Chapter 173

Chapter 173. We’re Dead, Seriously Dead (3)

Of course, I never intended to abandon this small, precious base.

I mean, with the ‘Princess of Monsters’ here, abandoning it would completely ruin our trust with the Monster Force.

So, I scraped together every last bit of resources we had, not only reinforcing the base’s Defense Turrets but also building every ‘instant’ defense facility I could, like the free-floating unmanned attack drone hangars, and went full-on survival mode.

Of course, since we were essentially in a siege situation, there was no room for mobile warfare.

My cute little Small Ships, which I had worked so hard to build, were destined to become meat shields for the big, beautiful Large Ships.

And there was one crucial point in this base defense battle…

Contrary to what users often casually shout, “Let’s smash the base to pieces,” the outer walls of a user’s base are ridiculously durable—far beyond what a mere fleet could destroy.

It’s a massive space structure designed with the logic of, “Since it doesn’t move, why not make the armor ridiculously thick?”

Even the super-sized siege cannons of Siege Assault Ships, which can obliterate base barriers, can’t deal damage thanks to some system-level protection or something.

Anyway, because of this, my ‘base’ became this massive obstacle in the middle of space, and our battle truly resembled a full-blown siege.

To cut a long story short…

*Boom! Crash!*

“Commander, the 3rd and 4th Defense Turrets have been destroyed!”

“Drone Hangar 1 destroyed! Drone Cluster 41 annihilated!”

*Kwaaaaang!*

“Enemy fleet bombardment hit VLS System 9! System is down!”

“…”

‘Oh, please.’

While the immobile base was busy tanking the enemy fleet’s firepower by sacrificing its defense systems, my remaining 15 ships were having a wild dance party with the enemy fleet, which had closed in for close combat.

Of course, even in this situation, my ridiculously awesome Kraken and superhumans were absolutely dominating.

*Kwaaaah!*

“Uoooooooh!”

“Commander, our Kraken did it!”

It seems that 1-in-a-million odds aren’t just for show.

Even without proper repairs, the Kraken rammed straight into a Cruiser Battleship, which was way sturdier than other ships. In the process, a Heavy Cruiser trying to block it got sandwiched between the Kraken and the Cruiser Battleship, resulting in the Kraken splitting both ships in half with its ramming attack.

Then there’s Ignis, who’s been hijacking five enemy Destroyers in a row, increasing our firepower mid-battle.

On the other hand, instead of hijacking, Partia (muscle ver.) is pinpointing power sources to disable ships, then hopping on missiles to fly around because taking assault pods is a waste of time.

Meanwhile, Gryanarr, instead of directly engaging, is stuck at the base, supporting the fleet and defense facilities with buff auras.

Similarly stuck at the base, Pashtira is unleashing overwhelming firepower like a guerrilla, managing to sink an enemy Cruiser Battleship.

And Belial, busy commanding the remaining fleet in my stead, is somehow holding the line.

Everyone was united, giving the hellish five-nation alliance a taste of their own medicine.

And then, I received an unexpected helping hand…

“Commander! Enemy troops are landing on the base!”

“Ah.”

No matter how much we fought back or how hard the base’s defense systems tried, there was no avoiding the enemy troops infiltrating through the gaps created by the destruction.

I immediately sent the base’s defense units to stop the infiltrators, but since they came in assault pods, regular troops would only buy time.

I considered calling Gryanarr, who was busy buffing and supporting, but at that moment…

-“Icarus, can you hear me?”

“Oxianor? What’s up?”

-“I’ve successfully dealt with all the lifeforms that just infiltrated. Focus on commanding without worry.”

“…!”

Surprisingly, our tentacle gentleman Oxianor, true to his word, was defending the base with his self-produced monster troops, fending off the enemy invasion.

Of course, Oxianor, being a command-type like Belial and capable of ranged attacks (though not as good as Pashtra), made me breathe a sigh of relief and refocus on the battle.

==========

The problem was, despite the overwhelming power of our superhuman forces, the fleet battle wasn’t going well.

Even with the base and defense systems drawing the enemy fleet’s aggro, being outnumbered 10-to-1 meant the enemy was willing to take some losses and push hard, turning the battle into pure chaos.

