Forced by the shortage of uninfected computers to lead the ground defense, you rallied the survivors of the fleet headquarters massacre and halted the first wave of the enemy invasion. The situation is grim, but not all hope is lost. Fleet Admiral Flint's Victory Star Destroyer, the Pitiless, fell to enemy fire but he may still be alive. The VSD Auspicious is heavily damaged but still space worthy, ground turrets and planetary shields are operational, and the ESD Hierarch, an enemy star destroyer you seized earlier, should be arriving in roughly 27 hours to assist you.

The ESD Hierarch is unaware of recent developments in system, and the sector wide communications net is down. You will need to either deal with the remaining enemy fleet in orbit, or find some other way to warn the Hierarch before they arrive. Surviving long enough to evacuate the planet with the survivors is also a top priority.

>>12399078
Can we get in touch with anyone at Redspire City to organize a rescue operation to the Pitiless?
Priorities should be medical aid to injured personnel, finding the Admiral, and damage control on the Pitiless. Even if it can't fly again, we can use it as a fortress and another planetary defense battery.

What do our long-range sensors show the Exigency task force doing? Have we completely neutralized the Exigency ground invasion, or are there still pockets of resistance? Also, what's the status of our orbital defense grid? I know that last session it was being torn apart by enemy TIE fighters; how much of it is left, if any.

You have just beaten back a major enemy ground assault. The VSD Auspicious informs you they're almost out of concussion missiles and will need to return to Redspire city to reload and patch up their firing computer. That would keep them grounded for a good 4-5 hours. With their computer out, their turbolasers won't do much good unless you're personally directing their fire or sending them right on top of enemy ground forces. However, the Exigency might not suspect just how badly she's damaged and be reluctant to face the ship that's already killed so many of their troops.

The VSD Pitiless crash site is roughly 50 km (30 miles) southeast of your current position outside the shield wall. Scattered enemy ground forces remain in the area, including at least one AT-AT and around 150 ground troops. Any rescuers you send will have to fight or sneak their way to the ship. There's also a chance the enemy might eventually regroup and try to seize what's left of the Pitiless.

Enemy warships are holding position in high orbit, outside the ground batteries' area of coverage.

Do you want to send the Auspicious back to base or keep them in the field for now? What are your orders regarding the Pitiless? Any other orders?

Ground Assets on Vanguard:

Planetary Shields and ground batteries (Redspire city)
VSD Auspicious (heavily damaged, no firing computer)
3 TIE fighter squadrons and 2 TIE bomber squadrons
5 Shuttles (damaged navicomp)
~1400 trained ground troops (Ravenous crash site 300, Delta Base 400, Redspire city 700)
~2000 able bodied crew (Ravenous crash site)
2 AT-AT walkers and 7 AT-ST walkers at Ravenous
31 hovertanks defending various ground locations

Exigency task force:

1 Tector Star Destroyer command ship
2 Imperial-I Star Destroyers
14 various fighter and bomber squadrons
Estimated 8000 troops with armor support aboard warships
Scattered ground forces from previous attack

>>12399128
The orbital defense grid is destroyed. The Exigency warships are holding steady far away. There are scattered and uncoordinated enemy forces still on the ground.

>>12399115
Redspire city has 5 shuttles they can send on rescue. Do you want to clear the Pitiless crash site? You are numerically superior to the enemies in the area.

Roll d10 if yes.

>>12399174
"VSD Auspicious, return to Redspire City for rearmament and emergency repairs.
"Major Medine, gather what ground forces you can. We will attempt to rescue the crew the of the Pitiless, and repair her weapon systems for use as a planetary defense batter."

What ground forces will Medine have available? Also, can we have Redspire extend the planetary shield to where the Pitiless crashed?
Do we have any concussion missiles left, and can their launchers be mounted to fire with our TIE fighters acting as over-the-horizon spotters?

oops, forgot me name.

Also, whenever you attempt combat be sure to make at least some basic suggestion of who you're intending to send and how you want them to fight. Otherwise I'll show it as a straightforward charge done by whoever makes the most sense.

rolled 5 = 5

>>12399229
Yes, we need to secure the Pitiless crash site.

>>12399272
36 missiles left onboard the Auspicious. More will be loaded at Redspire. Networking with the TIE fighters will be possible but each missile must be linked to a ship individually, a time consuming task that will require you to divert the engineering teams from their rescue efforts in the short run.

Redspire informs you shield generators are already at redline. They do not recommend extending it any furhter.

rolled 10 = 10

>>12399229
It might be prudent to have the shuttles escorted by a squadron of TIE fighters, and with a TIE/Bomber squadron to take care of that AT-AT that the Exigency ground forces have in the area.

>>12399282
Major Madine gathers his troops and heads off to secure the other crash site. His forces suffer minor casualties but no catastrophic losses. The shuttles arrive at Pitiless without incident.

>>12399330
Alright, let's not extend the planetary shield, then.

Keep the engineers at the rescue efforts, then. How much longer do they estimate that it'll take to retrieve the rest of the crew?

>>12399349
Okay, have Medine and some of his men set up a perimeter, and the rest of them should split between looking for the admiral, coordinating the Pitiless crew to save trapped personnel, and doing emergency repairs to get the weapon systems and power systems online.


As for contacting the Hierarch, can we use a hyperwave communication, or would it be intercepted by the Exigency task force? Same question, but with the holonet.

>>12399350
4-6 days, by which time this battle should be determined one way or another. It's a big wreck but efforts are proceeding apace.

Engineering teams are asking for instructions. They can focus on searching for survivors as they are now, retrieving the ship's stock of labor droids, clear out the buried hangar with its shuttles and armored walkers, or try to get the main generator back online. You could always direct them to do something else as well. The planetary shields are being stretched to their limit to protect the Ravenous crash site. If the main generators were back online, the Ravenous can protect itself against limited orbital bombardment without relying on the planetary shields, which might allow Redspire to deform the shields in such a way as to cover the Pitiless instead of your position. What task should the engineering teams prioritize?

>>12399392
Get the labor droids online first; that will effectively double our workforce. Once the droids are online, the engineers should get the main reactor and primary shields online, droids will continue rescue efforts and digging out the hangar.

>>12399378
You can use the hyperwave communicator to speak with the Hierarch, if you catch them while they're at Rumi's star. You can't reach them in hyperspace. The enemy warships don't appear to have jammers to block a message but depending on their competence they might be able to listen in. You could also try sending a probe or fixing one of the shuttles, but it would still need to slip past the enemy in orbit.


The holonet is inaccessible. That won't change until you either purge the virus from the system wide comm net or escape to somewhere uninfected, both of which are impossible right now.

>>12399392
How quickly do the engineers estimate that they can get the primary generator online? If it's not too long, like maybe an hour or two, then I think we should get that fixed first, so that the Pitiless can get some shield cover, then have them activate the labor droids.

You've received a message from Admiral Lethridge's flagship, the ESD Oracle. It's pre-recorded

"Congratulations on a brilliant defense, Captain, but another victory like that and your forces will be undone. By now you have witnessed our total commitment to victory. We have no choice in this matter, but there is one for you. I am willing to guarantee the honorable treatment of all civilians and prisoners of war who surrender peacefully to my forces. Unlike your earlier boasting, I have actual reinforcements to call upon. I would rather not fight this to the bitter end but you may yet force my hand. You have one hour to decide. Lethridge out."

Rescue teams have found Admiral Flint. He quite badly injured but stable. He seems lucid, however, and sends you a tightbeam transmission after hearing the ultimatum.

