>>4327821
>>While dealing with the main body of the ship might be beyond our capabilities now, there should not be any harm in sifting through the debris field, right? Right? ... Right?

>>4327821
>While dealing with the main body of the ship might be beyond our capabilities now, there should not be any harm in sifting through the debris field, right? Right? ... Right?

Hey we'll be fine, probably.

>>4327831
>>4327828
Okay, I will leave this open for another 15 minutes, then I will get to writing. Good to have you along!

>>4327821
>>Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. There is no need to be as reckless as we have been being, but there is no need to assume that we are going to ruin the derelict, by doing some harmless pruning.

>>4327828
>>4327831
>>4327852
Okay, it has been about 15 minutes, according to the timer on my post, so I will close voting, and start writing for

>>While dealing with the main body of the ship might be beyond our capabilities now, there should not be any harm in sifting through the debris field, right? Right? ... Right?

As a bit of world-building to tide you guys over, here is the fact sheet for our fleets tanker, the Mammon.

The Mammon, Identifier BB-39, Laid Up on the 16th of March 2214, Launched on the 19th of June 2215. Bought by Vulture’s Roost Pickers on the 23rd of May 2324. Licensed and Commissioned as Support Tanker on same day, by same company. At standard gravity, is 200,000 in dead weight tonnage (DWT). Length is 1250ft, Beam is 170ft, Height is 200 ft. It is the largest (and oldest) ship in our fleet, and currently, one of the three primary tanks has inexplicably dumped all of its fuel.

>>4327867

While you are not willing to simply start hacking away at what could very well be an alien craft, without, uh, guidance, you guess, of some manner of specialist, the fact remains is that there is an fairly sizable debris field, just sitting around the ship. This is the job for your fleet’s trawler, the Clean Sweep. Trawlers are the resurrection and implementation of an old, largely hypothetical design of spaceship, called a solar sail ship. At the layman level, the old solar sails worked by using radiation pressure (whatever the hell that is) as a means of propulsion. The newer solar sails use the radiation pressure to move as well, but they are also capable of “netting” particles, predominantly hydrogen and helium in the plasma phase, which can be used to top-off fuel tanks. They could also lower their sails, and send up nets, designed to capture all manner of debris, then draw them into the ship, for sorting, storage and transport. As one might expect, they are also delicate. Unfortunately delicate.

The Clean Sweep breaks formation with the rest of your fleet, and moves into position to make the first pass through the debris field. You and your flag officers are discussing your find, as the Clean Sweep pushes through the field. Most of your collective attention is directed towards the aft, or what you assume to be the aft of the derelict. Upon closer look, it seems the entire ship has an auto-tessellating feature, where it is able to change shape by reorganizing the orientation of modular, geometric miniature bulkheads. The derelict seems to have taken serious damage to the assumed aft and is trying and failing to auto-tessellate the hull back into sealed piece. Tessellating structures and hulls are uncommon, especially at any significant size. Auto-tessellating structures and hulls are just considered impractical at the size of a ship hull, though they are used in top of the line drones.

As the Clean Sweep passes a blown out hangar, four automated drones begin haphazardly accelerating towards the trawler. You do not know if they have suicide protocols to attack unknown vessels, or if they are simply confused, and are trying to reattach the debris in the nets of the trawler back to the derelict. Right now, that is a moot point. Those drones pose a significant risk to the Clean Sweep, and because of the positioning of your ships, you and the rest of the fleet is unable to provide support fire to your featherweight of a trawler. The captain jettisons the nets, pylons and all at the drones, and engages the point defense system, trying to take down these Mad Drones before they crash into the ship.

Clean Sweep rolls 2d6 against Mad Drones (Unarmed). CR of Mad Drones (Unarmed) is 9. Can I get 3 rolls of a d6, please, for the first round?

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>4327940

>>4327946
I'm sorry, I meant 3 rolls of 2d6. Otherwise, there would be now way you could beat a CR of 9.

Rolled 3, 4 = 7 (2d6)

>>4327940

Rolled 4, 6 = 10 (2d6)

>>4327940

>>4327948
7 is pretty good; that drone has taken damage and is now crippled. While it is still heading towards the Clean Sweep, it will take an additional turn to reach the ship, and it can no longer maneuver, making it much easier to hit.
>>4327951
10 is great shooting; the vacflak put paid to that one. It is no longer a threat. After action, you will be able to determine what condition it is in.

>There are two Mad Drones (unarmed) at full strength, CR 9 which will impact the Clean Sweep in 2 rounds, causing potentially catastrophic damage. There is another Mad Drone (unarmed) that has been crippled, CR 5 which will impact the Clean Sweep in 3 rounds.

>There is enough time for one more burst in this round. As the Mad Drones are not armed, they can not return fire.

>>4327964
Hm. It has been 15 minutes, if someone wants to roll again, they can, in the interest of moving things forward. In the mean time, here is some facts about the fleets freighter.

The Karaboudjan, Identifier CV-13, Laid Up on the 7th of December 2242, Launched on the 14th of October 2243. Bought by Vultures’ Roost Pickers on the 17th of February 2322. Licensed and Commissioned as a Freighter on same day, by same company. At standard gravity, is 100,000 in deadweight tonnage (DWT), with capacity for 16,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Length is 1100ft, Beam is 160ft, Height is 200 ft. Approximately 4000 TEU is currently being used to store supplies, and there are another 4000 TEU sitting empty, waiting to be used as storage.

>>4327985
>>4327964
I'm sorry, I was clear. What we are looking for is the third and final roll of 2d6 for this round of "combat" (if you can cal it that. So, 1 roll of 2d6 please.

Rolled 2, 4 = 6 (2d6)

>>4327988

Rolled 3, 1 = 4 (2d6)

>>4327985
Im back. Sorry been busy

>>4328007
>>4328022
No problem. So we will take the first of those two rolls. That 6 isn't enough to cripple or slow the last untouched drone. This marks the conclusion of the first round of combat.

Round 2: Clean Sweep vs Mad Drones (unarmed)
At the end of this round, the two undamaged drones will impact the Clean Sweep, potentially causing significant damage. At the end of the next round, the crippled drone will impact the Clean Sweep, potentially causing significant damage. As you have time for three bursts, you can roll up to 3 2d6, to try to beat or get close to the CR of 9.

Additionally, you could use this turn to abandon ship, which would save the lives of the crews, but would doom the ship. At the range you are, and at the speed the drones are moving at, evasive maneuvers are not viable, but in other situations they can be used, so remember that.

Now, three rolls of 2d6 please, and hopefully, lets scuttle these damned drones.

Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d6)

>>4328059

Rolled 3, 4 = 7 (2d6)

>>4328059

Rolled 6, 6 = 12 (2d6)

>>4328059

>>4328067
>>4328080
Good rolls! Give me a minute, and I will write up the story.

Echoing the first salvo, the aft gun was the first to fire again. And, as it was in the first salvo, the aft gun was not able to score a hit. The drones were passing the netting and the pylons that had been ejected by the captain of the Clean Sweep by the time that the gun in the stern was able to open up. However, this burst flew truer, and ripped into the smallest of the four, crippling it. The drone had stopped accelerating, and was now moving in a wide arc, but at the distance it was not going to be enough to clear the Clean Sweep. At this point, there was only one drone that was still flying true. Emphasis on “was”. The vacflack gun in the midships managed to hit something tender, and for all the worlds, it look like the damn drone just shattered.

>>4328119
There are now two Mad Drones remaining. Both require a roll of 5 to kill, as they are already crippled, and are no longer maneuvering.

Please, 3 rolls of 2d6 to beat 5.

Rolled 4, 4 = 8 (2d6)

>>4328122

Rolled 4, 6 = 10 (2d6)

>>4328122

>>4328128
>>4328133
Ho ho! And that is all she wrote! A pretty good start to the first combat of the quest, isn't it. Give me one minute, and I will write it up.

Rolled 2, 1 = 3 (2d6)

>>4328122

The gunners in the stern struck first this time, and at the range they were at, the lead drone was simply taken to pieces by the burst. The midship gunners followed suit, and they managed to swat the last bastard down. You look on in amazement as the Clean Sweep manages to pull back from the blown out hangar, you had honestly expected to have seen the ship crippled or worse. And you look on in a different flavor of amazement as the aft gun of the Clean Sweep belatedly opens fire, attempt to shoot down the already downed drones.
You gesture over to one of your flag officers and ask him to “see what the hell is going on with that aft gun crew”. The Clean Sweep moves away from the blown-out hangar, leaving behind the netting and pylons, at least for now. The entire fleet is sitting at a relatively safe distance away from that hanger, with the flightlines of the main armaments of the fleet trained on that darkened, partially collapsed bay. The biggest question here, besides the sobriety of that gun crew, is how the drones managed to duck your sensors. There is a lot going on here that you do not readily follow. As you are mulling this over, another flag officer comes up to you, and informs you that the tug shuttle is ready for operation, it just needs a heading.

>Where will you send the tug shuttle?

>Send the tug to retrieve the nets and pylons of the Clean Sweep, as the fleet keeps the flightlines of their main guns on that hangar.

>Send the tub to examine the wrecks of the drones, for salvage, or potentially, recovery.

>Send the tug to inspect the derelict, at least the portions of which that are currently being covered by the flightlines of the heaviest weapons of the fleet.

>Send the tug to the blown out hangar, and discharge a disposable drone in there, to see how the drones managed to hide from the scans, and if there are any more.

>>4328210
>Send the tug to the blown out hangar, and discharge a disposable drone in there, to see how the drones managed to hide from the scans, and if there are any more.

>Send the tub to examine the wrecks of the drones, for salvage, or potentially, recovery. >>4328210

>>4328225
>>4328224
Alright, I will leave this up for about 15 more minutes, or a tie breaker; if there isn't any, then I will flip for it.

>>4328225
+1

>>4328235
>>4328225
>>4328256
Alright then, I will start writing. Can someone please roll 4d20, so I can determine the condition of the Mad Drones (unarmed)?

Rolled 7, 2, 13, 12 = 34 (4d20)

>>4328260

>>4328264
Great, thanks!

>>4328266
No problem.

I must sleep but I love the quest, keep it up.

After a moment of thought you order the shuttle over to the wrecks of the drones. The captain of the tug broadcasts the feed from the external cameras, so your bridge can see.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 1: Gross Condition is 7 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition, 3 out of 20.
The first drone the tug comes across has been blown into several dozen small pieces. Any internal hardware either completely cooked or completely wrecked by the vacflack. But there is a good rule of thumb amongst scavengers like you. If it is big enough that it can be seen with the naked eye, then odds are it is cost effective to scrap.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 2: Gross Condition is 2 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition -2 out of 20.
The last drone that was shot should be around here. Maybe it was the brilliant burst from the midship gunners, or maybe it was the needless follow up from the aft, but either way, you are having a hard time finding this drone, which sort of precludes salvaging it. After a minute or so, you find what appears to be a relatively fresh cloud of micro-debris, and deduce that this was the last drone. After a quick consultation with engineering, you decide to use the magnetic ship to ship coupler to collect as much of the cloud as you possibly can, and when you have collected every thing you can, you will disengage the electromagnet and then simply brush the remains into bins for storage.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 3: Gross condition is 13 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition 9 out of 20. This must have been one of the drones that you managed to cripple then stop, considering that it is still mostly in one piece. Obviously, the internals are fried, but considering that you don’t know who made this thing, or what they made it to do (exactly at least, generally it seems that it is a simply slaved to the Derelict), it is probably for the best. However, as you are close enough to properly examine it, you can see that the drone has a light and a simple 4 axis arm, indicating that this is drone was not exclusively designed for suicide attacks.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 4: Gross condition is 12 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition 8 out of 20. Perhaps this was the other drone that was crippled before it was killed, as this one too is mostly in one piece. Now that you have two drones you notice that much like the ship itself, these drones seem to be built out in a tessellating style, though you do not believe that the drones are auto-tessellating. However, considering their modular nature, if you were to pull enough of these drone in good condition together, you might be able to rebuild them, though you’d need to install your own control package.

>>4328319
What next?
>You have already salvaged one drone; you might as well salvage the others. Have the Karaboudjan eject one or two ECU’s and let us store the rest, before we do anything else.

>You have already secured one drone; you might as well secure the others. Have your flagship, the Aethereal Vulture, open the aft hangar, so you can send the remains of the drones to Engineering for further analysis, before we do anything else.

