Shoo t'Rgt: Honour and Reason [DiD]

[Nathancros]

[Buck_Rogers]

Nice spending spree there. I'll have to get my backside in gear to gather that amount of credits! lol

[Master of the Blade]

Hoo, it's been a long time. Sorry once again. And, again, much has happened. Including the System Override Software becoming able to hack active ships.

Chapter 44: Behemoth

It takes a while to hunt down the Dark Space station after it jumps away. I find it in the Kha'ak infested Freedom's reach, but it explodes before my eyes, presumably to cover the station's jumpdrive activation. After a lot more hunting it turns up in the most obvious place possible - the 'Dark Space Cluster' in the Sol system, a dark sector littered with the wrecks of Terraformer ships. It's quite a foreboding place. I contact the station and make the transaction for control of #Deca - about 90Mcr, which leaves me just over 100M left. I break my rule of never dropping below that level and purchase 32 Fusion Beam Cannons for it to use. This is more anticapital firepower than anything else in my fleet - the FBC is more powerful than the GCs on my Pteranodon, so this 'carrier' is actually as devastating as a heavy destroyer. This is a ship I could get to like. Shame about the speed, though. That said. I get the feeling this ship is going to be the one I use to battle the #EFAA. The FBC is blue, and the #EFAA can only use dark matter beam cannons, which are red. This is going to look extremely cool. I'm not going to be breaking through the ridiculous numbers of Xenon ships in core 023 any time soon though.

Now I have lots and lots of battleships. May as well take them out for a battle royale, right? I choose X347 as the battleground. I get into the Shard to use as a command ship and give the order for the Statler and its escort frigates to move in first - as my most durable battleship it is best for leading the attack and taking fire. Once it's clear of the gate I bring in the Waldorf with orders to go after the carriers (I order Ogden's wing of Skates to stay in the hangar, as there is still a G floating about), as they can deal a lot of damage but have weak laser generators susceptible to Ion Cannon draining. Finally, in comes the gate-filling #DECA which I tell to go after Statler to provide support. Unfortunately, things don't go quite as planned. The Statler's frigates are taking rather a beating, especially the Trollmeister, from the local cruisers, and help is too far away. First to be ordered to retreat is the Tern which for some reason procrastinates for ages and takes a nasty 40% hull damage before it can jump. Brilliant. Trollmeister gets overwhelmed but escapes intact after doing appreciable damage to a C, and getting caught in the crossfire from that C, the Z, its two C escorts, and a J. The Snotra, Foreboding Angel does really well and chews up a couple of fighter wings before also having to retreat. Before long the Statler is taking far more damage than it can handle and I order it too to jump. It pulls the same damn trick as the Tern and gets nailed for 14% hull damage before it escapes.

With my main source of damage absorbance gone, I hold little hope for the Waldorf and I'm right - it has to escape before doing any noticable damage to the Xenon fleet. The #Deca happily vapourises a couple of Cs which get too far ahead of the main fleet, but I pull it back to Eighteen Billion to avoid damage, and jump there myself. Mildly apprehensive, I board the #DECA to better coordinate the second push. Seems like Dark Space did a pretty decent reconstruction - it certainly has that authentic scary robot ship atmosphere, and I'm not actually sure just how sentient this one is, but its facilities for command and control are astounding. I could test that fleet control capability now to see how it compares to just letting the units do their own thing, but right now we're going to be using just the carrier's mighty weapon arrays to blast a path.

Long story short, everything goes a lot better. The #Deca can lay down incredible amounts of firepower, and judicious use of its jumpdrive keeps the shields reasonably healthy - though that's a weakness in the #Deca, as its shield generators have no hope of keeping up with the damage its capacitors are meant to take, so while it has massive reserves they regenerate extremely slowly. Oh well. Can't have 32 FBCs, 14GJ shielding and a 50 ship hangar for nothing. Eventually there's only the Z left, so I bring in the Waldorf to help and take it out.

With the sector defenders taken out, I feel I should punich the Xenon more for daring to resist. I bet the Rhonkar would laugh at my folly for letting my ships be damaged. Wait, what am I saying? They almost certainly have spies somewhere in my organisation, so, yeah, I can assume they are in fact laughing at me. With that in mind, I feel it's only decent to destroy every station in the sector.

Some time later...


