Forgot to add - as far as you or Arketta know, they don't have tractor beams. The assault ship would probably have grapplers to secure a ship for boarding, but if you're popping AT-4s and whatnot off at them anyway, blowing the lines shouldn't be too hard.

Umm...did we forget about Newton's third law here? AT4's aren't recoilless. You fire one of those in space, it's gonna take you five minutes or so to get back inside after you get blasted all over the place. We should go back to the non-explosive plan we had earlier. Talk to them long enough to get us set up for a clean burn at the gate, prep the decoys, then haul ass at the gate, dropping decoys at intervals. We don't gain anything if we stand and fight, or even stick around to throw explosives at them. All we do is increase the chances that something goes wrong and we get caught. We should still prep the explosives in case they get close enough for us to use them before we're ready for the burn, but the primary goal should be getting the fuck out of here.

admiralducksauce wrote:

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When the Imperium sends their third call, accompanied by the laser, we respond with a laser saying that we were trying to brake, then our passengers suddenly pulled out a whole shitload of weapons we couldn't detect, and tried to take over the ship.

Good. Waiting buys you time and using laser keeps them from hearing any non-Imperium accent or nervousness. The nondetectable weapons comment should in theory focus their attention squarely on you, as they already know their targets are toting stealth weapons from Botane.

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We say we need help, bad,since power's down across the board. In order to board us, they'd thus need to come in and match our speed, 'caus all our power's down. Thus, the boarding ship would have to come to a stop relative to us.

Good. You can coast right past the Needleship if they buy your story up to this point. At that point, you would only have to contend with the boarding assault ship (handled theoretically by C4/AT-4s) and the interceptors (handled theoretically by decoys and blanking your signals).

Basically, yeah. Those were my thoughts when I was writing it up. the major points for failure in this idea: whether or not the engines can be fixed in time, whether the Imperium will buy that we're not hostiles, but rather are civillains who have gotten dragged into this whole thing, whether we can get past the Needleship before they can get a boarding party out to respond to our "please help us finish doing your jobs for you" bluff, whether we can fend off said boarding party (probably coming in at least one assault ship), and whether we can then evade the interceptors and make it to the Gate. Any thoughts on these would be good.

Addendum to above plan: if we can talk them into letting us cruise on by, that would be excellent as well.

If you stop according to their orders, you'll be boarded. If you don't, you're either a ship in distress and will be salvaged/rescued or you're attempting to flee and will be attacked/boarded.

Punkey wrote:

Umm...did we forget about Newton's third law here? AT4's aren't recoilless. You fire one of those in space, it's gonna take you five minutes or so to get back inside after you get blasted all over the place.

Not if you brace against the hull so the recoil force pushes you against the ship instead of at odd directions. Or if you tether yourself to a point on the hull.

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We should go back to the non-explosive plan we had earlier. Talk to them long enough to get us set up for a clean burn at the gate, prep the decoys, then haul ass at the gate, dropping decoys at intervals. We don't gain anything if we stand and fight, or even stick around to throw explosives at them. All we do is increase the chances that something goes wrong and we get caught. We should still prep the explosives in case they get close enough for us to use them before we're ready for the burn, but the primary goal should be getting the fuck out of here.

That's is the primary goal. Unfortunately, this isnt a stern chase, as I understand it, it's a blockade-running situation. The Needleship is ahead of us, with all the guns that means, and it has three assault ships near it, ready for anybody to try anything. The brute run-straight past them isn't going to work, it'll just get us shot. My plan is to try and talk our way into them thinking we can't stop and are just a bunch of panicked civillians in need of help long enough to get past the Needleship. Once that's done, it pretty much is "run like hell for the gate."

EDIT: Annnnd....AD beat me to the explanation. As he says, if we don't stop we're either in distress or a hostile target. I'd rather not be the target, so we're the ship in distress, at least until we pass the big guns.

That would be what I said already. We keep them talking, and we keep moving. I wasn't specific about how we keep them busy, but that's pretty much what I just said. I just think that all of the explosive stuff should only be a last-ditch effort. Otherwise, we keep moving.

However, can we fire those explosive charges out of the decoy chute?

I found my stuff and added Akamu:

This is 10 pixels per meter:



And THIS is ONE pixel per meter:

What's the Needleship's likely reaction to a distressed ship? Send an assault ship towards us, or let us come to them? Physics might sugest the latter, but would they be motivated to come towards us if they think we're the prize they're after?

If either case they'd probably send an assault ship on a course to match your speed and heading. You'll overshoot the Needleship no matter what they might like to do though.

Re: decoy chute. It's not exactly a torpedo tube, but sure, you can space explosive charges using the chute. Aim is such that if you wanted to HIT something with the jettisoned charges, you'd be better off tying yourself to the hull and using an AT-4. The decoys are drones, they have limited fuel and autonomous maneuvering capabilities so the chute pretty much just gives them enough kick to get them clear.

admiralducksauce wrote:

If either case they'd probably send an assault ship on a course to match your speed and heading. You'll overshoot the Needleship no matter what they might like to do though.

