Tales from the spacelanes...

[Cmdr Wyvern]

What are Stormbringer and Persistence?

Cadeceus Omega Persistence of Memory - Gifted to Derik Roh'i by Udian Shulth, the Persistence is all about overwhelming firepower. This ship can and often does brutally decimate Thargoid invasion fleets; it's one of the few ships that can slug it out toe-to-toe with Thargoid Battleships and survive.

Reduxed, modified Vampire Mk1 Stormbringer - This ship was tweaked to Derik's specifications as an intercept and destroy fighter, and is in a sense the last of the infamous Reapers. Engines equipped with ion superchargers give it a top cruise speed of .400 LS, enough to keep pace with racing tuned Asps. It can carry up to 8 missiles/torpedoes/drop tanks in underwing pylons. To achieve the gain, it loses some pitch/yaw maneuverability, side laser mounts and some cargo space. The pitch/yaw turn rate loss isn't a liability, as that plays right into Derik's style of long-range precision shooting.

[CaptSolo]

My current operations in chart 6 takes me from the Raonbe Cluster north and a little east to Racemace. There is a nice mix of industrial and agricultural worlds, and none of them could be classified as "safe" which suits me fine. I find more action on industrial multi-government worlds than on fuedal or anarchy ones. That proved to be the case tonight.

Immediately after exiting witchspace at Leera I became witness to a large band of pirates attacking a Boa convoy which was calling for help. In a case such as this I have find it best to inject right into the middle of the maelstrom, ID the bad guys and begin eliminating them with my mil lasers. Among the pirates where two fat Pythons and an Accipiter which I learned later must have been kitted out to the max. I red lined the fore mil laser but he escaped on injectors. Bad guys whacked and their cargo scooped. Oh wait! Another space farer scooping my hard earned cargo and he is clean. Maybe a few blasts on his hull will discourage him.

To shorten this story more pirate bands were intent on profiting from the same Boa convoy which I had been escorting but that damn Accipiter was a recurring theme and each time he ran away. Eventually my cargo hold reached it's max and delightedly contained a considerable amount of precious metals and gems. In the end I had to drop a Cargo Shepherd in the middle of a goodly number of pods.

Heading for the station feeling the tension beginning to relax now when another distress call received from some poor pilgrim. Injecting toward him another blip appears so on instinct I hit the recall key. Yup, its that same brigand who has been dogging me all along. I blasted him hard fearing once more he would survive and run away. "Revenge is a dish best served cold and it is very cold in space". He was out of fuel and in short order his life of crime was over.

[Dragonfire]

Met my first Thargoids today. They did not enjoy the encounter. (Tho I'll give GalCop credit for nailing four of the six...thank God, too. I had already sustained a lot of damage from earlier).

[chrisirhc]

I'm not sure where to start this one, but in recent days I've found my view of what is the most important piece of equipment in the bounty hunters arsenal has changed. I was on a long run for the royal house of usteer when I dropped into a seedy spacebar for a refuel and while browsing the hit list spotted a contract that was barely out of my way so I took it. However what I hadn't spotted was the final jump into the target system was a long one 6.7 or 6.8 ly.

As i dropped out of witchspace I appeared in the middle of a skirmish, in which i very rapidly became embroiled, 2 or 3 of them fell to my lasers and debris built up around the battleground. I turned and injectored away from the battle taking another pair down with the rear military laser, and running out of fuel in the process, I turned back into the pack and dealt with the remaining combatants but somewhere I lost track of a pair of missiles in the debris, I saw them coming very late but managed to roll out of a head on impact but the damage was still severe, forward shields gone, asc damaged, ecm damaged, injectors damaged, rail gun out of action, fuel scoops not available. Fortunately I'm the only survivor of the battle so I sit drifting in space waiting for the shields to come back up, I also refuel from my drop tank.

