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BCM War Stories & Experiences


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Guest Fox__Trot

Heh.. I rescently hopped outta my ship (it was disabled) anyways I saw an enemy FC fly by and then all of a sudden I was dead turns out I had drifted into an iod shot from another bc hehe painful

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Greetings, as a relatively new Commander(although owner of the original boxed BC3k), I have an interesting story that reeks of inexperience.

Just yesterday I was cruising around Earth in my Firestorm when a small enemy cruiser jumped in and began attacking a friendly transport. If they fit the usual pirate profile this attack would be swift, too swift for me to jump my bulky carrier over there in time. I dialled up FC-1 and set them on their way, monitoring the situation from Tacops. It took only a few second to realise my mistake, I should have sent 2 FTR's! FC-1 was taking a battering so I issued an RTB.

The craft limped to about 200 off our port bow before the pilot and co-pilot both expired from their injuries. I tapped my fingers impatiently on the command console as I contemplated what to do next. The actions that followed are ones I wish I could erase from my records. First I sent out a shuttle to tow it back, but that didnt seem to work so i thought maybe I could send out a space marine to fly it back. No good.

The whispering around the bridge began to wear on my nerves, I decided the best move would be to jump into a space suit and head over to the fighter myself. I cruised around upside-down (relatively!) for a while, banging my helmet on the hull of the ship, before finally gaining control and slipping into FC-1's cockpit. All very well and good, except i'd left launch control unpowered when i jumped ship and no-one would turn it back on for me, so i couldn't dock.

Setting a course for the planet, I planned to set the fighter down, beam in the newly cloned pilots and get them to fly the thing home. Yeah. Great plan Gavor! Except the bit where you flew the thing into the ocean, all the while the craft's computer was droning 'warning warning'. But you didnt listen. Nooooooooo. You had to try and set down anyway (in my defence, the water was very shallow and I couldnt see it from in the ship).

With FC-1 beached, I beamed back home and sent down a pair of marines and the pilots. No luck. The pilots couldn't get the doors open so I ended up beaming them all home. It was getting serious by this stage. The little fighter hadn't sunk to the bottom of the ocean yet and I decided to have one last look at it myself(and get in some more transporter practise). I beamed down, hit the door release of FC-1 and suddenly found myself back on the CC. Confused, i looked around then on a whim I checked the hanger. There sat FC-1! What the.....?? It was still all banged up, but how did it get....? I shook my head in bewilderment and ordered a course change to dock at Galcomm. I had a date at the bar with a stiff drink and some cocktail onions.

NOTE: These happenings are all true. I couldnt get FC-1 back in the CC no metter what i tried. (i even tried the tractor beam of the CC, no luck). When i beamed down to the beached craft and hit /, i and the fighter both returned automatically to the CC. Wierd, but acceptable from my point of view . It was like the game got sick of my bumblings and just stuck us both back where we belonged so i wouldnt make a fool of myself anymore.

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quote:


Originally posted by Gavor:

When i beamed down to the beached craft and hit /, i and the fighter both returned automatically to the CC. Wierd, but acceptable from my point of view . It was like the game got sick of my bumblings and just stuck us both back where we belonged so i wouldnt make a fool of myself anymore.


Interesting story. But that sounds like a bug to me.

When you press / you should enter the craft you are facing, automatically. And that craft happens to be FC-1.

Can you reproduce this? If so, head over to the Misc Tech issues and post a report in the thread.

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It struck me as a bug as well, but as you probably appreciate, I wasnt complaining at the time .

I figured it wasnt for me to declare it as a bug. If you were suspicious I knew you'd say something. I'll have a go at replicating it, but it's quite a complex scenario. Give me a day or so to look into it.

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Well, I decide to start up a new commander career playing. Being different, I create Commander Vanya, as my AE and commander of the GCV Cambridge, a Questar class Heavy Cruiser. The bitter, inexperiance female commander still jealous after seeing the screenshots of how top heavy her replacements in BCG will be.

I decide that Galcom HQ is a nice little spot not too close to the front lines against any major alien race so I can wage war against the insurgents. Unfortunately as the Cambridge pulls away from docking, a discover the Credian Military has other ideas.

