Zen and the Art of Running away.. {spoilers guaranteed}

shdwdrgn · Post by **shdwdrgn** » Fri, 23. Jan 09, 15:40

Gaharay wrote:blerh, cliffhangers!

great story yet again Squiddy McSlug!

keep it up!

got my fingers crossed this will turn out as long as ur previous story

If it turned out even longer that would be ok also

I look forward to today's update though.

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Fri, 23. Jan 09, 21:35

08 - Gamble

The Galleon has a full compliment of Blastclaws and Elites. The Cerberus is backed up by a mix of Novas and Eclipses with a handful of Gladiator bombers. I'm fully expecting all-out war to explode across the sector any moment.. but it doesn't. In somewhat of an anti-climax and for reasons know only to those involved the Galleon captain cuts his engines and comes to a halt and the Cerberus captain takes a detour around a large asteroid maintaining a safe distance between the two respective fleets. Not what I was expecting and I'm a touch disappointed as thoughts of potential salvage evaporate as quickly as the threat of war. I blame cowardice on the part of the Argon captain myself, you wouldn't see a Split captain avoid a fight like that.

Scooping up the last few missiles of interest in the area then I decide it's time to head to Brennans Triumph. My cargo space is getting critical and I need to offload these Spaceflies and Sunflowers both for the cash and to free up the space. Passage thru Dannas Chance is uneventful although there's a second Galleon lurking by the east gate. Seems the pirates have a significant amount of firepower in the region..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/08-1.gif

.. Not a problem for me so long as they stay friendly of course.

Selling what I can in Brenanns Triumph nets me just under what I need for a freight-scanner, which is a touch irritating, but there's nothing I can do about it. There are a couple missions available, one guy would like 242 units of Space-Weed, so that's going to be one hell of a party. There's a taxi mission to Atreus clouds pirate base but the client apparently feels he's too good for cattle class and wants a TP transport, so that's out. There's also another kill mission..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/08-2.jpg

.. That's a lot of cash to be offering and that would solve a lot of my problems. It also might cause me a lot of problems getting it, both with the rather tight time limit and my assumption that anyone having that much cash offered for their head is not someone to tangle with lightly. On the other hand my time spent trailing the Galleon in Nopileos did net me quite a few nice missiles, one of which was a Hammerhead. Were I not able to surgically strike out the target with anything else that does leave me the option of simply blowing up everything in the the entire area and get him that way. Suitable application of high explosive does after all cure most problems.

Electing to take a gamble I agree to take the mission and am informed my target is a Falcon Vanguard currently in Bala gi's Joy. That's only a couple sectors away so it's not looking too bad so far. Getting under way I accelerate towards the north gate and thru into Olmancketslats Treaty. Olmancketslats seems a fairly quiet sector, in fact I encounter a grand total of two ships as I'm passing thru, a Teladi trader and an M7 pirate Carrack. Yes, the pirates are very active in this region, that's three capital ships I've come across now. Unfortunately Olmancketslats is also a large sector and it takes me nearly all my allotted time just making the crossing. Passing thru the north gate into Bala Gi's I've got a fraction over a minute to locate my target and execute.

As it happens it turns out he's over near the west gate and with now less than a minute to make the kill there's no way I'm going to be able to cover that distance. I'm also severely doubting that I can make the shot with a missile. I have a fair selection and while I'm sure I could hit him from here the only missiles I have with the pace don't have the penetration for a kill. It's unlikely to do my reputation within the pirates any good but regrettably I'm just going to have to accept the loss.

With the mission failed I decide since I'm nearby I might as well go and visit that pirate base in Atreus. Approaching the west gate I suddenly start taking IRE fire and instantly swing around looking for the culprit. It seems there was a couple of pirate Discoverers lurking in the sector someplace and they've closed in fast. With my combat computer now up and running properly it's a simple task to track them and two rapid bursts of PBE fire reduces them to shrapnel. Unfortunately even light IRE fire is enough to get thru a single 5Mj shield and so although I've taken a mere 2% hull damage it's enough to have hit some critical systems and my vid-gogs are now offline.

