Terror of Terra (Spoilers)

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Callidus Thorn
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Terror of Terra (Spoilers)

Post by Callidus Thorn » Wed, 8. Sep 10, 20:52

Chapter 1 Pride before the fall

I can't believe it has come to this, sitting in a holding cell, with everything I had built in ruins, and everyone I know dead.

I was running a fairly good piracy crew based out past the Oort Cloud, “redirecting” freighters, picking off small patrols, and generally giving authority the finger. The military have always had trouble in the unknown sectors out there, ships going missing, strange sightings, all that sort of stuff, but they could never find anything out there, there was just too much to search. Back then we were living out of stolen freighters, we had no choice: a base would have been spotted, and we needed to stay mobile. What we needed to do was get out of Terran space, but to do that we needed to look like a convoy, so we needed an escort. So I figured that since no-one would pay any attention to a few freighters escorted by some fighters and a corvette, we needed to “procure” a corvette.

So we stepped up our raids and waited for the token response that the military would be required to send out. We'd stolen a prisoner transport a couple of months back, so I already had a boarding party waiting for a target. The response, however, was surprising: a handful of fighters, and an ATF Vidar. More than I'd bargained on meeting, but all the more tempting because of that. With a limited window of opportunity we had to go for it, so guns blazing, we charged. Half the escort was destroyed before it could react, and the other half was too shocked to co-ordinate with each other and were quickly picked off.

The Vidar was packing some heavy firepower, and had a ridiculously small turning circle, but there were too many of us for it too handle, and eventually we were able to take the shields down. At that point the TP was flown in at a wholly unsafe speed (the pilot had been kicked out of the military for excessive recklessness) and the boarding party was able to take the ship fairly quickly.

We'd lost nearly a third of our fighters, but now I had a flagship, so it was probably worth it. After patching it up (and cleaning it up) we formed up the convoy and made our move.

Heading through the Accelerator, we ran straight into a sizable ATF fleet. The Vidar had been a trap, and we had walked right into it. It was over in under a minute, most of my small fleet blown up, although some of my pilots chose to eject, and my “flagship” was boarded. All I could do was sit there, listening to the crew being killed by the invaders, who then burst onto the bridge, a rifle butt went hurtling towards my head and everything went black.

I woke up in this holding cell, and I was not alone. There were three men waiting for me to regain consciousness. One of them was definitely a lawyer, one was with the military, and going by the rank pins, was a General, and the third man was ATF. I swore, repeatedly. They then explained my situation and gave me a choice: life imprisonment, or conscription, no choice at all really...

Rules
Dead Is Dead (glitch death does not count)
No buying new ships (Exception, see below) second hand ones allowed
Must complete Terran plot immediately
Until completion of Terran plot, Terran ships only (plot permitting)
After completing Terran plot, all Terran ships must be sold, at which point an M3+, TM, TS, and a TP can be bought
After Terran plot I can only go to Terran space to cap Terran ships, and Terran shipyards cannot be used for repairs
No searching for abandoned ships, but I can claim them if I stumble across them.
No missiles while using Terran ships (You'll see why later)
Last edited by Callidus Thorn on Mon, 27. Sep 10, 21:40, edited 1 time in total.

Matticus88
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Post by Matticus88 » Thu, 9. Sep 10, 00:49

Good luck with your DiD story :) i will be watching and reading. Sounds like it could be a good tutorial style DiD story.

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Post by kgkosio » Thu, 9. Sep 10, 01:59

Looking forward to this story.
Fan of the save game manager by badger
Best Steam DiD death: Fly into a TL repeatatly while repairing it

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eldyranx3
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Post by eldyranx3 » Thu, 9. Sep 10, 05:03

:thumb_up: Spread these chapters out, highlight the interesting parts, and I'm sure you'll have readers.

