>>3302441

A hit that your damage control officer had failed to report to you when you asked for a full list of damage. You’d have to ask him about that later. He probably just missed it, but you needed to make sure that he was on the ball with stuff like that. You shoved the thought to the back of your mind as you entered the bridge, and immediately noticed your XO sat in the captain’s chair. Your chair.

“Enjoying the view Dyad?” You asked your XO as you came up behind her. She sat with her legs crossed one over the other, and the seat reclined back further than you had originally set it.

“I can see why people work so hard to get it.” Dyad beamed up at you, an almost playful tone in her voice. She chuckled to herself, before getting up and making room for you.

“Thank you, what happened while I was away?” You questioned the lieutenant commander, wanting her to fill you in on the happenings in the local area.

“Both salvage teams have re-boarded the jackal raider and are examining what is left. Though reports indicate that they aren’t fining much still in one piece. Longsword squadron alpha has arrived in our immediate area and bravo squadron’s damaged fighter has landed in her hanger bay for repairs. That leaves us with a total of five longswords out. Though alpha squadron is requesting permission to recover and refuel.” Dyad dutifully reported, you nodded throughout, taking everything she was reporting. “No contacts on sensors and no slipspace ruptures detected. Everything is silent, we haven’t even seen anything from the Surigao Strait and the jackals still onboard.”

Well, on the plus side it meant that you were in no rush to take a decision. Still the fact that your parent formation hadn’t shown up was still concerning.

>Remain in place, lick your wounds and let your longswords refuel while the salvage team continues their search.
>Move your frigate over to the Surigao Strait, you want your marines to clear out the jackals onboard.
>Move your frigate out of the debirs field, you are done here for now.
>Other (write in)

>>3302455
>Remain in place, lick your wounds and let your longswords refuel while the salvage team continues their search.

Glad to see this back in action.

>>3302455
>Remain in place, lick your wounds and let your longswords refuel while the salvage team continues their search.

>>3302455
>>Remain in place, lick your wounds and let your longswords refuel while the salvage team continues their search.

“Nav, keep us in position here. Aviation, I want you to order all remaining longswords back to the ship to refuel and rearm if needed. Damage-control, have repair teams hurry up with their repairs. You have clearance to deploy our repair drones to assist them if needed.” You handed out your orders to the bridge crew, you were not in a rush to do anything else. The jackals on the Surigao Strait would suffocate in time, and from there you could just pick at their corpses.

“Sir, we don’t actually have any drones embarked.” Zaied pointed out, before ordering your squadron back to the ship.

Looking through the ship’s inventory, it didn’t take you too long to find where your drones should have been listed. However, all twelve launch silos were empty. A footnote listed that due to supply constraints, the work on the ship’s drone facilities had been cancelled and left uncompleted. Thus leaving you in a fitted-for, but not with situation, where you would need to return to port to have the facilities fitted. And given the cobbled-together nature of your current deployment, you would probably be waiting a while before you had those assets released to you.

You silently cursed, this was a handicap that would have some serious repercussions. You were about to ask your XO if she knew anything about what caused the supply issue that had deprived you of your drones, when the ship’s computer shattered the relative silence on the bridge.

“SLIPSPACE RUPTURE DETECTED! SLIPSPACE RUPTURE DETECTED!” The computer crowed as the system detected two objects decelerating from slipspace. Thankfully, the sheer amount of radiation put out by an arrival made it fairly easy to pinpoint new arrivals, even at very long ranges.

“Two slipspace ruptures detected!” Your sensor officer reported a second after switching off the automated alarm. “Signatures match the UNSC Adelaide and the UNSC Concord Hymn. Though their approach vector is off significantly.”

“Comms, hail the UNSC Adelaide immediately!” You barked to your communications officer as Dyad returned to her post just behind your seat. A couple of seconds later, a holographic screen snapped into life over the primary viewport, showing you the inside of a UNSC destroyer’s bridge. Crewmen darted around, but your eyes were set on the man in the captain’s chair. A man almost double your age if the dossier was correct. But the years seemed to have been kind to him.

“Ah! Commander Wells!” Captain Petrovich of the UNSC Adelaide beamed at you. A thick Russian accent coated his voice. Though that didn’t really narrow down where he had came from. Many planets had sizable Russian populations afterall, though that tended to be because most Russians weren’t too picky when it came to what worlds they set up on. “I am sorry that we are late. There has been a bit of a delay.”

>CONT

>>3302698

>Ask about what caused the delay, you want to know if you are about to get a visit from something a lot more powerful than a single raider.
>Give your report on your current situation, findings and your newest passenger.
>Other (write in)

>>3302698
>Ask about what caused the delay, you want to know if you are about to get a visit from something a lot more powerful than a single raider.
Giving our superior a chance to speak first is most likely the best way to handle this. Not like the covie is going anywhere.

>>3302702
>Ask about what caused the delay, you want to know if you are about to get a visit from something a lot more powerful than a single raider.

Can the alien make us some drones?

>>3302698
>Ask about what caused the delay, you want to know if you are about to get a visit from something a lot more powerful than a single raider.

>>3302698
>>Ask about what caused the delay, you want to know if you are about to get a visit from something a lot more powerful than a single raider.

>>3302698
>Ask about what caused the delay, you want to know if you are about to get a visit from something a lot more powerful than a single raider.

>>3302702
>>Ask about what caused the delay, you want to know if you are about to get a visit from something a lot more powerful than a single raider.

Dice wise, i'm a fan of best of 3 systems, they've worked well in my experience

“Can I ask what the issue was sir?” You probed, hoping that you would get some answers.

“We were diverted to support a UNSC supply ship that was under attack by a jackal raiding group. We slipspaced in but the ship had been boarded before we arrived. The raiders were still there, so we chased them off before they could destroy the supply ship. All in all, nothing too interesting.” The captain waved his hand dismissively as he gave his short explanation, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. Something that you certainly hoped was not the case.

“Will that affect our orders here sir?” You asked, you were already in the debris field, so you weren’t in the best position to immediately slipspace jump out.

“That depends entirely on if covenant vessels are encountered here.” The captain clarified, before further adding. “I want you to rendezvous with us. Heightened raiding attacks are usually a precursor to a budding deployment of covenant warships. And I want the wolfpack gathered up just in case we get some unexpected guests. Plus it will allow the fleet’s AI to better coordinate fire.”

“Yes sir, I’ll head right over.” You acknowledged your order with a nod, earning you a grin from your superior officer.

“Atta-boy. Adelaide, signing off.” Petrovich cut the call on his end, leaving you with your orders.

>Take a detour to kill off the jackals on the Surigao Strait, you don’t have the option to wait around anymore.
>Follow orders and immediately rendezvous with the fleet, you can leave the jackals to choke.
>Other (write in)

>>3302938
>>Take a detour to kill off the jackals on the Surigao Strait, you don’t have the option to wait around anymore.
Tell them we need to clean up our mess first
good to see the quest up again, love me some Halo quests

>>3302945
+1

>>3302938
>Take a detour to kill off the jackals on the Surigao Strait, you don’t have the option to wait around anymore.

>>3302938
>Take a detour to kill off the jackals on the Surigao Strait, you don’t have the option to wait around anymore.
See if we can take more prisoners, or if the ship has any repair drones.

>>3302938
>Take a detour to kill off the jackals on the Surigao Strait, you don’t have the option to wait around anymore.

>>3302938
>Take a detour to kill off the jackals on the Surigao Strait, you don’t have the option to wait around anymore.

Gotta be thorough

File: dead halcyon.png (264 KB, 620x620)

264 KB PNG

“Damage control, are any of the damage control teams currently on EVA?” You asked your damage control officer. You needed to make sure that there was nobody climbing on your outer hull when you ordered the ship to move. You had the reasons why moving a ship while EVA repairs were underway hammered into you back in the academy. And most of the time that hammer was made of ample documentation -both reports, camera footage and audio logs- of what happened when a multi-thousand metric ton starship was moved when someone was lashed onto the exterior of the ship by little more than a cable and some mag-boots.

“Negative sir, they are currently working on fixing internal damage and preparing for EVA repairs once we are out of the debirs field.” Your damage control officer responded, assuaging your worries about accidentally killing someone.

“Very good. Nav, take us back to the Surigao Strait, there are some birds that we need to clean up. Aviation, recall the salvage teams from the raider.” You gave your orders to the rest of the bridge crew, and they quickly began working on

“Taking the time to be through sir? Or are you just hoping to get a coupe more crates worth of salvage?” Dyad asked with a playful tone. But even then, you recognised what she was asking about.

“Killing aliens if a benefit all of its own.” You grinned back as the Dawn’s Early Light began to turn away from the dead raider.

Within half an hour, the Surigao Strait filled the bridge’s viewport. A quick check of your screen and a flick through the cruiser’s security camera system confirmed that the jackals onboard were still there. They were obviously oblivious to what had been going on outside, and the fact that their dropship hadn’t returned.

From so close, you had only two options. You couldn’t fire off any kind of missile due to the micro-debris in the area and your MAC gun was still recharging. This left you with only a boarding action, or a broadside with the frigate’s 50mm point defence gun turrets. The former option would leave the ship -and everything that the jackals had scavenged from nearby ships- intact along with most of their gear. Not to mention whatever remained hard-locked into the []’s hull. However, the second option saved you time, and didn’t expose your marines to deadly enemy fire for what was essentially scrap.

>Deploy a marine squadron to wipe out the jackals. You want to get as much as you can from them and the ship.
>Pull up close and shred the area with your point defence guns, there is nothing worth risking lives over.
>Other (write in)

>>3303194
>>Pull up close and shred the area with your point defence guns, there is nothing worth risking lives over.

>>3303194
>>Pull up close and shred the area with your point defence guns, there is nothing worth risking lives over.

>>3303194
>Pull up close and shred the area with your point defence guns, there is nothing worth risking lives over.

>>3303194
>Deploy a marine squadron to wipe out the jackals. You want to get as much as you can from them and the ship.

I can't help it. I'm greedy.

>>3303194
>Deploy a marine squadron to wipe out the jackals. You want to get as much as you can from them and the ship.
They aren't expecting it, flash bang and dynamic entry. Fill the room with atmosphere.

>>3303194
>>Pull up close and shred the area with your point defence guns, there is nothing worth risking lives over.

