After reading the Nuklear Slug trilogy, and playing a few DiDs, I figured I'd give this a go.
Game start: Unholy Traitor
Vanilla X3TC
Rules:
Dead is Dead
No buying new ships (second hand ones allowed)
No reloads
Abandoned ships can only be claimed if I stumble across them
Repair laser on Personal ship only
Couple of exceptions:
Glitch death doesn't count.
Death due to laptop battery warning (automatically drops me to desktop) doesn't count.
Chapter 1 Split Alive!, For now
Stupidity displayed by an intelligence agent, terrific, I was almost killed by irony. Damn Paranid nearly caught me, lucky they had a prototype ship nearby so I was able to escape them. Apparently they hadn't finished fitting the jumpdrive, after jumping to safety it shorted out and burnt to a crisp. After sending a message to my handler I was ordered to report to Family Rhonkar for debriefing, this was not going to be pleasant.
After the debrief I'm ordered to return to my ship and await instructions, while I'm waiting I'm watching the gravidar (being sloppy is what got me into this mess), when it turns red and the Python behind me starts to turn in my direction. Hammering the throttle (with a disappointing lack of response) at traveling at full pelt towards the south gate. Seems my superiors are so displeased they've decided to terminate my contract, literally. As I'm racing towards the gate, with the sector police in pursuit the computer cheerfully informs me of an incoming missile, flicking through the targeting computer I find out that it's a firestorm torpedo. CRAP!
Assets:
Medusa Prototype
6 PBE, 2PAC, 1 5mj shield
Shoo T'kll, aim to capture
Moderators: TheElf, Moderators for English X Forum
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Callidus Thorn
- Posts: 255
- Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
Shoo T'kll, aim to capture
Last edited by Callidus Thorn on Wed, 11. Aug 10, 21:52, edited 1 time in total.
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travisdh1
- Posts: 545
- Joined: Sat, 22. Dec 07, 05:54
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Callidus Thorn
- Posts: 255
- Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
Well since I'm early in the game, everything is a bit more significant so the chapters will be quick. 2 and 3 already done.
Chapter 2 “Bad Idea”
I'm now alternating between staring at the gate trying to gauge how far away it is, and the distance counter on the firestorm torpedo and trying to work out if I can make it.
I just do, by about 2 km, only just reaching the gate before the police reach weapons range. Relaxing just a little as I head through the gate and arrive in Thuruk's Beard, me eyeballs almost pop out of my head as I see a heavy dragon plus escorts heading towards me. I immediately fly round behind the gate, noting as I do the Paranid bounty hunter pegasus arriving in-system, who moves to pursue me as the dragon group lines up to head through the gate. Seems the Paranid really want me dead, although I am somewhat insulted to find that they only sent 1 m5 after me. Crippling him with my PBEs I decide he's not worth killing, and now he's slower than me he's no longer a threat, and head for the west gate and the relative safety of Teladi space.
“Bad Idea”
A fitting name for this ship considering my current situation, and the state it's in, I really wish I'd been able to grab something better. It's slow, heavily armed, and weakly shielded, which makes for a very bad combination. Keeping below the centre of the sector, I slowly cross Thuruk's Beard without incident, enter Company Pride, and make straight for the equipment dock. Selling off two of the PBEs gives me enough to buy 3 5mj shields, 2 IREs for the turrets, and fully upgrade my ship, including finally getting fight command software and a freight scanner. I was considering getting a pair of EBCs, but then I wouldn't have had any money to buy ammo, rendering them pointless. Looking around I spot a station with an easy defend station mission, the pay sucks but I could use better rep with the Teladi, 1 Harrier came through the gate and smashed into the station. 600 credits for 0 effort, meanwhile the military is taking out the pirate base and the bounty hunter has almost caught up with me. As a reward for his dogged persistence, I kill him, and the the next two pairs that come after me. Getting somewhat bored of killing these apparent sacrifices (and raising the average Paranid IQ), I decide to head for the North gate, once I find a shipyard I can start relieving passing merchants of the burden of their cargo, or their ship, or their life. It's their call really.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”(96%)
4 PBEs 2 PACs 2 IREs 4 5mj shields
fully upgraded.
330,536 credits
Chapter 2 “Bad Idea”
I'm now alternating between staring at the gate trying to gauge how far away it is, and the distance counter on the firestorm torpedo and trying to work out if I can make it.
I just do, by about 2 km, only just reaching the gate before the police reach weapons range. Relaxing just a little as I head through the gate and arrive in Thuruk's Beard, me eyeballs almost pop out of my head as I see a heavy dragon plus escorts heading towards me. I immediately fly round behind the gate, noting as I do the Paranid bounty hunter pegasus arriving in-system, who moves to pursue me as the dragon group lines up to head through the gate. Seems the Paranid really want me dead, although I am somewhat insulted to find that they only sent 1 m5 after me. Crippling him with my PBEs I decide he's not worth killing, and now he's slower than me he's no longer a threat, and head for the west gate and the relative safety of Teladi space.
