Squiddy McSquids possibly short life - {Possible spoilers inside}

[dminor]

All stories have to end. Even the good ones. Go McSquidy

[Whitegaurd]

Heh heh, I just got a haul a few minutes ago, not quite as grand as Squiddy's but still worth recognizing!
Now Squiddy, if you can find out how to reproduce such results, I'll be impressed!

Yes, this is a haul. Squiddy's came from random explosions, Mine came from a rather jumpy Paranid Pilot who DEFINETELY didn't want any trouble from "The Desecrator" (A very nasty Elite that has this thing against paranid pilots and their freighters...)

So i convinced him to launch everything out of his cargo bay that wasn't securely installed on the ship.
Gotta love a bit of Piracy

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[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Moving north into Brennans Triumph to make sure nothing nasty is coming I call my Support-Hauler into Dannas and order him to collect all the goodies while I watch on the sector map to make sure nothing comes from the east gate to get him. Soon as he's done I drop back down thru and hook up with him.

With the destruction of the Dannas Merc base I'm going to have to look elsewhere for Mercs which probably means venturing down into the 'Pirate Alley' sectors of Loomanckstrats Legacy. Since I'm going to have to go that way anyway I might as well do a piracy run from here thru to Aladna Hill and grab as much loot as possible on the way. So with him following at a safe distance behind on ware-collecting duty I make my way eastwards hitting anything and everything with stuff worth stealing on board. By the time we've hit Hatikvah east gate my Support-Hauler is stuffed to the gills and I've got a few bailed ships floating around in pirate space which I'll pick up another time. My rep has taken a little abuse across the board and I'm not sure if I've now got negative rep with the Corporations or whether that is going to cause me issues later but to be honest OTAS ships are fugly anyway so I'm not too bothered.

Passing into Aladna Hill I jump my Support-Hauler back to CBSE equipment dock, I'll sort thru the goodies later and see what's worth keeping. Plotting a course to Loomanckstrats via Avarice it's nice to see it's acquired a couple asteriods, I'll have to check back at some point and see if it's worth building here now. Arriving in New Income I jump in my Toucan and head to the Pirate base with it where I convert my passengers to slaves before continuing down to Loomanckstrats.

Loomanckstrats it appears is about to get blown away. There's a fairly comprehensive Boron fleet sat at the north gate obliterating anything that moves and heading down the sector a short way I start detecting a sizeable Paranid force as well. It appears they were waiting for me because as I arrive they start moving towards the Anarchy port and it's surrounding factories. This isn't good news as Loomanckstrats is currently housing enough capital firepower to handily take on a fairly busy Xenon sector so I'm not thinking the Merc base is going to last long once they get in range. In fact there's a Thresher headed for it right now and a Ray not all that far behind..

Looks like I'm going to have to do a crash trading session here. I don't have time for the Toucans auto-n00b to negotiate the asteroid field so I transport over and take control myself and head straight for the Merc base. As I'm getting into docking range it's already taking PPC fire and lost about 15% shields. A quick dock maneuver at far too high speed nearly puts me into the side of the station but I just about make it and quickly 'educate' my slaves in to Mercs. Undock and transport back over to my Perseus and I order my Toucan to jump back to CBSE.

A quick look over my shoulder shows me the battle is raging proper now, Anarchy Port laser towers are lancing fire into the night, streamers of PPC fire are smashing against station hulls and between it all the small specks of fighters exchanging HEPT and PBG fire. It's all not looking very good for the bad guys.

Not having quite enough e-cells to make a full jump back to Atreus I end up in Brennans Triumph and make my way up thru Olmancketslats. On the way I come across a Teladi tech transporter which immediately goes pirate when I scan him. This pleases me immensely because it's a Medusa and I quite fancy the idea of upgrading to an M3+. 75Mj of shields is fine but still susceptible to capital ship fire or heavy missiles. I'm not really going to feel secure until I'm somewhere around M6 level shielding.

The problem with this one is that he's armed with quad PBG up front which means I really, really don't want to go head to head with him and he's got PBE in the turrets which means I really don't want to be behind him either. Sometimes however you just have to accept the lesser of two evils and take it on the chin so setting up behind him I do my level best to dodge a practically insta-hit weapon while trying to encourage him to bail. We're at it for a few mins ducking and dodging around an asteroid, him slowly chewing into my hull and me slowly chewing into his before he finally gives up on 81% with me down to 84% by this point.

