Squiddy McSquids possibly short life - {Possible spoilers inside}

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Sat, 15. Nov 08, 16:52

In the interests of not reducing myself to a molecule-thick smear on the side of an asteroid I decide it's probably a good idea to get used to handling my new Kestrel before I get too clever with it, plus it'll be nice to see exactly what it can do.

A quick scan of Ore Belt nets me a couple asteroid scanning missions for a few thousand apiece plus a taxi mission into Cloudbase South West. No problem so far, I can scan the asteroids I need here, then head to CBSW and drop off the guy. Lucks in so I manage to pick up another scan mission and another taxi run and things pretty much tick along happily like that. I've got a jumpdrive in case time gets short but with some smart juggling of scan missions I'm able to go from sector to sector without having to double back much and at one point I've got 4 seperate missions on the go and successfully complete them albeit with only a couple mins to spare. Speed is good!

Seems I must have crossed another threshold tho as I'm starting to see a lot more delivery missions in the 10000+ units area. Highest I've seen was for a little over 29,000 e-cells. Pay was good but too short a time to do with a single SF. I'll have to see if the RNG gods are in a better mood and try and cap another one or two. Also getting some really nicely paid courier missions of 500K or so showing up but tho I could do it with the Kestrel in the time allowed the quantities they want moved are too much for my little 55 space cargo.

Cruising across Home of light I decide it's time to test combat out a little bit so I pickup an easy station defense mission and chase out to intercept the incoming M5's. First one in a Harrier doing 500+ and we go blazing past each other so fast by the time I've turned around we're already several kilometres apart. Not too hard to catch up with tho but I'm so focused on chasing him down that I nearly plow into one of the station pylons right after he suicides into it. The rest are easy to chase down as they're much slower Discovers and they don't even get halfway to the station before I'm behind them and blasting away. The M8 launches a couple fruitless Tomahawks at the station but they're no problem to intercept and a few high speed passes strips the shields off it and a Wildfire in the face finishes the job.

The Boron is happy, aside from a small Harrier-shaped impact crater near the docking arms his station is undamaged. I'm happy, my little Kestrel is proving to be capable both as a mission-ship and fighter and the previous owner of my Kestrel is most definitely very, very unhappy. Quite how unhappy I quickly come to realise as there's a jumpdrive flash off to my right, my proximity alarm bleeps a warning and Heavy Centaur starts gobbing missiles and fiery white-balls-of-death at me..

Total Assets:
1x Kestrel
1x 5 Mj shield
2x Pac, 2x Ire (rear)
750,000+ cr

1x Maxed Caiman SF 'Tax Deductible'

black_waltz · Post by **black_waltz** » Sat, 15. Nov 08, 17:01

Stay tuned for the next instalment of Squibby Mcsquids Stupendous Space Adventure!

Aetius · Post by **Aetius** » Sat, 15. Nov 08, 17:03

Uh oh.

I wonder how he's going to get out of this one.

supakillaii · Post by **supakillaii** » Sat, 15. Nov 08, 17:18

Why, max speed away from the missiles and jump away. Then find a way to survive

jordan kirwan · Post by **jordan kirwan** » Sat, 15. Nov 08, 17:35

nice!
cant wait for next chapter
go squidy!!!!

Coruskane · Post by **Coruskane** » Sat, 15. Nov 08, 19:55

Since ejected enemies are neutral-tagged versus our ships, I wish the same were true for us when we eject. I would be very happy with a semi-iron-man approach then

Necrosexual · Post by **Necrosexual** » Sat, 15. Nov 08, 19:57

Agreed that needs to be in the next patch. for Squidys sake..

phoenix-it · Post by **phoenix-it** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 01:04

Aetius wrote:Uh oh.

I wonder how he's going to get out of this one.

Even if he does, he's not likely to be buying more jump drives any time soon.

DocIceT · Post by **DocIceT** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 01:08

The Centaur is not after the pilot. It is after the stolen ship. Mashed tentacle would be collateral damage.

If Squiddy can jump, so can the Centaur. I fear for the poor guy. Hopefully he can change ship before butterfingers hit the wrong button or an asteroid floats into the path of his massive momentum.

A5PECT · Post by **A5PECT** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 05:42

I would high-tail it to a nearby Pirate or Xenon sector and and set the Centaur up on a little "date" with one of the locals.

Anyways, the story's great so far. Keep it up.

Tiedyeguy · Post by **Tiedyeguy** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 06:20

Could we possibly get markings with Squiddy's amount of in-game time?

Stryc9 · Post by **Stryc9** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 07:46

I was gonna ask if he was above collecting derelict ships but I get a feeling that isn't gonna matter by his next post.

Chealec · Post by **Chealec** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 10:27

Let's just hope that when Squiddy buys the farm he does it in a more glorious way than flying into an asteroid in a "cloudy" sector whilst going flat out in that Kestrel, using SETA and looking at the local sector map... *coughs* (Vestibule of Creation I think I managed that in).

