A Robbery never to be Forgotten[DiD]

[Master of the Blade]

Yeah, it was just that I was expecting someone to post about the update to the LAZOR chapter- I mean there was all that speculation, then nothing. I suppose the update to that chapter shoul have been posted separately, but... Huh? Which plugin? I already have achievement guild installed, and I thought your economic booster still needed work? Which one do you mean?

Yes, mostly Terran plot. I like all the ships it gives. And all the Xenon killing I get to do.

[Sp@c3Ch!mp]

keep up the writing. Always nice to see how I don't fail my master

[Snowship]

Why is it I can never get this turret command deck dry? Water just seems to seap out

Oh and if you're going about with Humans then can you use a different name for me around them? I had to skidaddle pretty quicky outa homespace after a certain unfortunate incident which I won't bore you with

-Krek Asimar

[Master of the Blade]

Oh and if you're going about with Humans then can you use a different name for me around them? I had to skidaddle pretty quicky outa homespace after a certain unfortunate incident which I won't bore you with

Thought so. They won't suspect a thing...


Xenon assault on Terra

Every little Argon(and Terran) knows about the Terraformer Wars(at least, now they do). The Terrans built machines to go out and make planets habitable. The machines were decomissioned and the programme abandoned, but an ill-thought out patch to the Terraformers' software caused them to malfunction and attempt to terraform Earth. They overwhelmed its defences and had to be lead into the X universe, with the Earth gate shut off. The Terrans who defeated the Terraformers became the Argon, and, eventually, were attacked by a variant of the Terraformers, the Xenon. Cue the X-universe Terraformer Wars. But to think that the Terrans, still, after so long, are so incredibly paranoid about the Xenon is ridiculous. Anyway, I am sent off to the comically named 'Uranus' to patrol for attackers in the Sol system.

Travelling through Terran space, my main impression is that it is like their stations- impractically huge. my SETA drive has to work overtime to prevent my crew and I from dying of boredom. Still, we get there eventually, and meet up with one S.Plinter and his band of rookies on their first patrol. This looks like it'll be quite tranquil, and I'm getting paid, so I call my crew up to the(surprisingly spacious- they must have sacrificed the plumbing in the turret control room ) command deck for whisky and a clan meeting. Just because we're going straight doesn't mean we have to stop acting like Pirates, ye ken? I owe my old clan that much...

Setting off on patrol, I keep one eye on our heading and the other on the mug of whisky on the table- amongst Pirates, unattended alcohol isn't left unattended for long. Through the Sol system we go, and- wait! Xenon? Oh for heaven's sake. How the hell did they get there? They're closing... Everyone! Battle stations!
As the PAC rounds slam into the ship, the inertial dampeners take a few seconds to adapt, the hull swaying uncertainly- spilling my drink. That was nearly a full glass. YOU SPILT MY WHISKY, YOU BASTARDS! Prepare to die! I switch to my PBGs and flambé the offending Ns, then scour the sector for any stragglers. Xenon defeated and whisky avenged, I rejoin the patrol group. But the Xenon refuse to give up- now there're message drones heading for the outer Solar System, and guess who's got to go and stop them? Yup. No rest for the wicked, eh? More boring, huge sectors with massive, autopilot-confusing stations with ship-impaling antennae. How fun.

We finally reach the Oort Cloud, and follow the speedy little message drone which has gone sublight speed for the rest of its journey. Waiting for it is a ship, of Argon design, along with a jump beacon, presumably to allow for P2P jumping if the minor Xenon epidemic eariler was anything to go by. S.Plinter turns up and asks me to patrol back through Terran space, not that I have any choice- the infernal TOAs in Terran space aren't jumpdrive-friendly at all. At least we can have some amusement on our way back- the Xenon have quietly invaded all the sectors back up to Uranus with copious numbers of Ps, upon which I use my new tactic- use the IPGs in my front turret and my other weapons to strip the shields and let the IPGs slow it down. Then, we ram it with our shields, destroying the enemy Corvette while we lose around 3% of our shields. Which recharge very quickly- I'd been browsing the ship's onboard encyclopeadia of spaceship-related things, and this corvette's shield generators are above and beyond any other Commonwealth ship of the same class- even the Heavy Osprey, designed around its shields has a lower recharge. Indeed, the generator on this ship is on par with the Terrans' advanced ship technology. Very nice! We quickly carve our way through the Xenon corvette fleet and I recieve a delectable 900kcr. Now, what can I do with that? But the Terrans have more missions for me! Bring 'em on!

property:

1x Flower Farm+freighter. 100k in its account.

