[DID] Best Served Cold - APR Book 2

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Triaxx2
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Post by Triaxx2 » Thu, 11. Oct 12, 22:28

Chapter 13: Show of Force

I found the Pirate Base. It's an asstastically long distance from the center of the sector south-west of Unholy Descent, and it would take months for the Born of Ashes to reach it. So instead, I'm going to have Mos Eisley deploy a jump beacon some 30km from it and jump there with Great Wyrm. It's proven itself before, but this will be it's true trial by fire. I've wanted a Python forever now, and this will be my chance to use it.

While my plan is being put into action, I've been considering something. I love the Revenge, I do. But I need the power of a full carrier. I want a Raptor. I want the ability to deploy a huge number of fighters very quickly. Being able to bring 60 fighters, four bombers and have a free slot for my personal fighter is just what I need. Of course if I steal one, the Split will be seriously annoyed. On the other hand, I can make them happy, and BUY one. Of course that's not a very pirate solution. On the other hand, acquiring the money by stealing ships IS the pirate way.

The Great Wyrm closes in on the station and stands off at 5 km. For a moment, neither of us do anything, the station is still blue, but the fighter that launches is red. The forward battery shatters the fighter, turning the station red. The forward guns swing around and slam into the station, round, after round, after round, until the hull cracks. Empty threats come across the airwaves, but there is nothing to be done. The station goes up in flames, and then the Laser Towers follow suit. Then all is silent in the vastness of space. Great Wyrm jumps up near the Revenge.

Split ships really are a beautiful sight. Not quite as lovely as if they were in formation, prepared to jump to a fight, but they are still beautiful, and deadly like their name sakes. Tiger, Panther, Python, Raptor. Elephant... okay, so perhaps not beautiful, but deadly still.

After picking up a couple of fighters, a Pike which someone ejected from that belongs to Warsquid, as evidenced by the swarm of Warsquid fighters flying around. As well as a Kea, which I'll have the mechanics repair and then I can sell. It's got loot aboard though, so I'll strip that off first. Something tells me to jump to President's End, where I get a kill mission for a Paranid in a Pirate Osprey. As always, he reacted rather explosively to IBL rounds, prompting two rewards. The typically paltry one from the Argon Government, and one from the mission giver himself. A passing Paranid Trader also gets the pointy end of my stick as MARS decides he's a serious threat and violates his personal space with balls of burning death.

As might be expected, the Paranid in question is less than pleased with this event, but it's not long before he's a violent cloud of exploding gasses and no longer an threat, or even anything more than a mild inconvenience for the engine manifolds. With nothing else around that's interesting, I jump back east to Aladna Hill. There I find a mission for a Split Impulse Ray Emitter Forge. Sending Decadence east to Zyarth's Dominion, it snaps up a forge and jumps back. At the same time, I find a mission for two different stations in Montalaar. A Boron Bio Gas M, and an Argon Cahoona Bakery M. With those delivered, I get another delivery. My Tenjin, known as Warjack is finished, and ready for my use. I decide to give it a test run, and some Paranid are hanging around to oblige me. She performs perfectly, and I'm in business at last. Stopping in Avarice, I look around for anything of interest. Turns out there's a minor Xenon incursion in Family Ryk, and I jump in to save the day. I learn my lesson rather quickly.

There's a pair of Q's, plus lesser units. Even with the Bombers, one of my Tenjins get's caught in a stream of IBL and can't evade. It goes down in a single salvo. The crew watch me nervously. My temper flares for a moment, but I push it down. The Tomahawks arrive and finally remove the Q from existence. I know there's another one here, the Split made it clear, but it's not with it's friend. I turn and make for the west gate. It's too far to see, even with the VEG's, so I jump to the middle of the sector. Nothing near the west, so I turn north, and sure enough it's running north. As it turns out, where it's going, is no where fast at all. It's been cut down to a mere 5% hull. I decide to deal with it personally, and take Warjack out. With two MD's, it takes mere moments to finish it off, even from nine thousand points of hull integrity.