Result: About 30Mcr bounty, about 30Mcr repair bill for the Tern and no way in hell am I paying for the repairs to the Statler. Damn.

[Master of the Blade]

That last chapter kinda sucked, didn't it? I don't think this one will.

Chapter 45: ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL

How the Universe progresses in times of war. A new wave of upgrades has been deployed, from the OTAS corporation releasing a new heavy destroyer, codeveloped with the Split from Operation Final Fury, called the Tempest, the Argon have designed turrets specifically for their own ships - the only races now using mass-produced turrets on their ships are the Boron and Paranid - and the Griffon has been doubled in size to prevent its docking bays from damaging some fighters, and fix reliability problems arising from fitting a capital grade reactor into a corvette hull. And the Pirates have been busy, too. They've developed the System Override Software from a fairly useless claiming addon to a fully functional hacking suite, with the ability to subvert a target's computer systems and take command of the ship, spacing the crew. It goes against my honourable intentions somewhat to have a crew shoved out of an airlock by their own ship, but I don't intend to use it against biological races. Well, maybe the more foolish members of my own race...

Now, I can't do espionage without a bitchin' cool ship - anyone who's watched the J'ms B'nd series of holovids knows that subterfuge can only be carried out in perfect style and with lots of explosions, especially when it involves cutting edge gadgets. So I pick out the sleekest, bitchin'est ship I've decided looks bitchin' and sleek at the moment and fork out sixty five million credits for a Paranid Agamemnon, then about fifteen more for a set of E(lectromagnetic)D(isruptor)A(rray)s, eight P(hased)P(lasma)G(enerator)s and two sets of heavy guns - eight PSGs for the massive firepower, and eight Tribeam Cannons for precision damage to prevent scratching my targets' paintwork too much. The Aggy has more forward firepower than most cruisers, but less overall firepower and bad flak coverage in return for class leading shielding and a very small hull profile. One awkward visit to the moderately shady Paranid pirate group Duke's Buccaneers later and I'm at 90Mcr, having paid about 20Mcr for the SOS equipment and the additional software to hide it from police. Sure, I don't intend to use it for piracy against the Commonwealth or Terrans - or the pirates themselves for that matter - but I wouldn't like to be the one trying to explain that to the suicidally confident police fighter patrols, or the one recovering their ejected space suits after my flak evaporates their ships.

Now sure the Aggy's bitchin' cool (I'll stop that now), but it's not an all out powerhouse like the Kvasir, nor can it quite match the forward punch of the Cyclops, so I don't want to pit it against the crazy Xenon furballs those frigates are wont to wreck. How about X597? I hardly ever see lots of Xenon there, and it's a big, empty sector with lots of room to manouver. Probably the best candidate for a test run.

When I jump in, I spot one group of Xenon across the sector - one large battleship, probably a J since I've not seen a K in a very long time, a C and a G and a few corvettes, and lots of fighters. Video enhancement goggles are useful, huh? I can't take these head on, so first I'll waste the G's missiles so it's not barraging me while I fight.

A few minutes later, done.

Next, I draw away the C (fortunately the carrier has no bomber wing) and kill it off. I've decided to go after the G since I already have lots of conventional frigates, no missile frigates and a massive missile problem - I reckon the failure in X347 a bit ago was because I didn't have enough ships running missile defence. The J is a lot tougher of course, but I manage to slot in just outside its Dark Matter Beam Cannon range and pelt it with shockwaves. Aaand then the fighter swarm gets very, very angry. Remember what I said about the Aggy's flak coverage? I have to retreat via jumpdrive a few times to recharge while whittling down the cloud of incredibly pissed off black bees but eventually I'm down to a number which while not ideal, is acceptable for the hacking operation to go ahead. I swap in the TBCs and head for the now-helpless G. After bringing it down to the 3% shield threshold I turn off all but two of the TBCs to maintain those levels without damaging the hull. Though that means the G's AI core is fully intact and able to repel my hacking attempts, it also means I don't have to pay for fixing damage.