“Bad Idea”
A fitting name for this ship considering my current situation, and the state it's in, I really wish I'd been able to grab something better. It's slow, heavily armed, and weakly shielded, which makes for a very bad combination. Keeping below the centre of the sector, I slowly cross Thuruk's Beard without incident, enter Company Pride, and make straight for the equipment dock. Selling off two of the PBEs gives me enough to buy 3 5mj shields, 2 IREs for the turrets, and fully upgrade my ship, including finally getting fight command software and a freight scanner. I was considering getting a pair of EBCs, but then I wouldn't have had any money to buy ammo, rendering them pointless. Looking around I spot a station with an easy defend station mission, the pay sucks but I could use better rep with the Teladi, 1 Harrier came through the gate and smashed into the station. 600 credits for 0 effort, meanwhile the military is taking out the pirate base and the bounty hunter has almost caught up with me. As a reward for his dogged persistence, I kill him, and the the next two pairs that come after me. Getting somewhat bored of killing these apparent sacrifices (and raising the average Paranid IQ), I decide to head for the North gate, once I find a shipyard I can start relieving passing merchants of the burden of their cargo, or their ship, or their life. It's their call really.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”(96%)
4 PBEs 2 PACs 2 IREs 4 5mj shields
fully upgraded.
330,536 credits
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Callidus Thorn
- Posts: 255
- Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
Purely because I can, here's chapter 3:
Chapter 3 The RNG giveth...
Heading north past the pirate base, which the military seem to have become bored with attacking, presumably they were offered a better deal to look the other way, I head into Ceo's Sprite. Looking around I see a medium shield complex with a large number in stock. Result! I can fully shield my ship, at a bargain price. Heading over at full speed I'm keeping an eye on the stock when suddenly its gone, and a Split weapons dealer TM is departing. I'm having none of this, those are my shields on board and I'm getting them, one way or another. Getting into range a passive scan reveals PAC in the turrets, and a single 25mj shield, meaning the rest are cargo. Sweet. Opening fire with quad PBEs I shred his shield and dent the hull, he immediately drops some freight, Mass Driver ammo, so I keep hammering him leaving about 2 percent of his armour, and 80 percent of mine. Then the bounty hunters catch up and it all goes to hell, they've now turned up as a 5 man group, one of which is a scorpion. The next few minutes are a frantic, confused mess as I dispatch 3 or 4 identical waves of bounty hunters, demanding that the Split captain drop his freight, and collecting it. By the time everything dies down the bounty hunters are dead, the weapons dealer is dead, and I'm at 48 percent hull, luckily without losing anything in the process, and the Teladi don't care. Collecting everything I now have 4 HEPTs 2 MDs and 8 25mj shields. Docking at the military outpost, I sell what I don't need, and pick up a Triplex scanner and 2 boarding pods for later. First my people try to kill me, now (against their will) they're supplying me. Life is good, if this keeps up I might have to rename my ship.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
507,959 credits
Chapter 3 The RNG giveth...
Heading north past the pirate base, which the military seem to have become bored with attacking, presumably they were offered a better deal to look the other way, I head into Ceo's Sprite. Looking around I see a medium shield complex with a large number in stock. Result! I can fully shield my ship, at a bargain price. Heading over at full speed I'm keeping an eye on the stock when suddenly its gone, and a Split weapons dealer TM is departing. I'm having none of this, those are my shields on board and I'm getting them, one way or another. Getting into range a passive scan reveals PAC in the turrets, and a single 25mj shield, meaning the rest are cargo. Sweet. Opening fire with quad PBEs I shred his shield and dent the hull, he immediately drops some freight, Mass Driver ammo, so I keep hammering him leaving about 2 percent of his armour, and 80 percent of mine. Then the bounty hunters catch up and it all goes to hell, they've now turned up as a 5 man group, one of which is a scorpion. The next few minutes are a frantic, confused mess as I dispatch 3 or 4 identical waves of bounty hunters, demanding that the Split captain drop his freight, and collecting it. By the time everything dies down the bounty hunters are dead, the weapons dealer is dead, and I'm at 48 percent hull, luckily without losing anything in the process, and the Teladi don't care. Collecting everything I now have 4 HEPTs 2 MDs and 8 25mj shields. Docking at the military outpost, I sell what I don't need, and pick up a Triplex scanner and 2 boarding pods for later. First my people try to kill me, now (against their will) they're supplying me. Life is good, if this keeps up I might have to rename my ship.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
507,959 credits
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Pyure
- Posts: 135
- Joined: Thu, 15. Jul 10, 16:39
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Callidus Thorn
- Posts: 255
- Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
Chapter 4 Khaak
I'm now wondering if the bounty hunters have given up, since I haven't seen any in a while, although I am slightly worried at the thought that they might be bringing up something heavier to ambush me. Whatever the reason for their absence I'm making the most of it, taking what missions I can and exploring Boron space, shooting Split and heading for Argon territory. I also picked up a Vulture Tanker for about 30k and repaired it so I can do some trading and collect loot with it, although it might be a bit too slow for that, must cap a Mistral.
