Wanton use of nukes and the path to galactic conquest!

[Nanook]

nice idea with the

Spoiler

Show

Lasertower

wouldent of thought of that.

Meh. Those seem to get about 5 shots in my games before even scout-class vessels blow them away, for some reason....

Are you playing TC? Those lasertowers have 200 MJ shielding. And a pretty potent beam weapon. A little tough for an M5, I'd say. I've seen LT's in groups of 5+ take down M7's and their escorts upon occasion. Maybe it's the mods in your game.

[Gold Dragon]

TC: Yes, but Mostly OOS.

I also don't use them as anything Portable, and not since the 2.0a patch, either.


I'll grant this: My info might be a bit out-dated, as I haven't seen any LT active since 2.0a. Take with a LARGE grain of salt. The last (active) LT I saw got taken out by a trader in Hi-Tech wares.......

[Cantankerous]

Subtle clue, nice one
Not only great writing but now the 'screen play' is taking shape. So...Bruce Willis or Arnie to take the lead role...?

No, no. That would be Steve...as in Steven Seagal. Natch.


Isshia

[Kapakio]

Just be careful with the lasertower. It shoot insta beams and if you happen to be in the in line between the enemy and the lasertower just when it makes the shot, bye bye.

[Magnu]

Those lasertowers have 200 MJ shielding.

That explains why my attempt to ram one into submission using a TP, didn't go so well.

[insolent1]

Find a nearby patrol and i'm sure they will oblige and take out the chasing m5's.
Good work so far N-S, but you need to give up the tough guy(no shields) image

[Nanook]

Let's keep the off-topic junk out of N-S's story, ok?

[Thanatos_23]

i've seen a lasertower survive a xenon Q purge though im pretty sure that was a fluke

[Tiedyeguy]

i've seen a lasertower survive a xenon Q purge though im pretty sure that was a fluke

Hell, I have seen a single LT take out a Q... The Q was busy swatting at a handful of Fighter Drones though.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Prev chapter<->Next chapter
15 - Imma Firin' Mah Lazer!


Well there's really only one thing you can do when you don't have any guns of your own to use.. borrow someone elses! And like I always say, never bring a gun to a gunfight..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/15-1.jpg

.. When you can bring a capital class howitzer!..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/15-2.jpg

.. Hell yeah!

Now that my pursuers have been.. well, vaporised really, I think I'll head back to PTNI and see what's going on there.

It's a fairly uneventful trip back, although passing thru the east gate of Nathans Voyage I'm suddenly engulfed in the expanding plasma cloud of something that used to be quite big. Slightly disconcerting, but ultimately harmless, and there's a few missiles left amongst the wreckage which is always nice..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/15-3.gif

.. Anything free is welcome but that's especially so as it represents about 100kcr or so right there for essentially no effort whatsoever, I do approve of that kindof thing. Meanwhile my freighters have been busy and have racked up quite a bit of cash between them, as well as doing some good to my race reps, and I get to make use of some of that as I'm crossing Nyana's. There's a Discoverer and a Pegasus Raider both for sale for around 40kcr and I decide to make the investment. I've a plan for them you see, they're off to Elysium Of Light to run trade missions with the Goners, should up my rank with them a little. I also manage to pick up a Mercury so I'll have to find someplace to use that one. Got it with 97% hull too so shouldn't cost too much to fix and it came with a 1Mj shield and an IRE I can trade off so that brought the effective price down some.

Back in PTNI Headquarters tho there seems to be some sort of problem with my line of credit. That's a bit odd as usually the Teladi will practically fall over themselves to facilitate trade opportunities. Not today tho, somethings up...


Assets
1x Kestrel 'Flash'
1x Demeter 'Wonky Donkey'
1x Mercury
1x Discoverer
1x Pegasus Raider
1x Mako
1x Vulture SF 'TS6750 - 01'

Time: 15:24:32
Credits: 184,244

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Best title evar.

Problems with your credit? Hope it's nothing that would attract the attention of the Profit Protection Corps...

[Thanatos_23]

uh-oh, looks like no profitssssss for Steve

[JanusTN]

Perhaps they took offense to the Lazer bein firin' against some pirates. PTNI Teladi need their weed too!

[EmperorJon]

It's all 'cos you killed some Pirates!

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Prev chapter<->Next chapter
16 - Twin


http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/16-1.gif

.. Well that's disturbing, it appears someone is masquerading as me! Well I'm not having that! I think I might have to go and pay a visit to this guy and perhaps see about him having an unfortunate encounter with a faulty airlock..

With that little issue 'resolved' I've decided that while my freighters have been doing a good job to date I've only got three of them and they obviously can't be everywhere at once. Equally I can't always be loitering around the area supplying trade info for them so what I really need is some fixed assets keeping tabs on things for me, and that means satellites. Advanced Sats would be the preferred option as they have a much greater range on them but Navsats are cheaper. There also happens to be a Navsat fab in PTNI which is most convenient and it even has stock in it as my freighters have been busily keeping it supplied.