Out of it all, I get four PPC's and a few lesser weapons. I jump back to Avarice once the collection is completed. I'm not sure what to do next. I think I'll have a little fun with Born of Ashes. Yes, I'm going to clear a path from Grand Exchange to Family Zyarth, for no reason other than because I can. Then I'll go have a talk with that Teladi I saved in Freedom's Reach. I keep getting memos from him.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

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Triaxx2
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Post by Triaxx2 » Tue, 20. Nov 12, 20:43

Chapter 14: Fighting Xenon, for fun. And possibly profitsssss.

So, I order Born of Ashes to jump in and meet me. I incur a couple of thoughts as I wait. First, I'll probably want to collect the cargo I'll generate, so I send Mos Eisley to bring some fighter drones and a copy of the MARS software.

Dropping into Grand Exchange, the shipyard is flashing messages to all incoming ships, informing them of intel on a Xenon Fleet. It turns out to be a good day to fry chips. 10 million credits is a drop in the bucket against what I can make stealing ships, but it's still nothing to sneeze at. What had been intended to be a pleasure cruise has already turned into a fleet exercise. With Rapscallion, Scavenger's Lair and the Revenge backing me, it's not long before I've demolished the entire attacking fleet. Unfortunately, they also destroy one Tenjin and one Pike. To be fair, the Tenjin's Pilot did escape, which is more important than the ship.

One thing is certain though. I need more powerful missiles to arm my ships with. I'm definitely going to order some Tempests. Two factories and ten tempests a piece should do the trick. As it turns out, I have exactly the amount of resources remaining in the overage category, to slot in two Tempests into my CODEA supply complex without adding more food.

Entering Xenon 598, I fire on the four Q's waiting for me, but they run. Fast for the north gate. That's... rather depressing. I haven't a chance in hell of catching them, so I call for support from Viper Strike. And from Gunboat Diplomacy, who unleashes a hell storm of Flails on an incoming P wing out of the East gate.

With that done, I send them home, after the Viper refuels anyway. There's a lot of things left over after Gunboat's show of force. So I send Rapscallion to collect them. It's quite the capable cargo collector, with enough shields and firepower to defend anything short of a Q dropping on it. None do, so I send it out as soon as it's cleaned up the area.

The Phoenix is essentially, an unstoppable force. Once you get rolling, the Phoenix will simply roll over anything that happens to get into it's pathway. Without having the worry of waiting on a supporting fleet, it's still pretty hard to stop on it's own. Combine that with the tenacity of MARS drones and the versatility of MARS assisted gunnery, and the Phoenix is all but unstoppable.

What I could do with though, is some more Gauss Cannon ammo. The quad guns of a Shrike go through quite a bit but MARS loves to use it on the Phoenix forward batteries, and I only had 5 crates. Getting a little low on it now. I pulled some Tempests out of storage before I crossed X598, and used them on the way. They're quite effective and en masse they'll quickly strip the shields off of capitals, the Q included. Then they go hunting. I really love these bad boys.

Of course it's 14million credits for the two factories, and another .8 million for the CCK's to connect them in. The real problem is moving them. I have TL's coming out my ears, but most of them are busy. Technically Delivery Wagon/Hub and Great Hauler 2 are free, at least until the first Ore delivery is finished.

Dropping a Kea off at the Zyarth's Dominion shipyard, I head north to Bluish Snout on reports of a Q on a rampage. It is, and it's there I notice a minor problem with my fighter squadrons. Primarily that I'm down to one Attack Fighter. Well, it's not QUITE true, but I'm down to one functional fighter. The other is quite badly damaged.

With that done, I'm asked to patrol for Xenon up to Getsu Fune. I accept and turn to engage the first comer, a Q with trailing P's.

With the lack of fighters, I switch to Knight's Lance to complete the patrol, and send the revenge to park up near the CODEA Supply Complex. Plowing through the Xenon in Menelaus Oasis doesn't take much time at all, sufficiently little in fact that I take a mission to deliver some Majalit to the local trading station. Continuing on to Getsu Fune, I call Born of Ashes for some help. The trouble with Getsu Fune is that it's such a large sector that it's not only possible, but easy to lose an entire Xenon attack fleet in it. I'm not Sure what the races were thinking...

