>>2370083
>Just amazing, you can't compliment him enough.

>>2370083
>>Just amazing, you can't compliment him enough.

>>2370083
>>Just amazing, you can't compliment him enough.

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>>2370083
>Just amazing.

"They're great, really. I can't say enough how excellent they are."

"Excellent!" Flavius' shard definitely carries his pride, as his icon shines like the sun. "I'll be sure to let myself know when I re-integrate. And I have to say, lad, getting these humans out from Olympus was a damn smart thing the Grandmaster did. I'd be puzzling over this stuff to no end if it wasn't for them."

"So why are you here, to test the new ship?" You can't help your curiosity.

"More or less, more or less." A little more secretive than usual, it seems. Or maybe the shard just doesn't know. "Anyway, I've got some things for you from home. We brought reinforcements from home, and some new things we've cooked up, and I even have a surprise for you! Which do you want to see first?"

>Upgrades.
>Reinforcements.
>The surprise.

>>2370185
>The surprise.

>>2370185
>>Reinforcements.

>>2370185
>The surprise.

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>>2370185
>The surprise.

Well definitely the surprise. Who doesn't like surprises? Well, actually you don't like the surprises the Legion keeps springing on you. But still.

"What have you got for me now, then?"

"These." Flavius' shard declares just as proudly as a tug eases something out from one of the freighters. It's... a fighter? Maybe. It's much bulkier than one of your grav-fighters, but looks somewhat similar. "I've finally gotten the antimatter pulse torpedo onto a frame small enough to put in your carriers. I call them grav-bombers."

"That's amazing!" You declare, suitably impressed as you link into its systems. It uses the same singularity projector as your fighters, but only carries a single weapon, the pulse torpedo. A packet of antimatter thrown close to lightspeed in a magnetic bottle. The bomber is basically either the containment assembly and firing mechanism or the drive. It looks like they have a similar punch to the experimental destroyer you inhabited once upon a time- enough to core a Legion cruiser or cripple a battleship.

"You asked about them, and I made them. However, their plants take over an hour to generate enough antimatter to make a strike package. What's more, I've only got one squadron for now, these twelve. I made them special-like just for you, it'll take a while for me to set up an actual line for 'em. So be careful."

Unfortunately, you don't have enough room to carry the bombers without transferring some of your existing fighters out.

>Swap some of your fighters out to load the bombers.
>Leave the bombers in Bastion until Flavius can set up production.

>>2370314
>>Swap some of your fighters out to load the bombers.

>>2370314
>>Swap some of your fighters out to load the bombers.

>>2370314
>>Swap some of your fighters out to load the bombers.
These things can't have much range. If we want them to survive an encounter, we need to stun any enemy we want to hit with them first.

>>2370314
What if we have our fighters sit on the outside of our hull and put the bombers inside?

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>>2370346
Well you could, but then you wouldn't be able to properly launch, rearm, or refuel them.

>>2370314
>Load the bombers boyo

With some idle jockeying, you manage to load the bombers onto your star carrier- they won't actually fit on your smaller escort carriers.

>New grav-fighter count: 192
>New grav-bomber count: 12

"Make sure you get some combat data back to me. Always useful for improving systems." Flavius' shard comments.

"Roger that."

"Now then, would you like to see what experimental stuff I have for you? I can wait until you've talked to Darius about ships instead if you need."

>Upgrades.
>Reinforcements.

>>2370363
>Reinforcements

>>2370363
>>Reinforcements.

>>2370363
>>Upgrades.

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>>2370363
>Reinforcements

"Probably best I see about more ships. I lost a few on the last mission."

"Fair enough, I'll be here."

You sign off the channel, and watch the activity unfolding for a few minutes. Several tugs ease a pair of station units together, and a drone nanofuses them together. Looks like they're assembling some kind of fabricator. Well, anyway. Bastion Station is only a few million miles away, so you fire off a message laser to the Abbot asking about reinforcements. Then you wait patiently. A little longer than 20 seconds later, you get a message back- plain text, obviously.

"Still debriefing the humans. Most reinforcements taken by other Knight-brothers leaving to search for Knight-brother Rubin. This is what's left, but note that most are newly-arrived or in repairs."

>Choose two types of reinforcements, or one type twice (if available). See pastebin for ship details and your own ship count.

Star carrier (1) with fighter complement (0 available)
Escort carrier division (2) with fighter complement (0 available)
Battleship division (2) (1 available)
Battlecruiser division (3) (1 available)
Cruiser squadron (6) (2 available)
Destroyer flotilla (8) (2 available)

Well, it's better than nothing. Still a hell of a lot less than you might like.

>>2370486
>Battleship division (2) (1 available)
>Battlecruiser division (3) (1 available)

The best armor is… more armor.