Even though I'm in practically no danger it's unbearably tense. Almost immediately the G's AI bats away my attempt to override it, so I reengage the SOS and have another go. This time I manage to actually begin the hack, but it's not long before I'm told I've been thwarted again. And I've not been watching my shields - the few remaining fighters have brought me down to a decidedly unhealthy 5% so I leave the SOS running and move away from my position immediately above the G to engage them. In doing so, I let the G's shields recharge enough to break my connection. Damn. The fighters are taken care of though. Back to hacking. I'm not interrupted again and after a few more nerve wracking failures and some failure to properly control my weaponry causing damage the G succumbs. OH. YES. Haha! It's mine! I'll amass a fleet of Xenon battleships and use them to work with the #Deca! It will be terrible and awesome and imposing and terrifying and awsome and stuff.

Huh. Got a little carried away there. Still, SUCK THAT RHONKAR! HOW's THAT TERRAFORMER PROGRAMME LOOKING NOW, HUH? OH RIGHT. I DESTROYED IT.

And now I have one of my own. But these ones? They've had chance to evolve.

YES.

Not out of danger yet - I still have to get this beautiful hunk of toaster junk back home before I should celebrate. After debating just flying it through X597 into Boron territory since it came with a 2Gj shield, I decide not to risk it. I get E'den to take the Wolf over to the asteroid base and pick up some ecells and a jumpdrive kit, then come to deploy it to the G. The transfer goes smoothly (I was afraid Xenon reinforcements would arrive to kill something before E'den arrived at the all too slow 150m/s) and I officially own a Xenon missile frigate.

On my way back (I decided to fly) I spot a Kha'ak Advanced Corvette. You know, the massively powerful miniature frigate. Huh. Wonder if this thing works for Kha'ak computers? I move to engage. It's a feisty one and rips into me while I try to control its shields while staying within the suddenly horribly short 2km range. Kha'ak computer architecture is as alien as all the rest of their technology so it takes a few tries for the SOS to even adapt to that well enough to begin to hack it. After it gets past the language barrier, it's met with incredible hositlity from the Kha'ak AI and gets repeatedly booted out while my shields tick down at an alarming rate - the AdvKorvette has 10 BKEs in its main array, and by the clans they're powerful. Analysis on captured ones says they're more powerful by far than my TBCs, and any of the Commonwealth, Terran or Xenon corvette weapons. So, finally, after much failure and even more tension it is mine. Not sure where the weapons'll come from but hey - I own another cool ship!

I wonder... What else can I nick with this?


I got a C after all. They're a bit tough because they have powerful back/left/right turrets and good up/down turrets which can't quite beat my recharge. Doable though - I got four to keep and two or three more to sell.

While sneaking around in X347, I decided I'd try for a J after nicking its C and Q escorts. The J was way too strong for my Aggy so I brought in Trollmeister to do what it does best even better than before. It incapacitated and took the J easily, though I didn't get a picture before I jumped it out. Then I thought, 'what the hell. Two missile frigates is always gonna be better than one, right? So I nicked it.

In Scale Plate green, I take yet another C after transferring back to the Aggy. Then I saw an Advanced Destroyer.


Assets (boy, haven't done one of these in a while!)

Credits: About 150M

Pteranodon, 'Statler' M2+ (2x Centaur Sentinel antifighter corvettes dokced, Trollmeister and Coleacanth escorts)
Megalodon, 'Waldorf' M2+ (8xSkate space superiority fighters, led by Ogden Suffras - Green wing, Tern and Wolf escorts)
#DECA, '#deca' M1+ (2xC, 1xQ, 2xG escorts)
J M1 (shielded, but no guns because all the ones I stockpiled areattached to the frigates. Docked for outfitting.)
4x C M7 cruiser (weapons, shields, upgrades) two protecting deca, one on each G.
2x G M7M (fitted for missile defence with obscene numbers of mosquitoes, protecting deca.)
1x Q M7 (weapons, shields, protecting deca)
Cyclops, 'Titan's Gaze' M7 cruiser (Hammerhead, Artemis escorting)
Kvasir, 'Harbinger Angel' M7 cruiser (Snotra, and I could've sworn I had another frigate escorting)
Agamemnon Electronic warfare frigate, 'Subterfuge' M7 cruiser (player)
Sturgeon, 'Trollmeister' M7 ion frigate
Snotra, 'Foreboding Angel' M7 flak boat
Wolf M7 beam type flak boat (E'den)
Tern M7C (2x Vidar sentinel, 4x Peregrine docked)
Artemis M7C
Coelacanth M7C
Hammerhead M7C (10xPike, blue wing missile interceptors)
Adv Korvette - docked in ocean of fantasy for recovery
Adv H. Hydra, 'Fell Snake' - docked for mothballing
H.Nemesis, 'Boomstick' - docked for mothballing
Lots and lots of captured Ls and a few LXes.
Lots and lots of M5 station campers
1x Mercury Mk1 Silkworm tanker
2x Mercury station freighters to shift the retarded amounts of ore my plex produces
1x mercury missile ferry in Xi
1x mammoth