Unfortunate, but on the other hand it's not all bad news. The debris from the two Discoverers yields a Firelance missile and a single crate of spaceflies, which should net me the last couple thousand I need from the Atreus pirate base to get myself a freight-scanner..

Assets
1x Medusa Prototype 'Burn Notice'
1x 5Mj shield
6x PBE, 2x PAC

Credits: 24,132

berth · Post by **berth** » Fri, 23. Jan 09, 23:44

Shame about the vidgogs but you're still breathing.

The Anarchy Port in Hatikvah's didn't last very long in my game: I think the three eyes killed it. Maybe it'll be different for you.

gamer993 · Post by **gamer993** » Fri, 23. Jan 09, 23:54

wow nice story Nuke! Glad to see you started up again! just had to saw this new story and good work so far!

Alec_trev · Post by **Alec_trev** » Sat, 24. Jan 09, 01:59

3. All ships/equipment/weapons/resources will need to be 'acquired'.

which should net me the last couple thousand I need from the Atreus pirate base to get myself a freight-scanner..

Doesn't the freight scanner come under equipment, or is it alright to buy under your rules as it is from pirates?

JoeVN09 · Post by **JoeVN09** » Sat, 24. Jan 09, 06:53

Speaking of equipment, how do you plan on getting those shields upgraded? Can't be much fun flying about the Pirate sectors when a coupla discoverers can strip 'em to nothing before you can fight back...

Necrosexual · Post by **Necrosexual** » Sat, 24. Jan 09, 10:53

The Anarchy Port in Hatikvah's didn't last very long in my game: I think the three eyes killed it. Maybe it'll be different for you.

Those Anarchy ports respawn next to the place they died its a strange never ending cycle. (dead port)a few km away(dead port)a few km away(dead port)a few km away (living port).

amtie · Post by **amtie** » Sat, 24. Jan 09, 12:20

Necrosexual wrote:(dead port)a few km away(dead port)a few km away(dead port)a few km away (living port).

A trail o' crumbs.

TBV · Post by **TBV** » Sat, 24. Jan 09, 13:18

Glad to see you're still alive and kicking.

I'm doing alright on my Unholy Traitor start as well. I must say, I'm very impressed with the Medusa-P. The more time I spend in it, the more I like it.
In fact I've no desire to replace it even though I can now afford to.
I also notice it can fire Hornets, a rare asset indeed for a fighter-class ship.

How about you? Do you like it, or are you going to change it for something else when you get the chance?

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Sun, 25. Jan 09, 00:47

Alec_trev wrote:Doesn't the freight scanner come under equipment, or is it alright to buy under your rules as it is from pirates?

Trade with pirate stations and pirate related/Yaki only.

JoeVN09 wrote:Speaking of equipment, how do you plan on getting those shields upgraded? Can't be much fun flying about the Pirate sectors when a coupla discoverers can strip 'em to nothing before you can fight back...

Five finger discount.

TBV wrote:I also notice it can fire Hornets, a rare asset indeed for a fighter-class ship.

How about you? Do you like it, or are you going to change it for something else when you get the chance?

Not just Hornets, Firestorms and Typhoons as well. I'll upgrade when I can grab something bigger but for now an M3 with the missile capacity of an M6 is quite nice.

09 - Elenas Misfortune

A clear run thru to Atreus pirate base and sale of the spaceflies does indeed net me just enough for a freight-scanner. With that installed and the damage to my ship repaired I'm back in business and in a good position to be able to acquire the shielding I need. I'm a little uncomfortable being outside of pirate space given what happened to the Company Pride pirate base, a fact I kept quiet when I was at the Atreus base, so decide to head back to Brennans triumph and then stakeout the trade lanes there, surreptitiously scanning the passing traders until I come across something of interest.