Picked up a patrol mission in Ceo's Buckzoid, 3 sectors ~100k, and in came the Khaak; 1 fighter, 2 interceptors and 6 scouts later I figured I was done. Punched up the sector map, and spot it, Khaak Corvette, attacking the equipment dock. There's a military Osprey heading for it so I decide to follow it in, aiming to poach the kill for the reward. As soon as I'm within 2km of the Corvette, the Osprey jumps,out, the cowardly Teladi, leaving me within Kyon range, only 1 thing to do. Charging right at it I start hammering it with quad PBE fire from about 1.4km out, gouging chunks out of its shield. Fortunately it's somewhat focused on the equipment dock, so what fire does come my way I'm mostly able to strafe around, once I'm within 500m I realize that for some reason it can't hit me, It's firing more weapons at me but my shields are going up. Deciding that further testing is required, I switch to quad HEPTs as soon as its shields go down and start tearing through the hull. It goes up with a satisfying explosion, earning me a 40k bonus. Next sector, another Corvette taken down, disproving the get up close theory (and losing 15% hull) in the process. spotting another Split, without an escort, weapons dealer I take a quick scan and immediately open fire getting me 5 HEPTs and 15 Hornet missiles. Cool. Patrol completed, the vulture is up and running trading in Teladi space, time to visit the Argon.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Vulture Tanker “Slow and Steady”
2 25mj shields
1,551,439 Credits
I'm now wondering if the bounty hunters have given up, since I haven't seen any in a while, although I am slightly worried at the thought that they might be bringing up something heavier to ambush me. Whatever the reason for their absence I'm making the most of it, taking what missions I can and exploring Boron space, shooting Split and heading for Argon territory. I also picked up a Vulture Tanker for about 30k and repaired it so I can do some trading and collect loot with it, although it might be a bit too slow for that, must cap a Mistral.
Picked up a patrol mission in Ceo's Buckzoid, 3 sectors ~100k, and in came the Khaak; 1 fighter, 2 interceptors and 6 scouts later I figured I was done. Punched up the sector map, and spot it, Khaak Corvette, attacking the equipment dock. There's a military Osprey heading for it so I decide to follow it in, aiming to poach the kill for the reward. As soon as I'm within 2km of the Corvette, the Osprey jumps,out, the cowardly Teladi, leaving me within Kyon range, only 1 thing to do. Charging right at it I start hammering it with quad PBE fire from about 1.4km out, gouging chunks out of its shield. Fortunately it's somewhat focused on the equipment dock, so what fire does come my way I'm mostly able to strafe around, once I'm within 500m I realize that for some reason it can't hit me, It's firing more weapons at me but my shields are going up. Deciding that further testing is required, I switch to quad HEPTs as soon as its shields go down and start tearing through the hull. It goes up with a satisfying explosion, earning me a 40k bonus. Next sector, another Corvette taken down, disproving the get up close theory (and losing 15% hull) in the process. spotting another Split, without an escort, weapons dealer I take a quick scan and immediately open fire getting me 5 HEPTs and 15 Hornet missiles. Cool. Patrol completed, the vulture is up and running trading in Teladi space, time to visit the Argon.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Vulture Tanker “Slow and Steady”
2 25mj shields
1,551,439 Credits
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Callidus Thorn
- Posts: 255
- Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
I'm writing these down faster than I can post them, currently sorting out chapter 11. Like it or not, here comes more!
Chapter 5 Business as usual
More anti-Split piracy as I headed through Boron space, boosting my rep to the point where I could buy the police license. Headed through Elena's Fortune towards the Argon core sectors, and panicked upon entering Home of Light and finding a rather large Paranid fleet floating around. Racing through the west gate into Red Light while they were heading north, I take a couple of combat missions, a Xenon patrol and a defend station mission. Net result ~400k and two captured ships, a Falcon Vanguard 73%, and a Gladiator at 82%, which came with a HEPT, also brought a used Argon Nova 75% for ~550k. So I was feeling pretty good until the computer told me one of my ships was under attack, frantically punching up the sector map I don't see any hostiles, and then it hits me; my Vulture Tanker. Damn pirates.
Entering Argon Prime I almost jumped for joy, a Mercury for sale, undamaged, at 1 million credits. A bit steep but I need a freighter, and upon buying it I discover that it came equipped with 75mj of shields and a PRG. A couple of combat missions and two m3 caps later, and the Argon are willing to sell me a police license. I think the bounty hunters have given up completely now, so I'm now looking to get a TP and some mercenaries. I currently have 5 passengers in my hold, 4 pirates and a Split, all of whom I picked up on a whim, in need of “re-education”, as soon as I can find an appropriate facility.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Gladiator “Catch”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
3,679,750 Credits
Chapter 5 Business as usual
More anti-Split piracy as I headed through Boron space, boosting my rep to the point where I could buy the police license. Headed through Elena's Fortune towards the Argon core sectors, and panicked upon entering Home of Light and finding a rather large Paranid fleet floating around. Racing through the west gate into Red Light while they were heading north, I take a couple of combat missions, a Xenon patrol and a defend station mission. Net result ~400k and two captured ships, a Falcon Vanguard 73%, and a Gladiator at 82%, which came with a HEPT, also brought a used Argon Nova 75% for ~550k. So I was feeling pretty good until the computer told me one of my ships was under attack, frantically punching up the sector map I don't see any hostiles, and then it hits me; my Vulture Tanker. Damn pirates.
Entering Argon Prime I almost jumped for joy, a Mercury for sale, undamaged, at 1 million credits. A bit steep but I need a freighter, and upon buying it I discover that it came equipped with 75mj of shields and a PRG. A couple of combat missions and two m3 caps later, and the Argon are willing to sell me a police license. I think the bounty hunters have given up completely now, so I'm now looking to get a TP and some mercenaries. I currently have 5 passengers in my hold, 4 pirates and a Split, all of whom I picked up on a whim, in need of “re-education”, as soon as I can find an appropriate facility.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Gladiator “Catch”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
3,679,750 Credits
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Callidus Thorn
- Posts: 255
- Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
To hell with it, since I've got them I might as well post them
Chapter 6 Pirate space
I've now mapped out most of the Argon core sectors here, and am now turning my attention towards pirate space, in the hopes of transforming my captives into marines. As I was able to pick up an Express second-hand once my captives are trained I'll be able to begin planning capture ops. I'm thinking a TM first, then an M6 or 2.
