FTL often inspires me to write, so I'll compile my FTL stories here.
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"The Heavy Laser is offline, sir!" the weapons operator yelled. Not that shouting was necessary - the intraship comm system could even transmit the slightest of whispers - but in the midst of a tense battle and with the din of fighting nearby, nobody really cared.
"So are their shields!" the pilot shouted back. "We've still got the Burst Laser and the Pegasus! Keep 'em firing! We've almost got it, almost got it--"
Suddenly everything went white. They felt the shockwave before they heard the explosion, but by the time it was all over, their bones were rattled and their eardrums were aching ... but they were alive. They were alive, and the Rebel Flagship had been reduced to a field of orange-hued debris.
"We..." The pilot almost couldn't say it. For what felt like several minutes, he held his breath. All the while, he kept expecting the encircling Rebel fleet to finish what their leaders had started... but they didn't. Perhaps they couldn't believe it either.
"We did it," he finally finished. "We... destroyed it!" Everyone had said it was a suicide mission. Even the brightest minds in (what was left of) the Federation. But the Kestrel had proven them wrong.
However, elsewhere in the ship, things weren't quite so joyful.
"We've still got boarders!" "And fire!" "Lots of fire!" came a gaggle of clamoring voices. "Door control's out! We're gonna burn up!" "Stop celebrating and get your ass over here, we need HELP!"
"...oh." The pilot smiled sheepishly and went to help his crewmates. If they survived this, he'd buy them all a drink later.
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TL;DR: I defeated the Flagship, but with my ship still in rather dire straits.
Nimbo's FTL Stories
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Nimbostratus
- Posts: 32
- Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 5:51 am
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Nimbostratus
- Posts: 32
- Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 5:51 am
Re: Nimbo's FTL Stories
It had all gone so well. Improbably well, even. The Engi, known to its crewmates as V, was the only non-organic aboard the ship. All throughout their travels, its crewmates had been crowing about their incredible luck. Engi did not believe in such things ... but after what they'd been through, V almost did.
Within their first few jumps, they had found and installed a powerful weapon - a Burst Laser III. Along with the Artillery Beam, this was enough to lay waste to most ships that stood in their path. Many slavers surrendered and offered slaves for their lives. Some others were so cowed that they offered tribute of weapons or scrap. And when the mighty Osprey made port, neutral and even "Rebel-leaning" colonies suddenly became Federation sympathizers.
V had been aboard the ship ever since it launched, dutifully operating the shields. It watched as crewmates came, and some went - two died boarding an enemy ship, two more of other causes - but still, by the time they reached the remnants of the Federation, their crew was quite robust.
And so, even though they faced the mightiest ship in the Rebel fleet, the crew went in with high hopes. Only V considered the truth: that the mathematical chance of victory was still rather low.
The first visible sign of that was when the second boarding party - a human and a Mantis - died aboard the Rebel ship. This left them with just enough to efficiently operate the Osprey - not enough to board again. And yet, when the Rebel flagship retreated, they still gave chase.
Despite the lesser crew, the drone-swarm was handled with ease. The Osprey only took a handful of hull damage while handily defeating its foe, forcing another retreat.
Were they really going to win?? As they engaged the Flagship for the third and final time, V's logic engine was nearly overloaded by the implications of it.
But this time, the odds were not in their favor.
A swarm of laser beams crippled the Osprey. Weapons and engines were badly damaged; life support was destroyed outright. Some of the more damaged instruments were set on fire. And on top of it all, the Rebels sent a boarding party from their ship. The crew made a hasty retreat and tried their best to repair the damage, but they could not accomplish much before the oxygen ran out and they died. Only V was left.
V despaired, inasmuch as a machine can despair. Its logic engine had been right, and now the logical option was to surrender.
But V refused to surrender. Perhaps its human compatriots had rubbed off on it. It repaired the Osprey and warped back to the Rebel flagship's location, even knowing that it would likely die.
The Rebels knew as much, too. They hailed the Osprey. "An Engi. I knew it must've been; who else could have survived that? Well, look. You know you can't win."
"Yes," answered V. "But I will still fight."
So fight V did. And even as the ship exploded around it, it felt a sense of tranquil righteousness.
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TL;DR: A lone Engi and a badly-damaged Osprey make a hopeless last stand against the Flagship.
