Parker's story

[MarineMan]

So hi all out there I am new to the forums but not to the game. This is the story of Parker; Argon marine and his rise to a pilot. I ran the game a long time on vanilla, version 2.0 but recently I updated to 2.6 and then started adding scripts and mods so here are the ones I used.

Board station-uberex (poetry in motion + common sense)

Improved boarding-Cycrow (love the hotkeys and transporter board)

Marine repairs-Tatakau (this is now essential and has reached ultimate practicality in this story)

NPC bailing addon-ThisIsHarsh (love this but I turned it down to 30-40 % on this run and it only will cause fighters to bail.) to add difficulty

RRF (Race response fleets) 2.1-Lord Vader (love it, I set it the following way; yes donation centers, yes Khaak invasions, no assassination offers, yes sector invasions.)

Station repacker-alex2069 (did someone say mobile base? just wish I could sell stations *hint* *hint*)

The Marauder Shipyard-Teladidrone (Nice simple mod, I use it quite a lot and I mention the story some so I hope that is alright.)

The Travelling Mechanic- Teladidrone (another non game changing mod that is truly handy)

Upgrade kits- Lord Vader (unbelievably useful and realistic)

Plus all of Cycrow’s managers and the other ’Imperial’ I believe it is called to run his. Plus a few lib.
Also
Pirate Guild-Serial Kicked (a mod which adds realism and depth to the pirate faction.
Yaki Armada-Serial Kicked (a mod that adds depth 'and danger' to the Yaki faction) i really enjoy both of these.

Note: relations were set to friend with Yaki , Pirates, and Pirate guild to match story.

So as for why and what I am doing. I wanted to test myself both in the game and in my story writing ability. Each segment of story is written in a different perspective or person (or at least that is the plan anyway) And the intervening story is told in the present tense as a type of journal almost. I also wanted to get deeper into my use of scripts. For this run through I actually deactivated several mods to make it harder. One of course was Cycrow’s cheat package. I couldn’t let its awesomeness get in the way so I disabled it. Another I disabled was the ship hijacker.
The start for this is custom game so no plots except for the Marauder.

Two things I need to draw attention to Squiddy McSquids possibly short life, by NUKLEAR-SLUG

And the story of Norman Fudge. I believe this was done by TTD

I studied both before I decided to write and I must thank them for finally pushing me into the Kingdom End….err… I mean deep end. Sorry bad pun. Even if they didn’t know it they gave me courage to post. I have written short stories in my free time for years but never had an audience to read them to. So here you go guinea pigs I hope you enjoy it.

[MarineMan]

SUBJECT: Parker,

RANK: 1st Lieutenant Argon Marine Corps.

AGE: 26

STATUS: Undergoing advanced training to prepare for naval boarding engagements. The class syllabus includes Weapon analysis and mastery, Advanced Flight School, Advanced counter intrusion software bypass, hull breaching and repair 203, EVA Combat exercises, and Advanced Squad leadership and Morale classes.

