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CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 3, JUMP POINT 5

We receive a distress call from a nearby Engi ship, again? “Assistance requested. Danger present. Imminent destruction.” What are the odds of the same trickery being pulled twice? We respond to the call and move in to assist.

As we approach the Engi ship, their coms open up with a Mantis voice hailing us, “Ssssilly meatssssackssss. You will pay with your blood!” Another Mantis trap. No sooner have they clicked off the coms channel, than two Mantis commandos teleport onto our ship.

Matt has switched places with Eoin to help Eoin get some training and much needed experience in operating the weapons control suite. Matt and Kozar race through the bulkheads to confront the boarders in the sensor array module.

Eoin sends over the ion-cannon first, targeting their shields with the Burst and Ion-Laser coming in right behind it, both targeting the ship's weapons control center. The ion-cannon hits and sends a crackling wave of energy through their shielding, bringing it offline temporarily. The window is more than enough as all four of our shots land, ripping into the weapons control center, rendering it completely useless.

With their offensive weapons taken offline, power is diverted from the engines to our drone-control module and the Anti-Ship drone is deployed. Anything we can do to end this battle quickly is in our favor. The Mantis commandos are tearing into Matt and Kozar and their wounds are mounting up at an alarming rate, forcing them to retreat to the Med Bay. Kozar is slow to exit the module and takes one last shot in the side, nearly killing him, but he rolls through the bulkhead into the adjoining room and narrowly escapes with his life. With no threat from the enemy ship's weapons, Liu and AJ leave their respective stations and take up the fight with the Mantis boarders in the sensor module room. Just as they are rushing into the module, however, the Mantis commandos complete their sabotage of our sensor array, plunging the ship into darkness. We are blind. Liu and AJ burst into the sensor room and are met with an empty room, the door on the far end of the room has been blasted open and the Mantis are loose on our ship.

Another full salvo from our weapons and the hijacked Engi cruiser is ripped to shreds. The boarders have no where to run. Internal systems report some errors and misfires in the life-support system. That must be where the injured Mantis saboteurs are hiding! On the count of three, Liu and AJ open the doors, blasters at the ready and unload on the surprised commandos, unleashing a hail of laser fire, cutting down the boarders and ending the danger to our ship.

Everyone sets to work repairing the ship and rotating through the Med Bay before we power up the FTL drive.

Course plotted, jumping out.

CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 3, JUMP POINT 6

We cross paths with an Engi cargo vessel hurrying through before the Mantis fleet can completely take over this Sector. They have been monitoring radio chatter of our battles with the Mantis in their Sector and are happy to unload some of their cargo to help us in our cause. We bring aboard the scrap and upgrade materials with thanks and move on.

Sensors are detecting a Merchant beacon nearby!

We will make one last jump before heading to the beacon, to try and maximize the amount of scrap we have available for barter.


CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 3, JUMP POINT 7

We pick up faint signs of lifeforms coming from the back side of a nearby moon. As we draw in closer, it appears that there is a contingent of Engi mining their way through a cache of equipment left over from the Federation-Mantis war. They suggest that it could be rigged as a trap to slow the approaching Rebel Fleet, but we should be sufficiently ahead of their scouts for now.

We salvage what we can and prepare for the jump to the Merchant beacon.


CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 3, JUMP POINT 8

Upon jumping in, we receive a message, “Your scrap, ours. Our weapons, yours.” We begin charging weapons only to realize it is actually an Engi merchantman looking for trade.

They have a shield-generator compatible with the Prototype! Quickly, we haggle for it and bring the unit aboard. Remaining salvage and upgrade materials are utilized upgrading the shield-generator to a dual-layer system and boosting the reactor-core to properly support it.

Additionally, we take the time to upgrade the blast-doors and sensor array. The improved doors will help guard against future boarders and any fires that might break out will be easier to contain. The new tech in our sensor array will allow us to see into the enemy ship and get better intel on what their crew is doing and how much damage has been caused.

Now, we must race the Rebel Fleet to the exit-beacon.

Liu sets the nav-computer and engages the FTL drive.




CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 3, JUMP POINT 9

There is another Merchant orbiting at this beacon. However, he has nothing we want, and we have nothing to barter with. So, we quickly move on.

Jump drives charged.

CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 3, JUMP POINT 10

You've got to be kidding me. For the third time in this system, we are picking up the same transmission, “Assistance requested. Danger present. Imminent destruction.” Could it be another Mantis ambush attempt? Perhaps. We pull the 'Proto around and close with the distress beacon.

It appears the distress signal is legitimate. A small Mantis Scout is assaulting an Engi space-station. We move in on an attack vector to intervene. Unless he has some tricks up his sleeve, the small scout-class ship will be no match for our X-9.

Shields up! Weapons pre-charged. As before, the first ion-cannon shot slams into their shields, bringing them down. The Burst and Ion-Laser follow through and devastate their weapons control center, with all four shots connecting. Armor plate is ripped apart, and the underlying hull is glowing-hot from the barrage of laser-plasma energy. Another volley a few moments later and the small Mantis ship breaks apart.

The Engi station hails us and thanks us for the assistance, offering us valuable salvage materials. Additionally, one of their Engi crew asks for permission to join our ship! We welcome the Engi aboard, and he informs us that he prefers to go by the common name, Caldwell. We will use his technical expertise in the newly installed shield-generator.

Jump drive is online and ready to go. We have a difficult decision to make. We are only one jump away from the exit-beacon and the Rebel Fleet is very close, but there is also a distress signal nearby.

