>>18654984
Upon the arrival of the Third squadron back at the fleet you notice there has been some changes. A third Super Heavy has joined the fleet but one of the Heavy Cruisers and several Battle groups have left. Knight Commander Holtby's Medium cruiser is still in formation. Damaged ships from the other squads are soon directed to repair bays that are built onto hulls of the larger ships in the fleet.

Knight Sylvan contacts all ships in the squadron as their assigned locations.
"Third Attack Squadron, we have been ordered to stand down for ten hours. Get your repairs underway and paperwork in order. RP should be assigned by now. Dont forget to get some rest before we move out again."

After 'parking' your ship you call up the debriefing forms you'll have to fill out along with the RP screen.

Kavos taps your shoulder.
"Before you decide to burn through our RP again I had a suggestion. There is some equipment we still need for the ship and the rest of the crew. More armored vacsuits for starters and certain replacement parts. I'm certain I could procure them for 100 RP."
A Miscellanious option appears on your RP screen.

"There are also the emergency thrusters we discussed. They're 100 RP apiece and we'd need four of them. If you aquire both of those things though we will be low on RP before we can even look at filling our torpedo magazine."

>>18655032
Crew security is paramount, so I'm very much in favour of spending 100 RP on the vecsuits and the other stuff.

Can we trade in some of the assorted stuff we looted from the cruiser?

>>18655129
>Can we trade in some of the assorted stuff we looted from the cruiser?
Yes.
Nukes can be traded back for their equivilant RP.
Engineers are inspecting the looted drive components and may add them to the spare parts if they check out.
The captured small arms are being checked over by the Marines and could be added to the ships compliment or traded. May net you 10RP at best.

The illegal bits can either be turned over to fleet security getting you some respect and renoun but no financial or RP gain. Alternately you could sell them to a black market dealer.

oh man, actually caught this at the start again.

seconding the procurement of the vacsuits and replacement parts.

Can we get our ship's current loadout and cargo posted? Afraid I've got some catching up to do before further input

>>18655238
>renoun
Renown

>>18655238
So we get the full 10 RP per nuke?

Why kind of contraband did we excatly acquire?

Let's wait for the marine's verdict on the weapons before we decide what to do with them.

>>18655261 here

>>18655238

voting to add the captured small arms to our ship's armory. Better to have our crew able to better defend vs boarders, imo.

as for the illegal stuff, turn it in. Unless we have someone on our crew with connections, I guess.

Bittenfeld Loadout

Good /Above average quality shields (backup shield upon main shield failure)
Average quality Armor
Jump drive: Max cruising speed 19 LPS

Sublight
4x DHI Fusion Drives (Good /Above average quality)
4x Iratar Fusion Drives (Average quality)

Weapons
2x Heavy Spinal Mount Pulse cannon
1x Torpedo launcher
2x Light pulse cannon turrets
4x Light Phase cannon array
External Missile racks (Maximum 16 Nukes)

Launch bay
1 Assault shuttle + 20 Marines
(Max 4 Shuttles or 8 starfighters)

>>18655283
>>18655369

>contraband
"I'm not touching that stuff with a ten foot pole." is the answer you get from most members of the crew regarding the stuff. One of the Marines figures he could unload the stuff but he'd want half the payout.
Looking at it yourself there's a few pieces like neuro isolation collars you recognise from some horror movie you saw when you were a kid. One heavily padded crate holds dozens of what looks to be neural implants, likely slave chips.

>>18655526
Uh, that's sick stuff. Nothing we can sell in good conscience like some mild narcotics or something.

I vote for handing the stuff over to fleet sec.

if we buy another group of marines (20?) do we get another assault shuttle with them or do we need to buy that too?

And I take it that we should be prepared to replace starfighters when we deploy them, but are they able to mount nukes to engage enemy ships or would we require a bomber type for that?

I suggest that we buy 8 torps for now, unless the launcher can mount more than that in a single volley, then we should fill out a volley.

>>18655551

seconding. Make note of that marine for the future, though. Perhaps we'll be able to put his confidence to use with some more palatable contraband later

>>18655578
Yes you get the Assault Shuttle with the Marines.

>Starfighters
Any skilled pilot can dodge fire from the heavier guns of a starship most of the time but they only have to screw up once. When it comes to point defense its a lot harder to dodge.

>are they able to mount nukes to engage enemy ships or would we require a bomber type for that?
All fighters can mount at least 2 nukes or one torpedo. Attack Bombers can carry 4 torps. Its luck of the draw weather you'd be able to get one.

Your torpedo launcher fires torps single fire and has a 3 second reload time. Torpedo magazine holds a max of 50 I think I said?

>>18655715
Do we have enough room on the ship for another set of marines?

>>18655800
Yes. As long as you have room for their shuttle you have room for the Marines. Marines HATE being caught aboard a starship without a way off.

>>18655867
There's always the airlock.

Okay, doing a quick shopping list:

+ 750 RP available
- 100 RP for crew amenities
________
+ 650 RP left
(- 400 for emergency thrusters)
(- 150 for another set of marines)
(- 050 for each torpedo)
(+ [0,420] for our nukes, if we decide to sell any)

You contact Knight Commander Holtby's ship and report having captured the contraband. A few minutes later a shuttle is sent over with a security team to collect it. You send the damaged nuke back with them as the larger ship will have engineers that can repair it.

The Marines meanwhile have finished checking out the captured weapons.
"Some of the Carbines have junk recievers meaning they're nothing but scrap but most of them and the phase rifles are in good shape. You might want to get some training on them when you've got some down time, the rifles can be set to fire a beam or a heavier stun pulse than your pulse pistol can."


