I'm all up for making the bulk of the remaining ride in stoic silence, if you guys are willing to fast forward to the missile strikes and hopefully subsequent op.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Your fleet has arrived at the pirates' island, where the four ships are set down.

What do you do? How do you approach the situation?

>>5892231
I am.

>>5892174
Would we have to buy the brain burner from TradeStar, or could buy it from someone else/reverse-engineer it from the one Albert has?

>>5892231
I'm good with that.

>>5892240
What defenses have they got? Can we see anything moving around their ships? Are the ships active at all?

>>5892264
Reverse engineering is completely possible for brain-burner aquisition.

>>5892278
Well, then we should get on that as soon as we can.

For the time being though, >>5892240
That fleet has the Freemen guns right? Do they have enough to just pick up the ships and fly off, and also do they have any gas with which to disable any occupants?

>>5892274
You see several hundred pirates eating rations, drinking booze, fucking whores and generally having fun during their down-time, on the firm, solid ground.

They appear to generally be armed with a variation of weapons - laser rifles, assault rifles, explosive bolt bows, flamethrowers and other shit.

>>5892313
Excellent! Gank as many pirates as possible while simply yanking the ships nearest the largest numbers of them away.

Blow up the others.

>You see several hundred pirates eating rations, drinking booze, fucking whores and generally having fun during their down-time, on the firm, solid ground.
>They appear to generally be armed with a variation of weapons - laser rifles, assault rifles, explosive bolt bows, flamethrowers and other shit.
Deploy infiltrators to attempt to board their ships. Once entry is confirmed and they are in a position to seize control, use our grav-snatchers seize the pirates, sans weaponry.

Implement plan upon confirmation from another subcontractor.

>>5892274
At the site, you have:
2 Slaver Colossi
3000 Light Laser
750 Light EMP
750 Light Gamma
750 Medium Laser/Gravity Gun
375 Medium Lightning Gun/Gravity Gun
375 Medium Gamma/Gravity Gun
450 Heavy Laser/Laser/Gravity Gun
300 Heavy Thermobaric/HE/Gravity Gun
300 Heavy Tear/Snatcher/Dart
40 SH Heat 'copter

>>5892336
Look at the size and shape, your two colossi are probably only able to steal one.

You do, however, have more than enough firepower to absolutely fuck up the rest.

>>5892382
We only need one, anyway.

Though let's have the smaller drones infiltrate and attempt to take over the other three while the rest of the army captures one ship and kills all the visible pirates.

>Look at the size and shape, your two colossi are probably only able to steal one.
>You do, however, have more than enough firepower to absolutely fuck up the rest.
Don't fuck up the rest; leave a temporary garrison. Nothing's stopping us from making multiple trips.

>>5892382
That grab the best looking one and Heat ray the rest and artillery the rest.

>and kills all the visible pirates.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't kill the pirates! Sure, they're pirates, but they're (presumably) experienced criminals! Guess who's going to be a bunch of criminals in a month or so, when TradeStar realizes what we've done? That's right, it's us. We could probably use the tricks of piracy they've got up their sleeves. We can always kill them later, when we've confirmed that they have no possible use.

>>5892431
Yeah, cause pirates are just going to buddy up to the people who stole one of their ships.

New approach:

dump a bunch of money to the pirates to buy a few ships.

>Yeah, cause pirates are just going to buddy up to the people who stole one of their ships.
They don't have to buddy up to us to provide us with useful knowledge. We have interrogation techniques, and the tempting incentive of not dying. We might also have shock collars and similar- I can't recall. Point is, the only practical reason to kill them is so that we don't have to worry about them later, and that's just lazy.

Waiting for people to decide.

Destroy the other ships or try to preserve them?
Kill the pirates or keep them alive?

Freeman nab the nicest ship, drones infiltrate and steal the other three, and we gas the pirates to sell to Alpha Range.

If this starts to go wrong, we blow up the ships we can't capture, EMP the pirates to keep them from following us, and gamma deathbeam anything that moves.

>>5892479
I concur with our synth subcontractor.

>>5892479
Sounds like a plan. As long as we get at least one working FTL out of this, everything else is really just gravy.

>>5892479
Thirded.

>>5892479
>>5892500
>>5892513
>>5892515
Sounds like a plan - except for a problem.

