Shoo t'Rgt: Honour and Reason [DiD]

[Master of the Blade]

Chapter 41: Progress was Made

A lot has happened. The newest versions of all the military ships have been put into production, flaws have been ironed out in existing designs, and I've been ecstatic. One of the most prominent changes is the introduction of a 'bounty' system with the Terrans and commonwealth. A price is automatically allocated to any ship which shows aggression towards a race's assets, which can be collected by bounty hunters with a police license for that race. It's essentially an extension of the already existing police license rewards, but far more lucrative and actually a valid way of making money. This is very, very good. I have made lots and lots of money. Then spent it. Then flattened a Xenon sector and earnt it again. Then spent it. My fleet has grown significantly and I now have some fighter cover. Some of the new M7 carrier ships look smoking hot, and rather useful too. Speaking of which, well, I'll get onto that. Also corporate espionage.

I made the money to buy that kvasir I wanted, along with an ATF snotra class antifighter frigate. The kvasir is dubbed, 'Harbinger Angel' while the snotra is 'Foreboding Angel'. Not the most imaginative names, but they're damn pretty ships. The kvasir I give a loadout of PSPs in its left turret and Fusion Beam Cannons in the right, M/AMLs at the front and SSCs everywhere else. The Snotra gets SSCs everywhere except the front, where I put M/AMLs. The Harbinger Angel turns out to be really freaking powerful, happily chewing up ships many times its size, though it takes ages to do so. To be fair, I reckon the Cyclops could do the same, but it's so much safer for the Kvasir - since its firepower is less focused at the front I can just lead enemies away while the ridiculously powerful Terran weapons slice apart their shields.

With my new source of income, I also purchase some other ships. A terran USC Shard class carrier frigate, admittedly mainly because it looks cool but also because I'm very capital ship heavy already and need somewhere to keep fighters. Along with that is a Teladi Tern class M7 carrier, bought for the far more practical reason that it can carry corvettes and bombers along with fighter wings. It's got 4 peregrines and 2 Vidar sentinels at the moment. Pyren's flying one of the Vidars, since it's pretty much the closest thing in my fleet to a combat ready fighter at the moment.

I get an alert from my early warning satellite in Xi at one point. Turns out it's a cut above the usual fighters that end up in there. The Cyclops's group gets there first and mauls the Karrier without much fuss, but it's the Pteranodon that gets the kill. This bodes well for my sector security.

After that epic spending spree I'm getting on for broke again, so I go indulge in my favourite recreational activity: Xenon bashing, which now nets me vast amounts of money from the races next to those Xenon sectors for removing the threat. Typically the most valuable target is the local command ship, since it leads the main fleet and gets most of the kills. Missile frigates tend to rack up huge bounties as well. That's another thing. The Xenon have decided they want bombers and carrier based bombers. They have them. The actual bomber is based on the P chassis and is equivalent to most other M8s, though it's well shielded at 200MJ. The carrier bomber is just an LX whose guns have been replaced with missile launchers. Not too remarkable. My Pteranodon keeps the missiles at bay with its mosquito antimissile system and those ever-amazing Gauss Cannons.

After regaining my money (by clearing a few Xenon sectors, which takes ages but is definitely worth it) I make a decision. Fighters are really annoying, and I need a way to deal with them. M3s are expensive. M4+es are just right. I like the look of the Boron Pike. I have an empty M7C and the production capability to make whichever missiles I like, especially if I reconfigure that complex in Antigone memorial. Silkworms are devastating against fighters. I'm going to try an experiment. I buy up ten Pikes from the Kingdom End shipyard and outfit them with their 3x25MJ shields. Six of them get only two PACs for guns, the other four get two PACs and two Ion Disruptors. All of them get lots and lots of silkworm missiles with orders to share. There's a Xenon patrol (not a mission, just a patrol of Xenon ships) in Menelaus' Paradise. Perfect for a baptism of fire. I load them into the Shard and jump over.

The results are downright frightening.