You abstained from you choice for a second, just long enough to take a look at the damage to the ship, and to check it’s last logged inventory. The clarion spy drone and the gygis repair and servicing drone were both old pieces of tech, new when the Surigao Strait had been built and commissioned, but still around now. And since their design hadn’t changed all too much externally, it stood to reason to see if the stricken cruiser actually had any of the little drones lying dormant.

When you found out that it was not the case, your decision was made.

“Nav, bring the ship alongside the Surigao Strait, close range. Weapons, orient the ship’s point defence guns to fire on any parts of the vessel that contain enemy signitures once we are alongside the ship. You may fire when ready.” You ordered, before switching your command console to view pictures from within the cruiser. You felt your seat shift as Dyad leaned over to watch as you engorged both your morbid curiosity and a far itch as well.

Afterall, with the link to the dead ship’s security cameras, you had a perfect window to see the effects of your decision.

The first sign that the jackals had of their impending deaths was when the ship began to violently shake. The massive mounds of loot that they had piled up were thrown around as the grav-plating that was already on it’s last legs began to fail. You watched with an amused smile as a large computer stack fell directly on top of one jackal, in a scene that was almost right out of a cartoon. The weight of the stacked hardware crushed the frail avian body under its bulk in spite of the semi-armoured EVA suit worn by the jackal. Another raider fell and bashed its head against a particularly pointy piece of warship grade radiation plating. It was more than enough to shatter the alien’s large visor and vent all the air around the beast’s head. You watched as it silently screamed and gasped for air that just wasn’t there.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t have to wait long for death to come.

By the time the first rounds punched into the room, they had been long de-capped. But instead they brought a halo of shrapnel in their wake, that punctured through the floor in many places at once before either being embedded in the ceiling or bouncing around until they embedded into something softer. The visor-less jackal was the first to die as a 50mm shell burst through the deck just before it and brought a hail of shrapnel through the hole. Many pieces of the shrapnel bounced off the ceiling and showered into the back of the jackal. Whatever armour and internal systems within the suit not being enough to stop fragments of titanium A battle armour and various structural metals.

>CONT

>>3303794

Within seconds of that first shell puncturing into the room, many dozens of shells followed its example and made their appearances. You witnessed at least one jackal literally explode from the force exerted on it as the shell passed through it. A second after that, the first shell with it’s fuse intact burst into the far-side of the room and detonated, sending everything flying.

The last shot ever taken by the camera you were looking through was of a room in absolute pandemonium, and a single 50mm VF-APHES shell in the vacuum less than a meter away from it. The shell was so close that almost every detail could be seen, from the large scratch-marks from where the shell had burst through armour, to the identification number wrapped around its tip. Almost the instant after that image was taken, the shell detonated, destroying the camera and your window into the charnel house that was once the UNSC Surigao Strait’s primary mess hall.

You flicked your screen to show the feed from the crown of cameras that were mounted just above the bridge, specifically the one facing to port. With this view you watched as a smaller, but more ragged gouge was carved into the dead vessel. Hundreds, if not thousands of small explosions gave the effect of small fires raging within the cracked hull of the cruiser. Millions of fragments of armour, internal bracing, broken systems and more glinted in the sunlight. You watched for a further five seconds before your guns fell silent, their morbid work done.

“Order complete sir, the ship has been cleansed.” Your weapons officer dutifully reported, though

“You think that’s going to effect the resale value?” Lieutenant Helena, your sensors officer joked, earning her a chuckle from most of the crew.

>Report the encounter with the jackals to captain Petrovich, you don’t think you’ve been thorough.
>Continue to the rendezvous with the rest of the wolfpack, you have your orders.
>Other (write in)

>>3303799
>>Report the encounter with the jackals to captain Petrovich, you don’t think you’ve been thorough.
Gotta keep him in the loop/

>>3303799
>>Report the encounter with the jackals to captain Petrovich, you don’t think you’ve been thorough.

>>3303799

>Report the encounter with the jackals to captain Petrovich, you don’t think you’ve been thorough.

>>3303799
>report

>>3303799
>Report the encounter with the jackals to captain Petrovich, you don’t think you’ve been thorough.

>>3302441
Mean of the first three is pretty much the worst, especially on this website. Best of three generally is the best, if you are worried things will be too easy (they will be) just make the DCs higher

>>3303799
>Report the encounter with the jackals to captain Petrovich, you don’t think you’ve been thorough.

>>3302441
>NOTE: Given the poor reception of the previous dice system in the previous thread, I want to ask you readers if you want to stick with the current dice system (mean of the first 3 rolls) or if you want to switch to a simpler best-of-three system?
Hope I'm not too late here but Bo3 is shit. It turns every quest into a cakewalk.

>>3304193
Only when you dont set the DCs right.

>>3304193
What would you suggest otherwise?

>>3304290
Mean of 3 at least keeps things equal on both sides of the roll. High successes and severe failures are equally rare. Can come across as boring if you think it makes them too rare though and reduces the impact of luck too much.

I've seen some good quests run based on 2nd Die Roll Counts
Flat 5% distribution for each result and it kinda involves the audience more than just 1st Die Roll Counts

>>3304282
But it's extremely hard to set the DCs right because you don't get any sort of bell curve.
It's basically just linear, with results becoming increasingly likely the higher above the mean you go.

Take a look at
https://anydice.com/program/13cdb

More than a quarter of results will be 19 or 20, and more than half 16+
That'd be fine (or at least not too bad) if it were just pass/fail but when you want to calculate the degree of success it's fucked.
If QM wants to set a moderately hard DC, one where we have a roughly 50/50 chance of success then, does that mean he needs to write up a full table like
>20 - very good success 14%
>19 - good success 13%
>17/18 - slight success 21%
>15/16 - slight failure 17%
>11-14 - severe failure 22%
>1-10 - very severe failure 12% chance

>>3304319
I personally find mean of 3 incredibly boring. It's too middle of the road for results far too often.

>>3304319
Does that website take into account the fact that 4chan dice are based in part on the server clock? I imagine that has to impact it to some degree although I admit, stats and probability are not even close to being my forte

>>3304325
Agreed.

>>3304319
Maybe do something like mean of first 4, drop lowest?

“Comms, hail the UNSC Adelaide. We need to report our kill.” You ordered lieutenant Helena as the Dawn’s Early Light began to move away from the dead ship.

“Ah, commander Wells! Is something wrong?” Captain Petrovich asked almost as soon as the link was established.

“Not right now sir, though I need to notify you that we encountered a jackal raider before we arrived. The vessel was destroyed quickly, and all known stragglers have been eliminated.” You explained flatly, making sure that you got your report off quickly.

“Well, at least you eventually told me.” The old man rolled his eyes, you got the feeling that this wasn’t the first time he had missed out on important info due to some else. “Has your ship sustained damage?”

“We suffered a minor breach to one of our storage bays from enemy fire and damage to one of our fighters, but no fatalities. Damage control is waiting until we have left the debris field before they begin EVA repairs and replacement of damaged armour sections.” You answered, you were still proud that nobody had been lost, but you were not out of the woods yet.

“How much ammunition did you expend? It can’t have been too much if it was a raider.” Petrovich asked, though the small smile seemed to tug at his lips. It was rare for a commander to get a kill on their first deployment, especially without taking losses in return.

“Just one MAC shell and a large amount of point defence gun ammunition. We’ll have our PD guns before we rendezvous with you.” You confirmed the commander’s suspicions. While you were sure that many hundreds of rounds had been expended, you were confident that the guns would be reloaded soon. After all, they were designed to be reloaded on the fly.

“That is good. Well, congratulations on the kill, I will take this information to hand. Is there anything else to report at this time?”

>Notify the captain about the alien you have in the hanger, and your plan to have it recovered by ONI.
>Do not tell the captain about the alien. It’s not something he should concern himself with.
>Other (write in)

>>3305409
>Notify the captain about the alien you have in the hanger, and your plan to have it recovered by ONI.
May as well, I want more Alien encounters of the closeted kind.
No homo.

>>3305409
>Do not tell the captain about the alien. It’s not something he should concern himself with.

>>3305409
>>Notify the captain about the alien you have in the hanger, and your plan to have it recovered by ONI.

>>3305409
>>Notify the captain about the alien you have in the hanger, and your plan to have it recovered by ONI.

>>3305409
>>Notify the captain about the alien you have in the hanger, and your plan to have it recovered by ONI.

“That’s not all sir. Following the engagement, we deployed a salvage team to the vessel.” You continued, you took a short break from the story to clarify your actions. “I am aware that this is not according to standard protocol, but the chance to recover equipment that would have a positive effect on the war effort was too good to pass up.”

“I understand your reasoning, but I am going to have to tell you off for doing that. Salvage efforts are always risky without the possibility of soldiers being shot at by weapons that destroy vacuum suits in a single shot. It is rarely ever worth the loss of life.” Petrovich chastised your actions, but he didn’t put much effort into it. You guessed that he probably would have done something similar.

“I’ll keep that in mind sir, but I feel that this was justified, given that we were salvaging from a small vessel that had just soaked a point-blank MAC gun shell. None of the jackals survived. However, something did.” You continued, making an act of having taken his advice to heart.

“An alien I presume?” The captain leaned forwards in his chair, now fairly interested in what you were talking about. “Was it hostile?”

“No sir, in fact it was completely passive. When one of my men tried to shoot it, it just took the gun off him, disassembled it and cleared the jammed round before reassembling the gun and giving it back. It seemed almost oblivious to violence or anyone threatening it.” You shook your head as you recounted the tale. Though you still had trouble believing that it had happened.

“Describe the alien, what did it look like?” Petrovich asked, engrossed in what you were saying. You gave a short description of the alien, before he pressed further. “What has the alien done since you recovered it?”

“It’s been going through various pieces of equipment and disassembling them in record time. And then reassembling them in a variety of new combinations with the original parts. Hell, it pulled apart a warthog and made a bunch of new contraptions out of the spare parts. It’s not hostile and it doesn’t seem to be doing anything malicious.” You shrugged, though truth be told, you were actually a bit worried that the alien might run out of things to repair and reverse-engineer, and then try and take apart something as delicate as the slipspace drive.

“Have you informed ONI?” The captain asked, and you turned to look at your intelligence officer, she was the one who was handling it afterall.