As I contemplate what to do next my scanner goes off and I get a hail from my mark taunting me that its time to die. I stay where I am and snipe, before they're half way across the scanner,three of the marks cronies have succumbed. So now its time to inject in and dogfight... nothing happens my injectors are toast. Inbound missiles hit ecm, not working, ok launch my own and let them ecm theirs as well, this works! I'm still 3 to 1 and wounded, this needs to be quick, so I concentrate on the mark very soon she jumps out of the system, I follow and am quickly back on her tail. Remarkably only one of her mates accompanies her and he's soon on my tail, but turns out to be remarkably stupid as he doesn't attempt a single evasive manoeuvre while my rear laser destroys his ship. One on One the mark doesn't stand a chance and is soon despatched.

Time to jump to the nearest sensible system for repairs. Unfortunately everything close is tech level 5 or less. I think it was 3 or 4 different stations, half a dozen or more jumps and another 10 incidental kills before I had my ship fully repaired. Many of those 10 were rather more difficult than usual without the ability to turn and run from their missiles keeping them at a safe distance while striking with the rear laser. So my vote for the most important piece of kit currently goes to the injectors.

[Dragonfire]

Okay, you OFFICIALLY deserve a medal for SURVIVING that! That is absolutely incredible that you can fight off that many attacks while dead in the water. That should get you an upgrade to Elite right there.

I concur...fuel injectors are non-optional, with ECM and fuel scoops coming in as second and third.

[Bugbear]

Saw my first Caduceus last night. Lezaer - TL 14 shipyard in Galaxy 3.

1.2M credits and that's just for the unmodified Alpha! And there's me with only 450k credits available.

There was also an Omega in the same shipyard going for a song at 1.6M.

Methinks I've got some saving up to do...

[Alex]

SETTING: Old Seedy Bar. The Last Stop. Around Ausar in G2

I'd just had a feed of something.. Grewuling or something, I didn’t ask what is was made from, but was tasty, washed down with something called Ullregret, a spicy little drink.
I seem to remember one of my engineers remarking on how great it was on the injectors.
Don't seem to remember why the injectors thought it was so great.

Was just starting to get bored with the bright green feline pole dancer in gelitine when a young bounty hunter sat down.
Started telling me the why, where and how he had lost his beloved "Mavis Distrukt" His first Cobby.
Is it my face? Do I look as if I give a pulse lasers fart? Besides he obviously fired when he should have ran.

As usual after a few minutes. I started drifting off thinking about my own losses and wins.

In the bounty game you should remember your wins not the losses. Well actually not many remember their loss.
Tends to be fatal.

I got to thinking about my last hard hit. The ‘Liberator'. Some dumb ass pilot thought he could fly her! Certainly wasn't Blake.
Don't think I'd be here to tell the tale if it was.

SUDDEN SHAKING OF THE BAR:
"Bugger" spilt me drink!
ANOUCEMENT OVER THE BAR:

"All pilots to their ships;
We are under attack"
Repeated and repeated. Good grief repeated again!

A cred for every time I heard that!

"Bar gee us another Ull" (I don't speak bar tender, but they speak me.) As I watched the last pint run of my sinsil flight gear. Great stuff that, nothing sticks to it. Stab proof too.
A little later;
ANOUCEMENT OVER THE BAR:

"Thank you Commanders for the safety of our Bar"

As for the X Mavis Cmdr. Never seen him again.
Didn't catch his name either.

