Zen and the Art of Running away.. {spoilers guaranteed}

[Musicker]

Too bad that he'd need at least 20 maxed-out marines to even think about boarding a Q. And even with 20 of them he'd need an Aran-sized load of luck to pull it off without reloading - which is against his rules.

I think you're underestimating the luck of ol' Gyvr...

[Targ Collective]

If you continually pirate you'll find some neat stuff. How many Tractor Beam merchants have you passed and not scanned? I'll wager the number is quite large.

[LTerSlash]

The Transport carrying the Tractor beams has called Paranid Weapon Transporter? i never hear of a transport called like that.

[shanrak]

The Transport carrying the Tractor beams has called Paranid Weapon Transporter? i never hear of a transport called like that.

Hmm... I wonder if that's a new 2.0 thing. Are you running 2.0 now btw, NS?

In 1.4, I've never seen a single paranid weapons dealer/military transport haul tractor beams. NPCs don't buy them since equipment docks don't list them as something they stock. (I could be wrong). Now in 2.0, I actually see that the factories are selling tractor beams occasionally (one fab in my game only has 4 left while the other is still sitting at 8 ).

[Rick James]

The Transport carrying the Tractor beams has called Paranid Weapon Transporter? i never hear of a transport called like that.

Hmm... I wonder if that's a new 2.0 thing. Are you running 2.0 now btw, NS?

In 1.4, I've never seen a single paranid weapons dealer/military transport haul tractor beams. NPCs don't buy them since equipment docks don't list them as something they stock. (I could be wrong). Now in 2.0, I actually see that the factories are selling tractor beams occasionally (one fab in my game only has 4 left while the other is still sitting at 8 ).

I think that NS is using steam so it will have auto-updated him to 2.0 unless he set it to download manually.

[gamer993]

The Transport carrying the Tractor beams has called Paranid Weapon Transporter? i never hear of a transport called like that.

Ive seen a couple. Usually they carry rare things. (mine had 24 pbg and 7 IBL wonder how he got them? ) Never thought that they had TBs tho.

Edit and ive seen them in 1.4.

[RUMgunner]

Its not only the fact that Qs can take out any ship OOS, but also very annoyingly ALWAYS attack when i am in a fight, and can t get them the attention they need.

[Limbo365]

This is my first post on any forum on this fine forum.....
But anyway enough of my noobness

jus wanna say i love your story's N-S!
Ive read both Squiddy and Mak G'vyr in lik 4 days! Hope you dont die! I personally feel that squiddy left ahead of his time

also (belated) congrats on the interview. Thats how i found u!

(your fame is growing!)

[Nanook]

Come on people, give him a break. Even the best people make errors in judgment. ....

Nah! Roasting is more fun.

[Tiedyeguy]

This is my first post on any forum on this fine forum.....
But anyway enough of my noobness.

Welcome to the X-Universe! I have been around since X2 and I am STILL learning ideas and tactics from Slug. Such as: Anti-Fighter weapons + M2 + OOS = /me facepalm!
Why don't we have a :facepalm: emoticon?

[StormMagi]

You have me wanting to do this now (I am playing DiD too) but I don't want to restart again (it is annoying enough to restart) so I am half tempted to just go from where I am.

[strude]

You have me wanting to do this now (I am playing DiD too) but I don't want to restart again (it is annoying enough to restart) so I am half tempted to just go from where I am.

Just role play that your parents, who own a large (insert business type here) operation, were just killed in an autopileup accident, and you have just inherited the empire.

[Llama8]

Just role play that your parents, who own a large (insert business type here) operation, were just killed in an autopileup accident, and you have just inherited the empire.

IE, they were creamed by an M1/2/TL when transiting a gate.

[Limbo365]

This is my first post on any forum on this fine forum.....
But anyway enough of my noobness.

Welcome to the X-Universe! I have been around since X2 and I am STILL learning ideas and tactics from Slug. Such as: Anti-Fighter weapons + M2 + OOS = Tiedyeguy facepalm!
Why don't we have a :facepalm: emoticon?

Im new to the forum not to X games! Ive also been around since x2! What a game! I miss old centaurs!

But thanks for the welcome anyways!

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Hmm... I wonder if that's a new 2.0 thing. Are you running 2.0 now btw, NS?

I use Steam so it updated when that did.

Nah! Roasting is more fun.

Raspberries!

[Welcome to the X-Universe! I have been around since X2 and I am STILL learning ideas and tactics from Slug. Such as: Anti-Fighter weapons + M2 + OOS = Tiedyeguy facepalm!
Why don't we have a :facepalm: emoticon?

Works fine IS tho! Besides, was only meant to be there to keep lookout, not actually do any fighting.



78 - Payback

A quick tie up of loose ends here in Nopileos and then it's a quick jump back to Freedoms Reach to transfer to my remaining destroyer before making the jump to Scale Plate Green before that little Xenon task force can slip away. It's a good thing I moved quickly too as arriving at the south gate it's apparent that having taken their revenge for my recent incursion into X-347 the Q and its escort is make a break for the south gate and Xenon space..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/78-1.gif

..Unluckily for them there's a 6gj shielded PPC broadside sat waiting for them.

