Squiddy McSquids possibly short life - {Possible spoilers inside}

[Lord of Nothing]

You think 8 M6's is bad around the goner corvette...
I did it pre-1.3, so i had to get rid of about 150.
Seriously.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

On the topic of capturing how long did it take to fry all the weapons on an HCP and how many ION-D's did you use?

I use 4 and it can take a little while, always seems to be one stubborn gun that won't fry easily.

Quick question to those who cap for a living, what are your race ranks like?

The Split hate me cos I've been hassling them since day one. Most of the coorporations probly don't like me either cos I keep raiding their freighters. Teladi/Argon are indifferent and the Boron and, oddly, the Paranid love me.

Squiddy - I tried to cap that Goner HCP. Slight problem:

Oh well, maybe they'll get to keep that one after all..

You think 8 M6's is bad around the goner corvette...
I did it pre-1.3, so i had to get rid of about 150.
Seriously.

Yipe!

Well it was an exciting day today..

I transferred some funds, bought some ore mines, ordered some freighters around, sat in an empty sector while my TL built a spaghetti-plex, transferred some more funds, ordered my freighters back the other way, transferred some more funds, added a bit more to the spaghetti-plex, transferred some more funds, ordered my freighters to go both ways at the same time, added more ore mines, transferred some funds, ordered my freighters to go both ways at the same time while travelling thru time and space... and transferred some more funds.

It's hard work this pirating lark..

The ore situation is getting somewhat critical, I'm literally down to cramming it into any and every crevice on any ship I own that can physically get the stuff thru the airlock and I'm still not quite keeping up with the production rate of my Ore-plex. I need additional storage space and I need it very, very soon. I think my current band of ex-Paranid shuttle passengers are trained enough to get out there and save the day so tommorow will see the kick off of Operation 'If it ain't nailed down...' which should alleviate some of the pressure..

[perkint]

Good luck

I'm looking at it from a different angle - gonna try lots (and lots) of mobile miners, homebased to the Hub.

Clear a few sectors at the same time as (hopefully) bringing in the ore quickly without needing God knows how many TLs to store it all.

Tim

[Eandir]

Operation 'If it ain't nailed down...'

Quite possibly the greatest name for a military operation ive ever heard.

[Nadrek]

For want of a nail... the bloody Boron stole a horseshoe*?

*Technically a TS full of tack... but the horseshoe was the important part.

[Al]

Sounds like a great operation coming up!

I also desperately need to build some stations as I've got about 80 million in cash but cant tear myself away from capturing pirate blastclaws. Got quite a few stored to sell too.

And my goal for tomorrow is to capture something using marines. No idea what though, I'll need to see whats flying around Brennan's Triumph area when I'm ready

[Rug]

<Random thought>

Are Squiddy's mercs Squiddy-squaddies ?

</Random thought>

Rug

[DocIceT]

As far as I know you can hire TLs and they cost you only if you make them move sector. So why not hire lots of TLs to solve the storage problem and when you need to make a withdrawal just send a squad to collect the packaging as well?

[Scarecrow]

I don't think you can put goods like resources on a hired TL .... only stations purchased at a shipyard.

But it's a great idea.

[JMCorp]

and in addition to that, if you leave them sitting long enough they take your station and leave.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Operation: 'If it ain't nailed down...'
--------------------------------------------

Objectives for this mission were two-fold. Primary mission goal was to secure much needed additional storage space for my Ore-plex to dump its overproduction. With this in mind I needed to get as much bang per buck from my Mercs so that means big ships and they don't come much bigger than the Mammoth. Selected targets for this mission were the unarmed civilian types which are found only in core sectors which tend to be patrolled by capital ships, so operations needed to be carried out with a degree of alacrity or else I'ld wind up with an M2 breathing down my neck.

Secondary goal was the acquisition of selected additional targets that my recon crew had picked up and been busy tailing for a while now with a view to bolstering my fleet of warships. Being mobile these could be approached at a point much more of my choosing. Given operations on this type of target require a greater time investment this reduces the danger of the authorities getting wind of what I'm up to and spoiling my fun.

Finally, a tertiary goal was designated as 'targets of opportunity' which includes anything I happened to bump into and took a liking to while out and about achieving my main goals.

Troops for the mission consisted of a platoon of 30 Mercs designated 'The Expendable Mooks' comprised mainly of an ex-Paranid Engineering team. I was hoping their engineering expertise might come in handy even if their fighting skills were a little subpar. Hopefully not only would they get the job done but there's always the chance some of them might actually develop a small talent for war and as I'm going to need some decent troops for my Brigantine capture operation a little training couldn't hurt.. unless they all died horribly of course.

Main loadout for the mission included the now standard Hornet and Dragonfly/Wasp mix with the addition of a new toy I was using specifically for this op, the Firestorm Heavy Torpedo. I chose this one specifically because it does exactly 1Gj of damage. A Mammoth conveniently mounts 5x200Mj shields for a grand total of 1Gj. This meant I could fire at my target, switch to my M7M and have a boarding pod queued up and ready to fire. The instant the Firestorm went off the Mammoths shields were at 0% and pods away. This gave me plenty of time to switch back to 'Thunderchild' and accelerate in to keep the shields low. Minimum shots fired at target meant in-system defence forces were slow to realise what mischief I was perpetrating.

When the capture team were onboard and doing their thing I called in a jumpdrive equipped BCP with a full load of e-cells and as soon as the Mammoth was captured, docked, transferred jumpdrive and e-cells and was away before anything big enough to stop me could get in range. The few small police and military ships that attempted to intervene were summarily dispatched with Dragonflies.