The Xenon brought something like 25 M3 and M4 class ships, against my ten M4s. I wasn't expecting much. My Pikes, separated into two wings of five and given the attack all order, launch from the shard and bear down on the Xenon, who are in clusters around the sector. Before I can even get a good lock one of the enemy fighters to take pictures of the action they're all surrounded in the blue exhaust trails of silkworms and reduced to dust. The most damage any of my fighters takes is 50% shield damage when the leader of blue wing gets nailed for a second or two by an LX, which is promptly exploded by a silkworm. HELL YES.

Unfortunately, there is a downside. These guys chew through missiles like anything. I loaded the Shard with 1000 of them, and each Pike got about 85, which I took from that original 1000. When they land to rearm I'm left with about 50. At the rate my complex is making them, it won't keep up with demand. Still, when I crush the Family Rhonkar, I can switch off the other factories in the Antigone complex and have nine Silkworm factories pumping them out.

[Buck_Rogers]

Hell yeah

I love Silkworms. I particularly love spitting them out from my Vulcan. hehehe

Enemy pilot: Sir, a Terracorp Vulcan is approaching our position.

Enemy commander: A Vulcan?! Ha ha ha. Is that the best they can throw at us? Knock it out of the sky!

Enemy pilot: Erm Sir, the Vulcan has launched a large number of missiles in our fleets direction.

*BOOM!!!* *BOOM!!!!* etc etc

Several explodey things later

Enemy pilot: Sir, our fleet has been decimated!

Enemy commander: Oh sh.......

hehehehe

[Master of the Blade]

Sorry I've been AWOL for ages - once again college has eaten the majority of my free time. I'll try get a chapter up soon, but my AS exams are in a couple of weeks, so I'm not really hopeful.

[Nathancros]

Sorry I've been AWOL for ages - once again college has eaten the majority of my free time. I'll try get a chapter up soon, but my AS exams are in a couple of weeks, so I'm not really hopeful.

we got time

[GalenEvil]

I have missed so much since I last checked here. I will have to read everything starting with about halfway through the thread I think.

Did my character die/ get phased out while I have been gone?

[Master of the Blade]

Shit, I knew I was forgetting somebody. I remembered Pyren, but completely forgot about Ogden. Yeah, he's not dead and I didn't mean to sideline him. I've ended up with about seven frigates (no joke) and a few wing of fighters, so everyone's going to have ships again once I have an active fleet built. In the meantime, feel free to flag up one of the ships I already have as something you'd like to fly. That goes for everyone, in fact. You want ship? I have lots of ships. There's a reasonably strong possibility I'll put up a chapter tomorrow, but it's actually been a while since I even touched the X universe, either because I got new games (GalCiv2 a while ago, then Kid Icarus Uprising for 3DS for my birthday which is ridiculously fun with an awesome script) or my being buried under mountains of homework.

[GalenEvil]

oooh I am currently having sweet sweet late-night sessions with GalCiv2. Which version are you playing? If you are playing DreadLords I can probably give you pointers if you need them. Have just started playing Twilight of the Arnor though. PM me if you have any questions about the game

As to what ship I want to fly, still have to look through and read from about pg 14 But until my Ogden proves himself through combat in the storyline I would rather stick with a fighter. At least until he has like 10-15 honest kills under his belt. If he happens to have an issue with piloting and crashes into something then we might just say that he was not on duty at the time? >.>

Once getting up there in fighter kills it would be cool to get ahold of a frigate classed ship, as it would be a nice step up from a fighter while still retaining some manual fighter killing awesomeness

[Master of the Blade]

Which version are you playing?

It's the collector's pack thing. Got it off steam for about a tenner - it's got all the versions in it. Makes the DL campaign pretty much impossible, but it doesn't strike me as the sort of game you play for the story. More the death stars. Actually, I think I've spent more time in the ship builder than anything else. Like Spore, but with SPINNING.

Now, bear in mind I haven't played my save for weeks, but am writing this chapter anyway. Details may be inaccurate...



Because I could/can/will

Well, it certainly has been a while.

I've seen some more of the universe - more new ships like the Paranid, Teladi and Boron M7Cs. Which is actually a very bad thing. I want all of them except the Teladi one. That makes three frigate class ships I want to purchase, since the Boron have two and they're both awesome. Not good, though the bounty system really is making me obscene amounts of money. However, I've been saving for something much bigger - though also Boron made.