ABOARD MARINE TRAINING BARRACKS M ALPHA, HOME OF LIGHT

TIME 7:56 SHIP TIME

Parker sat there defeated his head in his hands unable to let the news reduce him to tears and unable to move on. He still couldn’t believe it, the closest thing he had ever had to a father was dead. The whole thing was surreal as the drill instructor informed him he could take the day off and that in a week he would be shipped to the Argon Prime shipyard to receive his official transfer out of the marines. Being an orphan had always been tough but he never expected Val Orem to die. That man who taught him how to fly and shoot and patch a ship or spacesuit or any other of a dozen odd jobs. But he was dead his prospering “salvage” empire blown to bits by a passing Paranid patrol.
The next week was full of more mindless drills and soon the pain had become a dull ache. Parker gave himself to the regimen, the physically demanding courses and the intense mental work. He waited for the final day to come. Two days before what he had come to think of as the end of all things known he was transferred to an equipment dock in Cloudbase South East. There he underwent some intense classes on a new computer encryption firewall that had been found on Xenon vessels. Finally the day had arrived and Parker was transferred back to Marine Training Barracks M Alpha, Home of Light and every marine, recruit and drill instructor was lined up in the central training room ready to see him off. Parker said goodbye to his classmates now fully fledged marines like him. He wished the marines well, gave advice to the recruits and received salutes from the drill instructors. Finally all forty-three active marines aboard presented arms and made sure to see him off. He had his rifle and his sidearm that would have to be enough to live off of. Finally a TP Express docked to whisk him away to Argon Prime. Before he could go the suit mechanics got to him and presented him his boarding suit on behalf of the station captain. The Mechanics proudly showed him all the modifications including the repair laser and cutting torch. He wished them well and tried to slip away but not before the man affectionately known as “Gruffy” came to see him off. Gruffy was a hulk of a man who could barely fit in a fighter cockpit but he had an understanding heart and now he handed Parker a flask of argon whiskey or commonly known as space fuel to all pilots. Finally the parade of friends was over and he was in the ship speeding off towards Argon Prime…..

TOTAL ASSETS:
RIFLE
SIDEARM
SPACE SUIT x1
CANDY BAR x1 “Given to by friend”
WHISKEY FLASK “Given to by Gruffy”

Upon arrival at the shipyard he was briefed on the circumstances of his Legal Guardian’s death. Apparently Val had just entered through the North gate of Split Fire and was immediately fired upon by Paranid fighters his TM didn’t stand a chance so he had made his way to the back of the craft and launched fighter drones soon he found his way to a Buster that he had recently bought second hand from its previous owner and refitted for sale. He entered the M4 but not before taking a hit from shrapnel. His suit compromised he had flown back through the gate and docked with an Argon Colossus carrier. The crew tried to save him but the shrapnel had punctured his right lung his liver and his kidney. He died 30 minutes later at 7:10 Ship time. When the autopsy was completed the crew was amazed to find that he also had a broken wrist, ankle 3 broken fingers, a fractured tibia and 4 broken ribs due to the beating he received on his space walk. The crew had marveled at this man who had fought off death so that his surrogate son could have his legacy. For the Buster and Val’s coded business ledger was all that was left and that was left to Parker. To further complicate things Val had all of his money tied up in space fuel which he was transporting to the pirate sectors so his account was empty except for 1,000 credits. Before parker could collect the ship he had to pay rent for it sitting at space dock for a week. The dock manager said this would cost him close to 2,000 credits. But Parker was able to barter away his rifle at the dock and pay for it. “So now” he thought, “my life as a pilot will begin….”

END OF INTRO

LOCATION: ARGON PRIME; TIME 0:00:03 MISSION CLOCK
TOTAL ASSETS:
BUSTERx1
IMPULSE RAY EMMITTERx2
1MJx1
SPACESUITx1
WHISKEY FLASK
SIDEARM
LEDGER
1,000 CREDITS
“Candy bar used up on trip”

First things first I decided to head north to Herron’s Nebula and do some quick trading so I could purchase a duplex scanner. On my way to the trading station I saw what looked like a malfunctioning fighter engine spraying a stream of plasma in the distance. I remembered a class in ship mounted weapons it came in handy. That stream is a weapon the equivalent of a space flame thrower. A plasma burst generator, it is usually fielded by some of the larger pirate gangs. I decided that I’d tail the battle and pick up any spare missiles or cargo. I flew in closer and watched the pirates get the upper hand. The customs vessels detonated like mini-stars one by one. Soon the pirates were done and heading towards another group of customs officers. But surprise that put me straight on their flight path I managed to get out of the way and I sent the captain over my whiskey bottle as a thanks for not shooting me he explained that he recognized the ship number as belonging to my old man said that Val was bringing space fuel to his base and buying the ships that they um… liberated. Well that is all great but soon he is off fighting some more cops and I get a message from a high yield production facility asking if I want to buy a map? Well most of the maps are too expensive but I buy the map for the hole at 769 cr. On previous training exercises the hole was used as a ‘low visibility training area’ and for good reason. Any way I dock and pick up my map then I am off in pursuit of some missiles that were left from the firefight. On my way to the missiles I notice a Discoverer that is just sitting there with his pilot several km’s away the thing is shot to bits with something in the neighborhood of 12 % hull integrity. Pilot must have ejected to avoid a quick death. Anyway I putter on over and go EVA to check the old girl out looks like it isn’t anything a marine like me can’t fix so I get to work repairing it. The autopilot feature kicks in though while I am repairing it “as I hadn’t claimed it yet” and I have to track it down and claim it. Soon though I have it all repaired and I transfer my equipment to it. Some may question the wisdom of transferring gear from a medium fighter to a scout but I need two things money and speed. The buster I can sell and get money and the discoverer is speed. So I send the buster to the shipyard and watch as the customs forces finally call in the military and flush my friends out.