“I’m afraid not sir.” Your intelligence officer took your cue and spoke for you on the matter. “The radiation bleed from the various broken slipspace drives has prevented me from getting a message out.”

>CONT

>>3306117

“I recommend that you do not send that message. You have a valuable prize in your hands commander, something that could be very useful to you.” The captain had been looking at you the entire time, apparently ignoring your intelligence officer. “And with our… fluid mission requirements, such an asset would be very useful.”

“Sir! That’s in direct violation of cole protocol and the Recovery and Quarantine charter!” Your intelligence officer protested. “ONI must be informed about this!”

“The former only refers to captured enemy vehicles, and the latter only refers to non-living artifacts.” Petrovich growled at your subordinate, obviously annoyed at her adherence to the rules. He turned back to face you. “Ultimately, this is your choice. Personally, I would recommend keeping the alien onboard for use in the field. But if you want to cosy up to the spooks, then be my guest.”

Once he was done speaking, he cut the link. Leaving you to ponder your decision.

AFFILIATION:

Affiliation bonuses are going to be a system of bonuses that will have an effect on such things as procurement of new gear, promotion, and what kind of missions you get. The more bonuses you get with a certain faction within the UNSC (I.E. FLEETCOM), the more you will get from that specific faction. This has an effect in that it can get you access to upgrades (I.E. new vessel parts), support ships (I.E. ONI Prowlers) or bonuses on missions (I.E. Additional reinforcements). Though put some thought into what bonuses you take, as there won’t be enough affiliation points for you to please everyone.

>Follow protocol and hand the alien over to ONI. You don’t want this problem. (+1 ONI affiliation)
>Follow Captain Petrovich’s recommendation and keep the alien. (+1 underworld affiliation)

>>3306118
>>Follow protocol and hand the alien over to ONI. You don’t want this problem. (+1 ONI affiliation)
Sorry bud, I'm not trying to get jumped by ONIggers in my sleep.

>>3306118
>>Follow protocol and hand the alien over to ONI. You don’t want this problem. (+1 ONI affiliation)
Gib new MAC rounds in exchange for alien

>>3306118
Keep the alien, I like the little guy

>>3306118
>Follow Captain Petrovich’s recommendation and keep the alien. (+1 underworld affiliation)
Fuck the ONI, those assholes

>>3306118
>>Follow Captain Petrovich’s recommendation and keep the alien. (+1 underworld affiliation)

>>3306118
>Follow Captain Petrovich’s recommendation and keep the alien. (+1 underworld affiliation)

>>3306118
>Follow protocol and hand the alien over to ONI. You don’t want this problem. (+1 ONI affiliation)
Yeah no, he's an unknown and unknowns are not good in a war. Not to mention how the rest of the crew would react, especially the spook doc.

>>3306118
>>Follow protocol and hand the alien over to ONI. You don’t want this problem. (+1 ONI affiliation)

Spooks always have the best shit

>>3306118
>>Follow protocol and hand the alien over to ONI. You don’t want this problem. (+1 ONI affiliation)

Do you want to get grabbed in the night and waterboarded? F U C K S P O O K S

>>3306118
>>Follow Captain Petrovich’s recommendation and keep the alien. (+1 underworld affiliation)
Love these little squids

>>Follow protocol and hand the alien over to ONI. You don’t want this problem. (+1 ONI affiliation)
I don't think the UNSC has ever secured a live huragok before. I say we hand it over, it's technical knowledge is simply to valuable to humanities war effort. Imagine how far forward this could fling mankind's research.

>>3306118
>Follow Captain Petrovich’s recommendation and keep the alien. (+1 underworld affiliation)
The ONI meme has to end. I'm up for debate tho, but honestly if we could keep the alien for the duration of the mission, it would upgrade our entire ship. Free.
Though I would how long we could realisticly keep it. Would we end up turning it over after our mission anyways? Could we keep it for the duration of our command of our currrent ship and possible beyond?
Can we turn it over to fleetcom or any other factions such as a shipyard or anything?

>ONI gets its own alien
If i'm not mistaken, in Halo ODST, ONI gets one of these guys anyways.

This little guy may give us brownie nosing points with ONI, but keeping it for ourselves even if only for a little while longer would be a massive boon to us. First off it would greatly increase our odds of survival, improve our systems and processing power, improve our general odds of survivability against the convenant.
But most of all I would be interested to see how the alien would interact and maybe even improve our AI that we will be issued soon enough.

If we went the ONI spook prowler or experimental ship, then yeah turn it over, but since we didn't we may as well stick to our choice and see where this leads. It will be much more interesting than a secretive group that more often goes " oh thanks for the cool tinkertech alien, bye now!".
I'm also partialy worried we may be turned into an ONI stooge for them and may have to act against our own interest for their gain, as "their guy on the inside".

If perhaps QM could comment and adress a few of these.

>>3306794
Fairly certain in Halo ODST they get one of the lil guys. I think the may also be slightly flammable?

>>3306118
Just to be absolutely certain, since we are a navy guy does that mean we are more or less by default already in the Fleetcom faction or have a natural bonus with them?

>>3306499
I think we should do this at the very least. Maybe he can even make us a R2D2 out of the repair drones. With a little help from our AI waifu.

>>3302441
Hey man, glad to have you back. Perhaps in the archives add "Halo: Wolfpack" tag to the first thread..? Otherwise it doesn't show next to the other threads.

>>3302698
>SLIPSPACE RUPTURE DETECTED
Wait, so our on-board sensors detected ships jumping in just like that, from the middle of debris field nevertheless? Heading in like we did was pretty stupid in retrospect..

>>3304134
>Best of three generally is the best, if you are worried things will be too easy (they will be) just make the DCs higher
This. And actually own up to the roll results. We took a plasma canister to the hull and all we got was one breached hangar and a few broken crates. Then we got -2 crit fail when salvage teams were aboard fresh wreck but no one died. Still salty over this.

>>3306118
>Follow protocol and hand the alien over to ONI. You don’t want this problem. (+1 ONI affiliation)
Even if I cared about faction equipment this is still a nobrainer. This alien is a liability. Sooner or later it will start messing with the ship itself and that's something we do not want, especially in the middle of a deployment. In any case, how do we feed it and how do we keep its existence secret? Everyone on our ship already knows about it and now the rumours are gonna spread on Adelaide. It's just a question of time before someone gets on our ass for this.

>>3306118
>Follow protocol and hand the alien over to ONI. You don’t want this problem. (+1 ONI affiliation)

>>3307056
>Sooner or later it will start messing with the ship itself
Or it somehow comes across a Shiva

>>3306118
>Follow protocol and hand the alien over to ONI. You don’t want this problem. (+1 ONI affiliation)

>>3307056
>Huragok use thousands of microscopic organisms to digest the food they consume, producing many gases, including methane, as a by-product.
I think they can eat human food, just very very little.

I think we could detect from the field because we had fighters that could act as extra eyes and ears, it seemed that the wolfpack had difficulty finding us until we sent a message to them.

>No one died.
I think the faliure was more directed at our salage chances than just inflicting misery and pain.

It won't mess with stuff we don't want it to, so far we have intentionally kept it away from everything important and isloated it and its access to anything important except that data pad. We literally have a armed team keep a eye on it 24/7. All it can do is make alien noises and complain. We can tell our guys watching it to lead or guide it away and put people in between it and it's access to our anything we don't want it near. Most crew don't even get free acesss to the entire ship, we sure as heck aren't going to let rescued alien near anything until we let it.

Its suppose to be a super smart bio organice AI computer, its not going to do anything to harm its chances of survial or caused problems on our ship.

>Keep it a secret
We told our wolfpack leader and there is a ONI attaché on our ship. The option isn't keeping secrets, its deciding on what boon we want.

>>3306118
>Follow Captain Petrovich’s recommendation and keep the alien. (+1 underworld affiliation)

>>3306118
>Follow Captain Petrovich’s recommendation and keep the alien. (+1 underworld affiliation)
As for the dice I prefer the best of three. Though either way the second we come across an actual covie warship we're fucked.

File: it's more armoured than this.png (700 KB, 1000x1236)

700 KB PNG

“Well, that was certainly interesting.” Dyad spoke what was probably on everyone’s mind.

“Sir, I must remind you that UNSC-“ Lieutenant Koekemoer began, only to be interrupted by your XO.

“The commander knows the regs, it’s his choice.” Dyad interrupted the intelligence officer, before turning back to you. “That being said sir, I think that everyone is interested to know what your decision is on the matter.”

“Nav, move us out of the debris field. Carefully as possible if you can.” You ordered, you needed time to think on your options, and the costs and benefits associated with them. And what better time then to make it while you were heading back to the fleet?

The option to keep the alien around could prove to be the best decision you could make, if you could break the language barrier. Captain Petrovich had mentioned that engineering staff were essential, and an alien that could do the work of a full team in only a few minutes with only basic tools would undoubtably be a useful addition to the team. You wondered about how quickly it could repair bravo-squadron’s damaged longsword. Hell, it had stripped down a warthog in record time, you wondered just how quickly it could fix the longsword.

And you wondered just what it could do when it was allowed to be creative. You knew that humanity has already developed a pulse-laser derived from the leftover bits of covenant weapons, and with a wonder-engineer that had up close and in depth knowledge of covenant equipment, you were sure that a perfected design could be made. And what could it do with your existing systems? The idea of having a quicker cycle time for the MAC gun was something that you valued highly, and you wondered just what improvements it had made to that spare missile seeker.

And then there were internal systems. Covenant vessels the size of your ship were often far more manoeuvrable, but an upgrade to your manoeuvring thrusters would allow you to better counter them. Safer power couplings would reduce the likelihood of accidents on the ship in the event of battle damage. And then there was slipspace travel. Covanant drives were known to be far better than anything the UNSC could pump out, they allowed a heavily damaged ship to jump out even with energy bleeding into the void of space. And the fact that they were far faster than anything the UNSC could make gave them a lot more options when it came to redeploying their forces.