MarineMan
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Post by MarineMan » Thu, 9. Sep 10, 18:48

looking forward to this. I might even try being a terran pirate it sounds incrdibly hard. no jumping out if you are attacked, no selling ships no equipment except what you steal; really that is tough.
I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, imagining i've lived my life and done nothing ~ George S. Patton

Callidus Thorn
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Post by Callidus Thorn » Thu, 9. Sep 10, 22:31

Now is where it starts to go downhill. I imagine disappointment is inevitable.

Chapter 2 “Rigged to Blow”

Now of course this deal came with certain conditions, the way I understand it, I do their dirty work and if it goes wrong they display my record and avoid a diplomatic incident. Great for them, bad for me. But wait, it gets better. To ensure my continued co-operation I have been told that my performance will be taken into account, and that my assets may be returned if I perform well, and they even hinted at the possible return of my Vidar, but I'm not holding my breath on that front.

That's the carrot, here's the stick. Failure to follow orders (although I do have a degree of flexibility) will result in the arrangement being terminated, along with me. To that end they have given me back my old Sabre, with a little something extra, a new paintjob and a name. Although it seems that someone has a particularly morbid sense of humour, since they've called it “Rigged to Blow”, and it is. To ensure that my mind stays focused on the task at hand, they've provided me with a little incentive: a small but potent bomb hard-wired into the computer.

This is bordering on the sadistic, and checking out the cargobay just makes the feeling worse. I've been given several missiles, so I can trigger the bomb prematurely, and blow myself to hell. I think I'll sell those immediately and upgrade the combat computer, at least then I might have a fighting chance. I need to stall for time, I'll play along for now, maybe I can fool them into believing I've changed. That might get me the time needed, and possibly some of my old fleet back, I could use the cash. I imagine that they'll have the same setup though, so I can't sell them in Terran space, but the commonwealth won't know about my situation, and won't hesitate to buy them.

It's only half a plan, but it's better than no plan, all I need to do now is survive. Speaking of which my orders have just come in.

Assets
Sabre “Rigged to Blow”
2 EMPC 4 5mj shields
1000 Credits

Callidus Thorn
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Post by Callidus Thorn » Fri, 10. Sep 10, 21:10

Chapter 3 On patrol

I've been told to report to Lt. Samuel Plinter, I've been assigned to his patrol group. His co-ordinates have been loaded into my sector map, so after selling the poltergeist missiles and upgrading my combat computer, I lay in a course for his ship. At about 5km away, I open a comm channel:
“This is John Skirata, reporting as ordered for patrol duty”
“Right, let's move out”

A couple of minutes in, two of the other pilots begin reporting strange readings on the gravidar, mine doesn't show anything, which leaves me slightly worried. The Lt dismisses them as micro meteorites or something, he didn't seem concerned so I wasn't really interested. Then a priority message came in, the Terra-formers are attacking Neptune, and all ships are to get there immediately. Every Terran knows the stories about the Terra-formers, and knowing they're attacking scares the hell out of me, I'll fight a living, breathing foe any day of the week, but fighting a machine, bbrrrrr. Just the thought sends a cold shiver of fear down my spine.

I've got no choice though, if I run I'm dead, as the name of my ship reminds me. Following the Lt through the Accelerator, I immediately spot the main group of AGI, it's hard to tell how many there are since they're locked in combat with other military forces. I notice a trio of scout ships about 6km away, and decide to go for them, rather than dive into the main firefight and risk getting fragged by friendly fire, whoever's there is far too trigger-happy with missiles in my opinion.

I'm in a better ship with better weapons, so I decide I can risk going head to head with them, they're far enough apart that I can take them one at a time. As the first one comes into range I squeeze the trigger, the first few shots going wide before the next few hammer through its shields and tears the ship apart. Not too tough, and it barely scratched my shields. Dispatching the next two with similar expediency, I turn back towards the center of the sector and find there are even more AGI than there were before. Where the hell are they coming from?

An incoming transmission answers that question, they've set up a jump beacon, and we need to scan and destroy it. Unfortunately, that revelation was accompanied by a new wave of AGI. The next couple of minutes flash by in a blur of adrenalin fueled frenzy. Aim, fire, re-acquire. With them dispatched, I grab a quick scan of the beacon, and blow it to pieces before any more show up.

