Humanity has spread out into a massive sprawling empire throughout the galaxy. The edges of the sprawl remain poorly guarded and sparsely settled after all humanity throughout a thousand stars has always been alone. This like all things will change.2724 Gazelle system 708 days from EarthYou are Lieutenant Commander Tobias Cromwell, the captain of the aging corvette Forgone Mist. You sit in your chair staring glumly out at the inky black void next to the small mining station that was slowly churning out titanium ore from the barren planet below you. It was your opinion this posting was a waste of perfectly good men and supplies. The outer ring was desolate pirates didn't strike out here and no misguided rebel would want unprocessed titanium ore yet you were stuck here on orders of the sector admiral. The ship's XO taps you on the shoulder and hands you a steaming cup of coffee, swiping it from the man's hand you take a sip, the stale beans used to make the drink giving it a foul aftertaste far less pleasant than you hoped, you huff and lean back in your chair. You grumble at your position stuck on the ass end of human space nearly two years distant from earth on the fastest transport, with supplies that didn't last and ships that were antiquated when your grandfather was a young man. It was a single accusation of cowardice during a pirate raid that saw you bumped down two ranks and shunted off to finish your career aboard a corvette. The corvettes dual torpedo mounts and twin coil gun cannons were nothing compared to the heavy cruiser you once had captained and the battleship you were meant to captain as the crescendo of your career in the navy.1/2
>>61234992/2You take another sip of your stale drink and sigh, leaning back in the command chair with even more eyes trailing over the tiny CIC of the Forgone Mist which was only half staffed, a necessity when half of your bridge crew doubled as maintenance staff. Your eyes lock onto the young man who was working on the sensor station, a deep frown covering his face as he fiddles with various knobs on the old school monitor. “Ensign Richard, what is it?” You say not even bothering to sit up at all from where you leaned back in the chair. “Sir I think I may be detecting a jump signature coming from the outer system jump point” This makes you sit up a bit turning to look at your XO he shrugs you. “No patrols out that way right now sir” You then turn back to the ensign “Is the Station expecting a freighter today?” He taps away at the console for a moment “ Negative Sir”He turns to look at you with a worried look on his face ”Sir that's a jump point leading away from settled space; they don't have a single record of anything ever coming through.”This thread will be mostly testing and such for the mechanics of the quest with Tobias here being not too important to the overall quest and the outcomes here not affecting the quest as a whole all too much, expect mechanics to change potentially. I will note english is not my first written language so please expect syntax, grammar and the occasional spelling mistake. I am always open to write-ins and I do try to post every day.>remain stationary>move between the jump point and the station>Write in
>>6123500- Move between jump point and station - write in: on all frequencies give out the standard ‘’who is this’’ message while getting whatever cameras or sensors on the ship, and go onto yellow alert.If nothing else it’s a good excuse to brake up the monotony of boredom.
>>6123500>>6123560Supporting this.
>>6123560what ever it is hasn't quite exited jump space yet but you can attempt hailing once it does
>>6123560+1>Hail the ship once it has exited Jump Space.
>>6123576Then I change it to- Hail the ship as soon as it leaves Jump Space. Also have Med bay ready- this might be a trap- a nothing burger- a damaged vessel- keep it ambiguous if it’s a drill or not if it’s a nothing burger
>>6123499700 years and the coffee still tastes like shit.>>6123560+1, we should try communication before the shooting
>>6123647>+1Nothing ever happens.
>>6123647+1Must be some adventuring jockey getting lost on a trip.