1xCarrack(you know the situation by now)
1x H.Hydra
1x Harrier raider, 'Banshee'
1x Pirate Elite
1x Discoverer Vanguard, 'Betrayal'

~3Mcr

[Snowship]

Serves the machineheads right for wasting good drink.

Oh and if you're wondering Captain why Terran stations are so huge...
...well lets just say that humans breed like rabbits.


-Krek Asimar

[Master of the Blade]

Sorry for the gap in my posts- things have been somewhat hectic, and I've had to invoke the 'conditional DiD' rule twice when I have had time- TWICE in one day did I emerge from a gate and become 2-dimensional against the back end of a *insert unnecessarily large frigate here* so progress hasn't been good. Sorry.




An awkward request

After being calmed down somewhat, I complete an espionage mission- to snoop around after a Pirate and follow him to his base, in a sector containing a Plasma Burst Generator forge and a two Pirate bases, one friendly and offering a hack for the PBG Forge. I buy an extra nine on top of the ones which came with the ship for good measure- enough to fill my main and one turret, with one to sell for a good profit. My business in this sector done, I return to the Terrans for another- this time to escort a TP to the 'Venus' sector. Boring! We move out, me lagging behind due to a speed inferiority to the transport, which, of course is bombing along at full throttle, outstripping even the fighters accompanying us. Anyway, we fly through the Asteroid Belt and come to Mars, where -halfway across the sector- a massive Xenon fleet point-jumps nearby. The commander orders all units to attack, and I join in, citing 'offense is the best defence' as my excuse for leaving the convoy. Which is tosh- I just wanted to test my ship against the J carrier which seems to be the centerpiece of the attack. There's a Terran destroyer- an Osaka- some way away, trying frantically to shoot down fighters with its massive anti-capital cannons. Good luck with that...

I slide in underneath the J, and blast away with my PBGs, slowly chipping away its shields. A lone Terran fighter decides to help me and we eventually disable the carrier's shielding and tear into the hull. When it reaches 10%, I ram on the thrusters and plough straight through its weakened armour plating, crippilng my own shields- but they hold and I emerge from the massive fireball unscathed.[ external image ]Melty-hot!

[ external image ]Now that's an explosion!

The Xenon are repelled, so I move on to Venus and claim my reward- an enhanced discoverer. Now, I should go the Heretic's End for my next assignment. Which involves meeting up with 'Pearle', a Terran spy. You've only just met me! Why are you already offering to let me meet with an undercover operative? I should have tried to Pirate you guys while I still had a clan- your security's terrible. Either way, it's lucky for them I'm not going to turn over their spy to the Argon in Nathan's Voyage- if only because i'm not too chuffed with the Argon at the moment...

At the trading station, a woman who is almost certainly not Captain Pearle rudely comms us, telling us we're late and offending me, so I make it clear that any more rudeness and her ship will transform into a pile of molten slag very, very quickly. Which causes her to apologise swiftly, of course, and she tells me that Pearle got captured. More fool him, says I, but I suspect the Terrans and ATF won't accept that as an excuse, so I continue to listen and she proposes we go to the Teladi sector, Grand Exchange. So I use my jumpdrive to accelerate the journey, and emerge about half a meter away from the engine block of a Teladi Albatross. Phew- any closer and this ship's be flatter than a pancake, since it already is fairly flat. I fly towards a large station- either a Shipyard or an Equipment Dock- in the hope of missions to swell my credit account. It's a shipyard posing details about a Xenon invasion. Of course I'll help! A little more revenge is always nice! *Sounds of smashing, destruction, War and Clancy*[Hooray for Pratchett randomness!] Two Million Credits later, and I approach the dream farm where this Heywood person has a contact, dreading the massive, extortionate cost of whatever we need from the Teladi. Which turns out to be not at all extortionate- we need to attack a convoy of spaceweed smugglers, who are raiding ships. Fair enough, but methinks they'll leave behind lots of loot, and lots of loot needs a big cargo bay. I'll be right back- I'm off to see the OTAS. Their freighters are all over the place, so they have to be here somewhere. They say Legend's Home, but I have no idea where that is. Time for some random travelling!

property:

1x Flower Farm+freighter. 100k in its account.