Shame it was just a decoy.

Assets
Sabre “Rigged to Blow”
2 EMPC 4 5mj shields
5,790 Credits

Matticus88
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Post by Matticus88 » Fri, 10. Sep 10, 22:01

now we've started! looking good so far :)

Callidus Thorn
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Post by Callidus Thorn » Sat, 11. Sep 10, 23:11

Chapter 4 Just in case

Yep, the AGI attack on Neptune was a distraction while they stole data from a station in orbit around Mars. So while most of the military charges over there, I'm ordered out to Oort Cloud in case the AGI try something from over there. It seems those “micro-meteorites” were actually some form of drones, and I'm under orders to follow one and see what it leads me to. At least it beats being shot at, I just wish I was being paid for it.

Shortly after arriving in Oort Cloud, a message drone appears. It's travelling too fast for me to keep up, but I stay on the same heading after it left scanner range just in case. Seems I'm in luck as another jump beacon pops up on the sector map with a Nova parked beside it, but as soon as I get a closer it fires a missile and jumps out. The missile took out the jump beacon so the whole exercise failed to yield much, although the presence of a Nova this far into Terran space is rather odd. Well, all I can do is report and let someone in command decide what needs to be done about it, and since the Lt is now in the system, he seems like the one to report to.

After a brief recap, the Lt orders me to patrol to Saturn, to take out any remaining AGI. What followed was a long, dull patrol, covering three sectors and three AGI scouts, and upon entering Saturn, I was ordered to dock at the research station so the R&D guys could get copies of my scanner readings of the AGI ships. Landing at the station, I was surprised to find that I had actually been paid for the patrol: 4,000 credits, cheapskates. I've also been ordered to dock at the orbital defence station in Asteroid Belt, to meet with an ATF commander, apparently I've proven myself sufficiently capable.

Assets
Sabre “Rigged to Blow”
2 EMPC 4 5mj shields
12,499 Credits

Callidus Thorn
Posts: 255
Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
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Post by Callidus Thorn » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 11:19

Chapter 5 ATF

Undocking from the research station, I line up for the south Accelerator, and brace myself for a long, boring flight. On my way through Jupiter I noticed a pirate flying a Harrier, which led me to wonder if someone else is running a pirate op in Terran space, I still blew it up though, just on principle. If I can't be a successful pirate in Terran space, no-one can.. So I dock at the defence station as ordered, where I receive a message from the ATF guy who “recruited” me, and who gives me the ATF indoctrination speech. He then informs me I can now access Mars orbit, and have been given a scout ship, which he tells me is subject to the same arrangement as my current ship. He also tells me that any ship I might be given will be added to the blacklist for all Terran shipyards, meaning I can't even sell the damn thing. I have been given some time before I need to begin the next mission though, and have been advised to check out the selection of upgrades available around Mars. I'm not sure I like the sound of that...

And I definitely don't like the ship they've given me, it's apparently received no upgrades and so wouldn't be worth using, typical. Since I can't do anything with it, I decide to turn around, and head back to Asteroid Belt. Reporting in, I'm ordered to talk to a Commander Jackson in Heretics end, but as I enter the system I decide to look around a bit first. I discover that the Cattle Ranch is expecting an attack and are offering to pay for assistance. They seem to be expecting major trouble but they're offering over 14,000 credits, so I agree to help them. Just in time it appears as a pair of pirate M5s come careening through the gate, travelling half as fast again as I can manage. It's a simple task to take them out, they're both barely armed and shielded compared to me, although the speed of them makes them hard to hit. Job done, 14k for killing two scout ships, my kind of work, I knew the Terran military were cheapskates.

That done, and remembering the arrangement, I decide I'd better dock at the defence station and talk to the commander, just to be safe and find out what role they want me to play in their investigation. Coming the commander, he gives me the details on the current situation, AGI (or Xenon as they're called by the commonwealth races) attacks accompanied by non-AGI ships, suspicion of outside influence, blah blah blah. All sounds a bit paranoid to me. My orders are to wait for news of an AGI attack, and follow the non-AGI ship back to its base.

