Last Man Standing

[Callidus Thorn]

Since my last DiD became so dull I couldn't keep myself interested, I'm going back to a more combat oriented one, although I think I've gone a little over the top with the setup for it:

Chapter 1 Rock bottom

It all began in a bar near Montalaar. I'm only drinking there because I killed the guy who robbed the place a few months back, so they let me drink for free, handy when you're completely skint. Being a bounty hunter used to pay better, but now every two-bit fighter jock with a gun is out to make a name for themselves, and every one of 'em is twitchy and trigger happy, a dangerous mix. Of course, that means that the payouts are lower, because someone will take it, which meant that the last job I took, defending a station against what turned out to be Khaak, actually cost me the last of my credits on top of the payout in repairs, damn Kyons.

“Are you Elim Ordo?” A voice behind me inquires. I turn around, but this place is poorly lit and I can't make out any details of the speaker, but the voice sounds female.
“Who's asking?” I reply.
“My employer wishes to hire you for a mission, the details have been sent to your ship”
“And who is your employer?” I ask, I never take a job without at least a rough idea of who's offering it.
“An independent businessman” Sounds like he's either a Pirate or a smuggler, but that's not a problem for me, especially since I need the credits. With that she walks away, and I decide I've had enough of this dive and head back to my ship.

Punching up the message, I skim through it. 20 million credits split between me and three others, targets in an M6 in Boron space, and the “independent businessman” is actually a Paranid who got ripped off by the target. I'm a bit sceptical of working as part of a group, but in my current situation 5 million credits buys a lot of cooperation. At the bottom of the message are a set of coordinates for the rendezvous, a pirate base in Priests Pity, so I fire up the jumpdrive and set off.

Chapter 2 FUBAR

Upon arrival I'm given the rest of the details of the mission. The target's flying a Boron Hydra with an escort of 3 Barracuda's, all of which are currently in Lucky Planets. I meet the rest of the team for this mission; 2 bounty hunters, an assassin, and a Teladi. One of the bounty hunters I know of, a Split called something unpronounceable, the other is a new blood with something to prove, who for some reason calls himself “Fragbait”. I ain't happy about working with him but I need the credits. The assassin's a real piece of work, some woman called O'ren, who's somewhat infamous, and the Teladi is piloting a TM, which is our getaway vehicle.

The plan is head through the gate into Lucky Planets, launch from the TM, which retreats to a safe distance, take out the target and then re-dock at the TM which jumps us out. 5 million apiece for us, and the pilot is paid separately. My only worry is that the cowardly Teladi does a runner and leaves us to die. At least I have a jumpdrive so I'll be able to escape, which is all I'm concerned with.

It's said that no plan survives contact with the enemy, but I've never seen it applied so literally. We were all in our fighters, docked at the TM as it went through the gate, and as we come out the other side we hear the Teladi screaming at us to launch. A second after I do I see why. We barely have enough time to get clear of the TM before it's crushed by a collision with a Boron military Ray. There goes our exit strategy. A quick check revealed that we all had jumpdrives and some fuel for them, so we continued as planned and launched our attack on the target.

We eliminated the escorts and were hammering away at the Hydra, when it went wrong again. While taking out the escorts we'd gotten a little too close to the nearby Arena, resulting in stray fire from Fragbait taking a chunk out of its shields. Which got the military involved. At this point Fragbait freaked out and launched a missile at the Hydra. A Hammerhead missile. If I'd known that the dumb bastard had one of them I wouldn't have accepted the mission, regardless of the pay, and who knows how he got hold of one. As soon as he launched it I fired up the jumpdrive, I only had enough fuel to reach Aladna Hill, but it beat staying around here. Just before I jumped the missile detonated, destroying the Hydra, the Arena, and the rest of the team. I was just far enough away to avoid being destroyed, but it cost me. A few hits from something big tore away my shields, and caused a lot of damage.

[Callidus Thorn]

Chapter 3 From bad to worse

That was the roughest jump I've ever had. Once I was spat into Aladna Hill my ships computer gave me a rundown of the damage. Most of me weapons were destroyed, I'm down to two HEPTs, one of my shields was destroyed, along with my triplex and freight scanners. And as a result of the damage my ship sustained in the second prior to jumping, the jumpdrive seems to have shorted out and partially melted, damaging it beyond repair. I hop out and fix the damage to the ship. I'll need to replace the damaged equipment, but at least it's now structurally sound.

Then a message comes in from the Paranid. Because the mission turned into such a debacle, not only are they not going to pay me, I'm now an enemy of both the Paranid, and the Boron. As a result of that my reputation is now worth less than my account, which is empty. As I finish reading the message, it releases some form of virus that wipes my messages and my navigational computer, but at least it's still functional.