>You should look to restoring the Clean Sweep to full capabilities, considering you are using it as collateral in a loan. Have the shuttle-tug fetch the nets and pylons that were ejected earlier.

>You should take this lull as an opportunity to examine the Derelict itself. Have the shuttle-tug get up close and personal, so long as it is covered by the flightlines of the main guns from the Aethereal Vulture.

>You should take this lull as an opportunity to investigate why these drones do not ping on your scans. Have the shuttle-tug discharge a disposable drone into the blown-out hangar where the Mad Drones (unarmed) came out of.

>You should take this lull as an opportunity to investigate why these drones do not ping on your scans. Have the shuttle-tug discharge a disposable drone into the blown-out hangar where the Mad Drones (unarmed) came out of

.>>4328334

>>4328338
Considering that it is getting later, I will leave this vote open for another hour. After that, I will write up the post, and leave it over night.

>>4328334
>You should take this lull as an opportunity to investigate why these drones do not ping on your scans. Have the shuttle-tug discharge a disposable drone into the blown-out hangar where the Mad Drones (unarmed) came out of.

>>4328399
>>4328338
Alright, I will start writing.

After quick correspondence with your flag officers, you decide the best course of action going forward is to suss out what triggered the suicide attack from those drones. Presumably, if these drones were slaved to some system or subsystem of the Derelict itself, then there would be communication between the two, which is what the scans should pick up on. Where there was no chatter in this area, it was assumed that there would be no external functionality, and certainly nothing as aggressive as launching what appear to be utility drones in a suicide attack.

There are three possibilities. First, the chatter between the ship and the drones is somehow concealed from your scanners. Second, there is no chatter, because the drones themselves are fully autonomous, which is terrifying, as that means there is no convenient and universal off switch for these bastards. And the third possibility is that some aspect of the relationship between the drones and the ship is not understood correctly. The hope here is that with the discharge of the disposable drone into the blown-out hangar, then you will be able to start to figure out what exactly is going on here. You transmit your orders, and the shuttle-tug gingerly moves into position. On the mark of the shuttle-tug’s commander, the feed in your bridge switches over from the external camera of the tug to the noticeably lower resolution feed from the Huginn Model Disposable Surveillance Drone.

The black spherical drone, trailing the released umbilical cable behind it, almost like a tail, moves into the ruins of the hangar. It is obvious that at some point, the hangar experienced rapid depressurization. There are portions of the tessellating hull that have suffered cosmetic damage all over the place, possibly implying that at least a good portion of this entire hangar was completely reshuffled at some point. Obviously, working on this derelict is going to be hazardous. Imagine if something went wrong, a repair protocol started up while you had teams exploring this Derelict, and the entire thing decided to reshuffle itself and, in the process, crush your men to their deaths, or just dump them into space?
Might be worth picking up a lot of drones on your way back. And a lot of spare men, too.

>>4328515
As the drone heads in deeper, towards the far end of the hangar, you are able to get a better idea of what exactly you are looking at. What you thought were simply some sort of collapsed support running against the walls of the hangar appears to be some manner of elevator, designed to carry craft from storage decks to flight decks. As it goes from the floor to the ceiling, it is implied that there are two storage decks for small craft, one above you, and one below you.

You can clearly see the seam in the floor where the elevator was supposed to move, but the ceiling of the hangar looks different. It looks like the damned thing tessellated over the access to the upper storage deck. You can even see where it looks like the tessellating process ripped the elevator from its supports in the ceiling. Further on, there is a blast door, which unlike the hangar door, shows no signs of depressurization damage, implying that it was completely open when the blow out occurred. If that doesn’t raise red flags, nothing does.

>What are your orders for the drone pilot?

>Continue straight into the body of ship

>Continue down into the (presumed) lower storage deck

>Move up, and attempt to access the (presumed) upper storage deck.

>I sh

>>4328516
Damn timer.
>I should be ready to run starting around 5pm Eastern Standard Time, though I will be in the thread earlier to field any questions. Hope to see you all then.

>>4328516
>Continue straight into the body of ship
So far very interesting quest, it sparks that feeling of adventure and uncertainty.

Hello players! I'm actually ready to run earlier than expected. So I will put this post up, wait for 2 hours, to see if there are any other votes besides >>4328533 and then start the run about an hour or so early.

Also, I realized that I didn't have a name yet for the 5th and final ship of our fleet (ignoring the shuttles and atmospheric craft). Any suggestions for names of the fleets dedicated Salvage Rig?

>>4328516
>Continue straight into the body of ship

>>4329009
Old Ironsides

>>4329009
Scrapper

If the whole point of deploying this surveillance drone is to find where on earth the Mad Drones were coming from (and by extension, how to avoid them), then you would assume that they came from further inside the ship, as the elevators in the hangars seem to be have been rendered non-operational. At the very least, the presumed storage deck above the hangar has been sealed over, at least this portion of ceiling. At this distance, the flood lights of the shuttle-tug have been mostly blocked out by debris, so the Huginn unit engages its lights, but makes no other movement.
As you are just about to call over, the commander of the away team patches the drone operator through to the bridge.

“Got a question boss, and the commander says they should be your call. There are five ways to run this thing, and each has pros and cons.”

“This Huginn here has a decent receiver-transmitter package, and it has the “ping”, the ability to blast out a broad band of frequencies, which will reveal any other receiver-transmitter package in range. The issue with that is that it is subtle as yelling straight into someone’s ear. We will see them, but they will see us, no doubt. We can simply not use the “ping”, and simply have it receive orders and transmit video feed, but doing that means that the ship could find us before we find where they are broadcasting from."

"We can simply fly blind as well, just broadcast out to the Huginn. The drone will receive orders, and film everything it sees, but will not broadcast back, so we will not see any of it, at least until the drone comes back so we can playback the footage. The drone will be hard to find, for both us and the derelict, but if anything happens, we may never see any of the footage."

"There are two more extreme options. The first is to let the drone move completely autonomously, which means that there will be no need to broadcast, making the drone completely undetectable, at least to receiver-transmitter packages. It is easy for that kind of stuff to go wrong, and while flying blind means that you’d have a general idea of where it is, what it is doing, going autonomous means that once it is out of sight, you have no idea where it is, or what is happening to it. Finally, there is the hardline. We can simply keep the damn thing on the cable, which means that there is no transmission, no receiving, which like running autonomous means that it is invisible to the Derelict’ s receiver-transmitter packages. Unlike autonomous modality, we see and know everything the drone does, the moment that it does it. Issue with that is, we got to concern ourselves with the cable. There is only so much of it on the spool; the Huginn is not even all of the way out of the hangar yet, and more than half of the length is gone."

>>4329175
After taking a second to reflect on your choices, you thank him for the information, and ask him to wait one minute to check in with the Quartermaster, to determine how many of these drones you have. The report comes back that you have a total of three Huginn drones, including the one in use right now, and one significantly more expensive Muninn atmosphere drone, which does not come with a cable. One of your flag officers suggests that the range of the drone on the hardline could be extended by grafting all of the cables together, but another points out that if anything happened, then potentially all of the cables could be lost at once. Ultimately, it is your decision.

>Use full functionality of receiver-transmitter package, including the "ping". We see what the drone sees when it sees it, and we will find any of the Derelicts receiver-transmitter packages as soon as they are in range, with the downside of being blatantly obvious.

>Use full functionality of receiver-transmitter package, excluding the "ping". We see what the drone sees when it sees it, and may find the Derelicts receiver-transmitter packages before they find our drone.

>Only use the receiver. We will have to wait for the drone to make its way back to the shuttle for us to see what it sees. Will only have general idea as to where drone is and what is happening to it. May find the Derelicts receiver-transmitter packages before they find our drone, and may find these packages without being detected at all.

>Autonomous modality. We will have to wait for the drone to make its way back to the shuttle for us to see what it sees. Will have no idea as to where drone is and what is happening to it. May find Derelicts receiver-transmitter packages, PROBABLY undetectable to these packages.

>Umbilical Cable. We will directly control the drone from the shuttle, seeing everything that it sees when it sees it. May find Derelicts receiver-transmitter packages, PROBABLY undetectable to these packages. Limited range.

>Umbilical Cable x3. Same as above, but with all three cables grafted together. Range is still limited, and risks losing all cables at once if something goes wrong.

>>4329201
A small typographical error in this post, it should be a Munnin atmospheric drone, as opposed to a Munnin atmosphere drone.

>>4329201
>Use full functionality of receiver-transmitter package, excluding the "ping". We see what the drone sees when it sees it, and may find the Derelicts receiver-transmitter packages before they find our drone.

>>4329201
>Use full functionality of receiver-transmitter package, including the "ping". We see what the drone sees when it sees it, and we will find any of the Derelicts receiver-transmitter packages as soon as they are in range, with the downside of being blatantly obvious.

>>4329228
>>4329213
Okay, so I will let this sit for about 15 minutes or so, then if there isn't a tie breaker, I will roll for it.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>4329231
Alright, rolling for it.
>>4329213 is 1
>>4329228 is 2

Alright, I have figured out how I want to do this. Can I get 1d6 and 1d20 please?

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4329298

>>4329318
Uh oh. That isn't a good start. Don't worry though, a decent roll on the 1d20 should negate the worst of it. It has been long enough, if you want, you can roll again, just to keep things moving along.

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>4329298

>>4329362
Okay, well, the drone is still in one piece, at least. Writing!

File: Room 2 off of Hangar.jpg (3.09 MB, 4032x3024)

3.09 MB JPG

After some thought, you decide to use the full extent of the receiver-transmitter package, including the “ping”. Ultimately, finding the mouth and the ears of this Derelict are imperative, so you are going to assume that risk. Or more accurately, you are going to have the drone assume that risk. Having communicated the instructions to the drone pilot, he acknowledges receipt of the instructions, and shifts his line to your bridge to standby, so if something happens, you can coordinate. Returning your attention to the video feed, you can see the camera shake as the umbilical cable is release, and the drone begins to move, unbound. At what you judge to be waist height, the drone maneuvers towards the opened blast door.

The frame of the blast door has additional reinforcement on both sides. The drone operator doesn’t linger around the door or door frame for long, choosing to simply pass through, but the surprising construction does not go unnoticed by your engineering chief, Attenborough. “If both sides of the frame are reinforced like that, then that probably means they were equally worried about explosions on both sides of the door. There may be some manner of fuel plant or fuel pump nearby, so they could get fuel to the crafts quickly.” After a slight hesitation, adds “Or, there could be some manner of ammo dump nearby”. You take a minute to contact the drone pilot and inform him of the potential danger in the area.

His immediate response: “So should I pull back, boss?”. Admittedly, this is not optimal. If you are sending a drone into what could be an ammo dump, then things can go really wrong, really quickly. On the other hand, you have seen no evidence of anything dangerous yet. If you were completely risk adverse, you would not be Owner-Operator of a salvaging fleet. (Or for that matter, take a loan using the Clean Sweep as collateral, without the knowledge or approval of the rest of the owners and shareholders). Still, you can feel the eyes of Engineering Chief Attenborough on the back of you neck as you instruct the drone pilot to continue as planned, until something actually dangerous comes up in the video feed.

The drone pilot, now more cautiously than before, decelerates the drone to a slower speed, and continues into this area, which seems to have two floors. One that the drone is waist height off, and an elevated portion to the right, as the drone sits. The floor the drone is on now is completely clear, as far as it can see, all the way to the next door, on the other side of the area. The second floor most prominent feature is a series of structures. They look like the elevators in the hangar, except these are running horizontally, instead of vertically, all lined up, leading to the door on the far side of the room, on the second level. After moving into the center of the room, the ping has not return anything.

>>4329554
Moving to inspect the horizontal pylon, the pilot maneuvers the drone up to the second level. However, as the drone is floating by the top of the structure, it begins to accelerate towards the nearest frame. There is a significant jolt as the drone makes impact with the corner of the frame, followed then by mild shaking. The drone pilot comes through on the shortwave. "Running diagnostics on the the little bastard right now, boss, but I can tell you that I still have complete control of the damn thing. Whatever went wrong here it wasn't the drone."

But Chief Engineer Attenborough has the answer before the diagnostics are even back. "Magnets, I'll wager. Any takers?" He certainly has the bridges attention, though no one accepts his challenge. "I think that is an over-engineered track for a nograv train. Most simply have the wheels above and below the track, but besides that are built like conventional train tracks, you know, on one plane. But instead of putting four wheels underneath the train-car, the builders here put the four wheels on each of the corners of the train-car instead. And what looked like a support for the mystery frame was actually a magnetic portion of track." Not even a minute later, the drone pilot comes back on line to report that the drone is functionally operation, though it is reading that it is under the effect of a powerful magnet.