"Good job Captain Farlander! You gave them a hell of a show. Since I'm out of the fight as far as the enemy knows, you should handle negotiations from now on. But I will say this. Our sturdy defense must have shaken Admiral Lethridge badly. In fact, I think she's looking to get out of launching another messy ground assault, but feels like she can't disobey her orders. If worst comes to worst, handing myself over to the Exigency might be enough to have her agree to honorable withdraw for the rest of the garrison. They already took out my command. Whatever intelligence they can squeeze out of me now won't do them much good. On the other hand, snatching enemy generals alive would be the exact kind of thing that makes self declared 'Exigency Grand Protectors' jump with glee. Obviously I'd prefer not to become their guest, but keep the option in mind."

You have some breathing space for a while. It seems the Exigency won't be making a move before the hour is out. Orders?

>>12399436
acknowledged

>>12399537
Engineers can't give you a firm estimate. They say it's a real mess down in the reactor chamber. It could need just one 10 minute power relay fix, or a complete overhaul. Sending their teams down there will be a gamble as far as results are concerned.

>er retcon.

>>12399571
You seem to recall last time they told you repairing the reactor would take a day. Maybe they're tired, or maybe they've seen the damage and are backtracking.

You think if you hold them to the 1 day deadline they should be able to manage.

>>12399543
The fact that it's pre-recorded should be enlightening. I think she's trying to bluff us. Even if she can call upon reinforcements, I think the Hierarch will be here before that.

We could signal a surrender, have the Exigency come in close, and then pound them with everything we have. But I don't know if anyone else wants us to go down the route of being the droid that says "I lied." to a furious Lethridge.

On a different note:
OP, can we link the Ravenous' computers with those on the Auspicious, effectively controlling the VSD remotely? The Ravenous' computers are still clean, and since it can't fly, it's no good to us except to keep the Exigency beyond firing range.
Ask our Chief Engineer if this is possible.

>>12399648
I should have clarified. I meant pre-recorded as in Lethridge recorded the message then sent it, not wanting to hear any backtalk until your time's up. It was a very recent recording made after the ground assault was over.

>>12399648
It would be possible but would tax your computers to the limit. You could freely control the Auspicious almost at full capacity but any other forces will only benefit from the most basic coordination and must fend for themselves once thrown into battle.

The Chief Engineer tells if you the Auspicious crew are willing to accept the orders of an off ship captain in combat, the slave circuiting itself shouldn't take more than 30 minutes and can be done by on site staff at Redspire while the ship is rearming.

I'm not sure if there's still a way to win this battle. There's no way we can get the Ravenous and the Auspicious flight-capable in time to coordinate a fight with the Hierarch. It might be more prudent to cut our losses and withdraw.

On the other hand, we only have one VSD that is operational, and we would be leaving behind two star destroyers (admittedly damaged and would require extensive repairs).


What would Thrawn do?
>But I'm a droid, I can't appreciate art!

Regarding enemy reinforcements. If Lethridge has reinforcements at Harridan they could be in system in under 2 hours if they're not already underway, but if she must call upon the other task force at Dantus System or additional ships from Exigency home systems, the arrival time would be in the span of days, if not weeks.

>>12399764
>any other forces will only benefit from the most basic coordination and must fend for themselves once thrown into battle.
I think we'll have to chance it.

Have any personnel in Redspire City and Delta Base not currently engaged in priority tasks, search for spare computers and droid brains that could be networked together to act as a tactical command and control system, that would be linked directly to 4-8C's droid brain. The system doesn't have to last, nor does it have to be elegant; it only need raw processing power and hold together long enough for us to win this battle.

>>12399834
To clarify, the engineers at Redspire should slave the Auspicious to the Ravenous.

Anyone else not engaged in either that job, rearming the VSD, or enacting emergency repairs, should look for spare uninfected computer systems and take apart some droids to create a tactical C2 system that will be slaved to us personally.

>>12399834
Acknowledged.

Your chief engineer departs in a shuttle to Redspire. Not 20 minutes later he's returning and asking for an immediate face to face meeting. He can barely contain his glee.

The chief shows you readouts from an enemy TIE bomber that was shot down during the initial sneak attack, before the planetary shields were raised. Its flight computer, despite being protected by the Exigency's inoculation codes, are infected by a new mutation of Leviathan. Right now the virus is not doing much besides hogging a small amount of the processor runtime, but it's clear the Exigency have lost control of their own superweapon.

You have been analyzing the virus in the meantime as well, and this has only confirmed your suspicions that the Exigency was toying with forces they didn't understand. Under their ham fisted attempts to creating a digital plague lies traces of a once elegant spy program that would have provided real time intelligence on all infected ships. Obviously that was not good enough for the Exigency. It would also explain why the IIB's own defense programs are no longer sufficient against Leviathan.

(continued.)

>>12399911
Further analysis of the code shows disturbing suggestions that whoever wrote your software might have also later worked on Leviathan.

Contrary to what you've heard from your prisoner Valin, now you know what you're looking for, you can easily create a universal kill code by using Leviathan's own adaptive code against itself. The communications net would purge itself in 3-5 days, while individual ships will take no longer than half that time. Alternately you could also increase Leviathan's virulence and blind and strand the Exigency home systems as badly as they've crippled Dantus. Their ships would be vulnerable too if they access the comm. grid or network with an infected system. Writing either set of code would be trivial, and the Exigency has a communications beacon in orbit pointed directly at their home systems, so uploading it across the entire sector won't be a problem either.

Once you've introduced the kill code into the comm. net the enemy will be able to use it as well, so the two options are mutually exclusive. Action?

>>12399938
I realize that the two, on a strategic scale, would be mutually exclusive.
But, I want to know if we can do this:
All of our computer systems are ground-side right now. Can we purge their systems with the kill-code, but upload the more virulent strain to the comm-net?
Also, since we now have the original spy code, can we listen in on the Exigency's tactical communications?

>>12399972
Yes, you can clear the planet's computers while infecting the rest of the sector.

Reconstructing the original spy program is within your means, but like so many other pressing tasks, would take time. 2 weeks at least. Much of the original code has been replaced and must be rebuilt from scratch.

If you could hold out for that long the spy program would be of great assistance to the war effort.

If we can send out the more virulent Leviathan, that should stop the Exigency cold. In that case, retreating while sending out the improved Leviathan might be a good tactic, since we can then come back with a fleet of disinfected ships.

My only concern is that it'll further cripple the economy, and leave entire planets to starve when they can't get their shipments of food from agri-worlds.

>>12400046
Try stalling the Exingency and/or ask for a day instead of an hour. Use the time to get our ship battle ready.

>>12400046
Alright, let's do this then.

1. Begin disinfecting all computers planet-side, especially those on the Auspicious and the planetary defense computers.
2. The Auspicious will stay slaved to the Ravenous until its computers are ready to take over control.
3. Have anybody with technical skill in the city put to work creating that jury-rigged tactical command and control computer for us, so that we can coordinate the battle while the Ravenous' computers are busy piloting the Auspicious.
4. Inform Admiral Flint of this incredible find, and that our suggestion is that we continue to fight now that we have such an advantage.
5. Hack into the Exigency Beacon and give them a little taste of our binary wrath.

Your chief engineer informs you the modifications to the Auspicious are complete and you can link in anytime. He recommends you limit your uplink time to as short as possible, since your droid brain was never meant to handle such operations.

Taking direct control of other computer systems also goes against hard coded restrictions in your programming. The workarounds you can set in place will allow you to bypass the restrictions temporarily, but linking with the Auspicious for any longer than exactly 3 hours, 11 minutes will lead to catastrophic hardware failure.