Operations went smoothly in all areas right up until I got greedy attempting to capture an opportunistic Split Cobra before it could get thru the north gate of Split Fire into Elenas Fortune. Having spotted it late I wasn't in the position to take its escorts out at range and jumping in I landed right in the middle of the taskforce. Needing to take out the escorting split fighters quickly I fired on the Cobra to get it to abort its entry thru the gate then accelerated away from the Split fighters which by now were reacting to my attacking their taskforce leader and were pursuing me with a vengeance. Feeling rather clever with myself for having caught them in time I switched to the rear view, selected Thunderbolts and started to fire missiles at each of the pursuing Split. Feeling rather clever is however no substitute for actually being clever and after firing about five Thunderbolts I ploughed headfirst at maximum throttle into the nearest asteroid..

I'm not really sure how I managed to to fail to notice the looming kilometre wide rock directly in my flight path but I can assure you it makes for one hell of a fender-bender. I came to an abrupt halt, spilled my bofu-juice and 800Mj of shields instantly vanished along with 38% of my hull. Now this in itself is bad enough, I'm at a full stop and there's a horde of angry Split coming up fast behind me but it's about to get worse, much worse. Betty politely informs me that my jumpdrive used to be installed in the nose of my HCP and that no, its no longer functional. Couldn't be the freight-scanner could it?.. of course not..

It's at this point that the first PBE fire starts peppering my ship and with only fractional shields it takes them no time at all to strip what little I've got and start chewing into my hull. With no way to jump out my only option is to evade and fight them, so hugging the asteroid like an agoraphobic limpet I haul myself around the other side until the fighters break off and I'm no longer under PBE fire at which point my shields start to recharge to the point where I can safely fire missiles, and I do.. lots of them. I don't dare move so I just hug the asteroid and empty my tubes at everything in sight while Betty gives me a running inventory of all the equipment that used to be installed on my HCP and is now full of PBE holes and useless.

Fortunately I tend to carry lots of missiles and the amount I fire swamps the area sufficiently to save the day. At a cost tho..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nailed1.jpg

.. Ouch.

The Cobra incidentally, sneaked off while I was busy getting my arse handed to me but chose to head up thru Farnhams Legend which was ultimately a mistake. Calling in a BCP to restore some much needed functionality to 'Thunderchild' I hopped up there and intercepted it at the north gate. No second chance.

Feeling I'ld pressed my luck far enough for one day I called a halt to operations and limped home for some R&R.


Debrief:
-----------
Despite some mindnumbing incompetence which is going to cost me a hell of a lot to fix, Operation:'If it ain't nailed down...' was an unqualified success..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nailed2.jpg

.. total haul for the day, 5x TL, 3x M6, 2x M7M and 1x M8. Not bad.

'The Expendable Mooks' proved themselves to be mostly exactly that as they died in droves tho there are a couple guys left who have some good fight skill now. I'm not entirely sure what happened with Mammoth-05 as it appears the mission parameters of 'capture intact' were slightly misinterpreted by the squad involved as 'shoot the hell out of everything'. I guess that's what happens when you use an all-Split squad. The way they were going at the time I'ld assumed they were having trouble and were going to fail the capture op but as it turned out they were in actual fact the only squad that completed a mission without losing a single operative.

Makes for a nice view in-sector too..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nailed3.jpg


Total Assets:
1x HCP 'Thunderchild'
4x 200Mj shield
4x CIG, 2x PBG, 4x PBE, 4x ION-D (Hornet/Dragonfly/Wasp)

5x HCP
1x M7M Minotaur 'Shoot First'
1x M7M Minotaur 'Ask Questions Later'
2x M7M Cobra
5x Mammoth
1x Hades
1x Elephant 'Fatboy'
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'
3x Hermes
1x Express 'Carjacker'

2,400,000cr
Teladianium remaining: 24,963
Ore remaining: 450,000

[Mr-Ten-Percent]

Way to go Mr Slug, I was a tad worried there when you imitated the fly vs windshield on that asteroid, but it seems you can come up smelling of roses in any situation. Congratulations on the success of operation 'If it aint nailed down...'

[Necrosexual]

SQUID almost converted to 'goner' there..

[Legionnaire]

Way to go Squiddy!! Starting to think this squid like most cats has at least 'nine lives' thats a major storage increase you got yourself there, very nicely done indeed, how badly did you damage your race reps, with your new acquisitons?

Legionnaire

[MegaJohnny]

Hold on a second, why do your Minotaurs have no shields in that pic... Haven't you been using them to blow things up?

[workshop]

Congrats big time SLUG! Say hello insta-fleet!
Suddenly the 2 M8s I just captured don't seem quite as cool....

Good to know a HCP can take a roid head-on and survive, well somewhat anyhow, I wonder how long it'll take you to weld the Teladianium panels back on, in your suit.....

EGOSOFT, somebody hand this man a payroll!

[Lancefighter]

holy crap nice job!

I can only hope to one day be able to follow in your footsteps and conduct a HUGE raid on paranid prime

[jordan kirwan]

@nuclear_slug........
can you tell me how you organised all those ships (how did you get them lined up neatly)

[shilhi]

I just finished reading everything from page 1, to this page.

That was great! Im eagerly awaiting more...try not to get smoked. lol

[Lord of Nothing]

I'd guess he either hopped in himself or flew them by remote- I don't think the autopilot would have cut it that close to the edge fo the hub, especially for the mammoths.

Am i right?