The ever faithful Resnig sounds the alert that intruders are onboard giving the first indication that enemies are near by. Seconds later the telltale red blip appears on the screen and Vanya quickly orders the ship into hyperspace to bring it within combat range. Weapon systems are brought online, and the the Credian vessel is quickly engaged upon exiting hyperspace and destroyed. About this time Resnig finally decides it might be wise to send a few of his troops to search for those intruders.

The orders are given to turn the Cambridge around and it rockets back towards Galcom HQ. Another blip appears after arrival back at base and this time it's a single fighter. Allied ships in the area quickly dispatch of it, though, before the Cambridge's hyperdrives can recharge.

The Cambridge finally turns into base and begins to repair damage inflicted by the intruders while the marines continue to sweep them up and toss them in the brig. Cargo Bay 1 is quickly brought back up to 100% condition and a minor radiation leak is cleaned up from deck 3. Two medics and two marines are sent to the medbay to be vacinated from radiation since the bridge crew is complaining about the glare on thier screens whenever the glowing crew members enter.

Without further delay the Camridge sets out again, only to find all heck break loose. Credian ships seam to come every direction... carriers, cruisers and fighters everywhere. GalCom and EarthCom ships scramble from GalCom HQ and the nearby Genesis station to meet the onslaught, which is only made worse by the appearance of raiders.

It seems as everything is scrambled in defense, and Vanya curses the studity of a transport commander heading off on a search and destroy mission with his unarmed LRT-10. The Cambridge, herself, lays waste to two carriers and a super cruiser, not to mention unlucky enemy fighters that her ten turrets chew up. And in the chaos a prisoner escapes from the brig and begins to set in wreaking havoc again.

Finally the Cambridge has to pull out from the battle as it begins to clear up. It appears to be a victory for the defenders of Earth, but at heavy cost. Apparantly needing a scape goat, the high command has decided to blaim lowly Vanya for the losses judging by her -7444 Experiance Points.

Pulling back into port the prisoners are dealt with and repairs and medical attention begin. The crew, apparantly pushed to thier max is taken off duty since only Vanya herself has a FF of less than 30, some of the Marines scoring 70 or more.

And so ends the first hour of a ROAM Campaign. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen that many ships attack at once... does the enemy make concentrated attacks in the ROAM campaign or was this just an unlucky coincidence?

I'm not quite sure what was destroyed to give over 7000 in negative experiance points... I can only guess a few carriers or something were lost. I'll have to remember to stick close to the next time, since I have more turrets than the average carrier.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well im back and I have one last story from my invasion. Thats right its over, did I win? No and it wasnt even the way I planned on going out.

Heres how it went, I was finally able to make it out of SOL and move on to Alpha Centauri with my fleet of about 7 or 8 ships and mine which was still beat up from the bloody battles in SOL. I made it as far as Tramis before I was so badly beaten that I had to turn back and head for SOL.

I thought I had taken over a starbase in the Earth region so I set course and headed back. A mistake I will soon regret. Anyway I made it outta the system with about 2 ships and showed up at Pluto. Feeling pretty safe now I waited for my HJ engines to recharge and take me to Earth.

After completeing some repair work the HJ engines engaged and about halfway to the Earth jump gate the the Klaxon sounded and some enemys came into the system. Not paying to much attion I went on and was almost there when I got a message that there was a radiation leak on one of the decks. Not being so new to these I went in and fixed the problem and sent parts of the crew to the medibay for treatment. When I came back to the viewer I saw the Earth jumpgate off in the distance, we arrived and went through.

We came out on the other side and I was just about to set course for Galcom right as the klaxon sounded. Then I relized somthing was not right. It appeared that galcom had been retaken and was sending enemy vessels my way. I thought I could take em and jumped into orbit around Earth, why? Well for one I was angry that Galcom was under enemy control again and two I thought that if I took it back before they got their defense up id be alright.

The fight started and missles where exchanged, lasers fired and systems damaged just like any other battle. Well about 5-8 minutes in I noticed that there was a very large amount of enemy ships in the area then I noticed they where all targetting me because what was left of my fleet had been destroyed.

