Ladies & gentlemen. Boys & girls. Welcome to a story of war.
(Open spoiler for more details on the story)
There are two ways to win a war. Overtly or covertly. With brute force, or with a deft touch.
The victims of this story decided to win through overt actions in the past & this rewarded them well. They were victors of the old Xanthus & they made themselves the victors of the new Xanthus with the same brute force.
We enter the story on the wrong side of their overt ways. Alliances, friends, anyone who wasn’t them eventually lost out. Some tried to match their ways only to find they simply couldn’t. Winning overtly against them in this Xanthus wasn’t an option.
To win this war another path had to be taken. This was a path of covert war.
The setup was to play on their state of mind. Let the victors know, feel, & revel in their victory. Appear the loser who’d given up the fight. Make them believe they’d already won. Most crucially, make them arrogant & immortal.
Once they were primed to believe that nobody could ever hurt them again, planting the seed was simple.
With the seed planted. Next came the hard part. The timing.
Many obstacles had to be overcome to win this war.
Even with their guard down, players had to be taken out who resided all over the world in different timezones. Players had to be watched, routines had to be developed. Lifestyles keyed in. Everything had to fall into place if this was going to work. Players with what some would call “a certain set of skills” also had to be overcome.
For everything to fall into place patience was required. There were numerous seemingly good opportunities to strike. Some could’ve worked, some wouldn’t have. Some were simply too risky to try.
Was there enough fleet to take them all down? Was there enough time to get them all? What if somebody noticed? These were all considerations that had to be made.
To win this war. A decisive blow had to be struck. Striking at the earliest opportunity, although satisfying, wouldn’t have won the war. A once covert war would’ve become overt.
Then. One day. The stars aligned. Today was that day.
They had no idea what hit them. They didn’t expect it. Their arrogance allowed them to feel indestructible when they weren’t.
However, the oldest rule of the game came true again.
No fleetsave = no Fleet.
None of this would’ve been possible by our allies, our friends, past & present. You know who you are.
This is for you.
Now on to the story for the actual hit
To strike the most decisive blow their biggest fleet had to go first. This just so happened to be Phoenyxx.
By being their biggest fleet, he was the first to go. The operation wouldn’t have initiated unless he was primed to fall.
Phoenyxx was one of the players in this story who let their guard down. This made the mission a lot simpler as he was also one of their weakest links.
The true hunt was on for roughly a week period where his activity was noticeable lacking. Numerous windows presented themselves.
The clock on his demise started almost 24 hours ago Everything up till now suddenly became a lot simpler than it once was. All the pressure came to bare.
15 minute timers became 25 minute timers. These then became 30 minute timers, 40 minute timers. Although enough time to end his fleet, there was no certainty of his timers forming an obvious pattern. The strike was delayed.
This morning everything changed. In hindsight this would likely seem inevitable. The timers grew, the refreshes ever delayed. Now was the moment to strike.
The first strike landed. Nobody appeared. The second strike finished him. Nobody appeared.
The game was on.
On 10-10-2019 --:--:--, the following fleets met in battle:
Attacker Red Sparrow
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Small Cargo 5.035.897
Light Fighter 14.999.848
Heavy Fighter 250.235
Cruiser 3.000.361
Battleship 1.002.855
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Defender Phoenyxx [Fleet]
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Small Cargo 1.001.000
Large Cargo 50.000
Light Fighter 11.458.000
Heavy Fighter 1.000
Cruiser 2.000.000
Battleship 1.000.000
Colony Ship 16
Recycler 400.000
Espionage Probe 26.724
Bomber 1.000
Destroyer 10.000
Deathstar 100
Battlecruiser 1.000
Rocket Launcher 200.000
Light Laser 100.000
Heavy Laser 10.000
Gauss Cannon 1.000
Plasma Turret 1.000
Small Shield Dome 1
Large Shield Dome 1
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After the battle ...
Attacker Red Sparrow
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Small Cargo 1.726.860 ( -3.309.037 )
Light Fighter 5.142.446 ( -9.857.402 )
Heavy Fighter 126.706 ( -123.529 )
Cruiser 2.495.431 ( -504.930 )
Battleship 991.026 ( -11.829 )
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Defender Phoenyxx [Fleet]
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Small Cargo 0 ( -1.001.000 )
Large Cargo 0 ( -50.000 )
Light Fighter 0 ( -11.458.000 )
Heavy Fighter 0 ( -1.000 )
Cruiser 0 ( -2.000.000 )
Battleship 78 ( -999.922 )
Colony Ship 0 ( -16 )
Recycler 0 ( -400.000 )
Espionage Probe 0 ( -26.724 )
Bomber 3 ( -997 )
Destroyer 165 ( -9.835 )
Deathstar 100 ( -0 )
Battlecruiser 0 ( -1.000 )
Rocket Launcher 0 ( -200.000 )
Light Laser 0 ( -100.000 )
Heavy Laser 0 ( -10.000 )
Gauss Cannon 0 ( -1.000 )
Plasma Turret 5 ( -995 )
Small Shield Dome 0 ( -1 )
Large Shield Dome 1 ( -0 )
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The battle ends in a draw.
The attacker captured:
0 Metal, 0 Crystal and 0 Deuterium
1.131.734.837 Metal, 653.755.062 Crystal and 1.120.424.385 Deuterium
282.933.709 Metal, 163.438.765 Crystal and 280.106.097 Deuterium
The attacker lost a total of 69.253.756.000 units.
Total damage attacker including follow-ups: 69.568.589.000 units.
The defender lost a total of 177.919.159.000 units.
Total damage defender including follow-ups: 180.339.409.000 units.
At these space coordinates now float 121.737.671.300 metal and 46.499.660.200 crystal.
Extra debris caused by the follow-up(s): 511.786.100 metal and 349.430.900 crystal.
The attacker captured a total of 3.632.392.855 units.
The chance for a moon to be created from the debris was 20%.
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Debris harvested by the attacker(s):
105.552.997.300 Metal and 46.499.670.700 Crystal
16.672.628.600 Metal and 334.110.000 Crystal
Total debris harvested by the attacker(s):
122.225.625.900 Metal and 46.833.780.700 Crystal
Summary of profit/losses:
Summary attackers(s)
Metal: 75.860.372.446
Crystal: 26.879.745.527
Deuterium: 383.092.482
The attacker(s) made a profit of 103.123.210.455 units.
Summary defender(s)
Metal: -130.081.028.546
Crystal: -47.327.182.827
Deuterium: -6.563.590.482
The defender(s) lost a total of 183.971.801.855 units.