Scratch that idea, way too much Paranid military activity down past Danna's Chance, so I decide to just buy my Marines instead, at least this way they'll be better quality. I did get a bit carried away though, I have 1 TP, and now I have bought 8 marines, put them in training, then bought 9 more, and can't afford to train them all. 4 are 2 star fighters with 2 or 3 stars in one skill, 8 are 3 star fighters, and the other 5 are 4 star fighters. So I've got too many marines, and neither the money to train them all, nor the space to store them all. This should be interesting, although once they've all had some training, I will have 3 fairly good 5 man teams. First things first though, I'm going TP hunting, because I've no idea what happens when a marine finishes his training but cannot board a ship.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Gladiator “Catch”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
1,068,780 Credits
Chapter 6 Pirate space
I've now mapped out most of the Argon core sectors here, and am now turning my attention towards pirate space, in the hopes of transforming my captives into marines. As I was able to pick up an Express second-hand once my captives are trained I'll be able to begin planning capture ops. I'm thinking a TM first, then an M6 or 2.
Scratch that idea, way too much Paranid military activity down past Danna's Chance, so I decide to just buy my Marines instead, at least this way they'll be better quality. I did get a bit carried away though, I have 1 TP, and now I have bought 8 marines, put them in training, then bought 9 more, and can't afford to train them all. 4 are 2 star fighters with 2 or 3 stars in one skill, 8 are 3 star fighters, and the other 5 are 4 star fighters. So I've got too many marines, and neither the money to train them all, nor the space to store them all. This should be interesting, although once they've all had some training, I will have 3 fairly good 5 man teams. First things first though, I'm going TP hunting, because I've no idea what happens when a marine finishes his training but cannot board a ship.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Gladiator “Catch”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
1,068,780 Credits
-
Callidus Thorn
- Posts: 255
- Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
Didn't expect chapter 6 to look so small, anyway, here's more.
Chapter 7 Never work for the Boron
Damn Boron, pick up a patrol mission in Atreus' Clouds, 3 sectors, ~250k. Since I'm low on cash with marines to train, and was planning to head in that direction anyway, I decided to accept the mission. Seconds after accepting a Khaak Corvette pops up on the sector map, with no military forces in sight. Fortunately I've got a quartet of typhoon missiles, which keep the Kyons occupied long enough for me to take it down, nice and easy, ready for the next sector. Nope 5 pirates; 2 Elites, a Nova Raider, a Kea, and a Harrier. So I take them down (capping one of the Elites), then I spot a second Khaak Corvette. This is the last time I'll ever accept a Boron patrol mission, they don't pay me well enough for this. This second one damn near kills me after a mistimed Hornet launch blows up in my face, nearly stripping my shields clean off. With 10% percent of my shields left, I turn and run, dodging like a maniac and spewing a string of obscenities that almost take off the hull. Shields eventually back up (3.5km range on some of those Kyons, apparently) and I head back to kill it solely with HEPTs this time, and seeing it loom out of the fog almost on top of me made my blood run cold, it's one of the most sinister things in the universe. Mashing the trigger down I hammer it with fire, strafing it repeatedly until it finally explodes. Damn Boron.
Farnham's Legend, another Khaak Corvette, another Hornet related catastrophe, this one costing me 40% of my armour. That's it, I'm going to cap an Eclipse, a 200mj shield should help with missile related accidents. Elena's Fortune, the final sector on the patrol, was easy as the Corvettes appeared within range of the weapons platforms, after that a defend station mission, then back to TP hunting, and try to work out why they will not bail.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Gladiator “Catch”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
1,901,950 Credits
Chapter 7 Never work for the Boron
Damn Boron, pick up a patrol mission in Atreus' Clouds, 3 sectors, ~250k. Since I'm low on cash with marines to train, and was planning to head in that direction anyway, I decided to accept the mission. Seconds after accepting a Khaak Corvette pops up on the sector map, with no military forces in sight. Fortunately I've got a quartet of typhoon missiles, which keep the Kyons occupied long enough for me to take it down, nice and easy, ready for the next sector. Nope 5 pirates; 2 Elites, a Nova Raider, a Kea, and a Harrier. So I take them down (capping one of the Elites), then I spot a second Khaak Corvette. This is the last time I'll ever accept a Boron patrol mission, they don't pay me well enough for this. This second one damn near kills me after a mistimed Hornet launch blows up in my face, nearly stripping my shields clean off. With 10% percent of my shields left, I turn and run, dodging like a maniac and spewing a string of obscenities that almost take off the hull. Shields eventually back up (3.5km range on some of those Kyons, apparently) and I head back to kill it solely with HEPTs this time, and seeing it loom out of the fog almost on top of me made my blood run cold, it's one of the most sinister things in the universe. Mashing the trigger down I hammer it with fire, strafing it repeatedly until it finally explodes. Damn Boron.
Farnham's Legend, another Khaak Corvette, another Hornet related catastrophe, this one costing me 40% of my armour. That's it, I'm going to cap an Eclipse, a 200mj shield should help with missile related accidents. Elena's Fortune, the final sector on the patrol, was easy as the Corvettes appeared within range of the weapons platforms, after that a defend station mission, then back to TP hunting, and try to work out why they will not bail.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Gladiator “Catch”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
1,901,950 Credits
-
Callidus Thorn
- Posts: 255
- Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
To hell with it, here are the remaining chapters:
Chapter 8 And the RNG taketh away...