Okay, I know EXACTLY what the Split were thinking. Oh, boy fun! But they think that about any time they're going to have a chance to shoot people. In any case, I decide to take a leisure cruise after collecting my millions when the mission ends. True, it was a little over 1.3 million, but it's still credits in the bank. Where am I taking my cruise? Through 534. Or I was going to, but upon arrival I see a J and K sitting on the PMP gate. Deciding discretion is the better part of Valor, I instead jump south to Hila's Joy. Honestly, the Lance could probably take the J, or the K alone, but together is a bit much to ask.

Hila's turns out profitable, asking for a station built in Ocean of Fantasy, which leads to nearly a million credits for a Buzzard stuffed with miscellaneous junk. It's impossible to turn down the six million credits offered by a Terran Scimitar to destroy two Split trade ships, even if they are in Njy'ssi Deception. Njy has always been a little below board, so someone wanting them hurt isn't really a surprise.

They aren't exactly happy about me bailing one and bashing the other but the Terran is, so I'm not that worried. It takes a couple minutes to calm the locals, by which I mean punch the throttle and duck through the gate.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

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Triaxx2
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Post by Triaxx2 » Wed, 20. Feb 13, 00:47

Just a short one while I get back into the rhythym of the game. I intend to put forth the necessary effort to finish the Hub Plot if it means I have to go to Book 3 of this silly thing.

Chapter 15: Hunting for some fun.

On the other side, the local Equipment Dock is broadcasting for a mission to build a Split IRE forge in Njy's Deception. It'll double the cash I spent for it, so I take the mission. There's nothing in Njy's, so I jump to Family Ryk to intercept a Q headed for the south gate. It drops a few missiles, but nothing interesting, so I have Mos Eisley jump in, collect them and then jump out. Family Njy has a slight pirate problem, so I jump there and head for the pirates.

From there, it's on to Black Hole Sun, where I bust the teeth of some pirates attacking a station, then head for Avarice. I think I'm going to see what General Funny wants. Which means I'm going to be driving a destroyer, so Born of Ashes is meeting me in Avarice.

The thought occurs to me, that I'm in the market for another TL. Or two. I need at least one to follow Scavenger's Lair, to provide microchips, and other useful goods so it can repair it's fighters. And one which will serve no duties other than to construct stations. I'm thinking an Albatross for the Lair, and maybe an Orca for Station Construction. I'd honestly prefer NOT to annoy the Teladi, but the Boron aren't a concern.

After Treasure Chest, I decide to jump straight to Avarice instead of flying the long way, after remembering that I have to fly through Xenon 347. I really dislike that sector. Not sure why, other than the giant killer war machines.

What his general annoyance wants is an escort for some important cargo. Born isn't exactly the best choice on it's own, so I call the Revenge in to provide some tactical assistance. With the mission completed, I dock back at the Revenge. From there, I clear out a Kha'ak Corvette that had been aiming for the mission ships, and then bounce back to Avarice. After a little consideration, I decide to get a couple more ships helping Commodore's CLS with it's Ore delivering duties.

While organizing the transfer of the two Logistician pilots from Weaver's Tempest, I notice that the Light of Heart Shipyard has a build mission. I feel as though I've been out of it for months, so I think that's just the thing to get me back into the game. Best of all it doesn't involve getting shot at. The profit isn't fantastic, but that's not the point. I just wanted something simple and it doesn't get more simple than jumping a ship to Zyarth's picking up a Drone Factory, and jumping back. I get done just in time to be informed by Logistician Jovi who'd been running ragged to unload the Ore convoy in her Pelican that she'd just finished unloading. I told her to stand down and take a break for a while. I think she'd have kissed me if we weren't on a video link. I also informed her that she'd be going back to boarding pod duty and that I'd have someone else take over for her unloading. She looked incredibly relieved. I've only seen that look when I told a fighter pilot he didn't have to launch against a Q.

Moving the Great Hauler 2 to Akeela's, I order the captain of the Great Hold to move out his convoy as soon as the warp gate projectors have warmed up. He gives me an affirmative and starts for the gate.

Frankly the convoy would be better served if it weren't made up of the left over bits and pieces I picked up from X472, but it'd be expensive, and time consuming to replace them and reset the waypoints. It's already a 41 ship convoy, not counting Great Hold.

After setting the way points for the loading ship, I feel the sudden urge to dock and have a stiff drink, and a deep sleep. Fortunately, I know just the place.