>>2370363
>Well you could, but then you wouldn't be able to properly launch, rearm, or refuel them.

But we could keep them around as spares, right? Or can our carriers produce replacements so fast it won't matter?

>>2370486
what's our current fleet composition?

>>2370486
>Battleship division (2) (1 available)
>Cruiser squadron (6) (2 available)

>>2370502
Your carriers overall make 8 new fighters per day, yes.

>>2370507
From the pastebin:
TASK FORCE DAUNTLESS
Star Carrier (CV): 1
Battleships (BB): 2
Battlecruisers (BC): 6
Escort Carriers (CVE):6
Cruisers (CR): 7
Destroyers (DD): 10
Grav-fighters (GF): 192
Grav-bombers (GB): 12
Auxiliaries (AX): 2

>>2370486
>Battleship division (2) (1 available)
>Cruiser squadron (6) (2 available)

Wish we could afford another rein, but this is best utility.

>>2370498
>>2370508
Armor is great, but the battlecruisers will leave them behind in any hard maneuvering. I guess it doesn't matter that much with the star carrier though...

>>2370486
Cruiser squadron (6) (2 available)
Destroyer flotilla (8) (2 available)
Our escort screen is looking a little thin.
Hey pixel, did you ever get around to working up the max acceleration for the various classes?

>>2370486
>>>2370486
Cruiser squadron (6), Destroyer flotilla (8)
We need to beef up our screen.

>>2370486
Cruiser squadron (6) (2 available)
Destroyer flotilla (8) (2 available)

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>>2370525
I did actually, but just in my notes, not on the pastebin. I'll try and remember to add them after I finish this week's thread.

>>2370486
Okay, it looks like there's overwhelming in favour of boosting up your screen.
>Cruiser squadron, destroyer flotilla

You ponder briefly, but your screen is rather thin in places, so that seems like the best option. You send your choice back to the Abbot. Twenty seconds, and his reply comes back. Several of the cruisers are in for repairs it seems, but the rest are undergoing replenishment and will be seconded to you shortly.

>Updated ship count:
Cruisers: 13
Destroyers: 18

A couple of them are almost a year old, actually, having been laid down at the start of the conflict. That's a surprisingly long lifetime for screening ships. Shame you can't get anything newer. With that sorted, however, you contact Flavius' shard again.

>Choose an upgrade! Check the pastebin for previous upgrades, I don't want to post them all.
>Offence Tier 1
Plasma turrets: Made from reverse-engineered Legion technology, these dorsal turrets are capable of absolutely shredding through armour. However, they have atrocious range, less than half a light-second, which brings you into range of the similar weapons aboard the Legion ships.. Affects capital ships.
Charged Particle Broadside: These highly experimental energy mounts theorised by human researchers from Olympus replace your lasers and grasers. They have a similar range, but hit substantially harder and should do far more damage to the strange laser-drinking hull material of the enemy. However, the power drain is substantial and as such can only be mounted on larger ships. Affects all capital ships.
Bolt-on missile pods: With the new missile pods, Flavius is able to construct a 'flatpack' design that can be bolted onto your dorsal and ventral hull. They have slightly bigger missiles than your own broadside, and each side can be either flushed for a single massive salvo, or used to thicken your own salvos. Affects capital ships.

cont.

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>>2370600
>Defence Tier 3- final upgrade!
Fighter countermeasures: This broad upgrade gives your fighters upgraded ECM and jamming capabilities as well as each a few counter-missile munitions. Their individual ECM is not very impressive, but when augmenting that of your ships it makes your more valuable vessels a much harder target. However, their CM missiles can also be used offensively at relativistic speeds, the compressed lead granules carried by the warheads act as sandblasters that seriously degrade Legion sensors and weapons. Affects fighters.
Dirty nuke launchers: An upgrade as quick and dirty as the warheads they carry, simple box launchers on your lighter vessels loaded with human-made missiles that can temporarily scramble Legion targeting sensors, both ship and missile-mounted. They also have some utility as an anti-fighter defensive measure. However, they have nowhere near the range of your main shipboard missiles. Affects screen vessels.
Gravitic shields: Along with defensive screens, the human researchers working at Forge have discovered a way to mount reverse-engineered Legion gravity drives on Order vessels. These devices can warp space in a tightly confined area around the ship. While this may someday allow an upscaled singularity projector, for now when patched into tactical systems it can be used to warp space just ahead of an incoming projectile, folding it in on itself and away from the ship. However, they require massive reserves of power, and therefore can only be mounted on ships with zero-point energy plant. Affects capital ships.