A Megalodon. Yes I already have an M2+. Yes it is a perfectly good M2+. No there's not much point me getting another one. Yes, I have already bought it. Well, one of those statements was wrong. It does have a use, one I envisaged a long time ago with that little frigate named Trollmeister. While the Sturgeon was very useful, it can only target one ship at a time and has rather pitiful energy reserves, and is quite vulnerable. The Megalodon on the other hand is about twice as big as my Pteranodon (which is no less than colossal in its own right) has 12GJ shielding and goes at a rather nippy 52m/s. And has, with the loadout I've chosen, twenty eight Ion Cannons across three turrets, plus ten PPCs. The reason for buying this is that, while good, the Pteranodon has a bit of trouble with shields compared to other battleships - the GC is significantly less efficient than other guns in the first place, but it also much weaker against energy barriers. That's where the Megalodon comes in - it brings down enemy battleships' shields while the GCs on the Pteranodon blow holes in the hull, against which they are rather more competitive.

Since they're intended to be symbiotic, the two super destroyers get the names, 'Statler' and 'Waldorf' for the Pteranodon and Megalodon respectively. Appropriate, considering the mighty trolling they should dish out.

In all the excitement I've been rushing to rebuild and make myself a big name again, but I've forgotten my fighter pilots! Pyren and Ogden, after we got out of that rather cramped Asp and into a respectable mothership, have been twiddling their thumbs in one of the bars onboard the Pteranodon, waiting for a call to service. I have plans, though.

The Megalodon has an eight fighter docking bay. It could do with some fighter cover, so I get it a wing of Skates - 150MJ, superfast monsters of ships with sizable cargo bays to fill the role. Ogden can lead that honour guard, as he seems to want to stay in a fighter until he can prove his worth. I approve greatly.

Now, Pyren hasn't said much about where he wants to go. So he's going back into some ATF hardware after he was so great in the Verdandi Sentinel. However, he's gone up a class - more out of necessity than anything else. I may have mentioned that I have a Teladi Tern class carrier frigate. It's got a bomber wing of 4 Peregrines, which I intend to use as fire support. However, it actually has a total of six 'capital' docks, the remaining two of which I fill with freshly bought Vidar Sentinels. They have a similar turret setup to the Centaur Sentinels I have on the Pteranodon, but they unfortunately have no weapons which can bypass shields. Instead, I want them to be corvette hunters, using their 1.2GJ shielding and mean turret coverage to outgun other M6es and keep my fighters - and bombers - safe. Pyren leads this pair, in the new Field of Vision - an appropriate name this time, considering the ship's large killzone.

After all that admin, I decide it's time to test the MegaNodon combo in combat. Where better to do that than X472? I use the Statler (Pteranodon) to clear a way in and eat all the missile frigates' ammo, then call in the Waldorf to help with the battleships. The Skates aren't ready yet and wouldn't last long in a Xenon sector anyway so they're absent. The combination works as well as I expected... When it works, that is. It seems the Megalodon's sheer size confuses the stock nav computer so it spends more time wallowing around near enemy battleships than actually shooting them. Fortunately the combined damage output of two superbattleships is enough to kill most enemies before any harm can be done, but it does look very silly. We sweep away the bog standard Js, Ks and Cs, but the local Z turns out to be rather uncooperative.

It works pretty well to start with. The Megalodon zooms in and blasts away with ICs while I catch up with the Pteranodon. Unfortunately, the Z has an absurdly powerful laser generator, which means the usual effect of the ICs - draining the enemy's weapon reserves - is nullified. Then the Waldorf starts taking heavy damage and I jump it out before it loses shields. I do like the fact that it has ICs in its rear turret, by the way. Extremely useful deterrent for use against sneaky frigates. But anyway, the Z can't stand up to a healthy M2+ turning up to finish it off and duly explodes. A success, I suppose, but mildy disappointing for a ~180Mcr total investment...

I park the battleships in Xi and hop back into the Harbinger Angel to start puttering around the universe so I can save it from villainous types once again. And perhaps to start supervising the construction of another complex, deep in undiscovered space.