Well, thanks to Attenborough, you at least have an idea of what happened to the drone, and what you are looking at in this room (from roll of 11). That doesn't change the fact that your drone is completely stuck. Though at least you can day dream about finding and salvaging a complete train.

>Have someone EVA into the Trainyard (formerly Room 2) and attempt to unfoul the drone from the magnet.
>Send out a second drone into the Trainyard and ignore the first drone for now.
>Send out a second drone into the Hangar and attempt to find another area to explore, preferably one without magnets.

>>4329604
>Have someone EVA into the Trainyard (formerly Room 2) and attempt to unfoul the drone from the magnet.

>>4329604
>Have someone EVA into the Trainyard (formerly Room 2) and attempt to unfoul the drone from the magnet.

We just got these drones let's not lose them!

>>4329664
>>4329666
Alright, I'll start writing.

File: Derelict Map.jpg (435 KB, 3846x1156)

435 KB JPG

>>4329697
I'm going to take a quick break for dinner, but for now, I will share the updated map for the ship.

>>4329747
You instruct the shuttle-tug commander to send out someone on an EVA to unfoul the drone. After some delay, you receive confirmation that the crewman has left the shuttle and is on the way. There is another delay, and then you are patched through to the camera on his suit, which if possible is even worse than the camera on the drone. Seriously, what the hell is this resolution? Even so, you can track the crewman’s progress, and it is not more than a minute until he is in the trainyard, positioning himself in front of the drone. It takes you a minute to realize what he is doing, but eventually you realize that he is attaching the umbilical cable again to the Huginn, so the shuttle-tug can pull the damn thing clear. Probably easier and safer than a crowbar, right?

There is a series of clicks, as the cable as reengaged. Once the crewman confirms the connection, the drone pilot begins to reel in the drone.

>Please roll 1d20 to determine the condition of the drone

File: Derelict Map, Drone being(...).jpg (580 KB, 3846x1156)

580 KB JPG

>>4329864
Not that it is much of an improvement, but I figure that for temporary changes to the map, I could use paint, instead of constantly redrawing the entire thing. Also, numbers that are circled indicate features, and the numbers that are squared indicated room names, based off of deduced function.

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4329864

>>4329899
Alright, I'll start writing.

>>4329975
Disposable Huginn (Unarmed) 4: Gross condition is 8 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Disposably Built, Gentle Situation, Human Touch reduce condition by 3 and increase condition by 5 and 1, respectively. Net Condition 11 out of 20. Well, the drone is still in working order at least, but any thing beyond cosmetic damage might destroy the damn thing. Well, anyway…
You have the drone free, floating above the center of the trainyard. The crewman is apparently returning to the ship at an undignified speed, so now you need to decide, where to go with the drone from here exactly? Now that you think about it, there is not anything that is immediately ready to be explored. Where are you going to explore?
>Look at the doors on the other side of the trainyard.
>Look at the hatches on the floor of the hangar.
>Look at the hatches on the ceiling of the hangar.
>Look around the hangar door.

>I am sorry for the delay there, got held up a bit.

>>4330141
>Look around the hangar door.

Let's get an idea of what's on this floor before looking at the hatches on the ceilings and floors

>>4330141
>Look around the hangar door.

>>4330168
>>4330151
Alright, I will start writing.

File: Roller Coaster Wheels.jpg (48 KB, 602x335)

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You give instructions for the drone pilot to examine the remains of the blown-out hangar door, as you are not ready to start cutting through doors or floors (or ceilings) yet. As the drone slowly limps to the hangar, you reflect on the strange condition of the twin blast doors on the far side of the trainyard. As much of a contrast as the intact and closed blast door at the far side of the hangar was to the complete destruction of the hangar door; the contrast was even greater between the destroyed hangar door and the intact and closed doors on the far side of the trainyard.

The way you see it, that means that one of two things. Either the door was closed after depressurization, or perhaps some portion of the ship remain pressurized after the blowout. The first option means that significant systems remained intact after the damage experienced here, also evidenced by the fact that the hull was still attempting to reform what you consider the aft of the vessel. Having to deal with AI-protocols designed to protect and maintain a ship, while you are actively trying to dismantle parts of it, is tedious at best, and lethal at worst. But the second option is not an itinerary for a cakewalk either, Cutting into a pressurized bulkhead is best reserved for those who have death wishes.

Then again, you suppose, just because one of the things is true, does not make the other false. This job is getting harder by the minute. And the Derelict is getting stranger by the minute.

As the drone is still limping towards the hangar door; the commander of the shuttle-tug comes on the shortwave. His engineering officer just finished debriefing the crewman back from the EVA, and he picked up something that he thought you should know.

“I cannot conceive of any reason it would be like this, but I reviewed the feed from Crewman Grassick’s suit, and it checks out. It is completely inverted. It is less of train, and more of an preposterously overengineered conveyor belt.”

“Imagine a conventional train; the rails sit on the ground, and the primary wheels go on top. When you got a lowgrav or nograv train, then they will use extra, secondary and tertiary wheels, on top and on the sides of the track, to prevent it from floating off. The yahoos who built this thing, they didn’t decide on the more expensive and involved option to use four primary wheels in the corners of the train car, instead of two primary wheels under it with the secondary and tertiary wheels, like we thought. No, because that isn’t odd enough. They built their train with no wheels.”

>attached picture is a render of actual roller coaster wheels, which are built like and work on the same principle as the hypothetical lowgrav or nograv train that the engineer is speaking about.

File: Rack-and-Pinion-System-wi(...).jpg (71 KB, 850x538)

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>>4330379
“I’m sorry, I am not following this at all. How can a train–“
“I don’t follow it either boss, but that is what the yahoos did. The tracks are where the wheels should be, and the wheels are where the tracks should be. Imagine that typical, conventional locomotive. Now imagine if the rails were replaced with a series of powered pinon gears, and the wheels were replaced with rack gears, you know, the ones like the worm gear, but with the flat blacks, instead.”

“So, you are saying that instead of having one or two massive engines, there are thousands, possibly tens of thousands of smaller ones throughout this ship instead?” When the exasperated engineer answers in the affirmative, your first thought is all of the money that those miniature engines would represent. Even if the nograv train was in perfect condition, you’d never be able to sell it as is, considering the maintenance that would be involved, unless you found some absolute eccentric. No, you’d have to break the rails, which are not rails but actually frames for pinon gears and presumably drives down into salvage. The amount of money represented there alone may be enough to pay off the loans, and then start saving for a tanker that is not over 100 years old. You are in a state of bliss, but it begins to sour, as wordless worry enters your mind.

Before you can articulate them, however, Attenborough speaks them out loud.

“It is like the builders, these ‘yahoos’, were operating on a completely different set of constraints, efficiencies and even logic, than today’s naval architects. When, exactly, was this built?”

The flag officers around the bridge shift uneasily. Attenborough’s question begs another. Who, exactly, built this? No one seemingly wants to hear it, because if your gut instinct, that this might be a genuine, actually alien, craft is right, then that opens so many God damned issues that-

“Drone is in position, sir.”

>attached picture is a rack and pinon gear, with the pinon being attached to a drive shaft. Similar to what would be used on the nograv tracks

>>4330391
Jesus Christ. How slow is that damned thing now. Continuing to ignore inconvenient questions, you return your attention to the feed. Being winched out of that magnet did not do the drones cameras any favors, but you can still see what the hell is going on. The hangar door is gone, and the floor around it, including the small lip outside of it is warped. At the current angle, you can see actual holes in the floor, into the deck below.

>A hangar door requires serious equipment to open and close. If you can find it, you might be able to find an isolated portion of the system that you could examine at your leisure.

>Well, you found a way into the presumed storage deck underneath the flight deck. If the ships and supplies were properly stored, then it is possible that they are still down there.

>The entire point of this exercise was to find a receiver-transmitter package, despite “pinging” around this deck, you haven’t managed to find one. It is possible that the receiver-transmitter package that was responsible for launching the attack is outside of the hull. Look around the outside of the blown out hangar.

>I will be back tomorrow! See you guys then.

>>4330394
>Well, you found a way into the presumed storage deck underneath the flight deck. If the ships and supplies were properly stored, then it is possible that they are still down there.

I smell loot

>>4330394
>Well, you found a way into the presumed storage deck underneath the flight deck. If the ships and supplies were properly stored, then it is possible that they are still down there.

>>4330394
>The entire point of this exercise was to find a receiver-transmitter package, despite “pinging” around this deck, you haven’t managed to find one. It is possible that the receiver-transmitter package that was responsible for launching the attack is outside of the hull. Look around the outside of the blown out hangar.

>>4330394
>Well, you found a way into the presumed storage deck underneath the flight deck. If the ships and supplies were properly stored, then it is possible that they are still down there.

>>4330413
>>4330415
>>4330416
>>4330497
Alright, can I have 2d20, one to determine what happens to the drone as it move into the new area, and one to determine what happens in the new area?

Rolled 1, 17 = 18 (2d20)

>>4330882

Rolled 13, 8 = 21 (2d20)

>>4330882

Rolled 8, 20 = 28 (2d20)

>>4330882
>>4330886
oh no

>>4330886
>>4330887
>>4330890
Hmm. Well, give me a minute to write this up.

Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>4330895
Dropped the name, also, pay no attention to this roll.

On your command, the drone pilot eases the Huginn through the largest hole in the floor of the flight deck. The fit is tight, tight to the point that the drone is scrapping the sides of the hole as it passes through, shaking the camera. Progress through the floor slows and then eventually stops. Contacting the drone pilot, he explains that the unit has once again gotten itself stuck, though this time he is confident that he can squeeze it free. You instruct him to continue, though to not push it to the point that the drone becomes both immobilized and irretrievable. It is a solid, agonizing ten minutes. At one point, the camera is no longer pointing down, but at the sides of the hole, so there is nothing to see.
But eventually, the pilot comes back on.

“Good news boss. We made it through.” You pick up the shortwave to respond. “Are you sure? It looks like the drone is still stuck in the tunnel on the feed. We can’t see anything here.” The pilot clears his throat, then replies with “Yeah, that is the bad news. Diagnostics indicate that the lights and the video are down. But I have full freedom of movement now, even if the connection is terrible.”

You absently scratch your head as you try to formulate a reply here, as you do not understand how the pilot can sound so pleased with themselves, considering that the drone is effectively irretrievable and unable to send footage anymore. Before you can as for an explanation, however, the pilot provides one.

“However, the receiver-transmitter package still works, and better yet, we are still “pinging”. We got hits; the drone is picking up on about 140 simple receivers, you know, the kind that you’d put on things so you could locate them by ‘pinging’ them.” You were about to congratulate, thank him, but he was still going. “And then there are about 3,150 unknown transmitter-receiver packages, complete packages mind you, capable of transmitting and receiving, the number changes slightly as I move the unit. Some of the hits are pretty far away too, this deck is longer than the hangar and that other room combined, at least. I cannot tell you what the hell is down here, but I can certainly say that there is a lot them. I do not believe any of them are active though, there is absolutely no movement down here. Still as a grave, it is.”

Perhaps sounding a little more emotional than you would have preferred, you thank the pilot, and tell him to await further orders. You are not particularly well versed in history, as most of your knowledge comes from movies, but you recall the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, where the archaeologist, peering through a hole into the undisturbed chamber first caught a glimpse of what he would call ‘wondrous things’. Full function transmitter-receiver packages are not cheap, and even if they were not attached to anything else, which is unlikely, if retrieved would represent a significant windfall.

>>4330952

What now?

>Try to send in a second Huginn drone to see what is going on there.

>Maybe send a crew to try to expand the hole, just a little, so the drone can move safely through.

>Whatever is down there, odds are that the elevators are going to be the only way to retrieve them. Send out drones and get Engineering to determine what would be needed to restore them to working order.

>>4330952
>Maybe send a crew to try to expand the hole, just a little, so the drone can move safely through.

Let's get a better look before we start going down there with engineers

>>4330954
>Whatever is down there, odds are that the elevators are going to be the only way to retrieve them. Send out drones and get Engineering to determine what would be needed to restore them to working order.
if we pull this right then we are rich.

>>4330954
>Maybe send a crew to try to expand the hole, just a little, so the drone can move safely through.