Assets
Sabre “Rigged to Blow”
2 EMPC 4 5mj shields
Rapier
26,899 Credits

Matticus88
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Post by Matticus88 » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 13:55

i got this thread bookmarked so i can keep check for updates :) i read through your first DiD as well

Callidus Thorn
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Post by Callidus Thorn » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 21:28

Chapter 6 Snooping

Since I need to wait until the commander tells me where the AGI are attacking, I decide to do a bit of exploring. Another defend station mission nets me 14k again, this time three M5s came through the gate, although one of them plowed into the station I was defending, not that the station owner minded. Shortly after that a message comes in AGI attack in PTNI Headquarters, its a fair distance to cover, but what can I do.

Everything was quiet on the way over, but that went out the window when I got there. Four of the AGI fighters known as “L”s and a pirate Nova Raider. And the AGI were between me and the Nova. I'm outnumbered, outgunned, and outclassed, so I do the only thing that makes sense. I charge in, guns blazing. It takes a few seconds to get through the shields, but once I do I'm ripping chunks out of the hull. The same applies for the other three, although I did get singed by the local military forces, one of whom appeared to be armed with some kind of flamethrower. The end result was good, however, with me scoring lucky hits on three of the Ls and destroying their AI cores, and one still had its shield generators undamaged!

I'd love to claim them, but the Nova is making a run for it, so I set off in pursuit. Following him through the East gate I'm keeping my distance from him at about 15k, to decrease the chances of him spotting me. He immediately heads for a nearby pirate base, where he docks, and then a different ship undocks and jumps out. I decide I'd better scan the station, since there's obviously something going on there, but when I get close, a group of fighters exits and head towards me.

4 Ms, an Elite, a Buster and a Nova Raider. But they're travelling at different speeds, so I don't need to engage them all at once, the Buster is flying with one of the Ms, another of the Ms is flying close to the Nova, and the rest are scattered. Opening up on the M, I drop his shields and he turns blue on my hud. I'm beginning to suspect that it's a side effect of my weapons rather than luck, since this is the fourth AGI ship that this has happened to. The Buster escorting it gives me no trouble, nor does anything else apart from the Nova Raider, and both he and the accompanying M went blue also, I love these guns. Grabbing a quick scan of the base, I spot another pirate base, so I dock there and upgrade my combat computer further, grab a freight scanner for later, and get a life support system installed in my cargobay. I head back to PTNI Headquarters to claim those Ls, and grab the ships in system on the way, altogether a highly successful mission.

Assets
Sabre “Rigged to Blow”
2 EMPC 4 5mj shields
Rapier
2 Ms
2 Ls
Nova Raider
2,499 Credits

Callidus Thorn
Posts: 255
Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
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Post by Callidus Thorn » Wed, 15. Sep 10, 12:26

Chapter 7 Xenon with a twist

Now you've probably noticed that I'm short an L. I don't know what happened to it, but it wasn't there on my return, at least it wasn't the one with the shields. Another dull journey inspired me to sign on as escort for a convoy heading from Circle of Labour to Omicron Lyrae, which ended up going horribly wrong, so I lost out on 174k there. Since I was in Omicron Lyrae, I accepted an offer to defend the sector from a Xenon attack, it was mostly scouts but I got 28k out of it. I followed that up with defending a station from Xenon, which earned me 22k, and after that was able to pick up all the missiles dropped and sold them for a little over 45k. Selling off the ships I'd salvaged got me another 890k, although I'm not sure yet what to do with it, I'll have to wait and see. I also took out another AI core on an AGI scout but the damage I'd done to it rendered it worthless, I couldn't believe it was holding together.