[Buck_Rogers]

YAY! MoTB is back! lol Nice chapter matey.

[Master of the Blade]

Just had an epic session, in which I made retarded amounts of money by rampaging in X347 and the Pteranodon took out a Z while under AI control (I was running support in the Cyclops). I now own a Paranid Artemis, Boron Coelocanth and Boron Hammerhead, all M7Cs.

I also found a... rather shady corporate shipyard, at which I got a FRIKKING AWESOME NEW SHIP! And an idea for a side story involving the #EFAA.

I have two maths exams in the morning and need to sleep, so I won't post a chapter today. In fact, this entire week is exams but I'll try and find time to get one up.

[Triaxx2]

Did this one move from TC to AP? If so I'll want to make sure I note that in the DID list.

[Master of the Blade]

Yeah, it's AP now.

[Master of the Blade]

Chapter 43: #DECA

I'm a very impatient entrepeneur. I did indeed go to spend my money on a new complex, and it's about four fifths done. Then I got bored. When I'm bored I kill Xenon and when I kill Xenon I make lots of money from bounty payments. When I have lots of money, I cannot help but spend it. Therefore, meet three of many new members in the fleet:

[ external image ]
The Paranid Artemis M7C, boasting a tiny profile, 25 fighter hangar bay and devastating Electromagnetic Disruptor Arrays, which rip fighters to pieces. I've already tried it and it more than holds its own against Xenon fighter swarms.

[ external image ]
The Boron Hammerhead, another M7C. This one has only an 18 fighter bay, but it's fast, agile and has dual Ion Cannon mounts on either side. While not as capable alone as the Artemis, it's a great fleet support ship for straight up shield damage and the weapon's inherent ability to screw up onboard systems of enemy ships.

And finally - and my favourite -

[ external image ]
A rather poor picture of the Boron Coelacanth M7C while I take it out for a spin, similarly equipped to the Hammerhead it has more flak mounts and a larger hangar, with only a small speed penalty. Again great at supporting other battleships and its own figher wings, it has the added bonus of looking extremely cool.



Now, I didn't buy these all at once. I actually made sure I never dropped below 100Mcr after each purchase, and honoured that - I still had about 120Mcr left after the last transactions were made. This leaves me with a lot of leeway. Quite a bit of that leeway came from one xenon invasion which, in case the picture is too small, paid 13Mcr, not counting extra bounty money.


I decide to go out in Titan's Gaze, the Cyclops, which hasn't had much love since I got it (though it's been doing a sterling job protecting my sector - remember that Kha'ak carrier that got in somehow? The Cyclops killed most of that). Of course, that means an attack on X347, which I haven't visited in a while actually. Oh, wow. The bounty on that command ship is ridiculous. Combined between all the races' wanted posters, I'll get about ten million for popping this thing. I'll clear out the escorts, then bring in a bigger gun.

Unfortunately the Cyclops isn't a great ship on its own when outnumbered, unlike the Kvasir - where the kvasir could make evasive manoeuvers and shoot at enemies with its port and starboard heavy turrets, the Cyclops's firepower is all to the front. Great for doing way more damage than the Kvasir very quickly, not so great for dodging fire from a superbattleship and its five escort cruisers while firing at them. Still, after a lot of playing reverse sheepdog, annoying one escort so it follows me away then lynching it, I'm down to the Z on its own. My weapon batteries aren't up to the task of punching through its shields so as planned I call in the Statler for some Gauss Cannon action.


As an experiment, I let the autopillock have a go. I babysit, pulling away some of the Z's fire and laying down some of my own hurt, and after maybe ten minutes of good ol' slugfest the Z goes down - my Pteranodon's shields battered but active and my bank account ten million credits fatter. And, onwards.


While in the rather breathtaking and somewhat lawless Saiien sectors, Saiien 2 to be exact since some extremely unfriendly pirates live in Saiien 3, I come across a station which bills itself as the Dark Space Research station. Dark Space is a Terran 'company' which mainly deals in ships and technology. And is more or less a front for a mafia like organisation conducting espionage and less than legal research - and, it would appear - development.