1xCarrack(you know the situation by now)
1x H.Hydra
1x Harrier raider, 'Banshee'
1x Pirate Elite
1x Discoverer Vanguard, 'Betrayal'
1x Advanced Discoverer
1x Xenon L(from the Pirate/Xenon follow mission)
~5Mcr

[EmperorJon]

Indeed! If one is careful, you can not only get most of the Spaceweed dropped, but can (With careful ID, PRG, PBE or IRE use) get most of the smugglers to bail, with ALL their weed onboard!

Then sell all of them in GE at the shipyard.

[Master of the Blade]

Why sell at the shipyard?
It's far, far more profitable in the long run to use the ships as MORTs/S/L/UTs or factory freighters. Which is, of course, what I'll do with any captures other than fighters. As for their freight, I reckon the GE trading dock will offer a marginally better price- with marginally being an understatement.

[EmperorJon]

For quick profit, use my way.

[Master of the Blade]

Well, it'll be a while until I get to that- I'm not using any maps to find Legend's home for a Zephyrus, and am a touch lost.

[completely OOC]Anyway, I'm using the Economic Booster plugin(as you know) and have a little query. All the ones I've been to are empty of products and full of resources. I don't think the NPCs are that efficient at cleaning/supplying stations, so, what gives? Of course, this should be in the script thread, but since you're here...

[Snowship]

MotB, do you have MARS installed?
(thinking Krek might get the "why are you shooting an M5 with PPC's" )

[Master of the Blade]

Again, sorry for the gap in updates- I haven't been playing TC much recently. I think I actually got slightly bored with it So, later there will probably be a chapter, depending on how I feel.

EDIT: Have played some more today, but haven't got far enough to really justify a chapter.

[Master of the Blade]

Having been away from my computer for most of the week, I'm afraid still no gameplay update, but I'll throw in a narrative, non-gameplay chapter to prove that I'm still going. Some may not like this, so the title says it all.

Flashback episode: you have been warned

As I wander around the area hopelessly lost trying to find the Legend's Home, I decide to try another region- this one's boxed in by Paranid sectors. Setting the Autopilot for Aladna Hill I fall back in my chair and try to sleep.

I'd thought it through and at no point did I question my plan to leave home - a peaceful existence which I shouldn't have questioned - in a measly little scout and then escape to Pirate sectors no less. A company scout, stolen and without weaponry or decent shielding, being flown into some of the most unpredictable areas in the known universe. Yeah, genius. But I'd dropped into the cockpit of that can and hit the thrusters, accidentally scorching the docking clamps when I took off. Long hours on flight sims and - of course - video games had prepared me for flight but I'd always sucked at anything regarding docking at or leaving a space station. The company headquarters in Argon Prime receded behind me as my thrusters fired and I made for Home of Light, intending to make for the Pirate sectors near Elana's Fortune, at every moment glancing at my scanners, expecting a police ship to stop me. Actually, I'd managed to reach Split Fire before I first noticed that I'd acquired a military hit squad instead. I've no idea what made them think I was intending to go Pirate but they certainly had a no-nonsense appearance - five Disco Raiders in a tight-packed formation, closing in on me at full speed. Good thing my dad always upgraded the engines on company ships, or else the chase would have been over very quickly.

It was in Farnham's legend that they caught up with me, and my shields quickly fell. With my hull barely holding, I just about managed to avoid fire for a good twenty seconds - long enough for a bizarre ship, all exposed piping and dented armour, to arrive and instantly torch the Argon ships with a powerful flame weapon which I later learned was the infamous Plasma Burst Generator - one example of a cheap, low-tech Pirate design surpassing the advanced tech of the Commonwealth. The pilot, a Teladi by the name of Tsunagolis, opens comms:

'Follow me, Missster Arsha. I think you owe usss ssomething?'
Of course, she was right so I tentatively set the Autopilot to follow the Blastclaw Prototype to the Farnham's Legend Corsairs Base - an Anarchy Port far from the ecliptic which had escaped the notice of many, many military patrols - indeed, making much of its profit and the Corasirs' fearsome reputation from pillaging the patrols. Upon arrival, I was blindfolded and taken deep into the station, where the whole clan - about fifty hardened pilots of all the Commonwealth races - were engaged in that favourite pastime of Pirates, drinking. As we entered the room, the talking stopped. When the blindfold came off, it became apparent that every pair(or trio) of eyes was fixed on me. Then someone spoke,

'What've ya brought this bit of flotsam in for, boss? We don't need any more kitchen staff, and he don't look like he'll pull his weight.'