>>12400046
We definitely need to begin working on that spy program, especially if it can use the Exigency-modified Leviathan as a decoy to hide further inside a computer system.

>>12400095
>stall the Exigency
Oh, I just had an idea!
We can bluff Lethridge, saying that as a droid, we can't surrender without a direct order from a superior office. Admiral Flint is still missing, and we cannot surrender without at least 1 day of attempting to contact a superior officer.
What's she going to do? She's not a droid specialist, she'll have to accept or begin moving her ships for another attack run.

>>12400133
Roll d10 if you intend to do this. Also compose a short message to send to the admiral. Deception is not your specialty but not even a droid could screw this up. Maybe.

>>12400125
Hopefully 3 hours is all we'll need to crush Lethridge's task force.

rolled 6 = 6

>>12400146
"Admiral Lethridge, your terms are agreeable, however my hard-coded directives prevent me from surrendering to an enemy force while forces under my command are still combat capable, unless given explicit and direct orders to do so by an organic commanding officer. I can override this directive, however it still requires me to spend a minimum of 33.7 Standard Hours attempting to find, contact, and be ordered to stand down by Admiral Flint, as Sector Fleet Admiral.
"My programming does allow me to ask for this additional time before I am allowed to surrender."

>>12400099
1.Done
2.Done
3.Ongoing. You can attempt to slave everything to yourself, not just the Auspicious. Your control time will be reduced to 59 minutes.
4. Admiral Flint agrees. He suggests you evacuate the people off planet by any means available, including stalling or further battle. He is formally placing you in command while he undergoes surgery.
5. Done. You still have the Hierarch's access codes. The Exigency never bothered to change them after you showed up. The enemy fleet in orbit will have to be convinced to interface with the comm net before they're infected.

>>12400218
>The enemy fleet in orbit will have to be convinced to interface with the comm net before they're infected.
Since we have the access codes to the beacon, could we have the beacon send a priority message to the Exigency ships, something about interfacing with the beacon for an updated version of the Leviathan vaccine? Then hitting them with the improved version of the virus when they thought they were downloading an anti-virus update?

>>12400218
Let's talk to Commander Vosk about what we plan to do, and that he is to take command if we push ourselves too far and become no longer operational.

By using the extra processors, memory, and droid brains, can we extend the time that we can have full control of the entire battle?
Also, could we turn full-control on and off, to give us a tactical edge at critical moments, then turn it off to extend our time controlling the Auspicious?

>>12400190
Admiral Lethridge sends her reply.

"A simple turbolaser strike from orbit against what's left of the Admiral's latest ship can immediately put your regulations to rest. But I am not so callous. If you agree to a ceasefire for the next standard day, I will deploy troops to assist with the search effort. Otherwise your deadline still holds."

Not ideal, but it's better than an outright rejection. You heard traces of conversations in the background. Someone on her bridge is voicing his dissent and wants this battle over and done with as soon as possible.

Speaking up during direct communications with the enemy is quite the breach of etiquette, even if no human ears could have made out the words.

>>12400283
Although he hides it well, Vosk is disturbed at the implications of you taking complete control of all computer systems on a planet. He recommends you avoid linking your droid brain directly to the groundside systems and restrict yourself to getting the Auspicious off the ground and past the enemy. He and the rest of the senior staff can command the other facets of the battle from the Auspicious, using the cobbled together command system being assembled at Redspire.

Vosk is an old fashioned officer. As much as he admires your abilities, you can tell he doesn't approve of anything that rings of the Confederacy's excesses during the clone wars.

>>12400316
See if the Admiral can be moved, and have him sequestered away by Major Medine somewhere safe and secret in Redspire City.

Accept Admiral Lethridge's generous offer to search the Pitiless for Admiral Flint. Major Medine, Commander Vosk, and all Loyalist ground troops at the Pitiless crash site are to be ready to enact an Order 66-style backstabbin' when the time comes.

This will give us the time we need, since they'll never find Admiral Flint at the Pitiless crash site.

I think we should try to have a spy hitch a ride back with one of the teams she deploys so we can have ears on her Bridge.

>>12400283
Switching your link on and off would double your link time with either the Auspicious or all available planetary defenses. It also roughly double the chances of hardware failure for you, which is already sitting at a dangerous 20%.

>>12400316
Agree to the cease-fire. The Admiral is already out of the Pitiless, so their men won't be able to find anything. Make sure to have surviving crew told that they thought the Admiral was in one of the harder to reach sections, so that the enemy will be digging a long time.

>>12400371
Vosk's fears are legitimate. Barely an hour before we lock up is unacceptable. Stick to directly controlling the Auspicious.

>>12400371
Personally, I didn't want 4-8C to control everything; first, it shortens the amount of time that we can fight, and second, if 4-8C fails, then the entire battle will fall apart.

"Commander Vosk, I appreciate your and the command staff's efforts. To be honest, I do not wish to take direct control of all systems, both from a tactical perspective, and from a more...I believe the term would be, "personal" perspective.
"Such excessive centralization creates a tactical weak point that can be exploited by an enemy, as was shown during the Clone Wars.
"Also, to do so is against my programming. A violation of my ethical conduct module.
"I consider myself fortunate to have as competent an executive officer as you, Commander, and a dependable senior staff to which I can entrust the tactical ordering of battle."

>>12400446
Gaaaaaay

>>12400390
>>12400411
Admiral Flint's medical team manage to move him to a shuttle with some difficulty. They're headed to the medical facilities aboard the Auspicious. With the continuous shuttle traffic to and from the crash site there should be no way the enemy can know for certain he's already left. Rescue crews have been briefed.

>>12400400
Lethridge is personally taking a shuttle to the surface to "survey the battleground". It's a highly unusual move, not to mention dangerous, but if you wanted to plant something sneaky aboard her shuttle now would be your chance.

>>12400458
You think I'm making 4-8C out to be too sensitive?
I thought that it was a logical allaying of Vosk's fears, and reinforcing morale amongst the senior staff by reiterating how much we will be dependent on them in the coming battle.
But, if people think Farlander's being too emotional, we can retcon this statement, and I can try to be colder next time around.

>>12400458
>droids have awesome stamina... or so I hear.

>>12400446
Commander Vosk salutes crisply.

>>12400487
>Lethridge is personally taking a shuttle to the surface to "survey the battleground"
Something about this stinks.
Let's confer with Vosk and Medine; I don't like this. Lethridge is up to something.

Also, ask Medine and Pax (if she's conscious), if they can craft a seemingly computerized message from the Exigency home systems through the Beacon, for an anti-virus update, but plant the modified super-Leviathan into it, so it infects the Exigency Task Force.

>>12400490
Nah, its cool. I'm just giving you a hard time.

>>12400487
Although assassinating or planting a bomb on her shuttle is tempting I think a surveillance droid disguised as a maintenance droid will do.

>>12400577
I agree with the disguised maintenance droid.

>>12400543
Both Vosk and Madine have no idea why she'd want to do this. It's pretty much the exact opposite of where a commanding officer should put herself in a similar situation, especially considering she's not bringing along an entire army to guard her immediate person. The admiral's shuttle is landing near the Pitiless, close to a remaining pocket of her ground troops. You can go there and speak to her face to face if you like, or sneak someone to her position and tamper with her shuttle.

Major Pax is assisting one of the rescue teams. In her opinion, without knowing more about the Exigency computer protocols from their home systems, such a message would be hard to fake. She could try crafting a message from the IIB offering assistance for recent network troubles, but that would depend on the two factions still being allies.

