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The surviving Yuan went into orbit around the planet (or landed on it), then an hour or so later he took off again, headed directly for the Blink class recon vessel ESNR Swift. It seems clear that he has an ammo stockpile stored on the planet. Whether it is inside a small, below-resolution PDC or just bunkered, we can't tell at the moment. ESNR Swift will lead the Yuan back towards the battle fleet, and into a Fighter ambush. The other Blink will wait just out of range, then move in for a closer look at the tenth planet once the Yuan has been decoyed sufficiently far away.
 
Tactical:

G094_Prix.jpg


Presumably, he shouldn't get any closer than about 400 m-km before it turns into a stern chase that he can't win.
 
<personal log, Dr. Michael Pal, date unknown>
...where's my bottle? Come here!
Tomorrow, I tell you, tomorrow I will go right up to this... this... pigheaded... stinking... how dare he??? I will show him!
Where is that stinking bottle...? Goddammit! Ah yes... here you are, sweetheart!
He thinks he's so big with his boss-suit and his... ridiculous cyborg monocle... that bastard!
"Regret to inform you" - my ass! He *will* regret to have informed me! Stupid son of a...
Retarded Prix! "Oh, we are so advanced! La-dee-dah! We can shoot at unarmed recon vessels! Boohoo! Okay, we won't even see with what you kill us, but hey, we're still good enough to make you lose your job!"
I think I'll just join the marines and kill some of those quite-not-extinct-yet pre-suckers!
Not that bad an idea... Now where's that bottle?
What the...? Is that stupid logger still on? Piece of crap! Shut up or I will -
<end of entry>
 
Pal said:
...where's my bottle?
Click to expand...

Time to sober up... you and calestos are both back at work. You are researching improvements to our shipbuilding rate, to support our intended fleet expansion; calestos is researching improvements to our turret tracking speed, to improve our Point Defense.
 
As expected, the Yuan vs Blink encounter turned into a stern-chase, and he never got closer than 401 m-km. The ESNR Swift is leading him back towards the fleet, and into an ambush that our Fighters will set up as soon as he gets close enough. Our other Blink class recon vessel will wait until the Prix is sufficiently far away, and then creep in closer to the tenth planet, to see if he can spot any small PDC on its surface.

G095_Prix.jpg


EDIT:

With the Prix ship decoyed away, Blink 002 has moved in close enough to the tenth planet to be able to spot a 3500-ton object on its surface, if one existed. Nothing visible. He will move in closer still.

EDIT:

He is now close enough to spot a 2200-ton object on the planet or its moons. That would be only 44 hull squares. Still nothing. He might as well move right in to point-blank range.

EDIT:

Now in orbit around the outermost moon. I could spot a 650-ton object orbiting the planet at this range, if one existed. It seems that there is no base on this planet or on any of its moons... just a bunkered ammo stockpile. I will explore the remaining moons, while ESNR Swift leads the Prix ship into ambush.

EDIT:

Now orbiting the innermost moon. Obviously there is no base on or near this planet. I will search other, nearby planets while the Fighters dispose of the Yuan.
 
Last edited:
Tactical:

G096_Prix.jpg


The Yuan is now about 1.3 billion km from the Carriers... which also happens to be the extreme outer edge of our Fighters one-way strike radius. Since I prefer to fly the fighters back to the Carriers, rather than send the slow Carriers to pick up a bunch of stranded, out-of-fuel Fighters, I will wait until he is close enough for a round-trip flight before launching.
 
OrangeYoshi said:
Woo! Like herding cattle!
Click to expand...

The fact that we now have at least a few vessels... Fighters and recon ships... that are faster than the Prix gives us a great deal of tactical flexibility that was missing before. We can now use a "fire and movement" doctrine, which simply wasn't possible as long as the slowest Prix ship was more than twice as fast as our fastest ship.
 
Range to target 950 m-km. Launching Fighters, in two waves, one hour apart... so that we can see the results of the first 46-missile salvo before committing the second.
 
Fighters closing in... now less than 200 m-km from the Yuan.

G097_Prix.jpg


We will launch missiles at 42 m-km.
 
Missiles launched at 42.8 m-km from target. The Fighters will follow the salvo in, in order to maintain their fire control lock on the Yuan. The second strike will follow but will not fire unless a second salvo is required to finish it off.

G098_Prix.jpg
 
Missiles nearly halfway to target. The first strike-group is reversing course at 25 m-km from the Yuan... no sense in getting so close that he spots us. Since we will be running out in the same direction as his own course, there's no chance that the Fighters will leave fire control range and break their lock before the missiles impact.
 
Target destroyed.

We've taken down all five of them with one 46-missile salvo each. These new size-6 strength-9 missile seem to work a LOT better than the old size-4 strength-5 version. Glad that we had already decided to upgrade our missile cruisers to the same calibre.
 
I have already sent for the Wreckers to cannibalize the Prix Wrecks, for some Freighters to assist them by providing extra storage for any ship components that we might find, and for a scout-ship to search the planets and moons for ruins. While we're waiting for them to arrive, the Blink class high-speed recon vessels will search the system for any hidden Prix ships or installations.

Fuel is holding up very well... still over 85%, despite three airstrikes, which are very expensive in fuel (Fighters burn fuel ten times faster than warships and a hundred times faster than civilian ships).
 
This successful mission has filled me with vigor! I captain of the ESNA Red Dwarf request a transfer to our navy sir!

Atleast if that's possible? What is the careerpath for a freighter exactly?
 
Deamon said:
This successful mission has filled me with vigor! I captain of the ESNA Red Dwarf request a transfer to our navy sir!

Atleast if that's possible? What is the careerpath for a freighter exactly?
Click to expand...

It leads to warships, yes.

Warships currently available for PCs are all either small (Fast Attack Craft, Fighters) or specialized (the Culverin Monitor, used for planetary bombardments, the Ammo Tenders), or unarmed (the Drop Ships for space marines, the recon vessels, the Battle Management vessels).

We are, however, building eight more warships right now, which will lead to promotions for the people currently running Destroyers and Light Cruisers, which in turn will make those vessels available to other characters.

For example, when a Constellation class Fleet Carrier finishes building, a Light Carrier Captain will take it, and a Heavy or Light Cruiser Captain will take over the Light Carrier, and a Destroyer Captain will take over the Cruiser... which frees up a Destroyer for someone else, such as yourself.

Did you want to take a small warship now, and get in line for a larger one when our new construction is launched?
 
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