Nothing. I cannot cap a ship right now to save my life. TPs refuse to bail no matter what, and the only bail I've had, a Susanowa, was immediately destroyed by a pair of Banshee missiles. Even worse searching for targets in the pirate sectors is out of the question due to a pair of well placed Carracks, one in Split Fire, the other in Bala Gi's Joy, I've no idea why it's there, but it is. Sigh.
There aren't even any ships for sale, so I'm doing combat missions to fund my marine training, while trying to find someone I can buy or acquire a used TP from. It seems however, that all Paranid and Split pilots have been told that death is preferable to surrendering their ships to me, and since at the moment they're my primary targets, this is a problem.
On the up side, though, there are still plenty of kill missions around, so I can still keep trying to acquire ships and get paid for it as well. Better than nothing, as it means more marine training, but I can't help wishing my luck would change.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Gladiator “Catch”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
2,527,829 Credits
Chapter 9 Ask and ye shall receive
Head into Argon Prime, and immediately pick up a defend station mission, only ~150k, but good enough. 12 Yaki later and mission over with a bonus, a Susanowa pilot bailed, finally, then upon checking out the shipyard I discover that someone is selling their Express Hauler. It's 1.3 million credits, but its undamaged and I pounce on it, discovering that it came fully shielded, armed, and with a dozen fighter drones! Deciding that my luck must have changed, I start heading over to the pirate sectors to see if I can locate an Eclipse, so that I can convince it's owner to part with it.
Arriving in Elena's Fortune, I find another combat mission, unfortunately issued by a Boron. 2 million credits however, completely overrides common sense, and after accepting the mission I'm told he's flying a Peregrine in Atreus' Clouds. Now for that size payout, I was expecting him to be flying a M6, seems my luck is holding too, as jumping to the south gate of Atreus' Clouds, he's less than 2km away. Atomising him in seconds, then dispatching his guards, I discover a nice little bonus of 8 Tomahawks, giving me a grand total of 40 for “Catch”, which is beginning to sound more and more appealing, I must test them soon, maybe that Carrack's still lurking around.
Flying back through Farnham's, I spot a pirate Centaur heading for the east gate, cursing my lack of trained marines, I notice another defend station mission, at a reasonable payout. 3 bombers and a few M4/5s later, I'm a little wealthier and continuing on my way, only to notice that the Centaur is back and heading towards me.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Gladiator “Catch”
Express Hauler “Special Delivery”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
Mercury (67%)
3,791,168 Credits
Chapter 10 Operation: Plan? What plan?
Actually, it's just slowly drifting to about halfway between the east and north gates (I'm so glad I put an Adv Sat in that sector). It's backed up by three Nova's, but I should be able to take those out quickly enough, especially seeing as only one has full shielding, although I am expecting all three to have PBGs.
Now I have a window of opportunity here, It's lightly shielded at 225mj, and even at top speed it can't keep up with me, or escape my Express Hauler. My only problem is that I only have two trained marines, literally all my other marines are in training, so I send the “Special Delivery” to pick up 4 more marines, unfortunately I've already bought all the good ones, so what's left is rather mediocre. My two trained marines are two and three stars in mechanical and engineering, and two star fighters. So of the four marines I buy, two have a fight skill of zero, but are two and three star hackers, one is a three star fighter (not sure how I missed him on my first sweep, must be new there) and the other is a two star fighter. Overall then, not a team to strike fear into the hearts of my enemies, or instill in me any confidence in their ability to complete the mission, but since this is going to be a half-assed boarding attempt anyway, might as well not waste any good troops.
Jumping into the system in my Medusa, I immediately close the gap and begin hammering the escorts with HEPT fire. Quad PBEs would cut through the shields better, but I don't have time to mess about, as it turns out, only two of the escorts had PBGs, but that was more than enough to torch half my shields before I took them all out. Jumping to the south gate, I call up the “Special Delivery” (Hoping that it lives up to it's name, and that the mission doesn't end up living down to the name of my Medusa), and wait for the Centaur to get closer. Ordering the autopilot to board it at 5km out, I power up the engines and meet it head on with a hail of PBE fire, nimbly dancing around its CIG blasts, and try to keep it's attention focused on me as the transport moves into position and drops the marines. Too far out. And here I was expecting to not go wrong until the marines boarded, but after some fancy flying I manage to lure the Centaur through the cloud of marines, who had split into two teams for some reason, and the boarding begins.
Chapter 11 Where sane men fear to tread
Cutting through the hull, the firefight begins, I'm dodging and rolling like a maniac, with less than a quarter of my shields left, ordering my TP to a safe distance and the initial reports sound good. I'm amazed, deck 1 clear with no casualties, on deck 2, the three star fighter gets killed and I assume they are now doomed to failure, and I've wasted two good marines and a great opportunity.
Wrong. Deck 2 cleared, condition of the ship deteriorating rapidly and my Medusa's shields down, so I'm taking HEPT hits to the hull. Deck three cleared, and the remaining five all still standing. Hacking the core, and here I was worried because the ship had Firewall software, but it seemed my credit line with lady luck was still good as a few seconds later the gunfire stopped and the ship was mine!