Requisition so far is
Miscelanious 100
Marines 150

Leaving us with 500 RP left.

>>18655955
How strong is a torpedo? Just for reference, how many would it take do disable our shields?

>>18655981
That's actually a good question... You've got pretty tough shields now.
If 10 hit you at the same time they'd drop your main shield, the trouble most ships would have is landing that many hits at once. Missiles do 1/5 as much damage on average because less of their total energy is relased into the target.


I just realised we still never used those 2 nukes from before so we have 44.

>>18656082

so it seems like torpedos are more of a "point blank" punch when the target's shields are down?

I'm voting to drop 400 RP into those thrusters, then grabbing a torpedo or 2 for a final kick into some pirate's ass.

Do you with to keep 16 nukes for the launch racks and trade back 28 for 280RP?

1030
-100 equipment
-400 thrusters
-150 Marines
-350 for 7 Nukes ?

Which would leave us with 30 RP left. Or keep 3 more nukes?


>No captcha I cant type in a picture of a sofa as the verification, thats just silly.

>>18656154
7 torpedoes, you mean?

But yeah, I'm okay with that. Anthing to avoid another cannon/beam debate.

Although I think we should start saving some of our RP for even better shields.

>>18655578
>>18656148
>this anon here

changing my vote from the "8 torps" in the first post to the "1 or 2 torps" in the second.

If our torp launcher is a single tube and torps aren't very good at taking down shields, I see no reason to purchase 8 of them for their cost. Better to have just a handful and pop them into enemies with their shields down at close range.

>>18656186
Yeah that's me typing the wrong stuff again, 7 Torps.

>Although I think we should start saving some of our RP for even better shields.

>Equipment not available yet
>Antiproton 'afterburner' upgrade 5000 RP
>Power Armor 9001 RP
>Emergency teleporter 10k RP

>>18656207
I agree with this. Let's just buy 2 torps and put 250 RP in the bank for future projects like the stuff in >>18656249

Would the emergency teleporter work for the whole crew?

>>18656207
Torps do help add more bang in a pinch its just that energy weapon have essentially unlimited ammo and you've only got the one launcher.

>>18656272

so they're stand-off weapons to use against stations and such that can't avoid them.

eh, I still say we use them like a friend used to play Imperial Navy in BFG... point-blank them into enemy ships after you down their shields. My god that was a brutal tactic in that game.

>>18656259
No. They can hold a maximum of 5 people, similar to an escape pod except that it zaps itself elsewhere. There is also a risk the shock will stop your heart.

The first one is 10k, additional ones through the ship would cost less.

While smaller requisitions like trading in missiles or picking up marines are simple enough the Emergency thrusters need a ship dock to be installed properly.
Contacting the Super Heavy Cruiser [Concordance] you are given an approach vector for one of her Light Cruiser sized berths. Compared to the larger ship it feels like you're just an insect landing on an elephant.
"I wonder what the starfighter pilots must feel like with a ship this size this around."

The Chief chuckles. "Scared out of their wits most likely. Enemy fighters would have a field day if they got beneath the shields of one of the big ships and its their job to keep them out."

Despite the Bittenfeld being shaped differently than most ships built by the Houses there's still room. Tractor beams and docking armatures help guide you in and secure the ship in place.

"Docking station C-LC eight to House Jarik-Dremine ship Bittenfeld, we're looking at 6 to 8 hours of work to make sure the structural supports hold up. You might need some interior work after that to clean things up once we're done."

"Dont worry docking station eight, the whole ship needs interior work." you coms officer replies.

You're free it make use of the facilaties aboard the Concordance while docked. Deeper parts of the ship have been rebuilt to provide amenities to docked ship crews along with the thousands of personnel stationed aboard. There are shops, restaurants and secure banking access.

>>18656521
Repay our debt to Linda, explore the ship. See if we can get her to play tour guide, she's way more experience with life on ships than we do.

I'm not sure why but I can't help feeling we're about to walk into a trap.

we owe our navigator (Linda, was it?) some money, lets transfer that to her. It would be unfair to continue our habit of boarding with the marines while we're in debt to her.

Other than that, I can't really think of anything to get done.

Perhaps we could help out with repairs or something?

>>18656554
"Linda I owe you some money, want to go look around?" You ask her.
"Sure! You never get to see these ships outside of secure fleet yards."

"Or more accurately when you do see them its in a situation you really wish wasnt necessary." mutters Kavos as you and Linda leave the Bridge. Most of the other crew members are closing down their stations so they can disembark.

>>18656571
You have no idea why but just in case you grab your sidearm and hide your backup.

Finding a secure banking terminal is easy and soon Linda is payed back. "Glad thats taken care of, much longer and I would have expected you to start charging intrest."

"After getting that officer to help me with my jump calculations you could have just kept it." She replies.

The grand promenade which turns out to be one of several aboard is four stories tall and runs the width of the ship. There are moving walkways running down the middle with different speeds and well marked lift access points for transport to other parts of the ship. The restaurants look crowded and there are lines outside some Movie theatres. At regular intervals are sections jutting out of the walls slightly marking where transverse bulkheads would extend to seal the area in battle.

>>18656782
>"After getting that officer to help me with my jump calculations you could have just kept it." She replies.

"Oh no, that was as much in my interest as it was in yours."

You recieve a text from Mike asking you and Alex to meet him at one of the holographic training centers in a few hours.

Anything you'd like to do before that?
Help with repairs,
>>18656601
continue sight seeing, etc?

>>18656841
Helping with the repairs of our ship is probably a good idea.
See if we can get a memento for our family around here.

Is there a way we can discretely get the service record of Knight Sylvan?

>>18656796
"Hey it wasnt like I was going to drop us into a star. I think. I'm sure we would have been fine."