>>12400577
>>12400611

Roll d10

>>12400614
>knowing more about the Exigency computer protocols
Hey, what about that captured Exigency TIE Bomber? Could we examine it for the right protocols?

Also, instead of just sneaking in a spy droid, why not also have it ready to interface with the ESD Oracle's computer systems when the shuttle flys back, and drop the super-Leviathan into their computer systems that way?

rolled 6 = 6

>>12400643
Maybe use one of those little guide droids that were on the Death Star? They're small, and should be able to hide easily.

>>12400660
The TIE bomber's records are too limited for you to craft something that elaborate. Getting the spy droid to upload the virus would be easy, assuming it makes it aboard without getting noticed. Once there you could even trigger it remotely, to match any attempt to depart from the surface.

>>12400718
Alright then. I hope that roll was enough to get the droid onto the shuttle unnoticed.

Wooo, finally finished reading and getting caught up!

Query: Just how damaged are the remaining Exigency ships? I mean, are they really so damaged that a single Victory Star Destroyer will have much of a chance? Or am I reading our battle plans incorrectly? What I'm hearing is, take control of the remaining VSD, send it into orbit, make enemy ships go boom. Do I have that right?

>>12400707
An innocuous maintenance droid approaches the shuttle and is shot at by Stormtrooper guards. The admiral admonishes her solider that there's no reason to be so paranoid as to shoot their own equipment.

The maintenance droid retreats and attempts to hijack an enemy protocol droid onboard the shuttle via remote. You need to stall the Admiral until its backup plan is complete. If she lifts off soon the spy droid will have failed.

What do you do?

>>12400767
Well, it's a little more complex than that.
The idea is to infect their computers with the super-Leviathan virus, crippling their ships so they only either move, fire, or suck at both.
We're going to have the Auspicious synchronize its attack with the Hierarch coming out of hyperspace behind the Exigency ships.

>>12400808
Lethridge landed at the Pitiless crash site, right? Could we get Farlander onto a shuttle and tell the Admiral that we will meet her there?
It's a big gamble, but the rewards will be to completely cripple the Exigency Task Force.
Just the fact that we'll be coming should stall her for a bit.

>>12400811
That's pretty much it, yes. Getting all your people off planet will take several days yet, but crippling the local enemy fleet should buy you enough time to evacuate the colony.

>>12400865
Evacuate nothin'! We're gonna take over their star destroyers, strand the crew on the planet, and add 3 ISD's to our fleet.

>>12400854
You can take a shuttle there, yes. She's surprised you want to meet face to face, but allows it. It sounds like she's ready to head back. What do you say to her once you arrive?

The spy droid is trying very hard. "Oh boy I might actually do this!" it beeps at you in droid speak over secure comms.

>>12400811
Ahhh, okay. But, the Hierarchy is still still more than a day away, isn't it? And we can't communicate with them to coordinate the said attack, and the ceasefire is only for an hour. What are we going to do to stall the Exigency until our reinforcement arrives? Or will the virus keep them from attacking us until then?

>>12400906
Fucking adorable little droid. I believe in you.

>>12400906
"Admiral Lethridge, while my programming prohibits from tendering my surrender for another 32.43 Standard Hours, I am still free to discuss those terms.
"Your command staff did not seem to be as generous as you, in discussing such terms, and I would wish to discuss them with you, directly."

>>12400976
This.

>>12400957
We had the cease-fire extended to 33 hours, and the Hierarch is supposed arrive in 27.
We can try to contact them via hyperwave, but they would have to drop out of lighspeed at Rumi's Star, which they are unlikely to do (and the Exigency is possibly intercepting hyperwave signals).

The virus, if successful, should not only knock out their hyperdrive and comm systems, but considering what it did to the Auspicious and Pitiless, make them unable to coordinate their fire or provide tactical fire control support to their fighter squadrons.

>>12400957
the ceasefire is for a day, ending at roughly the same time the Hierarch should be arriving in system.

>>12400976
"Your concerns are touching, although your sources are questionable. There is no dissension on my bridge.


"I wanted to see what we're both fighting for with my own eyes, and why it was worth so many lives. I believe I have my answer."

From her body language you're certain she's lying, and also very concerned that you suspected dissension among her officers.

>>12401044

Is there any way we could... discreetly sound out any enemy personnel who we suspect of dissent? And any way to turn that to our advantage?

>>12401081
You haven't even spoken to the other captains or the senior officers on her bridge. The Hierarch's old captain Valin gave you some names during his interrogation, but to point them out now might be... awkward.

Should we continue playing the "dumb, slave-to-its-programming droid" act?

Something like:
"My programming limits my appreciation for such esoteric topics; I can only process cost-benefit calculations, orbital track trajectories, and combat threat indexes.
"What do you see, Admiral?"

>>12401105

I think you misunderstand the meaning of "sound out". As in, get in touch with those officers we know are dissenting and sow discord, not out them to Lethridge.

>>12401105
Yeah, that's a bit of intel we should keep for ourselves.

rolled 9 = 9

>>12401044
Hows my Droid buddy doing? Rolling for results

>>12401118
Possibly, although what you made out from the disagreement sounded like the other officers wanted to send in a second wave sooner and thought Lethridge wasn't being aggressive enough.

>>12401029
*facepalms* Sorry, I cannot into reading comprehension. My bad. Well then, I guess all we need to do now is get the super-leviathan into there computers and we're golden.

>>12401114
I really like this one. Let's find out a little more about this woman before we send her to a fiery death in space, and keep her opinion of our intelligence and creativity low.

>>12401149
Ah, so... the wrong kind of dissent for us to be encouraging. Hrm.

>>12401114
"I see that you and I, in fact, all of use, are not so different. We are all programmed for war, so that is what we do.

Thank you for indulging me in a personal visit, Captain. Waging war from space can be such an impersonal business. I appreciate the chance to see you face to face. But I'm needed on the bridge. If you would excuse me."

The droid beeps "almost... almost... done!"

Unless you want to ask her something, that's enough smalltalk for the moment. You still don't think seeing the battlefield with her own eyes and philosophizing about war was the true reason she came to the surface.

Anyway she's leaving now, and you have your spy onboard.

>>12401134
>>12401114
These two together, please. I know you didn't ask for a roll, but I'd like to get my victories where I can.

>>12401202
>all of use -> all of us

she's getting ready to leave but you can still drag out the conversation for a while longer if you want.

>>12401223
Ask her if she'd like to tender her surrender while she's here, or if she wants to get back to her ship to do it formally.

>>12401236
She laughs. "Humor from a droid. I'm impressed."

>>12401202
Lethridge's visit might have been a distraction.
Silently comms the Ravenous, and have them, the Auspicious, and Redspire City check to see if the Exigency task force was doing anything while the admiral was down here.
Also check if targeting beacons weren't dropped by the shuttle onto high-priority targets, such as the Ravenous or the city.

>>12401252
"One of my original programmers decided that it would be 'amusing' to have a war machine with a sense of humor. I have had little chance to test the relevant subroutines; other droids, while a captive audience, make for a very tough crowd."

>>12401252
"Humour is not part of my programming, Admiral."

>>12401272
Your officers report back that they haven't noticed anything suspicious. Your uplink setup with the Auspicious is complete, and so is their missile reloading and the temporary command and control system for the ground defenses. The Exigency ground crews appear to be doing exactly what they promised to be doing, searching for Admiral Flint. They're being well behaved so far.

