Breaking Blades
Copyright© 2026 by FozzieBare
Chapter 7: Kiss Kiss. See you Soon
It wasn’t a complete reversal of the morale situation, but there was plenty of evidence that the events of the previous night had a large effect on both guilds.
The Blades, while not exactly back to their boisterous pre-Crusade selves, began to think they were going to get SOMETHING out of this. Maybe not a full victory. But who knew? Maybe they wouldn’t have to pull an all-nighter again. That was a victory all on its own. They had lamented that they hadn’t completely destroyed the raiding force, but there was no doubt who had won the battle the previous night.
Meanwhile, Amy ran the numbers again, and again, and then a third time because she kept hating the results.
She complained to Adrian the next day. “We’re in big trouble, Adrian. We can probably repair most of the damage to our existing units, but we were dangerously low on supplies even before last night. Fixing the units will take up just about all our on-hand materials. That means our destroyed units won’t be fieldable until we either get off-planet somehow or manage to reverse the situation again.”
Adrian nodded. He had looked over the situation and made notes.
Reforged still had a couple hidden bases and nodes supplying them, but they were low-quality, low-output nodes. The trickle of materials they supplied would barely cover maintenance needs even before military action. Bringing even one destroyed WarMAC back online would take at least three days. To completely bring the force back online? More like three months. Adrian’s Phase One force had plenty of everything they needed, but until they formally landed and deposited the materials into a guild bank for use in repairs, none of it was available to the guild. The same went for the massive credit haul they had received for selling the planets and any gear they weren’t bringing home with them.
Amy’s face fell. “Damnit, I thought you were the champion-type, Adrian. Always with the plan. There has to be something we can do.”
Adrian shook his head. “Until the supply ships formally deposit the gear and credits into guild accounts, we can’t pay for the repairs. Then we have to establish a supply line to the bases to actually get those materials where we can use them. It’s not good. Realistic, and probably the best thing for the game, but not good from our perspective. There is something we can do, though.”
Amy looked up.
“We can destroy the forces on-world. Re-establish the lines. Maybe even pay for a rush repair job.”
Amy’s face dropped again. “You make it sound simple.”
Adrian shrugged. “It is simple. But in war, even in Universe at War, simple things aren’t the same as easy things. I think Elias has a plan. He even posted about it on the forums.”
Amy refused to believe it. “He what? Are we sure Elias hasn’t been replaced by a pod person?”
Adrian opened a link on his phone and handed it to Amy. “Read for yourself.”
Amy read Elias’s post with mounting horror.
Hello Blades!
Congratulations on your recent win. I won’t say it was pleasant to finally lose one, but eh. We have plenty of material to make up for it, eventually. You guys were really generous. It’s appreciated.
But I think the time for Gorilla Warfare, monkey business and making you slip on banana peels is over. I’ve talked with my team about what we should do with you now that you’ve finally adjusted to our tactics.
And the answer, surprisingly, didn’t come out to “Do more of the same.”
It was more like, “God, get them off our planets already, Boss!”
Well, I understand. It hasn’t been easy for our crew to do that overnight thing again and again. We really thought you couldn’t pull it off. Learn something new every day.
So, we’re going to make sure that everyone can enjoy a day out with lots of explosions, fun, and hopefully the purging of all remaining Blades forces on Terens VI. Mostly, it’s a test run for the other two planets. Work all the kinks out of the plan, so to speak.
At the bottom of this post are some coordinates for one of our former bases that you so unhelpfully requisitioned during your “Crusade.”
We’ll be by at 14:00 tomorrow server time to take it back.
Stop us if you can.
I’m pretty sure you can’t.
One way to find out.
Kiss Kiss. Much Love. See you soon.
Signed, Elias Voss, ReforgedNumbersGuy, Guild Leader, Reforged.
Amy handed back the phone and thought for five seconds. “He’s insane. This is not Elias at all. He didn’t write this.”
Adrian shook his head. “Nope. He wrote it. I was there when he did. Even went over some wording with him.”
Amy felt punch-drunk. “Excuse me, Adrian. I need to tell our boss what I think of this. Probably loudly and at great length.”
She turned on her heel and marched away, ignoring Adrian’s “Wait, Amy...”
Adrian watched her walk into Elias’s office and very carefully almost, but not quite, slam the door.
