course, while it’s called an “exclusive contract,” in reality, with the Pirate Empress backing you,>

<and having judged your abilities as exceptional through this fortress conquest,>

<they simply want to become your subordinates.>

<Effects>

<Though called an “exclusive contract” and “subordinates,” they are still treated as “mercenaries.”>

<The exclusive contract effect reduces daily contract fees by 5%!>

<This mercenary group cannot arbitrarily terminate their contract, and you must notify them at least 1 month in advance to terminate.>

<A new ‘Rhodos Mercenary Group’ contract menu has been created!>

<The ‘Rhodos Mercenary Group’ has a separate loyalty rating, and their contract fees and performance will vary according to loyalty!>

<Would you like to form an exclusive contract with the ‘Rhodos Mercenary Group’?>

<Y/N>

—————————————-

After seeing the event message with its perfectly timed content,

I threw all my previous concerns into Griyanar’s chimera production factory and thought:

‘I can’t resist a discount.’

I quickly pressed Y to form an exclusive contract with our mercenary friends.