Combat drones are not designed for ship hijacking - these are tank model drones, so it's not even possible for them to attempt such a thing.

>>5892553
They drive inside the ship, shooting down anyone in their way and ramming down doors. Or shooting through them.

So it's not so much hijacking as securing and then waiting for the Freeman team.

>Combat drones are not designed for ship hijacking - these are tank model drones, so it's not even possible for them to attempt such a thing.
Can they go into the ship and make sure that no one else is flying them? As long as they can, we can just leave them in place until we can bring back someone more capable of managing it, or the Freeman vessels to make a second trip.

>>5892553
Well, then, the process of stealing them has started to go wrong, so we move on to blowing up the ones we can't guarantee we'll take before there's a possibility of reinforcements.

>>5892570
>>5892565
Absolutely.

>Well, then, the process of stealing them has started to go wrong, so we move on to blowing up the ones we can't guarantee we'll take before there's a possibility of reinforcements.
That's an extraordinarily strict interpretation of the orders. Why not just leave the drones in place, and only have them smash everything if reinforcements actually show up from somewhere?

I'm off for now. Thanks for the game Plasma.

>>5892603
That works too. I was just trying to create a plan that would survive GM obstacles without need for further input, as we have already gone through 2 threads today.
(blowing everything up tends to be a very durable plan)

>>5892593
Then have them do that.

>>5892565
>>5892570
You don't even send many of your drones in - just the gamma drones. They begin the process of irradiating everything living on the ship, almost immediately killing it. It almost feels like cheating - well, the galactial community does view it as cheating, and such weaponry is outlawed for a reason.

Hundreds of shell rain down on the unsuspecting pirates and their senses are completely turned haywire with gas. Most of the poor idiots drop their guns back a handful of them fire and randomly, only really injuring their own.

Would you like to collect the pirates before you move your new ship?

>>5892674
No?

>Would you like to collect the pirates before you move your new ship?
Well, I think that we can do them simultaneously. We have these for the pirates:
>300 Heavy Tear/Snatcher/Dart

>>5892674
The ships are our top priority. We can pick up the pirates later if we need to enslave them. Otherwise we have the monkey city for all our slaving needs.

>>5892674
Make sure the ships are clear, then snag the ships first while leaving drones to guard the pirates. They're the least important out of everything.

Also, I've got to go as well. It was a lot of fun, Plasma. I hope to be on next time so Thatcher can participate in the bunker fight.

>>5892702
Oh yes, I forgot you designed those to be combat haulers.

>>5892674
Tie them up, drop them on the floor, take ship away.

Since the vote seems to be to guard them, you keep them constantly surrounded while the ships are, well, shipped off to your territory. You're going to do this to all four ships while the missles are racing towards the island.

Honestly, folks, this seems like a good place to stop.

I'll continue on Friday-Saturday, Midnight, GMT.

If you have any questions, ask.

>>5892790
Why are you so awesome?

>>5892790
Can the subprocessors in your quest get awesome robot bodies?

>>5892811
I'm simply spending the last amount of free time I have in the way I find most enjoyable.
>>5892823
Yes.

>>5892835
Is there a definite end to this Quest, or could it go on to infinity?

>>5892875
It's probably going on hiatus as soon as you leave Hajjar.
If you don't leave Hajjar, it's going on hiatus next Saturday.

>>5892913
Hiatus as in you'll likely show up sometime in the future to continue it? Awesome!

>>5892932
More accurately, a 'maybe'.

>>5892972
Oh, well, still you're awesome.
What's taking over your life if you don't mind me asking?

>>5893000
University.

>>5893035
Ah. Well good luck. Just starting?

>>5892913
But... but... D:

These days, I look forward to this more than ANYTHING else on the internet. And I'm an internet addict. Heck, during class today I was jotting down ideas for stuff to bring up tonight.

>>5893035
You'd be surprised how much free time this leaves you. Unless Euro Universities are markedly different from American ones (which my friends fortunate enough to try foreign exchange programs tell me is not the case), that is.

>>5892835
By the way, you had me worried with this post. I figured you were going to jail or had a terminal disease or something.

Aaand I'm back. Just a little too late, it seems. Ah well, there's always next time.

This is by far my favorite quest of all time, and I'm going to be very sorry to see it on hiatus.