Ah the Liberator; What a fight...
Thought it was going to be quite an easy hit at first, she had no escorts.
Of course at the time I took the contract I didn’t think much about the name.
Though got quite worried when I first seen her up close and personal and recognized her.
The 4 lasers soon put the easy hit idea far away, bloody accurate with them too I might add.
I launched my drones to even the fire power a bit. Didn’t really help a lot, she’s a very slippy ship.
And didn’t seem that bothered with them, I was her main attraction and she was making her self felt, my iron hide was quickly skinned and tanned. Shields and energy dropping fairly quick. I targeted her with my mil missiles, more to get her to run than hope for actual hits. Though I did see at least three of the five make it through while giving her a bit of roasting with the ol mil laser.
What a tough old bird!
I’ve never came up against the likes before, Even the big Thargoids would be jelly compared to what she was taking.
I thought I must have being doing something right as she turned tail and injectored away.
I followed with my own.
Was just as I was thinking of deploying the shepherd to be able to retrieve what was left of my drones that I noticed the growing blue balloon behind.
The bisom had dropped a Q and I hadn’t noticed it. Too busy noticing my cargo and systems randomly being stuffed! And thinking shit that's expensive, there goes the bounty.
But then I was now on her tail, only one laser to worry about now as long as I can stay on her. She really is maneuverable, but then so is my Gerty (Gertrude Oblitz).
Near on 15 mins constantly hammering at her with the forward mil, daren’t maneuver away to use others lasers, wasn’t easy to get behind her in the first place.
Never had my laser in the red so often, for so long before.
Was like trying to hold on to a irate Bulruian eel with just 2 digits.
Eventually the barsteward ejected just before the Liberator gave her last blaze.
That’s no escape capsule the little sod is firing at me, white beam?
Was considering picking him up. Not anymore!
Made short work of the little turd.
Didn’t I mention, the Gerty is a Caddy omega. Says something for the Liberator, Eh.
Shame about the liberator though, would have loved to salvage her for my own use. Certainly gave Gerty a run for the money. Bounty wasn’t a profit, only 8500Cr. Repairs and restocking the Gerty will be at least 5 times that. But what a fight.
Also the reason I didn’t scramble to protect the bar, she’s still a bit too sick to fight yet.
Well better be off and see if the basic repairs are done then head down to the Mil base at Diti for the rest.


I've no idea where the Liberator came from, I don't remember it being mentioned in any of the oxps I run.
Maybe generated by randomhits?? I only ever take on the highest paying ones.
She really was the toughest (hits taken) ship I've ever came across.

[DaddyHoggy]

Nice story - and well done! Although, the poor Liberator...

[Dragonfire]

I was making a short-ish witchspace jump from one planet to another (somewhere in the northeastern corner of Galaxy 1), when I found myself stopped somewhere in space, under attack from a hoarde of pirates avenging someone I took out on bounty. They had hijacked four Thargoid witchspace interrupters. I fired my energy bomb, then destroyed all four interrupters, before continuing my witchspace. That's six more for my hunting record.

[Yah-Ta-Hey]

June 30,whatever.....
I was on a hunt... a very ripe prize of 8950 C for a fishoid who did a dastardly thing and jumped bail. In galaxy 3 at this time... just got a new Omega to celebrate my coming induction to the deadly rating of Hunters. Thought something was strange when my omega came unnamed,armed with only a beam laser and nothing else....until I updated some equipment. The target was at a planet called: Xesoon(location 181,240) bottom right hand quadrant of the galaxy.... Witched in to see a dead white planet, with some kind of strange mountain range on it's surface.

As I got closer... I noticed that the planet had 2 very distinct structures that became clearer, the closer I got.
On the left side, there appeared to be a figure of a BAT with it's wings slightly folded and it was looking to the left. To the right of it, there appeared a figure of a running baboon as if chasing the bat.

Now, having Dineh heritage in my blood, I know that the BAT is a symbol of pure evil in my culture... but the running baboon has no significance in my culture. It might be meant for someone else.
Not acknowledging that I might be superstitious, I repeatedly sang the song of the Monster slayer and kept reminding myself that I walk in the mocassins of the monsterslayer and I walk with Power that will keep me safe. I refused to dock but went to the witchpoint and started my patrol..... All the time... those figures looked out to space as if a warning.
After 3 passes, the hunted came into contact with me and we squared off trading shots and hits... His ship surprised me with multiple lasers coming from under his nose... I counted at least 4 separate beams that were going through my shields and equipment as if they did not exist, first to go was my injectors, ironhide,targeting compass in quick sequence followed by rapid destruction of other equipment. While frantically trying to maneuver,,,I noticed his gloating message announcing my immenint doom, followed by a red flickering tag immediately followed by an ever expanding blue sphere of destruction and I knew his medicine was stronger than mine and as I reached for my escape pod.... Press commander came up on the screen.