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 11:55

It's times like these when it's most convenient to be sat in a ship that bears more than a passing resemblance to something that should be fired *at* ships rather than be one itself. Being able to do 0-600 faster than you can say ".." certainly doesn't hurt either. Anyways, I pull a full-on RSLG maneuver to the sound of thunderous explosions behind me and put some distance between me and the Centaur. I'm not particularly concerned by the missile warning as according to the encyclopaedia the only missile I currently know about that can actually catch me is the Rapier and they only do 1mj damage. Even then I've still got that handy back turret so should be fine.

Pulling up a few kilometres away I bring up the sector map to see what's going on. Yep, they're definitely a Heavy Centaur there and he's heading this way. Also my Argon rep seems to have dropped thru the floor, I'm now Suspected Foe and the local laser tower has gone red on me. I take some solace from that fact that I'm only a suspected foe, it implies someone somewhere feels I may have some redeeming qualities after all. The Centaur on the other hand seems to be in no such moral quandary, is very sure I'm an actual foe and not merely a suspected one, and is fully intent on doing something about that.

Aside from that tho all the rest of the sector is still blue to me. Suddenly there's more flashes around me and the sector map acquires a few new red contacts. A panicked stab for the cancel map button and I'm RSLGing again. A quick glance behind me reveals there's now 5 M5's and a Nova chasing me. What's the deal here? This Kestrel belong to his dead grandmother or something?

I'm now having serious concerns now as to whether I'm going to have ships attempting to jump me at every opportunity so make a swift dash thru the superstructure of the nearest Crystal fab and then head for the East gate. One of the M5s tries to follow but doesn't quite make it. Stopping in the middle of Presidents End I wait for a couple minutes finger on the boost button just in case any more jump in on me but nothing seems to happen so it looks like that was the. lot. It appears tho that somewhere along the way I took a hit as my hull is down in the nineties. I'm fairly sure I didn't take any laser fire so I think I must have been clipped by a mass driver. Hopping out quick to patch the hole I get a proximity warning... they're following me.

Ok, fine, I was quite happy to just run away but if they want to follow me then there's going to be trouble and if there's going to be trouble it's going to be in Paranid space. Might as well get a bit of Paranid rep out of this mess, perhaps then they'll stop firing nukes at me.

Down in Priests Pity the local defence force seems to have taken out the pirate base, there's just the burnt out hull left. So I potter around for a bit waiting for the Argon police to arrive. When they do get there they're nicely strung out so no problem to deal with. There's only 3 of them tho so it looks like another one has come a cropper somewhere. Bumped into a pirate on the way down through Split Fire perhaps? Anyways, I presume the Nova and Centaur are on the way down too but even knocking out those 3 M5 seems to have been enough to get me into bare minimum docking rights with the Paranid which is all I really need so I spend a while doing missions in the area and jump my SF down to do a few factory runs. They may not be red to me but I've no longer got Argon docking rights so there's nothing my SF can do around Argon space anyway.

Ship recovery here, taxi mission there, a liberal sprinkling of e-cells and much apologising to Paranid border control and I'm now in the good graces of the Paranid empire. The nova eventually shows up as I'm looking for a lost Jaguar and while I'm a little wary of that mass driver a single M3 isn't a problem. Takes a while to wear him down but my speed leaves him wallowing. I'm assuming that Centaur is still out there somewhere but I don't fancy trying to take him out so instead make a long loop round the back and up thru CBSW/Redlight to Kingdom End, across to Menalaeus Frontier and then down to Atreus to try and grab another SF or two. If that Centaur is still following me that'll give him a nice long run to catch up so I'll be safe for a good while.

Sadly despite a fair amount of time spent chasing down freighters the RNG gods are still wholly disinclined to shower me with their bounty and nothing bails. Perhaps I should head down to Xenon 101 and punt my SF ex-pilot out the airlock as a human sacrifice...

Total Assets:
1x Kestrel
1x 5 Mj shield
2x Pac, 2x Ire (rear)
900,000+ cr

1x Maxed Caiman SF 'Tax Deductible'

Seathal · Post by **Seathal** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 12:07

Good job on that. You kept me awake a while yesterday night reading Squiddy's adventures. Smart move to Paranid sectors ^^.

black_waltz · Post by **black_waltz** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 13:10

Awesome work!

snowman001 · Post by **snowman001** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 14:12

I would just like to say how inspired i am by squiddys adventures i often browse the forums at work which just makes me want to get home and play , excellent work

juanitierno · Post by **juanitierno** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 14:26

i think ill steal this one from you:
" if they want to follow me then there's going to be trouble and if there's going to be trouble it's going to be in Paranid space."

black_waltz · Post by **black_waltz** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 14:49

Aye. I'd love more threads like this. It's one of the great things about the game - different peoples experiences and playstyles make for interesting reading. Not to mention I don't have a PC so this is a great way to play the game through someone else. :-p

Demolisher 2 · Post by **Demolisher 2** » Sun, 16. Nov 08, 14:57

black_waltz wrote:Aye. I'd love more threads like this. It's one of the great things about the game - different peoples experiences and playstyles make for interesting reading. Not to mention I don't have a PC so this is a great way to play the game through someone else. :-p

Here, have some reading material...
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=2635931