If they get too eager, they could come to us, then flip and burn enough to match our course on this side of the Needleship. They do that, we're frakked, because if they board they see that the fight actually went the other way then we described, and trying to explain how we went from being in-distress civillians really, really wanting their help to finding every excuse not to let them onboard will be problematic. We want them to come to the solution where they only start accelerating just before we get to them, thus matching our speed on the Gate side of the Needleship.

As for the explosives...yeah, that's actually a good point. Might be best to simply scratch that part. How many AT-4 launchers do we have? Would it be possible to have, say, three people do two volleys, switching to another launcher for the second shot?

You have 6 AT-4s.

admiralducksauce wrote:

You have 6 AT-4s.

2 volleys of 3, then. Semo, Angel, and PC to be determined.

We should probably save two of them for later. Don't want to be using all of them right now.

Punkey wrote:

We should probably save two of them for later. Don't want to be using all of them right now.

Hmm...true. Is six the number of missiles or launchers? Or is it that we have one missile per launcher and no reloads?

One missile per launcher, no reloads.

Punkey, I think you're right. Use four now, hold the others for later.

EDIT: How heavily armored are the assault ships? Will four be enough to punch through and cripple ones main engine?

Let me know if this is right, then:

1. One-Ton fixes the cruise engines. Luis, with Swims' help, maintains the backwards high-speed drift.

2. When/if the Needleship laser tight-beams its order to stop, you laser back your story about stealthed weapons, a failed hijacking, etc. Probably Davis or Hugh'd be rolling for this.

3. Assault ship plots intercept course. Hopefully the communications and travel time allow you to drift past the Needleship during this time.

4. Assault ship matches heading and may grapple Akamu. If you're grappled, Semo and Angel target the cables with AT-4s, then fire two more into the assault ship's engines. Otherwise, they pop 4 AT-4s into the ship's engines.

EDIT: To answer your question, E, you don't know for sure. They should do the job. Obviously if it only takes one or two, you can save the others for later. If it takes more than four, well, if they haven't grappled you yet you can still pop the decoys and jink.

5. Luis flips back around and full burns for the Gate.

6. Max blanks as much of the ship's signature as he can and launches all decoys. Interceptors are confused by decoys long enough to reach the Gate.

7. Max gets a shadowport code from Swims and dials the Gate a moment before you pass through, then aborts the portal once you transfer.

admiralducksauce wrote:

Let me know if this is right, then:

1. One-Ton fixes the cruise engines. Luis, with Swims' help, maintains the backwards high-speed drift.

Shouldn't require too much to maintian the drift, thanks to Sir Newton. Nonetheless, Luis should use the time to get a quick rundown on what does what from Swims-the-Black, so he can do some of the manuevers to come on the basis of "well this is the control stick, so turning it like *this* will do what I need to do" instead of "well, he says to turn *this* like *this*." It's a minor difference, but I'm trying to think along the lines of the teaching a man to fish parable.

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2. When/if the Needleship laser tight-beams its order to stop, you laser back your story about stealthed weapons, a failed hijacking, etc. Probably Davis or Hugh'd be rolling for this.

Yes, though Hugh might be the better. Possibly one with the other rolling to assist? (If that's even possible under the game mechanics).

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3. Assault ship plots intercept course. Hopefully the communications and travel time allow you to drift past the Needleship during this time.

4. Assault ship matches heading and may grapple Akamu. If you're grappled, Semo and Angel target the cables with AT-4s, then fire two more into the assault ship's engines. Otherwise, they pop 4 AT-4s into the ship's engines.

EDIT: To answer your question, E, you don't know for sure. They should do the job. Obviously if it only takes one or two, you can save the others for later. If it takes more than four, well, if they haven't grappled you yet you can still pop the decoys and jink.

True, true. Still, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the idea of having to waste 1/3 of our total AT-4s and 1/2 the allocated units on the cables. Would a beam gun be able to do the job, if pulled quickly from one side of the cable to the other as the trigger is depressed?

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5. Luis flips back around and full burns for the Gate.

6. Max blanks as much of the ship's signature as he can and launches all decoys. Interceptors are confused by decoys long enough to reach the Gate.

7. Max gets a shadowport code from Swims and dials the Gate a moment before you pass through, then aborts the portal once you transfer.

Bingo. No problems from here out. Other than, you know, the enemy, but there's not much we can do about that.

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Yes, though Hugh might be the better. Possibly one with the other rolling to assist? (If that's even possible under the game mechanics).

It certainly is.

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True, true. Still, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the idea of having to waste 1/3 of our total AT-4s and 1/2 the allocated units on the cables. Would a beam gun be able to do the job, if pulled quickly from one side of the cable to the other as the trigger is depressed?

Most probably not. Arketta or Swims (or hell, even Max) could tell you that. Also, they aren't beam rifles like a quick phaser squirt. They are technically particle beams - which aren't really "beams" at all. It's a single pulse. For visuals, thank God for Halo 3. The Covenant sniper laser thing is pretty much an exact match for what the effect is like.

Anyways, maybe your plan can just be to shoot, flip, and burn before the assault ship grapples you.