Skipping across Elenas Fortune on the way back to Brennans Triumph it rapidly becomes apparent there's a bit of a scuffle going on over towards the west gate but with only a duplex scanner and no vid-gogs I'm not really able to see what's going on properly. From the amount of flak and PBG fire I can see going off it looks like a fair amount of ships involved tho. Destroyed ships means salvage so a quick detour is on the cards. Approaching the centre of the sector I 'm just in time to witness the last Paranid Military Perseus go down to a hail of CIG fire. Its impossible to say who started the fight but it's pretty clear the Argon finished it and there is indeed a good amount of hardware left in the aftermath..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/09-1.jpg

.. Nice, even a Firestorm, that might come in handy one day in the future. While the Titan group disappears back into Argon territory I collect up everything of interest and then it's back to business and I resume course back to Brennans only to discover there's more fighting going on than I first thought. South gate is the scene of a skirmish between two M7Ms, an Argon Minotaur and a Paranid Ares. The Ares seems to have lost its escort group while the Minotaur still has some fighters so the Ares is slowly losing ground. I pull up short of the gate and wait for the inevitable death of the Ares and with a bit of luck a few Hammers/Flails left behind. The Paranid it turns out have other ideas and have sent reinforcements..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/09-2.gif

.. A LOT of reinforcements..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/09-3.gif

.. which kicks off good and proper..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/09-4.jpg

.. The Minotaur goes down pretty quickly and the Heavy Centaur group that attempts to intervene doesn't really fair much better. Every other Argon heavy miltary unit seems to have taken this moment to be conveniently elsewhere and I'm fully expecting the Paranid to capitalise on this and wreak havoc across the sector, but they change their minds and slowly start to make their way back thru the gate into Split Fire. Not having much more room for salvage I pick up a few choice tidbits and then, not wanting to go thru the gate to find the entire Paranid fleet just the other side, decide discretion is the order of the day and take the long route back to Brennans via Bala Gi/Olmancketslats.

Safely back in Brennans Triumph I can see a whole lot of Paranid military units making their way towards Dannas Chance and eastwards so I park up behind a convenient asteroid. I should be pretty safe here as hugging the asteroid makes it very difficult for anything to creep up on me and even if they do severely limits their angle of attack. It's stakeout time. It may take a while but I'm confident sooner or later one of the Hi-tech traders crossing the sector will have what I need.

Assets
1x Medusa Prototype 'Burn Notice'
1x 5Mj shield
6x PBE, 2x PAC

Credits: 268

kurush · Post by **kurush** » Sun, 25. Jan 09, 01:20

Getting those shields upgraded is going to be tricky. I don't remember anything dropping shields. Your best chance would be one of the freighters bailing with one of the shields still intact. Free ships are off-limits, right? Best of luck getting out of this...

Ormac · Post by **Ormac** » Sun, 25. Jan 09, 03:25

I wonder if the pirates could use Microchips and Quantum Tubes.

If not what could MakG'Yvr make out of them that would be extremely useful

Legionnaire · Post by **Legionnaire** » Sun, 25. Jan 09, 07:07

Microchips and Quantum tubes, surely they are the base requirements for knocking up a 25Mw shield

Legionnaire

Creston · Post by **Creston** » Sun, 25. Jan 09, 08:41

kurush wrote:Getting those shields upgraded is going to be tricky. I don't remember anything dropping shields. Your best chance would be one of the freighters bailing with one of the shields still intact. Free ships are off-limits, right? Best of luck getting out of this...

Weapons Dealers, High Tech Traders and (occasionally) Military Supply Transports will carry shields from time to time, and will drop them if you threaten them long enough. Ofcourse, a 25MJ shield is a rare shield and thus not carried very often. You'll find 1GJ shields far more often than 25MJ.

Creston

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Sun, 25. Jan 09, 20:27

10 - Easy come..

