Rise of Phanon LUV DiD

[kaistern]

Chapter 1: M5 Dogfight

Home of light looked much as I remembered it except that it seemed to have become a military staging ground. I ordered Gizmo to start maping the system as I hailed a few local stations to see if anyone needed any help with anything. Right away I got a hit, the station manager for crystal fab alpha wanted me to kill someone named Gobinas viii. I am not a murderer, and I told him such and sent a message to local authorites letting them know about the station manager. The next couple stations didn't need anything but then when we were about half through with mapping the system a Major hails me from one of the Military Centars.

"Are you William McCloud?" The Major asked but continued on before I could say anything, "I am Major Tom Smith. I have received clearance from the admiralty to offer you patrol missions inside Argon Space."

"Thats good to hear Major," I replied, "is there anything I can help you with?"

"We're picking up Xenon transmitions coming from this area but we can't locate them. I want you to patrol the area around Home of Light, then find and eliminate any Xenon threats. I will offer you two thousand credits if you are up to the task."

"I'm on it" I replied. Finally a chance to prove myself I thought with a grin. I didn't have any idea where to start patroling but I still had half of the system to explore so I told Gizmo to finish exploring and hopefully we would trip over the Xenon.

However that was not to be the case, a couple minutes later Major Tom hailed me again to tell me that one of the fighter wings had run across a lone N and had blown it away. I hadn't even seen the explosion. He informed me that he couldn't pay me the full payment since I had not engaged the enemy. He did still pay me 105 cr for my "time" though. Oh joy, the next time I am in port I can buy a sandwich.

Home of light was starting to wear on me and I saw a Military Cerberus jumping through the gate for ore belt with several escorts. That's was odd, why would it be going there? I decided to follow it and see what kind of trouble it was looking for.

<Jumping to Ore Belt>

Collision alert! Collision alert! The computer screamed as soon as I exited the event horrison. My entire view screen was filled with the Gunmetal grey hull of the Cerberus. I pulled hard on the flight stick and just barely cleared the top of the frigate. A couple seconds later, clear of the gate and the frigate, I throttled down panting as I watched the firgate slowly start to accelerate to the west.

"Jeez boss that was kinda close." Gizmo said

"Don't they know they are suppose to get clear of the gate before stopping!?!" I replied in anger

"They're Military, what do you expect?"

"I need a drink lets go and see what the local Trading post has to offer."

"You're the boss" Gizmo said as I powered the engines up and headed for the trading post, "Maybe there will be better job available tomorrow."

To Be Continued


Note: Well I almost became road kill after only a little bit in game... Jeez this is really going to be fun getting out of this m5 lol If I could just find a m4 lying about some where... while I am dreaming I also want a Magnetar with 4 fully loaded Nova Raiders AND a Mercury Super Freighter XL

Edit: Typos, spelling, grammer, and added thoughts[/] dont know how well that will work but let me know what you think

[kaistern]

Wife did this

[Triaxx2]

Tune your speed. An M5 at speed is threat enough to knock down an M4. It all comes down to pilot skill. Use the speed to stay behind them and they can't hurt you. But you've got to be fast enough to do it. Try taking station defense missions, most ships will crash and destroy themselves on the stations early on.

Also, great job with the writing.

[kaistern]

Yeah I am a half way good fighter pilot, vetran of the Wing Commander series and of Freelancer plus a couple others. In that umm, test, I had upgraded my engines to 200m/s I think but that was all I could afford at the time. It also doesn't help that I only have fight command 1 and dont even have access to fight command 2. So all gizmo is good for is saying that this MIGHT be a DECENT place to shoot.

[Sabrina Bergin]

I'll look forward to that Kaistern the thing with an early bad or unfortunate game start is to move on and be aware of your limitations don't let this stop you posting your start was interesting and as it was early on should not deter you.

[Triaxx2]

FC1 is good enough. Basically you're going to be watching not just where you're shooting, but where the shots are going in relation to the target. It's not too hard to get the hang of. Of course, if you're just armed with IRE's, you're probably close enough that it won't matter much.

[kaistern]

For the record all the content you are seeing is after that game. All of this is the DiD which is and entirely different game then then one i died in.

@Triaxx2: I have a real hard time with that in LU. I didn't have much of a problem with it in Vanilla but in LU PACs are the only weapon I can seem to use well without FC2. The bolts for the IREs are so tiny and fast and the fire rate is MUCH slower. I think Litecube did that to improve performance especially late game when you have massive fleets nuking it out. Sucks for early dogfights but worth it late game. So for now i'll just avoid dogfight unless i know i can win.

