Wanton use of nukes and the path to galactic conquest!

[Olterin]

*fixed*

Interesting chapter for sure

[Eandir]

In the words of Swiper the swiping fox...."Awwww maaan!"

I think Karma just killed me. I have been blockading a gate in my own game, killing Q's by the dozen. Alternate universes balancing each other out?

[Targ Collective]

Oh no. I have a bad feeling about this. Going through that gate is a journey into a world of pain and complexbuilding.

[TEA_Cypher]

Ahh well it was a lovely squadron we had Eandir, they wont be the same with out us.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Prev chapter<->Next chapter
103 - Hub


Well he's responding, so he can't be dead, so we'll go see for ourselves..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/103-1.jpg

.. Ok, well that's.. um.. unexpected.

No, actually I don't think that quite covers it, but it'll have to do for now. It's thrown this mission into a new perspective tho, this is supposed to be search and rescue, giant sector spanning space contraptions were very definitely not part of the brief. Xenon however were and it appears we're not entirely alone..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/103-2.gif

.. but one Q patrol is not a concern. Hopefully that's the only one tho so while the boys take care of that I'm going to do a little exploring. After all there is apparently a stuck Boron here someplace, although I suspect he's long been turned into fish fingers.

Whatever it is we're inside of it seems roughly spherical and there's a few jumpgates leading off it, but only two of them seem functional, the one we came through and the one that Q presumably came out of. Not quite sure where that other one leads to but it would seem likely somewhere Xenonish and therefore not a fun and exciting place to visit. There is a small cloud of debris off the centre of the sector, hopefully that's not who I'm looking for or else I take it back, not fish fingers, sushi..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/103-3.jpg

.. Seems so, the blackbox recorder is still intact (mostly) and the odd message scraps seem to indicate this is the ship. Ah well, we did the search bit, no rescue today tho, not without a cotton swab and a specimen bag anyway.


If that's our lot then it's time to exit. Bit of a long trip and largely a waste of time, although we did manage to salvage a fair amount of weaponry so that'll help boost the firepower on 'Awesomesauce' a little as I can swap some of those IBL's for PPC. I suppose I should drop by Mahi Ma at some point in the near future as well and fill him in on what we found, tho I can't for the life of me recall where he said to meet. It was definitely some Boron sector someplace.

Did anyone write it down? Anyone..?



Time: 8-10:58
Credits: 6,934,253

[Jack Slinger]

Swiper the swiping fox

"Swiper no Swiping!"

[Gold Dragon]

I had almost forgotten about the Hub. Good work!

[Idleking]

[..]http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/103-1.jpg

.. Ok, well that's.. um.. unexpected.

Quote of the Day!

Great job on the Xenon so far - keep it up!

Sadly, there's no way of getting them into a self-shutdown-and-surrender-mode

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Praise Xaar, what a sight.

*absently rustles rank advancement papers*

[zombat]

[..]http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/103-1.jpg

.. Ok, well that's.. um.. unexpected.

Quote of the Day!

Great job on the Xenon so far - keep it up!

Sadly, there's no way of getting them into a self-shutdown-and-surrender-mode

If only there was a way of hacking in and uploading a copy of french military tactics to the fax machines with guns

[Gothsheep]

Oh god, we ended up in the Death Star!


Now let's blow this thing and go home!

[KipperTheFish]

Did anyone write it down? Anyone..?
Psst! Boss!
I think the Fishy dude said something about kingdom end.

[perkint]

Hey Steve,

Since you haven't put any work my way as a marine, and due to the scare stories I keep hearing about some new company flooding the market with cheapo ships defenses (I hear the sentry lasers are taking out more of the ship's own crew than any boarding marines - companies are still buying them tho, as people are cheap and plentiful, ships are expensive!) I am considering a change of career.

I fancy one of those new Teladi craft - the Kestrel. Love the speed on those things! Or, if you can get your hands on one, the Pirate tuned version. Even faster and a better paint job. Who wouldn't want one of those?

Ship: Kestrel (Pirate or Teladi)
Name: Countach 2983
Weapons: Whatever's lying around
Missiles: Bigger explosives, the better! I won't still be around when they go bang!
Job: Whatever you need chased down and blown up, or scouted out!

Look forward to doing business with you

Tim

[GCU Grey Area]

I fancy one of those new Teladi craft - the Kestrel.