>CONT

>>3307969

And then you imagined what might happen if something went wrong. Like if the alien damaged the slipspace drive. Sure, there were safeties in place, but a smaller and less powerful drive had more than enough capacity to render a 3-kilometre-long colony ship into atomised bits if improperly mounted. And you shuddered to think about the people on the ship when that happened. And the slipspace drive wasn’t the only thing you didn’t want it touching. Power couplings, reactor cooling sub-systems that extended throughout the ship, nuclear weapons couplings and another dozen thing just off the top of your head.

Not to mention that you know absolutely nothing about how the alien functioned. Was it biological, was is an autonomous machine, or maybe something in-between? How did it sustain itself? Did it breathe and if so, then just what did it breathe? What did it eat and drink? What motivated it? How often did it sleep, and in what conditions?

And if it did have an ulterior motive… it was unfortunate, but there was ample documentation of what the covenant did to captured soldiers and civilians. Any kind of recording was considered a kind of contraband at the academy on reach, mostly because of how gruesome it tended to be.

“Were not going to risk it.” You announced, gaining the attention of everyone on the bridge, and who had been witnesses to your conversation with the head of the wolfpack. “We are going to hand the alien over to ONI.”

+1 ONI AFFILIATION

The response among your deck officers was varied to say the least. Toulali, Koekemoer, and Helena seemed to support your decision with a smile. Meanwhile, Horten, Krickstein, and your weapons officer seemed displeased by your choice. Dyad and the remainder were sat somewhere in the middle, either due to their own internal conflictions on the subject, a lack of interest, or simply because they were better at hiding their opinions.

“Well, at least we know what the decision is.” Dyad sighed, it wasn’t a disappointed sigh, if anything it sounded more relieved than anything. “If I might recommend sir, you might want to take this opportunity to write up a report for ONI on the alien and your observations. If not that, you could also go and visit the department heads? Doctor Wespe is currently attending to the members of the salvage team that were almost blown up, so you might not be able to see him.”

>Get started on that report, you want to send it off with the first message to ONI. (time skip)
>Leave the bridge and talk to your department heads (options will be presented in next post)
>Other (write in)

>>3307973
>>Get started on that report, you want to send it off with the first message to ONI. (time skip)

>>3307973
>>Get started on that report, you want to send it off with the first message to ONI. (time skip)

>>3307973
>Other (write in)
>Use the bastard to see if it can't improve our ship parts while we can until its handed off

>>3307973
>Leave the bridge and talk to your department heads.

>>3307973
>Tease Dyad a little and lighten up the mood on the bridge (ideally both at the same time)
>Get started on that report, you want to send it off with the first message to ONI. (time skip)

>>3307983
This, use what little valuable time we have left with it.

>>3307983
Agreed. It could probably make the repairs to the hull a cinch.
And
>type report

>>3307983
Let's have it focus on the Longsword.

>>3307983
sure

>>3307973
>>Get started on that report, you want to send it off with the first message to ONI. (time skip)

“In the meantime sir, might I recommend that we give the alien something more substantial to play around with?” Dyad suggested, nodding as the rest of the bridge crew got back to work.

“Are you volunteering Dyad?” You joked, hoping a bit of low-brow humour would lighten the mood a bit.

Dyad chuckled at that and shook her head. “Alright, I walked into that one.”

You also chuckled at the lightening of the mood, before then answering her question properly. “Given that we don’t want the alien damaging anything important, I think that it might be a good idea to let it repair our damaged longsword. It should have finished running down and unloading, so it should be safe enough to let the alien work.”

“My thoughts exactly sir. Should I order second lieutenant Chambers to have the alien moved?” Dyad agreed, before motioning to her tablet, the one she used for everything.

“Yes, that would be useful.” You ordered, before pulling up a fresh report on your console. You had a report to get on with, if only to avoid a long interview with an ONI spook later down the line. You were twenty minutes into making your report, when Dyad spoke again.

“Uh, sir? The alien has been delivered to the hanger, but the maintenance officer in charge of that longsword has requested to speak to you about it.” Dyad called your attention, sounding a bit put back at whatever the engineer had said. “She is not happy about it.”

“Patch it through to me.” You ordered, you were happy to talk about the issue in an adult manner, but you doubted if that would be possible. “This is commander Wells. What seems to be the issue down there?”

“What the issue? What’s my issue sir?” The engineer began, the word sir being spat out like a curse word. “The fact that you are letting some floating alien shitbag put its… whatever the fuck those tentacle things are to touch my longsword.”

“You won’t have to deal with it for long, it’s just going to repair the battle damage and-“ You were halfway through you explanation when the engineer interrupted you.

“That’s exactly the fucking problem sir. That shit has no right to be anywhere close to UNSC tech, or in any position to mess with it. Do I need to march up there and tell you everything wrong with letting an enemy combatant handle UNSC tech? Did they miss out on telling you that at the academy?”

Oh boy, this was going to be about as fun as arguing about security regulations with freighter captains. And that was always something that you hated.

>How do you defuse the situation? (Write in)

>>3308176
>>How do you defuse the situation? (Write in)
Unless the Covenant want to go back a few centuries in tech, they have nothing to gain from looking at the ship. It'll free up material and manpower for the other things that need done around this ship.

>>3308176
>Marine the fucking covenant has had all the time in the world to touch most tech that is lost on the battle field. He is NOT accessing the ships Nav system and is not gaining the location of anymore colonies. Nor is any of our gear new or special. So stand the fuck down and see what happens, Before we pass it off onto ONI who is bound to let it do the same stuff.

>>3308181
>>3308222
Support.
Maybe calm him by telling him, if it doesn't work like before, we'll give him a brand new one from storage.

Should record the thing working just for educational purposes.

>>3308176
>Unless that longsword has maps to human colonies or the covenant never figured out a fusion engines, ballistic weapons, radar, etc... then there is nothing of tactical value that could be taken from it. Not to mention it's a chance to see just how capable this thing is. Now if there are any more objections they will be noted but you will proceed as ordered.

>>3308266
could just keep the data and electronic consoles away from it.

>>3308222
>>3308266
Supporting. As long as we don't violate the Cole Protocol it shouldn't be an issue.

Would a fighter even have all that data onboard? Seems like unnecessary risk considering how easily they can be brought down in combat.

>>3308355
It would have the deployment patton on it I think as a flight record but thats it. Not fucking worlds or solar system data

>>3308364
So in other words nothing to worry about.

File: longsword.jpg (21 KB, 637x358)

21 KB JPG

“Chief, do you know how many longswords have been destroyed in the war thus-far?” You asked, but you didn’t give her the time to answer. “Hundreds of longswords have been lost, more than enough for the covenant to cobble together a working model from the scraps. To say that they probably already know the ins-and-outs of that ship is an understatement.”

“But sir-“ The engineer began, but you cut her off. You weren’t in the mood for her attitude.

“Do you know how much equipment we have to abandon every time we lose a fight with the covenant? It’s a lot to say the least, so there is nothing new that the covenant could gain. And let me emphasize that could, that alien will never leave UNSC custody alive, so the entire point is moot.” You hammered the point across the internal link, you kept your voice level and calm, but with the power behind your words that an officer was meant to command.

“But the nav-“ The engineer tried again, but you cut her off again.

“Are you telling me that the longsword has navigation charts to UNSC colonies in spite of not mounting a slipspace drive?” You asked. You already knew the answer, but you wanted to pull any possible argument apart at the seams.

“No sir.” The engineer answered, taken aback at the sudden question.

“Are you telling me that -in spite of being the chief engineer for that longsword- you failed to follow procedure and lockdown the ship’s navigation computer prior to shutting it down?” You now accused the engineer of incompetence, something that no engineer enjoyed, especially in regards to their primary field of work.

“No sir.” The engineer repeated, a bit more forcefull this time.

“Then there is nothing, absolutely nothing that the covenant could learn if they expended the resources to recover that alien. And if it was on a jackal raider of all things, then they must not value it particularly much.” You emphasized your point, more than enough to get into the engineer’s head. “Now, is there anything else that you wish to complain about?”

There was a long, almost ten second pause before the engineer replied. Her voice a mixture of resentment and resignation. “No. Sir.”

“Good. Now, have you already recovered all of the replacement parts for the longsword from storage?” You lowered your tone, confident that the engineer was suitably cowed.

“Almost sir, some of my people are just grabbing some remaining crates.” The engineer reported, you nodded to yourself, and idea forming in your mind.

>CONT

>>3308424

“Good, assign a skeleton crew to unpack the spare parts while yourself and the more experienced members of your team begin observing the alien’s work. You are to stay out of its way and make notes on what it does. ONI will be arriving to pick the alien up, hopefully within the week. I expect you to have your report ready for peer review by the chief of engineering before then. Understood?” You ordered the engineer. Engineers often felt a responsibility for their assigned vehicles and cared for them as such. So who better to watch as the alien performed some repairs.

“Yes.” The engineer replied, her voice cold and understanding of the implications of what you had ordered.

“Come again, petty officer.” You could have left it at a simple yes, but you wanted to make sure that she knew her place on this ship. And nothing drove the point home like guessing at her rank.

“Orders confirmed commander.” Once again, she made the rank roll off her tongue like an insult.

“Very good. Bridge out.” You hung up, deciding to leave the conversation at that.

“Are you sure that was wise sir?” Dyad asked after a couple of seconds. She didn’t seem worried by how you had handled it, but rather something else. “She might have had a point.”

>“If she followed procedure to the letter, then there is nothing for her to worry about.”
>“I will not allow insubordination on my ship, as laid back as I try to be with my crew.”
>Other (write in)

>>3308429
>“If she followed procedure to the letter, then there is nothing for her to worry about.”
>Other (write in)
perhaps you can double check for me just in case?

>>3308429
>>Other (write in)
If this is about the way I talked to her, I can't have insubordination this early into my assignment. I'll make it up to her somehow

>>3308429
>Other: She did have a point, but i wasn't about to have my authority challenged so brazenly in front of my command. Adding on to that, it is also my duty weigh whether the risk is worth the reward in all situations. In this case I have deemed it worthwhile, especially since all the known risks have been properly mitigated.

>>3308429
backing this >>3308502

>>3308429
>“I will not allow insubordination on my ship, as laid back as I try to be with my crew.”

Also i'd like to say something about the etiquette in that last exchange. Is the maintenance officer an officer, a chief, or a petty officer? because she is called a maintenance officer by Dyad, chief by the captain, and a petty officer near the end.