[Sabrina Bergin]

Do not forget the most important combat tactic of all. "RUN SCREAMING LIKE A GIRL". (R.S.L.A.G.)It may dent your self image but it does work.

[kaistern]

Pain. Head pain. Head ache. Yeah, that's what it was called. So many lights... where am I?

As my eyes slow adjusted to the light I found my self sitting in the cockpit of The Hermes docked under the glaring lights of the hanger bay. Sitting wasn't the correct term though. My left foot was propped on the dash, my right foot stuffed between the aft rudder control and the ejection lever. I was laying on my left siding facing the side of the ship, my body curled around the flight stick and my but hanging down into the floorboard. I felt like someone had just tossed me inside the ship.

"Good morning boss," Gizmo said startling me, "Rough night last night?"

"Not so loud Gizmo," I replied as I started trying to get out of the weird position I was in, "What happened last night, how did I get here?"

"All I know is that you left here in search of a bar, and then several hours later a Split carried you back. Though he did say that you drink well for an ape as he walked away."

"I was drinking with s split?" Well that explained why I felt like I had been thrown in here. I had vague memories of walking into a bar but nothing about drinking with a split. Really I couldn't remember ever having dealings with a split. My dad had always warned me that they would rather punch you in the face then just about anything else. Apparently beating each other up and watching each other being beat up was THE major pass time for them, when they weren't at war.

It took me awhile after that to extract myself from the cockpit. My head still hurt and I kind of wondered if the split had actually split my head. I guess that I owe him a drink though, he did get be back safely to my ship. Which is more then I can say about most of the scum you would run into in a bar on a free trade station. Finally I made it out of the ship and wondered around until I found the station's chief mechanic.


"Good Morning, Sir!" The mechanic almost shouted in my ear. Wayyy to hyper this one. " What can I do for ya?"

"Bring it down a notch for starters." I said a little more grumpy then I intended, though all it did was make him chuckle.

"Sorry about that" He said in a softer voice "I saw you last night in Joey's Bar and I had to give you a little crap for it. Tell you want though, you sure can down them. I thought for sure you would end up in medical. I have never known anyone to challenge a split to a drinking contest. But anyway what can I do for you?" I challenged the split to a drinking contest!?!

"My Pegasus is factory fresh and that means slow. What can you do to make it faster?" I replied trying to get back onto the reason I was here in the first place.

"Oh I have just the thing. Some new carbon foils, and removing the speed cap should help out a lot. A few other bits here and there also might help. Give me a few hours and she will be ready to go. In the mean time, that bar you were in last night serves a killer breakfast, helps with the hangovers they caused the night before."



The mechanic was right about the food. Some local eggs and meat-steak went a long way for making my hangover feel better. The barmaid didn't seem to recognize me luckily. I cant even imagine how much I must have embarrassed myself last night. Challenging a split to a drink contest? What was I thinking? After I finished my coffee I paid my tab and moved towards the exit only to find it blocked by the biggest split I had ever seen.

"Wil'hem!" the split roared in a deep throaty voice, "Back 'or anot'er round already? 'oar father's spirit must be proud indeed." That I was drinking? Not likely, I thought to myself. Not that I was about to teach a lesson on alcoholism to a split though.

"I am sure he is." I lied "I'm sorry but I seem to have forgotten your name, to much alcohol and all."

"HA HA HA HA HA" he laughed as if I had told him the biggest joke of all time, "My name is Kar'lunton of family Trukon." He swelled in pride as if I should know the family name.

"It is an honor" I lied again, no reason to upset and insult a 450 pound killing machine though, "but forgive me for I must depart. I have a patrol starting at 1600 hours." I was going to have to watch all this lying but I really was ready to get back out in space. Places to be things to do, you know how it is.

"But, it is already 1730?" he said in confusion. This is why I tried never to lie I sucked at it.

"See?" I said making my way past him "That's why I really have to run."


Back at the hanger the mechanic was all to happy handing me the bill. "I installed 15 engine tuning as well as 10 rudder improvements. The total came out to be 16737. I was going to install a whole new racing block but you don't have the credits for it." Don't I know it.

"Sounds good to me. Thanks for the work." I replied as I climbed into the cockpit.

[Triaxx2]

In that case then, knife fight close is probably the best option.

