Abrubtly halted.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Real-Life nuclear power plant.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Which mod are you using? I mean, you MUST be using a mod, if you say they removed a Hellstorm missile (thought that was Capital Ship Missile at first) and replace it with one point defence cannon, so you'd replace a 50kT missile with a 20kT PDC. Also, you state the Jraenar missiles are slower and shorter ranged, which doesn't fit with stock CSMs.

[El_Phil]

Strategia_In_Ultima said:
Which mod are you using? I mean, you MUST be using a mod, if you say they removed a Hellstorm missile (thought that was Capital Ship Missile at first) and replace it with one point defence cannon, so you'd replace a 50kT missile with a 20kT PDC. Also, you state the Jraenar missiles are slower and shorter ranged, which doesn't fit with stock CSMs.

Uhhh my own mod of great mystery. Essentially any idea I saw from other mods (ultimate ship size, the repairing crew quarters from ST 1.75 and loads of others), a selection of my own ideas (mounted rail guns, chain guns and fleet tankers) and the guts of the TDM AI tweaked to use the new weapons I chucked in. It all seems to work in the test games as the AI was designing and building all the ships, but how it actually works, well fingers crossed.

Anyway CSMs were kept the same but I added a seperate missile family, 30kT launcher, faster but less damage resistance and does less damage. So a 20kT PDC and a 10kT supply pod take the place of a 30kT launcher.

[Intimidator]

HA, I thought you we're ussing Devnull.......

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Ah. That's interesting.

(Note: purely coincidentally, these were also the last words of the feller in charge of the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl .)

[El_Phil]

Another random tale of life in the Ocelot Republic

We apologise for the delay in your regular story. Until then we return you to intermission

O'Neill sat back and pulled on his hip flask. At times like this life was good and it would be a crime not to drink. His happy mood was not shared by his companions. The exo-biologist Strasbar wished he was out on Haven while the surveyor Johnston wished she was somewhere that wasn't here.
'Here' was a three person exploration team on Hope, doing the on the ground investigations you couldn't do from orbit or from a plane.
"Nothing on the motion sensor or the IR. Again." Strasbar was doing her level best to ruin O'Neill's good mood.
"Well the survey scans picked up some life signs in this region, so you'd better keep on checking." O'Neill showed no sign of letting Strasbar get to him.
'Why did he get to be boss?' Strasbar asked himself rhetorically. Truth be told he already knew, but didn't like the answer. O'Neill had been one of the last bushmen from Ocelot before joining CREST command and the bosses thought that all that experience should be transferable. If it wasn't bad enough being stuck miles from all the big developments out on Haven he also had to cope with an unbearable boss.
Johnston also wanted to be somewhere else; she couldn't stand life in the colonies, she missed the big cities. She'd joined up to see different worlds and experience a new way of life, sadly she'd found she didn't like this new way of life. Stuck into a long term contract she truly believed life couldn't get any worse than being in a Colonial Recon, Exploration and Search Team.
O'Neill was aware that the rest of his team weren't exactly happy campers, but there wasn't a lot he could do about it. They had a job to do and he intended to do it. Besides he couldn't really understand the problem, Hope was a beautiful planet and if you couldn't appreciative the majesty of the plains on a day like this you had no soul. It sure beat working for a living.
"We're getting a large blip on the motion sensors!" Strasbar yelled out
"Told you so. Where from?" O'Neill replied
"Close, real close. In fact it's getting nearer." The excitement was fading from Strasbar's voice and concern was creeping in. Their job was to assess the area before building work began and chase up some rouge life form readings the survey ship hadn't been able to track down. Strasbar was remembering that there was a missing link in the local food chain, right at the top in fact, and he may just have found it.
"Johnston get back here. Now!"
"I can't see it on the IR! What kind of creature is it!" Strasbar had accelerated through concern, bypassed worry and then raced straight into panic. O'Neill just sighed.
"It's late afternoon and so the convection currents are playing hell with the infra red. If that was a decent military grade model it would filter it, it's not so we get awful resolution. Calm down."
As Johnston arrived back and climbed into the Panther O'Neill hit the accelerator and headed towards the signal on the motion scanner. As he filled in Johnston on the details he checked his rifle was within reaching distance. The survey ship shouldn't have missed anything big and the big six wheeled Panther was a tough vehicle, but you never knew...
As the Panther crested the last slope before the unidentified blip O'Neill slowed the vehicle to a stop. He checked the map, it didn't look good: The creature was somewhere in a small opening in the copse. Of course it could be a co-incidence that the unknown xeno just happened to have run off into the perfect place for an ambush. And women might want an honest answer when they ask if their bums look big.
Still as neither the on-board cameras nor the IR were getting a solid lock on it they'd have to go outside. With that thought O'Neill reached for his shotgun and made to get out.
"What do you think your doing?" Johnston asked "It's crazy to go out, there could be anything out there!"
O'Neill turned to her "Look someone is going to have to get a decent scan of this thing. Surely you want a close look at this thing Gregor?" Gregor Starsbar really didn't want a look and said as much. "Just me then." O'Neill said with a grin.
'I don't believe it! He's actually enjoying this. Is he crazy?' Strasbar could barely believe his ears.
As O'Neill headed towards the centre of the clearing he realised that he was probably breaking dozens of CREST command regulations. He also realised he didn't care; he hadn't felt this alive for years. With all the environmental and conservationists all over the Yettari desert they destroyed one of the very elements they were trying to save. The frontier feel where every day was an adventure waiting to happen. As he walked along, stalking the unknown creature, he knew his forefathers must have felt just like this when they had walked the bush.
"It's getting closer; it's almost on top of him." Johnston was watching the on-board map which was overlaying O'Neills transponder signal and the motion sensors tracking.
"We've got to warn him!"
Just as she reached for the door the creature leapt out of the bushes and charged O'Neill hoping to catch this strange new prey unawares. However you've got to get up pretty early to surprise a Yettari bushman and sadly for the creature it was almost dusk. The Alvis 'Alpaca' desert shotgun was the peak of decades of engineering and refinement. The rapid load system had been copied by the military almost before the first gun went on sale and the seals used to keep sand out of the workings had originally been developed for medical bio-waste containment. Truly a technological marvel, it was no more or less than a desert proof, man portable depleted uranium cannon. In fact if the creature would probably have been honoured to be killed with such a weapon, had it not been a brainless 8ft long, ten limbed killing machine.

