Turning FTL playthrough into a captain's log/blog (X-9 Mod!)

[spongebobsaget]

CAPTAIN’S LOG: SECTOR 5, JUMP POINT 8

No sooner do we come out of our jump than a Rock ship goes screaming past our viewscreen showing pirate markings. He is not here to chat.

Shields up! Weapons pre-charged, drones on standby.

Eoin sends in a Hull Breach Missile and it does its job, slamming home into the Rock Scout-class ship, tearing through the armor plate and detonating in the shield-bay. A follow-up volley from the Burst and the Ion-Laser and the ship is dead in the water and her two crew half-dead. They have a Med-Bay but a single shot from the Ion-Laser destroys it. Their ship is barely hanging together. We will have to be careful to engage their crew but not cause any structural damage to the ship itself, lest we accidentally kill our own boarding party.

Time to test send them in. Ariadne, our new Rock crew member, and Kozar beam aboard the enemy vessel into their Med-Bay both to prevent any repairs to the module and also to finish off the remaining crew. The pirates oblige our boarders and meet them in the Med-Bay for close combat. Ariadne rips off an entire control box from the wall and hurls it at one of the pirate crew, killing him instantly. The second crew member’s eyes go wide in terror and he attempts to flee but is cut down by Kozar’s quick blaster fire. The ship is ours.

Taking a ship intact has the advantage of being able to take your time to strip it of the maximum amount of salvage possible. We take full advantage of the situation and bring a rich haul of materials back to our cargo bay before jumping out.

[spongebobsaget]

CAPTAIN’S LOG: SECTOR 5, JUMP POINT 9

There is a distress beacon active in this system. We investigate and find a small civilian ship being pecked at by a pirate vessel. Rather than merely fire a warning shot to scare the pirate away, we intend to teach him a lesson in humility.

Shields up! Weapons charged, drones on standby.

Liu brings the X-9 into an attack vector and Eoin begins his attack run.

These pirates have themselves a Zoltan Energy Bomber equipped with a hardened Zoltan barrier. Before we can even begin assaulting the ship itself, we must break through the hardened barrier with brute force.



All plasma and laser weapons are locked onto the pirate ship and fire in a single barrage. The effect is tremendous. The entire barrier is blown into dust, orbiting the ship in tiny chunks. Additionally, the strike was strong enough to punch through their interior shields as well causing damage to the shield-generator. The quick recharge on the Ion-Lasers pays off as they land a follow-up blast, further damaging the shield-bay and the crew members trying to bring it back online.

Another full barrage and their shield-bay erupts into an inferno. The blast has killed one of their crew and the remaining Zoltan and Human pirates are trying to fight the out of control fires. I order Eoin to cease-fire for now while they work on the fire. Their armament is not strong enough to pose any threat to our ship, so we let them throw ion-cannon blasts and ineffectual beam-weapon strikes against our triple-layered shield barrier.

The two remaining pirates have brought the fires under control, but at great cost. They are half-dead themselves. Now is the time. Ariadne and Kozar beam aboard their ship and engage the pirates in close quarters.



Neither of the pirate crew wants anything to do with the massive Ariadne and they focus their attention on Kozar. Quickly, she moves in close to where the two have taken cover and smashes their heads together like coconuts. The battle is over in seconds.

We scrap the pirate vessel and are hailed by the civilian ship. Their ship was badly damaged in the battle and is no longer space worthy. They request to be dropped off at a nearby station, but one asks if they can join our crew. A Zoltan! They are renowned for their ability to use their bio-force to provide extra power to starships’ systems. Elnubnub is assigned to duty in our shield-bay along side Caldwell.

Kozar and Ariadne beam back aboard the ‘Proto and are sent to the Med Bay for patching up.

FTL drive charged. We’re getting close to the exit-beacon. Jumping out.

[spongebobsaget]

CAPTAIN’S LOG: SECTOR 5, JUMP POINT 10

We exit the jump surrounded by dirt and rocks. Before long, a blast is deflected by our shields but that was no asteroid! Incoming pirate detected!

Shields up, weapons hot. Drones on standby.

Scans show this pirate is flying a Rock Fighter with plenty of armament to cause us harm if they get a solid volley into the ‘Proto. I give Eoin the orders to pour everything into their shield-bay. If we can bring it down, the asteroids will do most of the work for us.

First barrage is away. The Burst and both Ion-Lasers connect squarely, bringing down the pirate’s shields and reducing their Shield-Bay to a smoking hole. Asteroids begin impacting their ship, damaging their life support systems and causing fires.



Eoin switches his focus to bringing their weapons systems down, to maximize our chances of escaping this battle unharmed. The Ion-Lasers are incredibly quick to recharge and hit the pirate ship with pinpoint accuracy, taking all their weapons offline and starting a massive fire in their forward decks.

The fires themselves are not that big of an obstacle for the Rock crew, but they are proving a distraction to keep them from manning their stations, and the fires do continue to damage their ship’s systems.



Another volley from the Burst and the ship is barely holding together. A particularly large asteroid comes screaming in and provides the final crushing blow. Their ship explodes, leaving a debris field with some nice salvageable parts.

With our shields up to protect against incoming asteroids, we salvage what we can and prepare to jump out.

[agigabyte]

The energy bomber has the rock pics.

[spongebobsaget]

Yeah, caught that and have been doing kung fu fighting with the blog interface to fix it, lol. Got them done now!

Thanks!

[spongebobsaget]

CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 5, JUMP POINT 11

Sensors are detecting signs of an ongoing battle in this system. A few ships are making attack runs on each other at a nearby station. We can't tell if this is a territory issue, a contest or a rite of passage but it seems prudent to stay out of it.

Running quietly on the outskirts of this system, the crew applies our large quantity of salvage and upgrade materials towards improving our Med Bay, Teleporter strength, blast doors and reactor core.

Jumping out. Exit-beacon is the next stop.

=====

CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 5, JUMP POINT 12

There is a black-market hub here offering to buy excess warheads. We will need the ones we have and the compensation being offered is inadequate in any case. Their offer is declined and we prepare for the long range jump into Zoltan controlled space.

[tremor3258]

Glad to see this is back. Very enjoyable reads.