Being very heavly damaged and my AE looking pretty bad himself It looked to me like it was time to pay good old radomized Earth a visit once again for repairs, but before I could establish planet fall a missle was very neatly placed on my CC and took out my engines. I figured it didnt matter id just force land on the surface.

I made planet fall and was quiet surprised at how empty it looked now as compared to my previous visit then relized I was falling very fast and noticed my hull was at about 16% which could not withstand crash at that speed. Paniced now I tried despretly to get a shuttle or fighter out of the launch bay and to my surprise it was still up along with a shuttle but the shuttle was empty and I had to send a marine to it. It was hell waiting for that marine to get to the shuttle our rate of desent had dropped but we where still falling to fast to keep from exploding on impact.

Finnally the launch light had come on for the shuttle and I went to launch it and found out that launch control had no power. A fatal and stupid mistake on my part. I went into the power setting, gave power back to launch control, and went back to the viewer to launch the shuttle. I knew I was too late but I tried it anyway, then it happened, just as the shuttle was leaving, my CC hit the ground and from the view of its destruction I saw the shuttle explode as well as my beloved CC and then it was over. 40 ppl and one strong CC gone in less then a second.

Am I upset? No not really I had more fun doing this then I ever have playing any other video game. I went out knowing that I whould fail and some where along the line I got too cocky and I thought I was gonna make it. Well now me and all of my crew have a mangled metal grave on the surface of a, thanks to me, desert planet and the fleet is scattered all of the universe.

My only hope is that the Gammulan empire will carry on before me and finish what I started hopfully along the way stopping by Earth to pay me and my crew a visit. I mean hopfully one day there will be Anothor Viper with the guts to take on the universe,you never know

[ 09-24-2002, 08:57 PM: Message edited by: Viper2000 ]

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quote:


Originally posted by Viper2000:

It was in paragraph form when it was in my word processor. I Guess when I pasted it here they got mseed up. Sorry


Please edit your post and fix it. I don't want to have to go and get new contacts prescription.

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  • 3 months later...

--Crash Landing

For my first command, I decided to try a Sunflash and raid some TER/INS bases on Earth. I duly establish planetfall and begin flybys of a handy base, raking it with IOD, PTA and missile fire.

Somehow, they must have slipped a missile past my shields. The sound of the reactor going into emergency shutdown was heard across the ship. My other systems, however, were undamaged. With the solar panels providing sufficient power, I decided to continue.

Another few minutes passed uneventfully. I'm not sure if they hit me with another missile when I dropped the ECM to launch my own, or if I went a bit too low to fire my IOD, but...I crashed. The Sunflash tore a burning swath across the base, and finally came to rest on the edge of it. I spent a while listening to the damage reports as I staggered from the wreckage of the bridge. Even with out ship crippled and death imminent, however, we still managed to get out the bubbly to celebrate the fact that Resnig hadn't gotten off the bridge in time.

I was unable to access Logistics to assses the damage, but I could tell that it was severe. I left the ship to take a look just in time to see a few missiles arcing towards it. I activated my jetpack, but was too late...the blast destroyed most of what was left of the base. Needless to say, I didn't clear the blast zone in time.

At some point I'll get around to posting the story of how a pair of Ravens gutted my Firestorm.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It was the big day. Galcom had finally granted me command of my own craft. A beauty of a little Sunflash christened the GCV-Insurmountable. I couldn't help but feel proud as the cruiser rumbled out of GHQ on her maiden voyage.

Before long the comms officer had me patched through to HQ and we received our first mission. Escort a Terran diplomat to the Majoris station in Alpha Majoris and defend said station until instructed otherwise. I'd been hoping for something a little more exciting. Boy did I get more than I had bargained for.

We formed on the diplomat's wing, brought our main guns and PTA system online and were off. I ceded control to the navigation and flight officers so I could personally monitor long range sensors. Our first several jumps went without a hitch.

My eyes had begun to blur from watching that scanner readout when, as a welcome turn of events, alarm klaxons sounded. A MKIII Battlecruiser had decloaked off our starboard bow and was already firing her main guns into the diplomat's exposed rear.