A quick check of whats available at the movies confirms it nothing you're interested in or would have time for. Arcades are packed full of starfighter pilots and bars full of Marines and other crew.

"This is interesting and everything but a bit repetative." Linda tells you "I wish I could get a look at how they sync the drive systems on a ship this big but thats probably classified."

Heading back to the ship for an hour before its time for you hook up with the boys you setp in to engineering. With the down time the engineers have yanked the power conduits and are calibrating the core.
"I seem to end up in the engine room of a lot of enemy ships. Mind if I sit in?" You ask them.
Doing what you can to not get in the way you pick up a thing or two about how the systems work and how they all fit together.
By the time you leave you're confident you could connect things yourself in a pinch but wouldnt know where to start if something was actually broken.

Knight Lt Sylvan is a former class mate of Knight Lt Dayton whom the former often derisively called frisbee after a ramming incident caused Dayton's corvette to spin out of control. The two are known to have an ongoing feud.

Knight Lt is well known for a seeming lack of discipline. He preferrs close ship combat with the enemy and has been known to ram opponents to force them out of control providing more time to unload fire into a target. His impropriety has prevented additional promotion.

>>18656931
>See if we can get a memento for our family around here.
The ship seems a bit lacking in that regard at first until you spot some ship models for sale at a store. Oh well its something.

>>18657121
Don't buy any fish.

>>18657137
Was waiting for something like that.


After riding the lifts for the better part of a half hour you find the training center Mike was talking about.
"What happened, you couldnt find it?" Minke asks.
"There's like five of these things on the ship Mike!" you exclaim.

"Wait, really?"
"Smooth." whispers Alex.

The training center is a converted cargo bay filled with of dozens of booths each wide enough that you cant touch the opposite walls at the same time.
"How does this work?" You ask.

"Hang on, we have to get all three of booths linked first so we pop up in the same environment. Dammit I forget how to do this. I only snuck into the holomat once back on Petras. Alex?"

"Yeah I've got it, my parents would always spring for a few games every time it was somebody's birthday." After punching in a few commands on the keyboards outside all three of you enter your respective booths.

"So this is going to be like one of those holodecks on the TV series?"
"Yeah except you cant hurt somebody because even if it turns off they're in the next room."

>>18657265
"So what are we doing guys? My parents never bothered to drag me to one of these before." You inform them.

Everything flickers black and white for a second then you Alex and Mike are standing inside a white padded training room.

Mike points at both of you. "You two did great and everything in that boxing match but I did shit because I've never had to fight fair before. On top of that Flight Leader you are constantly charging aboard enemy ships. I never get to kick any ass outside my ship."

"So you want to fight us?" Asks Alex.

"Sure that works. Though I was hoping to show you guys how to wreck somebody in hand to hand and therefore live vicariously through your combat experience. Fighting you works too though."

Roll 2d20
>Any particular stance you wish to take? Try to block? Attack?

rolled 8, 14 = 22

Take a mostly defensive stance and wait for opportunities to make fast attacks.

>>18657462
Sounds ok to me.

>And all of my ww2 Special operations notes went missing. Fuck.

Mike's first attack nearly catches you off guard, if you hadnt been in the middle of raising your arms to get ready his first blow would have caught you right in the neck. Each attack if they'd connected where intended would be enough to disable or momentarily stun someone. You spend nearly a minute on the defensive trying to block and find an opening to jab, eventually managing to land one hit on him. Your arms and other parts of your body are tingling and twitching a bit where you took hits from the holograms.

Alex does a bit better on his turn having watched the both of you go at it. He takes a modified boxing stance and tries to stay mobile, keeping at range more than you did. Mike says to stop just as he seems to figuring out how to counter the longer range.

"Okay so I'm not the be all end all of hand to hand but you guys get the idea. Hit people in the weak points however you can because sometimes its you or them not some boxing matching. "

He points to his neck. "Humans and Dro'all both have weak necks. You land a good punch on somebody's windpipe they wont be a problem for long. If its your life or theirs fight dirty."

>>18657741
The three of you spend a couple of hours practicing blocks, grapples and different attacks from hands and elbows to kicks. Eventually you start using knives and practicing disarms of pistols and rifles, all the while attempting to do so as quickly and with as little wasted movement as possible. While Mike doesnt seem exceptional hes still rather good at it all and seems to know what hes talking about. Over all you think you've learned a thing or two.

"The time for our booths are up. We should try this again some time, maybe invite some of the marines and see how well we do." Mike suggests.

"I'm sure Marines get better training than we do man." Says Alex as his hologram fades out.

Exiting the booth and seeing your wingmen off you notice there are a few single booths free in places.

Any holographic training you want to try out on your own or will you head back to the ship? The holo booth isnt limited to just hand to hand.

>>18657873
We should at least see what kind of stuff they offer.

>>18657873
Starfighter and corvette flight sims are the most numerous with either basic flight or combat. There's more modern House to House stuff or older simulations of battles from the Faction Wars.
There are also ground combat sims allowing personel to try out vehicles, weapons or different types of armor.
Less numerous are command sims for either ground or space. RTS essentially.

There are civilian made sims and games that could be played but they are currently locked out to ensure personnel onboard get useful training done.

>>18657989
Do a few rounds on a sim training that type of propulsion we just couldn't get our head around planetside.

See if we can get a few of the ground or space command sims installed on our personal computer, I doubt we need a 3d holographic interface for those.

>>18657989
Do fighter sims, play around with thrust vectoring.

rolled 1 = 1

>>18658048
You see if you were just having a run of bad luck that day with the thrust vectoring...

To be fair the transport did have four seperate engines for that.