Weapons ready to fire, I open comms to the station. For a while, nothing. Then I get a voice. No video feed whatsoever.

'Honourable Clansman Shoo t'Rgt. You seem to have stumbled on one of our travelling research bases. Congratulations. Before you open fire, understand that we employ point-jump technology onboard this station, so your only reward for attacking us will be our enmity. However, should you feel obliged, I have an offer for you.'

A male Terran voice. Probably unremarkable, if not for the sliminess dripping from the tone. That I can pick that up means they have better comms equipment than most. Whatever this offer is, it probably isn't legal somewhere in the universe, and probably should be rejected. Still, I have some leverage on them, having found this base. I daresay the USC and ATF would like to hear about it.

'You want me to stay quiet. What's your 'offer'?'

'Full access to our research shipyard, and the opportunity to own a Terraformer CPU ship. Yours is one of the most powerful unaffiliated mercenary fleets currently in existence and we need combat test data. But that comes later. Your trading computer can now make transactions to this station. You have about a quarter of an hour before we relocate to purchase what you want. Then, we'll leave you to think on whether you want to try out our DECA in combat. And don't go to the USC. They already know.'

The #DECA? This is so illegal it's not funny. However, breaking the law is a secondary concern to my eventual victory over Rhonkar - and the honour of my conduct. Doing some field tests of an illegal organisation's illegal AGI CPU ship strikes me as shady, but I am doing noone a dishonour. I need more time to think, which clearly the Dark Space representative already knew. The USC being in on this surprises me a little, but after what the Argon did to the torus maybe they're willing to overlook legalities to facilitate revenge. It's almost admirable.

'I am recieving trading data. I think it is a good idea for relations between myself and your company cordial, and will consider conducting your tests. May I ask how you came into posession of the DECA?'

'A wise decision, Shoo t'Rgt. After the reclamation of Aldrin and its terraformer fleet, it was a simple matter to acquire a structural analysis of their CPU ship. It was also a simple matter to obtain a copy of its current generation AI code. We can now replicate several hundred years of Von Neumann evolution in the space of a month. This is the extent of disclosure you will recieve, and it's more than most outside Dark Space will ever know. We await your call.'


The communication goes dead. What have I involved myself with? The research station sells prototype ATF fighters, #DECA drones and one other ship, the ship which made my decision to go along with Dark Space. The Xperimental shuttle.


When Kyle William Brennan entered the universe, the Split families had one of their most fearsome assassins hunt and attempt to capture or destroy his ship, the X-shuttle. That assassin failed. Even by current standards the Xperimental shuttle in its original incarnation is a top of the line fighter ship, but is probably in an Argon Federation lab somewhere being reverse engineered. Still. The Dark Space corporation, however they did it, got the blueprints and updated them. The result is a far cry from the damaged, battered ship which changed everything and is incredibly sleek. And mine, for ten million credits.

[ external image ]



{Oversized images altered to linked thumbnails - Terre}

[Nathancros]

Ooooh your loving the new shiny's arnt you?

[Master of the Blade]

Well, the shinies are there to be loved.

[Nathancros]

Well, the shinies are there to be loved.

ahaha, cant wait for next chapter

[Buck_Rogers]

Nice spending spree there. I'll have to get my backside in gear to gather that amount of credits! lol

[Master of the Blade]

Hoo, it's been a long time. Sorry once again. And, again, much has happened. Including the System Override Software becoming able to hack active ships.

Chapter 44: Behemoth

It takes a while to hunt down the Dark Space station after it jumps away. I find it in the Kha'ak infested Freedom's reach, but it explodes before my eyes, presumably to cover the station's jumpdrive activation. After a lot more hunting it turns up in the most obvious place possible - the 'Dark Space Cluster' in the Sol system, a dark sector littered with the wrecks of Terraformer ships. It's quite a foreboding place. I contact the station and make the transaction for control of #Deca - about 90Mcr, which leaves me just over 100M left. I break my rule of never dropping below that level and purchase 32 Fusion Beam Cannons for it to use. This is more anticapital firepower than anything else in my fleet - the FBC is more powerful than the GCs on my Pteranodon, so this 'carrier' is actually as devastating as a heavy destroyer. This is a ship I could get to like. Shame about the speed, though. That said. I get the feeling this ship is going to be the one I use to battle the #EFAA. The FBC is blue, and the #EFAA can only use dark matter beam cannons, which are red. This is going to look extremely cool. I'm not going to be breaking through the ridiculous numbers of Xenon ships in core 023 any time soon though.