Tapping the armrest of your chair with one hand the other still holding the cup of awful coffee you think and then act. “Helm take us to between the station and the jump point, Comms g-” Halfway through your order you embarrassingly realize your Comms officer is currently somewhere in the bowels of the ship doing maintenance “Ahem Xo take comms and prepare to hail whoever the poor bastard is coming through an unsurveyed jump point” Leaning over and flick a switch on the command console next to your chair you turn on the ships ancient PA “Medbay be prepared to possibly receive wounded and all hands to your stations” Sitting back in your chair the old engines of the ship slowly push you between the station and the jump point which is just starting to show the first signs of activation. The large swirling greenish light spilling out of a seemingly random point in space. You of course know the spot is not random even if you don't know the exact math behind it, the location having something to do about gravity and how reality bends just enough for a powerful enough energy source to pop into jump space and cheat the limit of the speed of light. The Jump point starts to open and the light that spills out is enough not only to blind your regular cameras but also the aging sensor suite of your ship. It's only after about 10 minutes and your ship arrives in front of the station the light dims and you are left with an alarming sight.The ship that has exited the jump point is odd unlike the angular blocky forms of nearly all but the most expensive of pleasure yachts of human space this ship is sleek not a single line out of place looking like an insanely large dart. You look over to your XO for an answer to already see him quickly sliding through the ship register for any fighting ship or civilian vessel that matches the ship.”XO leave the register an attempt to hail” He moves over the screen containing the comms equipment and begins to attempt to hail the vessel. While he does that you look over to the young man on the sensors “Sensors tell me what we are dealing with” The young man taps away at his suite before looking up “Approximate of light cruiser tonnage and she's got one serous power source for her size im seeing several sections of plate were energy seems to be stored possibly direct energy weapons” You lean back in your chair swallowing a bit of bile that rose in your throat fighting off panic at the realization the vessel easily out weighs yours by nearly five times.>Move in to attack>Hold position hopping to hail>retreat for the other jump point behind you>Write in
>>6123980>Hold position hopping to hailGoing up against an unknown ship 5 times our size is not a good idea, at least not with our current weapons. Anyway that doesn't mean we shouldn't prepare escape pods just in case
>>6123980>>Hold position hopping to hail
>>6123980>Hold position hopping to hailHow many people are aboard the space station?Does the space station have any defenses? Are any ships docked with the space station? Are they FTL capable? Any other planetary bodies in the vicinity we could use for cover?
>Hold position hopping to hailIf we have one, prepare a deadman message/probes/Ext to send a message to command if we are attacked;Unknown ship of unknown model, origin, and make *include tonnage, estimated power, shape, and if possible, picture* arrived.Have the same message saved to the computer to send to command via FTL communication at the press of the button
>>6123980>Hold position hoping to hail.>Use our exterior lights, or any other form of output which should be detectable by sensors of other spacefaring vessels, to signal simple morse code.If in case their comms are down, we might be able to communicate that way.
>>6124192Support in addition to mine.
>>6124192+1
>>6124134The station has around 200 people onboard and you have 30 people on your own ship, The station has basic anti debris guns but they are even weaker then your won coilguns, The station has a couple of barges that arent capable of FTL and the only planet in system is the one the station orbits >>6124185You can attempt to send a message to command but that would require you to get close to an open jump point
>>6123980>>Hold position hopping to hailYeah attacking seems a little premature
>>6124192Support
>>6123980>retreat for the other jump point behind youIf its weapons need like to spool up go we have any emergency comm bouys to send out a warning to human space? If not better to escape alive to warn humanity than dying forgotten and leaving human space vulnerable.
