Way of the Gun - DiD (TC 3.2) [KIA]

[snelson2]

sweet read. grats on the upgrade and hope to see more soon

[Kirlack]

sweet read. grats on the upgrade and hope to see more soon

Thanks man I hope you enjoy this one

Chapter 16: All things in moderation

The assassin rolled out of her bunk to land gently on her feet. In the vast silence of the enormous station carrying vessel she'd slept well, and awoke with a sense of purpose. Today she was going to steal some ships. Lots of ships.

She didn't bother to grab her clothes from the locker near the foot of her cot, and ran through her daily exercise routine, before walking naked along the crew corridor until she reached the shower room. As the cool water hit her skin she tensed, but seconds later the hot cycle began, purging her body of toxins. Her mind raced with possibilities as the cycles continued, up and down, until she felt purified, awake and ready.

As she stepped out of the shower she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and stopped to re-spike her bright red mohawk, before grabbing a razor and shaving the last couple of days worth of stubble from the rest of her head. She ginned at her reflection.

“You're one bad motherfrakker Wren. Don't screw things up now, ya hear?”

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Right. Fresh from my shower 'n' shave I headed up to the Elephant's bridge to set up her systems. I spent a good bit o' time last night fittin' CIGs to all o' her turrets, and makin' sure the automated systems would allow me to use her as a mobile base without too much intervention. Since she's gonna be my home base from here on in, I've decide to name her 'The Bastion o' Fortitude'. A bit fancy, mayhap, but I think she deserves a cool soundin' name, ya know?

With the system check out o' the way I started lookin' fer targets. You might remember the Mako I claimed a while back over in Split Fire? Well, I've set it up as my spy in Elena's Fortune. She's been docked at the military outpost fer the last week or so, keepin' tabs on the station's owned ships. And today, she came back with some interestin' intel. It seems the outpost's Minotaur is headed fer Getsu Fune, but right now it's passin' through Shareholder's Fortune. With a little luck I can corner it, take out any escorts and have a clear shot at gettin' the boardin' crew into position.

Heh. My mercs have taken to callin' 'emselves 'Wren's Renegades'. Kind o' cheesy, but it's their call, ya know? They like it, 'n' as long as they're doin' their jobs I don't give a shit what they call 'emselves.

I'm not sure how much time we might have to play with before the Minotaur gets out o' Shareholder's, so I jump the Bastion to the sector's eastern gate. I can't see the mark from here, but I know it's in the sector, so I call up the info feed from my Mako again 'n' use that to target the frigate from almost 40 klicks away. A handy li'l trick I picked up somewhere. As Bastion pulls out and up away from the gate, I bounce One Way in and send her orders to hold a position roughly 10km above the gate.

It's lookin' like the target's bought some o' his mates along fer the ride, but it's not until they close to scanner range that I can pick up all o' the contacts. The trio o' Gladiators are gonna have to go before we can even think about an op, so I cue up the 8 typhoon missiles I've picked up along the way, and start spinnin' warheads off into the dark. One each at the bombers, one each at the Novas and two fer the Eclipse. I can use silkworms to banjo the two M4s if they're gonna become a problem.

As the missiles start closin' to target I run down to the fighter bay and climb into Tendencies cockpit. Moments later I'm out into the trade lanes, and send orders fer the Bastion to bounce over to the Home o' Oppo'tunity equipment dock. She can wait there fer me until I'm done with this here missile frigate.

With Bastion clear o' the sector I watch in triumphant joy as my missiles reduce the Minotaur's escorts to shrapnel before closin' fer a quick scan. Excellent, not only is he poorly armed, he's not packin' a single countermeasure. So I loose a couple o' silkworms to finish off the Busters, and then it's just me 'n' the frigate.

It's slow goin' at first, as he's intent on reachin' the gate, but with me orbitin' around him and swappin' between EBCs to keep his shields low, 'n' Ions to fry his systems, he finally decides to start lobbin' missiles at me. The first hammer heavy gets caught well away from the mark, but the second blows up on launch as Ion Disruptor fire washes over him, knockin' a large chunk out o' the hull integrity. He's still on 84% though, so we're on fer a capture!

With me layin' into him he's havin' to keep tryin' to line up on the gate, and not havin' much success because I'm keepin' him more than occupied. When I pull away to check him though it seems he's lost his primary shield generator. I'm a bit wary o' launchin' the mercenaries while he's still got those few flails aboard, but he's not makin' the effort to throw 'em at me, so I shift around him and out o' One Way's firin' line, before orderin' my crew into the pods.