Adrian sighed. “I really should have told her more details before I showed her the post. I’ll give Elias a couple minutes to calm her down before I step in.”
A pause.
“Safer that way. MUCH safer.”
Elias looked up as Amy stalked in.
“Oh, good, Amy. I was looking forward to talking to you about something.”
“Really? Elias?”
“Uh ... yes? Why?”
“Elias, I try very hard not to swear at guild members. I try even harder not to swear at friends who happen to run a guild I’m a pretty big part of.”
She took a breath.
“So understand that this isn’t easy for me to say.”
A beat, as she marshalled the words.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?”
Elias blinked.
“Have you decided to join Darren in doubling down on stupid? I’m maybe at sixty percent strength. Morale is in the shitter, temporarily, but still in the shitter. And you just told the Blades we’re going to come in force and take one of their bases.”
She leaned forward.
“What happens when we don’t?”
Elias actually leaned back and smiled.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure that if it all works out, there’s a very good chance we take the base. I meant what I said in my post. The goal is to eliminate the Blades’ presence on Terens VI. The base is just to get them there to be destroyed.”
Amy recoiled as if Elias had just confirmed that he really was that fucking crazy.
“You are not making sense, Elias. How?”
“Amy, let me start by saying this. Do you really think I could reasonably expect your sixty-percent-strength unit to fight all the Blades on Terens VI, plus anyone they might pull from other worlds?”
The reply came like it required pliers to pull it out of Amy’s mouth.
“No.”
Elias turned his monitor toward Amy.
It showed a map of Universe at War, centered on Reforged space. Three worlds, the ones the Blades had targeted. He pointed at the red dot marked Terens VI.
Or, more accurately, at the large blue blip almost on top of it.
Amy’s mind blanked for a moment.
Elias nodded. “Yes, that’s what you think it is.”
Amy looked at Elias, the words carrying a bit of wonder now. “Phase One is about to return. A whole battalion. Fresh. Filled with loot and ready to go to war.”
Elias nodded. “Yup.”
Amy’s brow furrowed. “They have to think about it. Won’t they guess it? They’re not stupid, Elias. They figured out the Gorilla Warfare tactic.”
Elias grinned. “I got that covered. I slipped a company of WarMACs from our ‘Base with a View’ to Collinsworld, along with enough materials to start building a base there. It was a calculated risk. If they had decided to continue on, that planet would have been exposed. Luckily, you kept them so focused on the worlds they’re already on that it slipped through.”
Amy thought about it, then gave a bark of laughter. “They think the force on Collinsworld is Phase One, disgorging all their loot before moving on. Building a new base to hold the storage for now.”
Elias smiled. “Pretty smart strategic analysis. Are you sure you’re not bucking for my job?”
Amy shook her head. “Never!”
Elias laughed. “You’d be surprised.”
Amy thought about it some more. “Are we sure they know about it?”
Elias nodded. “Yes. I have it from two sources that they have a scout ship doing constant orbital scans of Collinsworld. Seems they’re a bit anxious that the forces there might take off and ruin their day.”
Amy thought it over. “So they think we’re trying to break their forces on Terens VI so they can’t finally consolidate control. After they ‘break us,’ they leave a good enough force on Terens VI to repeat our Gorilla Warfare tactic against us, then move on to other targets.”
Elias threw his hands in the air. “My God, she’s a strategic genius.”
Amy pointed at him. “You keep that up, and I will find a bar of soap in this place and wash your mouth out with it.”
A pause.
“Either that or ask for a raise.”
Adrian chose that moment to poke his head in.
“Have we defused the Amy-bomb yet?”
Elias laughed.
Amy didn’t.
“You’re both bastards. Elias is a magnificent bastard, but you, Adrian?”
She pointed at him.
“Just a plain ol’ nasty bastard.”
Everyone laughed at that.
Adrian protested. “How did I get ranked below Elias on the bastard scale?”
Amy raised a fist in mock threat. “You should be glad I’m ranking you at all, rather than strangling you with my bare hands.”
Adrian considered the situation.
“I’d really rather you didn’t. It’s still warm enough out that wearing high-collared shirts to hide the strangle marks would raise uncomfortable questions.”
“You’re enjoying this.”
“Getting the Blades to finally cut this bullshit Crusade business? Yes.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“It’s what I’m answering.”
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