“Anything?” Your XO looks up at you, your question breaking the silence that had fallen on the bridge in the last few moments. “Negative sir nothing on normal radio” Your mind turns to training half remembered from your academy days on alternate ways to communicate with a ship. “Helm flash out docking lights in morse and XO try the tight beam laser aswell maybe we can get lucky and they have a military spec receiver.” Your crew set to work trying out the various ways to communicate to a vessel without comms and your eyes trail over the CIC. The bridge crew has slowly filtered in to save for the comms officer who was still missing your tempted to make the incredibly short trip to engineering to find him but you can't leave your post right now even if you can see the door to engineering from the CIC’s door. The silent work of your crew somewhat maddening you look for anything to distract you but the only thing of note in the CIC was the plaque hanging above the main viewscreen stamped with the words FORGONE MIST NEW HANOVER SHIPYARDS 2662. The words have taunted you for the last six months of your posting almost mocking you with the age of the decrepit ship you commanded.You turn to your command terminal and begin to search through the ship register for anything that looks like the vessel in front of you. THh search turns up nothing anywhere close and on a lark you flip the register to a section dedicated to warships from the last AI uprising. Your own grandfather had fought in but even amongst the eclectic designs of mad AIs nothing even remotely resembled the ship. The AIs were even more utilitarian than humanities and looked more like floating boxes with guns than whatever was before you.“Sir movement!” The sensor officer cried, eyes torn from the terminal back to the viewscreen, seeing indeed the ship had begun to move its engine flaring to life. “What's her speed Ensign?”He taps away on the terminal doing the calculations manually “I figure just below our cruise speed sir and heading our way no doubt about it”>remain here not allowing it to get closer to the station>Ready for combat and advance>head for the jump point something isnt right
>>6124586>head for the jump point something isnt rightIts probably more interested in the station than us, can we let out a warning to the station staff and then just observe
>>6124586>head for the jump point something isnt rightIf it attack we need to gtfo and warn other systems with all the things we have recorded.
>>6124586Since it's not even close to anything in the ship register, it might be a prototype of a secret project, a black operation?But simultaneously, it's not responding to our communications attempts. It might be on an automated trajectory.Perhaps it has some kind of tech that allows it to warp through solid mattter, thus not reacting to us being in its direct path?>Remain here not allowing it to get closer to the station.
>>6124692>Perhaps it has some kind of tech that allows it to warp through solid mattter, thus not reacting to us being in its direct path?There are better ways to test than seeing if we experience catastrophic hull failure as it collides with us
>>6124586>Let's shift our position slightly to see what it's interested in. If the unknown craft remains on its current course it wants the station if it changes to follow us then it wants us. What's the planet like? Habitable? Can the station evacuate to the planet if needed? Can the station relay a message for us? How do our torpedoes work? Are they programmable? Can they target independently? How many do we have?
>>6124698I would like this but there is no write-in option given
>>6124702Yea if write-in isn't allowed I'll vote for >remain here not allowing it to get closer to the station
>>6124702oh write ins are always fine I just forgot the option >>6124698The planet is a barren rock with no atmosphere and while some stations can use comms buoys to activate and then transmit through jump points this one cantyour torpedoes are a fire and forget affair but due to the nature of how ships move you can draw up a solution to hit from pretty far away while not as accurate as missiles they hit incredibly hard and are designed to be hard to detect
>>6124586Just to confirm, if the ship maintains its current heading, will he close with us? If not, position our ship between the planet and the other ship. Call general quarters, get ready to tickle her tonsils if it looks like she's gonna ram us. Keep trying to raise it on the coms.
>>6124951It seems as if they are heading straight for you or the station directly behind you
>>6124698Switching, its not shooting at us straight away but it is probably not safe to be on its path
>Let's shift our position slightly to see what it's interested in. If the unknown craft remains on its current course it wants the station if it changes to follow us then it wants us.There is a moment inside your head where you panic, order full ahead and run to the jump point but you resist this panic. It's thinking like that saw you moved out here and if you do it again you expect to be put up against a wall and shot. You calm your breathing before speaking. “Helm! Take us two kilometers to our starboard at full ahead! Damn thing is probably an automated drone or something and cant see us” The ship at full burn slides to your starboard quickly the aging reactor being taxed so hard with the burn you feel the gravity generator weaken a bit. The Unknownship continues forward for a few moments more before turning its heading slightly to fly between you and the station to your portside. Your XO frowns staring at the ship as its heading changes and looks back at you with concern etched on his face. “Sir that looks like an at-” The sensor officer suddenly shouts cutting off the XO “Armored plates opening up! I'm seeing turrets with a hell of a lot of juice in em!” The magnified lens of the view screen shows the turrets lowering themselves from inside the ship they are sleek just like the rest of the ship sharp pointed triangles, eight of them arranged in a pattern around the hull to have a full 360 arc of fire. Your XO looks down at the comms “Sir the station is asking if they need to evacuate, they say they can have everyone loaded onto a sublight barge in 5 minutes and we can tow them to the jump point.” The Weapons officer makes himself known at this point aswell “Sir both coilguns are crewed and loaded and I have the torpedoes warming up”. The ship is at most 3 minutes away from you and the station which means if it means to fight you have to hold for 2 while the station loads up in the barge. Or you could save your command and run. Your mouth is dry and for the second time in your life you fear for your life.>Stand and fight until the station evacuates>Run and save your command>write in
>>6125152>Stand and fight until the station evacuatesIt's do or die now.
