Squiddy McSquids possibly short life - {Possible spoilers inside}

[Nanook]

Ha! It certainly would have sucked if the capture had failed. Imagine if he'd jumped farther, too... say, Getsu Fune... or Belt of Aguilar...

Or worse yet, simply to the next sector and into the sights of the waiting Brigantine.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Not a hugely successful day today.

My ghetto chip complex has finally coughed up enough chips to leave me with 515 units which is just a little over what I require for Mahi Ma and upon delivery that satisifies him enough to get this Hub thing slightly working. He reckons it's some big machine for rerouting jumpgates which sounds interesting and he needs me to choose a target point for it. I think just about anywhere other than between Xenon sectors will do but I have a plan..

I'm wondering if I can use it to annex off a chunk of the galaxy, say the pirate sectors from Split Fire -> Hatikvahs and split those sectors off from the rest of the gate network. Unfortunately I've only got one go at this until he can fix some more of it so I go for the east gate of Split Fire as the first one. Sadly it seems Mahi Ma's theories of how it works aren't quite right or I misunderstood. (It's probably me but I'm blaming him regardless) Anyway, it appears that what it actually does is insert itself BETWEEN jumpgates, kinda like a bridge. I'm not sure that's going to achieve what I'm after..

Anyways, it's done now and appears to be working ok, only problem now is the crazy Boron now wants me to acquire for him the entire mineral content of a small solar system in order to fix the next widget. This is going to require some thought..

Dropping down into Olmancketslats later on a satellite replacement run I discovered what had killed off the last one. It's that Pirate Centaur I saw many moons back, or at least one of his cousins. Now while I certainly have very little complaints about my HCP one of the few is that it's geared for war and consequently doesn't have a Tractor beam mount. The Pirate Centaur does however as well as having a funky paintjob. I need a tug and this is going to be it.

Except it's not because I manage to screw up what should by rights be a simple capture. Four Dragonflies pop the four Harriers escorting and then it's quad-ION-D to burn the guns out, so far so good. I decide he's too quick to use a dropship on so I call in one of my M7M's to pod some guys over. Unfortunately this particular Centaur was massively undershielded, only 2x25mj so they recharge quite quickly which means I can't switch to M7M, fire pod and switch back in time to keep the shields below danger point. This means I'm going to have to rely on a shield supressor..

Now the smart move would have been to call in a dedicated Blastclaw to do the job since they've proven excptionally suited to the task in the past,.. so of course I didn't do that. I decide to be clever and let my HCP do the job for me. Not cool. HCP is good but it does handle like a bit of a cow and suffice to say after some general wallowing around and minimal achievement the auto-n00b decided the solution to the problem was a head-on collision. Were that not bad enough, having knocked off 90% of the Centaurs hull, it then decided to finish it off with missiles despite me telling it specifically not to use them.. <sigh>

Finally, just to cap off the day I somehow managed to lose a couple Mercs during transfer between ships. I'm still not quite sure how but I definitely ended up with less than I started with. I'm guessing they weren't too happy at being pressganged into service and decided to do a runner..

About the only bright spot to it all is my latest batch of Mercs are at 3-star and are ready to rock. Consequently, Operation: 'Dude Where's my car??' which is the long-planned smash and grab raid for a Split Elephant will kick-off tomorrow and should all go well I'll end up with my TL.

We'll see...

[DocIceT]

Try fighter drones as shield suppressor next time. About 1-2 per 500MW shield generating capacity. They are cheap and take care of themselves without the ability to blast the target into small pieces.

[Nanook]

He had a way to do it properly, with his Blastclaws, but Squiddy just tried to get cute, as he said. And paid the price.

[RegisterMe]

/tips hat

[Tenlar Scarflame]

HCP is absolutely wonderful if what you're after is complete vaporization of the target... Oh well. Better luck next time!

[Ormac]

Sadly it seems Mahi Ma's theories of how it works aren't quite right or I misunderstood. (It's probably me but I'm blaming him regardless) Anyway, it appears that what it actually does is insert itself BETWEEN jumpgates, kinda like a bridge. I'm not sure that's going to achieve what I'm after..

With the Hardware you have no-one should be insulting you Squiddy

Now the smart move would have been to call in a dedicated Blastclaw to do the job since they've proven excptionally suited to the task in the past,.. so of course I didn't do that. I decide to be clever and let my HCP do the job for me.

I think you've proved your point , shame about the Pirate Centaur though.

[Necrosexual]

He doesn't know how to do the no flight time marine boarding using m6 ?

If you fly along side it close enough and execute the command the marines will make hull contact in a few seconds without having to chase it down the shields must be down and you have to pull away to get a shot on the ship to keep its shields down. No boarding pods required.

Being in his HCP he might become too relaxed and forget to check for hammerheads on hostile objectives(like i did).

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Being in his HCP he might become too relaxed and forget to check for hammerheads on hostile objectives(like i did).

That's the one thing I do make a point of checking for as that's about the only major threat to me at present.


Operation: 'Dude?, Where's my car??'
--------------------------------------------

Mission objective is a smash and grab raid on one of the Split core sectors to acquire a Split TL. The goal will be to get in, hijack the target and get out again as fast as possible as my prescence in sector is likely to cause a bit of a stir.

The target for this mission is the TL Hospital ship currently ambling around Thuruks Pride. This ship was chosen specifically as it has the happy benefit of being completely unarmed so no need to disarm any turrets. Simply drop shields and pod in, as soon as the ship is captured, evac asap.