So I'm flat broke, hunted by two of the major races, and my ships capabilities have been significantly diminished, time to get started on rectifying that. There's nothing available in Aladna Hill, but the shipyard in Light of Heart is looking for protection. They're only paying about 700 credits, but I'm in no position to down opportunities. One pirate discoverer later and the missions done, and I've regained some standing with the Argon. I also picked up a Firelance after destroying him, which turned out to be worth nearly four times what I was paid, which was a nice bonus. I then sold my HEPTs and bought six PACs, leaving me with about 50k, before finding out that either the Paranid or the Boron have hired pirate bounty hunters to kill me. Still in Light of Heart I was able to pick up a boring Xenon patrol, and found nothing, and then earned 33k defending a station from a small swarm of pirate M5s.

Buying a second-hand Mercury tanker and then selling it gave me enough credits to pick up a second 25mj shield generator in Legends Home, where I got a little ambitious and accepted a convoy escort mission from OTAS.

Assets
Mamba
6 PAC 2 25mj shields
21,004 credits


Rules:
Dead is Dead
Cannot buy Boron, Split, or Paranid ships
No reloads
Abandoned ships can only be claimed if I stumble across them
Repair laser only on personal ship
Cannot use Boron ships. Boron ships that bail cannot be claimed, nor can Boron ships be boarded (unless required in a plot)
No factories in Boron space
Jumpdrives not allowed on anything smaller than a TM
I'm not allowed to raise my Boron or Paranid rep until the bounty hunters stop
I can only use missiles that are captured, salvaged or produced in my factories

Exceptions:
Glitch death doesn't count.
Death due to laptop battery warning (automatically drops me to desktop) doesn't count.

Vanilla 3.0 + bonus pack

[Callidus Thorn]

Chapter 4 Going hunting

I managed to complete the convoy mission, although only one of the ships reached OTAS HQ, but they were still happy, and told me they might have work for me in the future. A defend station mission in Legends Home boosted my Argon rep high enough to be able to buy a freight scanner, so I'm now off to Hatikvah's Faith to see what ships I can “acquire”. I'll be targeting Paranid ships mainly, since them and the Boron already shoot me on sight I might as well, but I hate Boron ships so I'll ignore them. I will however be targeting weapons dealers of both races, which will hopefully net me some more weapons, and trying to get a fast M3 with a rear turret, since the bounty hunters are using bigger missiles.

I was almost across Aladna Hill when I was jumped by yet more bounty hunters, this time while fighting off pirates as well. That was a terrifying fight, not because of the opposition, but because of the Boreas trying to shoot them as well. Being outnumbered is bad enough, but dealing with multiple targets while a capital ship is firing everywhere at M5s it can't hit is just nerve-shredding, always one wrong turn away from near instant death. And it didn't get much better after they were dead, when my combat computer picked up a Hammerhead missile a few hundred metres away, which got me fleeing in the opposite direction. I don't want another bad experience with those missiles, and definitely not that close.

A relatively short session netted me only three bails; one was a Dolphin which I ignored, one was a near wrecked M4, which I also left, and a Demeter, which was immediately sent to the shipyard in Light of Heart. I also managed to convince traders to part with 40 Wasp missiles, a Hammerhead missile, a 200mj shield, and most valuably, four Ion-Ds. I also crippled a bounty hunter in a Buzzard, leaving him practically breathing vacuum (0% hull), effectively neutralizing him for a while, and buying me some time. That lasted until I sold my acquisitions and headed back out, where a passing military patrol atomised him.

A more extensive session netted me a Perseus Vanguard, three HEPTs, two more Hammerheads, 35 silkworms, 32 1mj shields, a Firestorm torpedo, and a FBL. So not a bad haul, but my apparent inability to cap ships is beginning to frustrate me. I almost attacked the same weapons dealer 3 times, each time scanning him to find 37 fighter drones and deciding against it, the guy kept going back and forth between sectors rather quickly, making an unlikely hazard. It appears the bounty hunters have given up, since I haven't seen any for quite a while, I thought they'd take longer to give up, but at least it makes things simpler. Now if only the Galleon and escorts in Hatikvah's Faith would go away, I might be able to get some decent piracy done.

Assets:
Mamba
6 PACs 2 25mj shields
Demeter
Perseus Vanguard
1,843,236 credits

Shortly after this I went through a gate, and encountered a dozen pirates, mostly M3s, a Boron Hydra, and a Paranid military patrol. Which of course ended the DiD rather rapidly.

[eldyranx3]

Live by the Sword ...

Sorry to hear your bad steak of DiD's. Ive often wondered how anyone could make trading games interesting, an Argon Wheat Farmer for example. As a rule, I never take on Pirates, Xenon, or Kha'ak in DiD's unless I have 100MJ of shielding or better. Those ridiculous RARE insta hit or area effect weapons just aren't worth the risk.

Its one of the main Races, usually the Boron, that I tend to pick on.