They've only got a few kilometres to cover though, so I order the launch. As the boys are en route I get clobbered by a flail, knockin' my shields down into the low fifties, but that's his last shot before they make contact. Before I even get a chance to check in on their progress Tata Ga radios to say they've made deck 2, and less than a minute later...

Score one fer the bad guys!

And that's not the only bonus. I dunno where the frak they came from, but my guys are reportin' a whole load o' heavy torps in the cargo bay. As as extra special bonus, two o' my mercs are now readin' as badass 5 star fighters on the bioscanner, meanin' they're ready fer elite trainin'. I don't wanna leave the crew short though, and the rest o' my rookies are still a long way off o' bein' ready fer ops, so we'll see about findin' some more targets first.

With the frigate secured I beam my jumpdrive across, and the mercs back onto One Way. The Cobra bounces back down to homebase, while the Minotaur jumps down to Queen's Retribution 'n' I call in Bastion to pick me up. A quick jump down to Queen's allows me to retrieve Tendencies' jumpdrive from my new frigate, and after a while waitin' fer her to dock at the shipyard I can see just how much the Boron are willin' to pay fer the bare hull.

18 million. That's a long ways shy o' what I was expectin', but I'll grant 'em that she's not in the best o' condition. Still, I ain't sure I wanna sell her yet, so fer now she can hang tight whilst I decide what to do. After all, she might make a good heavy fire support ship, if I need one.

With the first capture o' the day secured I climbed aboard Boots and headed north. My intel network isn't flaggin' any more marks, so I'm gonna scout the Teladi sectors beyond Sanctity o' Corruption and look fer some. As I'm crossin' Sanctity though, I get a call fer a hit on a pirate Centaur over in Company Strength. I'm headin' that way anyhow, so I take the contract. I was almost to the eastern gate when I got another call, from a Paranid of all people.

The contact fer the second job is in Company Strength 'n' all, so I agree to this'n and cross the event horizon. My first mark's all the way up by the north gate, but that's cool, it gives me a chance to find the contact fer the second mark. He's hangin' out at the local silicon mine, and tells me the second mark's flyin' a Yaki Centaur up in Bright Profit. Right then.

I close on the first target and swiftly lay into him with Boots' EBC/PBE combo. He doesn't last long enough to cause me any trouble though, and as he goes up in smoke I get paid my 344k. A swift dodge around his mates gets me to the gate, and then I'm gone, through into Bright Profit.

My second mark's almost made the centre o' the sector, so I hit the turbo booster and zoom in to catch up with him. As I'm on my way there though, the locals comm me, askin' me to help 'em out with a small Xenon problem. Hey, I can do that.

Oh. I might need to rethink this actually. The Ns are no problem, but that Q is goin' to cause issues. Still, they're a good distance away, and I've got a contract to complete first, so I ignore the machines fer a moment and concentrate on rinsin' the Yaki M6. Like the pirate next door though, he doesn't last very long against Boots' savage beatin', and then it's just me 'n' the Xenon. Time fer some nuclear goodness I reckon. So I call in Suckerpunch, grab the Qs attention and order my bomber to launch a single barrage.

The Q's far too interested in me to notice the warheads, and a few seconds later the frigate vanishes as multiple explosions rip it to shreds. The Ns are busy pepperin' my shields with PAC fire, but they can't stand up to Boots' PBEs, and in a couple o' minutes I take out the last o' them fer the loss o' just over 50% o' my shieldin'. Aar!

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The assassin watched, wide eyed, as the second wave point jumped in on top of her. As her shields dropped under massed PBE fire she made a stab for the jump controls, but as the drive was charging the Xenon started biting into her hull.

“Jumpdrive: destroyed.” her ship's computer piped up.

“Shit!” Wren yelled into the cockpit, reaching for the turbo booster. As her hand reached the lever, the ship computer chimed in again.

“Turbo booster: destroyed.”

Wren's eyes widened further.

“Oh no...”

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Final Assets:

'One Way Ticket' - Cobra – 71%
'Bastion o' Fortitude' - Elephant
Minotaur – 55%

'Keres' – Perseus Raider [Talia Corvo]
'Ladie's Man' – Mamba [George Oaken]

'Violent Tendencies' – Skate
'Assassin's Creed' - Mamba
'Tools o' the Trade' – Caiman
'Ragin' Speedhorn' – Discoverer Raider
'Small Fry' - Octopus
'Mostly Harmless' – Discoverer
'The Metatron' – Hermes
'Last Resort' - Manta
'Suckerpunch' – Peregrine

Hades
Perseus Raider
Mako

Demeter Super Freighter
Demeter Super Freighter XL
Demeter Miner
Enhanced Dolphin

Stations:

The Hub – 4,651,072 Credits

• Demeter x3 - CLS
• Demeter Hauler – CLS collector (Aladna Hill)
• Caiman – CLS Storage Locker (Freedom's Reach)
• Dolphin Tanker – CLS Storage Locker (Company Pride)

12,472,452 Credits

• The end.