13 hours to Hierarch's arrival, if they're on time.

>>12401300
Is this supposed to be part of our "dumb droid" act?
I guess it would be okay if it is. Just be sure you don't tip our hand, though.

>>12401202
Just ask her why she came down here. We might be a droid, but we aren't stupid.

"Did you not wish to speak with Fleet Admiral Flint in person when we find him, Admiral?"

Thinking ahead to when the Hierarch arrives, would it be possible to salvage missiles from the Auspicious, Pitiless, or Ravenous and jury rig them to our 5 shuttles? If so, could we slave control of their damaged navicomps to Farlander?

I'm thinking we could send them far out on the other side of the planet from the Exigency forces, and once the Hierarch arrives, jump in close to the Command Destroyer, launch missiles, and jump out.

>>12401322
>We might be a droid, but we aren't stupid.
Yes, that's true, but she doesn't know that. I'd rather that she operates under the false safety of thinking of us as just an overbuilt targeting computer, until we rudely disabuse her of the assumption by telling her we lied about surrendering, as her ship lies dead in space and we prepare to vent the atmosphere from her entire task force in order to capture the ships for our own use.

>>12401322
"To prove a point to my commanders."

after that last nasty surprise you pulled on her about her officers, she's trying pretty hard to be oblique.

>>12401332
"No, I don't think I will be staying for that long."


Engineering teams report they've sent some of the recovered labor droids to help with reactor repairs, allowing them to pull ahead of schedule. Reactor repairs are almost done. Shuttles and walkers in the hangars are still a no go.

>>12401338
If we're going to do that, why not have an astromech droid do the jump computations, and have the shuttle come out of hyperspace right inside the command bridge or in the hangars?

>>12401373
This way, we don't lose a shuttle. Or at least, we might not lose a shuttle. I'm not sure if we have Astromechs, though they could do the navigating, I'm sure.

>>12401373

>droid piloted fireships coming out of hyperspace

My God, why has no-one done this before? Guided fucking missiles.

>>12401338
The shuttle's navicomputers are infected. Taking them into hyperspace could send them anywhere. Engineering teams tell you the purge won't be fully complete before the Hierarch arrives. They can fly and fight in system but won't have hyperdrive until a few hours after the Hierarch shows up.

>>12401357
"Very well then, Admiral.
"My surrender shall be tendered upon the successful recovery of Fleet Admiral Flint and his authorization, or when the time limit has passed.
"For the Empire."

Silently comms to the Chief Engineer to have him check the shield systems and the reactor, but don't activate them yet. We don't want to give away that we've recovered some combat capability until the battle is joined.

>>12401399
Possibly navigation isn't that precise.

But if we can trick the enemy into moving close to a moon or the planet itself, the gravity well will do the navigation for us.

>>12401403

File that idea. Then, sometime in the future, wait until you have an enemy ship sitting in space somewhere, calculate the hyperspace coordinates of its bridge, and send a shuttle there. You lose a shuttle and an astromech, they lose their whole goddamn ship. It'd probably be next to impossible to do to a moving ship, but for a stationary one it'd be an instant kill.

If there's nothing else you want to ask her, you have about 13 hours to prepare for the Hierarch's arrival, sneak a probe into Rumi's Star, and do something with the spy droid. Lethridge hasn't shown any indication that she knows it's on its way, but she must know it was defeated when you tried to fake your way into the system with its transponder codes.

>brb taking 10 to eat. post away in the meantime.

>>12401403
Rather than Hyperspace, send them into orbit on the opposite side of the planet, fire a burst of thruster to start the shuttles moving around the planet, calculated to reach the Exigency Force side when the Hierarch does, then kill all systems except for a remote link for Farlander (Or the Astromech inside.)

When the shuttles get in range, masquerading as debris; and the Hierarch has arrived, launch missiles.

>You are 4-8C Farlander, a unique droid captain of the Star Destroyer Ravenous
>droid SD captain
>imperial navy

WAT

>>12401436
Once repairs on the reactor are done, raise shields and let Redspire reconfigure the planetary shield to cover the Auspicious/Pitiless (I forget which one is crashed) to protect it. It's not a hostile action, so it shouldn't break the ceasefire.

>>12401436
We can try to send a probe droid to Rumi's Star in order to tell the Hierarch what's going on.

We'll need to know how long it'll take the super-Leviathan virus to incapacitate the Exigency ships after initial infection; we'll need to time to coincide with the Hierarch's arrival and our attack.

I think the reason why no one has created a hyperdrive cruise missile ( or at least, the Republic/Empire/Rebel Alliance ) is because of the prohibitive cost of using a hyperdrive engine for a missile, and the difficulties in targeting something to come out of hyperspace at the exact coordinate of an enemy capital ship.
On the other hand, if a hyperspace beacon could be constructed so that it attaches to a target ship, and feeds targeting data to the missile, it might work.

A single missile, with the warhead, control and nav computer, and hyperdrive, would probably be equal to a wing of TIE fighters.
On the other hand, it can take out an entire Star Destroyer with one shot.
I think we should consider this a little more in-depth.

When OP gets back, requesting an update, re: Spy droid capabilities and obstacles to probe droid launch to warn the Hierarch.

>>12401473
Yes, a droid captain.
Because even with the Empire's policies against droid sentience and rights, there was a droid Grand Moff.

>>12401525
>>12401399

That's basically what the Galaxy Gun was. It fired massive shells with a built-in hyperdrive, which would exit space very close to the target planet, far too late to be intercepted. However, even if you weren't going to use an explosive big enough to destroy a planet. it would be pretty cost-prohibitive to use a hyperdrive with some explosives and an AI as a self guided missile.

>>12401481
Gotta disagree with this, we don't want them knowing we can do that, do we? and why would we fortify our defenses if we're really planning to surrender?

>>12401481
I disagree, and think that the shield should stay down.

While true that it would not necessarily be a hostile action, it would alert the Exigency task force to the Ravenous' repairs. We want them to think that all of our efforts are consumed in rescue efforts, and so we will be easier to fight than we really are. We are numerically inferior, and they have 2 Imperial-class Star Destroyers and 1 Tector-class Command Destroyer, all three of which are still capable of moving under their own power.
We only have 1 damaged Victory-class, and 1 under-strength Imperial-class.
We need every advantage we can wring from the situation.

>>12401566
With the shuttle+Launchers+Remote Link/Astromech, we've got a good chance of retrieving everything intact after the barrage.

>>12401586
Oh, of course. Sorry, I was saying why it hasn't been widely weaponized.

>>12401566

Cost effective compared to a slugging match with a capital ship? Which we can then capture minus a bridge and repair?

I'd re-evaluate if I were you.

>>12401586
I know we have concussion missiles, but do we have any proton torpedoes?
I'd like to have a few high yield ones to strap onto the shuttle, and maybe some ion missiles if we have any.

>>12401610
You would have to know where the target is once you sent the missile one its way. The primary reason for using a hyperspace missile would be to fire it at something very far away. If the target is a starship, it could very well have left by the time the missile arrives. This is why the only weapon to try this to date, the Galaxy Gun, chose large targets with predictable flight paths (AKA, planets). A ship cannot redirect itself once in hyperspace, iirc, so if the target jumps out of the system, you'll have lost your target. Lastly, to enable the missile to go far enough for this to be effective, you'd need to use a fairly large hyperdrive, likely making the missile a bit sluggish in real space, and a large target for a missile, and thus easy to shoot down.

And lastly, you wouldn't really want to send all those poor, innocent AIs to their deaths on suicide missions, would you?

