Shoo t'Rgt: Honour and Reason [DiD]

[Master of the Blade]

Chapter 41: Progress was Made

A lot has happened. The newest versions of all the military ships have been put into production, flaws have been ironed out in existing designs, and I've been ecstatic. One of the most prominent changes is the introduction of a 'bounty' system with the Terrans and commonwealth. A price is automatically allocated to any ship which shows aggression towards a race's assets, which can be collected by bounty hunters with a police license for that race. It's essentially an extension of the already existing police license rewards, but far more lucrative and actually a valid way of making money. This is very, very good. I have made lots and lots of money. Then spent it. Then flattened a Xenon sector and earnt it again. Then spent it. My fleet has grown significantly and I now have some fighter cover. Some of the new M7 carrier ships look smoking hot, and rather useful too. Speaking of which, well, I'll get onto that. Also corporate espionage.

I made the money to buy that kvasir I wanted, along with an ATF snotra class antifighter frigate. The kvasir is dubbed, 'Harbinger Angel' while the snotra is 'Foreboding Angel'. Not the most imaginative names, but they're damn pretty ships. The kvasir I give a loadout of PSPs in its left turret and Fusion Beam Cannons in the right, M/AMLs at the front and SSCs everywhere else. The Snotra gets SSCs everywhere except the front, where I put M/AMLs. The Harbinger Angel turns out to be really freaking powerful, happily chewing up ships many times its size, though it takes ages to do so. To be fair, I reckon the Cyclops could do the same, but it's so much safer for the Kvasir - since its firepower is less focused at the front I can just lead enemies away while the ridiculously powerful Terran weapons slice apart their shields.

With my new source of income, I also purchase some other ships. A terran USC Shard class carrier frigate, admittedly mainly because it looks cool but also because I'm very capital ship heavy already and need somewhere to keep fighters. Along with that is a Teladi Tern class M7 carrier, bought for the far more practical reason that it can carry corvettes and bombers along with fighter wings. It's got 4 peregrines and 2 Vidar sentinels at the moment. Pyren's flying one of the Vidars, since it's pretty much the closest thing in my fleet to a combat ready fighter at the moment.

I get an alert from my early warning satellite in Xi at one point. Turns out it's a cut above the usual fighters that end up in there. The Cyclops's group gets there first and mauls the Karrier without much fuss, but it's the Pteranodon that gets the kill. This bodes well for my sector security.

After that epic spending spree I'm getting on for broke again, so I go indulge in my favourite recreational activity: Xenon bashing, which now nets me vast amounts of money from the races next to those Xenon sectors for removing the threat. Typically the most valuable target is the local command ship, since it leads the main fleet and gets most of the kills. Missile frigates tend to rack up huge bounties as well. That's another thing. The Xenon have decided they want bombers and carrier based bombers. They have them. The actual bomber is based on the P chassis and is equivalent to most other M8s, though it's well shielded at 200MJ. The carrier bomber is just an LX whose guns have been replaced with missile launchers. Not too remarkable. My Pteranodon keeps the missiles at bay with its mosquito antimissile system and those ever-amazing Gauss Cannons.

After regaining my money (by clearing a few Xenon sectors, which takes ages but is definitely worth it) I make a decision. Fighters are really annoying, and I need a way to deal with them. M3s are expensive. M4+es are just right. I like the look of the Boron Pike. I have an empty M7C and the production capability to make whichever missiles I like, especially if I reconfigure that complex in Antigone memorial. Silkworms are devastating against fighters. I'm going to try an experiment. I buy up ten Pikes from the Kingdom End shipyard and outfit them with their 3x25MJ shields. Six of them get only two PACs for guns, the other four get two PACs and two Ion Disruptors. All of them get lots and lots of silkworm missiles with orders to share. There's a Xenon patrol (not a mission, just a patrol of Xenon ships) in Menelaus' Paradise. Perfect for a baptism of fire. I load them into the Shard and jump over.

The results are downright frightening.

The Xenon brought something like 25 M3 and M4 class ships, against my ten M4s. I wasn't expecting much. My Pikes, separated into two wings of five and given the attack all order, launch from the shard and bear down on the Xenon, who are in clusters around the sector. Before I can even get a good lock one of the enemy fighters to take pictures of the action they're all surrounded in the blue exhaust trails of silkworms and reduced to dust. The most damage any of my fighters takes is 50% shield damage when the leader of blue wing gets nailed for a second or two by an LX, which is promptly exploded by a silkworm. HELL YES.