If she is a chief, calling her a petty officer may be "technically" correct as the full title is chief petty officer but any chief would just about rip your head off for it as there is clear difference between the two. Well, at least there is in the modern day navy.

>>3308502
Supporting. Also if anything fucks up it's on us anyway.

“She did have a point, but I wasn't about to have my authority challenged so brazenly in front of my command. Adding on to that, it is also my duty weigh whether the risk is worth the reward in all situations. In this case I have deemed it worthwhile, especially since all the known risks have been properly mitigated.” You explained, your voice clipped but firm.

“All known risks.” Dyad corrected you. In reality, none of you knew enough about the alien for it to be a sure thing.

“What would you have me do Dyad?” You asked your XO directly. “If you’ve made it to your rank you’ve probably had a run-in with some spooks, do you really think they would be pleased if we let this chance fall away?”

“I get your point sir, and I would have done the same. But still, I don’t think you handled it properly. You didn’t need to goad her like that, it’s in bad taste.” Dyad raised one of her hands, and you took the cue to try and calm down. Sure, you had goaded the chief engineer by just calling her a petty officer. You knew for a fact that fights had been started over it. But at the time you thought that it was warranted.

“If this is about the way I talked to her, I can't have insubordination this early into my assignment. I'll make it up to her somehow.” You acquiesced, but you continued on with the point. “However, I will not allow someone to expect that they can get away with an attitude like that just because they have been assigned to an officer’s first command.”

“I understand sir, and all things considered, you handled it pretty well.” Dyad nodded, a small smile on her face as you recognised your mistake.

“Something tells me that this isn’t your first rodeo.” You remarked while you saved the first draft of your report. You didn’t want to loose your progress with it.

“Remind me to tell you later. I’ve seen more than my fair share.” Dyad chuckled as the tension in the room blead away.

>Continue writing your report, you’ve wasted enough time already (timeskip)
>Leave the bridge and talk to your department heads, you need to make sure that your jets are cooled. (options will be presented in next post)
>Other (write in)

>>3308626
>>Continue writing your report, you’ve wasted enough time already (timeskip)

>>3308626
>>Continue writing your report, you’ve wasted enough time already (timeskip)

>>3308626
>Continue writing your report, you’ve wasted enough time already (timeskip)

>>3308626
>>Continue writing your report, you’ve wasted enough time already (timeskip)

Deciding to leave your crewmen to their duties, you continued with your report to ONI on your observations on the alien, your actions and the reasoning behind them. You filled in everything in chronological order, from the moment you finished the report. You finished your report after two hours, including proof reading it to make sure that everything fit together nicely.

“Lieutenant Koekemoer, have you sent the message about the alien to ONI?” You called to your intelligence officer, she was the one putting together the entire message. Including all information recently acquired.

“Not yet sir.” Koekemoer replied from her station. “I’m still waiting on the report from you and the salvage team members.”

“I’m sending you my report on the alien now.” You informed her, before sending it through.

“Thanks sir.” Your intelligence officer responded, and that was that.

And with that, you waited for the Dawn’s Early Light to reach the rest of the wolfpack. Writing up the report took up a good chunk of the travel time, but even then there was still enough time for you to have to leave for a bathroom break, grab a drink, and work through some of the paperwork that had already started to pile up.

However, soon you were greeted by the rest of the fleet appearing within visual range, at first only the light of their engines could be seen, but soon you began to make out the running lights, and within the hour you could make out the vessels against the starry backdrop.

As your ship pulled into position on the port-side of the Adelaide, you were hailed by the smaller by heavier warship.

The screen flashed into life before you, and displayed a view of the holographic command table on the destroyer’s bridge. The captain was stood at the side of the table, which was displaying a holographic view of the planet, the ship graveyard over it’s north pole, and the smaller groupings of debris at the planet’s lagrange points. “All vessels, this Captain Petrovich. Following a report from the Dawn’s Early Light about an encounter with a jackal raider, I have taken the decision that the fleet will deploy as a single force. While this might allow any scavengers and raiders to slip the net, it will provide us with a solid footing in the event that we encounter a stronger scouting fleet. The covenant use those vessels as scouts afterall, and it is likely that they may be a precursor to a larger scout fleet.”

>CONT

>>3308964

The captain gestured to the lagrange point closest to the fleet. “We will examine the smaller debris fields at the lagrange points around the planet before we move to investigate the large debris field over the northern pole. The prior investigation by commander Wells’s vessel leaves me reasonably certain that any raiders within the debris field have decided to either leave or were never there in the first place, as they would likely have tried to jump his vessel at the first opportunity. As such, we shall investigate these outlying fields in strength.”

>Agree with the plan, it makes enough sense.
>Disagree with the plan and suggest something else (write in)

>>3308976
>>Agree with the plan, it makes enough sense.

>>3308976
>>Agree with the plan, it makes enough sense.

>>3308976
>Agree with the plan, it makes enough sense.

>>3308976
>Disagree with the plan and suggest something else (write in)
Aren't wolf-packs suppose to swarm an enemy convey or do a ambush taking their pound of flesh before slipping away into the darkness of space? We should space ourselves a bit. If we jump into a bad situation how soon can we jump right out?

>>3308976
>Agree with the plan, it makes enough sense.

>>3309064
Normally I would agree, but since the only way to take down a covie ship is overwhelming firepower, staying close is probably the best bet. Setting a trap that would take out their shields though, that's another topic entirely.

>>3308976
>>Agree with the plan, it makes enough sense.

>>3308976
>Agree with the plan, it makes enough sense.

>>3308976
>Agree with the plan, it makes enough sense

>>3308976
>Agree with the plan, it makes enough sense

>>3308976
>>Agree with the plan, it makes enough sense.

You nodded, hoping that your commander could see you. You had no concerns thus-far.

“As far as I see it, we are only likely to encounter enemy combatants in one of three scenarios.” Captain Petrovich continued once he was sure that there were no complaints thus-far. “Either we will encounter an armed scavenger, either human or alien in nature. Though given the prior encounter by the Dawn’s Early Light, and the surge in vessels entering the system, we will likely not encounter anymore scavengers.”

The captain pulled up a holographic display of three raiders, arranged in a loose V formation. “That will just leave just a confrontation with the covenant. The first will be the remains of a jackal scouting party. These formations normally include three raiders, and with one already dead the rest of the fleet will be easy to handle. However, they will try not to fight us openly, if they even attempt to fight. They will most likely attempt to ambush one of our vessels within one of the debris fields, so take that into account when scouting within the smaller debris fields.” As he spoke, the vessel in the centre of the formation disappeared, leaving just two. However, the two vessels soon shrunk and were put off to the side of the table, leaving room for the next formation you were likely to face.

“The next formation we are likely to face will be a patrol formation.” A single formation was pulled up on to the holographic display, made up of one larger vessel with a smaller escort and the even smaller raider. “This formation is made up of one heavy corvette, a frigate, and a single jackal raider. The heavy corvette is a rough equivalent to a halberd in terms of firepower, and the frigate is a rough equivalent of a charon class. Still, we have the firepower and numbers advantage. So we should be able to survive without any vessel losses.”

“I distinctly remember you saying towards the end of our last cruise.” The commander of the Concord Hymn remarked. Captain Petrovich seemed to bristle at the remark, but he did not snap at the commander.

“And we were attacking a covenant convoy with bad intel from ONI. This time should be different.” The captain replied carefully, his voice noticeably level.

>Ask about the chances of encountering either of the covenant formations.
>Ask about their last encounter with the covenant, what went wrong?
>Skip the questions and get on with it.
>Other (write in)

>>3310809
>>Ask about the chances of encountering either of the covenant formations.

>>3310809
>>Ask about the chances of encountering either of the covenant formations.

>>3310809
>Ask about the chances of encountering either of the covenant formations.

>>3310809
>>Skip the questions and get on with it.

“What are our chances of encountering those formations?” You asked, without your own AI, you were unable to get the numbers yourself.

“I’ve had the ship’s AI run some estimates, and given your prior encounter with a raider, the chances of encountering a raiding flotilla on it’s own stands at roughly forty-five percent. The chances of the raider being alone come in at thirty-four percent, and the raider being part of the larger corvette-based group come in at twenty-one percent.”

“That’s a surprisingly high likelihood that we’re gonna encounter an enemy force.” You remarked as you lent back in your chair. You weren’t worried too much, the fact that you apparently had the firepower advantage was enough to soothe your worries, but still. Things didn’t tend to go well when UNSC and covenant ships squared off.

The captain shrugged, apparently unconcerned. “We should be fine. In any case commanders, see to your ships.”

And with that, the connection was cut once again, captain Petrovich not leaving time for anyone to get the final word in.

“Sir, should we order all hands to battle stations?” Dyad asked as the wolfpack turned as one towards the closest lagrange point, this one on the opposite side of the planet to Edrianus II’s sole moon.

>Order the ship to battle stations and hope that you get engaged sooner rather than later.
>Hold off on giving the order until you encounter the enemy on your scanners. There is no point in holding everyone
>Other (write in)

>>3311122
>>Hold off on giving the order until you encounter the enemy on your scanners. There is no point in holding everyone

>>3311122
>>Hold off on giving the order until you encounter the enemy on your scanners. There is no point in holding everyone

>>3311122
>Hold off on giving the order until you encounter the enemy on your scanners. There is no point in holding everyone

>>3311122
>Other (write in)
Get info on what kind launchable aircraft the other ships have.

“Hold off on it for now, we’ll wait until we have the enemy on sensors.” You decided, while protocol dictated that everyone be at their stations just in case the enemy showed itself, you were never a fan of the hurry up and wait style laid out by most protocols. And with there possibly being hours until you actually made contact with the enemy, keeping people hanging wasn’t something that you were keen on doing.

The fleet took immediate combat spacings of 25 kilometres between each ship. You moved the Dawn’s Early Light so that it was another kilometre below the Adelaide, making sure that there was still enough room for you not to have to worry about the heavier destroyer turning directly into you and spoiling a MAC gun shot.

The trip to the closest lagrange point was slow and careful. It had to be with the very real prospect of a trap being laid by ships that were pretty much designed for CQC. The fleet waited while a pair of longswords from the Concord Hymn moved in to recon the area. Thankfully, there were only a dozen hulks and a gutted space station to inspect. Most of the action had been fought on the other side of the planet, and that was where the vast majority of the debirs outside of the northern graveyard was concentrated.