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And sadly, that's all she wrote. The second wave of Xenon included a whole swarm of Ls and Ms, and every one of them was packing a full rack of PBEs. Once the jumpdrive was down I was in serious trouble, and then...poof. Game over man.

@shaun bergin and ruger44: Sorry guys, I never did get around to adding in your characters, maybe next time...

Thanks to all for reading! And especially to those of you who offered up characters for me to work with. It's been a real blast I've still got the save file from the end of chapter 15, if anyone is interested. I've also compiled a PDF version of the story, if anyone wants it, let me know and I'll upload it to somewhere.

Thanks again!

[Mythrantar]

Oh man, this sucks! Still, loved the story, good job!

[Zaitsev]

Aw, bollocks ...

Still, it was a fun ride while it lasted and I enjoyed every moment of it. Nice work, Kirlack

[Kirlack]

Thanks gents, I'm glad you enjoyed it

Any suggestions on what to try next? I was thinking maybe a Xenon DiD, but I'm not sure I could write from a machine point of view...

[Mythrantar]

BUt what about a self-aware, cut-from-the-hive machine?

[Sabrina Bergin]

Unlucky break there Kirlack but as others have said a cracking read.

[Triaxx2]

Didn't you learn from Z's example? And stay the heck away from the Xenon until you're rolling in a capital? At minimum.

Sorry to see the end of Wren.

I still think Corrupted Goner is a perfect Role-play starter.

[Knucles2]

Oh
Em
Gee

Great story Kir. A bit short, maybe.

[Zaitsev]

Didn't you learn from Z's example? And stay the heck away from the Xenon until you're rolling in a capital? At minimum.

Sorry to see the end of Wren.

I still think Corrupted Goner is a perfect Role-play starter.

Glad to see I can be of some use, then

[ruger44]

I would like to read till capt 15 but ok. thanks for consdering my guy perhaps a humble trader start ? My guy will not be going anywhere so he might stop buy next time. enjoyed it

[Timsup2nothin]

Ouch.

I have a compliment. I say that so you can look for it just in case I mangle it.

Writing the final chapter, when you knew it was the final chapter, without giving it away...I know how much of a challenge that was, and you did it very well. Final touch on something that was well done from start to unfortunately early finish.

[Kirlack]

Sorry to see the end of Wren.

I still think Corrupted Goner is a perfect Role-play starter.

Me too mate Didn't I already do the Corrupted Goner?

Writing the final chapter, when you knew it was the final chapter, without giving it away...I know how much of a challenge that was, and you did it very well. Final touch on something that was well done from start to unfortunately early finish.

Thanks mate. Not giving anything away in the final chapter was quite hard, had to revise what I had written a few times before I was happy with it, but I like the way it panned out

[Sabrina Bergin]

Kirlack:

I am up to speed with nomad after a comp failure that's required me to build a new rig and do some intensive gaming.
I have a Heavy Hydra a Heavy osprey a Katana and a springy oh and an Ammaan prototype and a couple of angels.

Do you want to jump in I have good rep with all races except Argon but that is slowly changing as I have a weed plex in avarice. all plots good and corporation rep is at 6 .

What I need is a fighter who can defend my primary base in distant clouds, I,m still waiting to get my hands on a cobra but I do have 30 elite marines to hand.

[Kirlack]

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking shaun. Do you want me to jump in to take over your DiD? If so, I appreciate the offer, but no. For one thing it sounds like you're playing AP, which I don't own. For another, playing from the beginning is my fave part of a new game

Of course, if I've totally mis-read your post, just call me a pillock

[Sabrina Bergin]

Understood :

no I don't want you to take over I just thought you might want to throw in a character to keep your hand in so to speak no dis respect intended.

[Sabrina Bergin]

Also with your intriguing writing style I would never call you a pilock I look forward to your next adventure.

[Kirlack]

Ah, now I get it. Sorry I'll take another look at Nomad then and see what I can come up with Thanks shaun

[Triaxx2]

I thought you'd done a FAKE Goner, who had stolen a Goner Ranger and was pretending to be one. Of course I might have yours confused with another one.

[Kirlack]

Oh, yeah that was me. I see where you're going with your comment now. Hmm, that's definitely got some potential. The only downside is that I don't currently have the Goner Witness start open on my new installation.