Wih the destruction of the last Xenon ship my Teladi rep is now on Shareholder which should should enable me access to the fabs required to start the framework for some manufacturing, although at the cost of a destroyer that's a steep price to have paid and doesn't make me happy. I think some further negotiation with the Xenon to clarify our positions is in order and, while the guns are still hot, now seems as good a time as any. I decide to hit X-101 again, partly because it's conveniently nearby to my base of operations and partly because there was a P patrol briefly popped out of there not so long back so it seems the sector is active again and should probably be shut down before it gets out of hand. Charging up the jumpdrive then I make the leap. This very nearly turns out to be a terrible mistake.

It's entirely my own fault for not scouting first of course but when the red mist falls it's very easy to overlook such simple precautions. Immediately upon arrival in the sector, give or take a few hundred metres, I find myself practically nose to nose with a J. Worse, there's four Q's loitering about the gate as well and I immediately come under heavy fire. Accelerating away from the gate to provide some room to maneuver and rolling and banking to try and dodge as much of the incoming PPC/IBL fire as possible while bringing my guns to bear on the J is not working as well as I'ld like.

In fairness I'm dodging a lot of the heavy stuff, but the disposition of the Q's around the gate means I'm fairly pinned by one of them no matter what way I go. I'm down to 50% shields by the time the J is down. 40% by the time I've got the first Q. 23% before the second is down and under 10% with the last one remaining. Add in a couple L/M's raking my shields with PBE fire and the end result is my shields barely into the last couple percent by the time I've swung about and brought the last Q into my firing arc. The Q goes down but it's a close run thing for me to dodge it's last volley of PPC/IBL. If that had hit it would have easily cut thru my last glimmer of shielding and I'ld be going home with some expensive holes..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/78-2.jpg

.. Close!

It's a bit of a wake-up call and a reminder that toting a destroyer around doesn't make you invincible, especially a Brigantine which is more of a mid-range destroyer compared to some of the other races M2 class. On the other hand it wasn't a dead loss either. I scraped out of it with no damage and there were some goodies left over in the debris to sift thru..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ut/78-3.gif

..Time for a pause in the offensive to regroup, call in some backup and do some salvage work I feel.

In other news, Leo has finally finished his training which means I now have a team that should be able to crack an Atmo-Lifter and with nine pods on board my Kraken from my pod-trek around the universe recently there's also some scope there to perhaps pick up some other prize should anything interesting wander by. Terran space, here we come! (again)



Assets
1x Brigantine 'Why So Serious?'
1x Kraken 'Just Who Is This Steve Anyway?'
1x HCP 'Feersum Endjinn'
1x Albatross 'Two Jam Butties Short Of A Picnic'

3x Heavy Centaur 'Ying/Yang/Yong'
4x Solano 'Gold Wing'
1x Solano 'Scout - 01'

1x Centaur
1x Vali 'SecDef - 01'
2x Heavy Nemesis
2x TP
3x M8 Bomber
3x TM Zephyrus
1x Pleco
1x M
1x Caiman Miner 'Ore miner - 01'

Credits: 744,026

[gamer993]

Wow you get a lot of guns being dropped! What is your fight rank? Does this impact how many guns you get dropped? I cant get anything at all. I kill xenon capitals and get a thunderbolt missile.

[jon_argent]

With regards to Freedoms reach, how quiet is that sector? If I recall its a teladi owned sector, but whats the traffic like for the other races, pirates etc? I'm looking for a quiet sector to hide away in, and its currently a toss up between FR and the 2nd unknown sector in the southern paranid area..

[spacefueladdict]

With regards to Freedoms reach, how quiet is that sector? If I recall its a teladi owned sector, but whats the traffic like for the other races, pirates etc? I'm looking for a quiet sector to hide away in, and its currently a toss up between FR and the 2nd unknown sector in the southern paranid area..

Not in my mod! You go into that sector either ready for a fight or your spacefly food!

In vanilla both those sectors are quiet, but it depends on how quiet you want it to be!, FR is close to sectors of most of the major races, while the other you deep within paranid boundries.

NS: Absolutely fantastic adventure mate, and the way you deliver it (written & picture), is completely sublime and compelling.

May i suggest that when you reach the end of your quest (not for the forseeable future i hope! ) why don't you post the chapters of your story on the creative forum.... as a recovered message drone of your characters personal log?

[Lord of Nothing]

With regards to Freedoms reach, how quiet is that sector? If I recall its a teladi owned sector, but whats the traffic like for the other races, pirates etc? I'm looking for a quiet sector to hide away in, and its currently a toss up between FR and the 2nd unknown sector in the southern paranid area..

If quiet is the only issue, definitely the Unknown Sector. Freedom's, while a dead end, is right by pirate alley, as demonstrated by the fact that NS still needs multiple corvette patrols to protect his factory. Nothing comes by that Unknown SE of Unholy Descent, especially if you're over the other side of the sector. (That sector makes some of the terran sectors look small.)

[Fallen-Angel]

@NUKLEAR-SLUG
Maybe get a replacement M2 first?