>>4330973
There's plenty here that can make us rich, but we still need to get out in one piece. Remember we only came in here to determine how the mad drones were able to avoid detection. Let's try to avoid getting a thousand mad drones sent at us at once.

>>4330977
Even so, luck favours the bold...... at least i think so.

I'll give it another 20 or so minutes, and then I will call it for trying to expand the hole. It is always great to see discussion.

>>4330954
>Maybe send a crew to try to expand the hole, just a little, so the drone can move safely through.

The first order of business is to get a drone with a camera down into the lower storage deck. After consultation with your flag officers, Attenborough and the other engineers, as well as the commanders of the other vessels, you have three plans to move forward.

Plan 1: Improvised Expansion. Using the equipment on hand, specifically your plasma torches, cut around the hole to expand it further, so a drone may easily pass through to the storage deck below. This work is well beyond the precision of your Salvage Rig, so it will have to be done by human hands.

Plan 2: Boring Option. Hold off on this particular avenue of exploration and buy specialized (and automated or automatable) boring or drilling equipment when you return to port. Specialized equipment like that may be expensive, but if you were willing to buy stolen goods, or have it stolen yourself, then there might be some cost savings right there.

Plan 3: Longboy Protocol. Take one of the three remaining drones, attempt to bypass the intellectual property protection functionality, and if you succeed in hacking it, rebuild the entire thing around the constraints of this hole. Rebuild the drone in this configuration will give the Slapdash Build modifier, which makes the drone significantly more fragile if anything were to happen with it.

>Please pick one of these mutually exclusive choices

>>4331005
Plan 1: Improvised Expansion. Using the equipment on hand, specifically your plasma torches, cut around the hole to expand it further, so a drone may easily pass through to the storage deck below. This work is well beyond the precision of your Salvage Rig, so it will have to be done by human hands.

>>4331005
Plan 1: Improvised Expansion.
What could go wrong.

>>4331005
Plan 1: Improvised Expansion. Using the equipment on hand, specifically your plasma torches, cut around the hole to expand it further, so a drone may easily pass through to the storage deck below. This work is well beyond the precision of your Salvage Rig, so it will have to be done by human hands.

>>4331019
>>4331017
>>4331013
Alright, I will get to writing. Give me 3 rolls of a d20 so I can see how well this goes. As usual, the higher the roll, the better the outcome.

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4331023

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>4331023

>>4331028
>>4331039
lets hope the next one is better.

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4331023

>>4331028
>>4331039
>>4331041
>>4331045
Alright, I will start writing.

>>4331058
>Actually, I have somethings around the house that I need to do, before it gets much later. I'll take a break from the quest for two hours, but I should be back, soon after lunch.

Ultimately, you settle on the most straightforward of the plans, to attempt to expand the hole. It will take a minute or two for the crew to get equipped, as nearly everyone is in battle stations after the suicide rush, so you some time to do something else.

>Retrieve the pylons and the netting for the Clean Sweep using the shuttle-tug.

>Use another Huginn drone to investigate more of the hangar area.

>Get some of the debris that the Clean Sweep picked up before it was attacked, and have Attenborough and Engineering run some quick tests on it. You do not have anything approaching a lab though, so do not expect much.

>>4331077

>Retrieve the pylons and the netting for the Clean Sweep using the shuttle-tug.

>>4331077
Oh, and as a completely unrelated vote, we never decided on a name for the dedicated Salvage Rig.

>Old Ironsides
>Scrapper
>Write-in

And as we are restarting the vote here, you can definitely vote for your own suggestion.

>>4331077
>Retrieve the pylons and the netting for the Clean Sweep using the shuttle-tug.

>Old Ironsides

>Retrieve the pylons and the netting for the Clean Sweep using the shuttle-tug.
>Vulture
a name fitting for its role of cannibalizing dead hulks

>>4331082
>Old Ironsides
>Retrieve the pylons and the netting for the Clean Sweep using the shuttle-tug.

>>4331339
>>4331154
>>4331105
Sorry that I was away longer than I expected. I will get the update started right away.

>>4331154
It is a good name, but it is worth noting that our current flagship, a recovered and restored Mine Layer is called the Aethereal Vulture.

You decide that this is the optimum moment to clean up after the Clean Sweep, and order the commander of the shuttle tug to grab the netting and support pylons. I need one roll of 1d2 and one roll of 1d20, please.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>4331369

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>4331369

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4331369

>>4331389
Actually, I was looking for 1d20, though I could use that, if you want...

>>4331395
>>4331387
Alright, I will get to writing.

>>4331405
The commander receives the instructions, and begins the process of wrangling the netting away from the Derelict. About half a minute passes, before you detect erratic movement heading towards you again. Drones again. Whatever is "seeing" you has to be around the outside of the hangar, as opposed to in it.

>Order the commander of the shuttle-tug to dump the pylons and netting, so they can get out of the flightlines of your fleets guns. Shuttle will presumably escape danger, pylons and netting will likely be destroyed, either by drones or by your fire.

>Order the commander of the shuttle-tug to haul the pylons and netting away from the hanger, so they and the pylons and netting can get out of the flightlines of your fleets guns. Shuttle, pylons and nets will probably escape danger.

>Order the commander of the shuttle-tug to jettison the pylons and netting into the hangar, in an attempt to disable or possibly capture some of the drones. Shuttle will probably escape danger, but the pylons and netting will probably be destroyed.

>>4331466
>Order the commander of the shuttle-tug to jettison the pylons and netting into the hangar, in an attempt to disable or possibly capture some of the drones. Shuttle will probably escape danger, but the pylons and netting will probably be destroyed.

Oof more drones

>>4331466
>Order the commander of the shuttle-tug to haul the pylons and netting away from the hanger, so they and the pylons and netting can get out of the flightlines of your fleets guns. Shuttle, pylons and nets will probably escape danger.

>>4331478
>>4331502
Alright, I am going to leave this up for about 15 minutes, if no one else votes, I will roll for it.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>4331527
>>4331478 roll of 1
>>4331502 roll of 2

>>4331602
Alright, can I get a roll of 1d20, to determine how quickly the shuttle-tug can move?

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>4331606

>>4331608
Good roll! That is enough to ensure that the shuttle-tug and the pylons and nets are able to move to safety, all without losing a potential turn. Give me a minute to write it up...

The shuttle-tug is significantly more maneuverable than the Clean Sweep, and she has a significantly more skilled flight crew. On top of that, it seems that the commander of the shuttle-tug didn’t need to be told to continue trying to haul the pylons and netting away, they never stopped attempting to retrieve them. Firing their retrogrades, the ship spins, or more accurately, yaws straight into making solid contact with the first primary pylon and the electromagnet integrated into the reinforced fore of the hull. Without wasting time or momentum, the shuttle-tug moves towards the other primary pylon.

Instead of lining up a proper angle for solid contact, the shuttle-tug uses their main arm to grab the other pylon. With both secured, the ship accelerates away, heading towards the storage deck underneath the hangar bay instead of falling back to the rest of the fleet, so clear the flightlines of the fleet’s weapons. This is when you get your first look at this new batch of drones accelerating through the hangar. There are 12 this time, and three of them are noticeably larger than their counterparts. Still, none of them are armed. With the fleet further away then the Clean Sweep was during the first rush, you will have 5 turns before the fastest drones reach your ships.

>>4331714
These are your ships that have combat capability and are or will be in range of the enemy during this engagement.

The trawler, the Clean Sweep has three Vulcan point defense guns, armed with standard vacflack rounds, and is in position for it to fire all three of its guns. Having already been in an engagement, it only has three rounds of ammunition left, for each of these guns (assuming all 3 guns are fired in the round).

The freighter, the Karaboudjan, has two Vulcan point defense guns, also armed with standard vacflack rounds, and is in position for it to fire all two of its guns. As most of the supplies are stored on the freighter, it has ready access to 8 rounds of ammunition left, for each of these guns. With another 8 rounds that can be retrieved in exchange for one round of action.

The tanker, the Mammon, has a total of six Vulcan point defense guns, again, armed with standard vacflack rounds, and is in position to fire two of its guns, though it can reposition itself so that four of its six guns are in position to fire, in exchange for one round of action. With two guns firing it has enough ammunition for six turns, with 4 guns firing it has enough ammunition for 3 turns.

The salvage rig, Old Ironsides, is unarmed, though it can attempt to overclock its integrated plasma torch to zap, burn and slice nearby enemies. Dangerous to attempt, as even if the overclocking goes safely, the momentum of the enemy may be enough for the attacker to reach the rig, and crash into it.

The former minelayer, the Aethereal Vulture has a total of four Vulcan point defense guns, armed with standard vacflack, and three Janus Twinned Autocannons. All weapons are in position to fire. It has access to 4 rounds of vacflack, if all 4 guns are being fired, and 4 rounds of firing all three of the autocannons.

>>4331718
You have several choices to make before you open fire.

At the current distance of the fleet to the drones, the vac-flak will have cooled off, and possibly shattered, rendering it less effective. A Vulcan Gun rolls 2d6, but only when it is in range. At the current distance at the start of combat, the Vulcan Guns will be rolling 2d6-2 instead. Do you want to hold off on shooting the Vulcans until they are at a better range?
>Yes/No

The Janus Twinned Autocannons are in range, however, they aren't accurate against small fast targets, and they might be capable of damaging the Derelict as well. Against the Mad Drones, they roll 2d6-3, and against the Morbidly Obese Drones, they roll 2d6-1. Do you want to save the heavy weapons for another engagement?
>Yes/No

The Mammon has already suffered damage, the Clean Sweep is running low on ammunition, and Old Ironsides does not have any weapons. Do you want any of them to retreat?
>Yes/No

Also, you can pick a ship that you want to roll for. Considering that this is going to be a bit more involved, I will let this sit for about an hour, to make sure that everyone interested can join in.

>>4331738
>Hold off till in range?
Yes

>Save Autocannons?
No, but only have them shoot the big drones

>Retreat ships?
Retreat Ironsides, since it's useless this fight, keep the others so they can contribute. Also, when did the Mammon suffer damage, or is that just the one tank the malfunctioned at the start?

>First Person Ship?
Obviously the flagship: Aethereal Vulture.


On another note, after we wrap up this combat, if we can't find what's sending the drones at us, we need to grab what we can, maybe a few scrap pieces, and GTFO. It seems like these drones are not going to stop coming, and will come in larger numbers, and we do not have a lot of ammunition.

>>4331761
Yes, the primary tank is also the hull itself, so the Mammon has some damage. Nothing significant, but something worth remembering.

Also, the idea was that different players would roll for different ships, so you could roll for the Aethereal Vulture, someone else could roll for the Clean Sweep, etc, but it seems that there isn't anyone else around. I'll take an hour off for dinner, hopefully someone else will show up. If not, then you can roll for all of the fleet, if you want.

>>4331761
+1
I was taking a long nap

>>4331841
Alright, do you have a preference of what ship you would like to roll for? The flagship has already been taken.

>>4331868
I guess the trawler it has a few guns

Ordering your fleet to hold off for now, as to not waste ammunition, you order the gunnery sergeant of the Aethereal Vulture to target the bigger and slightly slower drones with the auto-cannons. As the orders are passed along, you open a frequency to Old Ironsides, and order them to withdraw from combat. The lights in the bridge flicker for a second, as the guns come online and draw power. You order all noncombatants across the entire fleet into shelter, then leave the channel open as you sink down into your chair.

>>4331761
Alright, you can roll 3 2d6-1, one for each of the guns.

Rolled 2, 3, 2 - 1 = 6 (3d6 - 1)

>>4331906
I'm new. Loving the quest so far. if we run out of ammunition, and if we have enough disposable drones a explosives, would we have drones fly into the other drones and kamikaze them?

>>4331906
Actually, if you wanted to, you could roll 6d6, and then I'd calculate the actual rolls from that, if you wanted. I'm beginning to think that my ship combat mechanics need to be streamlined. I'll spend some time later tonight doing a dry run of a better system.

>>4331917
Let's simplify things, could you roll 6d6, with no -1, and I will do the rest?

Rolled 6, 3, 3, 1, 5, 2 = 20 (6d6)

>>4331927

Rolled 2, 5, 2, 3, 4, 4 = 20 (6d6)

>>4331927

>>4331917
We do have some explosives, and we do have two remaining drones yes. The time that it would take is the issue here. I'll try to figure out some way to make that work.

