I hear the Phoenix can more or less ignore Khaak fighter ships, and with extensive use of the haxdrive (

), I can stay well away from the battleships.
Anyway, at very,
very long last, another chapter will be typed by me, right now, and no excuses. It's been too long!
So, What Happened?
I said I'd recount the XI/patrol combo, but on reflection, it was pretty boring: most of it was travelling between groups of Xenon as they point-jumped in. Nothing special, and I hammered plenty of Qs and even a couple of Ks. Getsu fune's fog does get on my wick eventually though, so I ended up jumping far from there, to the Scale Plate Green area, looking for more missions. There's not a lot available: a few low-key assassinations not even worth the effort, and some non-combat missions of little use to me. I leapfrog X347, because the Xenon have started zerg rushing me the moment I enter one of their sectors recently. You've got to hand it to them, they certainly learn. Eventually.
Now, what with my recent plans to carry on with Operation Final Fury, I reckon I could do with a bigger ship, and what did I say way back then? The first battleship I'd buy would be the Phoenix. And that it is. Of course, the new battleship comes fresh from the shipyard with absolutely no equipment by the paltry few lasers I can get from the Ianamus Zura EQ dock, a couple of Gauss cannons. I also order two Pelicans, not to be used until somewhat later as fleet support ships, on a hunch. An 8-fighter wing of beefy escorts for the Phoenix should do it some good when I go to fight something not using beam or insta-hit weapons. Perhaps Falcon Haulers, with their big shields and reasonable speed. Anyway, I get whatever ships I have lying around to collect battleship equipment from docks and factories around the universe, and look around myself for specific upgrades and such, like a docking computer, jumpdrive and transporter device. It's some time until I've gathered all the armaments the battleship needs, but by the time I'm done its loadout looks something like this:
Front, 8 slots.
8xPPC. It's the main battery. I need range from that
Right, 8 slots.
8xPPC. These would have been 4xGC and 4xIC if I could find enough, but I couldn't.
Left, 8 slots.
5xGC, 3xIC. Again, would have been a 4/4 split, but I couldn't find enough ICs.
Up, 4 slots.
3x ISR, 1x CIG. The Phoenix, with its colossal shielding, lacks flak mounts in its up/down turrets. These were the heaviest weapons I could put here.
Down, 4 slots.
2xISR. I ran out of stuff here.
Back, 4 slots.
4x FAA. The only turret other than the front which can use flak. Of course I put it here.
Full shielding, no missiles except 1000x mosquitos for missile defence.
Finally ready, the Phoenix's maiden voyage will be to troubled waters: I plan to strike at the X347 station, which I hadn't been able to kill with the Shrike before the fighters and constantly attacking Qs wore me down. I activate the jumpdrive and enter from th South side of the sector. Immediately I get the sudden influx of fighters as normal, along with 4 Qs, doing what they do best: gatehanging. The fighters barely scratch my shields as my turrets obliterate the Qs in seconds and I forge ahead into the sector when I get new contacts on the grav: four Ks and two Js have entered as a response force, and have set their courses to intercept me. I haul the bough around to face them, and destroy a J in seconds. The other J follows suit, but the Ks bunch together, making it a deathtrap to attack head on. I use the ship's strafe drive to get around the side of the group of Xenon destroyers, and try to pick one off from the edge of the group. This kind of works, but my shields take quite a battering before I can finish the enemy destroyer off.
Now, the fighters may not do much damage, but they certainly mess up my shield recharge, so I retreat for now, satisfied with the combat capabilities of my new destroyer. I'll come back for the station some time in the future. Upon my return to the
Stalker, I find a message waiting for me from an ex-military Argon who expresses interest in joining my fleet. Finally, the advertisements paid off! He seems to have an agenda of his own, but at least he's smart enough to not wait until I found out: it actually coincides with a far-future plan I have to get back at the Omicron Lyrae authorities for taking away my old frigate. There are fragments of our conversation in this datalog, but they seem not to be in any real order. (Handwave ftw!)
Anyway, this individual - named Justin - has offered to fly one of the Skates in my interception wing onboard the
Stalker, and to assist with tactical affairs should I need to do anything drastic, like attacking the Argon Federation in certain sectors. But that's not 'till later.
Funding: A surprising ~230Mcr. The Phoenix was offset by my chronic mission completion.
Property: Everything from before, +2x Pelican and 1x Phoenix. Also some more fighters and freighters bought second-hand and really needing selling. They likely never will be though.
Allergic to work.
If at first you don't succeed, delegate the job to a minion.