[Kual]

Nice one - drinking contest with a Split. Sounds suicidal to me

Fighting in an M5 really is hit and run, there is no other way (unless you have Wasp missiles). Maxing out speed and steering is essential.

And before installing bigger guns (don't know of the top of my head whether your fighter can use anything larger than IRE like PAC), always think of energy. Bigger guns are useless, if they run dry after 5 seconds. This is one of THE key learnings in LU.

[kaistern]

@kaul: naw this pegasus can't even load them. Glad u liked the drinking lol

Back to the story

I could feel the difference as soon as I was clear of the trading post. Everything about the Hermes was more responsive, more agile. Wanting to test the engine I gunned the throttle. 100m/s, 200m/s, 300m/s.... 340m/s. Well I wouldn't even be able to qualify for a race but it might just manage to keep me alive.

"Hey boss, Ore mine gamma is sending an SOS" Gizmo siad

"Let me hear it." I repled

A stressed looking Argon appeared on the comms panel "This is Carl from the Gamma Mine we are under attack and helpless. Any nearby ships please respond. We are offering 1420cr to any ship that comes to our aid."

"This is William McCloud," I replied "I'm on my way." Turning towards the mine I accelerated to full speed and armed my weapons. At 15km I was still to far to see anything on my scanners. 14k, 13k, 12k, 11k...

Alert! Enemy contact identified.

A single Xenon N. Just one. Not three, not two, just one. "Gizmo, correct me if I am wrong but couldn't that thing dive head long into the station and still not hurt it?" I asked

"Haha, that's right boss. Not enough fire power to even scratch it's shields either. I read it going 300m/s, so we have a slight speed advantage. From it's weapons fire it looks to be equipped with IREs. Usually they have 2 mJ shields just like us. It should be a fair fight."

The xenon was so focused on the mine he didn't notice as I slide in behind him, waiting for just the right shot... Now! Pulling the trigger I felt the guns unload. PewPew, PewPew Direct hit! The xenon's shields dropped to 45%. Of course now he noticed me, banking sharply to the right to evade me. Luckily with my new upgrades it was nothing to follow him laying down fire. Miss, miss, miss. "Come on Gizmo I know I am firing where you telling me to, why aren't I hitting?"

"Boss that's not part of my program. Your ship only have a basic prediction software." That makes since I guess Gizmo really wasn't made to be a combat program. The xenon was still trying to lose me but I was stuck to him like glue, I just could seem to get a firing solution with him. Miss, miss, hit, miss. At this rate his shields were easily compensating for the damage I was dealing. Then I pulled the trigger and nothing happened looking at my weapons display I see the reason why, my weapon energy was completely drained. SHIT!. I let off the trigger but stayed on his tail, if I lost him he could easily flip the tables on me. As I fought to keep on his tail a spiral of missiles flew past my ship and impacted the Xenon N. Turning around I find the culprit, A Shrike belonging to the Plutarch Company. I guess they were worried about their profits. Still the mine paid me which made my wallet fell much better. As I turned to leave the area the Shrike hailed me.

"Thank you for helping in the defense of our interests." The captain of the shrike started, "I'll pay you 1400cr if you find and eliminate any more Xenon." I took him up on his offer and spent the next couple hours patrolling and exploring ore belt but nothing showed up. Finally the shrike captain called me back, thanked me for my time and paid me 300 cr. Now that I had completely explored ore belt I started towards the east gate, only to have Ore mine beta hail me begging for protection, offering 388 cr. The money wasn't good but money is money so I headed their way only to arrive in time to see a Plutarch Ares blast another N to oblivion with wasp missiles. I guess the Plutarch Company had this area well protected. So I said bye to ore belt.

<Jumping to Cloudbase Southeast>

"Hey boss, did you know that we have an extra 1 mJ shield gen?" Gizmo said "Its been there this whole time." I hadn't realized that and was kinda curious why it was there. However I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Cloudbase southeast looked just as I remembered it, including the shipyard where I sold the extra shield gen for a couple thousand credits. Just as I was getting ready to leave the stations klaxons sounded.

Red alert. Red alert. All hands to your stations. Incoming Pirates. All fighter pilots to your ships!

No need to tell me twice. I was salivating over a chance to take down some pirates.

[Triaxx2]

Very cool. If you're interested in some pilots to fly your fighters, let me know.

[kaistern]

I would defiantly love some wingmen, might be awhile before i can use them though lol I am still using every dime i get to upgrade the hermes

[Litcube]

It's a fun part of the game, isn't it?