>See if we can get a few of the ground or space command sims installed on our personal computer, I doubt we need a 3d holographic interface for those.
yes but your PC likely doesnt have artificial gravity.

>>18657989
I am thinking a specialized cruiser manoeuvre and specialized combat piloting.

that or perhaps a gunnery program or a specialized boarding program, since we like it so much.

rolled 20 = 20

>>18658171
Apparently life has a problem with you when it comes to transport shuttles and thrust vectoring.
>>18658066
Maybe a starfighter with that feature will have better luck since the engines themselves arent being moved around.

>>18658221
hope that's a d20

rolled 12 = 12

>>18658233
It is. I guess you should have been a starfighter pilot.

There arent any programs for a cruiser like yours, just normal Light Cruisers used by the Houses which are slower. There is one for Marine boarding teams though.

Last one then you have to get going back to the ship.

>>18658303
You've done an average job in a boarding simulation, managing to take a few hits here and there that would have messed up your armor but survived it.

An older sounding Dro'all woman knocks on the door of the holo booth. "Your time limit expired an hour ago. Beat it or I'm calling security."
Wait, you've been running sims for how many hours? Shit, gotta get back to the ship.

Making it back to the ship the hours you've been awake start to drag on you. Weighing the value of running those sims and training with the others versus sleep you decide that sleep is something you can get any time. Access to the facilaties aboard the Concordance is probably something a bit more rare.
You arent the only one who seems to have come to that conclusion when you get to the bridge, noting your coms officer and the few gunners present all seem to be a bit worse for wear.

As the dock workers finish up past the 7 hour mark the work arms are retracted one by one. Checking the new systems they read green but there are caution and warnings about avoiding over use.

"Flight leader Reynard we're being hailed." Your coms officer tells you.
Throwing on the headset and turning you tell them to go ahead.
"Docking station C-LC eight to House Jarik-Dremine ship Bittenfeld are you recieving?"
"This is Bittenfeld we read you."

"Your refit is completed, we need you to undock ASAP, we have damaged ships incoming that need work. We're transmitting shuttle bay approach vectors for if you still have crew aboard."

Checking around it turns out 1/4 of your crew is still aboard. After undocking you set about contacting them and sending one of the shuttles back. You're only a klick away from the dock when the incoming cruiser is dragged in by tractor beams, sections of its outer armor burned off.

Taking up position with the rest of Third squadron you step out of the bridge to get a couple of hours rest before its time to check in.

3 Hours later...


"Rise and shine Third Attack Squadron!" Shouts Sylvan over the squadron channel. "We've got our orders and they're all about autonomous deployment."
Sitting down at the helm you throw your headset back on and mute the bridge speakers before confirming you're listening in with the others.

"There arent many operations at the moment that would call for a whole squadron to deploy, or at least our squadron. As a result we're going to deploy at squad level. Choose your assignments from what intel is making available. Take their info with a rain of salt though, dont be surprised if something has changed since the reports were filed. Like the sensor station that wasnt supposed to be mobile when we got there.
If necessary, retreat and call in more support."

>Reports to follow

>>18658632
Option 1)
*Royal Logistics Depot
The Royal Logistics branch are responsible for coordinating long range resuply of Dominion fleets outside of friendly territory. While many Houses may provide the transports and cargo ships it is this group that keeps them organised.
At the moment the First Expeditionary Fleet is close enough to its home galaxy that resupply is not an issue. This will change as the fleet moves farther away.
To head off any future problems Royal Logistics wishes to secure a cargo depot in the Ulatt Dwarf Galaxy.
Threat Level 1
Intel: All cargo ships native to the system the depot is in are believe to have been stolen in the opening wave of Pirate activity. Most local defenses were destroyed and the remainder may have been stripped. Only items of value remaining are the depot, which located on a moon, and groundside algae processing plants on the planet it orbits.

>>18658662
Option 2)

*Metals refining facility
Refineries of this type are far from rare but with the fleet likely facing active combat for an extended period both armor and structural materials will be at a premium. The processing centers at this site can handle the mining output of a dozen starsystems if they havent been badly damaged.
Threat Level 1-2
Intel: This base has been raided twice before, the last time being eight years ago. At the time it was left relatively undamaged, presumably so that it could be raided again in the future. There have been no reports of the locals having resumed operations, caution is advised.

Option 3)

*Rare element collection and processing
The element necessary for FTL propulsion is found only on certain worlds around certain stars making such worlds stratiegic assets to any of the Factions. Mining and collection operations are considered delicate and time conuming under the best of circumstances. Because of the financial risks of damaging the raw materials in transport most facilaties have on site drive component production. The finished drive plates and focusing systems are far sturdier than their parent materials. The importance of spare FTL equipment for any fleet can not be understated.
Threat Level 2
Intel: This world was targeted in the opening waves of the Pirate invasion. Drive components are expensive and can fetch high prices on the black market meaning pirates from either their fleet or a local group could still be present. They will likely try to hold the world as long as possible in an attempt to escape with more of its riches.

>>18658701
That's more my kind of threat level.

Plus finding out secret info about classified FTL tech might be cool.

So yes, its just those three.

1) Royal Logistics Depot
2) Metals refining facility
3) Rare element collection and processing

I expect a number of people are asleep by now so that might cut down on the number of people to make this decision.

>>18658778

Well I'm
>>18658732

And I'm down for some Threat Level 2 action so that we can see what our squad is capable of and maybe roll some fun malfunctions on our rattletrap cruiser.

Open to other options if anyone else is here and feels caution is more advisable.

>>18658778
Casting my vote for option 2. But if it should come down to deciding between 1 and 3, I'd go with 3.

>>18658862
It seems we are at an impasse.