LOCATION: HERRON’S NEBULA, FREE ARGON TRADING STATION; TIME 0:30:19 MISSION CLOCK
TOTAL ASSETS:
BUSTERx1
DISCOVERERx1 (hull 12% and climbing)
IMPULSE RAY EMMITTERx2
1MJx1
SPACESUITx1
SIDEARM
LEDGER
231 CREDITS

So I head south and sell my Buster for 218,263 cr. I purchase the duplex scanner and resist the two shiny new Impulse Ray emitters in the window that I could buy with my new rank of Federation member. I scroll further down and see 1MJ shields for sale I practically buy before I can stop myself. My drill instructor had always said “It’s not who can hit harder, it is who can still hit at the end.” But I resist this telling myself that I can proceed and get other shields. I head south to Home of Light good old Marine Training Barracks M alpha is just off the beat ‘in path but I dock at Terracorp HQ to try and buy a jump drive. However the Argon government doesn’t want me jumping around their sectors ‘willy nilly’ so I am left empty. I rest here and consult the ledger that Val has left me. Most of the Ledger deals with old deals and trading partners I see a familiar name that of the pirate captain I met Res Trelmer. As I browse to the more recent entries I see two possible salvage jobs that Val was going to take on next I like the potential payout an M4 and ,wow, an M3+! The payout is the upside the downside they are in Yaki space. Now as a marine I know plenty about the Yaki; agents of terror and aggression “The Most organized and deadly Pirate group of this age,” but I know something that my drill instructors didn’t. You see Val had been raided almost 11 years ago when I was fifteen and I was flying for him. He had his trusty TM class Magnetar and I was in a Discoverer (ain’t that a coincidence?) so I was flying scout and came across a Yaki Susanova Hauler an M3 heavy fighter. Now here is the deal the Susanova can make minced meat out of me with a single solid hit but that is just the problem he has to HIT me. The TM could take hits and fire back plus it has fighter drones all in all we were at a stalemate. That is when the business oriented Val opened up the com and asked if the Yaki pilot would like to buy an Elite M4 that Val had in stock negotiations ranged but they settled on a price and soon Val was trading with them too. The good news for me is that the Val’s good name carries over to me just like it did with the Pirates. Whereas I have to EARN my rank In the Argon Federation. So that only leaves the intervening Paranid space. The same race who fired on site at Val. Paranid have never been friends with the Argon and I can’t say I like them too much either which means the fact that Val’s ledger tells me I have to pass through three Paranid sectors including Paranid Prime is a bad thing.