Our PTA system had responded in kind with a barrage of cannon fire. Designating a pair of Vagrants to FATAL, I spun the cruiser round and unleashed them along with a volley from the main guns. Fireworks forever lost their allure as I watched that Raider ship go up in the most dazzling light show imaginable.

Our first kill. Not bad for a bunch of raw recruits fresh out of the academy. Aside from a scare, our diplomatic friends were doing just fine and everyone on the Insurmountable seemed much more confident in their abilities. We resumed course and reached the station without further delay.

Apparently the brass upstairs had let information on this little job leak. Not ten minutes after our charge had docked did a fleet of Gammulans arrive. A Stormcarrier escorted by a pair of cruisers. Fun.

Readying several missiles, I merely abided my time. I figured it best to engage them within range of the station and ODS. Like fools the Gammulans closed in. Personally, I'd expected more from such a war-like species.

Majoris station launched a compliment of fighters which quickly engaged the carrier's own fighter wing. One of the cruisers had already fallen victim to the ODS as I ordered evasive maneuvers.

"Sir, we've got intruders onboard," barked my Combat Officer, a fidgety man by name of Resnig.

"Well deploy marines and round the bastards up!" was my rather harsh reply. I had enough on my plate just dodging the crossfire.

It was about then that my Tac Officer informed me of an unauthorized launch. In the chaos I, along with my apparently incompetent CO, had forgotten to cut power to launch control. A quick scan of our resources revealed that a large quantity of precious radine had been stolen as well.

By now all cap' ships had been disabled or destroyed and the Majoris station was mopping up the last of the enemy fighters. There went my transport shuttle along with a good deal of my fuel. Just then, however, the transport did a funny thing. It stopped and began emitting an SOS signal.

A grin lit up Resnig's face. Not your normal grin, mind you, but the grin of a very young child... or a man with the IQ of a dingo. "Sir, the transport's dead in the water. Shall I initiate recovery procedures?" My gut told me something wasn't right. A ship full of highly volatile materials could do quite a bit of damage to an unshielded craft such as mine.

"No you half-wit. Bring us around and target the cockpit. Lower the main guns to fifty percent efficiency and fire." Boom. No more hijackers. The shuttle itself was greatly damaged but still in one piece. "Now tow her in," I ordered. Slight problem with that, the ship was still emitting a hostile IFF signal and so the near worthless computer refused to reel her in. Just great, now I'll have to drag the thing to Galcom for everyone to see. My mates back at the Officer's Lounge will have a good laugh.

Or perhaps there was another solution. If I were to board the craft and input the proper security codes, assuming the ship was still in stable enough condition, it would appear as friendly and our computer would have no problem pulling it aboard. Five minutes later I was suited up and regretting this whole idea from the airlock. Never did get used to free fall.

There was no turning back now. The airlock depressurized and the blast doors slid open. With my stomach somewhere around my throat I took a step out into infinite nothingness. It was a good while before I managed to unclench my eyes and get a look at my surroundings. The transport was a few meters away, held steady by the tractor beam whose close proximity I feared would leave me sterile and hairless.

Down I went, my tiny rocketpack providing just enough thrust to propel me. I drifted for what seemed an eternity until my magnetic boots locked with the vessel's hull and I found my way in. The first thing I noticed was the lack of life support and artificial gravity. The next thing I noticed was the organic material floating about the cargo bay. The remains of our intruders no doubt. All the same, I kept my Sabre rifle at the ready as I moved past the crates of radine and into the cockpit.

There was more blood and tissue drifting here. Along with an enormous hole straight through the canopy. All that held this transport from rapid depressurization was a steadily dying stasis field. I had to work fast before the whole thing crunched like a tin can. Luckily there was still enough juice left to activate a computer terminal and switch the IFF signal back to friendly.

*csk* SC-1 to Insurmountable, SC-1 to Insurmountable. Request immediate retrieval, over. *csk*

*csk* Roger Commander, we're on it. *csk*

Not bad for a day's work I thought as the shuttle was tractored into the appropriate bay. I left my report to HQ vague in regards to SC-1's role in this whole fiasco.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Grayfox

well, i decided to dust off the ole BCM cd and install the newest update and start playing again.

i started from scratch with a firestorm as a TER/MIL,(mainly because of the fighters and 40 marines) and took a little pleasure cruise to Centris. I deployed my drones on moon 2 (i think it was 2...) after tooling around for abit and reaching obsidia (again) i decided to head back and stir up the pot a bit.