>>6125152>>Stand and fight until the station evacuates
>>6125152>>Stand and fight until the station evacuates>>6125004
>>6125152>Let's see if we can get this craft to chase us. Fire a salvo then run towards the planet. If it follows we can use the planet as a cover, anytime the ship comes over the horizon we fire torpedoes and duck back behind the horizon. If it doesn't pursue stay at our maximum engagement range and harass it so it doesn't get free reign of the station. Does the mining colony use explosives in their operation? Are there any on the station?
>>6125152>Stand and fight until the station evacuates
>>6125302+1We may die but we can at least delay it and tear chunks out of it.
>>6125302They have some smaller handheld explosives but nothing they can deploy at range most of the mining is done with large drilling rigs down on the planet
>>6125491Have them have a bunch pile up set to explode-If these Fers try to dock- we can blow them out of the stars.If they just blow up the station- we’ll- worth a shot
>>6125152>Stand and fight until the station evacuatesEvasive maneuvers, the one advantage of our ship is that its harder to hit
>Stand and fight until the station evacuatesThe fear gnaws at you the idea of going into battle alone against odds beyond imaging stoking it, but there is something else that stirs a sense of duty to not just your crew but the men and women onboard that station. You are going to buy them the time they need. “Helm move us two kilometers to the port, comms tell the station they have five minutes to get on that barge.” You reach over to the PA switch, flicking it again. “All hands man your battlestations and prepare for combat!”Enemy???? “Dart” Class Light cruiser 50/50FreindlyForgone Mist Rapier Class Corvette 15/15(These numbers are more of an abstraction of your ships damage to better convey your situation once you hit 0 your going to do a good impression of the sun for a short amount of time) Your ship slides back infont of the station blocking the ship's path. The enemy ship which you were tentatively calling a dart class shifted its heading again to just barely miss you as it approached. The lighting shifts inside your ship and you feel the gravity generator lessen in power aswell as all non critical sections went under minimal power. You go over your tactical options in your head. Your ship was probably faster so aggressive maneuvers would work but would mean you couldn't run a torpedo solution as accurately and trying to brawl with that thing would be dangerous but would make your torpedos far easier to aim.Available WeaponsCoilguns 2d6Torpedos 2d30Own Stationary DC 75>Aggressive maneuvers and pepper him with coilgun fire while trying to aim the torpedoes +5 to own DC>Brawl with the
>>6125665Note tomorrows post will more than likely be 12ish hours past my regular posting time
>>6125668Your post cut off, methinks.
>>6125665>Aggressive maneuvers and pepper him with coilgun fire while trying to aim the torpedoes +5 to own DC>Brawl with the coilguns and risk the wrath of this thing while aiming the torpedoes -10 to own DC +10 to hit>>6125686Nice catch because I sure as shit didnt catch it
>>6125688>Brawl with the coilguns and risk the wrath of this thing while aiming the torpedoes -10 to own DC +10 to hitwe're a corvette and I like these numbers
>>6125665Impression of the Sun for short amount of time? What does that mean?