The first stepping stone is the sector ore belt which I navigate too then I accept a couple jobs putting down some local Pirates (the bad kind). I land at a sidearm factory and apply there to defend their station from 3 Discoverers. Well I engage one and let the other two duke it out with the inanimate Factory. Here is my logic-

I am in a piece of driftwood wrapped in toilet paper and I can only launch
little peas to shoot him down.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is he is in a piece of driftwood wrapped in plastic and he can go three times as fast as me but at least he can only shoot at me with peas right? Right?
WRONG! I engage him on the first pass and rip into him before he can do anything I turn around and come back to see how bad he took it. I look at his stats 100% hull 94% shield……………WHAT!?!?!?!!?!?
Turns out the bugger has 5 times (at least) the shields I do (let me revise wrapped in plastic to covered in bronze). We engage each other for a full 20 minutes. By this point my hull is down to 35% and my shields have just finished climbing up to 65%. On the positive side his hull is down to 88% and his shields are gone time to press the advantage. I line up and hope he will bail so that I can sell his ship and actually profit from this. But of course that doesn’t happen I line up and before I can shoot he is out of range circling back in, and now those 5x my shields are back to full and to add insult to injury (literally)he comms me and tells me, “You have the flight skills of a large asteroid.” OVER AND OVER! Well I have an idea now the next time he pulls into one of those long turns to recharge his shields I go EVA and patch up my hull. Then were back, on and on this goes and then I have him lined up he has stalled in the middle of his turn and I can lay the hurt on him I pull the trigger but evidently another pilot had the same idea cause one of those massive blue Concussion Impulse Generator bolts vaporizes his ship.
Well I guess that was a kill but the station manager didn’t think so, he pays me a few hundred credits and so do the patrol leaders all in all 45 minutes of hard work and I have earned a whopping 1,000 credits in ore belt. I pick up 2 fire lance missiles from the fight and I decide to leave and beeline it for Savage Spur at max speed. The three Paranid Sectors are traversed without a hitch and I reach Savage Spur and the first abandoned ship. A Pericles, wait revise that, an Enhanced Pericles. I pull up alongside and claim it. Let’s see what we have; two Fragmentation bomb launchers well that is good they can….. Well…… well they can look kind of scary? Unless you hit dead on (in which case it won’t do much damage) you have about .001% chance of it working like the Fragmentation part of the name suggests. *sigh* well the good news is that they sell for 200,000 each and the ship should be about half a million. On to the next one deeper in the “terrible Yaki” space. As I make my way to the jumpgate I see a bright white flash in the distance part of me wants to push on and check it out but I know if I do I will end up like the pilot of this Pericles forced to eject and slowly running out of O2 as I search for a way home. So I press on to Ocacoke’s Storm. The Ledger tells me that the Advanced Eclipse I am looking for belonged to a Pirate who used to stash captured ships here. Apparently Val had heard a rumor about it in the pub.
It takes a while but the general directions of “enter through gate and take a left” work although it was more ‘pick a direction half way between left and straight ahead.’ Any way I switch over to my new found Advanced Eclipse and like what I see so I drop everything except for the two Fragmentation launchers on the Pericles and mount up in my new spacious M3+. By now I have run into a few Yaki patrols but they are all friendly and allow me to pass. Then I am in the sector known as Senator’s Badlands. I putter about looking for the shipyard and EQ dock but I can’t find it. I appreciate the Yaki build up of Ships an Akuma Destroyer 4 M7M boarding craft of various types and dozens of fighter craft. I hail a likely looking Yaki Fighter patrol and ask them where the Shipyard and EQ dock are they point it out on my map but not before they laugh at my naivety (that’s the Yaki). About this time I hear that the Argon have captured Emperor Mines. A Paranid sector that I passed through on my way here I sell the Pericles and Discoverer and spend the money buying all the upgrades I can as well as two of those nice Plasma Burst Generators. So now my Eclipse has three weapons load outs. HEPT, IRE and PBG all in twos I might add I figure I will pick up 2 more HEPT’s one day and swap my turret guns for mass drivers if I can.
So I stop here in Yaki space and decide to rest for a while. I snap off the mission clock and turn it in for the night