If you've never been to the Bar on the Senator's Badlands shipyard, you owe it to yourself to pay what ever dues to you have to, in order to get in with the Yaki. The Bar is actually a restaurant, which incongruously manages to mix the most awful, vile drinks I've ever drunk, with some of the finest, most exquisite 5-star cuisine I've ever tasted. The actual bar area, is actually separated by very heavy duty glass, the real stuff, not the high-density plastics used for cockpits, reinforced with military grade shields repurposed as force fields. This prevents fights and other things from the bar from spilling over into the eating space.

I decide to accept a mission to deploy a factory, and get the computer moving on it. It doesn't take long to deploy the factory, especially once I get through the gate into Weavers and find the station waiting in the hold of a TL, ready for me to build. Then it's back for a hot meal, and very soft bed. I'm staying about the Revenge. I enjoy the company of Yaki, just not while I sleep.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

Dovie'andi se tovya sagain

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Zaitsev
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Post by Zaitsev » Wed, 20. Feb 13, 03:32

Oooh. Wonder what the pirate queen will do with the Hub once it's up and running ...
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Triaxx2
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Post by Triaxx2 » Wed, 20. Feb 13, 06:44

Cause massive amounts of violence and destruction. Of course. :D
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

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Post by Sabrina Bergin » Thu, 28. Feb 13, 23:06

Nice to see you back in the game so to speak looking forward to the next installment.

Regards Shaun.
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Post by Triaxx2 » Fri, 1. Mar 13, 00:23

Working on it, but I've got a head cold and it's hard to focus on not dying.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

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Post by banjaxo » Mon, 25. Mar 13, 08:21

Aaaaaaaaaand... I've caught up! Damn, I'm going to have to wait now instead of getting my daily fix. :evil:

Keep up the good work, Triaxx2.

PS Posting the asset list must take as long as writing a chapter, ye gods that's some empire you've built up!

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Post by Triaxx2 » Mon, 25. Mar 13, 12:56

Yeah that's about right. It's easier though since I can sit somewhere and do the necessary research.

I'm trying to play, but I keep lagging out. I've narrowed it down so I should be able to finish the chapter.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

Dovie'andi se tovya sagain

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Post by banjaxo » Mon, 25. Mar 13, 13:24

I hope so, especially after reading of Scion Drakhar's Steam problems and his indefinite shelving of Prodigal Son. To have both stories die when I'm so invested in them would be awful!

Looking forward to the next chapter.

PS I've clicked on the "watch this topic" button at the top of the page, any idea what this actually does? I've never used this function before and I don't see a "view watched threads" button anywhere when I log on.

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Post by Triaxx2 » Mon, 25. Mar 13, 15:51

I believe it sends an e-mail when there's a new message. I've never used it either.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

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Sabrina Bergin
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Post by Sabrina Bergin » Mon, 25. Mar 13, 19:58

Ref : Watch this topic.

This used to be the case but I have been watching several topics for sometime but since the site upgrade or maintenance thing a month or so back I haven't received any notifications and at one point my inbox was full of them. ?.
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Post by banjaxo » Mon, 25. Mar 13, 21:10

I was about to agree with you shaun, I checked my email account and saw nothing despite two posts to this thread since I clicked on "Watch this topic".

However... I suddenly had a thought... it was many years ago that I first signed up to these forums, back in the X2 days. So I checked my profile page and sure enough, the email address was listed as one that hasn't been active since perhaps 2005/6! D'oh! :lol:

I've reset it to my current address so I'll see if anything happens.

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Post by kgkosio » Tue, 26. Mar 13, 04:06

Watch this topic will send a single email to the email address associated with your account for any and all updated to the thread. It will not send additional updates until you have visited the thread since the last email notification.

Especially useful for threads like this which are not updated frequently.
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Post by Triaxx2 » Tue, 26. Mar 13, 14:44

So, technical confession. I've actually 'died' a couple of times making this chapter. Mostly due to lag, except for the end of the chapter, which was a complete blue screen of death that completely caused my computer to restart. So that's what that line is about. The next one should be longer.

