Another suggestion: if you could take the Needleship quickly enough and covertly enough (like wipe out engineering and the bridge in one, MAYBE two rounds, and with silenced firearms or something other than Imperials energy weapons), you could just give the order to abandon ship. If the crew doesn't know you're not their commanders, why would they disobey? :twisted:
Perhaps even merge the two for added impetus. I.e., start the venting, then announce that the ship has ruptured and give the abandon ship order. Carrot and stick, anyone?
I was gonna say give them a 30 second warning, something like "We have control of the ship, you have thirty seconds to lay down with your hands on your head before we vent the ship, any resistance will lead to a venting of your compartment, you have 30 seconds to comply," but Gordon's idea is way better.
If we want rebel assistance, we could always do the Akuma thing--looks like normal, but deadly. A couple of guys with At-4s and suits turn any frieghter into a serious space-superiority asset. And if you want to carry bulk cargo (which things like troops are until they hit ground), why not use an actual frieghter? They could be in-system for a while before we'd need to call them, so no need to dial out once we have control.
At some point during the Thanksgiving break, I was staring at the Internet and thought about what we might have to do next if everything goes well with the raids, and I hammered the rest of it out with E the other day. The first thing that struck me was that if we do actually get worlds to defect, the Imperium will come down on them and hard. The big one that I can think of when it comes to making an example would be Whirr, due to the social status of the Whirr or another similarly lush or important world. The PCs will probably need to be redeployed there (or just the Boranai team, depending on what's on the other side of the Black Gate) or elsewhere within days of the mission to provide support, and we should have other troops, both from the Bashakrans and from Earth, ready to move out to allied worlds and fend off Imperial attacks.
As for Needleships, I think that using a hardened tactical nuclear penetrator with a high-speed rocket or other propulsion system and launch it from freighters or other small ships should be capable of penetrating the Needleship's armor and blow it clear in two, or at least knocking it out of commission. Our two Needleships that we're hoping to capture should be held in reserve and only brought out if they're absolutely necessary to defend a planet or if we can exploit an opportunity to deliver a serious, potentially knockout blow. They're too precious of a resource to put at risk unless it's worth it.
To specify slightly more on ship-to-ship tactics, Punkey and I think that a Needleship is designed primarily as an anti-surface unit, which explains their rather poor performance in stopping our actions on Botane and Aikiro. Our lighter and more manueverable ship simply managed to essentially render its heavy weapons useless. Given that IC we've had no indications of any units between their fighters, boarding vessels/Mantas, and the Needles, Punkey and I hope to sieze on this lack by focusing our fleet on a ship-to-ship rather than ship-to-planet role. That is, we want to be able to go toe-to-toe with Needles, not strafe planets.
To do this, we plan to focus on numerous medium-sized vessels (initially modified frieghters, then specielized millitary vessels as Earths production capabilities come online) armed with anti-capital ship weapons like Punkey's missiles or a few heavy lasers, and well defended against fighters. Given that they're going to be about 1/20th the scale of a Needle, we're betting that our manueverability and numbers can overwhelm their brute (but slow) power.
Here's our plans, broken down into "right now" and "in a few years" areas:
Right now: modified freighters, up-armored and carrying three or four of Punkey's Needle-killers in their (former) cargo bays. Add anti-fighter systems if possible (guys w/ AT-4s in suits?), otherwise assign ships in pairs (one anti-fighter, the other anti-Needle). If anti-fighter systems can be emplaced on a Needle-killer ship, deploy with about 3 ships/Needle. Otherwise, assign two (or preferably three) pairs per Needle.
In a few years: Build specielized destroyers capable of taking out a Needleship. About 2-3 times the size of the Akuma, carrying weapons capable of inflicting hurt on a Needle. Assign in groups such that a signle group would have at least a 3:2 tactical (not simply numerical) advantage on a Needleship (2:1 prefered if possible). In other words, one group should be able to take a Needle out, no problem. Thus, even if things go cross-eyed, a group would still have a fighting chance.
In all things, unit durability is crucial. We have to be able to count on our units lasting through multiple fights without major losses, otherwise we won't be able to hold the lines against the Imperium's initially-superior numbers. Even when the destroyers start coming online, they need to be more durable to make up for the lopsided numbers.
It should also be noted that even the "right now" force is more of a "in a month or five" force. Until then, we need to try our hardest to avoid a major fleet showdown, since our two new Needles will get their asses handed to them by any serious enemy force without the kind of backup we're describing here.
Of course, this is by no means set in stone. If anybody points out something major or has a problem, it's easy to change.
On Boranai, if the invasion has begun, where are the Apaches? We have range and firepower advantages over the Imperials as far as I know, so let's get them airborne and start taking out Mantas, anti-personnel guns like sunball launchers, and especially the large gun emplacements on the ground at the city and Spire. Also, have the Abrams tanks and ground forces that came with the freighters start to push into the city and Spire complex proper, so we can get the defensive forces turned around for when our guys start coming through the gate.
I think I've been misunderstanding your plan for the ground invasion the entire time. Not too terrible, as I haven't said anything too definitive, but what I had thought your plan was looked something like this:
1. With the aid of rebel plants, US troops take Gateport and establish a forward base.
2. US air and armor teleports from Earth to Boranai.
3. Needleship holds off Imperial counterattacks until US forces get up and running to assault Spire.
4. FIGHT!
What you seem to be connotating is that your plan is more like this:
1. With the aid of rebel plants, US troops take Gateport to disallow Imperial reinforcements.
2. Rebel freighters carrying US armor and aircraft land close to the Spire (or have landed prior to assault).
3. US forces blitz the Spire with artillery support from Needleship.
4. FIGHT!
The plan, as I cooked up, is to have 500 or so of the 2-3 thousand troops we're committing to this invasion (Earth and otherwise) on the ground in advance through freighters, including most of the tanks and, due to time lag in getting disassembled Apaches up and running, almost all of our Apache forces. The advance forces will be split between the Spire and the gateport on the ground, with the Spire forces taking out any emplaced Imperial defenses, heavy weapons and containing the complex, and the gateport forces focused on capturing the port and surrounding city as well as clearing the area of major threats like Mantas and heavy weapons like sunball launchers. If the city is lightly defended and rolls over quickly, then forces not needed for containment (a hundred troops and a few Abrams and Apaches) can be reloaded onto freighters and transported to assist the forces at the Spire. After a beachhead at the gate is established, we can focus on transporting troops and equipment to staging areas outside the city, establishing a command center, improving security in the city, starting humanitarian and relationship-building projects with the locals and getting more troops to the Spire.
I think Swims-the-Black could be the Admiral of our new little Navy. He's got the extensive military experience, he spent who knows how many years observing the brightest minds in the Imperial military as a Jade Caretaker, he's definitely no dummy himself, and he's a natural leader. Of course, he needs to take the role, but I think that might go a little ways towards making up for the loss of his ship.
fanchergw