In the aftermath the creature was named the O'Neill Chimera and the entire region was sealed off by the government while it investigated. Serious questions were asked of the survey ship as to how they managed to miss such a dangerous creature. The discovery of the Chimera was hailed as the biggest exo-biological find ever. No creature had been found with more than six fully articulated limbs and Hope CREST assignments became the hottest exo-biologist posting in the Republic.

Gregor Strasbar did get his much desired transfer to Haven where he ended up in a lab cataloguing weed samples. So far all his requests for a transfer have been refused.
Sue Johnston was sent to Gobi to do surveying work for a mine expansion project. She is currently one of the 3,764 women on the 38 million population planet and has no plans to leave.
Peter O'Neill was promoted to head up the Chimera investigation team. He also received a lucrative contract to front the latest Alvis Weapons promotional campaign. He plans to retire on Hope and head back into the bush as soon as the government re-opens the region.

[El_Phil]

Right! Back from the dead by popular lack of demand. After some thinking about the writing style and the comments of various people I'm going for something different. Comments, etc would be nice as always

2402.3
So I'm sitting back in my brand spanking new office waiting for Ted to make an appearance, our new job did start a couple of hours ago so he's badly late. Not that I was here on time either, but I've got a hangover that would have superheroes whimpering. Frankly I deserve a medal just for getting in at all. A loud crash announces Ted's arrival and he's looking worse than I feel. If such a thing is possible of course.
"Nice to see you made it in today"
Ted winces and asks "How annoyed was the new boss that I was late?"
"No idea, he hasn't made it in either." I tell him
"Why's that?"
"Bottle fatigue I'd guess."
Ted's face contorts as he tries to dredge up some memory from the previous night. "But he only had a couple then he disappeared."
"True, but he was drinking Medford vodka."
"Medford Vodka? They don't make vodka on Medford, do they?" Ted asked in confusion
"Not technically I suppose." I reply, waiting for the inevitable
"It wasn't actually vodka was it?"
"No. But it was definitely alcoholic."
"So what is it actually?" Even throw the hangover Ted is starting to get annoyed at the slow progress. I relent, more for my sake than his. All this talking is bad for my head.
"Industrial antifreeze mixed with white spirit."
"Isn't that...." Ted starts
"Immensely dangerous? Allegedly. We'll find out in a few hours." I finish for him
"What's happening in a few hours?"
"Well if the boss hasn't made it in or called someone then, yes it probably is dangerous in his case. He would be the exception to the rule though."
"Exception to the... You've done this before then?"
Sigh. Despite my best efforts he's still got a lot to learn.
"Of course its important that any working relationship has a solid base. A few drinks down the pub speeds this up immensely."
"By getting to know the boss and establishing a rapport?"
"No. By finding out all the nasty secrets the boss would never reveal unless utterly hammered."
"How does that help the working relationship?"
"Well we'll keep on 'working' here no matter what we do, provided we keep quiet about a certain 'relationship' the boss is having."