---

Chapter 16: Getting into the Swing of Things

Okay, okay. Don't harp. I overslept, just a little. Well. Maybe more than a little. I mean, who wouldn't? I've been pulling all nighters to ensure that my complexes are producing and my empire is moving. If I look away for five minutes, it all goes straight to hell, and it takes hours to sort it out again. Not to mention constantly dealing with the little fires that crop up, like Xenon, and Kha'ak and Paranid. And one particularly annoying Fish. Yes, it seems Mahi Ma is getting all fired up because I've finally started getting Ore delivered, and now he's becoming impatient.

Guess what. I really don't care. Not only do I not care, but I don't care to the point where I'm ignoring his calls. Also on the ignore list? Generally not F'juny, who's been informing me that there's a mission waiting for me. I'm sorry, but what you keep asking me to do isn't a mission. It's baby sitting, and I don't like baby sitting.

I think I'm going to go visit the Duke and see what I can 'negotiate' away from him. Aggressively if need be. There's a very pleased Teladi in Freedom's Reach who's told me of a great deal if I can bring him 300 million credits. If all else fails, I'll start stealing pirate ships as well.

A stop over in Light of Heart to refit some ships nets me a defense of the local Shipyard and the unexpected bonus of a Carrack who's crew bails. Unlike the usual occurrence which sees the ship then destroyed by rounds in the air, this time the ship survives with just a few percent of it's hull remaining. Assigning the Revenge to escort it to the Shipyard, I transferred to the Lance and jumped to Avarice North beacon.

From there, with nothing to do for the Hub until the convoy reaches PMP again, I jump to M148 to see what Mi Generale wants. I have a suspicion it's another baby sitting mission. Turns out however, that what he wants is actually for me to defend an outpost in Kha'ak 841.

Which is certainly easier than baby sitting. The 'attackers' consist of a single Kha'ak Corvette, so calling Gunboat Diplomacy for back up turns out to be considerable overkill. From there I jump back to Avarice then call for my Personal TS and jump up to pick up some Laser Towers. I'm going to reinforce the sector west of Unholy Descent, since it contains my CODEA supply complex and guards my southern energy complex.

I'm thinking 40 towers arranged in groups of five should be sufficient firepower to chew up anything that decides to show it's self. They end up in a horseshoe shape around the gate, which is just fine by me.

Upon returning to PMP however, I notice an issue. I have several Lasertowers hanging around but all my SQUASH mines are missing. According to my sources, it seems that I never activated the majority of them and some pirates came through and stole them. Sigh. Seems you can't even trust pirates. What IS this universe coming to? Heh. Oh well.

As I'm on my way to CEO's Sprite to discharge some extra SQUASH mines, the world suddenly goes dark.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

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Post by Sabrina Bergin » Tue, 26. Mar 13, 21:33

Ky:

I check this site every evening or early am after work still no emails and I've had the same email address for the last ten years.

Maybe I should check my profile as I do have another email address but I have never used it in regards to egosoft its a friends family only address (stops all sort of junk mail).

Edited

No just checked my profile same email address.
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Post by banjaxo » Wed, 27. Mar 13, 14:59

@Triaxx2 - Yay new chapter! Oh, and that's not actually dying, more like technical issues.

@shaun bergin - Having reset the email address to the one I actually use, the "watch this topic" function now appears to be working fine for me.

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Post by Sabrina Bergin » Wed, 27. Mar 13, 20:26

banjaxo:

I think I'll try resetting my email address using the same address and see if this updates the site.
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Post by Triaxx2 » Wed, 27. Mar 13, 22:02

:oops: Well, mostly it's because I couldn't stop while lagging and so I plowed into gate superstructures a couple of times. And at least once I was attacked by missiles and lagged so badly that they destroyed the ship, I jumped to another sector, popped up and then got the game over screen in the next sector.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

Dovie'andi se tovya sagain

Triaxx2
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Post by Triaxx2 » Wed, 10. Apr 13, 14:53

UPDATE: Okay, so I've had a very significant power issue. I had power surge and the computer shut off. I have not been able to get it back up because of the power issue. However, I do know enough of what I did that if all else fails I will use the cheat package to restore myself to chapter 11, which is where I last had an asset list. If that happens it may be some time before I can do anything. I will keep you updated however.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

Dovie'andi se tovya sagain

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