Ch.348Tannhäuser Workshop Battle (4)

While gallery users were cheering at the sight of the full-scale bombardment…

…rewinding slightly to just before the bombardment began.

Whether our gallery users were munching on popcorn or not.

At that time, I had no way of knowing, so regardless, I was focusing on what I needed to do.

And that task was…

The immediate conquest of Tannhäuser right before my eyes.

*Beep beep beep!*

“Commander, Berial is contacting us.”

“Yeah, put her through.”

-“Commander, even though we have numerical superiority… if we push recklessly, we’re likely to lose.”

“Hmm, that’s true.”

Indeed.

Although we had greater numbers.

The vast majority of those numbers consisted mainly of ‘escort ships’ and ‘patrol ships’.

If we were to engage in a head-on battle with Tannhäuser’s defense fleet, whose main force consisted of ‘destroyers’ that were at least one class higher… it was clear that we would suffer considerable damage.

No, even before that, just counting the large ships…

“Jessica, how many large enemy ships are there?”

“150 heavy battleships, 1,000 regular battleships, oh and 175 battle cruisers, plus over 4,000 heavy cruisers.”

“…”

That’s right.

When our side barely had 700 large ships in total, including all our forces and carriers.

The enemy had over 1,000 regular battleships ‘alone’, and nearly three times as many heavy cruisers.

If we charged in mindlessly, the only surprising result waiting for us would be our defeat.

Of course, I wasn’t an idiot, so I wasn’t going to just charge in like that.

“Neranzara is already in position, right?”

-“Yes, Commander.”

“Contact Hresvelgr and have him launch all strategic missiles, then use Kraken’s teleport to prioritize attacking Tannhäuser’s main gates.”

“I’ll do that.”

“And after the teleport bombardment is complete, when additional main gates open, have Neranzara use all available firepower to block as many gates as possible.”

-“Understood.”

Fortunately, thanks to the battle initiated by the ‘temporary clan’ led by that user Aurora last time, the locations of all the hidden main gates of Tannhäuser had been revealed.

I was using the reliable Kraken-Hresvelgr combination’s strategic missile teleport to blow up the gates where Tannhäuser’s main fleet would emerge.

At the same time, instead of directly attacking the gates, Neranzara, whom I had deployed in advance…

-“Die, you monster!”

-Boom! Bang!

-Keeeeee… KWAAANG!

-“Woohoo!”

…was using all available firepower, including spatial torpedoes, to make enemy ships get stuck at the gate entrances as they tried to exit.

But I suppose this showed the difference between level 5 and level 7.

-“After the first and second teleport attacks, we’ve successfully destroyed a total of 6 main gates of the enemy base!”

“That’s fewer than I expected.”

“The rest of the missiles and torpedoes, including strategic missiles, were intercepted.”

“Holy shit.”

Unlike before, the base’s air defense system, which hadn’t been pummeled by missile bombardment, was doing its job properly, causing our strategic missiles to fail for the first time.

Unlike the fleets that had been helplessly defeated at Avalon and Barracuda, when faced with Neranzara’s surprise attack…

Only the battleships at the gates that were caught in the initial surprise attack exploded after getting stuck, destroying the gates as before.

-“Oh no, the remaining ships are entering the base!”

“Commander, only small ships that can evade Neranzara’s missiles and torpedoes are coming out, and the large ships just come out after our salvo ends.”

“Damn it.”

The defense fleets at the remaining gates showed unexpectedly nimble actions, causing most of our attacks to fail to inflict proper damage.

One other location somehow managed to succeed with a lucky shot, destroying a battleship that blocked the gate as before…

-KWAAAAAAANG!!

-“Eeek!”

-“Those bastards are attacking by blowing up their battleship!”

“Son of a bitch.”

This time, whether it was some macho commander in charge of the fleet…

When the battleship got stuck and blocked the way, they destroyed it with internal bombardment.

By using the gate as a kind of ‘port’ in this way, they nearly destroyed Neranzara’s periscope.