[stop4stuff]

Earlier today I downloaded and installed the Cargo Sheperd OXP, previously I'd gotten Ore Processor and DeepSpacePirates. My ship is my own build called Outrigger still in its development and prototype stages. Its a bit of a monster with 6 engines measuring 102.8 (W) x 34.2 (H) 117.5 (L) meters with a top speed of 0.4 and slow manuvering, capacity 40TC and 4 pylons. Mil lasers forward and aft, mining lasers port and starboard.

So I'm bimbling about in the vacinity of Ceinerxe (a TL12 Dictatorship, in Galaxy 2), minding my own, carving up and processing a few asteriods. I drop of a cargo shepherd to keep the asteroid splinters in place whilst I head off to the space station to unload my cargo. All goes well with the drop off and I head back to the shepherd's beacon.

Away from the planet, there's a couple of GalCops dealing with a miscreant. On the scanner there's a few white dots floating nearby the GalCops' scuffle, and being a dutiful scavenger I head over to scoop up the drifting cargo.

The cargo canisters scooped up, I notice the blue dots have disappeared from the scanner, but there's a few more white and some yellow... ooo more drifting cargo No sooner than had I gone more 1km the yellows turned red and I had a bunch of bad guys on my tail... I took out 3 of them before my shields went down, then one by one i lost the shield boosters, my military shield enhancement, the advanced space compass, the scanner targeting enhancement and ore processor. I managed to blast out of there with the witchspace injectors running overtime just as my screen flashed up 'Damage Critical'... a zig and a zag and I was out of range, I kept running all the way back to the safety of the space station.

I made good what I could and headed back out to recover and process the splinters by the cargo shepherd... by the time I got there, a Rock Hermit had set up home and robbed all my goodies. Being a bit of a hippie, I didn't shoot him, no sir, we had a, um... let's call it a 'little spaceway crash'.

In all, once I managed to find a system to get the miltary shield enhancement fixed, the repairs totalled over 36,000 credits

All in all, not a very good day.

[Dragonfire]

Get an IronHide. I take out pirates all the time via "accidental" collisions.

[Cmdr Wyvern]

Grab shield capacitors and shield equalizer, expensive but worth every .1cr. I can attest to their effectiveness; my ironhide doesn't get damaged as often.
A mining railgun will also serve you well.

Pro-tip: I don't believe the cargo shepard works on asteroid chips or dead Thargons; it only collects loose cargo canisters last I heard. At the very least it has a beacon, so it can lead you to the general location of the loot.

[Dragonfire]

I'm on a rather short witchspace when I find my transit interrupted by Thargoids. My IFF is literally SOLID with GalCop and Thargoids (I estimate close to a hundred), so I sneak past the aliens and begin blasting the jammers. Two down, I nail a distracted Thargoid for sport, and then, out of the blue, every remaining Thargoid is blown to smithereens by heaven knows what. Only GalCop and wreckage remains.

I blast the last two jammers, then spend the next ten minutes taking out crippled Thargoid robot fighters (and collecting bounty). I'm beginning to enjoy fighting these Thargoids. They present an enjoyable challenge. Not to mention, they're worth a bundle in bounty.

[Cmdr Wyvern]

I'm on a rather short witchspace when I find my transit interrupted by Thargoids. My IFF is literally SOLID with GalCop and Thargoids (I estimate close to a hundred), so I sneak past the aliens and begin blasting the jammers. Two down, I nail a distracted Thargoid for sport, and then, out of the blue, every remaining Thargoid is blown to smithereens by heaven knows what. Only GalCop and wreckage remains.

I blast the last two jammers, then spend the next ten minutes taking out crippled Thargoid robot fighters (and collecting bounty). I'm beginning to enjoy fighting these Thargoids. They present an enjoyable challenge. Not to mention, they're worth a bundle in bounty.

Mmm yeah, the drones.
A bounty scanner helps here. Every drone worth more than 70cr bounty, I blast. Every drone with a bounty below that gets scooped; they'll sell at Hoopy casinos at 70cr on up. Often as high as 80cr.

For an even bigger challenge, try out Thargon Threat oxp. That'll put big mean enforcer Bugs like the Cruiser and Battleship in your Ooniverse.

I wonder what exterminated the swarm all at once?