Nico sighed at the chaos that the gamers were causing on the battlefield. They were all very enthusiastic about the idea of finding enemy targets to fight with the single drone fighters and bombers that they had taken over, but as gamers and not military strategists, they were all operating independently, heading in every possible direction at every altitude.
Just trying to avoid them with the actual patrols was becoming a pain, and Nico was beginning to consider setting no-fly zones in the programming to keep them out of the way.
The problem with that was that it would give the Great Enemy a good idea of which were the actual forces and which were the decoys.
That's what the volunteers were, for the most part. A few of them might become drone fighter aces, but mostly they were an additional sensor feed for the AI to work with, and random targets to keep the enemy troops distracted.
You never knew which ones would try to engage ground targets, which would look for dogfights with enemy interceptors, and which were just leisurely flying around looking for some unspecified target.
If they were actually needed in battle, Nico knew that a single ping would bring hundreds of them racing over to try to get to the target, and that gave her a brilliant idea.
[Felicity, work with Sylvie and assign a points system for the various targets based on priority and safety factors. These drone pilots could use a bit more motivation, and they're all gamers. I want to ensure that if we call on them, they won't keep mucking about with whatever nonsense they were planning to do for their shift.] Nico informed the AI.
[Understood. We will begin updating the targeting priorities with a point system in 45 minutes, once a complete planetary assessment is completed.] Felicity and Sylvie replied in unison.
Nico set the matter of the errant gamers aside and began to strategize her next offensive. Her team was almost finished modifying her a new Mecha to match Max's, but in a smaller Super Heavy platform with a few close combat adaptations, like faster response speed and a secondary shield capacitor to compensate for the expected increase in damage taken.
Once that was done, she would be ready for the challenges of the Myceloid Champions.
They were quite focused on size as a show of strength, and the largest of them were already exceeding fifteen metres, and were using various forms of crude but effective armour and heavy weaponry.
That would keep the majority of the Myceloids' strongest fighters distracted while the rest of the army went on a full offensive against the Great Enemy's base. Nico intended to handpick a team of champions to join her in combat, as the Myceloids wouldn't be happy about having to wait their turn for just one challenger, but she couldn't bring just anyone and expect them to win.
It was also wise to bring various champions, in different Mecha. Only a few would dare to challenge a Super Heavy Mecha, but there were a number of Myceloid Champions over seven metres tall on this world, and she had detected almost a hundred that were in the five-metre range, which would be suitable to challenge the Corvette Class Mecha.
Then Nico had a brilliant idea. She didn't need to risk the lives of her best Pilots on this. She could have them overhead and use a neural link to pilot the Mecha instead. It would be like a training exercise for the Myceloid Champions.
Hopefully, they would understand and accept her proposal to have a sort of vetting for the Champions to see who was the best of the best in close combat while the main battle was about to start at the Great Enemy's base.
Unlike last time when everyone seemed focused on battle, the Myceloids were picking and choosing targets this time, not going for a full elimination. The only ones that were focused on wiping each other out were the Great Enemy forces, and they had just lost their Commanders in a duel with Max.
Standing out on the battlefield, Max could sense both Nico's idea and the Myceloid God's amusement at her idea. Distracting his champions with the best possible fight while the rest of the force took out the trash was a brilliant idea in its opinion.
Normally, it would be ordering them to fight to win, but this time the Great Enemy had proven to be a dud, and they were already basically worthless, so the winner would have to be determined by the challenges.
At best, it would be a draw, as Max had already won against the Great Enemy, but if the human force lost to the Myceloids, that would be one win each for the round, and he could start it over with a draw.
The thought was so intense that Max managed to pick it out, even with the vast distance between them.
[You know, Commanders should be on the actual battlefield at some point. There are countless battles going on without us right now.] Max tried to reason with the God.
[But only one that matters.] The Myceloid God replied cryptically.
What did it mean, only one battle mattered? Because this one was entertaining? Or because the outcome of the others was already determined and Max simply didn't know it yet because he couldn't get any clear sensor signals?
The answer was strangely confusing, though. It didn't feel like he was being deliberately kept away from the main battle to cripple the humans. That would have to be enough for him until they could determine a clear winner in this conflict of Champions.
Max considered warning Nico about the enemy's intentions, but she was already looking for the best suited team for her mission, while the dynamic duo of AI vessels were coming up with the main battle plan.
The only unknown factor was the collection of random gamers that were flying about everywhere on the planet, looking for their favourite targets.
In a way, they were a lot like the Myceloids, but in attack craft. Perhaps in the next round there would be more planes for them to fight against.