And in such a chaotic battle situation, our “Light Aircraft Carrier,” which is large but has ridiculously thin armor, couldn’t possibly hold out.

After hours of fighting…

“The Light Aircraft Carrier is holding up surprisingly well…”

– BOOOOOOM!!

– “The 1st Light Aircraft Carrier is sinking!”

– “We can’t maintain the defense line anymore!”

– “Gyaaaaaah!!”

– “Where are we supposed to retreat to?!”

“Commander, the 1st Light Aircraft Carrier has been sunk.”

“…”

Before I could even finish saying how well it was holding up, the Light Aircraft Carrier we produced for this invasion defense was destroyed.

The other one, perhaps because it was captured, managed to survive due to its high level.

Although it took some damage, it somehow managed to stay afloat…

“Commander, the replenishment rate can’t keep up with the consumption rate of the aircraft.”

“Damn it.”

In the midst of the chaos, too many aircraft were lost, rendering them useless.

Given the situation, they ended up being used as bait to draw the enemy’s aggro.

And as for my precious trio of Cruiser Battleships, their situation wasn’t great either.

Two of them were exposed to the enemy fleet’s firepower and were sunk after taking too much damage.

As for the third one…

“Remember me!!!!”

“I will!!”

“I will!!”

Judging that survival was impossible, it launched a suicide charge at an enemy Cruiser Battleship and went out in a blaze of glory.

And as for our freaking awesome Kraken…

True to its reputation as the strongest in small-scale fleet battles, it unleashed missiles, assault pods, dozens of tentacles, and a modified main cannon in all directions.

It was absolutely dominating those damn Clan bastards, but…

“Oh, shit.”

“Commander! Two enemy Cruiser Battleships are charging at the Kraken!!”

Perhaps because they had nothing left to lose, the enemy opted for ramming instead of artillery fire.

One of them was sunk by the Kraken and Pashtira’s well-placed crossfire, unable to withstand the accumulated damage.

But because of that, the Kraken couldn’t stop the other one from ramming it, resulting in the Kraken taking a direct hit and suffering severe injuries.

Fortunately, the Overseer, which had effectively become an unsinkable ship, and the remaining ships gathered around the Kraken to provide cover.

This prevented the enemy fleet from dealing any more significant damage to the Kraken…

But as a result, air superiority over the base was completely lost to the enemy.

“Uryaaaaah!”

“How dare you approach our Commander’s base!”

“Get out of the way, you bastards!”

Suddenly, at the entrance of my base, the surviving enemy superhumans and troops began landing en masse.

To defend the base, Ignis and Partia joined forces with Oxianor to hold the line.

Adding to this, the monster faction’s own troops and Gryanarr’s 30% pure pirate chimera soldiers were also being deployed in large numbers.

The problem was that the enemy had five superhumans pushing forward. Even if each was SSS-class, the sheer number of superhumans was overwhelming.

With five of them pushing together, our lack of absolute numbers meant our defense line kept getting pushed back.

In the midst of this, when the enemy Light Aircraft Carrier took severe damage, it simply landed on our base’s docking facilities, bypassing any attempt to evade.

They tried to infiltrate troops from the Light Aircraft Carrier into the base through the docking facilities, creating a double front.

At this point, I truly felt the harsh reality of being outnumbered 5 to 1, experiencing the limits of going solo.

But I couldn’t just give up. I decided to personally command the troops and resist the enemy’s assault.

Of course, to be honest, the tide had completely turned.

Even if we held out longer, the enemy’s sheer numbers would eventually overwhelm us, leading to the fall of this command center.

A forced surrender would be inevitable, and we’d be left with nothing but utter defeat…

But right at that moment…

– Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep!

An alert sounded on the command center’s communication network.

Thinking those bastards were trying to taunt us instead of chatting, I told Jessica to turn off the comms…

But after checking the communication…

“Commander! Commander!”

“Huh?”

“Look, look over there!”

Jessica, bouncing around like a rabbit, shaking her ample chest and rabbit ears, suddenly hugged me.

She pointed outside the command center window with her finger, where a large-scale teleportation reaction was occurring, and a “Pirate Fleet” appeared.

“We’ve won!”