Crew: Aloysius (Slug Pilot, Rank 2) <Active> Durus (Slug Gunner, Rank 2) <Active>, Markand (Engi Emergency Mechanic, Rank 2) <Active>, Filip (Rockman Engineer, Rank 2) <Active>, Kirby (Rockman Shield Technician, Rank 2) <Active>, Kee Tel (Mantis Boarder, Rank 2) <Deceased>, Mara (Mantis Boarder, Rank 2) <Deceased>, Liu Jun (Zoltan Backup Engineer, Rank 1) <Active>
Mission: Destroy the Rebel Flagship before it destroys our base.
Official Mission Theme (MANDATORY LISTENING): "For Those About to Rock" - AC/DC
It's a hopeless fight - a cruiser against a flagship. The outcome is assured from the start. This is called "The Last Stand" for a reason. The Heresy's crew has only one goal in mind: make it a glorious one.
And boy, do they succeed.
The plan is simple. The execution, however, is going to be difficult. The crew's plan is to disable all the flagship's guns one by one, via boarding party, until only the triple laser cannon is left. Since the Heresy has three layers of shields - and an Ion Bomb Launcher to go with its Anti-Bio Beam and dual laser cannons, all the product of careful harvesting of ships - that would render the Flagship essentially helpless, leaving it to await its fate.
The problem is that .he layout of beacons in the area meant that the Heresy had to take a ridiculously circuitous route to reach the Flagship, and the continuous fights have put a massive strain on her. Not only have the stores of Ion Bombs been severely depleted, leaving the Heresy with only four uses of one of its most potent weapons, both of the crew's dedicated boarders - a pair of Mantis warriors - lost their lives against Rebel fighters on the way here. That means that, in order to create an impromptu boarding team, at least one of the major systems is going to have to go without an expert to man it.
Kirby the Rockman volunteers. Three layers of shields are tough even without somebody manning them, and Markand can take over if things get really bad. He moves to the Teleporter room in preparation for boarding - and the battle begins.
The battle is long and hard-fought. An Anti-Ship Drone, a single Ion Bomb, and combined, sustained fire from both laser cannons drop the Flagship's shields and breach the area. The Anti-Bio Beam takes care of two gunners, while Kirby boards and destroys the systems themselves.
But with only a single boarder, and unwilling to risk wasting any more Ion Bombs, the Flagship manages to get in several very, very solid hits of its own. Markand is kept too busy repairing the ship's vital systems and closing breaches to man the shields, and the hull takes a pounding, reducing the Heresy to less than 33% integrity.
Finally, sustained laser fire causes complete hull failure in the Flagship, and it retreats. Due to the huge amount of time spent reaching it, however, the Heresy is stranded in Rebel-dominated space, with no repair stations close enough to mitigate the damage (or replenish the ship's stock of precious Ion Bombs). There's only one option: RE-ENGAGE.
The remaining crew of the Flagship has brought the weapons systems back online, and activated the Drone Bay to make up for the devastating loss in manpower they suffered during the first clash. The Heresy is flying through mobs of Anti-Ship Drones, and the shields are taking a pounding from all sides. If they go down for even a second, the Heresy is scrap. Even if Kirby returned to his post at the shield generator, it would do no good. There's only one option: bomb the Drone Bay, and get Kirby back onto the Flagship to destroy the weapons systems immediately.
A few seconds later, two resounding explosions and a warning klaxon sound through the Heresy.
The Ion Bomb was a direct hit, and the Flagship's attack Drones are disabled! But the Heresy has taken a direct hit to its gun station. Durus is wounded, the hull is breached, and the only person capable of fighting off the Boarding Drone is Kirby. The Heresy's own boarding actions are delayed while he fights desperately to repel the drone, fix the breach, and bring the guns back online - because, with the gun bay damaged, the Ion Bomb Launcher, the Heresy's only hope, is disabled. Durus and Kirby fight back-to-back against the drone in solid vacuum, trying desperately not to pass out before the threat is repelled.
By the absolute skin of their teeth, Kirby and Durus manage to repel the boarding drone, and Markand brings the Ion Bomb Launcher back online as they retreat to Medbay to recover. With the Drone Bay disabled, the shield generator is the next priority - and even without Durus at the controls, it manages a direct hit. The Flagship's shields go down, leaving it open for attack - but the gun bay is still undergoing repairs, so one solid volley is likely to be the only attack that the Heresy gets. And it has five targets to attempt to neutralize - the shield generators, the guns, and the Drone Bay, which is coming back online.
If the drones come back online, it's all over. The light lasers drop the Flagship's remaining shields, and the heavier ones strike directly at the Drone Bay, setting it ablaze. Meanwhile, the Anti-Bio Beam rakes across the Flagship's fore, intent on killing its pilot and shield technician. Both are heavily wounded, but alive.
On the Flagship, the remaining crew scrambles desperately to extinguish the fire in the Drone Bay, but they're dying by inches. The Ion Bomb Launcher is ready for another shot, this time to cripple the beam cannon on the Flagship. The Heresy is walking a razor's edge, but victory is just barely possible, if -
Suddenly, alarms blare all over the ship. A swarm of Anti-Ship Drones, dead ahead. The Flagship's power systems are running wild, and the crippled Drone Bay is overclocking desperately. No less than six drones come up from beneath the Heresy, tearing its shields to pieces, as a missile strikes one of the aft hallways.
Defiant to the end, the Heresy trains all of its guns on the beam cannon, the one true threat, determined to bring it down and end the fight. But -
- it's too late. The Flagship looms up on the starboard side of the Heresy, and its guns train on the tiny Slug Cruiser. The beam cannon fires, ripping through the Heresy's weakened shielding like tissue paper in the wake of the surprise drone attack. By Heresy Rent is bisected cleanly, and the engines, already overloaded from the amount of power being pushed into them, explode violently. The Heresy is destroyed moments before the attack that would have guaranteed victory.
Federation survivors of the event sometimes say, in hushed whispers, that they saw the fore section of the Heresy eject escape pods towards a nearby planet just before the engines went critical. They also say that the Teleporter activated one last time, and that, when the shattered hulk of the Flagship was finally recovered after the battle, they found the crew dead to a man - beaten to a pulp by a pair of Rockmen, who were calmly sitting on the bridge of the ship and waiting for the Rebels to inevitably arrive.
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So there you go. I may have lost, but by god that was an awesome end to an awesome game of FTL. I just had to share.