As the fleet began to move away from the lagrange point, the speakers in your chair crackled into life.

“All vessels, enemy vessels have been detected via clarion spy drone on the opposite side of the planet. Standby for briefing by your commanding officer.” A flat, almost robotic voice announced out of the blue. You frowned, and had to check your console to see just who was speaking. A quick search revealed that the responsible party was the AI of the Adelaide, Thesis.

Well, that would explain why the voice sounded like it was made by an early twenty-first century robot.

>Wait until captain Petrovich gives you a briefing, you might as well get all of the facts.
>Attempt to get access to the feed from the drone, you want to see what is going on in the meantime.
>Other (write in)

>>3311452
>>Attempt to get access to the feed from the drone, you want to see what is going on in the meantime.

>>3311452
>Wait until captain Petrovich gives you a briefing, you might as well get all of the facts.

Don't risk the drones well being

>>3311452
>Wait until captain Petrovich gives you a briefing, you might as well get all of the facts.

The last time we played Hackerman didn't turn out really well.

>>3311452
>Wait until captain Petrovich gives you a briefing, you might as well get all of the facts.

and in the meantime

>All hands to battle stations

>>3311452
>>Wait until captain Petrovich gives you a briefing, you might as well get all of the facts.

You didn’t have to wait long, as soon the screen over the viewport flashed into life, showing a basic view of Edrianus II and the various things in orbit. Captain Petrovich spoke a second later. “Alright, listen up, one of our clarion surveillance drones has detected a small flotilla over the planet’s moon. We have confirmed the presence of at least one covenant corvette, two raiders, a pair of salvaged human freighters, and some loose tugs and salvage craft. They seem to be stripping apart the remains of a number of ships, and either haven’t noticed or haven’t cared about the destruction of their comrade.”

“The plan as it stands is simple, the flotilla will mass together and execute a low-orbit slingshot around the planet. This will cut down the enemy’s response time and will allow our fighters to only have to travel a short distance out of our anti-fighter missile range in order to strike the enemy fleet.” As the commander spoke, a simple line was painted on the map, showing the wolfpack’s path to the enemy flotilla.

“We’ll be traveling at high speed sir, we won’t have time to pick them off with our MAC guns before we get into knife-fighting range, where the enemy ships excel.” The commander of the Concord Hymn pointed out the flaw in the plan. The UNSC’s ace in the hole was it’s use of MAC guns, and with such a manoeuvre, you wouldn’t have much time for follow up volleys.

“We also won’t give them time to flee and report back to their overlords. Plus, we can make up for the lack of MAC fire by using our archer missile batteries.” Petrovich defended his plan.

“Assuming of course that their overlords won’t kill them for using human tech.” Your fellow commander returned. The covenant had a very distasteful view on humanity, so there was a solid enough chance that they would just shoot the crew on sight for using human tech. “A better plan would be to keep our distance and engage them at range, thus allowing us to volley fire MAC shells at them. It keeps us out of their range and them in ours.”

“But it also gives them ample warning about our presence, and will allow them to spool up their slipspace drives while we get into position. Not to mention that we will be limited to MACs only at that range as our missiles will take too long to reach the targets. And any fighters vectored towards the enemy would have no support from us.” Petrovich pointed out the flaws in the plan, he had already said how his more up-close and personal combat style was better. At least, in his opinion.

>Side with the captain and his plan, you don’t want any of them escaping.
>Side with the commander and their plan, you don’t want to rush this.
>Propose something else (write-in)

>>3312078
>>Propose something else (write-in)
Moreover just an addition to the captain's plan but we should maintain speed after the slingshot and fire a nuclear device backwards in our wake and detonate it when in proximity to the formation. If we blow straight through their formation just shitting out missiles, they'll hardly pay attention to an inert object in our wake.

>>3312078
>>Side with the captain and his plan, you don’t want any of them escaping.

>>3312164
Is this possible? Because it sounds like a decent idea, although it means we can't deploy fighters.

If we can do this, I'll support it

>>3312164
Fuck it, sure

>>3312365
I think the idea is we sling shot through them and leave a nuke in our wake whilst firing off a ton of missiles as a distraction/further damage

>>3312365
The nuke is gonna drift with our inertia into the middle of their formation.

>>3312443
We'll have sped past their flotilla when the nuke gets there, its like using a drag retarded bomb vs a regular freefall bomb, is simple.

>>3312443
We're not going to stay in knife fighting range for long, It's gonna be more like a drive-by than anything.

>>3312443
Mate we're speeding through their formation, firing some missiles and dropping a nuke in the middle as we continue to pass by them. Once we've continued past we detonate it. It should theoretically be hidden among all the shrapnel etc from the fight and go unnoticed

>>3312164
Support.

>>3312164
Support. Slingshot as fast as possible and fire several nukes along with as many missiles as we can possibly fire for higher chance of success. 板野サーカス Do not deploy fighters. Link up with Adelaide's AI, we won't be able to do this manually. Also do all of this ASAP, the longer we linger the higher the chance they notice us.

>>3312443
Try to picture it in your head - it's like throwing a ball from a car speeding on a highway towards another car parked on a shoulder.

>>3312164
Fuck off Keyes. That was a retarded move and you know it

>>3314373
Call it retarded if you want but you can't call it unsuccessful.

>>3312164
Supporting. Lets roast some squids.

>we let the alien fuck with the Longsword
Y’all motherfuckers are dumb.

>>3316922
We have a spare, it's cool.
Also ONI is gonna love having shit to analyze about our alien captive.

>>3316980
More along the lines of it could easily sabotage it, or set it up to broadcast our position (read as: violate the Cole Protocol) or any number of no good very bad things.

But more importantly, we pissed off the crew chief

>>3316988
>More along the lines of it could easily sabotage it, or set it up to broadcast our position (read as: violate the Cole Protocol) or any number of no good very bad things.
If you don't think ONI is taking that Longsword with them and gutting it to ever-loving shit, you must be out of your mind.
Besides, any type of broadcast signal probably wouldn't be able to cut through all the radiation present.
>But more importantly, we pissed off the crew chief
I'd like to think they'd get over it. If not, beer helps. We'll try to make it up to them somehow.

>>3316997
Maybe. Or maybe not.
Realistically, no. Nothing bad will happen since Engineers are super autistic and couldn’t care less about the war as long as they can fix shit. But the characters don’t know that. For all they know, it could be lulling them into a false sense of security before broadcasting thier position. And it doesn’t help that Covenant spy drones exist, considering that that’s how Reach was found.

“What about a more aggressive approach?” You suggested, gaining the attention of the other shipmasters. “We could continue with the captain’s approach, but instead of slowing down to gain extra time for extra shots, we instead speed up and charge the enemy formation. We can then drop a nuke in our wake to practically obliterate the fleet without having to worry about the nuke being shot down by enemy pulse-lasers.”

“That limits us to just four shots to spread between five ships. At least one of those ships needs at least two shots to properly put down.” The other commander pointed out, sounding even less enthusiastic about the plan.

“And that assumes that they do not disperse. The raiders are a coin toss between fight or flight, while the freighters are guaranteed to run. And by the time that we reach their current location, they will probably just jump out.” Captain Petrovich also chimed in. Though unlike the other commander, you could see his expression. He didn’t seem overly displeased by the idea, but at the same time he didn’t seem so enamored by it either.

“Not to mention that we only have three nuclear weapons in the entire fleet. Do we really want to waste them on…” The other commander paused, before continuing. “…I would call them smallfry, but that would be a bit overly optimistic to come from the smallest ship in the pack.”

>Make an argument in your defence (write in)
>Abandon your proposal and support the captain’s plan.
>Abandon your proposal and support the other commander’s plan.
>Other (write in)

>>3318438
>Make an argument in your defence (write in)
Big victories are won through big risks. You think Admiral Cole did what he did by playing it safe?

>>3318438
>Abandon your proposal and support the captain’s plan
Don’t waste nukes you dumb shits

>>3318438

>Abandon your proposal and support the captain’s plan.

>>3319776
Engineer isn't staying long enough to help with anything major.

>>3318438
>Make an argument in your defence (write in)
>We enter passive mode on approach. First, the planet itself will hide us and in the late stage of the slingshot Sun will be right in our backs, preventing them from detecting us in time. By the time we hit 'em with missile barrage and a nuke it will be too late for them.
>Gentlemen, our ultimate duty is to protect the lives of humanity. I'm not sure about you, but I would be hesitant to needlessly endanger my crewmates if safer approach is possible.
Of course we are full of shit, what with our conduct in the debris field just a few hours earlier.

>>3318438
>>Abandon your proposal and support the captain’s plan.

>abandon and support
These guys really are "smallfry" regardless of how outclassed our ships are. Save the fancy maneuvers for when itll really make a difference.

“In which case, I think that the captain’s plan would be our best chance of eliminating the enemy fleet before they can slip out.” You abandoned your plan, there was no pint in sticking with it afterall. More holes had been punched into it than you would have liked.

“Thank commander.” The captain nodded at you over the link.

“So much for not getting shot at today.” The other commander sighed, before then adding. “Then again, it’s not like I had much chance of avoiding it.”

“I am glad that you have come to see it my way commander.” Captain Petrovich smiled, though it didn’t take a genius to see that he was being sarcastic. “If that is all, then please order your crews to battle stations and follow the course sent to you by my ship’s AI.”

You didn’t need to be told twice, almost as soon as the link was terminated you gave your navigations officer the order to follow course dictated by the AI, before ordering the ship to battle stations. The array of hundreds of sirens placed around the ship began to blare the same tune at once, as a pre-recorded voice ordered all hands to their posts. On the bridge, the lights dimmed and flashed to red as the ship turned towards the planet and fired it’s engines, taking the ship into a far lower orbit.

As one, the wolfpack moved closer together. The combined formation dived towards the lower-atmosphere, or at least what remained of it. The AI on the Adelaide seemed to know it’s stuff, as the trio of warships grazed the atmosphere on their fast approach. And as the wolfpack rounded the planet, your sensors got their first good look at the enemy warships.