==========

Anyway, because of incidents like the above, contrary to the plan, we only managed to block 8 main gates.

One was in a half-finished state, so while large ships couldn’t come out, small ships were emerging just fine, creating an ambiguous situation.

But even that was enough to avoid the catastrophe of those vicious 1,000 battleships all rushing out at once.

So I decided to launch a full-scale charge with our mercenary units, including the disgustingly numerous patrol ships and escort ships, to engage Tannhäuser’s remaining fleet.

Naturally, to counter the fortress’s interceptors during the charge, I had most of the carrier-based aircraft from Kraken and other carriers launch.

I ordered them to provide air cover for the charging fleet.

…Of course, while fighter aircraft might have maneuverability, their top speed was lower than the ships.

In reality, they functioned as supplementary forces that would be deployed to the battlefield long after our fleet and the enemy fleet had clashed.

And in the midst of all this, we couldn’t charge with all our mercenary units…

“Warp-out reaction detected from the rear!”

“These bastards are really coming out.”

“Enemy fleet appearing from behind! They’re main combat fleets!”

This was because approximately 4 to 5 fleets emerged from our rear, using ‘gates’ installed inside Tannhäuser.

The problem was that these so-called 5 fleets were reinforced twice more through the internal gates.

“Damn it, the mercenary units standing by near the main force will respond to the rear attack!”

“Understood!”

“All troops except Ouroboros and escort ships, join the fight!”

-“Yes, employer!”

-“We’ll follow your orders!”

With about two-fifths of the enemy forces suddenly appearing at our rear, I immediately decided to turn Kraken and the other fleets around to respond to the enemy fleet.

The one fortunate thing was that, although the enemy fleet was disgustingly strong…

-“All fleet bombardment commencing, target is the enemy’s right flank at coordinates 333,694.”

-“Message to all carrier aircraft, prioritize attacking the enemy’s anti-air light cruisers.”

-“Can’t you maneuver properly? If big brother told us to do it, we should do it right!”

-“Kuhuk!”

Wide-ranging command buffs were being distributed by the three commander-type superhumans represented by Berial, Tiamat, and Marian.

-“Enemy boarding forces confirmed on some ships! Engaging in combat!”

-“What are you saving Chimera for? Use it already.”

When enemy forces fearlessly attempted to board the Kraken, Griyanar’s wide-area totem buff was added as she gritted her teeth, threatening to turn them all into tentacle cat statues.

Despite having only numerous small ships and actually fewer destroyers and larger vessels than the enemy.

Our fleet was somehow achieving better results than expected in the battle against the enemy.

And above all, this time we had an excellent ship for fleet battles.

-“Fire!”

-KWAAAAAAAA!

“Nice.”

Our Ouroboros was that ship—capable of one-shot, one-kill against anything from heavy battleships to patrol ships, as long as it hit.

Although after firing once…

-Pssshhhhh

-“Initiating cannon and internal circuit cooling procedures!”

-“Beginning waste heat discharge in energy transfer conduits, deploying heat sinks.”

-“Armor plate opening complete, activating cooling system.”

It would transform its armor plates in a way reminiscent of a Transformer, spewing hot steam and ice crystals in all directions.

Until cooling was complete, it couldn’t move, which sometimes made Tannhäuser fleet’s battleships or heavy battleships aim their blind main guns at Ouroboros…

-Ting!

-“Deflected!”

-“Employer, we’ll protect Ouroboros, so don’t worry~”

“Oh…”

Our large and beautiful breasts… no, the maternal pouch-equipped Lephan captain and the Rhodos mercenary unit’s battleships and battle cruisers had established a thorough defensive position at the front.

So even when blind shots came flying in, the mercenary battleships used beam coating equipment to tank the hits.

As soon as the cooling of the large and beautiful… ahem, main cannon was complete, Ouroboros would fire its main gun in focused mode again.

It was leading this battle toward our victory by eliminating the enemy’s slow main force ships and surrounding escort vessels in chunks.