I immediately transfer the surviving marines back to the TP and jump it to Argon Prime, transfer the jumpdrive and e-cells from my Medusa to the Centaur and jump it there too, then hop out and get cracking with the repair laser. That's when I realize that I have a problem, I now have a bashed up corvette that I can't afford to repair or equip.
I'm not so sure that this really counts as much of a win, after all.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea” (82%)
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Pirate Centaur (42%)
25mj shield
Gladiator “Catch”
Express Hauler “Special Delivery”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
Mercury (67%)
2,847,082 Credits
Chapter 12 Acquisitions
A short run back to Argon Prime allows me to collect my jumpdrive, but not before a patrol mission nets me 500k and 2 Susanowa Haulers in reasonable condition, and I send both to the shipyard to be sold. Then my Adv Sat in Farnhams picks up a small pirate group, including a Kea, which would be worth a lot if I could get my hands on it. Jumping in to the south gate I head towards it at full speed, deciding to take out the accompanying Nova, who is shredded by a hail of HEPT fire, then hammer the Kea until the Boron pilot ejects, leaving the ship in fairly good condition. Hopping out to claim it, then sending it to the shipyard I take at look at the ships details, which aren't really that bad, the low speed is a shame, but the cargobay is good for a fighter. Decide to sell it anyway, since I've currently no use for it, and I need the credits to fix my Centaur. With that in mind, I repair my second Mercury and send it off on a shield buying run to Cloudbase Southeast, where I'm able to buy four of each of the 25mj and 200mj shields, all of which will probably come in handy later, I've also bought 3 PRGs for the turrets on the Centaur, and combined with the spare HEPTs and the two Ion-Ds I'd “liberated” from passing weapons merchants, and I've almost got enough weapons to arm it. I'll have to try and get a pair or two CIGs, as they seemed rather damaging when used on me.
A quick hop to Red light gets me a pair of them, so I dock at the shipyard and transfer them across to the Centaur and punch up the station comms. Seems a Boron got ripped off by someone and wants them dead, I don't like working on behalf of the Borons, but 1.4 mil gets me closer to being able to repair my ship, so I take the mission. The target is flying a pirate Centaur in Atreus' Clouds, terrific, jumping in at the south gate (always my preferred entry point when using the jumpdrive), and he's right on top of me, backed up by several M5s, 2 M4s and a Nova. Taking out the Nova first I then line up for a run on the corvette, noting as I do that one of these pirates is packing a Mass Driver and is chipping away at my armour. Nothing I can do about that now because my shields are taking a pounding so I need to finish this quick, three attack runs later and my shields are down and so is the corvette, the computer tells me I've got a message, but I ignore it and start shooting anything and everything within range. 30 seconds later and all the pirates are dead, and so is my boost extension, at least it wasn't anything expensive, but it is starting to seem like every mission I do for the Boron goes wrong.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea” (82%)
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Pirate Centaur (42%)
25mj shield
Gladiator “Catch”
Express Hauler “Special Delivery”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
Mercury “Market Value”
~4,500,000 Credits
Chapter 13 Endgame
Selling off the Kea gave me enough money to be able to fix my Centaur (now named the “Lady Luck”, so I of course did that immediately, and then picked up my 5 trained marines, two of whom completed the capture of my Centaur, and went looking for a Heavy Centaur. The plan was find one, tail it to a border sector, batter down the shields, Ion-D it into submission, then send in the troops. Sounded simple enough, and I was confident that I could reach the boarding stage without too much trouble, after that it would be down to luck, but my luck was running good lately.
Found a Heavy Centaur patrolling alone through Presidents End, and followed it north into The Wall. That was the point where it all went wrong. A strong Arms weapons dealer and escorts opened fire on me, I've no idea where they came from, but that wasn't the problem. As I prepared to jump out, not wanting to return fire and possibly have the Centaur go hostile when I'm right behind it, when my turrets began to return fire, being set on missile defence. And that wasn't the problem.
The problem was the Argon military Colossus that I hadn't spotted, 1.5km away, who opened fire in response to my turrets opening fire on the split. Because I was jumping out, I hadn't been dodging the incoming fire, so my shields were only at 60ish%. For about half a second. The shields went down and incoming fire began gouging chunks out of my hull, but the jump countdown continued. I was strafing, rolling, diving, anything to keep me alive for a second or two longer so I could escape, but to no avail, my turrets opened fire on the Colossus, the heavy Centaur turned and hit me with a CIG barrage point blank.
“Jumpdrive destroyed”
“Oh SHI-”
R.I.P.
(rest in particles)
Chapter 8 And the RNG taketh away...
Nothing. I cannot cap a ship right now to save my life. TPs refuse to bail no matter what, and the only bail I've had, a Susanowa, was immediately destroyed by a pair of Banshee missiles. Even worse searching for targets in the pirate sectors is out of the question due to a pair of well placed Carracks, one in Split Fire, the other in Bala Gi's Joy, I've no idea why it's there, but it is. Sigh.
There aren't even any ships for sale, so I'm doing combat missions to fund my marine training, while trying to find someone I can buy or acquire a used TP from. It seems however, that all Paranid and Split pilots have been told that death is preferable to surrendering their ships to me, and since at the moment they're my primary targets, this is a problem.