Reporting in to the commander, the first thing he did was pass on ATFs disappointment that I had sold the AGI ships to the Teladi, rather than bringing them back for the R&D boys. I didn't realize they were keeping such close tabs on me, I'll have to be careful in future. Then he gives me my orders, I'm to lead a patrol through several Commonwealth sectors, two ships and three computer controlled scouts they've assigned me. They were armed though, so I had them all eject their EMPC and collected them all, so I'm now fully armed, and ordered them to dock at the equipment dock in Omicron Lyrae to sell their shields, then I'll sell the ships themselves.

Only two of them made it. AGI Ns came up through the south gate of Circle Of Labour and took one out before I could frag them all. As far as the patrol goes it was nice and simple, only Ns to worry about, although these ones seem to be better armed than the ones who attacked Neptune, maybe there's a difference between AGI and Xenon. Heading into Treasure Chest gave me a shock though. More AGI but this time something reminiscent of the Terraformers, they were more Fragile than the Xenon and put up even less of a fight, but it looked like they had the same weapons as me.

Swinging through Omicron Lyrae to report back, I agree to defend a station from a Yaki assault, not that it lived up to the term, two M4s and two M5s, but still worth 50k. Once I get back to Heretics End and report in, I'm told that these AGI are also attacking the Commonwealth, and that I'm to meet Lt Plinter and escort a freighter carrying pieces of several of their ships to a station in Venus for further analysis.

I've got a bad feeling about this.

Assets
Sabre “Rigged to Blow”
4 EMPC 4 5mj shields
1 L
3 25mj shields
1,210,683 Credits

Callidus Thorn
Posts: 255
Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
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Post by Callidus Thorn » Thu, 16. Sep 10, 17:21

Chapter 8 I hate being right

The feeling got worse when I saw the pilot, who was flying the freighter like they were drunk. I began to regret putting on the autopilot to avoid the tedium, due to the nausea it was causing. Fortunately things smoothed out once we hit Asteroid Belt, but progress was still slower than I would have liked, but boring means safe so I can't really complain. It makes a nice change to not be shot at while following orders. It was about halfway across Asteroid Belt that I noticed that the LT had gone. After him telling me to stay in formation I found this particularly amusing, although the lack of on hand support did worry me, despite having been informed that ATF forces were around just in case something happened.

I was only vaguely surprised when it did.

Shortly after entering Mars orbit, a message was broadcast to every member of the USC. A Terraformer ship had broken through the defensive positions in Asteroid Belt, sustaining heavy damage, and was approaching Mars, which of course meant I had to endure an “I told you so” moment from my gut feeling. I didn't think it was much of a threat until I remembered the jump beacons they'd used in the past, at which point the ship came through and dropped one.

A Carrier class ship and a handful of Ls and Ms. Now the small ships didn't concern me, but the J scared the hell out of me, but orders were to take out the Terraformers, so yet again outgunned and outclassed, I went in. As a concession to survival though, I skirted the engagement zone first to get some distance between me and the J, before opening fire on one of the Ls, who went down in a hail of gunfire. The second L almost wrecked my shields when it fired off some form of homing missile, which I didn't have time to target before it hit me. I'd barely taken the L out when the last of the Ms had me bracketed and took my shields down into the red on its opening run, I was able to finish him off before I lost shielding completely but it was only with about 2% to spare. With the smaller ships taken care of, I got the hell out if there and let the larger ships take care of the J, which took out a Katana before eventually falling to a Yokohama. I had received new orders instructing me to talk to a captain Benthami in Venus, but before doing that I did a sweep of the former combat zone to collect any salvage, five Banshees, eight poltergeists, and the real prize; a Hammerhead. All but the Hammerhead were sold before heading through the Accelerator to Venus/

Assets
Sabre “Rigged to Blow”
4 EMPC 4 5mj shields
1 L
3 25mj shields
1,161,743 Credits

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eldyranx3
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Post by eldyranx3 » Thu, 16. Sep 10, 18:20

Congratz on still being alive at this point :wink:

Callidus Thorn
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Post by Callidus Thorn » Fri, 17. Sep 10, 17:32

Thanks, I suspect part of this is due to the ship. I can outrun anything that can blow me up, and outfight anything keep up at the moment. And I'm really liking the EMPCs. I just wish the Terrans would pick one name for the Xenon rather than use Xenon, AGI, and Terraformers.