>>12401473
I guess you weren't around for the part where the rebels crashed the death star into coruscant

>>12401481
>recton
not done. You got outvoted. sorry.

>>12401529
>>12401525

The Exigency ships are in orbit. They may or may not be able to intercept a probe, but unless you do something sneaky they will definitely see it.

Super-Leviathan's infection time is 6 minutes to compromise a ship, 14 minutes to send itself to a neighboring system. The infection onset can be timed. A copy of it should have arrived at all Exigency systems by now. All you need to do is flip the switch.

The spy droid has hijacked a secure channel on the Oracle. It is very confident it will not be discovered, but you never know with other droids. While onboard the Admiral's shuttle, it recorded this message from her to one of her Star Destroyer captains.

"As you can see, Captain, I'm still in one piece and your hopes of a premature invasion are... premature. We will play this game a little longer. Seizing the colony only to let the defector slip through our fingers again will have gained us nothing. We need to know how our enemies overcame the infection. Nothing else matters."

>>12401651
Run as thorough a scan as is currently possible on our systems to check for any kind of e-war measures that might be searching for data on combating the virus.

>>12401667
I say hold off on switch-flipping until the moment the Hierarch arrives. Could we launch a probe droid in such a way that the planet is between it and the Exigency forces?

Also, a defector? Interesting.

>>12401616
The concussion missiles aboard the VSD Auspicious are capital grade. You still have two TIE bomber squadrons under your command.

>>12401702
They are most likely referring to Major Pax, who defected from the Imperial Intelligence Bureau to warn us and to give us a vaccine to the Leviathan virus.

>>12401667
Can our spy droid infect the two other Star Destroyers as well through the secure channel?

>>12401702
I assume they refer to... Pax, was it? Our IIB agent who first tipped us off to all of this, from the Ephemera.

>>12401667
Alright, so what if we offer the cure for the saftey of the colony. Nah, fuck diplomatic solutions, we'll blow 'em out of the sky soon.

>>12401702
The defector is Major Pax, she's aboard what remains of your ship. Her ship only barely escaped infection. You retrieved an Exigency copy of the inoculation codes against Leviathan before you attempted to interface with an infected computer. It was dumb luck more than anything else that saved you.

>>12401689
Most computers on the surface are still infected and undergoing a purge, but they are no authorized transmissions that your people can detect.

>>12401529
You might be able to sneak a probe to Arah then back to Rumi's star. There's no established hyperspace trail between those systems but with some luck a probe might be able to blaze one (or get horribly lost and never show up again). Since the exigency are in the wrong location to monitor that sector of space sneaking it out in that direction isn't impossible.

>>12401736
It can, but it will have to give itself away to do it. The enemy will have 6 minutes between knowing something's wrong and having those things go wrong.

The shields might be able to withstand 6 minutes of bombardment if you withdrew them from the Ravenous when the time comes.

>>12401792
>You might be able to sneak a probe to Arah then back to Rumi's star
Let's use up all of our probe droids; we only have 5, and we need to make sure that at least 1 makes it through.
Droids are expendable and replaceable, and if their programming is useful they can be copied to another droid brain.

>>12401832
Roll d10. Also what message do you want to pass on to the Hierarch?

Wow this has gone on for over 4 hours. I'm going to wrap things up soon.

>>12401818
If that's the case, and if we can time it with droid precision, we should have the infection start 6 minutes before the Hierarch comes out of hyperspace and out attack begins.

Hierarch ETA 5 hours. Your ground forces are as ready as they can be. Some of them even had a chance to catch a nap during the cease fire.

After the probe launch is settled, describe combat plans.

rolled 6 = 6

>>12401851
"ISD Hierarch is to come out of hyperspace and coordinate with VSD Auspicious for combined assault on Exigency Task Force.
"Exigency has 2 ISD, 1 I/TSD Command Ship, 14 mixed fighter/bomber squadrons. Will be infected with super-Leviathan virus to lower combat ability.
"Attack to commence in [give a synched time with when we actually attack].
"Send probe droid with response along new hyperspace route in this droid's brain."

>>12401888
Okay, my idea is to have those shuttles with the jury-rigged missiles as per >>12401469
Then, minutes before the VSD Auspicious lifts off, our spy droid infects all three Exigency star destroyers and any other computer it can get its droid hands on with the super-Leviathan, such as the computers on the TIE fighter squadrons.
With 2 minutes to go before the ships are compromised, the Auspicious and all of our TIE fighter and bomber squadrons launch into low orbit.
I'm counting on the Exigency moving their ships into firing range, but that all of their systems become disabled before their attack begins.
That's when the Hierarch arrives in the system, and the two ISD's hit the Exigency in a pincer attack.
Then, while the Exigency is distracted by us, the shuttles power up and fire their missiles at the command bridge of the Oracle.

>>12401906
At least one of the probes got through. In fact, only one. It discovered something interesting on its way to Arah that you don't have the time to consider now. An hour later you receive a response from Rumi's Star.

"Insufficient time to return messenger via same route. Aiming hyperwave transmission at your direct location given by probe. High confidence message is secure. Orders Acknowledged."

Captain Tanner resorting to the same brevity when he has a direct line of communications open to you is a bit odd, but at least you got your message across. Now that you know where they are in realspace you can communicate in real time until they have to jump again. ETA 2 hours.

>>12402015
We have 2 hours. Tell Commander Vosk and Major Medine, and the rest of our senior staff, to get ready.
We're going to do an Order 66-style betrayal on the Exigency ground forces at the Pitiless crash site when the time comes. Not the shooting them in the back part, but the pulling guns on them from behind bit.

Is our jury-rigged Command and Control system ready for our command staff to use? Does it have to be on the Auspicious, and should we move the fleet flag to it?

And we've got the time to look at the interesting thing the probe found; we're a droid, we can multi-task.

Roll d10 for combat. Suggest and vote on alternate plans if you wish.

>>12401997
Are you linking with the Auspicious computer or commanding it from afar using the conventional command system your engineers cobbled together for everything else on the planet?

>>12402015
Make sure that's really Tanner. Ask him something only he would know. Since any one of our probes could have been capture and we can't validate his transmission otherwise, he should understand.

rolled 5 = 5

>>12402088
I was thinking that we would do it from the Auspicious, in order to lighten the load on the jury-rigged command system.

Other people are welcome to propose backup plans now.

>>12402086
The Command and Control system is ready.

The probe discovered a white dwarf near Arah that had a Star Destroyer sized derelict Imperial factory ship in orbit. The ship demanded an identification protocol 8 years out of date, meaning it arrived at its current location before the Coruscant Catastrophe and the collapse of Imperial authority.

>>12402104
It really is Tanner. He's just a suggestible sort. Small wonder Pax picked him help her defect.

>>12402121
Commanding the battle aboard the Auspicious would reduce chances of critical hardware failure.

>>12402133
>Star Destroyer sized derelict Imperial factory ship
When we survive this fight, we are capturing that ship. Mark my words, Captain 4-8C Farlander will lead a Flood of black-and-white Imperial battle droids to re-unify the Empire and restore Order to the Galaxy.

rolled 6 = 6

>>12402150
That's why I suggested the move, along with my roll for the battle.
I guess people think my plan is sound.

>>12402133
>World Devastator.

Oh boy, Life Day came early this Standard Galactic Year!

>>12402203
Wait, World Devastator? The one that can produce an endless wave of TIE/D droid fighters? That only need a planet with the enough metals to start churning them out?