>>4331929
Janus AC 1: (6+3) - 1 = 8
Janus AC 2: (3+1) - 1 = 3
Janus AC 3: (5+2) - 1 = 6

Autocannons are not built for this kind of enemy, but considering they are coming through a choke point, you are able to score at least one decent shot of a Morbidly Obese Drone, enough to cripple it. It is no longer accelerating properly, and will probably not last another hit like that. The other shots either winged or missed. The first of the smaller drones are now leaving the hangar.

These drones are still slightly out of range of the Vulcan cannons, and will operate at 2d6-1 for each of the guns. On the other hand, you have 11 Vulcan point defense guns standing by.

>Hold off on the flack for another turn, or go all in?

>>4331946
Go for it

>>4331946
>Hold off on the flack for another turn
Rotate more guns in their direction, and get out crew to pick designated targets.

>>4331966 roll of 1
>>4331969 roll of 2
Okay, I will let this sit for 10 minutes, and then if there is not a tiebreaker, then I will roll for it.

>>4331969
+1, we don't have a lot of ammo and I think we can handle it

>>4331979
Okay, you will hold until you see the clusters in their forward sensors, so to speak.

If the three of you are ready, you could each roll 2d6-1, one for each one of the Janus ACs.

(I am trying to find a good balance between player participation and streamlined mechanics, please bear with me)

Rolled 6, 6 - 1 = 11 (2d6 - 1)

>>4332000
Last I recall there were 11 incoming drones and 1 damaged ones. Do we have enough salvage at this point to return to a refueling station, get more fuel, ammo, and drones, then come back to this ship?

Rolled 1, 2 + 1 = 4 (2d6 + 1)

>>4332000

>>4332011
As things stand, we can make it back comfortably, but as far as salvage, we have two TEU's of drones, plus whatever the Clean Sweep was able to net before the first drone attack. That isn't enough to break even, not even close. There is also the repairs that need to be considered for the Mammon, and the idea that specialists should be hired, in addition to take on extra crew, supplies and ammunition.

No, Without putting the fleet into a dangerous situation and getting lucky on roles, there isn't enough easily available salvage or saleable goods on the ship to cover the costs of getting the fleet back to the point that it was when it left for this expedition, let alone taking on more equipment, crews and weapons.

As discussed earlier though there is the option of using another ship as collateral for another loan. Or, for that matter, using the same ship as collateral to a different lender, if you wanted to play those kind of games. Or if you really wanted to play games, there is a well established gambling district back at port. Nothing is stopping you from betting the title to the Clean Sweep (already collateral on a loan). But of course, that would be really unethical.

>>4332050
Then what that means is we need to figure out how these drones are getting sent to our ship and stop that BEFORE we do any more treasure hunting, so that we can treasure hunt at our leisure. If we get hit with another wave we might be forced to leave for ammunition reasons.

>>4332050
I think if we use anymore ships for collateral, we won't have any ships left. I guess we're gonna have to knuckle down and pray for the best.

>>4332068
I'm thinking we should invest in laser weapons. Probably only if we break even and then some.

>>4332068
>>4332073
Hmm, good discussion. One of you can roll one more 2d6-1, so we can conclude this round of combat.

Rolled 2, 2 - 1 = 3 (2d6 - 1)

>>4332078

Aethereal Vulture.

Janus AC 1: (6+6) - 1 = 11 is targeting Morbidly Obese Drone 1. Destroyed.
Janus AC 2: (1+2) - 1 = 2 is targeting Morbidly Obese Drone 2. Missed.
Janus AC 3: (2+1) - 1 = 2 is targeting Morbidly Obese Drone 2 Missed.

2 rounds of Janus AC ammo remaining (firing all 3 guns)

The auto-cannons managed to completely destroy one of the larger drones, and managed to completely miss the remaining undamaged large drone. Now, this is where the fun begins. Attenborough comes through on the shortwave, and explains that down in Engineering they are trying to attach some of explosives on hand to the Huginn. If they are lucky, they might be able to make a counter-suicide drone.

>The counter-suicide Huginn will be ready for deployment in 2 turns. It has a 75% chance of hitting and destroying an incoming Mad Drone.

Now, the drones are in range of the flack cannons. 9 or higher destroys the Mad Drone outright, 7 or higher will cripple it, slowing it down and significantly weakening it. 4 or higher will damage it, meaning that if it is hit again it will be enough to destroy it, but it doesn't get slowed down. And anything lower than a 4 is a complete miss. You have a total of 11 Vulcan guns that are in position to fire. And 3 turns to shoot down the remaining drones. Good luck.

The Clean Sweep is up first. I need three rolls of 2d6. Unless specified otherwise, the target will be the "healthiest" and fastest drone. In case of multiple drones at the same level of health and speed, then one will be randomly selected as a target.

Rolled 5, 6 = 11 (2d6)

>>4332127

Rolled 3, 4 = 7 (2d6)

>>4332127

Rolled 5, 5 = 10 (2d6)

>>4332127
get to making the boon drone. Do they know if it would be at all possible to jurry rig/repair the drones we salvage well enough to repurposed them into suicide drones as well?

>>4332145
Yeah, it should be ready. But there is only going to be one of them, and it can only be used once.

Alright, so now there are 6 guns that are in position between the Karaboudjan and the Mammon, as the Mammon took the time during the drones advance to move into a better position. So that is 4d6 from each of you.

Rolled 3, 2, 4, 1 = 10 (4d6)

>>4332157
But what about reverse engineering the drones we catch?

Rolled 5, 1, 6, 6 = 18 (4d6)

>>4332157

>>4332162
We can certainly try to do that, it is simply a question of if there is enough time to do that during combat, which there isn't. After combat though, then there might be an opportunity.

>>4332166
Sorry, I meant reverse engineer to acquired drones outside of combat.

>>4332170
Yeah, we can definitely try that. Though considering the condition of the drones that we have recovered so far, we haven't gotten anything that we can easily restore to functionality. Though again, we are dealing with a sample size of 4, so there is that to consider.

>>4332184
Even if we only manage to refit 1 drone of every 4 or 10 we salvage, that would be more than enough to soften up a wave of incoming drones, which might save us enough munitions to deal with 3 or 4 more waves.

I also want to figure out from which areas the drones came from.

>>4332184
I'll give it another 10 minutes, then one of you two can make the last 4d6.

Rolled 1, 3, 5, 2 = 11 (4d6)

>>4332206

>>4332206
Having separate rolls for every ship when we have 5 ships and several turns of combat seems pointlessly slow and inefficient, we should really just roll a bunch at once.

Yeah, we should. Lets finish out this round, and then I will take a break to figure out a better way to run the rest of the battle. This is getting kind of ridiculous.

So that is 3 rolls of 2d6-1 and 3 rolls of 2d6, so one of each from you guys.

Rolled 3, 5 - 1 = 7 (2d6 - 1)

>>4332248

Rolled 6, 5 = 11 (2d6)

>>4332248

Rolled 5, 1 + 1 = 7 (2d6 + 1)

>>4332248

Rolled 2, 6 = 8 (2d6)

>>4332248

meant to do -1 not plus one on the other roll

>>4332270
That's alright. Give it another 10 minutes, then one of you can roll for the third anon.

Rolled 6, 3 = 9 (2d6)

>>4332280

Rolled 2, 3 - 1 = 4 (2d6 - 1)

>>4332280

Alright, I'll try to figure out a better system tonight, but before I go, I'll write up the report from this turn.

>>4332329
it doesn't need to be complicated, we could just have one guy roll a die for each gun.

>>4332349
For each type of gun, or each individual gun?

>>4332361
Each individual gun. For example, an anon rolls 10 d6 for 10 guns firing, and you may specify beforehand which dice represent which ship/gun, or not if it doesn't particularly matter.

>>4332369
Alright, we can try that. I'll get the report finished for the last round now.

Janus AC 1: (3+5) - 1 = 7 is targeting Morbidly Obese Drone 2. Hit (1/3).
Janus AC 2: (5+1) - 1 = 5 is targeting Morbidly Obese Drone 2. Hit (2/3).
Janus AC 3: (2+3) - 1 = 4 is targeting Morbidly Obese Drone 2. Miss

Vulcan C 1 (5+6) = 11 is targeting Mad Drone 1. Destroyed
Vulcan C 2 (3+4) = 7 is targeting Mad Drone 2. Crippled, Hit (1/2)
Vulcan C 3 (5+5) = 10 is targeting Mad Drone 3. Destroyed
Vulcan C 4 (3+2) = 5 is targeting Mad Drone 4. Hit (1/2)
Vulcan C 5 (4+1) = 5 is targeting Mad Drone 5. Hit (1/2)
Vulcan C 6 (5+1) = 6 is targeting Mad Drone 6. Hit (1/2)
Vulcan C 7 (6+6) = 12 is targeting Mad Drone 7. Floundered.
Vulcan C 8 (1+3) = 4 is targeting Mad Drone 8. Hit (1/2)
Vulcan C 9 (5+2) = 7 is targeting Mad Drone 9. Crippled, Hit (1/2)
Vulcan C 10 (6+5) =11 is targeting Mad Drone 4. Hit (2/2). Destroyed.
Vulcan C 11 (2+6) = 8 is targeting Mad Drone 5. Hit (2/2) Destroyed.

the Aethereal Vulture has 1 rounds left of Janus Autocannon ammo, and 3 rounds left of Vulcan Point Defense Gun ammo
the Clean Sweep has 2 rounds left of Vulcan Point Defense Gun ammo
the Karaboudjan has 7 rounds left of Vulcan Point Defense Gun ammo, as well as the fleets reserves of this ammo
the Mammon has 2 rounds left of Vulcan Point Defense Gun ammo
Old Ironsides and the Shuttle-Tug have successfully withdrawn from combat.

There are two Morbidly Obese Drones remaining, one is crippled with one hit (of three total), and will ram one of our ships in four turns, the other is functional with two hits and will hit in three turns.

There are four remaining Mad Drones in play. Last round, four were destroyed, and one floundered. Of the four remaining, two have been crippled with one hit (of two total) and will impact in three rounds, and two have been hit once (of two total hits) and will impact in two rounds.

>>4332429
I'm sorry, I miscounted. There is a 12th Vulcan Point Defense Canon, which destroyed Mad Drone 6. The correct summary would read instead:

There are three remaining Mad Drones in play. Last round, five were destroyed, and one floundered. Of the three remaining, two have been crippled with one hit (of two total) and will impact in three rounds, and one has been hit once (of two total hits) and will impact in two rounds.

>>4332444
Alright, Vulcans are to cease fire, everything else can keep firing. Karaboudjan is to distribute ammo to the rest of the ships upon end of combat.

>>4332444
Does it get easier to hit them the closer they get?

So I am looking over the monster of the after action report here, and I think I have a way to stream line this. For your rolls, going forward. I will have someone roll for all of the autocannons, 6d6 (and then I would pair them up and subtract one, so long as they were fighting the Morbidly Obese Drones), and then someone could roll 12d6 for half of the Vulcan Point Defense Guns, and someone else could roll the other 12d6. I'd still be able to use the system that I had home-brewed for this quest, but you all would be able to simply make one roll per round instead of several. Sound good?

>>4332455
Meant Janus guns to cease fire, not Vulcans.

>>4332467
sounds good

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48 KB JPG

>>4332467
lets give it a shot and see where it takes us.

>>4332459
Hmm, they should honestly. Tell you what, at point-blank range, that is 1 round from impact, the Vulcan get +1 to the rolls they take.
>>4332476
alright, if there are no objections to holding off on the Janus Autocannons, then that's good. Give me a quick minute, and I will write up what happen here.

The one thing that you always found unnerving about space combat, and about space salvage in general was just how fragile spaceships actually are. When you think about it for more than a second, it really is unnerving. One little crack, that all it takes, and then its lights out.

What really drives home this discomfort is how much noise this damned ship makes when she is firing. Those auto cannons were foundry-installed, so it isn't like you've just thrown them on improperly. And when the 'cannons and the guns are firing, the ship groans and creaks. Attenborough and the other engineers swear up and down the the recoil and thermal loads are well within the tested parameters of the hull, but it sounds like you are in a can as it is being crushed.

Space is silent. Hah! Anyone says that to your face, you'll sock them in the fucking jaw. While the situation in here is uncomfortable, the situation outside, for the drones at least, seems to be much, much worse. You've managed to swat down all but three of the smaller drones from last time and have already taken down one of the new, bigger drones.