Chapter 9 Cloak and dagger

After reporting in to the captain, I was given another ship, an advanced Discoverer, this time though, I'm not told if its subject to the agreement. I hope it's valuable because I don't plan to use it, but I decide to remove the mineral scanner from it, just in case I ever feel the need to scan some asteroids, I'm fairly sure I saw someone willing to pay someone to do that in Commonwealth space. For now all I can do is wait for new orders.

Predictably, my orders are to report to commander Jackson, in Heretics End. I'm starting to tire of being the trigger man for the ATF, but I'm not yet in a position to do anything about it, since I'm lacking resources at the moment. Heretics End is busy as useful, and signing on to defend a station and patrol the sector nets me 136k, and a couple of my foes chose to save their lives and donate their ships, a half wrecked Fujin Sentinel, and an almost destroyed Buzzard, which was so damaged that it wasn't worth the hassle of claiming it.

Reporting in, the commander first compliments me on my recent work against pirates, seems it's being noticed, then moves on to my orders. Seems the Terraformer ships were built from Commonwealth materials, and since data on the Terrafomers had been stolen previously, investigation is required. I'm ordered to meet captain Pearle in Nathans Voyage and assist him in investigating the Argon.

As I enter Nathan's Voyage, it seems my luck is in as there's a pilot selling his Nova for about 360k, and it's in fairly good condition. So I buy and send it off to be repaired or sold, I'm not yet sure which, although thanks to that L I've got sitting in Teladi space I do have shields for it, and it does seem to be a reasonable combat vessel. Karma kicks in though, as I find out that not only is Pearle not at the rendezvous point, he's been captured by the Argon military and is being held in a sector under their direct control! The Lt who informed me of this had been working with Pearle and has a plan to get him out, but first we need to talk to her Teladi contact.

I've got a real bad feeling about this...

Assets
Sabre “Rigged to Blow”
4 EMPC 4 5mj shields
1 L
3 25mj shields
1 Advanced Discoverer
2 IRE 2 1mj shields
1 Nova
956,654 Credits

Callidus Thorn
Posts: 255
Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
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Post by Callidus Thorn » Sat, 18. Sep 10, 20:48

Chapter 10 Good business

What followed was a long and dull journey to Grand Exchange. I grabbed a defend station mission on the way, for an easy 170k, then picked up a Xenon defence mission in Grand Exchange, which led to me engaging a group of seven Ns and a pair of Ms, none of which gave me too much trouble, although the guns on the Ms nearly zeroed my shields again. I've decided I like working for the Teladi, they pay very well, giving me a 1k bonus for each N I killed, and nearly 7.5k for each M. I followed that up with a patrol of Grand Exchange and defended a station, which gave me another 300k and allowed me to capture my first bomber, a Peregrine, which on later inspection I found to have 5 intact 25mj shields. I've also noticed what seems to be a regular occurrence of pirates heading through the system, an M3+, an M3 and two M4 escorts, I picked off the first two groups, trying to convince the Kea's pilot to donate his ship, but no luck, and the next one I saw had PBGs, so I gave that one a miss.

Meeting the Lts contact, he agrees to help if we take care of a business rival of his, who is smuggling space weed with pirate help. The Lt seems to be a bit squeamish, which means I have to be the trigger man. A short trip to Tears of Greed and the Lt locates the target, he's flying a freighter and is backed up by three M4s. I decide to take out the target first then move onto the escorts. That almost got me killed. The freighter went down without any problem, but one of the escorts popped off a missile, which hit me before I could shoot it down, tearing away three quarters of my shields. Luckily Terran weapons are lethal and the escorts only lasted a few seconds after that, and with them gone it was a simple case of scan freighters looking for pirate smugglers, then blow them to pieces.