Now I have lots and lots of battleships. May as well take them out for a battle royale, right? I choose X347 as the battleground. I get into the Shard to use as a command ship and give the order for the Statler and its escort frigates to move in first - as my most durable battleship it is best for leading the attack and taking fire. Once it's clear of the gate I bring in the Waldorf with orders to go after the carriers (I order Ogden's wing of Skates to stay in the hangar, as there is still a G floating about), as they can deal a lot of damage but have weak laser generators susceptible to Ion Cannon draining. Finally, in comes the gate-filling #DECA which I tell to go after Statler to provide support. Unfortunately, things don't go quite as planned. The Statler's frigates are taking rather a beating, especially the Trollmeister, from the local cruisers, and help is too far away. First to be ordered to retreat is the Tern which for some reason procrastinates for ages and takes a nasty 40% hull damage before it can jump. Brilliant. Trollmeister gets overwhelmed but escapes intact after doing appreciable damage to a C, and getting caught in the crossfire from that C, the Z, its two C escorts, and a J. The Snotra, Foreboding Angel does really well and chews up a couple of fighter wings before also having to retreat. Before long the Statler is taking far more damage than it can handle and I order it too to jump. It pulls the same damn trick as the Tern and gets nailed for 14% hull damage before it escapes.

With my main source of damage absorbance gone, I hold little hope for the Waldorf and I'm right - it has to escape before doing any noticable damage to the Xenon fleet. The #Deca happily vapourises a couple of Cs which get too far ahead of the main fleet, but I pull it back to Eighteen Billion to avoid damage, and jump there myself. Mildly apprehensive, I board the #DECA to better coordinate the second push. Seems like Dark Space did a pretty decent reconstruction - it certainly has that authentic scary robot ship atmosphere, and I'm not actually sure just how sentient this one is, but its facilities for command and control are astounding. I could test that fleet control capability now to see how it compares to just letting the units do their own thing, but right now we're going to be using just the carrier's mighty weapon arrays to blast a path.

Long story short, everything goes a lot better. The #Deca can lay down incredible amounts of firepower, and judicious use of its jumpdrive keeps the shields reasonably healthy - though that's a weakness in the #Deca, as its shield generators have no hope of keeping up with the damage its capacitors are meant to take, so while it has massive reserves they regenerate extremely slowly. Oh well. Can't have 32 FBCs, 14GJ shielding and a 50 ship hangar for nothing. Eventually there's only the Z left, so I bring in the Waldorf to help and take it out.

With the sector defenders taken out, I feel I should punich the Xenon more for daring to resist. I bet the Rhonkar would laugh at my folly for letting my ships be damaged. Wait, what am I saying? They almost certainly have spies somewhere in my organisation, so, yeah, I can assume they are in fact laughing at me. With that in mind, I feel it's only decent to destroy every station in the sector.

Some time later...


Result: About 30Mcr bounty, about 30Mcr repair bill for the Tern and no way in hell am I paying for the repairs to the Statler. Damn.

[Master of the Blade]

That last chapter kinda sucked, didn't it? I don't think this one will.

Chapter 45: ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL

How the Universe progresses in times of war. A new wave of upgrades has been deployed, from the OTAS corporation releasing a new heavy destroyer, codeveloped with the Split from Operation Final Fury, called the Tempest, the Argon have designed turrets specifically for their own ships - the only races now using mass-produced turrets on their ships are the Boron and Paranid - and the Griffon has been doubled in size to prevent its docking bays from damaging some fighters, and fix reliability problems arising from fitting a capital grade reactor into a corvette hull. And the Pirates have been busy, too. They've developed the System Override Software from a fairly useless claiming addon to a fully functional hacking suite, with the ability to subvert a target's computer systems and take command of the ship, spacing the crew. It goes against my honourable intentions somewhat to have a crew shoved out of an airlock by their own ship, but I don't intend to use it against biological races. Well, maybe the more foolish members of my own race...