LOCATION: SENATOR’S BADLANDS, YAKI EQUIPMENT DOCK; TIME 03:05:26 MISSION CLOCK
TOTAL ASSETS:
ADVANCED ECLIPSEx1 (fully maxed out plus jumpdrive)
BANSHEE MISSLEx3
ENERGY CELLSx214
FIGHTER DRONEx11
FRAGMENTAION BOMB LAUNCHEx2 (turrets)
HIGH ENERGY PLASMA THROWERx2
PLASMA BURST GENERATORx2
IMPULSE RAY EMMITTERx2
25MJx4
SPACESUITx1
SIDEARM
LEDGER
195,978 CREDITS

[hns194]

This needs to go in the Creative universe section buddy. Looks pretty good, you might want to mention a survival class or xeno biology class, because I'm pretty sure Marines are trained for ground combat too.

[Serial Kicked]

cough cough! I'm the "unknown" developer

Yeah it should go in the creative board, not that's a bad post or anything, not at all (may need to be parsed a bit though, it's kinda hard to read if you don't skip a line from time to time), but that's not the point of this board.

[MarineMan]

Thanks guys i'll see if i can't move it over and edit you in to the acknowldgements. I really appreciate the mod.


{Moved from X3TC S&M. jlehtone}

[eldyranx3]

I would suggest a line break here and there. I hope the varying perspectives wont sink your tale. I stopped reading James Patterson because of it.

[MarineMan]

Well Parker has moved on a bit since this and i am currently writing about that. Thank you all for the constructive criticism you guys were right. I have shortened the Journal sections from now on and done more storytelling. Will post that tommorow most likely.

[edit] yeah i am being careful not to get to deep into another character but i have been reading To The Last Man by Jeff Sharra and that tells world war one from multiple perspectives. So i guess what i am trying to say is i couldn't resist trying myself.

[eldyranx3]

I meant the literary definition of perspective / person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

1st: I fly through the Gate.
2nd You fly through the Gate.
3rd: Parker flies through the Gate.

You do a small amount of perspective switching, which can be confusing at first. Some stories pull it off really well, but I'd recommend sticking to one if possible. Also, I noticed you switch verb tense somewhat. Watch out for run on sentences as well.

Anyway, hope the story goes well!

[MarineMan]

Thanks I'll work on it that is what i am using this for in the first place.

[MarineMan]

….Something was wrong the once peaceful dream of overwhelming a bulk freighter was gone and was instead replaced with an insistent humming… no that wasn’t it his sleep fogged mind quickly realized, it was beeping! Make the blaring; an alarm klaxon! Joe Silarne exited his bunk aboard the Yaki TL class Ryu and ran out of his ready room with nothing more than a night shirt on he glared at the bridge officers but had no time to berate them. He launched himself into the captain’s chair and ran through the data screen as quickly as possible. The reason for the alarm flashed red on all the bridge navigation screens now…….. Collision warning. He cursed silently to himself. The autopilot had tried to turn their ship 180 degrees the only problem? The EQ dock that they had been equipping at for the night was firmly in their turning circle. There was no time to stop the tragic mistake but the captain applied full down force to try anyway. He had to try because with the Yaki it was succeed or die. Soon though the Ship slapped into the EQ dock her ‘back’ hitting first breaking the ship’s structural ‘backbone’. The ship was done for it sheered apart at the midline and the two halves separated. The rear half containing the engines proceeded to roll madly over and over due to the lack of friction in space. The lighting on the Bridge went out. A crewman whispered “I’m scared captain what now?” The captain didn’t answer he walked slowly back to his ready room and closed the door moments later the crew heard a loud bang and a flash from under the captain’s door. The first mate answered the crewman “We failed,” he said and someone had to die.”