Heading back to speak to the contact again, I spotted a Dukes freighter. There are quite a few passing through, and all show up as hostile, so I open fire on it. The Teladi don't seem to mind, and after putting a few dents in it, the pilot decides that the ship is worth less than his life and jumps out the airlock, leaving me with a slightly battered Demeter super-freighter. That should come in handy. I fix it up at the shipyard and transfer the shields across from the Peregrine, and I've got a super-freighter ready to use. The timing was convenient as the Teladi has arranged a Teladianium delivery to sector M148, and for that I need a freighter, handy that.

I really do like working with the Teladi.

Assets
Sabre “Rigged to Blow”
4 EMPC 4 5mj shields
1 Demeter super-freighter “Serendipity”
5 25mj shields
1 L
3 25mj shields
1 Peregrine
1 Advanced Discoverer
2 IRE 2 1mj shields
1 Nova
1,312,533 Credits

Matticus88
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Post by Matticus88 » Sun, 19. Sep 10, 00:12

great read so far :) sounds like you get close to being killed quite often! keeps the story on edge.

Callidus Thorn
Posts: 255
Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
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Post by Callidus Thorn » Sun, 19. Sep 10, 21:02

Of course I almost get killed often, I'm flying an M4 against multiple M3s. Good fun though :) It'll get worse before it gets better. (No really it will)

Chapter 11 Hurry up and wait

On the way to M148 I found an Argon who sold me his damaged Nova Raider for an insane 70k! The guy must have been crazy to sell it for that. That was the highlight of an extremely long and dull crawl to sector M148, due to Serendipity's top speed of 84m/s, after engine tuning. Upon entering 148, I was shocked by the sheer quantity of military force on display. There were several fleets just sitting there, and the thought of trying to rescue Pearle from here was downright frightening. I hope Heywood has a damn good plan. It turned out she didn't, and I was unaware of that until she told me she'd grabbed Pearle, then they both dived out an airlock and told me to collect them. Fortunately none of the military ships moved to intercept, but I was still sorely tempted to grab Pearle and just leave Heywood behind.

I'd switched back to my Sabre (I'd had it follow me all the way here), before undocking from the military outpost because I did not want to fly back to Heretics End at 84m/s, and after collecting them both at a highly unsafe speed, I got out before any of the ships changed their mind. I also told Serendipity to get out of the sector as well, sending it to Omicron Lyrae for now so I don't need to worry about it. On the way to Heretics End I try to find out what Pearle knows, but he's keeping quiet about the whole thing, so maybe he was ordered not to let me know too much before he was captured.

Once I'd docked at the defence station in Heretics End, captain Pearle and Lt Heywood disembarked, looking almost comically relieved to do so, they must have known about the bomb on board. They still refused to tell me what Pearle had found though, nor did I receive any orders after they left. On the upside, my Nova Raider had finally made it to Omicron Lyrae, so I sold my Nova to pay for the repairs to the Raider, which actually left me in profit, surprisingly.

I'd done a few combat missions while waiting for new orders and was in the process of claiming a Peregrine whose pilot had chickened out when I was ordered to report to the defence station in Asteroid Belt. After docking I was informed of the political consequences of the mission, with both us and the Argon increasing security patrols, as well as congratulated on the success of the mission. It seems that the unusual Terraformer ships I encountered previously are a kind of evolutionary offshoot of the original Terraformers, who became the Xenon. It is now suspected that the Split are somehow involved with these Terraformers, so captain Pearle and I are to investigate two Split factions, the Zyarth and the Ryk, and look for evidence as to which faction it is.

Assets
Sabre “Rigged to Blow”
4 EMPC 4 5mj shields
1 Demeter super-freighter “Serendipity”
5 25mj shields
1 L
3 25mj shields
2 Peregrine
1 Advanced Discoverer
2 IRE 2 1mj shields
1 Nova
1,673,819 Credits

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eldyranx3
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Joined: Sat, 14. Jan 06, 21:29
xr

Post by eldyranx3 » Sun, 19. Sep 10, 22:01

Your attention to story continuity is commendable :thumb_up: Its a great read, despite having done that plot wayyy too many times.

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