[Triaxx2]

No worries, just planning for the future.

[kaistern]

Litcube quit sounding so smug lol It is freaking hard to adjust to the changes you made in fighter combat I like the challenge though. It wasn't so bad on the advanced start, I got my fight rank up to 15 in the first hour (capped a few phanon traders and assorted drones then started dropping every combat mission in a system at the same time) but this is really testing my skills lol. I am still hoping to cap a m5 that can equip PACs I think I could do better with though even if I have to watch the weapon recharge closely.

Note: I started checking the stats for ships on the Wiki before I engage them. It isn't always accurate due to the fact that LU made Balancing changes to most ships but it will at least give me an idea what I am up against before I engage.

Lets resume the story

"What do you see Gizmo?" I asked as I accelerated away from the ship yard at full speed, weapons hot.

"Two pirate scouts coming in fast. A Rapier and a Octopus. The Rapier's speed is 437, be careful boss it is a terran ship. It can equip 2 electromagnetic plasma cannons that will shred us, it also has 5mJ of shielding. The octopus on the other handis cruising at 354m/s it can equip 4 IREs and only has 1 mJ of shielding.

"Gotcha, lets go octopus hunting then." I turn to engage the Octopus doing a quick jib to the side to avoid its fire, then rolling to bring it into my line of fire. PewPew, PewPew My first salvo shredded its shields. The octopus tried to barrel roll away from me but I was tight on it. Another volley of fire clipped its wing bringing its hull to 80%. The Octopus pulled hard to the side... Right into a spiral of Wasp missiles!

"Damn it!" I shouted "That was my kill!" Pulling my ship around I found the culprit, an Argon military patrol of an Centaur and two Novas. The novas made short work of the Rapier leaving nothing for me. The Centaur hailed me, a short balding captain appearing on the screen.

"Good flying pilot, I have a 3265 cr reward for your help for you."

"That was my kill." I glared back at him

"That kind of thinking only gets pilots killed. A dead pirate is a dead pirate. I am transferring your money now. Safe flying." The money did make me feel a lot better but I was still mad, so close to my first kill. I landed back on the ship yard and used my reward money to nby some more upgrades for my engines and rudder. 10646 credits later my new top speed was 381 and my ship felt like it could turn on a dime, though i barely had enough money left over to buy myself some steak before leaving the station. With the extra Military ships patrolling the sector I doubted that they would need my services anytime soon so I headed north to President's End.

<Jumping to President's End>

The wreckage floating in front of me still evoked rage in my. Why the Kha'ak choose to devastate this system was still a mystery. I quickly mapped out the sector but since it only had wreckage and jump-gates it wasn't long before I jumped through the east gate to Elena's Fortune.

<Jumping to Elena's Fortune>

Elena's Fortune was packed full of stations and military patrols. A quick sweep of the system netted me a mosquito missile and a Mass driver. To bad I couldn't mount the mass driver it would have greatly increased my damage output. I sold the missile at the Military Outpost but couldn't find a buyer for the Mass driver. Guess I'll just hold on to it for now. I was just turning to head back through the west gate when several Factories sent out SOS. A swarm of Xenon Ns were attacking the local stations, I sent a quick message to them telling them that help was on the way but before I could get in range the Military Patrols made short work of the Xenons. They still paid me some chump change for my efforts. I was starting to feel sleepy so I decided to call it a night and dock at the Military Outpost and got myself a room for the night. Thoughts of the days events brought on dreams of the revenge i desired.

[MoonlightMassacre]

Please sir, I want some more

[kaistern]

Ask and you shall recieve! lol Im just glad to know that I have a following



Let us continue

The command and control room was a bee hive of activity, officers nervously manning their stations. Dark with only the red emergancy lights to illuminate the room an errie glow seemed to settle into my soul soul. In the center of the room I stood facing a holoprojection of the system, allied ships and stations in blue, the enemy in red. My fleet was positioned just south of the center of the system blocking the path from the south gate to the planet we were trying to protect. But the battle was growing desprite, no matter how many of them we destroyed, more and more came through the gate.

"Status report." I stated to the room

"Shields at 83% and holding. All cannons at ready sir. The final transports are on their way" My second replied. Focus was hard to be found, I noticed, as I tried to make since of the picture in front of me. The lead elements of my fleet, 4 destroyers and my flag ship were holding the line as scores of fighter craft swarmed around us. Behind us several frigates served as a shrapnel screen for any fighters that might try to make a run on the carrier. Finally in the back the mighty Argon One sat, on loan from what was left of the government, corredinating fighter operations. As I shifted my focus to the enemy position another wave of enemy destroyers warped in through the gate. Seven this time, more then anytime before.

