Triumph - An Ongoing Tale
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 6:55 am
Federal Starfighter His Will and Triumph
NOTICE OF EXPERIMENTAL REASSIGNMENT
UPDATED MANIFEST FOLLOWS
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COMMANDER: Erik Viceroy, Captain [Pilot]
EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Eleanor Evans, Lieutenant [Gunner]
MAINTENANCE: Melech Irving, Warrant Officer 1st Class [Engineer]
ASSIGNMENT: FSF His Will and Triumph has been outfitted with experimental Zoltan technology which allows for limited time travel. Should the ship be destroyed, or, at any time, devoid of life, the temporal fail-safes will activate and "reset" events to the point of initialization (T0), with the crew retaining all of their memories from the previous events. Slight alterations are also [DATA REDACTED].
FSF His Will and Triumph is carrying [DATA REDACTED]. The crew is authorized to use whatever means are deemed necessary to ensure that the cargo reaches Federation territory and prevent interception.
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Captain's Log, Day One
Right, so. Apparently we're supposed to save the world.
This is gonna go well.
On the bright side, apparently we've been... backed up, or whatever. I don't know how this tech is supposed to work, but hopefully it'll give us an edge. Assuming it works at all.
But that's pretty much the only bright side. I've got a complete skeleton crew. Hell, I'm actually one man short of a skeleton crew. They left me Irving and Ellie, and they're the two best damn crewmen (-women) you could ask for, but I've got four major systems to run here and three people to run them with. And that's not counting repairs, maintenance, and fighting.
Apparently there's no other way to do this, though, so I'm just gonna have to work with what I've got. First order of business: figure out whether I want shields or mobility. Irving can do either one, but only one at a time. I've put him on the engines for now. I'm a flyboy. I like having that little extra bit of mobility. Shields can go out on you, but if you're a good enough flier, you don't need 'em in the first place.
So that's us. Three people with some experimental alien tech, a ship that's just now coming out of a refitting and thus lacking everything that makes it an actual fighter, and a mission to save the galaxy.
Well. Cry havoc, I guess.
Captain's Log, Day Two
We dropped out of FTL right on top of a bunch of riots down planetside. Something about a quarantine, I don't know. But somebody was sending out a distress signal, so we went down to help. We might be on a mission, but we're not going to abandon people to something like that.
Not that we did anything that mattered. The miners down there started swiping at us with pickaxes, and we barely got back onto the ship fast enough to avoid ending up getting skewered like the foreman. That wasn't pleasant to watch.
Captain's Log, Day Four
Slug slavers on the port side, demanding one of us as tribute. You can guess what we said.
They're better-armed than we are. Ions and beams. Nasty combination, and they're probably going to charge up faster than we - yeah, ion incoming! Irving, drop the shields, it's going wide!
Static overtakes the recording for a moment.
- felt it hit, and the door systems are out. Ha! Shields are up again. Ellie, I'm bringing us around. Fire on the port - ha! Yeah, their weapons are out. They're sitting ducks now. Just gotta keep 'em that way. You know the drill, Ellie! Keep those weapons cut!
Hold on, they're hailing us -
So the slavers made us a deal. They'd give us one of their... charges in exchange for their lives. I hate to let 'em go like that, but we really can't do anything short of destroying the whole ship, and that'd just kill everyone on board. So we took it. They beamed over a Rockman. Berko, he says his name is. Apparently he's got experience in systems operation, so I put him on shield duty.
At least we've got the bare minimum of a skeleton crew now. We're still missing a hell of a lot of what we should have, but that could have gone a hell of a lot worse.
Captain's Log, Day Five
-mitdammitdammitdammit-
Stations, now! The beacon was a trap, we've got Zoltan pirates dead ahead, weapons hot! Energy-fighter class, looks like an ion cannon and laser on top of the damn shield. Get through that shield, cut their weapons. Shit, incoming! Irving, ion procedure! Drop it, then raise it! We've got lasers!
Rumbling.
Ellie, talk to me. You alive back - oh good. Arright. Bring the missiles back online. The last one dropped their barrier shield, so I don't think we'll need another, but ya can't chance these things. Ion incoming again. Laser's still charging -
Static.
- feels like it hit the generator! Berko, get it back - hahaha! Got their weapons. Not fully down, but the laser's offline! Just get those shields back up and we're golden.