Roll for it?

rolled 1 = 1

>>18658916
Why not.
1= Metals refining facility
2= Rare element collection and processing

Voting for FTL world.

Hmm... might have to just keep this bumped and resume tomorrow.

>>18658949
Is this a 3rd person?

>>18658956
I was the first vote for option 3 and it is not me, so I think so

>>18658956
Yes, i'm a different person.

rolled 1 = 1

I'm the guy who voted for option 2. As I said, I'm okay with 3 as well.

"Hey Mike, Alex, what do you think about investigating that rare element site?" you ask.

"Sounds good. I've loaded up my missile racks just in case my main gun isnt enough." reports Mike.
Alex agrees as well but is a bit more reserved. "This report says there will almost certainly be an enemy presence. We should be careful."

You contact the Knight Lt let him know your choice. "Good. Make sure you're ready before moving out. I'll personally be hanging back in case you or the other squads need help. Just call me in, but be aware that it might take me a bit to arrive."

>Do you wish to make any contingency plans before departing?

>>18659140
Uhmmmm...... if one of our team gets heavily damaged, the other two cover his retreat and then either jump out themselves or proceed with the mission?

>>18659140
Load our missile racks

>>18654984
>You are Sonia Reynard, Flight leader and Man at arms for the House of Jarik-Dremine. Your current ship is the Bittenfeld

Before we forget again lets attach our nukes.

The three of you head out from the fleet to a safe distance taking the time to plot the pair of jumps you'll need to to land you in the target system.

If you pushed the FTL drives to maximum cruising speed you could be there in five minutes but all that would do is make it painfully obvious you were coming. Fourty minutes after jumping out you arrive in system.
A blue-white giant star sits distant from one of the few planets in system, the one your flight is headed for.

"Alex is there anything on your sensors?" you ask.
"The radiation output from the star is cutting down on my range. This planet is in kinda close."

As you close in your wingman starts to get better readings.
"What little orbital infrastructure they had is destroyed. There's debris still in orbit from one station and maybe some freighters. Picking up an engine signature."

"What is it?"

"Still too far away... got it. Looks like a modified Kavarian Battlecruiser. It's left the wreckage and has begun jamming our long range coms. If there are ships on the surface I cant detect them."

Kavarian Battlecruisers are 1,200m wide warships that deal damage using a pair of large array type weapons that take up most of their forward profile. Most ships of this type have their weapons configured to act as a pair of large pulse weapons. They are fast for their size but you could outrun it for now. If you engage it you will not be able to retreat should you change you mind. your smaller ships are more maneuverable.

>>18659652
How likely is it that we could dodge the fire from its main weapons?

>>18659711
Yeah, how accurate are those guns?
And how effective is their jamming signal?

>>18659652
Let's not get into engagement range yet and see if we can detect anything else in the area.

When we do engage, make a head on pass to draw their frontal with our upgraded shield and pour it on with the spinal guns, then stay out of their arcs.

>>18659711
>>18659730
>Accuracy
Its weapons have a 30 degree arc but essentially count as a spinal mount weapon.
If it can get you into its forward arc its going to stand a good chance of landing some hits, especially on you since your ship is a bigger target. That said these things were not intended to hunt corvettes, Mike and Alex will stand a good chance at evading fire. Any hits though are going to hurt.

>Jamming
You'll have to jump out of the system in order to get your coms back. Say 2 light years distance.

>>18659652
>large array type weapons that take up most of their forward profile. Most ships of this type have their weapons configured to act as a pair of large pulse weapons

Do we have longer range on our large weapons than they do?

>>18659880
Your beam weapons out range theirs, but your pulse weapons are of similar range. Your torpedoes and missiles also out range their weapons.

>>18659951
Let's see how long we can keep them at stand-off range, then.

"Lets try and keep that thing at range and hit it with beams and torps. Alex, try and see what else you can pick up in system."

"Sure thing." Alex replies. You lead the squad in closer but not too close, making sure to stay at the maximum range of your beam weapons.
"Uh, pilot Reynard we may have a problem." Interrupts Kavos. "We only have 2 torpedoes. Firing from this range its going to take time to chip away at the shields of a ship like that, we should save them for if we make an attack run."

Your gunners open fire with their beam weapons, both your wingmen doing the same. Alex fires off the occasional torpedo but he's been collecting them for awhile now.

Roll 2d20 for scanning and weapons fire.

rolled 8 = 8

>>18660080
First roll.

rolled 1, 17 = 18

>>18660080

>>18660095
Changed your mind about a second roll?

>Scanning
>pic related

"If there is anything else out there I cant see it. I think there's a solar storm in progress."

The weapons fire from the three of you is doing damage you can tell that much but at the rate you're going it could be twenty minutes before the battlecruiser is forced to break off. The enemy ship isnt without options, and is using its aft phase cannon to plink away at you.

Continue shootery until the enemy eventually breaks off?

>>18660285
Continue shootery. Recommend all of us conserve torpedoes and missiles until they're of more use.

>>18660285
My browser crashed and when I was back >>18660097 second roll seemed rather okay.

The crew of the battlecruiser seem to come to the same conclusion you have about the long range fire fight and breaks off early on a course for the planet. The change in direction was sudden enough that it takes a moment for you and the others to change course and begin persuit.

"Dont close too fast it could be a trick to draw us into range." You warn the others.
"He's going to pull a slingshot around the planet looks like. What should we do?" Asks Mike.

>>18660457
Follow. Spread out, he could be leading us into a trap.

rolled 2 = 2

>>18660457
Have the smaller ships give chase and continue their harassment.

Can we have another scan of the system/planet?