Unfortunately, there is a downside. These guys chew through missiles like anything. I loaded the Shard with 1000 of them, and each Pike got about 85, which I took from that original 1000. When they land to rearm I'm left with about 50. At the rate my complex is making them, it won't keep up with demand. Still, when I crush the Family Rhonkar, I can switch off the other factories in the Antigone complex and have nine Silkworm factories pumping them out.

[Buck_Rogers]

Hell yeah

I love Silkworms. I particularly love spitting them out from my Vulcan. hehehe

[Master of the Blade]

Sorry I've been AWOL for ages - once again college has eaten the majority of my free time. I'll try get a chapter up soon, but my AS exams are in a couple of weeks, so I'm not really hopeful.

[Nathancros]

[GalenEvil]

I have missed so much since I last checked here. I will have to read everything starting with about halfway through the thread I think.

Did my character die/ get phased out while I have been gone?

[Master of the Blade]

Shit, I knew I was forgetting somebody. I remembered Pyren, but completely forgot about Ogden. Yeah, he's not dead and I didn't mean to sideline him. I've ended up with about seven frigates (no joke) and a few wing of fighters, so everyone's going to have ships again once I have an active fleet built. In the meantime, feel free to flag up one of the ships I already have as something you'd like to fly. That goes for everyone, in fact. You want ship? I have lots of ships. There's a reasonably strong possibility I'll put up a chapter tomorrow, but it's actually been a while since I even touched the X universe, either because I got new games (GalCiv2 a while ago, then Kid Icarus Uprising for 3DS for my birthday which is ridiculously fun with an awesome script) or my being buried under mountains of homework.

[GalenEvil]

oooh I am currently having sweet sweet late-night sessions with GalCiv2. Which version are you playing? If you are playing DreadLords I can probably give you pointers if you need them. Have just started playing Twilight of the Arnor though. PM me if you have any questions about the game

As to what ship I want to fly, still have to look through and read from about pg 14 But until my Ogden proves himself through combat in the storyline I would rather stick with a fighter. At least until he has like 10-15 honest kills under his belt. If he happens to have an issue with piloting and crashes into something then we might just say that he was not on duty at the time? >.>

Once getting up there in fighter kills it would be cool to get ahold of a frigate classed ship, as it would be a nice step up from a fighter while still retaining some manual fighter killing awesomeness

[Master of the Blade]

[Buck_Rogers]

YAY! MoTB is back! lol Nice chapter matey.

[Master of the Blade]

Just had an epic session, in which I made retarded amounts of money by rampaging in X347 and the Pteranodon took out a Z while under AI control (I was running support in the Cyclops). I now own a Paranid Artemis, Boron Coelocanth and Boron Hammerhead, all M7Cs.

I also found a... rather shady corporate shipyard, at which I got a FRIKKING AWESOME NEW SHIP! And an idea for a side story involving the #EFAA.

I have two maths exams in the morning and need to sleep, so I won't post a chapter today. In fact, this entire week is exams but I'll try and find time to get one up.

[Triaxx2]

Did this one move from TC to AP? If so I'll want to make sure I note that in the DID list.

[Master of the Blade]

Yeah, it's AP now.

[Master of the Blade]

Chapter 43: #DECA

I'm a very impatient entrepeneur. I did indeed go to spend my money on a new complex, and it's about four fifths done. Then I got bored. When I'm bored I kill Xenon and when I kill Xenon I make lots of money from bounty payments. When I have lots of money, I cannot help but spend it. Therefore, meet three of many new members in the fleet:


The Paranid Artemis M7C, boasting a tiny profile, 25 fighter hangar bay and devastating Electromagnetic Disruptor Arrays, which rip fighters to pieces. I've already tried it and it more than holds its own against Xenon fighter swarms.


The Boron Hammerhead, another M7C. This one has only an 18 fighter bay, but it's fast, agile and has dual Ion Cannon mounts on either side. While not as capable alone as the Artemis, it's a great fleet support ship for straight up shield damage and the weapon's inherent ability to screw up onboard systems of enemy ships.

And finally - and my favourite -


A rather poor picture of the Boron Coelacanth M7C while I take it out for a spin, similarly equipped to the Hammerhead it has more flak mounts and a larger hangar, with only a small speed penalty. Again great at supporting other battleships and its own figher wings, it has the added bonus of looking extremely cool.



Now, I didn't buy these all at once. I actually made sure I never dropped below 100Mcr after each purchase, and honoured that - I still had about 120Mcr left after the last transactions were made. This leaves me with a lot of leeway. Quite a bit of that leeway came from one xenon invasion which, in case the picture is too small, paid 13Mcr, not counting extra bounty money.


