The fleet has mobilized to assault Apex, using Aperture as a forward base.
I notice the presence of a Core CPA post. That could be bad. I'll have to take it out ASAP and preferably eliminate the HW before the wave hits. My strike force of instakill immune ships moves in and begins to take losses as it storms towards the CPA post when I realize that there isn't an eye on this planet. I can deploy in full force without fear of retaliation! MOVE OUT IMMEDIATELY!
As good as the AI War music is, I don't want the softer tracks playing right now. A more tense song would fit better, so I'm playing the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack in the background, specifically the quite aptly named "Suicide Mission" themes.
The fleet takes catastrophic losses as gravity drains, rippers and tractors divide and conquer large swathes of fleet ships. Three quarters are soon killed with little tactical gain. The situation is becoming intolerable, we must retreat and regroup. Deploy nuclear power if necessary. It's a race against time to get this over and done with. Three shipyards are cranking out things as fast as they can, but it will not be in time.
Suddenly, Marauders are attacking Wheatley. Don't care. Must focus on the offensive. An abnormally strong hybrid? Meh. I need more frigates on the double!
...80 ships on my homeworld. Okay, that is worth attention. Champion gets warped back to deal with it. Close call.
The CPA is about to hit and I have a little under 2000 ships rebuilt. However, the special forces are blocking my way. I can't go and attack without taking severe losses. I may actually lose this game, which would really suck.
My worlds are falling one by one. 2000 ships on the AI Homeworld and taking down guard posts. This HW is not equipped with RAID so wasps are free. As soon as I take this down I will snipe Chencha and win. I do not need my fleet to live as long as it can reach the other home.
All Core posts are down. A small detachment has been sent to Chencha to eliminate the other home. The FF protecting the home on Apex is being whittled down. The avenger spawns, time to run...
EMP GUARDIAN MK. III DETONATED ON CARNEGIA
$$#$#!$#%#@%$#^$&%$*$*&*%*%^**^%*$&^$&$&$^&%$!!!!!!
WHYYYYYY?? WHYYY?? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?? All my ships are sitting ducks. I guess I've lost- wait, they're free again. The Avenger has caught up though, so time to run again...
EMP GUARDIAN DETONATED ON SIM CITY!
FML. The avenger has caught up once again. This time it will surely win... No, wait. I can go again. This is really tense. I just have a few planets left, fortunately the threat ball of 7,000 is nowhere near my homeworld. I may still have a chance.
Finally made it to Chencha. A ton of AI defense ships spawn but I do not have to destroy them as long as I can push through to the Command Station. I'm glad I hit this one last, since Apex had tons of gravity. This one just has acid sprayers, which are ineffective. All kinds of alarms going off in the top left. Can I make it?
#$%& YEAH!!!!I don't know if my words convey the stress I was just going through...but I dare say that Imminent Annihilation just started playing and that really fits.
The AI has fallen. Despite the murder of billions of Humans, Zenith and Spire, it has fallen. It underestimated the ants beneath its boot and paid the price. The lives of the fallen were not given in vain, for although we have a great mess to clean up, we no longer exist under an oppressive entity; we no longer have to live in fear of extermination; we can live as free men, women and children. The galaxy has been reclaimed. With luck, humanity has learned from its mistakes and will pursue peace from here on out. All the races in the galaxy have been brought together by this conflict. Seperately they were oppressed and murdered but united we took down our master who had failed to realize our true combined power.
The End.
This is my second ever AI War victory. The midgame seemed so easy, but the endgame was amazingly difficult, and I'm only on 7/7. I shudder to think what would happen on 10/10. You hear all about it, but experiencing it is something else entirely.
In any case, this was a really fun, albiet stressful game. I literally had three hundred ships left at the end, and that was it. If the AI had been more intelligent with its threatball I wouldn't have lasted nearly as long. I'm really glad that it wasn't, though.