Tsunagolis countered, 'This 'piecsse of flotssam' jusst arrived, and I think that with ssome polishing, could be quite an assset to uss. If not, then he'll die quickly. But now that he'ss been ssaved, there's no point wassting my valuable efforts by jusst letting him go.'

I didn't buy it, and neither did most of the Pirates in the room, but there were no more challenges and I was grudgingly accepted into the Corsairs. Tsunagolis arranged crash courses in various nefarious activities that would be needed if I were to be of use and soon I was granted a ship - a Harrier - since the Disco that I'd stolen was marked for destruction by the Argon and was about to be scrapped.

Against all odds I survived, even as some of my fellow clan members didn't and I rose through the ranks by filling dead men's shoes. But such is the way - once my Teladi chief gave me some advice: That the main attribute and marker of a good Pirate is the ability to survive, whatever the odds, and live to return.

Seems that way now - the confounded good luck I am cursed with made good my escape when all others perished. Now, I'm flying with a crew who obviously still don't quite trust me and that is dangerous. But still, we must survive...

[Master of the Blade]

Aww, come on people! I'm trying to entertain you! Give me some feedback so I know whether to stop trying. CHAPTER TODAY. I WILL FORCE MYSELF TO GET ONE DONE, because I know I've been a touch slack recently...

[EmperorJon]

It's good!

I have the same problem.

[Master of the Blade]

It's finally here! I've made it far enough to warrant a new chapter!

David and Goliath

After much searching, I decide to travel in a different area- to the East of Aladna hill where I find the massive sector, Akeela's Beacon. There's a large stream of traffic to the South, so I follow it and find the Legend's Home gate. Entering OTAS's hidden base, the first thing that strikes me is the military presence- an OTAS Boreas destroyer and several missile frigates are patrolling the area. The only sector I'm not explicitly allowed in is Omicron Lyrea, so I'll be fine making purchases here. So I move over to the centre of the sector and find the OTAS shipyard, where I dock and buy a Zephyrus military transport and because I have plenty of cash to spare, a Venti advanced fighter too. Unfortunately, it came with minimal equipment, so I'll have to outfit it with what I have stockpiled. Since the Hydra has outlived its usefulness due to a cramped freight bay and bad manouverability in combat, I decide to go with the ten PBGs available to the main battery of the Venti. With all my gear transferred, I and my crew board the new TM and we launch to upgrade the new ships' engines- the OTAS HQ doesn't offer tuning services and I'd rather we had good speed. So, while the Zephyrus with its docked Venti crawls over to the local trading station, I survey my armoury. The Zephyrus is quite unique among transporters in that it has a VERY substantial main weapons array- two medium lasers in the form of HEPTs and the generator to power them for long enough to cause a dent in any enemy. So, of course, two of the three which I'd scavenged from my run-ins with the Xenon take pride of place in my main laser slots. The turrets I fill with whatever I have leftover, resulting in my frontal turret mounting a PAC and IRE and my rear left dangerously open. We arrive at the station and upgrade the two ships. Now to find some shields for the Venti.

After a good look at the encyclopeadia I find that Home of Opportunity is a good candidate, with two 25mj shield fabs. I go to an Akeela's Beacon SPP for jump fuel and leave the area. In HoO, one fab is full of shields, so I buy four and jump back to Grand Exchange where I see a badly damaged but fully shielded Xenon Q in the distance. Eager to test out the Venti, I launch and close quickly. It doesn't notice me until I start frying it from its massive blindspot underneath its hull. It falls quickly, despite having 4GJ originally although to be fair it did manage to knock off maybe 25% of my shielding with PBEs when I was too slow to follow its turning. It's not for nothing that OTAS is renowned for its tech- the Venti handles really well even against goliaths like the Q!

I then move on to Tears of Greed where my mark is flying a Vulture with M4 escorts. I move in and open fire, stripping the freighter's shields quickly. I comm. the pilot and ask him to drop his freight(a scan revealed that he had 38 units of space weed onboard, which I'd like to salvage). He refuses so I ram him and destroy the ship without the escorts noticing. Now I've got to destroy some other freighters, according to Ms. Heywood, whose ship just appeared from out of nowhere nearby. What? Kill some perfectly innocent freighter pilots, who could provide a brilliant source of income? I mean, now that the ringleader who was attacking rival transports is dead and gone, surely the business should be allowed to carry on? Anyway, I can't let morals get in the way of business, but I may as well milk this while I can. That said, these freighter pilots are surprisingly unwilling to give up their goods. I'll have to reclaim what I can from their burning wreckage.