I collected my drones (all but 1 because the shuttle crashed and exploded) cashed in the minerals for a decent amount of change, redeployed my remaining drones and headed back to earth to purchase some weapons without the inflation rates.

I get back to GALCOM hq and i resupply, and buy an OTS Tanix (all i could afford), then i target the TER/INS starbase on earth and nuke it getting some decent XP's for it. then a thought crossed my mind... why dont i systematically eliminate the insurgents??? hell of an idea, so i decided to head for the insurgent base new america in Midae. its big, its like a planetoid, and im sure to get a ton of xp for wiping it out.

well the first of my problems occured when i reached midae and came under attack by a BC MK3. i set loose my fighters on it, and they tore it up pretty quick, but 2 of them disobeyed my orders to halt and they went screaming towards new america... they got to within about 350k before the station wiped em out. so i accidentally saved it (CTRL S) then i figured i might as well do a full save in case i get wiped.

my first attempt at the station didnt go to hot. when you exit the jumpgate into midae 4, youre only about 800k away from the station so you cant hyperjump. so i decided to close to within 200k engage the cloak and move in for the kill... nope. i got to within 350 (i wasnt paying attention earlier) and got raped.

reload.

next time i figured as soon as i enter midae 4, ill head away from the station kick on the burners and get out to 1000k so i can use my warp so my crew doesnt start glowing form the intense radiation emmitted from the cloaking device. i cloak, designate a few missles to FATAL on new america, and i warp in. once im in FATAL range during the jump, the missles launch... however i was cut open by the bases guns.

reload.

This time i used some intelligence. id move out to 1000k, turn off my weapons systems, cloak and warp in then move in to point blank range under its gun arcs... im talking so close you could spit and hit the station. so thats what i do. i get in, get close, turn on my main guns and pta, and i totally decimate the station. new america is waxed, and im getting a warning that somethings tracking me and i got missles inbound. my suck meter is pegged out. i disengage the cloak because id never make it to the jumpgate without giving my crew a permanent orange afro, i turn on the emd, and i hightail it out... and live. before i entered the jump gate i looked back at what was left of new america, while it entered the rebuilding state... brought a smile to my face and xp's to my AE.

i head back to centris, pick up my drones, cash them in along with some other stuff i "acquired" along the way, and headed back to earth for resupply. i get to GALCOM, resupply and pick up another OTS missle. This time my target is the TER/INS base in Sygan as well as the starbase on the planet. i deploy my drones in earth so theyll be full by the time i get back (or close to it), and head to sygan. on my way to sygan i pass thru lennen, and see the pixan starstation... i decide to try the same tactic i did before, and ill be damned if it didnt work again. now i have a way to beat these stations. xp's are racking up by this point.

I enter Sygan, and see the starbase... and 400k an ODS... i figure if i cut it close enough, the ODS wont touch me. so i try my tactic again and it works except this time i cut off my PTA's when the stations armor reaches about 3000, and i use my weapons slowly until i see the SOS marker appear over the station... my hands are sweating, theres ships all over looking for me, so i try to dock to capture the station... i get a warning "cant dock while cloaked"... DOH! i uncloack thinking im going to eat a missle, and i try docking with the station... success! syganstation is now property of GALCOM i can hear the bards tales now... before i leave though, i leave on final gift... i nuke the INS starbase on the planet and take off back to pick up my drones.

i pick em up, then go ALL the way back to polaris 2 and the valeri station and cash in my stash for an exhorbitant amount of money.

total losses on voyage: 1 Shuttle, 2 Fighters, 4 Pilots, 1 Marine. not bad considering what i took out with only one ship, not to mention the intruders, and various space battles my ship encountered.

right now, my drones are on lyrius (12% mineral makeup i believe), my ships engine, reactor, and shield upgrades are maxed out without artifacts (none are available yet) and im about to head back into earthspace to start my planetside campaign of insurgent genocide. by the time im done i should at least be strategic commander.

i forgot how much of a friggin rush this game can be... bless you SC

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  • 6 months later...