>Sensors Tier 1
Grav-pulse Recon Drones: Experimental drones fitted with a directional grav pulse emitter that effectively enables FTL recon capability within a system. However, the drones are quite large and ungainly, with only limited stealth. Moreover, their rate of transmission is extremely limited without further upgrades. All capital ships carry 2 drones each.
Grav sensors: After discovering Legion ships use some sort of drive that changes the gravity in the immediate vicinity of the ship to propel themselves, Flavius created grav sensors small enough to fit into capital ships. Passively increases Legion ship detection and lock-on. Affects capital ships.
Tachyon ping: Similar to the active sonar ping of ancient history, a tachyon projector is fitted to the bow of the vessel. When fired, these tachyons bounce off whatever they hit, giving a real-time glimpse at a system. However, it is relatively easy to trace back to the projecting vessel. Projector affects your ship, all ships can detect.

>Support
Maxed out.

>Choose an upgrade!

>>2370603
>Charged Particle Broadside: These highly experimental energy mounts theorised by human researchers from Olympus replace your lasers and grasers. They have a similar range, but hit substantially harder and should do far more damage to the strange laser-drinking hull material of the enemy. However, the power drain is substantial and as such can only be mounted on larger ships. Affects all capital ships.

>>2370603
>>Defence Tier 3- final upgrade!
>Dirty nuke launchers
Gives us the ability to open a brief window for a knockout punch. It should mesh well with the new bombers, giving them an opening to exploit without getting shredded.

>>2370603
>Gravitic shields

>>2370603
Tachyon ping: Similar to the active sonar ping of ancient history, a tachyon projector is fitted to the bow of the vessel. When fired, these tachyons bounce off whatever they hit, giving a real-time glimpse at a system. However, it is relatively easy to trace back to the projecting vessel. Projector affects your ship, all ships can detect.
With some of the battles we fight, it be useful to get real time info on some battles, like when we want up to date info on our fighters that we sent off, or a battle group we split from.

>>2370603
>>2370619
In the case of a tie, I'll swap to
>Tachyon ping
seeing as we're 1-1-1-1 at the moment.

>>2370603
Gravitic shields: Along with defensive screens, the human researchers working at Forge have discovered a way to mount reverse-engineered Legion gravity drives on Order vessels. These devices can warp space in a tightly confined area around the ship. While this may someday allow an upscaled singularity projector, for now when patched into tactical systems it can be used to warp space just ahead of an incoming projectile, folding it in on itself and away from the ship. However, they require massive reserves of power, and therefore can only be mounted on ships with zero-point energy plant. Affects capital ships.

We need to improve our ship survival rate. The Legion's growing a lot of teeth.

>>2370603
Okay, I left a little longer than normal to make sure, but it looks like a tie, so let's do a tie-breaker vote!
>Gravitic shields
>Tachyon ping

>>2370714
>>Tachyon ping

>>2370714
>>Gravitic shields

>>2370714
Gravitic shields

>>2370714
>Tachyon ping

>>2370714
>Tachyon ping

>>2370714
>Gravitic shields
I'm gonna choose this, mainly because I like it over the other and was too late for the vote

>>2370787
>>2370738
>>2370765

I'm not sure why the tachyon ping is getting votes. It doesn't help us lock on, just tells us where in the system the Legion is. If they have anything more than ECM boats we can see them, but we can't lock on in combat so a lot of our shots are wasted.

It really seems like the ping does little for us.

>>2370786
Well why don't we get dorsal turrets and use them as point defense weapons?

The gravity shields are a more energy consuming and less effective for the same goal.

>>2370791
For direct combat maybe, but for strategy and tactics we can use it for reorienting our battle group or changing tactics or directions.

>>2370786
Also there's the fact that the legion is starting to snipe ships with cores, like how it tried to snipe one of our BCs (which was the ship class we were on before moving).
A unique ship with a new functionality might stand out.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>2370714
Okay well since the votes are still perfectly balanced, I guess I'm rolling a tie.
Odds for shields, evens for ping.

>>2370793
We're getting an early form of something that's being continuously worked on. The fighters and bombers we have now are evidence of how much long-term investment pays off.

They're also not prohibitively energy costly, just too costly to put on screen vessels in current form. Our shields have helped in the past, we should keep investing in improving them.

>>2370799

I don't know how painting a target on our backs is useful for reorienting the task force, changing tactics, or directions. It's not improved thrusters, it's a scanner that reveals our location to the entire system immediately.

When we jump in, we can see everything that's been sitting still without being seen ourselves. This will just make us instantly visible.

>>2370801

They've been trying to get cores from the start. There was an order AI the legion impersonated during our interrogation.

I don't know how making ourselves really visible will help with that. The only way to prevent them from knowing our location is to keep moving the core from ship class to ship class so they don't have any reliable intel on where we'll be.

>>2370810
I mean, I was the initial tiebreaker when it was one person for four initial options but don't let that stop you OP ~

>>2370811
Grav shields have a bit of a grind to get really good, I'd have prefer dorsal turrets but no one ever goes for it.