Three freighters and a total spoil of 50 units of spaceweed later, I'm offloading my haul at the Ghinn's Escape Pirate Base, which is offering nearly five thousand credits per unit! Either they've found a really desparate buyer or they're serious weed junkies! Anyway, that's a good few hundred thousand banked, and now to pick up that Teladianium delivery from the L-sized foundry back in GE, which has full stock. Unfortunately, I have to sell off a few ecells, but no matter. Now, to Argon Sector M148! Been there before - as I'd been passing through Omicron Lyrea in my Hydra I saw a ship, the 'Exterminator' whose pilot offered me a job with 'Operation Final Fury' working to wipe out the Khaak. Good idea- I don't want to be chased around a sector by one of their corvettes again! So we formed up and went to the O:FF base in... Argon Sector M148, where I was given clearance for docking at all stations. So, I shouldn't have any trouble here then... 200 units of Teladianium and enough jump fuel for a one-way to AS:M148. Let's go!

In sector, I head for the Military outpost as ordered, hoping my Split O:FF boss doesn't notice me in my new ship- I'm supposed to be scouting some Khaak sector... Anyway, the delivery goes off successfully and I settle down to wait for Lt. Heywood...

Property:
1x Flower Farm+freighter. 100k in its account.

1xCarrack(you know the situation by now)
1x H.Hydra
1x Harrier raider, 'Banshee'
1x Pirate Elite
1x Discoverer Vanguard, 'Betrayal'
1x Advanced Discoverer
1x Falcon Sentinel(Remember I claimed it ages ago from that UK sector)
1x Zephyrus
1x Venti, 'Baptism of Fire'

~5Mcr- I gained a tip from O:FF when I helped fend off a minor invasion. That gave me enough to return to 5Mcr after my purchases from OTAS.

[Snowship]

yep the Venti is a fine ship, my M3 of choice for fast attacks

[Master of the Blade]

Oh for heaven's sake. This just is not cricket- my game's bloody well gone and died! *reinstalling*

Time for a quick and very, very large injection of Creative License so that the DiD can continue after my reinstall. I will be keeping the Venti and be getting a Yaki Chokaro to replace the Zephyrus, and the 10Mcr I've accumulated, but not the Carrack, Zephyrus or the Hydra:

The Yaki

Heywood arrives and tells me that her and Pearle are leaving in a hurry. I undock to pick them up, seeing some random Paranid( ) police ships on an intercept course. I collect the two space suits and jump away to Heretic's End, with the Lieutenant screaming in my ear. Ugh. Anyway, I arrive and then... Nothing- the passengers disembark and that's the end of it. I leave the station and take a mission to protect the local wheat farm. My Venti's PBGs rip apart the Pirates attacknig and I earn 1Mcr for little work. A Paranid at the Argon Trading station asks me to kill a Split convict in PTNI Headquarters for a whole 3 million! So I jump over and take him out, recieving my pay and even better, the Paranid are now nearly neutrally-aligned to me! Wait a second... Jumpdrive malfunction? What the hell? New co-ordinates: sector Weaver's Tempest? Where the hell's that? Cancel jump! Command rejected- Ship CPU locked. Get the engineer, please, Krek? Damn...

The jump event took the ship and spat it out in the Yaki home sector, Weaver's Tempest, right next to the pride of the Yaki fleet- the Shuri. With nowhere to run, we can only watch as the ship is externally piloted towards a base. When we arrive, an Argon meets us, wordlessly leading my crew and I through the serpentine corridors until we reach a large, unnecessarily ornate door where we are ushered in. The room's occupant, another Argon, gives us an offer which is... interesting, to say the least:
Work for the Yaki, using my goodish relations with all the races to reconnoitre and steal supplies unnoticed. I am to target the Argon, which is great, since they've messed me around and I suspect they won't release my Carrack anyway. The Zephyrus will be taken for reverse-engineering but I'll be given a Chokaro TM as compensation and to act as my base of operations, to return supplies I steal to the Yaki. I hesitate- I'd been trying to go straight, but if I don't cooperate I suspect I'll be killed. No choice then...



[ Stupid bloody computer/game/possibly scripts ]

[eldyranx3]

Sorry to hear about the Bugs. I say, wipe em all!

Oh. You mean script bugs.

[Snowship]

Don't get too down Captain...

[lowers voice] Once we get enough big guns we can do whatever the 'ell we want and the Yaki can go jump

-Krek Asimar