My education of Ted is interrupted by the boss' boss walking into our office.
"Jameson and Riley right?"
"Yes sir." Best to be polite, I haven't got any dirt on him. Yet.
"I've just been called by your section head and he can't make it in today so I'll be briefing you. Your project is simple; we want the Spey engine technology you worked on at Hope applied to missiles."
That explains a lot. I had been wondering what a pair of propulsion engineers were doing in a weapons research base. Still as we'd been 'requested' to leave Hope we jumped at the chance.
"There were certain problems with that technology, there was a large fuel blowout problem and that unexplained thermal runaway" I interrupt
"I've read the reports of the two major failures. The fuel overflow problem has been corrected and the second failure cannot be repeated, so it was probably a fluke. Of course for manned vessels that's an unacceptable assumption, but for missiles we’ll take the risk."
Ted is fighting manfully to keep both a straight face and look innocent. He's not doing it very well, sadly.
"We'll get right on it sir." I hurry to end this conversation before something goes wrong, like the boss noticing Ted's started to grin. Thankfully he turns and walks out just before Ted bursts out laughing. OK using the engine exhaust as a grill for lunch was funny, but when the sauce leaked out shorting the control circuits and detonating the engine… Well that was even funnier actually. Still it was months ago and he should be over it by now. Kids these days hey?

With the boss dealt with it's time to start the day’s important work, so I open the paper and catch up on the news. New refining Colony out on Proxima, Navy launches a new ship 'Sirus'. Who picks those names really? Pretty routine. Oh what's that - 'Falcon' is in for a refit. That brings back the memories. It really should have been routine, from the engine side anyway, but the engines strangely had a few difficulties during shakedown. Tragic really, I was forced to spend hours with their compromisingly attractive chief engineer 'running down the fault'...
"Hey look at this!" Ted shouts
Fighting back the urge to strangle him with my bare hands for aggravating my head I turn to Ted
"Look. It's a company alert, they've cancelled all leave for the technical services division." He tells me, thankfully a lot quieter. Still that is very odd.
"Something's up. Something big, probably on a military contract." Years of experience come to my aid to provide that very obvious answer.
"But what?"
"No idea, last I heard it was all going well. Dino ships being blown up left, right and centre if you believe the news. We'll find out eventually something that big will make the news."
"If it doesn't?" Ted asks plaintively
"Then it will definitely make the company gossip mill. Speaking of making things, go and make some coffee."
It's important to get priorities straight in life.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Could you post that mod here? I'd be interested.

WARNING: If you do there will likely be parts of your mod showing up in Capship.....

[El_Phil]

Strategia_In_Ultima said:
Could you post that mod here? I'd be interested.

WARNING: If you do there will likely be parts of your mod showing up in Capship.....

Well.. Frankly I'd be surprised if it did, I'm not entirely convinced its balanced and there's not really any big changes, a few new weapson and ship sizes and some odds and ends.

But if anyone would like a look I should be able to post it tommorow (no internet where I'm staying so I can't do it today.)

And hopefully I should be posting the next part sometime today.

[El_Phil]

As (sort of) promised the next chapter!

"I've heard self-reliance is a virtue. Now you've heard it." The Cheshire Cat
2401.6
Captain Delap breathed a sigh of relief, the tactical display showed the Jraenar ships heading back to the planet. He just hoped they'd keep on that course, or anywhere away from him, until his reinforcements arrived.

Despite the war effort it had been decided that exploration should continue, even if at a reduced pace, so the Batch 4 Pegasus class Loki was sent from Hope to transit the final unexplored warp point in the Styris system. The Admiralty had convinced the council that additional ships were needed to join Javelin's squadron so Hades was despatched the moment she finished her shakedown run.

Sword transited the warp point with big news for Captain Delap, as all four ships were to work together they were now part of Task Force One, under Delap's command.
‘Working together watching a superior force sit in orbit around their home planet,’ Delap thought ‘I think we can probably manage that. It’s the not getting killed part that may be tricky.’