Parker was thrown from his bed and landed hard on the floor of his rented room. His startled exclamation was lost in a cacophony of klaxons ,running feet ,scraping metal and doors sliding open on tracks far too rusted. He got to his feet and quickly donned his suit mumbling to himself for encouragement. “Those stopwatch tests with instructor Olan sure paid off today. I think I beat my record three times over.” He ran from the room grabbing his duffel along the way and strapping his holster and sidearm to his hip. He made a beeline for the docking clamps…

LOCATION: SENATOR’S BADLANDS, YAKI EQUIPMENT DOCK; TIME
03:07:26 MISSION CLOCK

TOTAL ASSETS:

ADVANCED ECLIPSEx1 (fully maxed out plus jumpdrive)
BANSHEE MISSLEx3
ENERGY CELLSx214
FIGHTER DRONEx11
FRAGMENTAION BOMB LAUNCHEx2 (turrets)
HIGH ENERGY PLASMA THROWERx2
PLASMA BURST GENERATORx2
IMPULSE RAY EMMITTERx2
25MJx4
SPACESUITx1
SIDEARM
LEDGER
195,978 CREDITS

The dock is in chaos. From the moment I undock I can tell. Debris is floating everywhere and I pick up a handful of missiles on my way out but soon I fire up the new jump drive and instantly traverse to Herron’s Nebula. I accept a few asteroid mapping jobs which lead to a few patrol jobs which lead to a few station defense contracts, all in all a real busy day. I decide to jump down to Home of light and take a break but there is no rest for the weary. Apparently now that I am flying around in a ship that is worth more than two cents people assume I have money to spend. I start getting offers to buy second hand Mercury trading ships of various types. I buy them even though they are pretty scratched up and I have to spend an hour repairing them. I stash them at the EQ dock in Argon prime to start outfitting them. Soon though my balance has run out so it is back up north to make money.

The rest of the day goes on like this patrols, trading, buying and equipping TSs and the occasional salvage job selling a Nova or finding another Mercury that has just lost a fight with pirates or what have you and fixing it up (some of these Mercury ships have 7-18% hull and take forever to fix) at the end of this though I have amassed quite the fleet of trading vessels. I finally feel the need to head over to Split Fire. Upon arrival I receive a garbled message from a Paranid Recon flight. It appears it had been looking for something…. and unfortunately for the pilot, found it. I meander around until I pick up a large Gravidar echo. It’s a station; and a shipyard at that. When I check the name it simply says Marauder. So this is what the Paranid pilot was looking for. Anyway it appears that the Shipyard is open for business so I dock and browse their inventory. None of these ships are standard race vessels all are pirate vessels from unique M5s to M1s wow. This will be a useful place to sell ships. One ship catches my eye a TL class Mobile base. The price tag is only 4 mil and it can hold fifteen fighters. So now I have a dilemma; out of the nine Mercury Traders I have equipped today only one has MK3 software and a pilot to match. All the others still need it not to mention shields so that puts the total price tag to get them all trading at a whopping 6-7 mil. Hmm so what do I do when I reach 4 mil equip some traders or buy my base? I decide to buy the Base if I haven’t found enough shields for at least one freighter. So I begin raiding Paranid vessels here and continue doing so all the way to Hatiklav’s Faith. I outfit one more trader (as I found some shields) and move on. At the end of I long grind I can finally afford the base. 4 mil and the deed is mine I rename it the Port Shelter (seemed fitting) and send it to get upgraded. I decide it is time to hire some marines and a TP. Perhaps I’ll give my classmates a job? I go to buy the Express but see that the docks have a shiny new fully equipped model on discount. Only problem? It’s too expensive to buy. Well that is soon solved by joining a High risk Xenon patrol and salvaging any other ill fated pilots’ ships.

One story I really must relate. When the fighting was over and I made my rounds my scanners picked up what looked like a piece of space junk. Closer inspection showed it was in fact the most beat up Discoverer I have ever seen in working order. The computer actually reads the hull integrity off as 0%. I claim the junk and order it to limp back into the Shipyard. The mechanic there says it is only worth 1,214 credits. Not really worth selling so I’ll keep it around as a reminder to be careful. Then I Manage to buy that shiny new Express and I send it straight away to Marine Training Barracks M Alpha, Home of Light. Yep my old stomping grounds hard to believe it was only a day or two ago?

