Kaiden turned his attention back to Custos’ surface, back to what he could see.
Reinforced guard towers were visible first, with machine-gun nests built into them – positioned to provide overlapping fields of fire at any approach to the facility. Then came the armored hangars set into the rock with large anti-air batteries situated around them. While most of the Warden Corps’ ships were on patrol at any given time, Thorne had assured everyone that a considerable force was always held in reserve on Custos. Looking closer at the surface, Kaiden could make out bunkers half dug into the ground and littered with gun ports and even some artillery. And at the center of it all, the gate. Though ‘gate’ wasn’t really a proper word for it. It was more an armored wall that, even from the scan, looked so dense Kaiden could hardly believe it was able to move. But Thorne had assured them it did. And that it was the only way down and into Warden HQ.
So, then. Getting into Warden HQ was simple. They just needed a big enough fleet to occupy the Warden Corps’ while a large enough ground force fought through the killzone of guard towers, reinforced bunkers, and presumably, an opposing army. Then they needed to blow the gate open, and fight their way through the defender-centric hallways and tunnels of Warden HQ until they made it to the control room for the AFBS.
“So yeah, no big deal,” Kaiden said aloud and leaned back with a groan.
The Warden Corps take their HQ’s security seriously. It’s almost as if they don’t want any interlopers breaking in and hijacking their systems.
Kaiden dismissed the scan of Custos and instead turned his attention to the documents Whenstone had prepared for them. As it happend, they listed not only Odditor’s forces but also an estimate of those Maximus could bring to bear. A conversation with PlayaSlaya would confirm the numbers, Kaiden didn’t doubt, but until that happened, he had a feeling Whenstone’s information was accurate. He didn’t seem the kind to speculate wildly.
According to the notes, Maximus could likely bring a bit over three hundred players to join the assault. Most of those would be max-level players, and even those that weren’t would have PVP experience – an invaluable trait in the fight to come.
So Maximus brings three hundred players, but not the ships to support them. They’re largely a ground-based faction, Kaiden thought, reading further through the notes. Luckily, that’s where Odditor comes in.
Whenstone had briefly mentioned the sort of firepower Odditor had at his disposal, and it’d been impressive. Seeing the specifics now, though, it was even more impressive.
One dreadnought fit for combat, twelve heavy cruisers, and twenty light cruisers. Kaiden gave a low whistle at that. Good numbers to make up the core of a combat fleet. Good enough to take on the warden carriers that’ll no doubt be stationed on Custos. Thinking back to the Anakoni and the forces it’d held, Kaiden knew each warden carrier represented a fearsome amount of force wherever it was stationed. Thorne expected Custos to have three or four of them in orbit around it.
Moving on from the core of Odditor’s fleet, Kaiden found the document listed twenty-eight corvettes, thirty-two shuttles, and two hundred and thirty-one ‘fighters / interceptors.’
More ships here because they’re smaller, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less useful. The shuttles can help ferry troops to the ground while the corvettes and fighters keep the battle going overhead.
But so far these were all war ships, more tuned for combat than anything. Kaiden ran the math in his head. Odditor’s shuttles should be enough to ferry Maximus’ troops to the ground, but even still, that was a risky plan. Shuttles were hard to defend and easy to kill. Each one lost before it landed would mean a hit to the total number of ground forces.
Freighters – fourteen. Now we’re talking, Kaiden thought, a smile creeping across his face as he read further through Whenstone’s notes.
The bulk of the troop transport, it looked like, would be handled by freighters. Not exactly quick-moving ships, but when they weren’t loaded with cargo they had plenty of room for soldiers. A good thing, considering Maximus’ warriors weren’t the only ground troops they’d have.
Continuing through the document, Kaiden found specifics on the guilds Odditor ran – all of them secretly – and the forces they could be expected to muster.
Player Guilds:
Explorers’ Federation
Focus: Exploration
PVP-ready members: 35
Combat Effectiveness: Low
Merchants ‘R Us
Focus: Freight Hauling
PVP-ready members: 14
Combat Effectiveness: Low
Boyd City Fence Repair
Focus: Manual Labor
PVP-ready members: 60
Combat Effectiveness: Medium
Kaiden had serious doubts about the legitimacy of that last guild. Fence repair? That’s not even a game mechanic. Odditor’s just being clever. ‘Boyd City Fences,’ more like. It was no secret Odditor, like most powerful players in the game, dabbled in illicit goods. The profits were too good not to.
Kaiden continued through the document, taking in the guilds Odditor ran. Eight, all told.. Too many for him to oversee personally, no doubt, but it was known he ran them through proxy leaders. Easier to distance himself from them that way. Proxy leaders or not, Whenstone’s document claimed they could all be counted on in the fight to come. That put the number of PVP-ready players and NPCs at around six hundred. Just about double that of Maximus, but looking at the focus of Odditor’s