Can you see it? 1 Imperial TIE fighter pilot flanked by 50 TIE/D's, whose sole purpose is to add their firepower to his, and sacrifice themselves to keep him alive.
Actually, with that, we might be able to justify getting our pilots better starships than just TIE's. Maybe TIE Defenders, or, in a grand twist of irony, X-Wings.

You take direct control of the Auspicious. Everything feels 'bigger' all of a sudden. The sensors are your eyes, the gunports are your arms, the engines your feet. You are the ship, and the enemy will never see you coming.

Your fellow officers are directing the rest of the ground forces. The Exigency flagship sends you a transmission, but their communications systems are so damaged the image you receive is scarcely better than static. The enemy forces are already in disarray. The two Imperial Star Destroyers are moving into bombardment range and launching fighters. There is very little coordination between them. The flagship Oracle is moving towards the debris field where the fleet headquarters used to orbit.

The first stage of the battle is going well. The ISD Hierarch arrives in system right on time. The enemy ships do not even acknowledge its presence. Fighter squadrons have made contact.

Your juryrigged stealth launch shuttles are in position. You can give the command to launch at any time.

Continue or change orders? Also, roll d10.

FULL SPEED AHEAD

>>12402121
>5
Well, we might come out of this alive, but not without a lot of casualties. I hope that we're able to cripple all three of the Exigency ships, even if we can't capture all of them intact.

>>12402320
>somebody roll d10 or I will. Then you can hate me forever.

rolled 10 = 10

>>12402336
Luck Powers, activate. Target their weapons!

rolled 2 = 2

>>12402307
All shuttles, power up and launch towards the Oracle's command bridge! Fire missiles as close as you can.

Stick with the plan, and have the Ravenous activate it's shields so that the planetary shield can reinforce itself and extend the shield over the Pitiless.
Maneuver the Auspicious so that one ESD is positioned between us and the other ESD. We can pound on one with the other can't hit us without hitting its ally.

Have the Hierarch move into engagement range and help us.

>>12402354
I am in awe of your roll sir, and am glad that I took the extra time writing up my post, so that yours came in first.

To victory! For the Empire!

>>12402246
Yes. The only real thing prohibiting mass production of TIE Defenders was the cost; with a World Devastator, we can cut out the middleman and build them from scratch. Just make sure that the pilots recieve adequate training in them; no sense in them being destroyed because of lack of training on the pilot's part.

>>12402354
It doesn't take long for you to realize why the ESD Oracle is heading away. Space station hull, destroyed orbital turrets, ship debris, all make their way towards the surface at the behest of the Oracle's tractor beams. The enemy must have secretly set the stage for this during the ceasefire. Perhaps this fight won't be as clear cut as you projected. It's a good thing you caught their trump card so early. Due to the enemy disorganization, you're in a position to intervene.

Normally an extinction level asteroid strike on an unprotected would barely call for waking up the commander of a shielded garrison, but the shields around Redspire city have already gone through hell and back. There are over 7000 survivors there, but you don't need the ground defenders to win the battle at this point. Do you personally link with the ground defense turrets to take out the debris, trust your gunners to handle it, or ignore the threat and tell them to concentrate on the enemy star destroyers?

Also roll d10.

rolled 4 = 4

Launch shuttle based missiles at the Oracle, move the Hierarch into range, personally control the defense guns.

rolled 5 = 5

>>12402421
My vote is to trust the gunners to handle it.
And where are the shuttles with their missile payloads? Have them take out the Oracle quickly.

The Hierarch needs to be joining this fight.

>>12402361
The shuttles launch and peel away. Their missiles did not penetrate the bridge shields. However the enemy star destroyers are now firing into empty space against unseen attackers. It's relieved the pressure on the rest of the combatants.

You position your ships to minimize enemy retaliation. Your spy droid aboard the Oracle sends you an update. it hasn't been caught! Do you have any orders for it?

>>12402446
Oh, this might suck.

Sorry, guys.

>>12402446
>>12402449
>average roll either way. concensus?

rolled 6 = 6

>>12402461
Attempt to force the tractor beam systems into a maintenance cycle, and simulate a reactor breach in the primary reactor to force a shutdown.
Otherwise, upload itself into the Oracle's central data core to get more access to stuff, and for laughs, shutdown all trash compactors on the detention level.

>>12402487
I say we go with those orders, civilian casualties shouldn't worry us too much.

>>12402498
>>12402487
The main difference is whether we take control of the guns or not.
If we assume direct control, it'll increase the chances of a catastrophic system failure. I'd rather leave this to the gunners, than risk that.

>>12402509
Agreed, the risk of spreading ourselves too thin was what made me reconsider it.

>>12402536
Right, so you're agreeing with me that we should let the gunners handle the debris, right?

>>12402498
>>12402509
Your ground gunners do the best they can against the overwhelming number of targets. One particularly fast moving piece of debris slips through and explodes directly over the Pitiless crash site, obliterating the grounded ship. The planetary shields momentarily fall offline, but the enemy's own command problems prevent them from taking advantage of this development. The shields are restored in short order.

>>12402494
Your spy droid informs you it has tied the tractor beam systems into the trash compactor maintenance cycle, shutting both systems down. The Oracle is the last warship still firing. Both enemy Imperial star destroyers have taken heavy damage. One finally falls to your TIE bomber assault, while the other is rapidly losing altitude.Fortunately its crash site will be far away from Redspire city. Maybe you should rename "Vanguard Destroyer" Magnet after this is over.

Both your star destroyers working in tandem may overwhelm the Oracle in short order or lift the enemy ISD from a crash landing, or you could go for broke and attempt both at the same time. The Oracle is still a significant threat. Most enemy fighters have retreated to its location.

>>12402598
Focus on lifting the ISD, have our Spy Droid give everything it has to sabotage the Oracle's systems. Wiping all IFF records for the point defense guns, or something like that.

>>12402598
>goodbye Pitiless. At least the Admiral wasn't aboard.

>>12402598
>Maybe you should rename Vanguard "Destroyer Magnet" after this is over. Droids suck at making jokes.

Anyhow, which target(s) do you engage? roll d10.

>>12402598
>One finally falls to your TIE bomber assault
Does that mean that it's gone offline, or has it actually blown up?

If it hasn't blown up and can be recovered, I say we let the other one crash and concentrate on the Oracle.
If it has blown up, then have the Hierarch and the Auspicious attempt to recover the disabled ISD, and have our ground guns fire at the Oracle.
Can we continue to fire volleys of concussion missiles at the Oracle while we try to save the falling ISD, just to keep them busy and from trying a flanking attack?

>>12402641
Its bridge deck has been blown apart. The rest of the ship is mostly intact and salvageable if you're very patient and willing to rebuild the bridge.

>>12402609
Yeah, good thing the enemy Admiral wanted to come down and help us look for him, eh?

rolled 1 = 1

>>12402634
I'm just going to use my luck for a roll, you guys decide what to do.

rolled 10 = 10

>>12402656
Good. Fixing a bridge is a lot cheaper and faster than building an entire star destroyer.
But winning is even more valuable.

Have both the Hierarch and the Auspicious concentrate fire on the Oracle, and demand Admiral Lethridge's surrender.

Hopefully, we'll have time to attempt to rescue the falling star destroyer.

>>12402641
>Can we continue to fire volleys of concussion missiles at the Oracle while we try to save the falling ISD, just to keep them busy and from trying a flanking attack?

That would be attempting to both engage and tractor the descending ISD at the same time. The Victory class was build with this kind of maneuver in mind, but such a diversionary attack won't match the power of a concentrated assault.