Good Lord, and that's only what I can remember.[/url]

[Master of the Blade]

Further maths exam tomorrow, so no chapter, if anyone's reading. Or cares.

[Nathancros]

[Buck_Rogers]

[Master of the Blade]

Back again with another chapter. Been insanely busy recently, work experience last week (plus a visit to Oxford university which took two days out of that which was a bummer), two days in college then a visit to York uni, then Cambridge uni today, and a concert with one of my bands tomorrow. It's crazy. This chapter would've been called, 'through the fire and the flames' if I hadn't already made that reference somewhere in this thread (IIRC). I also think I've used the title video before (perhaps while bemoaning the clunky hacking of #cafe?) but it's funny and appropriate.

Chapter 46: HACKING!

It isn't interested in me yet, so I watch it from afar as it shoots down salvoes of missiles originating from a Gannet somewhere it the sector, those devastating beam cannons proving a rather effective missile screen. Even with it distracted by the M7M, I don't think the Agamemnon is quite up to getting anywhere near the alien battleship intact, nor is the Sturgeon. My Megalodon, on the other hand, should be capable of getting in close enough to use the SOS while keeping those Kyon emitters out of action. I request the jump, with special orders that under no circumstances should Ogden Suffras' Green Wing be launched. They'd probably do reasonably well against the capital beam weapons, but I really don't want to risk the destroyer having some Beta Kyons as well, which most certainly are effective against fighters. Ogden's been around a long time and I don't want to lose him, even if I didn't forget about him at all. I transfer all the necessary equipment along with myself to the sufficiently titanic Waldorf and begin approaching my foe, less titanic in appearance but certainly more so in its vicious weaponry.

As I make my approach, the Teladi M7M's missile barrages stop and the Adv. Destroyer begins swinging its bough towards me. It's not long before that familiar, sickening crackling of the Gamma Kyon Emitter begins sounding through the metallic components of Waldorf's hull and the shield counter begins ticking down scarily fast. I tried to approach in such a way the destroyer wouldn't be able to get me with many turrets, but I think it managed to draw a bead with its front, up and right broadside turrets when I came in range so I'm taking rather a beating. I push on, cursing the short range of the Ion Cannon.

Finally, with only 30% shielding to spare, my cannons open up and within a few seconds my shields stabilise at 12%, just about keeping up with the rather less voracious attacks now that I've drained the destroyer's laser batteries. Now for the hard part: moving into the SOS's 2km range without letting the Adv. Destroyer recharge its lasers. That means keeping the frontal and left broadside turrets on target. On a four kilometre long ship where said broadside turret is mounted to the rear, and the SOS apparatus is mounted approximately in the midsection. This can only end well.

As I gingerly manoeuver the Megalodon, my foe begins firing off into space. Turns out that Gannet was just taking a breather, and has now sent a few more volleys in this general direction. With the destroyer unshielded and incapable of firing quickly enough, and myself in a position where if I stop preventing it from firing I get zapped I can only watch as my prize goes up in a swarm of Hammers. Well, it was fun while it lasted. Since I'm already in my destroyer, I may as well tool around in it a little more. I set a course for Nyana's Hideout.

As I fly through the sector I spot a P attacking local shipping, though mainly a Goner M6 Truelight Seeker, fast and heavily shielded ships with large cargo bays but poor weaponry. They're at a little bit of an impasse, with the P unable to draw a bead on the goner long enough to hit and the Goner insisting on standing and fighting with only four rear weapons. A few freighters've been dragged in too by the P's turret fire, though even the combined fire of the Truelight Seeker and about five TS ships can't even scratch the P's shields. I pass them by.

Then I turn around.

