Ch.279Alone in the Fortress (1)

Whatever power struggles they were having among themselves.

It was something happening faaaaaaar away from here.

I tried to focus on handling the matters right in front of me.

And among those, the most important was repairing the two battleships I’d received as rewards earlier and used quite efficiently in the recent fortress siege battle…

If you’re wondering why I hadn’t repaired them yet, I could only give one answer.

—————————————-

<Fleet Association under construction…>

<Time remaining until completion: 10 days 9 hours 11 minutes 52 seconds>

—————————————-

‘I don’t have facilities to repair battleships.’

It’s quite absurd, but despite seeing battleships in the fortress defense fleet, which would suggest that repairs should be possible…

Contrary to what I expected, this was another case where the user system worked differently. Even if I put the battleships in the large ship dock, repairs weren’t possible.

‘Geez, you should be more flexible at times like this, you bastards.’

Just like how I couldn’t repair aircraft carriers without an Aviation Command, battleships couldn’t be repaired until the Fleet Association was fully constructed.

So I decided that once the Fleet Association’s construction was completed in about 10 days, instead of immediately building more large ships, I would first repair my two precious battleships that still hadn’t received maintenance.

———-

After dealing with the battleship issue.

I decided to check on the current resource supply situation at the base.

…I should have checked this much earlier.

But honestly, I’d been too busy to verify these things in advance, so it couldn’t be helped.

“So Jessica, bring me a resource status board right now, decorated with a fresh, cute UI.”

“…Sigh, sometimes I really wonder what goes through your mind, Commander.”

In response to my request, Jessica sighed deeply.

After fiddling with a nearby computer for a moment, she began to clearly explain our current status.

“First, our resource income is 56,000 minerals and 20,000 rare resources.”

“…That seems rather low for having such a massive fortress.”

“This is the ‘actual income’ after subtracting consumption. If we’re talking about gross income, it’s over 80,000 minerals and over 40,000 rare resources.”

“Hmm.”

‘Interesting.’

Compared to the resources we were getting before docking, this was about 2.5 times more, which made me nod in approval.

But right after that, I noticed something odd in my conversation with Jessica.

“Wait… didn’t I specifically ask about resources gained from the base?”

“Yes, you did. Why?”

“But you’re saying the net income is 80,000 minerals and 40,000 rare resources?”

“Yes.”

Before coming here, when I combined all resources from the base, resource zones, and forward bases, minerals barely exceeded 30,000 and rare resources just over 10,000. Given those numbers, what could I say?

“Jessica, I specifically asked for ‘resources gained only from the base.'”

At my words, Jessica widened her eyes in surprise.

“Yes, and as you requested, that’s just what we’re getting from the base alone.”

“…Oh?”

“If we include the external resource extraction fleet and the forward bases that have started full operation, our actual daily income would be over 100,000 minerals, no joke.”

“Ohhh…”

“Thanks to that, since docking at this fortress, we’ve accumulated over 1.2 million minerals and as of today, over 600,000 rare resources.”

“Good.”

I nodded at Jessica’s explanation, feeling my chest swell with pride at becoming a resource tycoon.

———-

After finishing our discussion about resources, we were busy proceeding with other tasks.

In the middle of doing various things, Jessica suddenly said something to me.

“By the way, Commander, now that we have 500 battleships, no commander would dare mess with us, right?”

“Well… for defense purposes, I suppose.”

“What?”

“Huh?”

Obviously, there was a disconnect between what I thought and remembered and what Jessica understood, as evidenced by our discord just now.

Since the topic had come up, I decided to clarify things to prevent Jessica from misunderstanding in the future.

And the first step was a thorough denial.

“Jessica, I can’t command the defense fleet.”

“What?”

Next, instead of giving a long-winded explanation myself…

“All the details are in here.”

“…”

I naturally directed her to the ‘Wiki tab’ in the gallery, letting the post there explain instead of me.

…Of course, the fundamental reason was that I found it extremely, extremely, extremely, extremely tedious to explain everything myself.

But whatever, it didn’t matter.

Anyway, the information found in the Wiki tab wasn’t that complicated or difficult to understand.

—————————————–

Title: Q. How does command authority work for base defense fleets?

Author: Wiki Officer mk-36

Content: [Image of a toad resting its chin and smiling mysteriously]

A. They’re exclusively used for city defense

No further explanation needed

Users cannot command them, and they only serve to defend the base

Oh, of course they might provide some patrol fleet support if combat occurs near the base

But the main “combat fleet” won’t emerge unless the base itself or a docked base is under direct threat

However, if a user owns the base, the NPCs won’t just stand by idly until missiles start hitting the fortress and lose the fleet to a surprise attack

Comments:

-[So they’re just decorations during normal times?]

-˪[Yep]

-[If a clan that owns a base is mining at a nearby resource zone, will the fleet protect that too?]

-˪[As I said, they ONLY defend the base. There aren’t enough ships to protect all resource zones belonging to clan members anyway](Author)

-˪[What if a single person owns the base?]

-˪[Same thing. If it works differently, that would be a bug](Author)

—————————————–

“Hmm… that’s quite disappointing.”

Naturally, Jessica had thought I would become an admiral commanding a grand fleet of 500 battleships.

Her expression showed unmistakable disappointment.

Unlike Jessica, I hadn’t had any particular expectations from the beginning.

Moreover, I had already learned in advance how to use this base defense fleet.

“Well, it’s a simple matter when you think about it.”

“Is it?”

“Think about Leonard, whom we made good use of before.”

“…Ah, I see.”

What was the problem?

As I just mentioned, we could apply the same method we used with Leonard of the Pirate Alliance who had protected our base in the past.

Even though I couldn’t directly control the fleet myself, that was more than sufficient for our situation.

So I had no regrets about the base defense fleet… the main combat fleet.

Of course, Jessica seemed to still feel some regret, as she kept looking at the fortress’s internal docking facilities displayed on the command center monitor while smacking her lips.

But after that.

Both Jessica and even I found ourselves smacking our lips in disappointment when we heard:

“…What did you say?”

“It’s truly unfortunate news, but it seems we’ll be returning to our original territory around next week.”

“Oh.”

That was none other than the news that the “Pirate Alliance defense fleet” – the very ones who had saved us in the 1:5 battle – would be returning to their home.