Boarding the Brigantine

[Demolisher 2]

-----Teladi Military Broadcast-----

This is an account of the battle in Unkown Sector next to the Maelstrom recorded automatically by the black box of ship YM6VX-88 recovered by the local Teladi Military deep space patrol. Beginning playback:

00:00 The ship jumps into the sector, the Condor class Carrier owned by the Silver Fleet is already launching fighters. A Pirate Brigantine looms in the distance, apparantly the target for a boarding operation.

07:30 A Pirate Galleon jumps in behind the Silver Fleet's ships and launches all 25 of it's fighters: mainly Blastclaws. The Condor's wing of fighters (Falcon Haulers) is ordered to attack the enemy Carrier. The Condor sends out a distress call to the rest of the Silver Fleet.

10:00 The Galleon is destroyed in a massive explosion, but the many swarming Blastclaws have reduced the Condors shields to 30% and the Falcon Haulers now number only 24 out of the original 35. An S.F. Shrike jumps in and begins to engage fighters, but the Brigantine has come within range of the Condor.

12:00 The Brigantine's massive forward firepower destroys the Condor whilst itself taking only 30% shields damage. Another Shrike joins the battle.

15:00 The Falcon Haulers (concentrating fire on the Brigantine) have reduced it's shields to nil, and the Heavy Centaur (the ship which recorded the flight) moves in and commences boarding operations. One of the two Shrikes has been destroyed, and another has taken heavy shield damage. Two more shrikes join in the battle and a Carrack frigate also arrives.

19:30 The marines have breached the hull of the Brigantine and the Shrikes have managed to bring the Carrack down to 50% shield. The Heavy Centaur launches a volley of Typhoon missiles at the Carrack which is destroyed.

20:00 The marines fail to hack the computer core. The two remaining shrikes are heavily damaged by the Brigantine. The marines try to evacuate the ship.

23:30 The entire Silver Fleet has been destroyed in the sector except the Heavy Centaur. As all is now lost, it sends a distress call for a Silver Fleet Phoenix to jump to the sector and end the conflict.

25:00 The camera lens is obscured by ClusterFlak and the sound of Incendiary bombs hitting rocks the Heavy Centaur. As the Phoenix jumps in the hull of the Centaur finally disintegrates. The fate of the Phoenix is unknown.

The recording stops abruptly. The Brigantine and Phoenix were never heard from again, both are presumed destroyed. The overall losses were:

PIRATE CLANS:
1xBrigantine (presumed)
1xGalleon
1xCarrack
40-50xBlastclaw
total cost ~480M

SILVER FLEET
1xPhoenix (presumed)
1xCondor
35xFalcon Hauler
4xShrike
1xHeavy Centaur
total cost ~400M

The overall outcome for the battle was a victory for the Silver Fleet, but it is rumored they lost their leader in the battle. If this is true, the Pirate forces have been victorious. The Teladi Military advises all ships to forgo journeys into the sectors south of Merchant Haven, as the Silver Fleet was a powerful paramilitary organization, yet still met it's end here. This area of space has now been classified as a danger zone equivalent to the Xenon sectors. You have been warned.

-----Broadcast Ends-----

[Sandalpocalypse]

that's quite the brawl - I'm curious about your use of Falcoln Haulers. Are they suitable as a combat ship?

[crawlerw]

hmm should go there. alot of loot in that sector

[Demolisher 2]

Falcon Haulers are great ships! They are the fastest Teladi M3, and have a 200MJ shield and a turret which makes them very deadly. They can also carry large amounts of missiles, or double as a light freighter.

[The Great Destroyer]

My real question is why use Teladi craft against an advanced Pirate squad ?I would've bet the Pirates would've won.

I've just recently scouted that area & it does indeed have the number of Pirates you have described absent the number of Blastclaws,Galleon but with an additional 2 Carracks it is my intention to set up a Complex selling Space fuel & weed in the second unknown sector,but the Pirate force poses a significant problem for potential customers.

My plan for clearing out that force would've been just to use a bunch of fighter drones to assist in the operation before bringing in an M1 carrier.However,since I'm not going to be so 'nice' an Osaka with a large force of Scimitars will do.

[Demolisher 2]

They only won because I tried to steal the Brigantine. If I hadn't, I would have destroyed them easily, as the Phoenixes can easily destroy any other capital ship in a 1v1 battle. The Shrikes and Falcons and Ospreys were expendable cannon fodder. I may not use Ospreys in future, they turned out to be glass cannons - lots of damage, but paper-thin shields versus the heavy capital ship weapons.

I like Teladi ships because they feel expendable, unlike that shiny Paranid Odysseus costing 105M credits. The Ospreys are the only exception.