It's quite peaceful just floating there watching the traffic go by. I'm keeping half an eye on the Paranid Military traffic that's passing thru the sector and there does seem to be quite a lot of it, I'm hoping they're not looking for me. I wonder how the Atreus pirate base is doing? I'm also keeping half an eye on a small pirate group that's wandered in from the south as my IFF says half of them are unfriendly. They're not doing anything overtly hostile, not to me anyway, but that doesn't mean they won't.

Freighter scans are picking up a good amount of hardware, but nothing of any particular interest to me at present since the Medusa seems fairly limited in what weapons it can mount. Which begs the question, what exactly is so 'prototype' about this ship? Comparing it to a standard Medusa, aside from a tiny increase in speed, armour and weapon generator it's broadly speaking identical. I wouldn't have said the couple percent difference was that significant myself but I guess I'm not a Paranid research engineer so what would I know? Anyways, perseverance has paid off and it seems something has wandered into my range that does hold some interest..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/10-1.gif

.. That's a goodly supply and the Wasp being a most versatile missile I'ld quite like to get my hands on those. It's a pity that I don't have the cargo capacity to store the lot but even a third of that still represents quite a lot of missiles. The six fighter drones aren't too much of a problem either and I should be able to handle them without taking too much damage. Slipping out from my asteroid i drop in behind the freightr and close in for the kill.

As it happens I was right about the drones, they were a little slow to react when dropped and I'ld destroyed three of them before they really got going. The freighter however proved to be a little more of a problem as that PRG it was mounting has quite a high shot rate, moreso than the PAC, and is a little trickier to dodge. I got my Wasps and destroyed the freighter but incurred 3% damage in the process and a degree of displeasure from the Argon government. Not a huge amount and a quick fix but every hull hit represents potential damage to systems I have little ability to replace at the moment. Luckily, this time, nothing got broken.

Settling back down by my asteroid I got back to scanning freighters. After a while I got a hit scanning an Argon TM, 1x 200Mj and 2x 25Mj shields. Checking the ships info it was apparently only registering 200Mj of shielding tho which means the 25's are cargo and potentially stealable. That's good but represents a problem as TM class are significantly better armed than normal freighters and tend to have escorts, as was the case with this one, which had a couple M4 and an M5 docked. Obviously I was going to have to deal with the defenders first so dropping in behind the TM at a safe 6km distance I got ready to expend some of my valuable missiles. I'ld just locked up the first M4 and was about to launch a Dragonfly when I realised that there was a pirate wing heading up fast from the opposite direction and they'ld just opened fire. Not fancying the TM's chances I tried to close the gap but with the TM's low shielding and the amount of HEPT fire aiming it's way it was dust before I could get in firing range. Unfortunate.

Not to worry tho, there will be other oportunities. Heading back to my stakeout point I'm just about to settle down when a Deimos shows up at the west gate and stars heading my direction. Not entirely sure if he was after me or just passing by I decided best not to find out and moved down to Nopileos to see what I could find there. In Nopileos the Galleon had apparently finished its shift and moved on and in it's place was a Carrack busy shooting the place up in much the same way. I'm all in favour of this kind of thing as I tend to benefit from it so I spend a little while trailing behind it while it does it's thing, scanning the odd trader to see what they've got. It's as I'm doing that I come across exactly what I need coming up behind me..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/10-2.gif

.. Finally, Jackpot! Not only is that sufficient to fully kit out my Medusa and get me into full fighting condition but it even means a couple spares I can use on a captured ship.

Assets
1x Medusa Prototype 'Burn Notice'
1x 5Mj shield
6x PBE, 2x PAC

Credits: 268

JoeVN09 · Post by **JoeVN09** » Sun, 25. Jan 09, 20:37

NINE 25MJ shields?

Just how long were you hovering there before that showed up?! I've never seen so much as one extra, at least that wasn't destroyed by the time I started getting cargo containers shoved in my face.
Ah well, take what ya get. Five finger discount. indeed...