>>18660535
>Can we have another scan of the system/planet?
>rolled 2 = 2
Nope.

"Watch your spacing but dont lose him." your order, keeping a close watch on the throttle as well as the distance and speed of the enemy.

"He's pulling a pritty tight orbit." Observes Alex as the group draws closer to the planet. You momentarily lose him around the horizon of the planet.

Roll 1d20 with your action

rolled 16 = 16

>>18660548
Try to calculate where he'll leave orbit.

>>18660650
So contune your persuit?

>>18660668
Yes. We will find the trap with our face.

>>18660668
I had hoped we could prepare an ambush with that data.

"Calculate the point where he'll leave orbit with that last course change." You order.

Linda begins punching in some of the data just as you start your own close orbit. You have just enough time to say "Stand by all missiles and torps." before you spot a red IFF indicator on your monitor where there shouldnt be one.

"Fuckers aerobraking!" yells Mike just before two energy pulses slam into your forward shield.
"Break! Break!' You shout, snapping off a shot with your pulse cannons and launching both missiles and torps.
Mike and Alex both pull away firing while you try to roll out, managing to only take half of the incoming fire. Your nuke volley momentarily blinds the enemy sensors allowing you to miss two more pairs of shots.
The larger ship thrusts up out of its lower orbit trying to keep you in its sights.

[ ] Continue your slingshot to get out of range?
[ ] Turn and fight?

in either event Roll 3d20

rolled 13 = 13

>>18660908
Try to get away from the planet. I don't feel good about using nukes in orbit.

First roll.

rolled 18 = 18

>>18660964
Second one.

rolled 13 = 13

>>18660970
And the final roll.

rolled 10, 11, 1 = 22

>>18660908
ENGAGE

>>18661005
or maybe don't I guess

>>18661005
>>18661026
So, changing your mind to running away?

>>18661056
Imma go with what the first guy said because the dicegods seem to favor him today.

brave sir robin ran away.mp3

"Tactial retreat! Continue the slingshot!" You order, increasing power to engines and aft shields. With the extra power and your attempts to junk the ship back and forth your shields hold up well against a couple of grazes. Mike and Alex each take some minor hits dropping their shields below half but managing to make it out okay.

The three of you dont slow down until you're well outside the weapons range of the bigger ship.

"Damage report?" you ask.
"Shields only and they came back up quickly. We only have one torpedo left though."
Mike and Alex both report that their shields are coming back up and will soon be at full.
"I've only got about five torpedoes left." Warns Alex.

>What do?

>>18661185
Charge the bastard head on and give him an Alpha Strike.

Our fancy shield should be able to take a hit or two. Once we pass or get even, stay out of his range or frontal arc and keep up the pressure.

>>18661185
Wait for the ship to leave the atmosphere, then hit it with everything we've got. Focus on the engines and where ever their jammer might be.

>What do?
Going to bed, probably.

>>18661231
>What do?
>Going to bed, probably.

Yeah I'm thinking the same thing. And as much as I'd like to pick this up in the morning first thing I have work. Any chance we can keep this bumped until tomorrow evening?

>>18661296
I'll give it a shot.

No promises, so you'd best archive it now anyway.

>>18661296
Can't promise anything but unless /tg/ speeds up considerably, it should be doable.

bump

bamp

BUMPITY

rolled 12 = 12

Quick note before I leave for work.

The battlecruiser is now in a medium orbit of the planet having left the upper atmosphere while in persuit of you. When the three of you escaped the Battlecruiser's weapons range the larger ship broke off into its current orbit.

'Trusting in god and praying for radar' roll

Bump.

BUMPITY

Bump

Still up? Awesome.

Everyone still in favor of attacking the battle cruiser?

>>18670591
yup

>>18665130
>'Trusting in god and praying for radar'
Seems like it works for people besides the brits.

"Sonia I managed to get a sensor scan of the surface." Alex informs you as the three of you come about. "Theres a Frigate just leaving the atmosphere carrying tons of drive components. They even strapped extra plates onto the outer hull. I think that battlecruiser is going to try and buy it time to escape."
In either case you'll have to fight your way past the bigger ship to get to the Frigate.

Emergency Thruster use: Do you want them used automatically in the event of a bad roll to add +4 to your dodge, or used only upon player input?

The enemy battlecruiser is going to be ready for you, if you close fast enough you might be able to get some more hits in before his shield finishes recharging.

Roll 3d20 for combat.

rolled 19 = 19

roll one

rolled 12 = 12

>>18670975
>Thrusters
At the DM's discretion

First roll.

rolled 3 = 3

roll three

rolled 12 = 12

>>18671005
Sorry, still had a 1d100 in the email field.

Re-rolling.

rolled 1 = 1

well that figure, one awesome roll, one crap roll

19, 3, 1
12, ?, ?

Other anon please keep rolling.

rolled 17 = 17

>>18671093
Okay. Roll 2.

rolled 13, 14, 9 = 36

>>18671093
Anon #3 here got you some dice.

rolled 16 = 16

>>18671100
And the third one.

>>18671093
So we have:
Namefag:
19, 3, 1
Anons:
12, 17, 16
13, 14, 9

>>18671121
Gonna ask for thruster use if that 1 ends up on a dodge

>>18671136
When rolling three dice, it's usually one per ship in our squad.
First is ours, don't know exactly which of the other dice are for Mike and Alex.

>8 days earlier...

>"Okay we've got an Attack Corvette fresh out of the shipyard and a few that have already been modified." says the quartermaster.
>"Do you have one with emergency thrusters?" Asks Mike.

>"Yeah sure kid, they're talking about making them standard issue on the newer ships. Just remember to watch it if you end up picking up an older ship later, the older hulls werent meant for them. It'll mean you'll need a lot of cross bracing added."