Still, you are acutely aware of your ammunition situation. You are going to have to slow things down, here, otherwise you will run out.

>Do you want to have all 12 Vulcan's engaged for this next round, or do you want to cut some back, to save ammo?

>>4332500
Key 1 turret to each drone within 3 turns of approaching and fire. If any get within 1 turn of hitting our ship, then have two turrets aimed and fired.

>>4332507
+1

>>4332508
>>4332507
Alright. So there is one Morbidly Obese Drone and three Mad Drones that meet those requirements. So could you each roll 4d6 for two Vulcans, please?

>>4332507
+1

Rolled 1, 2, 3, 6 = 12 (4d6)

>>4332511

Rolled 6, 1, 5, 4 = 16 (4d6)

>>4332511
Which ship has the best guns, and are all our best gunners at their battle stations?

>>4332520
At this point, we will say that all of the guns are in the same condition, and the fire crews of the ships as a whole average out. If we wanted to upgrade that stuff, while we were in port, then that is something that we could look at, definitely.

Vulcan C 1 (1+2) = 3 targeting Mad Drone 8 (1/2). Missed
Vulcan C 2 (3+6) = 9 targeting Morbidly Obese Drone 2 (2/3). Destroyed
Vulcan C 3 (6+1) = 7 targeting Mad Drone 2 (Crippled 1/2). Destroyed
Vulcan C 4 (5+4) = 9 targeting Mad Drone 9 (Crippled 1/2). Destroyed

The Karabourdjan has 6 rounds left of Vulcan Point Defense ammo.
The Aethereal Vulture has 2 rounds left of Vulcan Point Defense ammo.

There is one Morbidly Obese Drones remaining, it is crippled and has one of three hits on it. It will hit one of our ships in three turns. There is one Mad Drone remaining, it is still functional, and has one of two hits on it. It will impact a ship in one round.

Do you want to attempt to suicide that last Mad Drone with the rigged Huginn? 3/4 odds you succeed. You can shoot at it and send the drone out too, if you want to be thorough here. How many Vulcans do you want to use here?

>>4332547
3. 1 on the fat one that's two rounds away, two on the mad one that's 1 turn away.

>>4332555
+1

>>4332555
>>4332556
Sounds good. Two rolls of 2d6+1 and one roll of 2d6, please. Also, the fat one is three turns away, you killed the faster fat one last turn.

Rolled 6, 5 + 1 = 12 (2d6 + 1)

>>4332567
Can any form of wireless hacking be done against the drones?

Rolled 3, 3 = 6 (2d6)

>>4332567

Rolled 2, 4 = 6 (2d6)

>>4332567

>>4332582
Hypothetically, if you knew how they worked, and had the equipment and a specialist to do it, you could conceivably try some electronic attack on drones.

Vulcan C 1 (6+5) +1 = 12 targeting Mad Drone 8. Floundered.
Vulcan C 2 (3+3) = 6 targeting Morbidly Obese Drone 3 (Crippled 1/3). Hit 2/3.
Vulcan C 3 (2+4) = 6 target Morbidly Obese Drone 3 (Crippled 2/3). Hit 3/3. Destroyed.

The Karabourdjan has 5 rounds left of Vulcan Point Defense ammo, with the rest of the fleets reserves on standby.
The Aethereal Vulture has 2 rounds left of Vulcan Point Defense ammo, if only 2/3 guns are used.

All enemies have been destroyed or floundered. Floundered enemy vessels are extremely likely to be in a repairable condition. Congratulations! But it is only going to get more difficult from here. I'm going to get some sleep, and I will run again tomorrow, or rather, later today. See you then.

>>4332605
recover all damaged drones to be salvaged, studied to see if 'we can' commit electronic warfare against them with the little equipment we have,and potentially convergent the few functional enough ones into more kamikaze drones.

Send out a team to continue cutting into that bulkhead for that other drone to look through, and see if we can recover that other drone that got stuck with the broken camera. Or leave it there if it provides the most strategic value for where it is currently lodged.

Good night.

We should look into getting some coil guns or rail guns, a long range, high precision, high damage, and low ammo cost weapon would be really useful, especially if we run into anything meatier than a moderately sized drone. Even if we don’t need it for combat it would make a great hole puncher for depressurizing shit or hitting subsystems on the other side of a ships armor.

>>4332767
Some missiles can come in handy too

>>4332611
>>4332605

No, before we look for goodies, we NEED to find out where these drones are coming from and how to stop them from coming our we will be forced to leave, possibly with damage to our ships.

So recover the drones, then investigate the outside of the hangar with a new drone that isn't stuck.

>>4332920
This too. Perhaps we could leave proximity or trip wire explosives at the entrances of where they come from.

>>4332605
How many explosives do we have and how many can we make our of the drones we find?

Hello guys, I'm back. I'll get writing the narrative of last turn after a quick lunch, but to save time, if anyone is still in the thread, could they please roll 9d20 and 3d22?

Also, very good discussion on what weapons would be good against the drones, but you should remember, that changing the loadout of ships is more involved then replacing a +3 axe with a +4 axe for the parties barbarian or something. In addition to the physical limitations of the ships in the fleet, it will take money, which is tight, and time, which leads into the next question that you should start thinking of.

Should you attempt to legally claim this wreck? As it stands, legally, the ship is considered a wreck, and given its location and condition in decivilized space, all of its cargo and contents is considered "derelict", which means that it is abandoned in some circumstance that makes it "impossible" (in reality, simply impractical) for the original owner of the vessel to recover the cargo or contents. Additionally, as this ship has not been registered with the Port Authority (at least presumably) that means that legally speaking it is not considered a ship, and that the ship itself is considered derelict cargo. What this means you can legally claim everything on this ship.

The issue is if that making a claim is in your best interest. For you to legally claim this derelict, turning it from a derelict to a lagan*, you would need to drop broadcasting buoys around this system, which would announce your claim. The upside is that if it can be proven that anyone attempts to take so much as a rivet off of this ship, you can legally kill them (in decivilized space), and claim their ships, cargo, and surviving crews, or sue them for title to their ships and property (back in the port). The downside is that if someone working outside of the law finds the wreck, then you are effectively on your own to protect it.

Without a buoy, it is unlikely that anyone is going to find the wreck, but if they do, they could claim it out from under you. Something to consider.

>*In our world, lagan actually refers to cargo that has been dumped by a vessel in distress that has been marked with a buoy so the original owners of the cargo can find it again. In the quest, lagan will refer to a legally claimed derelict.

Rolled 15, 1, 1, 7, 2, 5, 12, 14, 9 = 66 (9d20)

>>4333291
We probably shouldn't legally claim it then, keep it hush hush. Who knows how long this has been here? We'll probably be the only ones who find it for a while, so we can pick it clean.

Rolled 2, 15, 12, 11, 2, 9, 7, 12, 1 = 71 (9d20)

>>4333291

Rolled 9, 14, 12 = 35 (3d22)

>>4333291

>>4333291
Well
For one I want our smartest men and women to see if they can continue trying to jurry rig the saveable drones into more kamikaze drones. The fewer of ours we have to use the better. I would also like to consider the use of proximity explosives around the entrances the drones came from, something that I had just asked earlier.

I would also like to ask if engineering can do anything to study the broadcasts from the drones? I want to leave a hidden autonomous drone here that WONT get gimped by the drones here. One that, after dropping the bouys it'll stealthily observe the area and re order any attempts to claim any salvage. I dont know how big the bouys are, but could one be modified to alert us if someone's does come and try to take our stuff, make even get a pic feed of their ship for us?

I would also like to continue exploring the ship.

>>4333291
>Place a buoy after the mad drone problem is fixed
There's always a worry that the buoy might activate more mad drones at the moment. Best sweep the place from hostiles first.

Finally, the last few drones fall to your gunners, and again, the space around the blown out hangar is still, though significantly more littered with debris and micro-debris. Until you figure out what is sending the drones out however, you know that attempting to trawl the area with the Clean Sweep is asking for trouble. Still, you are able to use the battered Huginn drone from the shuttle-tug to get a good look at the latest catch.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 1: Gross Condition is 15 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition 11 out of 20.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 2: Gross Condition is 1 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition -3 out of 20.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 3: Gross Condition is 1 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition -3 out of 20.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 4: Gross Condition is 7 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition 3 out of 20.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 5: Gross Condition is 2 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition -2 out of 20.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 6: Gross Condition is 5 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition 1 out of 20.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 7: Gross Condition is 12 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade, Slapdash Build, Foundered, effect condition by -1,-3,+8 respectively. Net Condition 17 out of 20.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 8: Gross Condition is 14 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade, Slapdash Build, Foundered, effect condition by -1,-3,+8 respectively. Net Condition 19 out of 20.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 9: Gross Condition is 9 out of 20. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade and Slapdash Build reduce condition by 1 and 3 respectively. Net Condition 5 out of 20.

Morbidly Obese Drone (Unarmed) 1: Gross Condition 9 out of 22. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade, Slapdash Build, Size effect condition by -1, -3, +1 respectively. Net Condition 6 out of 22.

Morbidly Obese Drone (Unarmed) 2: Gross Condition 14 out of 22. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade, Slapdash Build, Size effect condition by -1, -3, +1 respectively. Net Condition is 11 out of 22.

Morbidly Obese Drone (Unarmed) 3: Gross Condition 15 out of 22. Active Modifiers: Civilian Grade, Slapdash Build, Size effect condition by -1,-3, +1 respectively. Net Condition is 12 out of 22.

So anything below 0 is micro-debris, <50% is scrap, 50% or higher is usable as parts or x3 scrap (as below 50%), 85% or higher can be restored with parts of that type, x3 the usable parts (as above 50%), x9 scrap (as below 50%). 100% or above can be restored to functionality without parts, or could be broken down to x9 the usable parts (as above 50%) or x27 scrap (as below 50%).

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 1, with Net Condition 11 out of 20 is either 2 parts for a Mad Drone, or 6 units of scrap.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 4, with Net Condition 4 out of 20 is 2 units of scrap.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 6, with Net Condition 6 1 out of 20 is 2 units of scrap.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 7, with Net Condition 17 out of 20 can be rebuilt with 2 parts for a Mad Drone, or could be broken down into 6 parts for a Mad Drone, or 18 units of scrap.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 8, with Net Condition 19 out of 20 can be rebuilt with 2 parts for a Mad Drone, or could be broken down into 6 parts for a Mad Drone, or 18 units of scrap.

Mad Drone (Unarmed) 9, with Net Condition 5 out of 20 is 2 units of scrap.

Morbidly Obese Drone (Unarmed) 1, with Net Condition 6 out of 22 is 3 units of scrap.

Morbidly Obese Drone (Unarmed) 2, with Net Condition 11 out of 22 is 3 parts for a Morbidly Obese Drone or 9 units of scrap.

Morbidly Obese Drone (Unarmed) 3, with Net Condition 12 out of 22 is 3 parts for a Morbidly Obese Drone, or 9 units of scrap.

You have enough parts of hand to restore one of the two Mad Drones, which leaves you with one other Mad Drone that can be rebuilt later and 11 units of scrap. (The extra three units of scrap are the wrecks in "negative" condition, which provide half value, rounding up)

You have 6 parts for a Morbidly Obese Drone (which you could break down to 18 units of scrap) and 3 units of scrap from the full wreck.

So, do you want to rebuild that captive Mad Drone?

>Yes/No

Also worth noting, that parts don't command the price that salvage does, but unless you have blueprints or successfully reverse engineered an intact (100% or higher) unit, you don't have the ability to make specific parts out of salvage, only salvage of part. So you can't make as much money if you stockpile parts as you could if you stockpile salvage.

>>4333479
>Yes
So long as it doesn't delay / interfere with investigating the outside of the hangar. If it does, then save it for later and just collect everything.

>>4333479
>Yes

>>4333479
>Yes
Also record the design, maybe monetize the design by getting your eggheads to contact interested academic entities with funding. Surely there are space antiquity studies?

>>4333479
Yes
Can we break down the parts of the obese drones to build more mad drone?

>>4333508
This too

>>4333490
>>4333497
>>4333508
>>4333523

You give Attenborough orders to have one of the two foundered Mad Drones brought into the ship, and bring it back online, using available parts from one of the other wrecks. You still aren't comfortable using the Clean Sweep to net all of the scrap in the area, at least until you have a better grasp on the situation here, so you order the launch of the Aethereal Vulture's shuttlecraft. Departing from the port secondary bay at the aft of the ship, the shuttle quickly secures one of the foundered drones, and a donor wreck, to pull the parts necessary to restore it from.