This thread seems strangely dormant.

Anyways, I just upgaded and reinstalled BCM, and decided to try flying a cruiser rather than my usual Firestorm. I chose a Questar and launched from Orion, dropped my drones on Centris, and started flying patrols.

At this point I should proabably point out that I've been playing around with the assets.ini, so my Questar had slightly diminished cargo bays but four shuttles. Yeah, I'm a cheating bastard. I intended to to change it back before starting a new game, but never got around to it...still, fate decided to punish me in the end.

I fly two circuits of Alpha Centauri, running into and destroying a few enemy ships - nothing too dramatic, though. On my third run, though, I'm two jumps away from Centris (in a system with no station) when I hear "Radine level critical".

I check the reactor status - I've got 49 left! I lay in a course for Centris...and hear "unable to compute jump profile". No matter what I try, the same message. So I decide to go with plan B: land the CC somewhere safe and fly to Centris in a shuttle to get some radine from Orion.

40 left - I turn towards the planet and make an emergency planetfall (interestingly, it doesn't seem to render the 'flare' that you normally get behind ships when they enter atmosphere for the Questar. It does for my shuttles, though, and I haven't tried it with other ships). About 3km up, I power down everything but launch control, the engines, and lifesupport, and head for SC-4. Just before I launch, I order the AI to land. As my cruiser settles to the ground behind me, I engage the afterburners and burn towards space.

A few minutes later, I'm on final approach to Orion. I switch to a tail view (I like docking at stations with an external view) and aim for the center of Orion. As the range drops, I hit alt-d...and nothing happens.

I tap F1 to return to the cockpit - nothing. A few seconds of experimentation later show that I can pitch and yaw the shuttle, and pan the view, and use the RRs and ABs, and that's it.

So here I am, my shuttle refusing to listen to me (and gently bouncing off the side of Orion), desperately hitting keys in an effort to get it to respond. Eventually, it responds to alt-d again and I dock. Odd. I quickly load up with radine and launch again.

Two jumps later, and I'm entering the atmosphere to return to my Questar. I'd never made planetfall in a shuttle before, and it was intense - plummeting towards the ground, pulling up at the last minute and screaming towards the cruiser just above ground level at a speed that is clearly Way Too Fast. There's probably a large dent in the back wall of the shuttle bay.

Anyways, I arrived with 3 units of radine left. Close one. I offloaded my cargo, powered my CC back on, and set course for Centris to retrieve my drones.

After picking them up, I decided to forgo Orion and sell them elsewhere in Alpha Centauri where I could get a better price. One jump later I'm near a planet with an enemy station - pretty much routine by now; turn on ECM and jump across to the next jump node.

Well, it wasn't routine this time. A BCmk3 jumped in right behind me. I tore it apart, but by then the station had sent fighters to support it. My PTA did a good job of picking them off, and a check of the scanners after things quieted down revealed three disabled fighters, one SOSing, and two cargo pods.

I quickly ordered four marines to the shuttles and launched them. I gave SC-1 through 3 orders to tractor the disabled fighters, and SC-4 orders to grab the pods. All this time, the station had been launching shuttles to pick up the fighters, and I kept shooting them down.

Here's where I made a terrible mistake. I didn't check the location of the fighters or the pods before sending my shuttles out. As it turned out, the station had launched enough shuttles that they had actually gotten the fighters back. SC-2 was ok; before it could engage hyperdrive, the shuttle it was targeted on had been delivered to the station.

The others were not so lucky. The fighters were in tow to the station, so of course that's where the shuttles went. As for SC-4, I just assumed that the cargo pods were from my engagement with the BCmk3...big mistake. Three of my shuttles meshed in within spitting distance of an enemy station, and one by one, their indicators on my HUD turned red.

Admitting defeat, I recalled SC-2 and headed for the jump node. As I headed into dock, I realized the true magnitude of my folly: I had never unloaded the mining drones.

Not only had I lost three shuttles and marines, and their OCs and drones...I had also lost the money that would enable me to replace them. So far, I have 1/6th of what it would cost to replace one of the shuttles and its drone, and that's not even counting the cost of another marine and the OC.