I decide to go out in Titan's Gaze, the Cyclops, which hasn't had much love since I got it (though it's been doing a sterling job protecting my sector - remember that Kha'ak carrier that got in somehow? The Cyclops killed most of that). Of course, that means an attack on X347, which I haven't visited in a while actually. Oh, wow. The bounty on that command ship is ridiculous. Combined between all the races' wanted posters, I'll get about ten million for popping this thing. I'll clear out the escorts, then bring in a bigger gun.

Unfortunately the Cyclops isn't a great ship on its own when outnumbered, unlike the Kvasir - where the kvasir could make evasive manoeuvers and shoot at enemies with its port and starboard heavy turrets, the Cyclops's firepower is all to the front. Great for doing way more damage than the Kvasir very quickly, not so great for dodging fire from a superbattleship and its five escort cruisers while firing at them. Still, after a lot of playing reverse sheepdog, annoying one escort so it follows me away then lynching it, I'm down to the Z on its own. My weapon batteries aren't up to the task of punching through its shields so as planned I call in the Statler for some Gauss Cannon action.


As an experiment, I let the autopillock have a go. I babysit, pulling away some of the Z's fire and laying down some of my own hurt, and after maybe ten minutes of good ol' slugfest the Z goes down - my Pteranodon's shields battered but active and my bank account ten million credits fatter. And, onwards.


While in the rather breathtaking and somewhat lawless Saiien sectors, Saiien 2 to be exact since some extremely unfriendly pirates live in Saiien 3, I come across a station which bills itself as the Dark Space Research station. Dark Space is a Terran 'company' which mainly deals in ships and technology. And is more or less a front for a mafia like organisation conducting espionage and less than legal research - and, it would appear - development.


Weapons ready to fire, I open comms to the station. For a while, nothing. Then I get a voice. No video feed whatsoever.

'Honourable Clansman Shoo t'Rgt. You seem to have stumbled on one of our travelling research bases. Congratulations. Before you open fire, understand that we employ point-jump technology onboard this station, so your only reward for attacking us will be our enmity. However, should you feel obliged, I have an offer for you.'

A male Terran voice. Probably unremarkable, if not for the sliminess dripping from the tone. That I can pick that up means they have better comms equipment than most. Whatever this offer is, it probably isn't legal somewhere in the universe, and probably should be rejected. Still, I have some leverage on them, having found this base. I daresay the USC and ATF would like to hear about it.

'You want me to stay quiet. What's your 'offer'?'

'Full access to our research shipyard, and the opportunity to own a Terraformer CPU ship. Yours is one of the most powerful unaffiliated mercenary fleets currently in existence and we need combat test data. But that comes later. Your trading computer can now make transactions to this station. You have about a quarter of an hour before we relocate to purchase what you want. Then, we'll leave you to think on whether you want to try out our DECA in combat. And don't go to the USC. They already know.'

The #DECA? This is so illegal it's not funny. However, breaking the law is a secondary concern to my eventual victory over Rhonkar - and the honour of my conduct. Doing some field tests of an illegal organisation's illegal AGI CPU ship strikes me as shady, but I am doing noone a dishonour. I need more time to think, which clearly the Dark Space representative already knew. The USC being in on this surprises me a little, but after what the Argon did to the torus maybe they're willing to overlook legalities to facilitate revenge. It's almost admirable.

'I am recieving trading data. I think it is a good idea for relations between myself and your company cordial, and will consider conducting your tests. May I ask how you came into posession of the DECA?'

'A wise decision, Shoo t'Rgt. After the reclamation of Aldrin and its terraformer fleet, it was a simple matter to acquire a structural analysis of their CPU ship. It was also a simple matter to obtain a copy of its current generation AI code. We can now replicate several hundred years of Von Neumann evolution in the space of a month. This is the extent of disclosure you will recieve, and it's more than most outside Dark Space will ever know. We await your call.'


The communication goes dead. What have I involved myself with? The research station sells prototype ATF fighters, #DECA drones and one other ship, the ship which made my decision to go along with Dark Space. The Xperimental shuttle.


When Kyle William Brennan entered the universe, the Split families had one of their most fearsome assassins hunt and attempt to capture or destroy his ship, the X-shuttle. That assassin failed. Even by current standards the Xperimental shuttle in its original incarnation is a top of the line fighter ship, but is probably in an Argon Federation lab somewhere being reverse engineered. Still. The Dark Space corporation, however they did it, got the blueprints and updated them. The result is a far cry from the damaged, battered ship which changed everything and is incredibly sleek. And mine, for ten million credits.





{Oversized images altered to linked thumbnails - Terre}

[Nathancros]

Ooooh your loving the new shiny's arnt you?

[Master of the Blade]

Well, the shinies are there to be loved.