Hopefully, you will have the drone in working order soon enough to use for this expedition. Now you are faced with a decision; do you have the shuttle-tug return to the fleet? Currently, it is simply sitting at a level with the presumed storage deck below the blown out hangar. Moving around that area has set of two suicide rushes, and you don't know if you are up for a third.

>Keep the shuttle-tug there for now, with the netting and pylons secured.
>After redistributing the ammo for the Vulcans, have the shuttle-tug attempt to return with the netting and pylons.
>After redistributing the ammo for the Vulcans, have the shuttle-tug attempt to return without the netting and pylons.
>Moving big vessels through that area has been nothing but trouble. Evacuate all but a skeleton crew, and only approach the area with drones, at least until we discover what is going on here.

>>4333523
>Can we break down the parts of the obese drones to build more mad drone?
Heh heh heh. That reminds me of a "funny" story... Yes, you can use parts from one to the other, but the conversion is 3 to 2, that means that 3 Morbidly Obese Drone Parts is only 2 Mad Drone Parts. Also, it will give the Miss-matched active condition, which means that if the drone is ever destroyed, it will be less likely to be in a recoverable state. Still, for right now, all of that might not be as important.

>Convert no parts over.
>Convert 3 Morbidly Obese Drone parts to 2 Mad Drone Parts
>Convert 6 Morbidly Obese Drone parts to 4 Mad Drone Parts

>>4333540
Oh and then, if 2 parts are converted over...
>Stockpile
>Rebuild the second foundered Mad Drone

>>4333508
>>4333523
Well, you could. Your port of call doesn't have any institutes of higher learning, but you could certainly contact them, if you were willing to make the effort to reach out to them, and were willing to put that kind of attention on yourself and your operation.

>>4333540
>Keep the shuttle-tug there for now, with the netting and pylons secured.
Will this choice net us more salvage?

>>4333559
How many parts do we need to repair a mad drone?

>>4333610
>Will this choice net us more salvage?
Originally, my position was that the nets needed to be on the Clean Sweep to catch any scrap or salvage, but I suppose there could be a random chance that something or other falls into the nets while the shuttle-tug has them, but very little.

As far as more salvage? No. The only way to make any appreciable amount of salvage from trawling requires the nets on the trawler and the trawler moving back and forth through an area with a debris field.

>How many parts do we need to repair a mad drone?
A Mad Drone can take two hits, so it needs two parts to repair. A Morbidly Obese Drone can take three hits, so it takes three parts to repair.

>>4333622
then convert all the obese drones into mad drone parts. If the Clean Sweep hasn't already salvaged all the drones we shot down, then return it's net and have it return to the fleet.

Alright, I'll leave this up for a bit so I can eat dinner, and then I will close the vote, hopefully by 7pm Eastern Standard Time.

>>4333645
Clean Sweep is already with the rest of the fleet. The shuttle-tug with the nets is not.

Well, I was already to close the vote, and then I realized am not sure if anyone has voted yet, as I don't know if >>4333645 is talking about the shuttle-tug or the Clean Sweep, or if the clarification in >>4333678, that the Clean Sweep is with the fleet, and hasn't salvaged a single things since the first attack would change their opinion.

Probably my fault, considering how much information I've dumped on you all. Let me try to streamline things here.

First, the question of to when and how to recall the shuttle-tug from its current position, underneath the the blown out hangar.
>Keep the shuttle-tug there for now, with the netting and pylons secured.
>After redistributing the ammo for the Vulcans, have the shuttle-tug attempt to return with the netting and pylons.
>After redistributing the ammo for the Vulcans, have the shuttle-tug attempt to return without the netting and pylons.
>Moving big vessels through that area has been nothing but trouble. Evacuate all but a skeleton crew, and only approach the area with drones, at least until we discover what is going on here.

The second question: Do you want to rebuild the other foundered drone, even if it means converting over parts at a 3 to 2 ratio?
>Yes
>No

>>4333783
How expensive would the netting in pylons be?
Actually OP, can you give us the 101 for the finances in this quest?

>>4333783
>Moving big vessels through that area has been nothing but trouble. Evacuate all but a skeleton crew, and only approach the area with drones, at least until we discover what is going on here
>yes

>>4333783
>After redistributing the ammo for the Vulcans, have the shuttle-tug attempt to return without the netting and pylons.

>Yes

>>4333792
The pylons are simply metal structures that mate with the hull of the trawler. They are relatively inexpensive. If you had enough scrap and time, you could build replacements. The netting is beyond your capability to make at the moment. All told, the netting is about a square mile of space grade chain mail.

As for the pricing, I am still figuring out how to balance it out. What I can say now, is that you will be able to buy a replacement net when you get back to your port of call, but it will be about as expensive as two Huginn drones. I know that without price tags that doesn't mean much, but bear with me, I'll get working on it right now.

Alright, so I think I figured out the basic mechanic for selling scrap. 1 unit of scrap has a base value of 200 double-talents after taxes, or a base value of 250 double-talents if you are selling to a fence on the black market. Prices fluctuate. When you show up in a port, we will roll 1d2; where a roll of 1 means that prices are above the base line, and a roll of 2 means that prices are below the base line, and then roll a 1d6, to determine the extent of the fluctuation, where a roll of one corresponds to a difference of 10 off of the baseline price.

So, if you wanted to sell scrap at a legal merchant at port, and you rolled a 2 and another 2, then that would mean that the current price for scrap metal would be 270 double-talents for 1 unit. A second freighter would cost 24,000 double-talents; the equivalent to 120 pieces of scrap at the base price. A single Huginn surveillance drone would cost 800 double-talents, 4 units of scrap at the base price. A replacement trawling net would cost 1600 double-talents, 8 units of scrap at the base price.

There is however, a big piece of good news here. In the first post of the quest, where our character, the Owner-Operator said that they didn't have enough double-talents to afford the cost of outfitting the fleet for another expedition, that was simply because the expedition was a series of long sweeps into decivilized space, just looking for things to sink his teeth into. But now that they have a specific heading, they don't need to fully stock the fleet for a long trek. There are enough supplies and fuel (even with a third of the reserves dumped) to make four trips, back and forth to the wreck, without buying anything. If you wanted to squeeze, you could probably get 5 trips, but if you took on new crewmen or bought a new ship between then and now, then the amount of fuel and supplies to make the trip would preclude that fifth trip.

You have 6400 double-talents on hand. I still haven't figured out how I am going to deal with the loan payments I mentioned, but I will figure that out. For now, that is the 101 on the finances >>4333792

>>4333893
I just realized I got my own system wrong. The example I offer should have the current price of scrap metal at 230 double-talents, not 270.

Also, I guess I can call it for restoring the second drone, but I'll leave it for a little bit longer on the final decision for the shuttle-tug.

>>4333783
>After redistributing the ammo for the Vulcans, have the shuttle-tug attempt to return with the netting and pylons.

>>4333893
The only thing I think we have to worry about so far are the drones, and any potential external weaponry we might had missed. The only things we probably need to buy is food & water for the crew, fuel, munitions, a drone or two, and some explosives. Depending on the cost:efficiency ration between turret ammo and explosives, it might be better to convert the drones we destroy into more functional ones, and sell off the parts we can use as excess money to buy more ammo, fuel, drones, etc.. If this become a war of attrition against the ship's drones then I really thing we need to invest in the equipment and few specialists required to counteract the drone's signal so we can continue exploration of the wreck in relative safety.

This is an important enough vote that I will leave it up for just a little bit longer, say until 9:15 pm Eastern Standard Time. I don't want to have to flip for it if I can avoid it.

>>4333901
Considering that our character outfitted the fleet for a two-month long expedition, we have enough food and water, as well as enough fuel for four or five trips back and forth to the derelict, without needing to buy anything else, even with the loss of 1/3 of the fuel reserves. Crew has been paid up front, for the next two months, though at the end of the contract, they are entitled to a bonus, based on the amount of money that was brought in during their contract.

Things like munitions, drones, explosives and specialists are bought and hired separately.

Rolled 2 (1d3)

>>4333951
Alright, I put this off long enough.
>>4333793 (Hold off) roll of 1
>>4333794 (Return without nets) roll of 2
>>4333898 (Return with nets) roll of 3

>>4333992
Alright, for now, we will leave the nets were they are, and hope the shuttle tug, by itself does not set anything off.

I need to stop using the timer.

Can someone roll a 1d20, to see how well all of this goes?

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>4333994
Nat1

>>4334001
Well, I'll have to remember that trick. Writing!

Eventually, you make the call to leave the pylons and the netting behind for now. While the shuttle-tug spent the better part of two hours floating around that area, you still aren't entirely sure what will set off the drones. The ammunition for the Vulcan cannons had been redistributed across the fleet, but if the next wave was larger than the first, then you will probably run dry. Some serious consideration will need to be given to upgrading and adding combat capabilities to the fleet, if you are going to keep operating around this area.

The Aethereal Vulture has 3 rounds for all of its 3 Vulcan cannons, and 1 round for all of its 3 Janus Twinned Autocannons
The Clean Sweep has 2 rounds for all of its 3 Vulcan cannons.
The Karaboudjan has 3 rounds for all of its 2 Vulcan cannons, with 2 rounds left in storage.
The Mammon has 2 rounds in the 4 position, and 4 rounds in the 2 position for its Vulcan Cannons.

Thankfully enough, the whole transit goes smoothly, and the shuttle tug returns to your fleet. As the commander of the shuttle is asking if he should return to the Karaboudjan, he is interrupted by a report from the drone pilot. It seems that in all of the chaos, that battered Huginn surveillance drone, idling around the shuttle as they waited out the battle seems to have accidentally found something. As the fighting heated up, to avoid the risk of friendly fire, the shuttle-tug and the drone with it moved slightly further away. During this movement, the drone temporarily managed to "ping" an external receiver-transmitter package, which might have been attached to whatever is responsible for sending the drones at us. The package is near on the left side of the hangar door frame, but because the drone was moving when it briefly found it, the exact location isn't known.

>Hopefully, lightning will strike twice. Attempt to find the external receiver-transmitter package by sending the drone back to where it was, and have the pilot retrace his path with the "ping" function.
>We have a heading, and evidence that we can "ping" packages without launching attacks. Attempt to find the external receiver-transmitter package by sending the drone to the left side of the hangar door frame and looking for the package, using the "ping" function.
>While we may have a heading, we don't know for sure that we can "ping" packages without launching attacks. Attempt to find the external receiver-transmitter package by sending the drone to the left side of the hangar door frame and looking for the package, without using the "ping" function.

>>4334183
>>We have a heading, and evidence that we can "ping" packages without launching attacks. Attempt to find the external receiver-transmitter package by sending the drone to the left side of the hangar door frame and looking for the package, using the "ping" function.

>>4334183
>While we may have a heading, we don't know for sure that we can "ping" packages without launching attacks. Attempt to find the external receiver-transmitter package by sending the drone to the left side of the hangar door frame and looking for the package, without using the "ping" function.

>>4334197
>>4334204
I always feel bad when I wind up flipping for a vote, it feels like I am taking away player choice. So I guess I will ask you two, or anyone else still here; would you rather wait for a third vote, even if that means there wouldn't be another post tonight, or would you like me to flip for it, and get at least another post or two in before bedtime?

>>4334183
>We have a heading, and evidence that we can "ping" packages without launching attacks. Attempt to find the external receiver-transmitter package by sending the drone to the left side of the hangar door frame and looking for the package, using the "ping" function.

>>4334301
Alright, that resolved itself. I'll get to writing.

You instruct the drone pilot to resume the search for the external receiver-transmitter package, using the “ping” function. With any luck, that package will be attached to some manner of sensor, or something, whatever the ship is “seeing” with. If you can disable it, or at the very least, find its line of sight, then you may be able to operate safely in this area. Still, that package is not jumping out, visually or … sensually? You do not think that is proper usage, but you do not think sensorially* is a word either.

As you are watching the feed, Attenborough, from engineering opens a private line, and asks for you to discretely come down to the starboard secondary bay. As your engineering chief wouldn’t call you away from the bridge without good reason, much less ask you to sneak off it in the middle of your command, you announce that you are going to take lunch in your quarters, and ask one of the flag officers to take command. There are some surprised and confused looks, but you ignore them. However, before you reach the door, the new acting commander asks if you want to begin recovery of the remaining drones, using the shuttlecraft from the Aethereal Vulture and the shuttle-tug from the Karaboudjan.

