In the outskirts of colonised space and border territories, there is little protection from pirates and vagabonds offered by the governments of stellar empires. Yet there is still profit to be made for the transport corps and merchants keeping the goods flowing between worlds -- and a lot more than in safer systems.You're a private protector, a lone man with a spaceship that mostly takes contracts for transport escorts, sometimes for investigation of wrecks and straight-up pirate destruction. Your ship is...>A fighter, name "Dakka". You have a big kinetic gun. In fact, you have a gun so big it could fuck up a light cruiser section no problem. The craft is also highly mobile, but seriously lacking in defences, both shield and armour. The ship control AI suite is also kinda old.>A fighter, name "Scarlet Dawn". An all-rounder, no particular strengths or weaknesses. Twin kinetic cannons for long-range harassment, a laser for close-range blasts, "Sinica" shield system, an up-to-date, if basic, control suite, and thin titanium armour that stops some of the weaker guns.>A frigate, name "Carte-Blanche". A frigate is usually piloted by a proper, if small, crew, but you've managed to go alone so far, though this makes full operation slower than expected. The selling point is the "Circe" missile system which shreds smaller craft due to tracking and overloads some bigger ships' defences. It works poorly at close range, and you have to rely on automated point-defence along with regular shields if the enemy gets too close.>Write-in (you can also pick one of the above and change the name)Docked in a space station orbiting Uruth, you browse the local network work offers while watching Solar cartoons in the background. They really make them much better than the outer studios.>OFFER 1: Weapon transport escort into a system 4 jumps away. Pirates will probably be after it if they learn of the cargo.>OFFER 2: Scientific databank escort into a system 2 jumps away. From your contacts in the labs a few years back, you learned that they usually transfer it by galactic network, but the most important pieces are delivered on physical storage in case the protocol is compromised. This is a tasty target for some rivalling megacorp mercenaries.>OFFER 3: Raid a mining station for a megacorp to help harm their competitors.On most offers, you will team up with other ships. You know a few people from this teamwork, both good and bad.As you pick a mission, you briefly check your profile to make sure everything is in order and the employers actually know how to contact you. On the screen, beside your photo and a whole bunch of ship and past work data, is your name...>Vincent Kepler>Zhuo Bei Hilter>Philip Viviac>Write-inOOC: There will be no rolls and the quest will probably be more railroaded in some parts than usual. Thought I'd point it out in the beginning so there's no disappointment.
>>6432388>Dakka>OFFER 3: Raid>Vincent KeplerTime For morality and being a space scumbag....and I'm all outta morality.
>>6432400Support.
>>6432388>>Write-in (you can also pick one of the above and change the name)>A Corvette, named "Last Light". A large for its class ship which you bought at a military selloff, the vessel makes use of a strong network of PD lasers and one large pulse laser as its offensive and defensive weaponry. This setup, caused by its usual support role in fleets as an Anti-fighter craft allows for persistent damage good against armour and hull, at the cost of a high manoeuvring skill ceiling to keep weapons aligned on target as well as poor damage. Strong shields for its size and good at most ranges, but nearly unable to deal with anything above an equal match if it has effective shields. Due to the oversized (for its class) reactor given the ships weaponry, the thrusters allow for high manoeuvrability, as long as power is diverted to thrust, which can throttle laser damage if done while attacking. Additionally, the AI suite has the potential for a modernized and high end AI due to its military origin, but one did not come with purchase.>NAME: Cathrine Lorenz>Very tall and nearly Albino from her Oort-cloud upbringing, Cathrine visually looks far from the normal view of what is healthy for an Earther or anyone living on a planet. Having grown up in low G in a station orbiting a dwarf planet, she seeks to make a better life not just for herself but also her family back on her home station whenever she has paid off her debt accrued to purchase her ship and fit it. Choosing to take on the role of a private contractor knowing that if anyone deserves the riches of the inner system, it is her and those in the outer reaches who have the least to their names.>OFFER 3: Raid a mining station for a megacorp to help harm their competitors.
>>6432435This is the "Weak start but upgradable and with good fleet potential" gameplay, and "Eww, what the fuck are you?" character design and a revolutionary while greedy mindset from a poor upbringing. She is MASSIVELY IRRITATED by planet-borns and their mindsets of just having free resources around whenever they want to take any, and it allowing greed to swallow their hearts with what is or is not owned by one or the other party. Thus, there will be a lot of difference between if she meets someone from a habitat vs a planet born.Essentially, this meme.
>>6432435>>6432439Anon, I appreciate the high-effort write-in, but I've got more of an "el generico" type of male protagonist in mind (albeit with some past to influence him) so I can't accept your character suggestion.The ship is fine though, I like the idea of manoeuvrability-firepower balance through reactor usage. Also did you mean "high manoeuvring skill *floor*" as in requirements to be good enough at it? Skill ceiling I believe is like high potential for performance in that area, and its growth as skill grows.
>>6432490aww, well fair enough.And ship manoeuvrability-wise, I meant that the ship works without NEEDING a lot of skill, but the damage potential is severely limited by how easily one is able to keep the lasers on target, as well as how much of the laser network needs to be dedicated towards point defence instead of the projectiles being dodged. So effectively, damage increases not with accuracy, since lasers are nearly as accurate as possible because of the attack-to-hit being lightspeed. So instead, damage increases with "dodge" and effective manoeuvring.But yeah, if that is the case then, then I choose to say:>Ship, "Last Light">OFFER 3: Raid a mining station for a megacorp to help harm their competitors.>Vincent Kepler
>>6432400DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA>>6432435>Point Defense shipI remember Starsector, these are brutal to use in any kind of pitched combat.