Feeling rather pleased with myself I transport everything across, send my Perseus to the Atreus Pirate base and slowly make my way back to CBSE. Life is good.

Total Assets:
1x Medusa
3x 25 Mj shield
5x PAC, 1x PBE

1x Perseus 'Shifty Business'
2x Caiman SF - L
2x Caiman SF - S
1x Caiman Hauler 'Logistical Support'
1x Toucan Hauler 'Dropship - 01'
1x Hermes 'Dropship - 02'
1 x Hades 'Special Delivery'
2,000cr

[GCU Grey Area]

Had me worried there for a moment Squiddy - posting an update in this thread & posting in the 'heroically suicidal last stands' thread almost simultaneously. Dreaded to think what I was going to read here - please don't do that again.

[boulistar]

Niiiiiiiiice Job mate !
Your story is very addictive. Waiting anxiously for next episode.

[Al]

Reminds me of the capturing of Paranid ships I did in X3:R while the plot had my reputation forced low. I found it a nice little earner and it wasn't that difficult to repair my race rep afterwards

Keep up the good work

[Arcturas]

WHOMP! my skull practically exits thru the back of the crash-couch and I'm hurtling (not flying, I know what flying is like and there's some definite hurtling action going on here) towards a rapidly approaching jumpgate. This thing isn't an M5, it's a missile with a pilot chair taped to the nose.

LOL!! That made me laugh.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Arriving back in CBSE I join up with my Support-Hauler and sift thru the goodies on-board to outfit my Medusa before sending him to the equipment dock and selling some stuff off. Taking the advice of those that know better I'm keeping the IBL's and some other stuff I don't recognise until I've had chance to field-test it myself but even so from the Brigantine salvage and my piracy run I manage to top 10 million. Sweet!

A quick upgrade for myself and some repairs at the shipyard and I'm good to go. I've lost about 20m/s in speed over the Perseus but the trade-off is an extra 25% in shielding and extra cargo space for missiles so I think overall it's a good upgrade and leaves me a little more secure.

I've had enough of fighting for the time being plus I've got a lot of administration work to do, ships to get repaired, upgraded put to work etc. plus I think it's time to lay down some factories. I want to build a small loop in Presidents End which produces e-cells, silicon and ore for sale and provides me a safe point to refuel and then get back to running trade missions while my freighter fleet gets repairs upgrades and are assigned jobs.

I now have a total of ten Mercs working for me and checking their stats it appears that five of them are 2-star fighters and the other five are 1-star. I'm not sure of the relative strengths the fighting ability gives them so seeing as how I have two TP's at the moment I decide to split them up into two squads and train them seperately. I think ultimately I'll try and get five TP's and fill them according to fight star rating so as Mercs improve they get promoted to better squads. Currently my squads are as follows:

Squad 1: 1-Star
---------------
Ho t'Sht
Ha t'nst
Olmanckelttak
Fui t'Nnt
Cho t'Knt


Squad 2: 2-Star
---------------
Ra t'Plp
Holigis Gutosos Yahondras VI
Gaga Lo
Yosulis Joranas Tzessosis VIII
Na t'Ztk

Squad 1 should get on ok being Split and Paranid. I'm not sure how well the lone Boron is going to do in Squad 2 with the Split for company but we'll see..

Also going to need a couple squad names for these guys so all suggestions welcome!

[Nanook]

Squad 1: Ho t'Sht's Raiders
Squad 2: Gaga Lo's Misfits

[shireknight]

Squad 1: Squiddy's Hunters

[Chealec]

I am imagining it or is that merc really called "hot s**t"?

... and if so, does that make squad 1 "Squiddy's Hot S**t"?

[Arcturas]

More Squiddy. MOAR.


(> ;..; )> MORE (> ;..; )> MOAR SQUIDDY (> O.o)> OMG GET THEM OFF

[angels7707]

Must say.. an excelent thread, greeat writing, and l am on the edge of my seat for the next installment...
it has also peaked my need to acquire X3 TC... as l am still playing X3R.. am l am only part of the way through the first plot...

please keep it up... am really enjoyin it...

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Easy come, easy go. It's amazing how quickly you can burn thru 10 million and by the time I'm done sorting everything I'm down to just a few hundred thousand again and my Mercs it seems are training fast, at least in the initial stages and consequently with ten of them on the go are eating funds quite rapidly. My doing missions and my SF's running cargo around is only just about sustaining them.