On the up side, though, there are still plenty of kill missions around, so I can still keep trying to acquire ships and get paid for it as well. Better than nothing, as it means more marine training, but I can't help wishing my luck would change.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Gladiator “Catch”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
2,527,829 Credits
Chapter 9 Ask and ye shall receive
Head into Argon Prime, and immediately pick up a defend station mission, only ~150k, but good enough. 12 Yaki later and mission over with a bonus, a Susanowa pilot bailed, finally, then upon checking out the shipyard I discover that someone is selling their Express Hauler. It's 1.3 million credits, but its undamaged and I pounce on it, discovering that it came fully shielded, armed, and with a dozen fighter drones! Deciding that my luck must have changed, I start heading over to the pirate sectors to see if I can locate an Eclipse, so that I can convince it's owner to part with it.
Arriving in Elena's Fortune, I find another combat mission, unfortunately issued by a Boron. 2 million credits however, completely overrides common sense, and after accepting the mission I'm told he's flying a Peregrine in Atreus' Clouds. Now for that size payout, I was expecting him to be flying a M6, seems my luck is holding too, as jumping to the south gate of Atreus' Clouds, he's less than 2km away. Atomising him in seconds, then dispatching his guards, I discover a nice little bonus of 8 Tomahawks, giving me a grand total of 40 for “Catch”, which is beginning to sound more and more appealing, I must test them soon, maybe that Carrack's still lurking around.
Flying back through Farnham's, I spot a pirate Centaur heading for the east gate, cursing my lack of trained marines, I notice another defend station mission, at a reasonable payout. 3 bombers and a few M4/5s later, I'm a little wealthier and continuing on my way, only to notice that the Centaur is back and heading towards me.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea”
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Gladiator “Catch”
Express Hauler “Special Delivery”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
Mercury (67%)
3,791,168 Credits
Chapter 10 Operation: Plan? What plan?
Actually, it's just slowly drifting to about halfway between the east and north gates (I'm so glad I put an Adv Sat in that sector). It's backed up by three Nova's, but I should be able to take those out quickly enough, especially seeing as only one has full shielding, although I am expecting all three to have PBGs.
Now I have a window of opportunity here, It's lightly shielded at 225mj, and even at top speed it can't keep up with me, or escape my Express Hauler. My only problem is that I only have two trained marines, literally all my other marines are in training, so I send the “Special Delivery” to pick up 4 more marines, unfortunately I've already bought all the good ones, so what's left is rather mediocre. My two trained marines are two and three stars in mechanical and engineering, and two star fighters. So of the four marines I buy, two have a fight skill of zero, but are two and three star hackers, one is a three star fighter (not sure how I missed him on my first sweep, must be new there) and the other is a two star fighter. Overall then, not a team to strike fear into the hearts of my enemies, or instill in me any confidence in their ability to complete the mission, but since this is going to be a half-assed boarding attempt anyway, might as well not waste any good troops.
Jumping into the system in my Medusa, I immediately close the gap and begin hammering the escorts with HEPT fire. Quad PBEs would cut through the shields better, but I don't have time to mess about, as it turns out, only two of the escorts had PBGs, but that was more than enough to torch half my shields before I took them all out. Jumping to the south gate, I call up the “Special Delivery” (Hoping that it lives up to it's name, and that the mission doesn't end up living down to the name of my Medusa), and wait for the Centaur to get closer. Ordering the autopilot to board it at 5km out, I power up the engines and meet it head on with a hail of PBE fire, nimbly dancing around its CIG blasts, and try to keep it's attention focused on me as the transport moves into position and drops the marines. Too far out. And here I was expecting to not go wrong until the marines boarded, but after some fancy flying I manage to lure the Centaur through the cloud of marines, who had split into two teams for some reason, and the boarding begins.
Chapter 11 Where sane men fear to tread
Cutting through the hull, the firefight begins, I'm dodging and rolling like a maniac, with less than a quarter of my shields left, ordering my TP to a safe distance and the initial reports sound good. I'm amazed, deck 1 clear with no casualties, on deck 2, the three star fighter gets killed and I assume they are now doomed to failure, and I've wasted two good marines and a great opportunity.
Wrong. Deck 2 cleared, condition of the ship deteriorating rapidly and my Medusa's shields down, so I'm taking HEPT hits to the hull. Deck three cleared, and the remaining five all still standing. Hacking the core, and here I was worried because the ship had Firewall software, but it seemed my credit line with lady luck was still good as a few seconds later the gunfire stopped and the ship was mine!
I immediately transfer the surviving marines back to the TP and jump it to Argon Prime, transfer the jumpdrive and e-cells from my Medusa to the Centaur and jump it there too, then hop out and get cracking with the repair laser. That's when I realize that I have a problem, I now have a bashed up corvette that I can't afford to repair or equip.
I'm not so sure that this really counts as much of a win, after all.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea” (82%)
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Pirate Centaur (42%)
25mj shield
Gladiator “Catch”
Express Hauler “Special Delivery”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
Mercury (67%)
2,847,082 Credits
Chapter 12 Acquisitions
A short run back to Argon Prime allows me to collect my jumpdrive, but not before a patrol mission nets me 500k and 2 Susanowa Haulers in reasonable condition, and I send both to the shipyard to be sold. Then my Adv Sat in Farnhams picks up a small pirate group, including a Kea, which would be worth a lot if I could get my hands on it. Jumping in to the south gate I head towards it at full speed, deciding to take out the accompanying Nova, who is shredded by a hail of HEPT fire, then hammer the Kea until the Boron pilot ejects, leaving the ship in fairly good condition. Hopping out to claim it, then sending it to the shipyard I take at look at the ships details, which aren't really that bad, the low speed is a shame, but the cargobay is good for a fighter. Decide to sell it anyway, since I've currently no use for it, and I need the credits to fix my Centaur. With that in mind, I repair my second Mercury and send it off on a shield buying run to Cloudbase Southeast, where I'm able to buy four of each of the 25mj and 200mj shields, all of which will probably come in handy later, I've also bought 3 PRGs for the turrets on the Centaur, and combined with the spare HEPTs and the two Ion-Ds I'd “liberated” from passing weapons merchants, and I've almost got enough weapons to arm it. I'll have to try and get a pair or two CIGs, as they seemed rather damaging when used on me.