>>6432495>ship mechanicsOk, I see the idea, thanks for making the description clear. It's certainly a cool craft!
>>6432388>A fighter, name "Scarlet Dawn". An all-rounder, no particular strengths or weaknesses. Twin kinetic cannons for long-range harassment, a laser for close-range blasts, "Sinica" shield system, an up-to-date, if basic, control suite, and thin titanium armour that stops some of the weaker guns.Can hardly go wrong when starting out with an all-rounder.>OFFER 2: Scientific databank escort into a system 2 jumps away. From your contacts in the labs a few years back, you learned that they usually transfer it by galactic network, but the most important pieces are delivered on physical storage in case the protocol is compromised. This is a tasty target for some rivalling megacorp mercenaries.>Zhuo Bei HilterChinese & German? Count me in.
>>6432388Support >>6432435 but with Zhuo Bei Hilter as the name, since you had a generic male MC in mind.
>Fighter "Dakka">OFFER 3: Raid the mining station>Vincent KeplerThere's some hidden channels and networks where the more clandestine work offers get posted. You just have to know where to look. On one of these, you send a message -- encrypted, of course -- to your potential employer. They respond quickly, and after a short discussion, you reach an agreement with "X CORP", name concealed. You feel a small pang of guilt as you think of the mission once the discussion is done. Makes you thankful your morals are not dead yet. You close the chat and dismiss it to go through the rest of the day.You wait for a day, going through the routine of checking the ship, some chores on the station and general time-wasting on the 'net, while your employer assembles a small wing of contractors. Finally, it's time to depart. The rendezvous point is in the orbit of a frozen planet, Dagart system, a few jumps away. Wouldn't want to be seen together as you go -- a wing travelling together would raise a little more suspicion at the waypoints, and it's best to keep it as low as possible.You note that the system doesn't have a jump gate -- uncolonised, then, or even unlisted. Gonna have to triangulate the subspace navigation yourself. And with your outdated AI suite... you probably need to upgrade it at some point, but the specifics of the hardware ramp up the price quite a bit.It takes a few days of cruising to get there, but thankfully no complications arise. Your communication module picks up signals from the other contractors as you enter the orbit. One of them is familiar..."'WRECKER' SPEAKING," the channel bursts with deafening neo-cosmic-mortar style music the moment you open comms, making you jump in your seat. "WHO'S APPROACHING?"You adjust the volume to the minimum. It's still really fucking loud. "'Obsidian' speaking," you say. Fake callsign, as is common practice for these kinds of missions. You transfer the pass-key, which is flashing by now on the other captain's screen. Confirmation of access."I CAN'T HEAR YOU.""WELL TURN DOWN THE FUCKING MUSIC OR RAISE THE COMMS VOLUME THEN," you yell into the channel."AH SORRY I FORGOT," the music stops. "Hey, wait a minute. Vince, is that you?""Yeah. Hi, Ferdi." No point hiding it now...(cont.)
Ferdinand Roth. You've been on a couple missions together. You have no idea where he got his ship, but it's a proper cruiser, crew and all. He's the only non-company or corporate private contractor that you know has such a craft. Usually works alone, but not this time.Too bad he's one nasty motherfucker. Never leaves witnesses after whatever dirty work he does. "No eyes, no problems", as he says."Are you still watching that Solar uh... anime or whatever it's called? Those cartoons for kids?""I'm closing the comms if you have nothing else to say.""Ah, wait, wait, wait. Let's talk business, fine. So you know how this system is unlisted and all, yeah? I did some investigation, and the mining station is not listed either in the Renaria Corp's assets list. It's probably something secret. And 'secret' means they're mining something good. So we had a discussion with the boys that already arrived, and, y'know, we're a bit split on how to approach this. I have a cargo hold where we could put whatever they're mining and sell for a little more profit in addition to what our employers are promising. But we'd need to leave the station intact and storm it, not destroy everything we can like usual. So the split is whether we try that or just wreck 'em and leave, plain and simple. What do you say? We've worked together, so, y'know, I trust your judgement a tiny bit more than the randoms the higher-ups pulled together for this venture."You sigh. You don't know how to feel about gaining the respect of this fucker, but the question stands.If the station is not to be harmed too much, you'll have to be much more careful with what you point your big gun at. It also depends on the type of defence they have, which the employer's intelligence didn't provide info on. You glance over the data transferred after the pass-key unlock. You've got a well-rounded wing, so you could probably deal with pretty much anything a regular station, even if highly-guarded, could field. Storming though... it's always dangerous. Even if the staff is all just miners and civilian workers.Ultimately, both plans sound viable. What's your call?>"Fine. Let's destroy what defences we can and storm this thing.">"Just wreck it. No need to make it more complicated than necessary.">Write-in
>>6432742>"Fine. Let's destroy what defences we can and storm this thing."We took the the shady op, may as well go full sleazy merc and get greedy for an extra payday as well. I'm sure this will be plot relevant.
>>6432747supported. Besides. If something terrible happens to Ferdi, someone will need to make sure that cruiser is safe. We're good people like that, always looking out for others.
>>6432747I'll support this. After all, what is a ruthless mercenary without merciless raiding?
>>6432742>"Fine. Let's destroy what defences we can and storm this thing."