Now, I can't do espionage without a bitchin' cool ship - anyone who's watched the J'ms B'nd series of holovids knows that subterfuge can only be carried out in perfect style and with lots of explosions, especially when it involves cutting edge gadgets. So I pick out the sleekest, bitchin'est ship I've decided looks bitchin' and sleek at the moment and fork out sixty five million credits for a Paranid Agamemnon, then about fifteen more for a set of E(lectromagnetic)D(isruptor)A(rray)s, eight P(hased)P(lasma)G(enerator)s and two sets of heavy guns - eight PSGs for the massive firepower, and eight Tribeam Cannons for precision damage to prevent scratching my targets' paintwork too much. The Aggy has more forward firepower than most cruisers, but less overall firepower and bad flak coverage in return for class leading shielding and a very small hull profile. One awkward visit to the moderately shady Paranid pirate group Duke's Buccaneers later and I'm at 90Mcr, having paid about 20Mcr for the SOS equipment and the additional software to hide it from police. Sure, I don't intend to use it for piracy against the Commonwealth or Terrans - or the pirates themselves for that matter - but I wouldn't like to be the one trying to explain that to the suicidally confident police fighter patrols, or the one recovering their ejected space suits after my flak evaporates their ships.

Now sure the Aggy's bitchin' cool (I'll stop that now), but it's not an all out powerhouse like the Kvasir, nor can it quite match the forward punch of the Cyclops, so I don't want to pit it against the crazy Xenon furballs those frigates are wont to wreck. How about X597? I hardly ever see lots of Xenon there, and it's a big, empty sector with lots of room to manouver. Probably the best candidate for a test run.

When I jump in, I spot one group of Xenon across the sector - one large battleship, probably a J since I've not seen a K in a very long time, a C and a G and a few corvettes, and lots of fighters. Video enhancement goggles are useful, huh? I can't take these head on, so first I'll waste the G's missiles so it's not barraging me while I fight.

A few minutes later, done.

Next, I draw away the C (fortunately the carrier has no bomber wing) and kill it off. I've decided to go after the G since I already have lots of conventional frigates, no missile frigates and a massive missile problem - I reckon the failure in X347 a bit ago was because I didn't have enough ships running missile defence. The J is a lot tougher of course, but I manage to slot in just outside its Dark Matter Beam Cannon range and pelt it with shockwaves. Aaand then the fighter swarm gets very, very angry. Remember what I said about the Aggy's flak coverage? I have to retreat via jumpdrive a few times to recharge while whittling down the cloud of incredibly pissed off black bees but eventually I'm down to a number which while not ideal, is acceptable for the hacking operation to go ahead. I swap in the TBCs and head for the now-helpless G. After bringing it down to the 3% shield threshold I turn off all but two of the TBCs to maintain those levels without damaging the hull. Though that means the G's AI core is fully intact and able to repel my hacking attempts, it also means I don't have to pay for fixing damage.

Even though I'm in practically no danger it's unbearably tense. Almost immediately the G's AI bats away my attempt to override it, so I reengage the SOS and have another go. This time I manage to actually begin the hack, but it's not long before I'm told I've been thwarted again. And I've not been watching my shields - the few remaining fighters have brought me down to a decidedly unhealthy 5% so I leave the SOS running and move away from my position immediately above the G to engage them. In doing so, I let the G's shields recharge enough to break my connection. Damn. The fighters are taken care of though. Back to hacking. I'm not interrupted again and after a few more nerve wracking failures and some failure to properly control my weaponry causing damage the G succumbs. OH. YES. Haha! It's mine! I'll amass a fleet of Xenon battleships and use them to work with the #Deca! It will be terrible and awesome and imposing and terrifying and awsome and stuff.

Huh. Got a little carried away there. Still, SUCK THAT RHONKAR! HOW's THAT TERRAFORMER PROGRAMME LOOKING NOW, HUH? OH RIGHT. I DESTROYED IT.

And now I have one of my own. But these ones? They've had chance to evolve.

YES.