A quick hop to Red light gets me a pair of them, so I dock at the shipyard and transfer them across to the Centaur and punch up the station comms. Seems a Boron got ripped off by someone and wants them dead, I don't like working on behalf of the Borons, but 1.4 mil gets me closer to being able to repair my ship, so I take the mission. The target is flying a pirate Centaur in Atreus' Clouds, terrific, jumping in at the south gate (always my preferred entry point when using the jumpdrive), and he's right on top of me, backed up by several M5s, 2 M4s and a Nova. Taking out the Nova first I then line up for a run on the corvette, noting as I do that one of these pirates is packing a Mass Driver and is chipping away at my armour. Nothing I can do about that now because my shields are taking a pounding so I need to finish this quick, three attack runs later and my shields are down and so is the corvette, the computer tells me I've got a message, but I ignore it and start shooting anything and everything within range. 30 seconds later and all the pirates are dead, and so is my boost extension, at least it wasn't anything expensive, but it is starting to seem like every mission I do for the Boron goes wrong.
Assets
Medusa Prototype “Bad Idea” (82%)
4 PBE 4 HEPT 2 PAC 4 25mj shields
Fully upgraded
Pirate Centaur (42%)
25mj shield
Gladiator “Catch”
Express Hauler “Special Delivery”
Express “Hostile Takeover”
Mercury “Hard Currency”
Mercury “Market Value”
~4,500,000 Credits
Chapter 13 Endgame
Selling off the Kea gave me enough money to be able to fix my Centaur (now named the “Lady Luck”, so I of course did that immediately, and then picked up my 5 trained marines, two of whom completed the capture of my Centaur, and went looking for a Heavy Centaur. The plan was find one, tail it to a border sector, batter down the shields, Ion-D it into submission, then send in the troops. Sounded simple enough, and I was confident that I could reach the boarding stage without too much trouble, after that it would be down to luck, but my luck was running good lately.
Found a Heavy Centaur patrolling alone through Presidents End, and followed it north into The Wall. That was the point where it all went wrong. A strong Arms weapons dealer and escorts opened fire on me, I've no idea where they came from, but that wasn't the problem. As I prepared to jump out, not wanting to return fire and possibly have the Centaur go hostile when I'm right behind it, when my turrets began to return fire, being set on missile defence. And that wasn't the problem.
The problem was the Argon military Colossus that I hadn't spotted, 1.5km away, who opened fire in response to my turrets opening fire on the split. Because I was jumping out, I hadn't been dodging the incoming fire, so my shields were only at 60ish%. For about half a second. The shields went down and incoming fire began gouging chunks out of my hull, but the jump countdown continued. I was strafing, rolling, diving, anything to keep me alive for a second or two longer so I could escape, but to no avail, my turrets opened fire on the Colossus, the heavy Centaur turned and hit me with a CIG barrage point blank.
“Jumpdrive destroyed”
“Oh SHI-”
R.I.P.
(rest in particles)
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Pyure
- Posts: 135
- Joined: Thu, 15. Jul 10, 16:39
ohnoes 
Thus ends the journey of poor Shoo.
I actually learned something from all this: You can lead a target into stranded marines?
I tried my first boarding op last night and it failed miserably. Stupid target, I think: a K, and they don't move like any other M6 I've ever seen, spinning and jinking like a fighter.
I'll try your way tonight on a better target: command the TP to board automatically while I distract/de-shield from the M3 (Mamba Vanguard...no idea where you got that medusa prototype from)
I hope you don't take too long a breather before doing another one of these, I'll be looking out for it. (Post it in your sig maybe
)
Thus ends the journey of poor Shoo.
I actually learned something from all this: You can lead a target into stranded marines?
I tried my first boarding op last night and it failed miserably. Stupid target, I think: a K, and they don't move like any other M6 I've ever seen, spinning and jinking like a fighter.
I'll try your way tonight on a better target: command the TP to board automatically while I distract/de-shield from the M3 (Mamba Vanguard...no idea where you got that medusa prototype from)
I hope you don't take too long a breather before doing another one of these, I'll be looking out for it. (Post it in your sig maybe
)What's a battle?
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Callidus Thorn
- Posts: 255
- Joined: Wed, 11. Aug 10, 12:01
Medusa Prototype came from the game start. I'm currently playing a DiD from the Tormented Teladi start, which I might make a thread for, depends on whether or not I can complete the special mission for it.
Name: Sal Aman Der III
Title: Sal Aman Der III: Hot for Profit
Name: Sal Aman Der III
Title: Sal Aman Der III: Hot for Profit
Last edited by Callidus Thorn on Mon, 16. Aug 10, 20:05, edited 2 times in total.
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Pyure
- Posts: 135
- Joined: Thu, 15. Jul 10, 16:39
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travisdh1
- Posts: 545
- Joined: Sat, 22. Dec 07, 05:54