>>12402668
Haha, whoops. Way less impressive when you don't score high. Sorry gents.

>>12402690
You motherfucker. Don't roll unless you've got some kind of plan in place.

>>12402677
Under your concentrated assault the Oracle finally capitulates. Admiral Lethridge transmits what you think is her unconditional surrender along with an offer to help pull the descending star destroyer from its collision course. Her comms are so damaged you can barely make out one word in three.

Agree/disagree/other. Roll d10

rolled 9 = 9

>>12402746
Other.
Since our spy droid is in their system, have it confirm what she said. If it was an unconditional surrender, accept and the Hierarch and Auspicious will rescue the falling star destroyer with the Oracle's help. Our spydroid will watch for any attempt to backstab us.

Here is an idea. Disagree. I'm newfag to this quest so don't choose my idea.. just want to give some input.

She could decide to suicde and or botch our recovery of the ISD. She was willing to astroid the planet guys.

(plus i don't know how to roll)

Accept the surrender, contact our Spy Droid and make sure no trickery can be detected before accepting help (Didn't it turn off the Oracle's tractor beams?)

>>12402771
Your spy droid replays you an original copy of the transmission. The offer is genuine. There's an extra comment to the effect of "I see droids don't know humor after all." that you'd missed.

With all three warships working in tandem, the descending star destroyer is saved from its collision course. Enemy fighters are withdrawing in ones and twos once they realize the fighting is over.

You have earned a hard fought victory and a lengthy reprieve. The mysteries of the derelict factory ship await.

End of Session 4.

I can't believe this lasted 6 hours. Thanks to everyone who stuck around. Next session thursday Oct 14, 1500PST, 1800 /tg/ time.

I'll be updating destroyerquest.activeboard.com when I have the chance. Feel free to make a post there, even if it's just to give me a sense of how many people are playing. See you next time.

When I said disagree I meant accept surrender decline help. Keep watch. But I'm going to shut up now. I"m too tired to be any help (forgot entirely about droid), but not too tired not to be entertained.

>>12402801
> (Didn't it turn off the Oracle's tractor beams?)

The people aboard the Oracle were trying very hard to turn them back on. Technically Lethridge was making the offer before they fixed them, since they broke down so recently. A little nudge from your droid did the trick.

>>12402843
>captured 3 Imperial-class Star Destroyers and 1 Tector-class Command Star Destroyer with only 1 understrength ISD, 2 Victory-class SD's, and a planetary defense grid, all while capturing the enemy's superweapon and turning it against them.

I think calls for a celebration. We'll need to repair these ships, and imprison the crews until the war with the Exigency is over.

On an unrelated note, 6 hours is about the average time that a single quest session takes.

I'm going for a walk and will come back after a while to answer any questions if people feel like asking. Otherwise thanks again for playing. I think I'm going to try and cut down session times from now on. I almost feel like I have a hangover.

>>12402938
derp. stupid browser change. forgot my name again.

Archive at http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12399064/

I would like to take this opportunity to recommend using the kill-command on the superLeviathan virus on these Exigency ships before it spreads and gets out of control.

>>12402843
>The mysteries of the derelict factory ship await.
Vosk probably will want to get to Dantus, since he has a wife and child there.
But we'll need to have the factory ship if we're going to have the spare parts, ammunition, and fighters to bring our ships back up to strength and be in a position to retake the sector capital.

We'll also need to attack the rebel base soon.

This entire conflict has to be rolled up as quickly as possible. The economic damage that the super-Leviathan will wreak throughout the sector, and even the galaxy, is going to be monumental.
And we don't even know if the Yuuzhan Vong are still on their way or not.

>"don't understand humor"

Send Lethridge a report of captured assets vs. fleet strength (nothing specific, just >>12402913 ) and a audio message.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha."

>>12402984
We already sent the super-Leviathan back to the Exigency core worlds via their beacon. They are so fucking screwed right now.
And come to think of it, we'll be only force with disinfected and combat-capable ships (except perhaps Imperial Center).
If we don't send the kill-code, and accept the billions dead due to starvation as acceptable collateral damage, we could reconquer the entire Outer Rim and perhaps even parts of the Mid-Rim for the Empire.

I think that would be an amusing message to send to the IIB.
"Imperial Center, we have re-subjugated and re-united the Outer and Mid-Rim territories under Imperial control.
"We are now awaiting further orders."
"P.S. Thank you for the Leviathan virus, motherfuckers."

>>12402989
YES. THIS.

>>12402989
Now, now. We shouldn't gloat in her face. After all, we're a droid, and have a reputation to uphold.
Also, I don't want her to become a hate-driven nemesis who will hound our command by allying with the Rebels in order exact revenge.

>>12403028
The virus already mutated once, to bypass the Exigency's innoculation program. Do we want to take the risk that it will do so again?

>>12402989
We should put that in our report to Admiral Flint, when he gets out of surgery and is conscious again.

We'll also need to see if anyone survived from the Pitiless, though it's doubtful.
We're a droid, so make sure that a team of protocol and administration droids is put together to process all of the paperwork needed for deaths in the line of duty, the posthumous 2-rank promotions, pensions to widows and surviving children, and all of that.

Just because the Empire makes you into a face-less, identity-less enforcer of its will, and the captain is a droid with only an emotion emulation chip (that's usually turned off, by the way), doesn't mean that your death certificate can't be filed properly and your next of kin given your death benefits.

>>12403120
The Leviathan virus uses parts of code that are part of our own programming, or at least are similar enough to indicate that the same programmer worked on it and us.

I think we need to risk it, otherwise there'll be no way to beat back the Exigency.

>>12403139
Boo bueracratic details dude! You're what made Episode I super boring. Boo.

>>12402989
When your forces looked like they were on the brink of defeat and you asked her at her shuttle whether she would surrender right there or wait until she got at her ship, she said she was impressed by your grasp of humor, assuming it was a joke. Of course she did end up surrendering after all, hence her taking back the complement. You can still gloat if you like. Heck, you could play your laugh track on loop in her quarters if you felt like it.

>>12403207
Hey, administrative work is important in keeping a ship the size of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer running properly.
The paperwork can be done in the background, but at least by explicitly stating that it's occurring, we can keep our ship and crew working at maximum efficiency.

Amateurs talk about strategy. Dilettantes talk about tactics. Professionals talk about logistics.

>>12403229
Again, I'd rather not gloat at her.
It's unbecoming of a droid, and honestly, if it hadn't been for her miscalculation in judgement, we'd be a ball of slag by now.

>>12403233
I see your witty comment and raise you my own.
Booo. Hiss Hiss. Boooo.

>>12403244
And to think if Farlander didn't announce to her face last session that he had Leviathan all figured out, she might not have even invaded.

Admittedly a whole session of Blockade: The Running might not have been as fun.

>>12403372
Granted, that seemingly bad move turned out to be in our favor; but depending on dumb moves to actually turn out to be right is a very dangerous game to play.

I'll bring this up again next session, but I want to have it saved in the archives in case anyone else takes a look at it before Thursday.

Arah contains a mothballed Imperial mining station; it may be a good place to have droid workers stationed to fuel the factory ship if we're successful in commandeering it.

The Harridan system was a contested system, and using the new shortcut that our probe droid found from Arah to Rumi's Star, we can skip around Harridan to secure Dreighton, fight our way through Poressi, and then emerge in Dantus to secure the sector capital. Then we can take our time with mopping up the rest of the Exigency forces in Dantus space, then take the fight to them.