Creston · Post by **Creston** » Sun, 25. Jan 09, 20:40

Good stuff Squiddy. I finally managed to get going on this start myself (after 7 more deaths...) , though the game put me all the way over on the other end of the universe. I got really lucky when a trader dropped 180 dragonflies. I have no money problems, but the east side of the universe hardly has anything for sale.

Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet and try to navigate either Xenon 347 or several Split sectors to get over to the good side.

Unholy Traitor Start - 14
Creston - 1

Creston

Al · Post by Al » Mon, 26. Jan 09, 11:40

Looking good. I've never attacked a race freighter for its cargo yet in TC but have benefited from the pirates doing so. most recent pick ups of note were 6x 200MJ shields along with 3x25MJ ones

Perfect fit on my newly captured cobra too

Andaius · Post by **Andaius** » Mon, 26. Jan 09, 13:29

nicely done! Hope you recovered some kit!

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Mon, 26. Jan 09, 19:28

11 - Easy go..

Slotting in behind the Perseus I accelerate to put myself into firing range, open up with a short burst of 6x PBE fire and flay the shields off his ship in a split-second. Fairly certain that will adequately make my intentions clear to the pilot I bring up comms to order him to surrender his freight and then watch the debris from his ship slowly spiralling off into space as it explodes in a wall of flak..

Well that's... distressing...

Apparently we'ld drifted within the firing range of the Carrack and while I appreciate them trying to help out I had it covered. Oh well, easy come, easy go. It seems I'll have to look elsewhere but I'll be sure and check I have no overly helpful friends in the vicinity in future.

Deciding it best to put some distance between the Carrack and myself I start to make my way back across Dannas scanning freighters on the way. Nothing of any use to me unfortunately unless I figure out how to fit a 1gj shield to my Medusa. It's a nice idea but I suspect it would represent something of a technical problem and really I'ld be quite happy to settle for just a couple 25's at the moment. Even one would be nice. Entering Brennans Triumph there's no sign of that Deimos so it looks like they've wandered off somewhere else. There is however a small group of Blastclaws in the sector now and they're flagging up as enemy. Not wanting to tangle with anything like that I start making my way to my asteroid but it quicky becomes apparent they're taking an interest so I feel the urge to be elsewhere and head back down into Dannas where I find a couple Pirate Novas attacking a freighter group. They're flagging red to me too..

I'm starting to notice a worrying trend here. Now there's always been the odd pirate with grudge floating around but I've just made a point of steering well clear and had no trouble to date. Just lately tho there's been a lot more of them and I suspect failing that kill mission has had an adverse effect on my pirate rep. Obviously unfriendly pirates are a problem in themselves but if I get involved in a fight with any I'll likely be forced to kill them which is just going to make things worse. For now tho I'll just have to keep alert. Meantime tho my other problems haven't gone away so I get back to scanning transports.

Picking up an M3 Split Freight transporter exiting the north gate I find he's got a Hammerhead onboard. Nothing else of any interest to me but it's one of those facts of life that you can never have too much high explosive so I make a move on him anyway. It turns out he's the twitchy type tho and he promptly bails on me. well that's nice but I would have preferred it if I'ld had the opportunity to get him to part with his Hammerhead first. Not to worry tho, a quick grab with the cargo scoop and he's safely in my hold, the first of hopefully many 'recruits' to the cause. I have plans you see..

Being denied my Hammerhead it turns out is not such a tragedy after all as subsequent inspection of the ship reveals..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/11-1.gif

.. That's handy. A docking computer is always useful, it could even prove life-saving and it certainly can't hurt to have a spare Duplex and SETA as the loss of either of those would make life most uncomfortable.

Assets
1x Medusa Prototype 'Burn Notice'
1x 5Mj shield
6x PBE, 2x PAC

1x Mamba

Credits: 268

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Zen and the Art of Running away.. {spoilers guaranteed}