What do I stand for in this universe? I campaign for justice and honesty, fighting the good fight. I nearly left those traders and pacifist Goner to die fighting hopelessly against a merciless war machine. The Argon couldn't help - they've been decimated by repeated Terran attacks, and probably don't care either way. I've made it my damn job to care and if I'm going to earn money from mercenary work I may as well save a few innocents while I'm at it. And damn, was that the most satisfying corvette kill I may have ever made.

I've got a reasonable amount of cash again, so I decide to fill up more of the docking space my fleet has available. First I buy another wing of ten Pikes, set up similarly to Blue Wing. They go to the Coelacanth. Next is eight Skates, set up like Green wing, to fill up the docking space on the Hammerhead. I think I'll use ten Barracudas and another eight skates onboard the Coelacanth, and I have yet to finalise a flight wing for the Artemis or Tern, let alone #deca or my J, but either way those fighters cost me nearly all my money, and that means Xenon bashing is iminent.

[Buck_Rogers]

[Master of the Blade]

[Buck_Rogers]

Oh dear. Not having much luck are we? lol I would stick Ogden in the brig.

[Master of the Blade]

The game must have taken pity on my failures to hack. I did a Xenon patrol and got three Cs and a G, along with about 20Mcr bounty. I've also been in that Kha'ak sector. Man, it's rough. I'll put up a chapter some point today or tomorrow.

[Master of the Blade]

Just did something awesome. And it might not fit into this chapter for all the other awesome things I've done recently.

Twin Phoenix

After the fiasco at X347, I decide to roam the Universe in the Aggy (Named Subversive, by the way) for a while to build up funds and follow a few unexplored gate connections. Eventually, this brings me to Heaven's Assertion where the Xenon are suspected to be planning a major attack. The base pay is good, but bonuses are terrible. I can boost that by taking any capital ships they bring as my own. So, Xenon, bring it!

The first wave is two Cs, a G and some corvettes, along with a few fighters. First order of business is to skirt the G's range so it wastes its missiles on me. Unfortunately, one of the Cs locks onto me and I have to get a little creative to stop it catching up while I avoid getting nailed by missile barrages. Once the torpedoes stop coming I turn to face off with the C. My game of keep away with the G has put me to the far North-East, well away from the rest of the Xenon, who, enjoying the artillery cover from the G, have devastated the local defenders and are picking off the civilian traffic. I couldn't survive against two other cruisers simultaneously, especially not with the G, so the deaths are sadly unavoidable. It's better that I can come back to limit damage than go out in a blaze of glory. I'd dearly love to, but I have a vendetta to fulfil. Either way, with being so far from the rest of the Xenon, they surely won't notice if one of their cruisers goes missing?



The hack goes off without a hitch, and I manage to snag the other C by killing off its escorts, then slotting in above it in that position where it can't quite get enough damage on me to break my shields. It takes me a long way North, so I send both frigates further off the ecliptic to prevent them from getting caught in the fight. I grab the G for good measure and another wave arrives, this time with a lot of corvettes but no frigates, so I just take them out. PSGs are wonderful for killing all types of ship, and have no problems hitting the nimble corvettes. The final wave gives me a shock, though.



I certainly can't take an I on my own, but I can try to steal the C. I pull it away from the destroyer to prepare for the hack. Unfortunately, not far enough - when the AI succumbs, the I manages to catch it before I can get it to the area where I put all my other captures. It was nearly intact before that, too! I put myself between the I and my C, and fortunately manage to pull its attention away and get the C out of there with 73% hull integrity. With only the I remaining, I call in the Statler to deal with it. Between me and the Pteranodon, it falls fairly easily and I get a sizable bounty from the Paranid.

After the sale of all those Xenon frigates, I have somewhat over 400MCr, and am in dire need of a new arch nemesis to do battle with. The Kha'ak in 841 seem like a good target, but first I want some more firepower. The Pteranodon has served me well, so I purchase two Phoenix destroyers from Seizewell to act as escorts for my heavy battleships and general damage sponges. Should be handy when I make the jump.

[Buck_Rogers]

Looks like your luck has turned. Nice one. I would like to make 1 suggestion though? Find another image host! I can't read anything on your screenies! Even if I zoom in on it.

[Master of the Blade]

Yeah, imageshack is pretty sucky, but I haven't bothered looking for another host. I'll see what I can do. I actually had to cut that chapter short in order to walk my dog...