A War for the Stars

[Erax]

Seeker I, Captain's log, SGY 2404.9 (second part):

While we were dealing with the Alliance incursion over Aram I, another battle was taking place in the system's outer reaches. The main Yakrin fleet, which had been following the Alliance carriers, made a twenty-five percent* turn to port and intercepted the TIE fighter group which had destroyed their satellite layer just outside Aram III, a barren methane-ammonia iceworld.

Our fighters had already expended too much of their fuel chasing and destroying the minelayer, so instead of engaging the enemy fleet Lieutenant Haad played an elaborate game of cat and mouse with the enemy, hiding behind the planet, darting in and out of range and firing the occasional pot-shot at their ships while dodging their bursts of depleted uranium shells.

We chose some of our best pilots for this mission and it paid off handsomely, two of the enemy frigates were all but disabled by well-placed shots to the bridge. This slowed down the enemy fleet considerably, allowing our fighters to break away and escape without a single casualty. They did, however, fire off a shot too many and now lack the fuel to make it all the way back to the Fleet on their own. We will have to send a carrier out to recover them, it would be a shame to lose them now after such an awe-inspiring display of skill.

We now have two intact Yakrin frigates closing in on Aram I and five frigates, two of which are crippled, drifting around Aram III. The Fleet is at full readiness, perhaps we can deal with all the Yakrin ships before this tenth is over.

* - The Imperial measurement system divides a circumference into 100 percentile points, so 25% = 90 degrees.

[Raging Deadstar]

Great, it's a shame the Alliance decided to annexe the planet almost. I'm suprised there was so much resistance to the storm troopers, but maybe they saw the star wars movie and saw how badly portrayed they were (lets face it, the only things less scary than a storm trooper are star trek red shirt ensigns and childrens tv programs)

So is this the yakrin conquered almost then? The empire will be most pleased

[CNCRaymond]

I am enjoying this story a lot. Please keep it going.

[Erax]

I have plenty of material ready and my fingers are itching to write, BUT I'll be away for the weekend (big RPG con). I'll try to get an installment in today, but don't expect anything from Friday -> Sunday.

[Andrés]

Originally posted by Chief Engineer Erax:
I'm not sure if I'll be posting anything from this story there - it's too specialized (blow-by-blow turn report style) to interest anyone but SEIV players. However, if you have any comments / criticisms, send them to me via PM, I'll see what I can do. Please be kind, like Atrocities' story this one is my first. And I must say it's great therapy, I think I even lost weight.

I'm not sure if that's the most apropiate place to post it.
And you should finish the story first and perhaps do some edition work to remove unimportant details.
But I think that a story like would be a great way to introduce other starwars/sci-fi fans to SE4 and promote the game.

[jimbob]

Bravo! Bravo!

This story is very like the memoirs of Churchill (Their Finest Hour, etc.) in it's diary like descriptions. A compelling story which I'm enjoying emmensly. I especially like the way you take simple occurances within the game play and expand upon it. Keep up the story writing, I'm cheering on your anti-hero and his fragment of the Empire.

Give it to the Hutts, but take it easy on any Jawa you might meet up with

[Erax]

CODED TRANSMISSION
From: Commodore Telar, Sector Starfighter Force
To: Admiral Wiers

Gesaril II, 2404.9

Admiral,

We have analyzed the footage and shipscans transmitted to us by the Fleet and formed a reasonably clear picture of Alliance capabilities.

Their carriers are much larger than any of our current vessels, but rely solely on their fighter loads - the carriers themselves have no weapons. Each carrier has 16 launch bays distributed along its length; their bays launch fighters at half the rate of ours.

The remaining space is taken up by cargo bays, which are 50% more efficient than ours. Each carrier can therefore hold an estimated total of 128 Alcestis light fighters, the only model we saw them deploy at Aram I. In that engagement, one carrier released 80 fighters and the other 72; we believe this was their entire load at the time.

Their carriers can release 16 fighters at a time. We believe this is also the size of their squadrons - 16 fighters in 4 flights of 4 craft each. Each carrier is probably designed to carry a total of 8 squadrons, organized into 2 wings.

The technology employed aboard the Alliance carriers is on a par with ours, but when it comes to the fighters we are completely outclassed. The Alcestis light fighter is larger than a TIE bomber, but its speed is comparable to that of a TIE fighter. Its twin projectile cannon make it five times as deadly as our fighters, on an equivalent tonnage basis. Our lasers outrange their weapons, but that is a small advantage. At the moment, their space fleet is far superior to ours.

I recommend we raise TIE bomber defense squadrons along the border with the Alliance. In our simulations, the bombers fared better against the Alcestis than our fighters. This will strengthen our position in the short term, but we must develop anti-fighter ships and larger carriers if we want to match and counter Alliance capability. The gap is large and we must try to narrow it.