For my first post on these forums, here's a war story. I'm in a Firestorm Super Carrier (YEAH! Only problem is I can't upgrade to the most powerful shields or reactor, which ships allow that and which dont?) I'm ordered to defend diplomats, and especially watch Tulon station on the 2nd ACM mission. Instead of directly escorting the diplomats, I decide to resolve the problem of Tulon station by capturing it. I jump in-system and cloak, hyperspacing directly to Tulon. Before the station knows it, it's lost most systems are releases an SOS, which I immediately use as an excuse to board the station and make it my own. I launch, and less than 2 minutes afterwards, a couple fighters blow up the station. I proceed to remain near the station for awhile, deciding to destroy any ships finding out what happened to their precious station. Occasionally, a Starcruiser or Aestrom jumps in, heading directly for me. I target the expected area the hyperjump will end, lock about 4 missiles on them via FATAL, and destroy them before their engines power back up after the hyperjump. Eventually, a few fighters manage to get good strafing runs on me, and do a little damage, damaging my reactor. I immediately repair it and clear the radiation, and I decide to head back to GALCOM HQ to repair and collect my mining drones, but then 2 Warmonger Heavy Cruisers with fighter escorts jump into the system. Going against my better judgement, I engage the Gammulan Warmongers man to man(my fighters weren't ready for launch). I destroy one with relative ease, but the other one continues to pound me. I finally come around and blow up the other one with manually aimed direct hits with my main guns. Then the damage reports start coming in.
"Fighter has been destroyed"x2
"Fighter bay had been destroyed"x2
"Reactor has been damaged"
"Bridge has been damaged"
"Officers Quarters one has been damaged"
"Medibay...."
On and on. Deck 3 was radiated with no radiation control unit, but my engines were still in one piece. Somehow I managed to deal with a couple more fighters on my way back to Galcom HQ, but 2 jumps away from SOL my computer wasnt jumping me. I switch off auto-pilot. "Unable to computer jump profile" WHAT?!?!? I'm 2 jumps away from Earth after destroying 2 Warmongers, and it wont jump! I check my cloaking system, no iridium left. My reactor is down to 11 radine, shields had to be turned off to maintain engine power. Red dots appear on my scanner from a long distance away. I immediately remember I have shuttles that are still in one piece. I can tow myself back to Galcom! I order my AE and a number of marines to the shuttles, and then....nothing. I do it again and watch perscan. The marines refuse to move to the shuttle bay....must have been some damage to bulkheads. I watch scanners and the enemy ship are 30 seconds away. I look at perscan again and notice some system engineers in the shuttle bay! I order them into the shuttle and to launch. With 15 seconds left, i'm locked in a tractor beam and on my way at maximum speed back to Galcom HQ. Upon docking, I am promptly levied a violation and experience drop for Dipolmat4 not docking (although it docked about 15 seconds later...must have been a bug). I check logistics and notice that i've lost two fighters that were docked, and most of the ship is a wreck. I note that it's going to take a couple hours (real time) for repairs. I buy a JAC (with money I collected from mineral mining), send my crew off duty or to the medibay (what's left of it), and shoot some pool at Galcom HQ as JAC and the Galcom engineers repair my excuse for a CC.