However it's not all bad, all my administrative stuff is done, all my freighters are fully upgraded and assigned there tasks and my loop is built and making money. Unfortunately the Ore mine had to be seperate because it was too far away to connect directly so until I can get a tractor beam and an M6 I'll just have to move goods the hard way. I've also rescued the Caiman Miner I had elsewhere for only a minor drop in Argon rep (less said about that the better) so now I've got him wandering around Ore Belt collecting ore and delivering back to my Ore mine.

Personally I'm laying doggo in Farnhams Legend by the north gate as I've recently realised that there's a pirate convoy that makes it's way up here periodically from somewhere, docks at the Atreus Pirate base and then heads back down again presumably to wherever it came from. Currently I've caught one in Atreus space and am monitoring it on my sat-net waiting for it to do its return journey. Generally each convoy consists of a TS plus a few escort Blastclaws/Prototypes/Elites. I'm feeling a bit of a bruiser in my new Medusa and plan to put it thru its paces and hopefully grab at least one Blastclaw in the process as I'll be needing one for my upcoming boarding plans.

As I'm watching the convoy returning towards pirate space a small Xenon wing enters thru Atreus north gate. A P, an M and an N. Not particularly notable normally but for me these are actually the first Xenon I've seen in my entire game to date. Previously there wasn't even a reference in my encyclopaedia for Xenon. Khaak, yes, cos they've been trying to kill me since day one, but never a single Xenon before. Odd. Anyways, they disappear off thru the west gate to go do whatever it is that Xenon do (probably try and terraform something) and my pirate convoy drops thru the gate in front of me and heads off towards the south gate. Silently I drop in behind them and follow at a discrete 10km distance..

As they reach the south gate and slow to pass thru I close the gap. I allow the TS and two of the Blastclaws to commit to entering and then volley fire Wasps and Dragonflies at the Elite while I pounce on the last Blastclaw. The Wasps totally confuse the turret on the Elite and allow a gap for the Dragonflies to get thru and it's dead and I'm on the six of the Blastclaw before it can react. A short burst of EBC and then a switch to PBE and the Blastclaw pilot can't jump out quick enough. Well that was easy!

Following down thru the gate into Elenas Fortune the convoy is a ways ahead of me and it would seem pirates are none too bright as they don't appear to have realised two of their number have disappeared someplace. I try the same trick down by the south gate and then the on the last one in Split Fire but it seems I'm only destined to get the one capture today. Maybe tomorrow..

Total Assets:
1x Medusa 'Questionable Ethics'
4x 25 Mj shield
4x EBC+Ammo, 4x PAC, 1x PBE

1x Perseus 'Shifty Business'
1x Blastclaw
2x Caiman SF - L
2x Caiman SF - S
1x Caiman Hauler 'Logistical Support'
1x Caiman Miner 'Red Dwarf'
1x Toucan Hauler 'Dropship - 01'
1x Hermes 'Dropship - 02'
1 x Hades 'Special Delivery'
250,000cr

[Arcturas]

Ahhh. Squiddy addiction satisfied for the day.

MOAR.


Oops. nevermind. It's back.

[Ravenholme]

Hah, I saw that you had named your Medusa 'Questionable Ethics' and all I can think of is that it was the name of one of Half-Life 1's chapters.

Should call the Blastclaw "Unforseen Consequences" or "Surface Tension"

Awesome part of the story NUKLEAR-SLUG, look forward to Squiddy's future endeavours

[Sincere MarkXIII]

I'm not here to be a dick about anything, I'm sure we are all enjoying this story; but

volley fire Wasps and Dragonflies at the Elite

How do you volley fire ? you got some neat script installed? I am only asking because if so, I' d like to try a script that allows such style of fire without repetitive button mashing as well.

Cheers

[Arcturas]

By volley, he mean fire missiles in rapid succession to make for damn sure that the target gets dusted.

[CNiall]

butbutbut I'm naming ships after HL chapters!

(there's my Vidar Interloper, the Mistral SF Our Benefactors...)

[Arcturas]

butbutbut I'm naming ships after HL chapters!

(there's my Vidar Interloper, the Mistral SF Our Benefactors...)

I have a carrier named "Red Letter Day"