Chapter 1205: Enter Player Three
1205 1205 Enter Player Three
After half a day of success with his Castle strategy, Max was shifting his troops to let the Great Enemy fight the Myceloids when the strangest thing happened.
The warriors from the Cathedral Ship suddenly stopped and changed course to continue following the Mecha. They were still too far away for their suit's sensors to have detected the group, so either they had something like the satellite network active, or their Greater Energy Being had finally made itself known.
[Pause your movement. Communications may have been intercepted by the enemy. Prepare for imminent attack.] Max informed the unit in danger.
They stopped and fortified their location as well as possible in the minute they had, while the enemy troop initially continued on a route to their first destination, before pausing and turning to engage.
That solved it. He hadn't listed coordinates this time, but they found the unit without hesitation, so someone was guiding them who could see the battlefield. That would make things a bit more difficult, but even in the proper game, both players could see the state of the board, so the goal was to trick your opponent into overlooking the traps until it was too late to avoid them.
That had been working quite well so far, but some of the enemy troops were simply too unpredictable to be baited so easily. The Klem were one such force, only barely controlled by their Queen, but the troops had come across a handful of other, similar species.
Those were the wildcards in this game. It looked like they were working with the Great Enemy, and they wouldn't go hunting them, but if two groups happened to meet, they would usually still fight.
Max immediately began his search for the opposing Commander, who he assumed should be in the Castle, but it appeared that it had not actually arrived, only began to monitor the situation through the open Portal.
That was unfortunate for him. If it was here, he could go pick a fight. "What's the plan for the day, Admiral?" Sylvie asked as Max marshalled forces around the planet to entrap and crush the warriors and aliens of the Great Enemy, while leading the Myceloids to their strongest forces.
"It looks like the leader of the third party has finally started to intervene, and they won't be attacking blindly anymore. So, today our goal is to completely solidify our hold on this region around the base using the fast attack units, and then begin to push around the back side of their base, so that our main force isn't caught between the two."
Sylvie considered that for a moment.
"Which side is the backside? The three bases are equally spaced on the planet's surface." She asked.
"There is a mountain range on one side, that is the side we will come from, as the Myceloids have largely decided that route isn't worth the trouble. We can send hover vehicles over the rough terrain with ease to clear out the resistance, while making it look like we're headed for the Myceloid base. Then we will turn back and push into the Great Enemy to draw their forces toward the mountains and let the Myceloids advance. If that works, we will send in heavy troops on the side closest to us and begin a full-scale assault."
"So, a pincer attack with the Myceloids, but without consulting them? That could work, but what if they come for us?" She asked, relaying the information in real time to Felicity.
"That's why we're putting our strongest units on the far sides, you see. They will come for us, but they will fight their way through to get to us." He explained.
The two AI systems worked out a strategy based on known enemy positions, and began to calculate what it would take to push a clear path to the enemy base.
They could send a unit forward and then transport the rest directly to them, but if they didn't clear out the units in the field, they would quickly be surrounded and gunned down. They couldn't afford that sort of losses, even if they were androids, as it would leave their offence weakened and allow them to be forced onto the defensive.
[Commander, I believe that we have a solid strategy for deployments to push into a castle attack position and secure the region behind us. Should we begin now?] Felicity asked after sending over a deployment plan.
Max examined it for flaws and made a few changes, then sent it back.
"This way should work with fewer casualties while still pulling the majority of the Great Enemy troops back toward their base. It looks like we've gone for a full offensive, but leaves us a way out when they try to encircle us. Once they're drawn back to their base, it will be time for the actual assault to begin." Max explained his reasoning.
"And where will the two Commanders be during the operation?" Sylvie asked.
"I will remain here to coordinate, and Nico will be responsible for the mountain passes, to keep unexpected arrivals from messing up our deployment. Very few of the enemy forces are using hover tanks or flying vehicles, so the mountains are a real barrier to them until they change their strategy." "Understood, Admiral. I will inform her of her good fortune and keep the Subcommander updated on our timeline." Sylvie reported.
Max knew that Nico had another of her transmitters, so the two would be in perfect sync, and Nico had been up for a while now, so she would be getting eager to get into combat, but there weren't any serious threats that warranted sending in her intervention team in the region.
Sending her away now would mess up the plan if she couldn't get back in time, and the far side of the planet was just ridiculously far away when trying to move troops.
If they had been fighting on a standard sized world, this would be a lot more simple, but that would also come with the drawback of being able to move artillery into position to bombard enemy bases far too easily.