I Became a Commander in a Crappy SF Game.

Ch.329″Real” Event (1)

by fnovelpia

After the bug that made only the victims sad and everyone else happy disappeared.

“By the way, Commander, about the fleet you organized earlier… I just noticed you only used 100 fleet points instead of 200. Was that intentional?”

“…No, I miscalculated and only used 100 points instead of 200.”

Realizing we almost ruined our first victory due to a minor mistake, we were now revising our event fleet composition.

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<Destroyer: 12 ships = 36 points total>

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‘Yes, this looks right.’

This could reasonably be called an all-rounder fleet composition.

The cruiser battleships would move around freely, while the 8 patrol ships would sacrifice themselves to block enemy small ships.

The light cruisers and destroyers were organized in a 1:4 ratio to form small squadrons for reconnaissance, and when they found enemies, they would swarm and tear them apart like a wolf pack.

Alternatively, our Neranjara could move around in submerged state, and upon discovering the enemy fleet’s main force, cleanly take out their propulsion systems with spatial torpedoes.

According to the event announcement, since the opponent’s fleet would have no resource mining ships (which double as repair ships), they would be struggling.

Our scattered destroyer squadrons and cruiser battleships would then rush in, slowly wearing them down while toying with the enemy’s anti-air network.

And once the chaotic battle unfolded?

Neranjara could slip in and fire medium torpedoes instead of spatial torpedoes at close range, causing explosions everywhere.

‘Mmm, delicious.’

The opponent would either think they were hit by chance during the chaotic battle without knowing what actually hit them.

Or they’d be thinking, “Damn it, there should be another 50 points worth of fleet somewhere but I can’t see it, goddammit,” and get screwed while trying to counter a non-existent fleet.

Anyway, after roughly planning our strategy like this.

For the detailed operation plan, we needed to enter the event map first and see what the opponent’s fleet composition was…

“Jessica, please manage the base while I’m out fighting.”

“Of course, leave it to me.”

After organizing my thoughts, I asked Jessica to take care of the base and immediately clicked to participate in the second round of the event.

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And the map for the second round was, well.

‘Full of shipwrecks.’

Instead of what people typically consider “terrain”—planets or nebulae that are very difficult or impossible to destroy.

It was a map known as a “graveyard of wrecks,” where most of the terrain features were “debris” that could be destroyed by fleet firepower.

In this terrain situation, Berial, the superhuman I brought for the second round, looked around, nodded, and reported to me.

“Commander, I think it would be dangerous to deploy our squadrons quickly as originally planned in this terrain.”

“Really?”

“Yes, most of the debris is in such a fragile state that even a destroyer’s main guns could easily destroy it. If we’re not careful, our forces might be ambushed by enemy fleet fire without being able to respond.”

“Hmm.”

It was a reasonable point.

Even in the actual game, “debris terrain” only provided stealth effects and reduced the enemy’s accuracy.

It didn’t actually block enemy fleet fire.

“So what are you thinking? I was planning to just modify our original plan a bit.”

But when I asked this question, Berial hesitated for a moment.

With an expression that seemed to say, “I’ll answer since you asked, but I’m not thrilled about it,” she began to speak as calmly as possible.

“Considering the special circumstances, the opponent has no possibility of operating large-scale carrier aircraft, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“So I think it would be best to spread out all the patrol ships that were originally assigned to escort the cruiser battleships to scout the enemy fleet, then use Neranjara’s submersion ability to gradually chip away at their forces.”

“And our fleet waits until the enemy fleet’s power is reduced, then attacks all at once?”

“Exactly.”

Berial’s strategy was to first locate the enemy fleet through reconnaissance.

Then use Neranjara’s “subspace submersion” to avoid direct confrontation while engaging in one-sided damage dealing.

After Neranjara exhausted all its firepower, we would attack the damaged enemy fleet all at once to subdue them.

‘That’s similar to what I was thinking.’

So I thought it was quite good, but.

Meanwhile, Berial shook her head, saying there was one problem.

“However, Commander, this strategy has one drawback.”

“Huh?”

“As far as I know, there’s another fleet in this area besides ours and the other commander’s fleet…”

“Ah, right, that’s true.”

Hearing Berial’s words, I realized why she had hesitated when proposing the strategy.

And why she still looked uncomfortable now.

‘Damn, this is a strategy that only works in a 1:1 situation.’

It might work if there was only the opposing user or an NPC.

But using a strategy to focus on just one opponent in a 1:1:1 situation with me, the opposing user, and an NPC seemed very dangerous.

And when I showed that I realized this, our Berial nodded.

“Hmm, then what should we do?”

After I asked this genuine question, our Berial said:

“We keep the same strategy, but whenever we discover an enemy fleet, we use Neranjara’s full firepower to immobilize them, and then…”

“Yes?”

“Instead of directly attacking that fleet ourselves, we use our patrol ships and squadrons as bait to lure the other fleet toward the immobilized one. How does that sound?”

“…Oh.”

At the suggestion of using a “divide and conquer” strategy, I briefly considered whether it would work.

‘…A user wouldn’t fall for a lure strategy, but an NPC might be different.’

“Alright, let’s go with that.”

“An excellent choice.”

“However, I’ll decide which target to immobilize.”

“Pardon?”

“I’ll confirm which opponent we’re facing before initiating the attack.”

At my statement that I’d check whether it was a user or NPC before attacking, Berial nodded in understanding.

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But as some German guy once said, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.”

Our plan was to find the user’s fleet, cripple them, then lure the NPC fleet to cause mutual destruction.

Then we would leisurely approach and pick up the spoils of victory…

But not long after the battle began in earnest.

The first fleet we encountered happened to be the NPC fleet.

At the same time, the enemy user’s fleet located both my fleet and the NPC’s main force before our scouts could even identify them.

And after that, well…

-BOOM!

-BANG! BANG!

-RATATATATAT! CRACK!

-“Fire all CIWS! Switch to close combat!”

-“Enemy assault pods approaching!”

-“Enemy cruiser battleship charging toward us!”

“Ah, damn it.”

The “mind games” of a 1:1:1 three-way situation went straight out the window.

Everyone ended up engaging in a friendly close-quarters brawl.

And one major problem I discovered here was that since Neranjara accounted for a quarter of my fleet’s points.

In this kind of head-on power struggle and brawl, our fleet was at a disadvantage compared to the other two.

Well, at least after the brawl began, we fired all of Neranjara’s missiles and torpedoes until they were completely depleted.

And simultaneously, Berial worked hard on fleet control and buffs from the safety of Neranjara, so we somehow managed to win…

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<“Squadron Clash” Round 2 Battle Results>

<Victory!>

<Sunk>

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‘Oh my god.’

The price was a catastrophe where two-thirds of our fleet’s strength evaporated, including two cruiser battleships.

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