I pull into Terracorp HQ where any of my ships that still need parts or shields or pilots for that matter are docked. Time for a good night’s sleep I switch off the mission clock and am astounded to see it read 20:07:04. Long day (17 hours to be exact). Time to sleep in the ready room of The Port Shelter.

LOCATION: HOME OF LIGHT, TERRACORP HQ; TIME 20:07:04 MISSION CLOCK

TOTAL ASSETS:

ADVANCED ECLIPSEx1 (fully maxed out plus jumpdrive)
BARRACUDA VANGUARDx1 (Salvage job still need to patch hull and sell)
DISCOVERERx1 (HULL 0 % SHIELD 0%)
EXPRESSx1
MERCURYx1
MERCURY HAULERx2
MERCURY SUPER FRIEGHTERx3
MERCURY TANKERx3
MOBILE PORT SHELTER
SPACESUITx1
SIDEARM
LEDGER
978,375 CREDITS

[MarineMan]

When the morning came and Parker awoke to the new surroundings of the Port Shelter he felt invigorated. The time had come to expand the manpower of his organization. For an organization was surely what it was becoming. Marines were a type of person he knew, and he planned to utilize them to their fullest. A few ideas came to him as he enjoyed breakfast with some security officers from Terracorp. First though he needed to actually hire the Marines. Pulling up the roster from the training barracks was easy; the hard part was picking 30 names from that list of 52 that would fit the role best. Finally he had his selection down to 30 and watched as he sent over the names one by one. He watched with detached interest that as the marines were hired; his bank slowly worked its way to zero. Now came the introduction and time to meet the troops.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Erine Cheram stood at attention in the primary training room in the Barracks that had been both home and horror to him for the past month. The 29 other marines stood at attention as well in rows of ten, three men deep. Erine was a squad leader and highly respected member of the community onboard. He was surprised to see the 30 names called. All of his squad mates were here as well as Ban Cult and his squad. Ban and Erine had always been close and they had always showed promise in combat scenarios they didn’t quite have the head for some other aspects but they were getting there.

Erine didn’t like going blindly into an op. on all of the training exercises when you went in blind the instructors had nasty surprises for you. This knowledge was as old as war itself, “If you don’t know where the enemy is it is hard to hit him,” Modern warfare only stressed the need for up to date Intel , as troop movement could now be farther flung than ever before in history. At one time in history the enemy could move a few miles in one night but now a few sectors was more likely. The only information that Erine had on their employer was the scuttlebutt and the Express docked at the station this very moment. Scuttlebutt would have him thinking that they were getting ready for a long stay on a carrier or other capital ship above Argon Prime with long leaves and boring hours of nothing. But he knew better, first off capital ships only held 20 marines tops and that was for the major combat craft; the ones that really had to worry about attacks. Plus the roster had come one by one with very specific names and orders. Someone had taken great care in the choice of the Marines whereas the Bureaucracy in the core sectors just wanted Marines aboard ships nothing more. No, this was no standard assignment it was a private contract; the sort only highly respected members of the Argon community could receive. He had also done his research; the only ship which had lodging for thirty marines was the Sirokos missile frigate, and that was a ship design owned by OTAS a private organization. “Yep,” thought Erine “I’ve pretty much got this one pegged.”

The Employer was arriving by fighter craft in a few moments and the Marines tightened up their attention and checked their equipment. Finally the waiting was over the man entered the docking bay a stern look on his face. “Wait a minute,” thought Erine “that-“
“So,” said Parker “It is sad to see how far standards have fallen if I am left with you rowdy bunch.” The tone was stern but the smile in his eyes was betraying and Erine heard Ban laugh explosively followed up by half of the Marines joining in as they realized their predicament...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assignments were pretty cut and dried Erine and Ban’s squad would stay aboard the Express while it equipped and then they would receive advanced training in hacking. The others set up a repair station on the Port Shelter. Parker’s idea was to send any damaged fighter that he salvaged or bought to the Port Shelter and have it repaired and sold. The overall mission was to bloody the Paranid Empire’s nose. Argon forces had captured Emperor Mines only a day or so ago but the two nations had established a peace agreement since then. Parker’s dream was to deal a blow to the Paranid that they would never forget. The marines approved believing it was only a matter of time before the Paranid acted up again. So the marines trained and parker scouted targets. Upon entering Split Fire, Parker noticed a Paranid soyery sitting there; further travel of pirate sectors revealed a soy farm and ore mine as well. These factories were nothing but targets at first but when Parker realized that these stations produced the needed resources for most of the Paranid high tech stations he hatched a plan…