>Hold off on recovery until you find the receiver-transmitter package.

>Hold off on recovery until you return to the bridge.

>Maintain high-alert, and proceed with recovery operations.

>*while sensorally is not a word, it turns out that sensorially actually is.

>>4334343
Whoops, forgot one choice.
>Tell him that until you return, his decisions stand.

>>4334343
>Maintain high-alert, and proceed with recovery operations.

>>4334343

>Maintain high-alert, and proceed with recovery operations.

Also, while I was gone, we decided for literally no reason to leave our pylons and nets behind that we highrolled to get out?? What the fuck???

Fire whoever made that decision and get them back to the fleet as soon as we disable the transmitter thing that's sending waves at us.

>>4334343
>Maintain high-alert, and proceed with recovery operations.

>>4334347
>>4334356
>>4334364
Alright, writing.
>>4334356
While that high roll would have ensured that they were recovered successfully, that was after the three way tie was resolved with a roll, that selected returning without the nets. The roll of the 19 therefore was for the safe return of the shuttle without the nets. That said, if I somehow missed a vote somewhere, please let me know. As that would be my mistake, I'd be willing to fudge the nets and pylons back with the fleet, if it was the case that I missed something.

>>4334372
You didn't miss anything, I'm just wondering why the hell that option existed in the first place when the shuttle wasn't in any danger, and also why someone voted for it.

Give him the go ahead to recover everything he can with the two shuttles. As you leave the bridge, and begin walking to the aft of the ship, where the secondary bays are located (and conveniently enough for your alibi, your quarters), you use your personal shortwave to instruct lunch to be sent to your room, as you pass hallway that will take you to where the officers quarters are.

Beginning the final stretch towards the starboard secondary bay, you can feel the shuttle taking off, all the way over in the port secondary bay. As you approach you see an odd sight; it seems that one Attenborough's men is standing guard in front of the door. Honestly, at this point, you are beginning to seriously worry. The engineer waves you through, you enter the bay, and seeing Attenborough and a group of his engineers, along with some crewmen, you head on over to the group.

Attenborough starts talking before you can even begin to phrase a question. "Things have gotten more complicated." He hands you a small shard; it is still cold to the touch from the vacuum, but not enough to be anything worse than uncomfortable. "This came over from the Clean Sweep, before we got our hands on this drone. It wasn't what I called you about, but it is related. That, in your hands, is from the hull of the derelict. From what I can gather from ranged spectroscopy testing, with very few exceptions, most of that ship is made from that ceramic." Ceramic? Your immediate reaction is frustration; Ceramic is obviously not metal, and can't be scrapped. However, it only takes a few seconds for the significance of this to hit you. This is an unknown Ceramic, that is somehow capable of acting as vacuum grade structural material, and generally acts like metal, bending and warping instead of shattering and breaking, meaning that it doesn't have the biggest single issue that nearly every type of ceramic has. And this unknown, super performance Ceramic, which you now control the entire supply off...

Attenborough snorts. "I knew that would please you. Unfortunately..." He trails off, looking down at the piece of metal that everyone is standing around. Again, you are getting worried here. Just as you are on the verge of shaking the man, he begins to explain.

"While the ship is seemly entirely made of that unknown Ceramic, the drones that we have dealt with, as well as most of the material that the debris cloud is made of is more conventional metals. Those aren't pieces of the derelict, they are pieces of other ships.
And the drones are made of salvage that the derelict has plucked out of this debris cloud." You look at him intently. "That is an awfully specific conclus-"

>>4334481
Attenborough cuts you off by using his foot to flip over the piece of the drone that you are standing around. The paint has faded, but you can clearly see part of a manned small craft registry serial on the piece of metal, that became the hull of one of the drones. He adds; "We aren't the only scavengers that have been here, or tried their luck on this thing, nor are we the only ones here now. That ship will eat our fleet as readily as we will eat it." In a reflexive gesture, you take off your hat. One of his men adds "We've tried to look up that serial, but that data is considered privileged. We will have to bribe someone in the Port Authority when we are back at the Roost."

The engineer continues, "it would be a fair assumption that this ship doesn't leave survivors, otherwise word would have gotten out about it." Attenborough interjects "Perhaps there were survivors, or crews that made several expeditions to the derelict without incident. They kept it a secret, thinking to themselves that they had the find of their lives. That they had outsmarted this hulk. And then..." He takes a deep breath, and then looks at you. "During the limited time that the Clean Sweep had before the first attack, it took in more than a few shards of the unknown Ceramic and pieces of metal. Considering all of the activity going on, no one bothered to check the stores, the "dustbin" of the Clean Sweep, until I asked them to check. They found these shards, a fair bit of scrap metal ... and human remains."

The other engineers and crewmen take their hats off of their heads, but yours is still in your hands. Trying and failing to not fidget, you ask the obvious question. "How many?"

>>4334489
"Three hundred and counting".

>>4334492
I will continue tomorrow, which is actually already today!

>>4334383
The option existed because you didn't know for sure if the shuttle was in danger on not.

Considering this new information, we should use a drone ship and shoot at the derelict a bit with it while the rest of our fleet waits on the other side of the planet’s orbit. It would be best to see what it does and where it’s weapons are before we poke it more than we already have. For all we know this could be some sort of super high tech government AI warship

>>4334726
First we should make a trip to port and resupply before shaking the wasp nest.

>>4334492
>and counting
So, what, is the ceramic killing people? Or are we finding human remains among the scrap we're taking in?

>>4334830
>So, what, is the ceramic killing people? Or are we finding human remains among the scrap we're taking in?
You are finding a lot of human remains, among the relatively little bit of the debris field that the Clean Sweep was able to take in before the first attack. The implication is that there are a lot more bodies in the debris field, and that the debris field is remains of larger salvage or recovery operation that was completely destroyed by the ship, not from the derelict itself as originally assumed, as the primary component of the field is metal debris, not the unknown Ceramic that the derelict is made out of.

The unknown Ceramic is not spontaneously killing any of your people, besides, you have 140 men to the fleet.

I hope this clears it up, for you, and everyone else. I'll be ready to run in three hours from when this post goes up.

Thoroughly disturbed, the crewmen and engineers begin moving the remains of the drone that once was remains of a small, manned craft to Engineering. Attenborough and one of his leading engineers walk with you, heading to your quarters, so you all can continue to talk, in a more comfortable setting.

The lunch you have ordered has been left by the door, in a covered tray. You must have just missed your concierge, as steam is still floating up from the vents in the plastic lid. You take out your two keys, and put them in the lock. Supposedly, it shouldn't matter which one, the top or the bottom lock, you open first, but you find that the door sticks worse if you open the top first. You always meant to get that fixed, it is just that there has never been a good time.

Opening both of the locks, starting at the bottom, you only need to force the door a little for it to open. Attenborough's direct report, who according to his tag is named Sunsbuck, grabs the tray, and the three of you enter your quarters. You point Sunsbuck to the table that you take your meals at, and you dig around in your desk for another fork or two, intending on sharing the meal with the two them. Takes a minute, but you manage to find some utensils. You place your lucky hat on the crown of the wooden hat rack you mounted on top of your desk, and turn to the two of them.

"Sit, and eat." Despite still being visibly shaken, Attenborough sits down and accepts the fork and knife you offer him. Sunsbuck, on the other had, does not immediately go to grab the fork and spoon that you have for him. "We are all relying on our engineers to take care of us, and themselves. Eat." Sunsbuck gets flustered, and quickly accepts the utensils. You open up the tray.

"Spaghetti is a pretty heavy lunch, isn't it?" Attenborough remarks. Portioning out the meal is difficult, considering that there is only one dinner plate, along with other smaller pieces of porcelain. You have to serve Sunsbuck his lunch on what was the butter dish, but you manage to make it work. Attenborough speaks up first.

>>4335116
"I don't think we should be here, boss."

You swallow, and try to formulate a response. To be honest, you don't think you should be here either, with the fleet and equipment you have right now at least. Still, Attenborough seems really shaken. You are beginning to think that he means that you should leave the wreck behind and never look back. Unfortunately, considering the loans that you are carrying, you really don't have the luxury of turning your back on a prize like this, simply because it may be dangerous. Ultimately, you decide to ignore that statement for now, and you turn to Sunsbuck.

"Sunsbuck, were you the one who attempted to find that serial?" He looks a little surprised that you are directly asking him a question, but he manages to reply almost evenly that he was. "You said that the Rutter returned that reports on that serial were 'privileged', correct?" After an affirmative nod, you continue. "But there was only part of the serial on that piece. Did you find the rest of the serial on another drone?"

Sunsbuck is beginning to look really nervous now. "No, we don't have that entire serial. The portion that was had was in the old format for small craft; XX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. Port of call, followed by the fleet, followed by the ship it launches out of, followed by small craft itself. The portion we have is the Port of call, and the fleet. I was going to write a script, to submit the port and fleet serial, followed by random numbers, in hopes of stumbling across the fleet that the ship belonged to. You know, brute force the problem. But it didn't work. Any thing you enter with that fleet serial comes back privileged information; you can even enter in non-numerical inputs, things that are obviously not going to be serials of a ship, and it will still say it is privileged information. The system is deliberately trying to conceal information about this fleet, and is going to extraordinary lengths to do so."

"Well, what about the Port of Call? They can't very well conceal or disappear an entire station, port or colony can they?" The minute the words are out of your mouth, you find yourself questioning them. The Port Authority would, could and presumably has done things like that. But, if they were going to hide something, like a secret expedition, then they wouldn't send it out with a fucking serial, right?

Sunsbuck interrupts your thoughts. "No, the port is not considered privileged information. It is in the old format, so..." He trails off, and then there is an audible gulp before he continues. "It was from our port, sir. Old Scrimshander."

>>4335166
You finish your mouthful of spaghetti, and respond:

>"Information about the failed expedition may help save us from the same fate. When we get back to port, we should ask around about this fleet. Being careful about who we ask, of course."

>"Someone in the Port Authority is going to great lengths to conceal the existence and fate of this fleet. We will need to be careful, even if that means not trying to find any information about this fleet from anyone, at least at this point in time."

>"The fact that the doomed expedition left from our Port of Call, paired with the fact that there seems to be a cover up by the Port Authority indicates that there may be some level of observation present in Old Scrimshander for people asking about this particular fleet. We should resupply at Cyclone's Sty instead; even though prices are higher there, there are fewer supplies, and it will preclude a fifth round trip from the derelict and back with our current fuel reserves, not to mention the fact there they may be less clues there as well, all in the hope that there is not as much (or any) attention, or rather, surveillance for parties asking about this doomed expedition."

>(Please note; none of the choices mean that you are leaving now, they are simply to decide your heading and conduct when you do ultimately decide to head out)

>>4335192
I worded that last choice pretty poorly. What I was trying to get at is that Cyclone's Sty is a real backwater port, there is less for sale, and it costs more. It is also far enough away that if we went there, we would have to refuel after the fourth round trip from the derelict and back, instead of the fifth. The advantage of going there is the chance that being a rougher port, and one not connected to the doomed expedition, it may be safer to ask questions there instead.

>>4335192
>"Someone in the Port Authority is going to great lengths to conceal the existence and fate of this fleet. We will need to be careful, even if that means not trying to find any information about this fleet from anyone, at least at this point in time."

Could we send a tight beam to any contacts in another port and ask them what thy can find?

>>4335192
>"Someone in the Port Authority is going to great lengths to conceal the existence and fate of this fleet. We will need to be careful, even if that means not trying to find any information about this fleet from anyone, at least at this point in time."
We'll leave once we collect all the drone scraps and collect the netting. We'll leave the bouys out, and presumably if any pirates come then theres a high chance they wont make off with anything substantial, or they'll become scrap.

Can wireless drones be armed with guns instead of explosives to counteract the drones? Do we know how this the drone casings are? We could get gun drones in space to shoot out the mads, and if the obese are too tough then we'll use regular turrets and kamikazes. We also need additional monitor drones to figure out where all the drones are coming from, because people are incompetent.

>>4335209
Tight beam? You mean launch a solid steel beam at someone's ship?

>>4335192
>"Someone in the Port Authority is going to great lengths to conceal the existence and fate of this fleet. We will need to be careful, even if that means not trying to find any information about this fleet from anyone, at least at this point in time."