Sector 1: Which Way Now?
Over to you. Which way does the Dapper Pawn go. North into the hostile Mantis sector, or south to the nice civilian sector?
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Well, given the “half a hull” situation and my tendency to play this game like a coward, I vote for the civilian sector.
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No one likes a wuss.
Once more unto the (hostile) breach, dear friends, once more…
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I’d vote for the safer civilian sector, simply because there’s a 100% chance my character would get his face chewed off in mantis space
I’m also somewhat concerned about the relaxed attitude towards spawning new snotty clones. I’d never considered that the 128 at the end of my name might just be the number of clones that have expired before me
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I shudder to think of my fate once I come aboard, what with the 619 and all…
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South. While melee combat is still one of our major tactics, it seems prudent to steer clear of the guys who’re specialised for it.
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Already enjoying the write up, even if I lack a frame of reference yet. I vote we wuss out and repair with the civvies!
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The civilian sector it was. A quick sector, in which we find that the age of boarding is not over, and also make a friend. Stay tuned.
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I’m super invested in this story. I’m on the edge of my seat
Sector 2
Part 1: Happy To Help. Sometimes
We arrive in the civilian sector, relieved at dodging the Mantises. How little we knew.
The first encounter is yet another bunch of hapless yokels caught in asteroids.
Fine, yes, of course we’ll rescue you. If you’ve got any cats stuck up space trees, I’m sure we can …
…just happy to help sir, all part of the service.
The sound of air squeaking through hairline cracks in the hull, that has been annoying everyone for hours, stops. Emboldened, we press on and a fight finds us.
This is one of those annoying scouts who rush off and give away your position, so we really don’t have time to wait for the flak cannon. Paging Snotty and OhBollox to the teleport bay!
The burst laser targets the helm, hopefully damaging the pilot, while our personal representatives drop in to the engine room. The rebel has unsporting missiles which take out the teleport. Do or die for the boarding team! Well, no change there then.
Done, not dead. The flak cannon hasn’t charged, of course. We fix the teleport, bring OhBollox and Snotty back and space neither of them because compassion. Also their skill levels are improving and it’s annoying to have to retrain clones.
Our next chance to be humanitarians arrives.
Remember what I said about crew loss risks? Plagues and riots? Yes, no. We send them our heartfelt best wishes from a safe and non-contagious distance and leave. I wonder how it worked out for those guys.
Next up a store, where we can’t afford what we want and don’t want what we can afford. I’m sure there’s a moral in there. We pay for the hull to be completely repaired instead. Atmosphere inside, pervasive creeping dead cold of the vacuum of an uncaring universe on the outside, as it should be. Breathing easily, without a care, we jump.
Dropping out of jump space, we rescue some Engis just through our mere presence. We’re good.
An ion intruder probe? According to the manual, it wanders around the ship screwing up electrical equipment. Cool. If only we had a drone controller. We move on.
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Sector 2
Part 2: Welcome Aboard, “Debbie”
At the next station, we encounter yet another rebel.
For the record, we did not “lay low”, nor were we spotted. That was a stealth approach and a surprise attack. Honestly. Anyway, the ship only has a drone and beam, so we are basically invulnerable, and eventually the flak cannon goes off.
Option 2 please.
We sweep up the scrap and a handy fuel cache, and fly on. The next station offers recruiting possibilities.
Matt must have some extra skills but we can’t justify the price hike and hire Debbie instead. “Debbie” turns out to be js619. We don’t ask questions on this ship. Welcome! Js619 gets to be engine guy, and all our control seats are now filled.
The next stop is a pointless store visit and then we arrive at the exit. We are actually quite pleased to find a bit of excitement.
Try? We are bona fide heroes and are not going to take that from some pirate. Also no boarding this time either. OhBollox has a good book.
It’s another unequal battle where the pirates can’t touch us. Snotty, geigerm, Hustler and js619 get to practice their dodge, shoot and shield skill while we wait for the flak cannon to go off.
Which it does.
Very effectively.
The value of the scrap is less than the bribe they offered us, and the ship we rescued offered to fix our complete intact and undamaged hull, but that’s fine, we’re not in this for the money.
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Sector 2: which way now?
Ok crew, we have an awesome choice here.
Specifically, north into the hostile Mantis sector, or south into the, er, hostile Mantis sector?
Choose wisely!
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Oh my Insect God. The Wife.
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Hold on, let me grab a coin to flip …
North.
Traveling incognito out here in deepest darkest space, I suppose. Skirt, wig, and flirtatious innuendos cast aside… engine manned… RAMMING SPEED!
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Those nasty Mantiseses get everywhere, don’t they? So much for steering clear. I’m with @geigerm, though; north.
South. If the next sector proves tricky then the 4th sector could be an easier friendly sector. If we go north we are obliged to take 2 hostile sectors in a row.
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North! Death and danger!
Split decision so far. @Snotty128 says south, @Tamsk and @geigerm say north. @Hustlertwo? (edit @Hustlertwo said north while I was typing). @OhBollox needs to guess where Mrs Mantis is and @js619 just needs to step away from the mirror.
State of the Ship
The Dapper Pawn is looking in reasonably good shape and there’s a few things I glossed over in the name of narrative.
The perceptive will have noticed that we have a missile launcher. We got it as a reward from the pirate in sector 1, and I was tempted to sell it. However, I think it’ll be useful against higher-shield ships and we’ve been picking up involuntary donations of missiles. At some point I’ll add one more bar to the weapons system and geigerm gets a second button on the weapons console.
The early engine upgrades are cheap so I bought a couple for improved dodge. js619 gets to do handbrake turns with the ship.
Finally, yep, I upgraded the flak cannon, so the charge time is now 40s rather than 50. Slightly less tedious, plus it makes life for the boarding party so much more exciting.
Wishlist is another shield bubble, another bar on the flak cannon and upgraded weapons, unless I see a must-have when out shopping. Who wouldn’t want a DNA bank for example?
Further thought- when we‘re not visiting enemy ships in person, I must remember to send OhBollox to the camera or door rooms. More useful than sitting around in a depowered teleporter looking menacing in an unfulfilled way.
Edit: north it is.
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Sector 3
Part 1: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
We fly north very cautiously into Mantis territory. As it turns out, the Mantises are not the problem.
First we answer a distress call. Seriously, I don’t know why we bother.
Sure, we‘ll help.
Shooting at things? We can do that.
You could have told us it would shoot back.
Well, shit. We‘ll just fix the oxygen generator and ignore the big hull breach then. No more Mr Helpful from now on.
In something of a bad mood, we run into an actual Mantis ship.
Prepare for a hostile encounter? Really? You want to see hostile?
Actually, it’s more a passive-aggressive encounter.
Boarding party 1, incoming. We deal with this by manning the door control and evacuating the rooms
Boarding party 2 incoming. If only boarding party 1 had mentioned the lack of atmosphere.
Finally the ship blows up.
We have another disappointing shopping experience and pay for more hull repairs. Then we jump into an asteroid belt and find a drone, for some reason.
Amazingly, this fight goes well and the only damage is a missile to the helm. Snotty is lightly dented but repairs the control and carries on.
Think this is going too well? Think I may have jinxed things with my State of the Ship post? Stay tuned for part 2.
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