Back in Cignus the colony ship set down and the colonists disembarked and founded Helix. There was little time for celebration however as constructing a spaceport was a high priority, so after a big party on the first night the work started first thing the next day. Of course it didn't start quickly for some people who'd enjoyed the party too much…
In orbit Pioneer was ordered back to Ocelot for refit with the new Hellstorm Mod 2s, while the shipyards began work on the first transport ship. El Presidente and the council had decided those not only was Ocelot getting over crowded but that additional population on the colonies could only make them more productive and so help the war effort. So the yards began work on the first Rover class transport.

2401.7
This was not how it was supposed to turn out Commander Linton thought to herself. Loki should have found an exciting system teeming with lost alien cities and amazing stellar phenomenon. Failing that a couple of large oxygen worlds would have done. Instead they’d found a large asteroid belt in the Bersallis system and no warp points. In short a useless dead end. When the scans were complete she’d set course back for a refuel and then maybe find something exciting in the next system.

While Linton may have been disappointed it was but nothing compared to Commander Bell’s annoyance. ‘Report to the shipyard for induction and preparation for your new command.’ Yeah and if they’d told me it was a damn transport ship I might just of not turned up. Still Gold Rover was his new command so he’d better do a good job and hope for a promotion.
“Helm set a course for Oberon. Lets gets these damn colonists on their way.”
‘You never know some of these guys could end up working on the new shipyard there that builds my next ship.’ Bell thought.

Task Force One was not a happy place if your happened to be from the sensor section or had just come off night watch. ‘Captain Delap’s on a rampage.’ was the word going around all the ships in the task force and that didn’t cover half of it.
“How do you lose three enemy frigates? I mean that’s over half a million tonnes of metal it’s not like its hard to miss!”
“Well captain they must have found the gaps in our sensor coverage and slipped out through the unexplored warp point, it’s impossible for them to have got through the other warp point in the time they had.” Lively's sensor officer answered. He had been on watch when Lively had stood turn as lead sensor ship, so it had fallen to him to explain.
“But we don’t have that on sensor do we?” Delap retored instantly
“No sir, but it is the only plausible explanation.”
Delap forced himself not to shout back at the Lieutenant. Yelling his throat raw, while it would cheer him up, was counter productive and wasn’t going to help morale on any of the ships. He was the task force leader, time to lead.
“That is true. I want all sensors crews on all vessels running constant drills, we are not going to be caught out like this again am I making myself clear?”
“Yes sir.”
“How long until Pegasus arrives?”
“Four hours, according to their last transmission.” Jennings answered.
“Close enough. We have orders to engage targets of opportunity and I think that Bolivar and transport in orbit fits the criteria. I want Javelin and Falcon ready to leave within the hour, in our absence Captain Vickers is taking command of the task force.”

As the two Ocelot vessels closed in on the Jraenar home planet it became clear this would be easier than they thought, the space stations were unarmed shipyards and the transport vessel was running as fast as it could.
‘At least the transport’s captain isn’t as suicidal as that colony ship Vickers told me about.’ Delap thought. Try as he might he couldn’t, or perhaps didn’t, want to understand that sort of mentality.
“Sensors do you have a fix on that Bolivar yet?” he asked
“Faint, but we’re reading two missile launchers with slightly different configuration than an Azul and different energy emission patterns.”
“Threat assessment.”
“She’s seems slightly more manoeuvrable than an Azul but not faster, unless she’s holding back. The missile tubes are an unknown, at least as good probably better than an Azuls.”
“Have you passed the good news to Falcon?”
“Yes sir and they confirm our reading and assessment.”
“OK close to maximum range then open fire”

Both ships crew’s were well drilled and Javelin's crew had been in combat with Jraeanar before, they were trained, prepared and composed, right up until:
"Missile launch!” Jennings announced to the bridge
“What? We’re still 10 clicks out.” Delap replied
“Confirmed two inbound missiles.”
Delap went with his first instinct.
“Split and run, let’s find out how much legs these missiles really have.”

As Javelin and Falcon turned and went to full power they soon found out that the Bolivar’s captain had launched at maximum range as the missiles burned out at ten clicks. ‘That was lucky, that Captain shot his bolt too early. If he’d held his fire we’d have assumed they were standard eight clickers and might have got caught. Doesn’t solve our problem though, how do we get close enough to launch without being hit ourselves?’ Delap thought. ‘Wait a minute..’
”Mr Miller what were targets of those missiles?”
”Both missiles were targeted at Falcon sir.”
“So either he didn’t or couldn’t spit his fire. That’s our way in. Turn us around and get me Falcon on comms.”