Oh, and Weapons Pod 1 was destroyed by intruders.

This is clearly not my day.

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  • 3 months later...

This thread is unsettlingly quiet.

This is something that happened to me shortly after I started playing. I was flying a Firestorm around, patrolling Sol, when I came across an enemy carrier near a jump node. We scrambled our fighters, and I closed to energy range and blew it away without too much difficulty, but two of its fighters - both S24 Ravens - escaped into the node and longjumped out.

Thinking I had seen the last of them, I powered down my weapons and moved closer to the jump node to look for salvage. Little did I know what was in store for me.

I was recalling my fighters, with my Firestorm facing the node, when it happened. "Two hyper footprints, dead ahead!" I watched in shock as the two Ravens that I had thought fled reemerged from the jump node and burned straight towards my ship.

I had no time to react; before I even realized what was going on, their missiles had stripped away my shields and their main guns were blasting pieces off my ship. I desperately reached for my control panel to bring the PTA system back up and began to rotate the ship, but I was too late. Both Ravens dodged between the 'arms' of the Firestorm and slammed into the main hull at top speed.

The ship was blasted away from the jump node by the force of the explosions; gouts of vapour and plasma poured from the rent hull. I recovered my footing amid what was left of the bridge, staggered over to the nearest console, and asked for a damage report.

Nothing.

Further experimentation relvealed that pretty much everything, including the engines, were offline; it was hard to be sure, though, due to the complete lack of any help from the Logistics system.

One of the Ravens must have hit at exactly the wrong place; my computer systems were gutted. Time to leave...although, with launch control offline, the reactor crippled, and a smoking hole where the Tactical computer should be, that might prove to be tricky.

One cranking-open of an emergency airlock later, I was wandering around on the hull of my ship. Then, I saw my way out - FC-3. It had been crippled in the battle, but the drives were still online...or had been earlier.

I detached from the hull and latched myself to FC-3, but in vain. I couldn't get it open, and the pilot wasn't responding...poor taffer must have been more badly wounded than I thought.

Resigning myself to a slow death in deep space as the residual lifesupport ran out, I turned around to gaze at my Firestorm...just as the enemy Aestrom emerged from the jump node behind it.

Guess those fighters called for reinforcements before returning on their suicide run.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Feeling perhaps a bit too overconfident with my recent promotion to Fleet Commander, I ordered my Nav Officer to plot a course for Sygan. I wanted to do a fly by to check on the reconstruction of the recently destroyed Pixan station in Lennen.

The GCV-TinCan jumped into Lennen and subsequent scans showed that progress on Pixan was going slowly, I would have to wait to attempt to capture it until later so we moved onward to Sygan with the intent to destroy Syganstar.

We encountered little resistance along the way and upon arrival in Sygan, it appeared to be much the same situation. There were a few space marines floating around the station, but no other threats were scanned.

I ordered the ship cloaked and set course for a jump to the station. The battle went as smoothly as it had for the previous destruction of Pixan and in a few minutes Syganstar was destroyed. I lingered a moment trying to capture a cargo pod that somehow found itself inside the burnt out structure and was therefore not able to be collected.

"Set course for Zilon" I barked at the Nav Officer. It was my intent to clear out enemies from Syrius to Barnards Star.

During the jump, the klaxon blared and two Ravens jumped in from Barnards Gate. "Piece of cake" I thought. Determined to make the insurgents sorry they chose to pick on me today, I ordered missiles targeted at the unsuspecting Ravens. Cranking the PTA's to full power I prepared to leave hyperspace and mince the audacious fighters. "What are they thinking?. Didn't they know I just took out two Star Stations? Dropping out of HS the missiles launched and combined with my PTA's to make short work of both Ravens.

As I began to tell my Navs Officer to resume course, my words were drowned out by Mother declaring "Warning... Acquired". A quick scan showed two Defenders making a beeline towards my ship. "Mosquitos!...ha!" Eager to make short work of these nuisances, we engaged them. They put up a good fight and I found it hard to get a good enough bead on them to do any serious damage. They hadn't even come close to breaching my shields, but they used evasive manuevers the likes of which I've never seen.