The enemy formation was divided into two groups, one comprised of the corvette and the pair of stolen freighters, and the other made op of the pair of raiders. Your sensors picked up the presence of numerous dropships moving between the freighters and the corvette as equipment was moved between the surprisingly large vessel and the former human freighters.

>Target the corvette, it’s the biggest threat! (dice+1d20+1)
>Target the raiders, you don’t want them going unscathed! (dice+1d20-1)
>Target the freighters, you don’t want them to escape! (dice+1d20-3)
>Close the distance! None of these targets are worth a MAC round.
>Other (write-in)

>>3323416
>Target the corvette, it’s the biggest threat! (dice+1d20+1)

>>3323421
You need to roll 1d20+1

Rolled 18 + 1 (1d20 + 1)

>>3323489
>>3323421
I'm only slightly retarded

Rolled 19 + 1 (1d20 + 1)

>>3323416
>Target the corvette, it’s the biggest threat! (dice+1d20+1)

Purge the xenos

Rolled 15 + 1 (1d20 + 1)

>>3323489

File: xSkKfXDFLinxC.gif (2.27 MB, 480x270)

2.27 MB GIF

>>3323505
>>3323508

File: paris class mac.jpg (134 KB, 1916x805)

134 KB JPG

Highest roll: 19+1
Success threshold: 15
Result: SUCSESS

“Weapons, target the enemy corvette and fire when you have a solution.” You ordered

The shot was aimed amidships, the largest part of the enemy vessel’s bulbous form. The Dawn’s Early Light shuddered for a for seconds as the massive coilgun charged, before loosing all of it’s energy in a single shot. It took only a couple of seconds for shell to make it’s journey, not nearly enough time for the enemy to spot and engage you. The corvette’s shields flickered into life for a second, before collapsing as the massive tungsten shell cut through the energy barrier with the brutal amount of force put behind it. The entire ship recoiled as if smacked, and a flash of light on the other side of the ship suggested that you might have also nailed an enemy dropship as a collateral kill.

A second later, another shot -this one from the Adelaide- cut into the enemy vessel. This one missed the hull and snapped one of the ovoid selvage rings attached to under-side of the ship. A follow-up shot clipped the actual hull of the ship, just slightly further affore than your shot. The enemy corvette hemoraged atmosphere from it’s wounds, the molecule in the air cyrstalising almost the moment they entered the void. The fourth and final shot from the fleet -fired from the Concord Hymn- completely missed it’s target and embedded itself into the hulk of a destroyed colony ship, one of a handful chartered to evacuate civilians.

But as the corvette tumbled in the void, the rest of the enemy flotilla reacted. The raiders turned directly towards the wolfpack and accelerated. Even from this distance, your sensors could detect the outlines of fighters dropping away from their mounts and accelerating towards you. Meanwhile, the freighters turned to run, their engines -reclaimed and cobbled together with the drives from many other vessels- flashed into life as they tried to run.

“All vessels, break end engage the enemy” Captain Petrovich announced over comms, and immediately you watched as the Adelaide accelerated ahead. The halberd destroyer living up to it’s name as a to the point weapon of war.

>Charge the MAC for another shot, you are better at range!
>Advance and engage with your missiles, you can’t leave the Adelaide without support!
>Hold until you have an idea about what the rest of the wolfpack is going to do.
>Other (write in)

>>3323682
>>Charge the MAC for another shot, you are better at range!
We gunnery bois

>>3323682
>>Advance and engage with your missiles, you can’t leave the Adelaide without support!

>>3323682
>Advance and engage with your missiles, you can’t leave the Adelaide without support!

>>3323682
>>Charge the MAC for another shot, you are better at range!

Need a tiebreaker

>>3323682
>Advance and engage with your missiles, you can’t leave the Adelaide without support!

>>3323682
>Advance and engage with your missiles, you can’t leave the Adelaide without support!

>>3323682
>Advance and engage with your missiles, you can’t leave the Adelaide without support!

File: archer missiles.jpg (149 KB, 1920x819)

149 KB JPG

“Nav, accelerate to match speed with the Adelaide. Weapons, key all archer missile pods.” You ordered as soon as you noticed your flagship pulling away. And within seconds you were tugged into your seat by the force of the frigate’s thrusters kicking into gear.

Behind you, the Concord Hymn was hanging back. Probably to charge their MAC gun for another shot. You didn’t blame them, the Charon class was a thin-shinned boat, and it required careful captaincy with an aversion to close-quarters battle.

“Archer pods hot!” Your weapons systems officer crowed a couple of seconds later, giving you a moment of pause as you picked your target.

Unfortunately, you bottleneck was electronic warfare. The archer missile had a great sensor package when it first arrived on UNSC ships, but that was close to 40 years ago. And with the sheer capability of covenant anti-missile pulse-lasers, it took a lot of behind the scenes counter-jamming, hands-on guidance and guiding the missiles away from enemy countermeasures that you had to pick your targets rather than just blowing your entire load of missiles over everything in the area.

>Focus fire on the raiders! You can’t let them get into close range. (1d20-4)
>Prioritise the corvette! You don’t want it bringing it’s weapons to bear. (1d20-3)
>Take down the freighters! You can’t let them run. (1d20)
>Other (write in)

>>3323910
>Prioritise the corvette! You don’t want it bringing it’s weapons to bear. (1d20-3)

>>3323910
>>Prioritise the corvette! You don’t want it bringing it’s weapons to bear. (1d20-3)

>>3323910
>Prioritise the corvette! You don’t want it bringing it’s weapons to bear. (1d20-3)

>>3323910
>Focus fire on the raiders! You can’t let them get into close range

>>3323947
>>3323960
>>3323964
All of you need to roll 1d20-3

Rolled 13 - 3 (1d20 - 3)

>>3323994

Rolled 8 - 3 (1d20 - 3)

>>3323994

Rolled 10 + 3 (1d10 + 3)

>>3323994

Rolled 17 + 3 (1d20 + 3)

>>3323994

Highest roll: 17-3 (totalling 15)
Success threshold: 12
Result: SUCSESS

“Weapons, target the enemy corvette, we need it out of the fight ASAP. Fire pods alpha one-through-five.” You ordered, and a couple of seconds later, 120 archer missiles erupted from their launch tubes. The missiles cleared the launch tubes with no issues as a volley of missiles from the Concord Hymn passed by to port. The Chaorn class frigate firing at the freighters as they tried to run. The volley from the smaller frigate passed too close to the enemy raiders, and became the prime focus of their pulse-laser fire, but this kept their attention away from your own volley.

By the time your missiles were entering the terminal stage of their flight, enough of the corvette’s systems had come back online to start defending. Pulse-lasers cut into the void and began to thin the volley of missiles further. Dozens of missiles were felled by the directed energy beams, but these were missiles designed to gut even the largest human warships. The moment the first missile hit, it might as well have been all over for a human ship of similar size. But for a covenant ship, overkill was preferable to underkill. So the next two dozen missiles that slammed into the enemy ship made sure that it was dead.

“Incoming! The raiders are firing!” Dyad called out, and you looked over in time to see six plasma cannon shots be fired off from each raider. One fired at you, while the other fired at the Adelaide.

>Take evasive action! (ROLL 1d20-4)
>Soak the hits and prepare to fire on the raiders (GAIN +2 to all rolls taken against the raiders in the next turn)
>Other (write in)

Rolled 2 - 4 (1d20 - 4)

>>3324236
Can't risk too much damage to the ship or her crew. We've got an advantage, let's not throw it away being over-aggressive.

>>3324262
oh jesus. I knew I shouldn't roll lol

>>3324236
>Soak the hits and prepare to fire on the raiders (GAIN +2 to all rolls taken against the raiders in the next turn)

>>3324236
>Take evasive action!

Rolled 18 + 4 (1d20 + 4)

>>3324236
>Take evasive action! (ROLL 1d20-4)

>>3324294
That's supposed to be a minus btw

Highest roll: 18-4 (totalling 15)
Success threshold: 12
Result: SUCSESS

“Nav, evasive action!” You ordered, and were answered by the feeling of the ship moving up ever so slightly. And you couldn’t help but feel slightly worried by your helmsman’s lax response to incoming fire.

Thankfully, the shots were fired at the edge of their effective range. So taking evasive action was trivially easy. Thanks to the slight manoeuvre, the shots passed harmlessly underneath your ship by a good couple of kilometres.

“Enemy fighters inbound!” Your aviation control officer called from his station. “Count four seraphs and four banshees.”

“Detecting energy readings from the freighters, they are spooling their slipspace drives!” Your sensor officer informed you, reminding you of the pair of stolen freighters that were making their way out of the fight as fast as possible.

>Take down the raiders, they are the biggest threat now! (1d20-2)
>Destroy the fighters, they can cause damage to key things like the bridge! (1d20-6)
>Stop those freighters, you don’t want them escaping with their loot! (1d20)
>Other (write in)

>>3324416
>Destroy the fighters, they can cause damage to key things like the bridge!

>>3324416
>>Stop those freighters, you don’t want them escaping with their loot! (1d20)

>>3324416
>Stop those freighters, you don’t want them escaping with their loot! (1d20)

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>3324416
>>3324517

i forgot again

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>3324416
>>Stop those freighters, you don’t want them escaping with their loot! (1d20)

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>3324416
>Stop those freighters, you don’t want them escaping with their loot! (1d20)

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>3324416
>Destroy the fighters, they can cause damage to key things like the bridge!

>>3324556
Beautiful.

>>3324416
>Stop those freighters, you don’t want them escaping with their loot! (1d20)
Thats our stuff.

Highest roll: 20
Success threshold: 10
Result: CRITICAL SUCSESS

“Weapons, target the freighters.” You ordered, this was probably your last chance to kill the freighters before they slipspaced out, and slipped from your grasp.

“Understood sir, firing archer pod delta-three.” The masked officer confirmed your order, before hitting the button to fire the missiles. This time you couldn’t see the missiles as they cleared their pods, instead you watched them appear from under the forked-bow of your ship, they had fired from one of your ship’s underside missile containers.

Each archer pod contained 24 missiles. As the swarm passed close to the raiders, the covenant warships cut almost all of them down, leaving just four of the missiles in flight. However, these were weapons designed from the ground-up to gut warships. Four missiles would be more than enough to kill a pair of freighters. They closed on their prey at a blistering speed, splitting up into pairs to attack each of the freighters. One of the freighters seemed oblivious to the incoming weapons, while another took drastic action.