“I can’t see any other way, it’s our only chance Julia. Unless you’re really sure that Goalkeeper of yours can take out two missiles before they hit”
“It’s untested and I don’t think this is the best way to test it. I can’t see any better plan and you are officer commanding. Let’s do this and hope you're right”

Both ships entered range of the Bolivar which again opened fire with two missiles at Falcon which turned to run, but Javelin kept on going to close the range.
“We’re on limited time here PWO, we should have time for two volleys before they return fire, but it’ll be tight. Nothing fancy just take the best solution you can and get reloading.”
”Aye sir.”
'If they've improved the reload time on that ship we are in trouble.' Lieutenant Miller thought to himself. ‘The Captain was right about them not splitting their fire, he’ll be right about this. And if I say it enough times I might even believe myself’


The first volley was outrun, but the manoeuvrings cost the Bolivar time and speed so the second volley homed in with deadly precision. The Hellstorms hit the middle of the drive assembly knocking the Bolivar down to 2/3rds speed and doing massive secondary damage, but not before the Bolivar managed to get two missiles away on Javelin. While Javelin ran, Falcon, having outran her missiles, closed the distance and engaged with her single tube. The first took out one of the Bolivar’s launchers and heavily damaged the other while the second volley destroyed the bridge and the remaining tube.

“She’s dead in the water Julia, do you want to finish her or get that transport.” Delap asked
“I’ll take the Bolivar” Locke replied slowly
“OK, after you’ve done that start on those shipyards. Delap out”
The victorious euphoria Locke had been feeling had all evaporated during that brief exchange. ‘How can that be the same Michael Delap I knew back on Ocelot? Calmly talking about destroying a ship full of civilians.’ ‘What had happened to him?’ She asked herself.

The transport never stood a chance, neither did the orbital shipyards. However after watching the fate of her sister yard, and being on the receiving end of a full Hellstorm barrage, the commander of the remaining yard asked for a ceasefire so he could evacuate the civilian contractors onboard. After a quick discussion it was agreed, but any hostile action would result in instant retribution.

The battle had been a nasty shock to all in the Admiralty and the Ministry of Defence, it was clear that ship for ship any vessel with Mod 1 Hellstorms would be outclassed. With that in mind the shipyards were ordered to crash research on 200kT vessels and Lively was pulled back to the Oberon yards for refit.

2401.8
News of Captain Delap’s victory raised morale throughout the fleet, well almost all the fleet. For Commander Linton it just emphasised how far from the action Loki actually was and for Commander Bell… Suffice to say the entire crew kept well clear of him for a few days.

The latest colonisation vessel set course for Styris, while Pioneer having finished her refit headed for Oberon as a staging point to the frontline where she would join the blockade.

‘Well at least we’ll know for next time’ Locke thought. While it was true the Jraenar had indeed evacuated the station, they had also filled the damaged station with demolition charges and detonated them the moment the last shuttle cleared. ‘Saves us the missiles I suppose.’
“Enemy vessel being launched from the planet, erratic power fluctuations from the engines, I think they rushed it just for us.”
‘Which we’ll probably need now’ Locke thought to herself with a grin
“Javelin on the comm link.”
“Put it through” Locke ordered.
“Same plan as last time, no need to risk being fancy let’s keep it simple.” Delap didn’t beat around the bush.

The Jraenar vessel, despite knowing the fate of the last Bolivar again fired both her missiles at one target, confirming that Jraenar launchers couldn’t cope with multiple independent targets. The combat was swift and efficient, although Captain Locke did take a chance on live fire testing Goalkeeper on am enemy missile. The results weren’t positive, yes it could track and hit Jraenar missiles, unfortunately it took two sustained bursts to destroy them.

Back on Ocelot the Admiralty was pleased with the way things were progressing, the Jraenar home world was blockaded and a significant amount of their ship building infrastructure had been knocked out. The only fly in the ointment was the relatively poor performance of the Goalkeeper system in its field trial, something for the R&D boys to work on, if they ever got a chance in between all their other work.
Admiral Watson however was thinking about a bigger problem, the Jraenar colony or colonies. The only plan they had for dealing with them was either forcing them to surrender, but he held little hope that would work judging by their ship captains or destroying them from orbit, which he was certain would work but had little appetite for. ‘There had to be another way’ he thought ‘and perhaps there was.’
“Get me General Kirkland on the line.”