Introduction
This OXP adds a new and powerful weapon to the Thargoids' arsenal, posing a new threat for GalCop. Mighty Thargoid Carriers appear sometimes in a system and head for one of its stations, where they launch a new and frightening attack force: a couple of modified Thargoid warships, armed with plasma accelerators.
While the station is hastily evacuated, its defense forces try desperately to fight off the attack. Will they prevail, or is the station doomed?
Overview
Selezen brought you the original Thargoid Carrier. Here's what he wrote with it:
This still holds true for thargoid_carrier2.0.oxp. However, there are a few additions, making the Thargoid Carrier even more of a threat.Selezen wrote:War is hell. Every one of them has a pattern. Every time we come up with something to give us the edge, the damn bugs come up with something to take it back again.
Take the Navy's Behemoth carriers, for example. We thought we were so smart, bringing a huge capacity carrier to the front. Little did we know that the bugs had them too, but weren't sending them into battle. No, they were keeping them back and letting the invasion ships do the work for them. Now, thanks to us raising the stakes, they're bringing the beasts into the war too.
They are huge. I do have to hand it to the scum though, they've created something that if you see it, you know you are in it up to your neck. The wide profile, the gaping maw of a docking bay, the impression that you're looking at some angry bug as you come at it from the front. It's an intimidating bit of kit.
I don't want to find one. Not today.
First, the carrier now sports massive plasma turrets and a triple laser for its self-defense. Second, it has four escorts for its protection. Third—and most important—it has got a new purpose.
The Thargoids not only bring their carriers to the battlegrounds in interstellar space. They also unleash them on GalCop systems. They've done it before, but now things have become very much different, because the Thargoids have gotten their hands—nobody knows how—on a new weapon technology. Meet the plasma accelerator, an invention straight from the future. A glowing white beam of energy that slices through conventional shields and armour as if they were nothing. One short burst is enough to cut a small ship in half. But the plasma accelerator's main target are stations which are practically immune to normal laser fire. Each Thargoid Carrier which appears in a system carries four Thargoid Warships equipped with the new weapon. Its only purpose is to transport these new and frightening weapons as close as possible to one of the stations orbiting the planet. Once the carrier gets close enough, it releases its attack force. As always, the Thargoids are fully devoted to what they are doing. There's no looking left or right, and there's no retreat. There's only fighting to death. Will you be able to help fight off the attack? Or is one of the stations in the system doomed?
Acknowledgements
A big Thank You goes to "Selezen" who gave me ("Commander McLane") permission to use the Thargoid Carrier and do something with it, and who liked the ideas I came up with. Another Thanks goes to Arexack_Heretic, who designed the Thargoid version of plasma turrets for his Thargorn_Threat.oxp, which I borrowed, increased in size, and put on the Thargoid Carrier.
A big inspiration came from Drew Wagar, who introduced the idea of a plasma accelerator as a new and frightening weapon in his novellas. [wiki]Mutabilis[/wiki] contains a first example, and in [wiki]Incursio[/wiki] we meet a deadly Thargoid force equipped with the new weapon. From when I first read Incursio I knew that I wanted to have this weapon in the game. So here's my take on realizing it for Oolite.
Minimum Requirements
Thargoid_carrier2.0.oxp requires at least Oolite 1.76.
Download Location
This OXP is available for download via the
![[EliteWiki]](/images/elitewikismall.png){kind=small}
Elite Wiki.
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