And there's the hail. Heh. Why, yes, we will accept your surrender. How much've ya got?
Captain's Log, Day Six
Mantis pirates, of course it's pirates, that's what I get for trying to find something usable instead of just taking the exit. Dual single lasers and a missile launcher, you guys know the drill. Bring those weapons down! Use the Artemis system, we don't want them getting a shot off with their - shit, incoming aft! Irving, Ellie, hit the-
Rumbling.
Oh good, it only breached the hall. We can fix that after this is over. Their weapons are offline! Just keep hittin' 'em. One more good volley!
...Right. Mantis pirates are gone. Breach is sealed. Berko an' Irving are gettin' treated in Medbay. We've scraped together a bit'a scrap parts from the wrecks, so we might be able to jury-rig something together. I'm going to spend a little longer searching this sector - there's gotta be something worth finding here - and then we're heading off. So far? This could be a hell of a lot worse.
Captain's Log, Day Seven
Dammit. Is there anybody in this sector who isn't lying in wait for us? No? Didn't think so.
At least this one didn't put up too much of a fight. Medbay got hit, but nothing else. They surrendered right after they realized we had their weapons systems crippled indefinitely using nothing but our basic laser batteries. We got a few fuel tanks, a missile, and some scrap parts out of the surrender deal, and Berko fixed up Medbay right after.
One more area to investigate. Then we're leaving this sector.
Captain's Log, Day Eight
Shit, asteroid belt - where the hell did that shot come from? Irving, give me full power, we need to get turned around now! Ellie, they've got a beamer, and these rocks are downing our shields too fast for Berko to keep up. Use the Artemis! Drop that beamer, now!
At least those automated ships aren't much of a challenge. The asteroid belt was more worrying than anything there, but Ellie's aim was perfect, as usual, and the beamer only hit an empty bit of hallway before it was cut off. We grabbed some more spare parts in the bargain as well.
Time to get out of this sector.
Captain's Log, Day Nine
Pirates at the sector transfer beacon. Attacking a civilian ship.
Sorry, no. I don't care if you do have an ion cannon and heavy laser, that isn't gonna fly. Say goodbye to your weapons systems.
And your shields.
And your FTL engine, sorry, no, you aren't getting away.
Huh. This guy they were chasing is apparently an arms dealer. Let's see what he's got.
Not a bad selection, but the damn maintenance crews stripped the Triumph's power systems, so I can't run anything he's selling. We picked up some fuel and ordinance instead, and I used the leftover scrap to upgrade our reactor.
Time to get out of this sector.
Captain's Log, Day Ten
Or not. Couldn't resist one last bit of exploration. And it turns out that's a good thing. Slavers. Probably pretty callous of me to think about the situation like this, but considering how the last fight we had with one turned out, I'm pretty eager to find out what this one's willing to give. We need every edge we can get.
This one's better-armed, though. Bomb launcher, heavy laser, and a teleporter. The last one's pretty worrying. We'll see how - holy shit, they just teleported a Rockman on. Berko! Go! Get him away from our sensors, we have to be able to tell where those bombs end up. Ellie! Get that launcher offline. Let's go, people!
Their weapons are down. Keep it that way - I'm going to go back up Berko. Just keep hammering their weapons system until they surrender!
Drove him off. Berko's wounded, but alive, and their weapons are still locked down. That could have gone a hell of a lot worse than it did. I'm pretty sure we've got them shut down entirely now. I'm just gonna sit back and wait for the -
Yeah, that.
Our newest crew member's an Engi named Tee Lek. Always handy to have an Engi on board, especially with a crew this small. Now we've got somebody who can go around and make spot repairs. That's a load off my mind.
Captain's Log, Day Eleven
And now it's time to actually leave this sector. Let's find out what our options ar-
Well. Nebula, here we come, I guess.
STATUS REPORT: FSF HIS WILL AND TRIUMPH
SYSTEM UPGRADES: Reactor Upgrade x1
WEAPON SYSTEMS: Burst Laser Mk.2, Artemis-Pattern Missile Launcher
F/O/D/S: 13/9/3/11
CREW:
- Erik Viceroy, Human Pilot [ACTIVE]
- Eleanor Evans, Human Gunner [ACTIVE]
- Melech Irving, Human Engineer [ACTIVE]
- Berko, Rockman Shield Technician [ACTIVE]
- Tee Lek, Engi Mechanic [ACTIVE]