Alright, damn the torpedoes, we are going to help out a fellow spacer in need and run like hell if we have to.

Jumping out.

CAPTAIN’S LOG: SECTOR 3, JUMP POINT 11

A ship without life forms is floating in a dense asteroid field nearby. Liu brings in the ‘Proto nice and carefully to get a closer look.

We find a pirate ship, badly damaged and abandoned. We salvage what we can and move on.

Jumping to the exit-beacon.

Passive scans are showing a lot of activity. Looks like forward elements of the Rebel Fleet will be likely waiting for us.

CAPTAIN’S LOG: SECTOR 3, JUMP POINT 12

An Elite Fighter picks us up on his high wave scan before we can sneak through to the long-range jump beacon. We will have to fight our way out.

Shields up! Pre-igniter online, weapons charged. Attack Drone out.

We catch them off-guard with our pre-igniter, and the one-two punch of the ion-cannon followed by the Burst laser and Ion-Laser is brutally effective. Even with the Elite Fighter’s dual-layer shield-generator, the barrage is strong enough to punch through their shields, causing terrible damage to their Shield Bay and Fire Control centers. Our upgraded sensors are detecting that their crew members in each compartment have been seriously injured as well. The scorched holes in their armor plate add up as we press the attack. Another volley strikes their weapons control center, crushing the control room. Their exterior weapons hard-points power down and retract into the body of the ship.

Meanwhile, our Attack Drone is going to work on their ship, damaging their life-support systems and their bridge, causing a fire.



Eoin switches his focus to fire into their bridge to both delay repairs and cause additional injury to their crew. The relentless hail of fire is too much for their crew to overcome and the ship’s core is hit, detonating the Fighter and sending pieces flying into the void.

No time to stop for scrap, we have to move on. FTL drive charged, jumping out.

CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 4, JUMP POINT 1

Another Engi-controlled Sector. The Mantis have been attacking the Engi viciously since the outbreak of the war. We will help as we are able on our way to the exit-beacon.

As we enter this Sector, a nearby asteroid presents itself as a source of ore and salvage materials, so we stop briefly to take advantage.

A nearby jump-point is broadcasting a distress beacon. We prepare our jump and power the drives.

CAPTAIN’S LOG: SECTOR 4, JUMP POINT 2

A Federation Scout is near this jump point, floating close to a burned out husk of a station. They hail us, “Hello, we used our last FTL fuel to jump to this station. As you can see, war must have spread to this Sector sooner than expected. We have been stranded ever since. Can you spare some FTL fuel for our jump back to Federation HQ?”

We have some fuel to spare, but we will need to be frugal, lest we run out of fuel ourselves. I have Matt and Kozar prepare a container of four fuel cells and send it across to their stranded ship.

Unexpectedly, the Captain hails us and says, “Thank you for your generosity. We have no more need of the salvage we have collected on this mission. Please take all of our cargo.”

A like-wise very generous gift indeed! The amount of cargo and scrap sent over to our ship would pay for the fuel ten-times over!



We charge the FTL drive and make our preparations for the jump.

CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 4, JUMP POINT 3

A small merchant ship messages us, “Underground comms channels are all talking about your 'secret' mission. I recognize the markings on your ship of unknown type. You must be the Prototype ship! Here, we support your efforts. Take this scrap and allow us to install a weapon on your vessel.”

We gladly take them up on their offer.

It is a difficult decision, but we use some of the salvage materials and upgrade units in our cargo to remove the ion-cannon and mount the fire-beam on its hard point. A few modifications to the reactor-core and the weapons-control suite and everything is in place.

We don't have enough power to fire all our weapons simultaneously, but if the situation calls for it, we can still fire the Burst Laser's three shots using the pre-igniter, as well as one of the Ion-Lasers and if that has done enough to take down their shields, we can follow that up with the Fire Beam, a truly devastating weapon and then decide which combination of weapons will be best suited to press the attack.

There is a temptation to max-out our blast-door tech to help defend against boarding parties and fires, but we will hold that extra scrap in reserve for now. We still could make use out of a cloaking device and perhaps a teleportation unit.

FTL drive powered up, jumping out.

CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 4, JUMP POINT 4

We jump in and detect a distress beacon coming from another nearby asteroid field. Liu brings us in closer to take a look and find what appears to be a derelict ship coated in ice or crystals of some sort. Before we can get any closer, we are blind-sided by an asteroid shower that came out of nowhere! Our hull has taken a beating. A status light goes blinking red and is soon followed up by an audible alarm:

WARNING: HULL INTEGRITY 33%

Liu pulls us out of the asteroid storm and we prepare to move on. Hopefully, we can find a repair station or Merchant beacon to patch up the 'Proto soon.

CAPTAIN'S LOG: SECTOR 4, JUMP POINT 5

What luck! A Merchant beacon's signal reaches our sensors at the next jump-point. We have some modest repairs done to the ship, buy as much fuel as they will sell us and then are left with some difficult decisions to make.

They have a teleportation unit for sale that we could purchase but at the expense of our FTL Recharge Booster Augmentation in trade. They have an Anti-Ship Attack Drone Mark-II which would be a significant improvement over the Mark-I schematic we currently have on board. It would cost us both the FTL Recharge Booster and the Anti-Ship Attack Drone Mark-I we already have. Additionally, we would lack the necessary upgrades to our drone control module to even launch the Mark-II version.

In the long-term, the teleportation unit will likely prove more useful. Without a drone-recovery unit installed on this ship, the cost of relying on that Attack-Drone for every engagement will begin to get very expensive.

FTL drive charged, jumping out.