In my zeal to destroy these pests I had forgotten I was close to a jumpgate and before I knew it, a Garid had jumped in and let loose some of it's fighters. I managed to take out two of the fighters and put some big dents in the hull of the Garid whom by now was playing cat and mouse with my carrier. "He doesn't seem very aggressive" I thought. In fact, he was now targeting a Warmonger that had apparently jumped in unnoticed. As I set course to follow and end the Garid Commanders career I was surprised to see the GCV-TinCan light up like a Christmas tree accompanied by the deep thumps of laser fire as it clashed with my shields. A Firestorm had managed to sneak in at some point and threatened to rip me apart.

Evasive manuevers prevented my shields from getting breached and I began to relax a bit and focus on my new adversary when I was suddenly interrupted. "Warning..Hull integrity breach...Cargo Bay 1 destroyed, Main Computer destroyed..." On and on it went as I scrambled to figure out what had happened. By now, the surrounding space was full of fighters and a few Capital ships. I tried to access Tactical to assess the damage but the system was down as was logistix, navitron and commlink. Fearing the worst I ordered a jump into the next system. I needed time to decide a course of action. The jump was made successfully, just narrowly missing the missles that had been launched at my tail as I ran.

I cloaked as soon as we arrived in Zilon to prevent any followers from locking on to me. I took a deep breath and tried to figure out what went wrong. I could have sworn my shields held, but yet I had sustained some serious damage to critical systems. "Intruders perhaps?" A quick check of Perscan didn't show any intruders.

There wasn't a whole lot more I could do to evaluate the situation without the ships computers functioning so I ordered the ship to head for Galcom HQ. Perhaps I could dock and get a better grasp on what happened.

During the return I was careful to avoid any conflicts and continued to try and figure out what went wrong. I noticed that two of my mines were spent and I hadn't done it. I began formulating ideas. Was it sabotage?

Arriving at Galcom HQ, I continued to sweat about what to put in my report. The stations systems showed that Cargo Bay 1 was destroyed along with the main computer. Other systems and some of troop quarters had taken damage but none of it was that significant. From all appearances it looked as if my mines had been used to sabotage the ship. The fact that the main computer was destroyed while other systems on that deck only sustained minimal damage lent more creedance to the sabotage theory. But I had found no intruders nor had I been notified we had been boarded. After some repairs my research engineer began bleeting about unsafe levels of Krytptonium etc... in the cargo bay area.

So I'm left with three possibilities, either my shields were momentarily breached and a few well-placed shots struck me down with surgical precision or some intruders had boarded, stolen two mines and blew up my cargo bay and main computer or I had a bad mix of minerals and chemicals stored in CB1 that had become unstable and exploded.

Glacom HQ is now rethinking their praise and my recent promotion as I am unable to give an adequate report. I had lost everything in the cargo bay and since my main computer was destroyed the ship is irreparable. The Galcom engineers refuse to fix it or replace it and despite the fact that tactical is 100% I cannot access it outside the station since the main computer is dead.

Galcom has ordered me for a psychiatric evaluation since I cannot explain the loss of my ship and I've just recieved notification of demotion. Galcom is willing to provide me with a new ship, but I lose any rank gained during my short career and have to start as a fresh recruit from command school.

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Originally posted by Popper100:

very nice, but what do you think truly happened aboard your ship (invisible intruder?)

I'm really not sure, hence the psych eval.

I heard some of my crew mumbling about "situational awareness", and to tell the truth I was so stunned when it happened I did lose control of the situation.

I was carrying a load of minerals at the time but the RE never notified me of dangerous levels at any time prior to the explosion so I don't think that's it. She only warned me about it when I left Galcom to see if I could replace my main comp.

We all know a certain CO doesn't always do his job so well, so the intruder theory is possible. But I find it hard to believe one could make it all the way to Deck 1 without being detected.

If I had more info I might be able to figure it out, but commlink is down too so I can't read any messages.

I wonder if the main comp is located directly above the cargo bay...an explosion there could have ripped through all the decks above it.

In any event, the shear fact that something like that happened is a testament and tribute to the games mechanics and AI.

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