>Present
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUrJepxxxo4

As the three of you race in toward the enemy you and Mike take the worst of the fire. Your shields shrug off the damage even as you return fire with your own pulse cannons. A couple of bad hits knock down Mike's forward shield completely and you're more than a little woried when a pair of blue white explosions erupt from the side hull of his ship kicking it to the side. It causes enough of a course change to keep him from any more harm though. Your main shield fails and the backup kicks in just before you swing below the enemy ship. Hauling back on the controls and swinging the aft end of your ship around as much as you can starts to bring your around behind him.

Phase cannon fire from a pair of ball turrets hit you followed by a torpedo, apparently these things arent defenseless in their aft.

Weapons fire from all three of your ships pound away at the larger vessel as it attempts to come about. Tractor and repulsors from both your ships grapple in an attempt to either hold your position or pull the enemy into a better firing position.

Alex takes a torpedo hit and some beam fire but manages to hold on. Mike attempts strafing runs along the top and bottom of the cruiser with his twin linked beams, occasionally launching some of his missiles.
Slowly but surely your squad is gaining the upper hand and the enemy knows it. A second after your main shield comes back up the enemy reverses engines, trying to ram you as your persue. Pulling to the side your shields still graze each other's throwing you into your restraints. It takes a moment for everyone to reorient giving the cruiser time to drop your main shield with a few more heavy hits but Mike's weapons fire creates enough of a distraction letting you thrust to the side.

Rapid firing your guns into the same point in the shield Alex is firing the last of his torps into proves to be enough.
"Dorsal shield is down!" Yells Alex.
Bursts of fire from your pulse cannons detonate on the armor blasting a series of craters. Mike's main gun cuts a scar across the ship from one side to the other but he loses his shield again for his trouble and has to break off. Under the sustained fire of you and Alex the enemy's starboard pulse weapon explodes, but the Battlecruiser isnt out of the fight yet.

Roll 2d20 for persuit

rolled 14 = 14

>>18671647
First roll.

rolled 12 = 12

>>18671668
And the second one.

>>18671647
>>18671381
I swear to god I'm going to try and do a better job of spell checking these but I just dont like some of the settings in firefox.

>>18671728
Nice hat.

>>18671740
>Nice hat.
T.Hanks

The cruiser does its best to break off, putting power from its forward weapons to engines and aft shield. Sections of its armor and hull are still burning in places, leaving a debris tail of embers behind. Alex takes a torpedo and beam hit before deciding its best to let you take the lead.

"Mike how are you doing?" you ask while trying to dodge fire and keep your heavy pulse cannons from over heating.
"Shields overloaded a little bit, I'll be fine in a minute or two."

Your own shields are having a hard time keeping up as the cruiser drops a Torp into them as fast as its launcher can cycle. When the ships aft shield drops your gunners drill the launcher with all four beams. The surrounding sublight drives are struck by your pulse cannon fire and soon begin eating themselves as the reactors go super critical.

"Is that thing going to-"

The engines and reactors in the main body of the ship explode simultaneously, propelling the rest of the ship forward and a large cloud of debris towards you.

[ ] Reverse engines
[ ] Dodge
[ ] Forceful breakthrough

Roll 1d20

>>18672026

if we fire a torp into the debris and it triggers, would the detonation be enough to partially clear a path for our ship to punch thru? Could we manually destruct the torp via a failsafe or some other method if it doesn't connect to debris?

reserving vote/roll until info.

>>18672096
You are out of torps, you only requisitioned 2. I see no reason why that wouldnt have worked though.

>>18672096
We still have some of or nukes, right?

rolled 4 = 4

>>18672026
Gotta live up to our namesake

Rolling for Forceful breakthrough

>>18672131
Actually no, all the ones you had were in the launch racks and between firing off a bunch of them when ambushed and the head to head you're down to zero of those too. Sorry.
Everybody before seemed to want the nukes and torps spammed when you got into close combat and its not like they werent needed. They were.

rolled 4 = 4

>>18672026
Activate those PD turrets and dodge the fuck out of that stuff.

>>18672180
Bummer.

rolled 4 = 4

>>18672118

damn. did we at least reserve the torps for when the enemy's shields were down or did we waste them on shields?

Can we fire all of our weapons into the debris cloud instead? Possibly forcing a half-charged shot on slower weapons? Same idea as the torp, but with the intention to destroy anything large in our path.

If the above is possible, I vote fly thru the cloud, guns blazing along our path.

Trust in the ship and she won't fail you...

rolled 9 = 9

>>18672026
>[X] Reverse engines

And keep firing at the stuff that comes too close.

Have Alex and Mike pursue the fleeing ship, they should have less trouble with the debris thanks to their smaller ships.

>>18672158
>4
>>18672203
>4
>>18672215
>4

I think /tg/'s RNG is broken.

>>18672158
>>18672203
>>18672215
>4's, 4's everywhere

>>18672230
agreed. wtf dice?

Largest number of votes for flying through it/ forceful breakthrough

> did we at least reserve the torps for when the enemy's shields were down or did we waste them on shields?
You wasted them unloading enough fire into its shield at the same time as your wingmen that it dropped the shield.

>>18672230
>>18672258
Yes that is odd.

Putting as much power to the forward shield as you can you resolve to force your way through the debris. Which would be great if your hadnt already been putting a ton of power there already to deal with the incoming torpedo fire.

Shit.

Your deflection repulsors shove the worst of the debris away from the centerline of your ship but it cant handle all of it. The expanding gas cloud and tons of metal strike your shields like a bad hail storm, and the secondary shield momentarily cuts out pelting the outer hull armor. Your weapons take some minor hits but the shape of the hull was enough to reduce the impact in most places. The launch bay door is unharmed thanks to its location near the front deflectors.