A day later Erine and Ban’s squad received the briefing. Before them was a three step plan to bloodying the Paranid and providing Parker with the resources he needed to advance his final plan.

Step one: capture the three Paranid resource stations.

Step two: capture a Paranid TL to transport the stations to Argon space.

Step three: enter Paranid space and capture a concussion impulse generator forge, an advanced satellite factory and an advanced drone factory.

The marines held an active part in all three roles and by day two the first step was completed. Parker was scouting for stations to capture in stage three when he came across the perfect TL for stage two. A Paranid TL running under a civilian flag completely unarmed and used to leaving police patrolled sectors it was the perfect ship. A casino…

[MarineMan]

Parker moved in and scanned the large TL. The ship was empty of Passengers at the moment but he couldn't count on that to last. An audible beep occupied his mind and he checked the Gravidar. A Paranid Heavy Nemesis had closed on his position. The ship was flying civilian flags but it was obviously hostile; barreling towards him with its weapons ready.

"Well I guess that someone did notice me taking those stations," he thought grimly.

He reached over to the nav computer and tried to plot a jump course out of system but he got an error message. He glanced at the E-cell counter; only 6 left not enough to get out of sector.

So, he was stuck in a slugging match with a superior craft deep in enemy territory and it was blocking his exit. Not the best way to spend a friday. Parker ran through the options in his head.

1. Run-not the best plan; there was nowhere to run to.

2. Fight-up against faster more heavily armed and armored ship; last resort.

3 Talk it out-worth a try.

The resulting comm message was brief. Parker hailed the ship and was imeadiatly called an "unholy traitor"; "desecrator"; blah blah blah. Ok so that leaves fight.

To take on a better craft he needed a station; debris; anything to block incoming fire. He found it at the Paranid trading dock. Midway between him and the hostile ship. Gunning the engine he willed his ship to arrive there first but it was to no avail. The corvette overcame him and they blew past each other. Each ship had shield dammage but they would recover; the only lasting damage was caused by Parker's Mass Driver gatling guns which penetrated the shields and found there mark, scoring hits and peppering the hull. When Parker reached the dock the Nemesis was right behind him.

For the next few minutes the two ships and their pilots dueled pulling high risk manuvers but never having the clear uperhand. The Paranid pilot apparantly ran out of patience because he pushed his engines to full and tried to catch Parker. The reward for his boost in speed was a collision with the trading station nose first. The once elegant craft now crumpled under the impact bending the nose past 90 degrees and dropping the shields. The hulk rebounded off the station and floated free for a moment. Parker took the initiative and walked two pairs of High Energy Plasma down the sides of the un-shielded craft. The plasma liquified hull plates and bulkheads and burst out the side of the craft where the melted teladianium and metal reformed into perfect spheres. Parker hung in space for a moment until the core went critical and caused the ship to detonate. The detonation pushed the spheres on like seeds leaving a flower or escape pods leaving a dying ship.....

[MarineMan]

I have bad news for any readers. I lost my save game . All i can say is Parker mannaged to capture the casino and build a few factory complexes before my computer crashed. I'll work on finding the save but otherwise I'll start a different story soon.

Wish me luck

[kgkosio]

Sorry to hear that. If you remember what the conditions were and the assets you had at that point, you could script a game to start at that point and continue the current story. A computer crash should not count as a death!