You watched as one of the freighters fired a pair of liquid-fuel rockets mounted amidships by the enterprising aliens that has robbed the grave of whatever debirs field that the freighters had been salvaged from. The formerly human craft flexed in ways that it had never been designed to as the crew fought to avoid their deaths. However, the archer missiles had been designed to deal with sudden movement and correct accordingly. You watched the RCS thrusters at the nose and aft of the missiles approaching the manoeuvring freighter redlined themselves as they brought the missiles back on course to hit the freighter.

The first vessel to die was the freighter that had tried to dodge the missiles. The first missile hit amidships, and the result as the missile struck a fuel tank for one of the rocket engines was explosive to say the least. The entire vessel was broken in half by the explosion, along with the second missile heading for the ship. The explosion spread down the spine of the ship, detonating the remaining fuel tanks and turning the propulsion section into little more than highly irradiated space junk. Only the forward eight storage sections survived along with the bridge, and they were venting atmosphere fast.

Meanwhile, the other stolen freighter survived much more intact. Enough of it’s hull had been left intact for the networked guidance system within the pair of archer missiles to identify the vessel and target key systems accordingly. The first missile passed over the top of the ship, before diving down onto the bridge, while the second missile directly impacted the propulsion section. The pair if hits practically vaporised the bridge while also slicing the over-engineered engine room from the rest of the ship, which promptly detonated as the reactor and slipspace drive were deprived of coolant and command instructions respectively.

>CONT

>>3329250

“Incoming from the raiders, they are firing again!” The call went out again, and this time you were more concerned as the raiders had closed. You looked over in time to see one of them catch a volley of missiles from the Adelaide. Unfortunately, while the destroyer carried double the MAC guns of your frigate, it took longer for them to recharge, wholly negating the assistance of their AI in gunlaying.

>Take evasive action! (ROLL 1d20-6)
>Soak the hits and prepare to fire on the raiders (GAIN +2 to all rolls taken against the raiders in the next turn)
>Other (write in)

>>3329258
>>Soak the hits and prepare to fire on the raiders (GAIN +2 to all rolls taken against the raiders in the next turn)

>>3329258
>Soak the hits and prepare to fire on the raiders (GAIN +2 to all rolls taken against the raiders in the next turn)

>>3329258
>>Soak the hits and prepare to fire on the raiders (GAIN +2 to all rolls taken against the raiders in the next turn)

Rolled 6 - 6 (1d20 - 6)

>>3329258
>Take evasive action! (ROLL 1d20-6)

>>3329258
>Take evasive action!

Rolled 17 - 6 (1d20 - 6)

>>3329571
>>3329258

“Nav, co-ordinate with weapons to give us the best possible firing position on the enemy raiders.” You ordered, fully aware about what you were ordering and its implications.

“Sir, that will put us in the direct path of the enemy fire... are you absolutely sure?” Your navigation officer asked, he didn’t turn to face you, but you could hear how unsure he was in his voice.

“Do it Toulali.” You confirmed, before keying 1MIC, the ship-wide announcement channel. “All hands, brace for immediate impact! Don respirators and prepare for possible section breaches.”

You didn’t have to wait long, you could see the plasma cannon shots as they sailed straight towards your ship, the purple-blue balls of raw energy travelled along their straight paths. And soon you watched as they splashed against the hull of your vessel. Two of the shots completely missed, but four of them hit their marks, the whole ship shuddered as sections explosively decompressed.

“Multiple breaches!” Your damage control officer helpfully crowed. “Forward manoeuvring thrusters are damaged, turret rotation for point defence gun number two is offline, braking thrusters on the starboard nacelle are offline, multiple breaches in the starboard hanger spar!”

You grunted angrily to yourself, you had taken a severe licking there, but in return you were going to bite the heads right off the alien bastards in return.

Of the two enemy ships, one had been badly mauled by fire from the Adelaide. While the other seemed relatively intact. Both were turning away after they noticed that both their command ship and the transports, they were meant to protect had both been destroyed. The few fighters that had survived the hail of gunfire from the point defence guns of the UNSC vessels tried to return to their motherships, only to find that no effort was being made to pick them up.

>Focus fire on the intact raider, leave the other ship to the Adelaide. (1d20+2)
>Kill both enemy warships, you will have you pound of flesh. (1d20-4)
>Let the raiders escape, you have beaten them well enough.
>Other (write in)

Rolled 7 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>3330173

>Focus fire on the intact raider, leave the other ship to the Adelaide. (1d20+2)

Rolled 16 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>3330173
>Kill both enemy warships, you will have you pound of flesh. (1d20-4)

Rolled 9 - 4 (1d20 - 4)

>>3330173
>Kill both enemy warships, you will have your pound of flesh.

Rolled 1 + 4 (1d20 + 4)

>>3330173
>Kill both enemy warships, you will have you pound of flesh. (1d20-4)

Rolled 15 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>3330173
>>Focus fire on the intact raider, leave the other ship to the Adelaide. (1d20+2)

“Weapons, kill the intact raider with the MAC, and finish the other off with the archers. We’re ending this fight.” You coldly ordered your officer, even as oxygen hissed from bulkheads that you had let to be breached.

“Understood sir, MAC gun firing.” The officer replied, before the entire ship began to shake as the massive magnetic coils that powered the MAC gun began to spool up.

The weapon discharged and sent a single 300 ton ferro-magnetic shot directly into the side of the first, intact raider. The small craft’s shields flickered and collapsed under the force of the shot, and the massive shell punched straight into what you assumed was the engineering deck, the vessel’s reactor was almost instantly breached and detonated, blowing the rear of the vessel apart, the small arms that protruded from the ship were snapped off by the force of the impact. And massive cracks began to form as the enemy ship literally tore itself apart.

You didn’t notice your archer missiles being fired off at the second raider, but you certainly noticed the fight it put up. As the covenant scout craft brought it’s shields up just in time to block the remaining missiles that managed to escape it’s point-defence lasers. You were about to order another volley, when the bow of the enemy ship was obliterated by a MAC gun shot from way behind you. The Concord Hymn had finally made it’s contribution to the battle.

“All stop! All stop. All enemy vessels have been dispatched.” Captain Petrovich ordered over the comms. “Good shooting, all of you, especially the crew of the Dawn’s Early Light. I think that marks your third kill, no?”

“We almost had our fourth at the end there.” You pointed out as you watched the raider that you failed to kill began to slowly tumble, your ship’s fire-control system had focused on the enemy ship to guide the missiles in and was now making you aware of heat signatures being ripped into space out of where the bridge once sat. These signatures writhed in agony as they tried to inhale air that was not there, before quickly expiring.

“Well, we couldn’t just let you have all the fun, now could we?” The commander of the Concord Hymn smugly replied.

“Is your vessel intact? We can send over repair drones if your require assistance making repairs.” Captain Petrovich offered, and you were inclined to take him up on that offer as one of your forward manoeuvring thrusters coughed and spluttered.

>Hold position and repair, there is nothing else out there that is both alien and still breathing.
>Make sure that the enemy ships are truly dead, 6 archer missiles apiece should do the trick.
>Other (write in)

>>3330483
>>Make sure that the enemy ships are truly dead, 6 archer missiles apiece should do the trick.

>>3330483
>Make sure that the enemy ships are truly dead, 6 archer missiles apiece should do the trick.

>>3330483
>Hold position and repair, there is nothing else out there that is both alien and still breathing.

>Other (write in)
Salvage time ahoy!

>>3330483
>>Make sure that the enemy ships are truly dead, 6 archer missiles apiece should do the trick.

>>3330537
>>3330483
>Hold position and repair, there is nothing else out there that is both alien and still breathing.
I like the idea of more salvaging.

>>3330483
>>Hold position and repair, there is nothing else out there that is both alien and still breathing.

>>3330483
>Hold position and repair, there is nothing else out there that is both alien and still breathing
>Do we have any casualties?

>>3330483
>>Hold position and repair, there is nothing else out there that is both alien and still breathing.
Concord and adelaide can do cleanup duty

>>3330483
>>Hold position and repair, there is nothing else out there that is both alien and still breathing.

“I’ll have to take you up on that offer sir, we took some hits towards the end there and my repair teams will need assistance.” You accepted the offer for aid. Right now you had multiple hull breaches, you didn’t want to risk taking a point-blank plasma cannon shot just because you decided that you wanted to go and hunt down everything with a pulse.

“Understood, Concord Hymn, get over here and provide some assistance for our new addition.” Captain Petrovich ordered the Charon class frigate up, curiously choosing to forgo assisting you himself.

“Thank you sir, the help is appreciated.” You thanked your commanding officer, even though you had hoped to get a bit more immediate help.

“It is fine commander, you are already proving to be more helpful than someone.” The captain replied, taking a slight jab at the officer in charge of the other frigate in the wolfpack.

“It’s rude to speak badly about someone when they were within earshot.” The other commander pointed out, but their tone of voice made it obvious that they were not being serious.

“Yes, yes, yes. Whatever.” The captain brushed off the other commander, before continuing. “The Adelaide will search the area for lifepods and fighters that got away. Standard cleanup-shootup mission. The Concord Hymn will join us once they have deployed their repair drones and handed control off to the Dawn’s Early Light. Those are your orders, now get to it.”

And with that, the link was cut off and you were left to your command.

“Good work everyone, we had a lot more opposition than predicted, but we survived all thanks to your actions today.” You congratulated your bridge crew on their actions over the course of the engagements, both the one that you had just fought and the one in the battle back in the debris field. And you couldn’t help but smile as everyone began to celebrate.

If this was just what you had accomplished in your first battle, you had no doubts at all that

===================================

And that’s it for this thread! How did you all find the d20 based dice system, was it an improvement over the original mean-of-three system or would you prefer to revert back? Next thread will be next week on Wednesday, same as usual.

If you have any questions, then feel free to ask. I’m open to answer any questions before the thread falls off the board.

>>3338193
I honestly dig the new system but god damn are covenant shots oof. i look forward to this fresh hell more

>>3338193
I wonder how many casualties we took.

>>3338193
Good show, I like this system over the previous.

>>3338247
Good thing we choose tough ship eh?

>>3338193
Thanks for running