We see everything that's a few hours old.

With the ping we see everything in real time, and its not like they get a perfect lock on us either, just enough to know we are there any what direction.

>>2370834
I expect the enemy's just going to start retrofitting tachyon scanners to every jump point installation and scout drone soon enough. They adopted missiles pretty fast.

After tachyon scanning, we'll be likely to see the adoption of FTL tachyon comms. At that point we'll only need to be painted by one target for them to spread the information to anyone operating in the system and beyond.

We brought them to a point where they decided to adopt missiles because of their effectiveness. This is a choice with a lot of drawbacks. Shields offered none.

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>>2370811
To clarify, the tachyon ping can be traced to reveal your battlegroup's position, but unless the enemy is particularly close then they won't be able to tell which ship it's coming from. Though, I mean, your core is in the biggest ship you have in your fleet, so it's probably not too hard of a guess for them.
Also, somebody else switched their vote!

>>2370810
>Gravitic shields unlocked!

"I was definitely hoping you'd pick that." Flavius' shard remarks. "Because I made sure to bring along the generator prototypes. It'll take a while to install all of them, though."

"Not like I'm going anywhere." You reply.

The shard Flavius sent might be of limited purview, but it seems to be just as good when it comes to refitting ships. One by one, your carriers, battleships and battlecruisers are fitted with the gravitic shields over the course of the next three weeks. It turns out that the Abbot planned to keep you down for that amount of time anyway, keeping your battlegroup close to Bastion along with the two human fleets in order to send out every single knight-brother he can spare to scour the systems surrounding Bastion for traces of Rubin. Day by day, the periodic Legion assaults on Bastion continue, fleets and flotillas jumping in to be smashed by the shoals of missile pods surrounding each jump point.

The constant attacks start to wear on Bastion's munitions stockpile if nothing else, to the point that you start to wonder if the Legion plan is to simply overwhelm you with more ships than you have missiles. But, as luck or God would have it, the day after your last battlecruiser is fitted with a shield generator a high-speed courier drone flashes into Bastion system. It transmits its vital cargo of information as soon as it arrives, which reaches the Abbot after several more hours of flitting through the void.

"We have a situation." He tells you, as soon as you've linked into his comm request. "Rubin has been found... after a Legion force hailed one of our knight-brothers to pass on a message." He pauses for so long that even a human might be able to pick up onto it. "Dauntless, this message... it's asking for you specifically. And it's from Abbot Zusya."

>>2370870
>Also, somebody else switched their vote!
Conditionally, if there was no other tiebreaker. I was said tiebreaker. Why bother voting at all ~

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And on that, we'll be finishing for this week! I'm sorry the thread is so much shorter than normal but I've been planning this cliff-hanger for a while.

Instead, I'll stick around for a while so you can ask me questions about upgrades or whatever.

>>2370852
Whats to stop us from blowing up their scanners then? If they go through the trouble of planting devices all over the galaxy just for us, then we should go for it since it massively wastes their time and resources, but I doubt they are gonna go through all the trouble just for us, unless the rest of the order ships start using tachyon pings en mass.

Its not a passively active device, Heck we can stick it on a runner, like a destroyer or cruiser if we are worried about getting singled out.

>At that point we'll only need to be painted by one target for them to spread the information to anyone operating in the system and beyond.
I don't really understand what your saying here. Are you worried that they will know what ship our core is on, and imply they would use tachyon communications to spread that info? if so then they would run into the potential problems you mentioned from using tachyons too.

Shields drain a lot of power and can only be put on our bigger ships.

>>2370875
Would dorsal turrets be put on all the ships or only some?

When we pick a upgrade, unless specified, like Bolt-on missile pods, are they only applied to the ship we have our core on? If so, then does that mean our previous upgrades were left on our old battleship, and thus was the reason it was targeted due to the visible upgrades?

>>2370882
They have a dyson sphere. Their resources are sufficient to invade volumes of space that it takes multiple orders to try and patrol. They outdo our strategic capabilities by orders of magnitude.

If they integrate a new tech, it's not gonna be a waste for them. There are huge benefits to having an instantaneous communications system for coordinating their forces.

>>2370887
The upgrades all affect the ships that it says- capital ships means your carriers, battleships and battlecruisers, while screening vessels means your cruisers and destroyers.

I think all the offence upgrades only affect your capital ships for now.

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>>2370870
>And it's from Abbot Zusya
Wait. As far as I remember he died
>after a Legion force hailed one of our knight-brothers to pass on a message
What the fuck

>>2371351
They've impersonated Order AIs before. They've also captured us and have likely attempted to capture others.

>>2371368
I meant as in hailing us directly rather than in a disguise while we were 'knocked out.
The hailing part I mean, not the abbot part.