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Mission 1

Mission 2 Briefing

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  It's been eerily silent for almost thirty minutes now, the sky black but for distant stars while you've traveled through empty space. Your CASKET is attached to the side of one of the dropships, and you silently watch as it warps you towards the Sedirmar Dust Cloud. It starts out as a tiny, bluish mote in the distance, dwarfed before the massive blue star nearby. It then slowly grows, and grows, until it fills your vision - and then it envelops you entirely, with bright blue swirls of dust and darkened asteroids passing by your window. As your pilot begins making gentle adjustments to avoid hitting the rocky, slumbering giants, you realize you've greatly lost velocity: you're dropping out of warp.

  And then, as if on cue, SCAMPS speaks up.

  All right, SCAMPS here. We've arrived. Six squads and a grand total of 30 convicts - well, if Man-goat-thing even counts. Your dropships are a few thousand kilometers out at this point, and dropping out of warp. I figured you might want me to tell you hello. I know you all missed me. ...assholes. The less retarded individuals among you probably want an update on the situation, which is well deserved. So, here you go.

  One of the computer screens in front of you flashes for a moment, and then displays an image backed with an environment very similar to the one you now see out your window.
  I have good news, rather than bad, which is a bizarre change, I know. And the good news is - I don't have as much bad news as usual! ...yes, I'm cruel, so fukc you. First, as we expected they might, they've shifted their location to an open area of the cloud. They're lined up single-file, with the carrier at the front and the destroyer at the back. Good old turkey shooting, right? Wrong. They're making the repairs twice as fast as we anticipated, and they'll have them done within fifteen minutes unless you send a squad in to bomb the engines. And it won't be easy, either. They really want that Dark Space artifact.

  There are, as of right now, two Shieldmaiden-class corvettes protecting the science vessel, jointly covering it with a force field. You'll have to take them both out before you can even think about approaching the science vessel's hangar. Even then, they've lowered the fire doors in front of the side hangar. However you get them open is up to you, but you'll need to watch out for the ten TAVs Mimir has protecting the Shieldmaidens. Analysis suggests they have a full HAMMER squad out there - Mimir's version of a REKT platoon. That means 40 or so inmates specifically tasked with defending the convoy. They'll be better equipped than you. They'll be more skilled than you. In fact, the only thing we have going in our favor is that they're not all out there already.

  This is it, then. Tell your dropship pilots where you want them to drop you off, and get yourselves in there. Remember you can keep in contact with me during the mission by asking for SCAMPS over the radio, and I'll help out if I can. Also try to remember that allies are friends. You're pretty much screwed without them. The veterans here can attest to that. Remember the objective!: Don't kill our operative, and get that artifact out in one piece! Bombs away, gentlemen. Best of luck to all of you, and if you get killed, it's your fault, not mine.

With that, SCAMPS goes silent, and the dropship pilot speaks up for the first time since you left the Tartarus. "All right, gang, this is your pilot speaking. What'll it be? Where do you want me to put your squad? I can drop you in nice and slow, at max CASKET speed, or throw you in there even faster if you don't mind having to slow down. Play nice, remember, because I'm not actually required to listen to any one of you." He allows this last sentence to hang in the air for a moment as a clear warning, and then adds, "Oh, and make it quick, because we only have about a minute until we arrive."

((Doing nothing, as usual, but this time because I am not around. ... looking forward to follow the mission! ))

"Baaaaa hahahab ahaha abaaaahah"
"Let's stop this carrier from being able to launch anything, fewer fighters means an easier time. Someone have a big enough explosive they could destroy the carriers launch deck with?"

The goat looks down, then links his translator into his CASKET's systems.

"That's better. If the carrier is unable to launch, then we have an advantage."

Silverware wrote:"Baaaaa hahahab ahaha abaaaahah"
"Let's stop this carrier from being able to launch anything, fewer fighters means an easier time. Someone have a big enough explosive they could destroy the carriers launch deck with?"

The goat looks down, then links his translator into his CASKET's systems.

"That's better. If the carrier is unable to launch, then we have an advantage."

I agree, only problem is that the carrier has very powerful guns, if we could find a blindspot however.

SCAMPS, Get us a weapon overview for the carrier like we got for the frigate.
And where is our damn system map?

"SCAMPS, you diphsit."

To my squad: "Ok folks, it looks like we'll have some actual combat. This really makes me wish I didn't bring down the sky on that shitty planet of mine. Bugger. Oh well, sod it, we are going in."

"Clara, you've seen the outside, right? Do you know anything about Shieldmaidens? Do they have any defences? Can they manoeuvre while maintaining the shield?"

"Now, please keep calm everyone. We can't take out the carrier - not without significant losses. It can't outflank us because it's too big and the space is filled with asteroids and whatnot. It CAN get us with fighters, and we can't really do anything about it. I think we should hit the gunship first - it's nimble enough to catch us, and its firepower is great enough to destroy individual fighters with ease."

"We'll go for the Shieldmaidens next. As you've noticed, they are small, and accompanied by one squad each. We are 6 squads strong, and some of us have superior weaponry. We can try to Tesla Arc them before going in force, with some lack it'll leave them defenceless. But we'll have to move fast in any case."