It's a not inexpensive investment, but it'll be worthwhile overall for the intel it provides, and it really doesn't take long to deploy them with the Kestrel. With the first four in place I can now keep realtime tabs on prices all the way down from Profit Centre Alpha to Nyanas hideout. That will do for now, I'll expand it a little further at a later date when there's some more Navsats available. Meantime tho I'm done here so I'll leave my traders to get on with things as I've decided to explore eastwards picking up whatever missions I can do so long as they work me in a generally eastern direction.

As it happens my luck is a bit hit and miss today. A few bad choices with ship recovery missions leaves me with a couple I have to abort as there's no way I can get the ship back in time, a small hit on my race reps. I think I'm going to have to stop trying for the short duration ones, even if they pay well, until I can get myself a TM class transporter to help out. I also had a couple that I miscalculate just how long it'll take for the ship to get back. Not by much mind you, but enough to cause a mission fail.

In the first instance it was a Discoverer that pretty much would have made it with another two minutes on the clock, but that's two minutes I didn't have, and the police patrol of four Discoverers wiped it out in short order. The second one was a bit further off, probably would have needed ten minutes or more, but in this case it was a Manta Hauler TP and with 5 mins remaining on the clock and fairly sure it wasn't going to get anywhere near I decided to order it to bolt for the nearest station. It's currently holed up in Circle Of Labour at one of the Ore Mines with a sizeable police prescence on stakeout..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/16-2.gif

.. Not sure what I want to do about that at present.

Elsewhere I've been doing a lot better, a few taxi missions here and there and managed to pick up a lovely asteroid scan mission down in Wastelands..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/16-3.gif

.. over 100Kcr for a few minutes rock scanning, not half bad!


Assets
1x Kestrel 'Flash'
1x Demeter 'Wonky Donkey'
1x Mercury
1x Discoverer
1x Pegasus Raider
1x Mako
1x Vulture SF 'TS6750 - 01'

Time: 16:11:30
Credits: 564,475

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Hah. Maybe he was just a fan

[Seleucius]

I think I might have to go and pay a visit to this guy and perhaps see about him having an unfortunate encounter with a faulty airlock..

Wait! This could be a prime opportunity to clear your name! Hand over Leo Kayean, master marksman and infamous shipjacker, straight to the Argon authorities, and they may forgive an incident with a missing passenger transport. Besides, with you in prison, that frees the real you up to ruin your names further with that handy TP...

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Prev chapter<->Next chapter
17 - PX

I'm on a technology run today.

Rumour has it that Transporter Devices, Jumpdrives and other such useful and fun devices can be found around the south-eastern Boron sectors. I'm looking for Atreus HQ apparently. I'm not entirely sure what the sector its in is called.. Queens something-or-other I think? Doesn't really matter tho, I'll find out when I get there. It's a clear run until I get to Grand Exchange. Grand Exchange it seems has an interloper..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/17-1.jpg

.. A Xenon PX, the M6 variant of the second generation of Xenon ships that are starting to appear and the middle-sibling of the Q and the LX. Looks mean, probably is mean. I've no interest in getting close enough to find out and I don't really need to as the PX is ably demonstrating its lethality by lobbing Belugas at a Boron Hydra which I suspect is the escort of the Angel TP that I passed by recently. It's a short fight, especially when the L's get invoved, but despite my hopes the Hydra gets totally destroyed, no salvage for me this time. I'm all set to move on when I notice a capital hull south off the sector. It's a condor and it's heading this way. I'm not much fancying its chances of actually catching the PX group, given they're moving twice as fast, but you never know so I decide to hang about for a while and see what happens.

The PX, as far as I can tell has no particular goal in mind at the minute and is just meandering around the sector plinking away at passing freighters and stations. Do Xenon get bored? Either way it's not really paying attention, but it's a good fifteen minutes before the Condor manages to get close enough to actually land a long-range IBL round, and I think even that was a fluke. That wakes up the PX tho and the group banks around and goes on the attack. It's a fairly suicidal run even against just the M1 but I don't mind, in fact I'm counting on it. More salvage for me, except it's not to be. Out of a PX and five L's I get exactly one Hurricane missile for my patience. Hardly worth the effort.

Oh, well moving on and I'm tracking down thru Tears of Greed to Company Strength. I want to see if there's any good trading opportunites with the Teladi down this way as if there is I'll look to getting a couple freighters trading in the area. As it happens it seems there's some definite opportunity as a lot of the stations in this area seem to be fully-stocked and prices are rock-bottom. If I can find some outlets for their products I could make a substantial profit..

Now that I've got a steady flow of cash incoming from my remote traders I've been taking advantage of the map agents in the systems purchasing navigation coordinates. It's a few thousand a go but it's helpful finding the gates to nearby sectors and not being familiar with this region is a worthwhile I reckon. I think I just got ripped off by the last guy tho. 2000cr for a map of Sanctity Of Corruption (pleasant name!) and all I got listed was the Trading Station! What about the rest? Never mind, it's only next door anyway, I'll go map it myself.

Thru the gate then and.. oh hell.. Pull Up!!



Assets
1x Kestrel 'Flash'
1x Demeter 'Wonky Donkey'
1x Mercury
1x Discoverer
1x Pegasus Raider
1x Mako
1x Vulture SF 'TS6750 - 01'

Time: 17:23:48
Credits: 518,328

[Lancefighter]

oh dear, that couldnt be good...

[Lanky]

I have this ominous sense of deja-vu........