Ships for this Op will include:
HCP 'Thunderchild' (Target suppression and area defence)
M7M 'Shoot First' (Boarding ops)
M3+ Medusa 'Questionable Ethics' (Decoy/Jumpdrive transfer)

I'm also experimenting with some new hardware today, specifically the Hornet missile. I've chosen to use this one because it does a speedy 186m/s while packing a nice round 200Mj warhead. This is convenient for my purposes as TL class ships mount 200Mj shields so I can very precisely reduce my targets shields to 0% at distance. Plus if anything tries to interfere I can punch it in the face.. really hard.

First run doesn't go well. jumping from staging ground in Nopileos into Thuruks I have to close 25km to target and my M7M isn't that fast. By the time I'm down to 10km I've already attracted the attention of the local Python and even tho I've convinced it to chase my Medusa extra M6 forces have arrived in-system from the north and south gates and are rapidly chasing down my decoy..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tl1.jpg

.. Forced to jump my Medusa out to safety just causes all opponents to turn on me and I'm only barely in strike range of the TL. There's a time to fight and a time to not fight and knowing which is which is a fine line sometimes. This time tho I'm clearly outgunned so accept my defeat graciously and call an abort.

Despite being forced to turn tail in Thuruks the game is not over yet. it's always good to have a plan B and I've got one in Family Pride. Jumping to the west gate the sector seems fairly clear, just a few police M4/M5's in the area which are no threat and my target..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tl2.jpg

.. and he's not too far away tho he's heading for the Equipment dock. I jump in my M7M behind me and order him to follow as we go in hot pursuit of the TL Arena. I'm very carefully making sure I stay within 5km of my M7M at all times because I need to be able to transport over and fire a pod. The sector is still clear of any immediate danger to me and I'm rapidly closing the gap on him when suddenly..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tl3.jpg

.. uh-oh, that's a Raptor and he's locked on me and heading in on full power. I don't know how well armed it is, I don't particularly want to find out. Either way I don't have time to mess around with it so it needs removing. Switching to Hammerheads I fire off a salvo of three and as soon as the first strikes I follow it up with a half-dozen Hornets just to make sure before sending five after the TL to knock out his 1Gj of shielding..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tl4.jpg

With the TL's shields reduced to tatter and the M1 destroyed I quickly transport back to my M7M, fire a pod at the TL and while it's tracking in switch back to my HCP and tap the shields to keep them down. A successful pod attachment and my guys are in and doing their stuff. I call my Medusa back in as I'll hopefully be needing him in a minute. Meantime a quick check on the sector map shows the M1 going up left some goodies behind..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tl5.jpg

.. Bonus! The boarding op drags on for a fair while and I'm starting to get the impression it's not going well when eventually..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tl6.jpg

.. Result.


Debrief:
A bit of a false start in Thuruks and it wasn't quite the quick-in, quick-out I was originally aiming for. And the boarding operation did indeed go badly. I managed to lose three squaddies doing it including one 3-star fighter so that was a tough nut to crack. The chief issue I think is relying on the M7M to pod troops across. It may be easier and help them breach the hull but the Minotaur itself is not a fast-mover so sec-def gets time to respond.

Mission accomplished tho. Next time I'll attempt an EVA capture I think.

Total Assets:
1x HCP 'Thunderchild'
4x 200Mj shield
6x HEPT, 2x PBG, 3x PBE, 3x ION-D

1x M7M Minotaur 'Shoot First'
1x M7M Minotaur 'Ask Questions Later'
1x Elephant
1x Zephyras TM
1x Medusa 'Questionable Ethics'
1x Blastclaw
3x Blastclaw Prototype
3x Caiman SF - L
2x Caiman SF - S
1x Caiman Hauler 'Logistical Support'
1x Caiman Miner 'Red Dwarf'
1x Toucan Hauler 'Training - 01'
1x Hermes 'Training- 02'
1x Express 'Carjacker'
7,200,000cr

[MegaJohnny]

Very nice.

This one should be the one to bear the name Red Dwarf. Much more suited to the role, wouldn't you think...

[Random_Guy]

[translator=binary]

The Boron has made a suicidal strike on the core Split sectors and come out alive. He successfully destroyed one Raptor and captured one Elephant. Scans indicate that several high grade weapons survived the Raptor's destruction and the Boron has capitalized on this. The creature's unexpected audasity continues to crash current logic algorithms.

Study of specimine will continue until this unit is recalled for other duties.

[/translator]

[VolKoV47]

Split alive!

[Necrosexual]

Split say - AAAAAAAARGH!!!!

[Stryc9]

I've never heard Split say AAAAAAAARGH!!!! I've only ever heard Paranid say Paranid now asking Priest Duke for permission to AAAAAAAARGH!!!!

[targetdrone]

I've never heard Split say AAAAAAAARGH!!!! I've only ever heard Paranid say Paranid now asking Priest Duke for permission to AAAAAAAARGH!!!!

youre not shooting enough split then

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Nicely done. You've probably just sparked a major Split civil war. Should give the Boron some time to be poets and artists (and pirates like Squiddy, of course...)

[gamer993]

go Squiddy!!!!!!!!

[Stryc9]

you're not shooting enough split then

Having seen the stats of Split ships I intend to stay on good terms with the Split so I can purchase ships from them in the future since capping ships is just too hit and miss in X3R.

The Paranid on the other hand annoy me with all their religious zeal and pompous attitude so when they bail it's an extra treat to make the pilot go up in a burning blast firey death stuff.

[crawlerw]

get a Heavt Nemesis, it will pound the shit out of any Split Xenon. and terran it can find.

well i got to say squiddy is taking this to the extreem attacking a hospital

[shinpl]

Pfy, Paranids are a joke, they should be exterminated! I personaly enslave them all, and sell them.