Cha0zz wrote: I agree, only problem is that the carrier has very powerful guns, if we could find a blindspot however.

SCAMPS, Get us a weapon overview for the carrier like we got for the frigate.
And where is our damn system map?

"The problem is that the Carrier's launch deck is towards it's aft, near it's engines, an undefended spot.
But the bloody Gunship is behind the Carrier, I wonder if we can't get it to turn around and allow us a clear shot at the carrier."

((What direction are we approaching these ships from?))

Takes a deep breath and lets it out as he tries to calm himself. "Dr. Cha0zz, do you mind if I attempt to upload a virus onto one of these ships? I'd like to create havoc before we have to start shooting."

"Specifically, I was considering a virus which would attack one of the shield ships and disrupt its shield output device." Tries to remember the best way to write a virus which attacks the shields of a hostile ship.

To my squad "Alright squad, We are going up against some very powerful enemies here, and I need your full attention in order for us to get out of this alive. The other squad leaders and I have a plan, and if you stick to it the chances of your survival will be considerably higher. The current plan is that we attack the gunship in waves, overwhelming its defenses and making the proceeding combat easier. After that we will likely be taking out enemy fighters, and those shield maidens. Right now, we will wait for the other squad leaders to confirm that they are ready to proceed."

"Aegagrus, attacking the carrier right now will get us killed. The guns on it are too powerful. Also, if we attack it then we risk being surrounded by enemy fighters and gunned down."


"SCAMPS! I need all the information you can provided on those shieldmaidens!
What are their weapon capabilities? And can they fire while maintaining shield strength?"

"They have corvettes? Why don't we get to fly corvettes?

Guys, I suggest we split in two groups and do our attack on the gunship from both sides. If we come diagonally from the asteroid field below we might catch them by surprise and we won't risk hitting each other."

Silverware wrote:"Safest approach is directly behind them, their guns will have a blind spot directly behind them, and their engine wake will flood their sensors."

"That could work. Dino, Foreigner, Dr. Cha0zz, what do you think of Aegagrus's idea?"

"personally, I think that we should wait on the map before doing anything. The more we know, the better off we are."

Cha0zz wrote:SCAMPS, you metalhead, what do you mean with 'less dense area of the dust cloud'?
Do you mean that there's less dust in the area or what?
Or do you mean that they flew out of the asteroid field they were previously in?

Also, do you have any info about the kind of shields those shieldmaidens produce, things that can penetrate them etc?

And Tell the bloody idiots up top that they should review their priorities and that it is cheaper to kill prisoners by gassing them instead of giving them expensive equipment just to send them on suicide missions.

Fewer asteroids, dumbass. You could've just looked out your window. The dust is still just as thick. In fact, if you retreat to four or five kilometers from the ships, they won't be able to see you anymore.

Not much penetrates those shields. Normal light does, obviously, but anything past that is blocked - both ways. Nothing gets in, or out. You could probably hack them and take advantage of it if you wanted to.

Finally, this isn't a suicide mission unless you make it one, and I don't think you're quite dumb enough to do that, Doctor.

Cha0zz wrote: SCAMPS, Get us a weapon overview for the carrier like we got for the frigate.
And where is our damn system map?

Here, just had to get a quick scan of the surroundings. Map is about ten kilometers across. Ships are 3x scale.
We expect the carrier to have about 50 or so AA guns. Their capital ships tend to be highly modular and customizable, and while this particular carrier is smaller, there's no reason to expect any different from it. As a result, we don't have enough data to give you the exact details on its loadout, but we probably will by the end of this mission, if that's any consolation.

outlander4 wrote: "Clara, you've seen the outside, right? Do you know anything about Shieldmaidens? Do they have any defences? Can they manoeuvre while maintaining the shield?"

Clara sounds unsure about herself. "No, I've never studied them, there weren't textbooks on them anywhere... but..." she hesitates, and you can imagine her peering at her screen. "It looks from the image that they might have light shielding around themselves. See the blue glow around the top? That's it... a light barrage of fire should be able to take it out. And yes, they can probably manoeuvre while maintaining shields."

BFett wrote:((What direction are we approaching these ships from?))
"Specifically, I was considering a virus which would attack one of the shield ships and disrupt its shield output device." Tries to remember the best way to write a virus which attacks the shields of a hostile ship.

((Whichever direction you like. You can even have your dropships swing around and attack from opposite sides. And you can definitely hack the Shieldmaidens, given a good enough roll.))

Hema wrote: "SCAMPS! I need all the information you can provide on those shieldmaidens!
What are their weapon capabilities? And can they fire while maintaining shield strength?"

((Please remember to underline your posts to SCAMPS so I notice them. ))
They have about two spinal-mounted dual turrets, low fire rate but high power. Try not to get hit by them. They can definitely fire while maintaining shield strength, but if they themselves are shielded, they'll have to lower their shields in order to do anything.

Hema wrote: "That could work. Dino, Foreigner, Dr. Cha0zz, what do you think of Aegagrus's idea?"

"personally, I think that we should wait on the map before doing anything. The more we know, the better off we are."

"It might work, but the back is also where the exhaust from the antimatter drives comes out, which I prefer not to fly in, and several of the turrets can't be hit from the back because other parts of the ship ate in the way."