"All right, we all know the drill by now. Focus fire my target. Kill the one in the center and then we will work our way out." I tried to sound confident however I feared that it may not have been the case. I watched as our PPCs fire in sequence quickly overtaking the first destoryer and reducing it to a firey inferno. However my elation was short lived as the destoyers returned fire. The room shook as beam after beam ravished my ship's shields. However the hologram showed that we were not getting the worst of it. The Hades, a Split python, was awash in flames as it's shields buckled and the Kyon beams ravished its hull. Explosion on explosion errupted from the python until in a vibrant flash of light errupted from within it's main reactors imploded. Christ my knees feel weak, and at this rate we wouldn't last much longer... If only those transports would hurry up.

"Admiral, the last transport made the jump, the evacuation is complete." The room burst into cheers as my second anounced the good news.

"Alright everyone, spin up the warp drive. Let's get out of here." I said, then opening a line to the rest of the fleet I continued, "All ships, all ships this is the admiral. The evacuation was a success. Prepare for emergency jump. All fighter craft are ordered to combat land on the carrier. Repeat All craft prepare for a emergancy jump." The bridge shuttered as I finished my speech, another volley from the enemy hitting us hard, throwing me to the deck.

"Hull breach!" The chief engieneering mate cried, "Shields down, hull breach on decks five through seven. Guns fifteen, sixteen, and nineteen are unresponsive."

"Get us out of here!!!" I screamed as I picked my self up. The bridge shook again as more lasers danced across our hull. Finally the warp drive engaged and seconds later we found our selves face to face with the enitre paranoid fleet, sitting just off of paranoid prime. Then to my relief a familair face appeared on the view screen, hailing us from the lead paranoid ship.

"Admiral, I am glad to see that the transports made it safely, but how goes the fight? Why are you here? Where is the rest of the fleet?" Senator Litcube, last surviving memeber of the once great Senate of the Argon said. Looking at the hologram for the first time I relized that my ship was the only one that had made it through the warp. I felt my eyes tear up as I addressed the senator.

"Senator Litcube, their gone. We are all remains of the fleet. There is nothing else left. We have lost the battle for Argon Prime."

---

I woke with a start. The dream had been so real, I couldn't shake the feeling that there had been more to it then just a nightmare. Getting up I splashed some water on my face and tried to forget what I had seen.

---

A few hours later found me back in the cockpit of the Hermes accelerating as fast as I could away from the military outpost. I still hadn't shaken the feeling that something was up but I figured that if I put several light years between me and it then the feeling would fade. I quickly transversed though President's End and into the wall, exploring it was not much of a chore and I continued north to the hole. I hate the hole. It should be renamed the soup because that is what it looked like, and it was so big that I spent hours exploring it and I was still not sure if I had found everything. Onwards to Antigone Memorial.

<Jumping to Antigone Memorial>

The first thing I noticed was the equipment dock, or rather the big sign outside of it advertising that they had the fastest engines in the galaxy. I was out of cash but I still had mass driver in my cargo so I docked and set out to find a buyer. It didn't take me very long, a young Argon weapons dealer was astounded to see such high quality military grade hardware and paid me over 50 thousand credits to get his hands on it. Suddenly feeling rich I headed over to the mechanic's bay to meet the Teladi selling my new engine. It was a thing of beauty, and after doing some research I confirmed that it really was the fastest engine that could be installed into a pegasus. After some haggling I handed him over 33306cr and started towards my new engine.

"No, no, no." The Teladi said with a sly grin, "That is just the show room model. You will have to wait for yours to arrive from Blue Profit. It should only take 2-3 weeks."

"What!?!" I exclaimed "You said you could have it installed in 4 hours!"

"Of course I can! After it arrives that is."

I wanted to make a new pair of boots out of that reptail. But that would only land me in jail and I still would be no closer to my new engine so instead I just stormed off and went to find a room for the next couple weeks.

[kaistern]

I wasn't able to make very much time for X3 this last weekend so I am going to work on character creation as much as possible in this week's upcomming content. That being said there is some really cool DiD content too, including a brush with death that left me with 12% hull remaining!!!

Just to whet you whistle a little