Not out of danger yet - I still have to get this beautiful hunk of toaster junk back home before I should celebrate. After debating just flying it through X597 into Boron territory since it came with a 2Gj shield, I decide not to risk it. I get E'den to take the Wolf over to the asteroid base and pick up some ecells and a jumpdrive kit, then come to deploy it to the G. The transfer goes smoothly (I was afraid Xenon reinforcements would arrive to kill something before E'den arrived at the all too slow 150m/s) and I officially own a Xenon missile frigate.

On my way back (I decided to fly) I spot a Kha'ak Advanced Corvette. You know, the massively powerful miniature frigate. Huh. Wonder if this thing works for Kha'ak computers? I move to engage. It's a feisty one and rips into me while I try to control its shields while staying within the suddenly horribly short 2km range. Kha'ak computer architecture is as alien as all the rest of their technology so it takes a few tries for the SOS to even adapt to that well enough to begin to hack it. After it gets past the language barrier, it's met with incredible hositlity from the Kha'ak AI and gets repeatedly booted out while my shields tick down at an alarming rate - the AdvKorvette has 10 BKEs in its main array, and by the clans they're powerful. Analysis on captured ones says they're more powerful by far than my TBCs, and any of the Commonwealth, Terran or Xenon corvette weapons. So, finally, after much failure and even more tension it is mine. Not sure where the weapons'll come from but hey - I own another cool ship!

I wonder... What else can I nick with this?


I got a C after all. They're a bit tough because they have powerful back/left/right turrets and good up/down turrets which can't quite beat my recharge. Doable though - I got four to keep and two or three more to sell.

While sneaking around in X347, I decided I'd try for a J after nicking its C and Q escorts. The J was way too strong for my Aggy so I brought in Trollmeister to do what it does best even better than before. It incapacitated and took the J easily, though I didn't get a picture before I jumped it out. Then I thought, 'what the hell. Two missile frigates is always gonna be better than one, right? So I nicked it.

In Scale Plate green, I take yet another C after transferring back to the Aggy. Then I saw an Advanced Destroyer.


Assets (boy, haven't done one of these in a while!)

Credits: About 150M

Pteranodon, 'Statler' M2+ (2x Centaur Sentinel antifighter corvettes dokced, Trollmeister and Coleacanth escorts)
Megalodon, 'Waldorf' M2+ (8xSkate space superiority fighters, led by Ogden Suffras - Green wing, Tern and Wolf escorts)
#DECA, '#deca' M1+ (2xC, 1xQ, 2xG escorts)
J M1 (shielded, but no guns because all the ones I stockpiled areattached to the frigates. Docked for outfitting.)
4x C M7 cruiser (weapons, shields, upgrades) two protecting deca, one on each G.
2x G M7M (fitted for missile defence with obscene numbers of mosquitoes, protecting deca.)
1x Q M7 (weapons, shields, protecting deca)
Cyclops, 'Titan's Gaze' M7 cruiser (Hammerhead, Artemis escorting)
Kvasir, 'Harbinger Angel' M7 cruiser (Snotra, and I could've sworn I had another frigate escorting)
Agamemnon Electronic warfare frigate, 'Subterfuge' M7 cruiser (player)
Sturgeon, 'Trollmeister' M7 ion frigate
Snotra, 'Foreboding Angel' M7 flak boat
Wolf M7 beam type flak boat (E'den)
Tern M7C (2x Vidar sentinel, 4x Peregrine docked)
Artemis M7C
Coelacanth M7C
Hammerhead M7C (10xPike, blue wing missile interceptors)
Adv Korvette - docked in ocean of fantasy for recovery
Adv H. Hydra, 'Fell Snake' - docked for mothballing
H.Nemesis, 'Boomstick' - docked for mothballing
Lots and lots of captured Ls and a few LXes.
Lots and lots of M5 station campers
1x Mercury Mk1 Silkworm tanker
2x Mercury station freighters to shift the retarded amounts of ore my plex produces
1x mercury missile ferry in Xi
1x mammoth

Good Lord, and that's only what I can remember.[/url]

[Master of the Blade]

Further maths exam tomorrow, so no chapter, if anyone's reading. Or cares.