Within their first few jumps, they had found and installed a powerful weapon - a Burst Laser III. Along with the Artillery Beam, this was enough to lay waste to most ships that stood in their path. Many slavers surrendered and offered slaves for their lives. Some others were so cowed that they offered tribute of weapons or scrap. And when the mighty Osprey made port, neutral and even "Rebel-leaning" colonies suddenly became Federation sympathizers.
V had been aboard the ship ever since it launched, dutifully operating the shields. It watched as crewmates came, and some went - two died boarding an enemy ship, two more of other causes - but still, by the time they reached the remnants of the Federation, their crew was quite robust.
And so, even though they faced the mightiest ship in the Rebel fleet, the crew went in with high hopes. Only V considered the truth: that the mathematical chance of victory was still rather low.
The first visible sign of that was when the second boarding party - a human and a Mantis - died aboard the Rebel ship. This left them with just enough to efficiently operate the Osprey - not enough to board again. And yet, when the Rebel flagship retreated, they still gave chase.
Despite the lesser crew, the drone-swarm was handled with ease. The Osprey only took a handful of hull damage while handily defeating its foe, forcing another retreat.
Were they really going to win?? As they engaged the Flagship for the third and final time, V's logic engine was nearly overloaded by the implications of it.
But this time, the odds were not in their favor.
A swarm of laser beams crippled the Osprey. Weapons and engines were badly damaged; life support was destroyed outright. Some of the more damaged instruments were set on fire. And on top of it all, the Rebels sent a boarding party from their ship. The crew made a hasty retreat and tried their best to repair the damage, but they could not accomplish much before the oxygen ran out and they died. Only V was left.
V despaired, inasmuch as a machine can despair. Its logic engine had been right, and now the logical option was to surrender.
But V refused to surrender. Perhaps its human compatriots had rubbed off on it. It repaired the Osprey and warped back to the Rebel flagship's location, even knowing that it would likely die.
The Rebels knew as much, too. They hailed the Osprey. "An Engi. I knew it must've been; who else could have survived that? Well, look. You know you can't win."
"Yes," answered V. "But I will still fight."
So fight V did. And even as the ship exploded around it, it felt a sense of tranquil righteousness.
---
TL;DR: A lone Engi and a badly-damaged Osprey make a hopeless last stand against the Flagship.
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Nimbostratus
- Posts: 32
- Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 5:51 am
Re: Nimbo's FTL Stories
This isn't exactly a story, but I felt the need to brag.
Immediately after unlocking the Stealth ship, I gave it a try... and won the game on my very first try.
Fuck yeah.
Immediately after unlocking the Stealth ship, I gave it a try... and won the game on my very first try.
Fuck yeah.
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UltraMantis
- Posts: 2141
- Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:17 pm
Re: Nimbo's FTL Stories
<3 Nesasio
Congratz on the win.
Congratz on the win.
Report spam using the handy Report Button Mod.
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Nimbostratus
- Posts: 32
- Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 5:51 am
Re: Nimbo's FTL Stories
Today I finally scored my first Advanced Edition win. I never thought you guys could find a way to make the Flagship even tougher, but you sure did. My first attempt met with failure as I had no counter to Round 1's hacking drones, which sucked out my oxygen and spaced my whole crew. With that in mind, I tried again, this time heavily investing in hacking myself. I out-hacked the Flagship. 
Rounds 1 and 2 were a breeze. Round 3 was harder, because I only had three layers of shields- I took quite a beating from the Death Blossom attack, but still emerged victorious with all 8 crewmen intact.
Rounds 1 and 2 were a breeze. Round 3 was harder, because I only had three layers of shields- I took quite a beating from the Death Blossom attack, but still emerged victorious with all 8 crewmen intact.-
stylesrj
- Posts: 3644
- Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:54 am
Re: Nimbo's FTL Stories
Nimbostratus wrote:Today I finally scored my first Advanced Edition win. I never thought you guys could find a way to make the Flagship even tougher, but you sure did. My first attempt met with failure as I had no counter to Round 1's hacking drones, which sucked out my oxygen and spaced my whole crew. With that in mind, I tried again, this time heavily investing in hacking myself. I out-hacked the Flagship.
3 layers of shield is all you need for the Flagship battle. I never really found a need for 4 layers of shield. Or even going beyond level 6 Engines unless I had spare Scrap left over and Piloting didn't look tempting enough to upgrade.
Hacking is awesome though. I used to advocate Mind Control a lot and I still do, but even if you take all power from Mind Control, it can still harm you if it gets hacked.