When you break free of the cloud you spot the rest of the cruiser starting to drift out of control. Mike and Alex are already closing in on it disabling the remaning weapons. The sublight drives built into the outer tips of the wing body have gone to idle, cut off from bridge commands.

"Should we board it you think?" You ask the Chief.

"NO." he replies flatly. "The rest of that thing could explode and by the looks of it the FTL systems are shot. Heck depending on where the bridge is it might not even have one of those anymore."

The damage to the centeral section of the ship caused by the explosion is extreme but the tough armor of the bow is holding the rest of it together. Escape pods are now launching.

>>18672533
Send them a message that we won't attack any escape pods etc. so the crew can get off that death trap.

And then persue the fleeing ship, don't waste our time with the cruisers.

>>18672533
>Yes that is odd.

It's a 1 to 400 chance. Not that odd.

Don't waste time the cruiser pursue the freighter.

"Guys take care of the Frigate before it escapes!" You tell the others as you bypass the stricken cruiser.

Alex scans down the ship which is now more than a half million km away.
"It's getting ready to jump and we're too far out of range to intercept. There's no way we could stop it in time." Alex informs you.

[ ] Try to calculate where the ship is jumping to (Roll 1d100)
[ ] rescue escape pods
[ ] scan surface facilities
[ ] other
[ ] some combination?

rolled 13 = 13

>>18672729
Alright Linda, time to shine. Put that shiny new chair to good use.

rolled 45 = 45

>>18672729
Try to calculate where the ship is jumping to. Begin rescue operations and have the ship with the sensor package start scanning the planet.

rolled 61 = 61

Calculate.

rolled 77 = 77

>>18672729
>[X] Try to calculate where the ship is jumping to (Roll 1d100)

1d100 - on /tg/.
Oh my god.

There's a momentary bright light of subspace tearing as the ship jumps and then its gone.

"Linda?"
"I think I have a rough idea where they're headed assuming they dont double back. They're already outside the range of our subspace sensors. Even the ones on Mr Palaiologos' ship wouldnt be able to track them far."

She sends you a list of six star systems along the flight path. You'll have to send that in to the Lieutenant. Oh, the jamming is down, contact him now? You could probably inform the salvage fleet of the wrecked ship, though there'd be no point putting a salvage claim on something that wrecked.

"Alex check out the surface instalations see if there's anything left. Mike, you have Marines aboard right?"
"Sure do."
"Start snagging the escape pods, there's no safe place to land in this system." You turn your chair back to face Kavos. "Chief, launch our shuttles to help recover the escape pods. We should have room in our bay for them."

"Understood. I'll tell the engineers to convert a room or two into an additional brig."

>>18672968
We should probably try to contact the planet first.

rolled 315 = 315

Alex reports back a half hour later.
"The surface settlements look badly wrecked. Not by orbital bombardment, they were likely just ripped apart for scrap. If there were any survivors of the initial raids they're long dead. Surface temperatures are in excess of 200°C from the solar radiation. If it wasnt for the atmosphere being so thin mining operations would be pritty damn hard."

"What about the mines?"
"They look mostly intact but the support buildings have been ripped off and the remaining equipment is exposed. It's a mess but some HLV's with new gear should be able to get it operational again. I couldnt find any signs of a remaining drive component stockpile, though there might be some underground."


Marines start bringing escape pods aboard.

Marine Sgt Ki contacts you fron the launch bay. "We've only just brought the first few bunch of survivors onboard but I can tell you right now we dont have enough people or room to hold them safely. If all of the escape pods have as many people aboard as this bunch we're looking at a little over three hundred enemy crew."

>Your orders? Contact the fleet?

>>18673228
Yeah, I guess it's time to call the boss.

>>18673228
At least tractor the other pods away from the wreck, just in case it blows up even worse.

>>18673228
while we wait for additional forces, will the escape pods have oxygen for the people aboard?

if not, I say we put as many as we can into brigs (consult marines on when to stop taking additional life pods in), then we either deliver oxygen tanks or additional filters to what pods we can, if possible.

our crew comes first, no matter what.

"The pods should have consumables for a couple of weeks. Well air and water anyways. We'll do checks on them and take aboard the ones that have damage. I'd also like the damage control teams to suit up and arm themselves to help keep things under control."
"Will do Sergeant. See if you can keep the pods away from that wreck." you respond.

The situation aboard Mike's ship is similar or worse. The brig aboard his ship is only large enough for a dozen people at max capacity.

Realising you're in over your head just for prisoner capacity alone you call up the LT. Your hail over subspace coms take only a few seconds before you get a response. For a moment you can hear a couple of voices in the background arguing a bit before the video connects.

"-no I'm not bored. How are things treating you Flight Leader?" Your CO asks. You rapidly fill him in on the situation.

"Sounds like the engineers are going to have a field day. Rebuilding the infrastructure of a rare element mining world is beyond the ability of our battlegroup. I'll pass it up the chain of command and they can deal with it. Meanwhile I'll get some Frigates out there to take those prisoners aboard and old the system until fleet command decides who to send in along with the salvage fleet.
Good job taking out that Cruiser, I'm surprised you didnt send one of your wingmen back to get help. I'll let you know if intel gets anything useful out of that jump data. Sylvan out."

Two and a half hours later the Lieutenant jumps into the system along with a handfull of frigates. After spending an hour shuttling over the prisoners you'd taken your flight is ordered back to the fleet.

"Get some rest and repairs, thats an order." your CO tells you.

>End

>>18673571
Nice. It's been fun like always. See you next week.