Have you given any thought to preferred funeral arrangements?
(assuming we can find a few irradiated fragments of your carcass next time Steve wants to see how many capital ships are lurking on the other side of a gate).

[perkint]

Hey - it's a step up in survival probabilities compared with my first choice career (marine) and I heard Steve had a few vacancies

Tim

[JoeVN09]

I still reckon you could use a bigger corvette fleet

[Mr. Reeves]

That's it! 130 pages and I finally read it all. Took 2 days! I had oter stuff to do. Dam GOOD STORY! I can't wait for the next installments. Favorited! and Bookmarked! Good writing and informative!!! !!!

[plawolf]

When 'radar malfunction' swandived into that q, did u scan for spacesuits? Sounds like the bugger figured who would be scouting the next gate and rabbited.

[Kapakio]

Got over the 300K views mark. If Leo manages to stay alive at least until the end of the year, this thread will enter the Top 10 rank of most viewed threads of the fora.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Prev chapter<->Next chapter
104 - Promotion


Back in PTNI and it's all a go. Having reviewed the financial situation and with a number of incoming pilots fresh and eager for fame, fortune and an untimely death I've elected to sell on the second Aquilo to finance all the refitting and outfitting that I'll need to do. I've chosen not to sell on any of the three mammoths just yet and keep all three on hand for the time being as I've some jobs for them as bulk storage that will benefit from their large cargo capacities.

First off I'm assigning one as an ore drop-off point for the small fleet of miners I've got clearing up the debris near my Missileplex. Parked up near where they're operating it will be able to beam ore from the cargo holds of the miners so that they can continue work uninterrupted. Once the ore is on the Mammoth it gets periodically transferred to the nearby Oreplex via freight drones.

The second will be taking over from the Elephant I've been using as warehouse TL for the Missileplex as production is ticking over at such a rate that the Elephant is almost 95% full now..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/104-1.gif

.. That's a whole lot of high-explosives right there and doesn't include what I'm currently fielding amongst the fleet. Once it's replaced I'm considering whether to sell on the Elephant as it's very badly damaged, which is why it got mothballed in the first place. It's fine as a standing storage ship, but I think it's damaged to the point where it wouldn't really be economical to repair. The last Mammoth will be kept free to use as a bulk transporter. I've occasion to need massive quantities of resources shifted to meet certain mission conditions and having a Mammoth on hand makes things much easier in that regard when you've a need to shift around 25,000 units of Delexian Wheat in one go.


There's been a few transfer requests lately, apparently some of the guys think they deserve it and I'm in magnanimous mood today for some odd reason so I've granted some. First up 'Duck Dodgers' will be transferring from Purple wing to Orange wing to act as flightleader. Not his first choice, but we've already got a flightleader for the Blues and until he goes completely doolally I've no reason to remove him. That said there does seem to be a certain degree of nervousness among the Blue camp since their flightleader had his recent LX upgrade. I'm chalking it down to them all being a big bunch of girls.

I've not actually quite settled on the final elements of Orange wing yet, or what their role will be exactly, but either way that makes them currently unblooded, so they'll having some proving to do if they want to walk with the big boys. With 'Duck Dodgers' jumping wings this does leave Purple wing short a man, but I'm sure I'll find someone to volunteer to pick up that slot fairly soon.

Green wing, or 'The 20 minuters' as they've now affectionately being dubbed have received a number of new *victims/recruits/sacrifices eager to join the wing with the fastest personnel turnover. That puts them nicely up to full strength again and gives me some more eyes in the sky which is always useful.

Finally 'Providence' performed well with the new Aquilo so we'll make that a permanent change I think, which leaves me with a Gannet to assign. Fortunately I've already got a captain lined up for that one and with one mission goal and one mission goal alone: 'Get the pods on target'. His is a very important, if not massively glamorous, role. No live rounds on this one as it' will be a dedicated boarding platform will mean no unfortunate accidents and to my knowledge he's a teetotaller anyway so Mambas across the universe can relax now.

All of which leaves us with a total fleet makeup that looks very much like this at present..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/104-2.gif

Not bad at all. Think I might go see what my Terran friend has to say for himself tomorrow.

(*Delete as applicable)



Time: 8-13:00
Credits: 834,714