The Unseen Servant forums

Eris wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 10:16 pm

terrymixon wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 7:04 pm

Eris wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 6:18 pm Only a few seconds pass after Flighty alters course to take the ship south of the elliptic and away from what appears to be a standard course Flight Control sends departing ships along, Donovan picks up a squawk over the comm. A radio signal is being tightbeamed at your ship. Both Flighty and Sigrun see the same data pop up on their sensor boards.

The tightbeam is on the same frequency you noted several weeks ago after finding and disabled the "black box" buried inside the hardware that controls the ship's flight control systems. You've been monitoring that frequency ever since, but this is the first time since the attempted ambush way back then that you've seen it used. The dummy interface you installed reports that the ship's maneuver drive is being ordered to do a hard shutdown.

Flighty will stop the thrust for a bit and backtrack the signal. "Looks like someone knows exactly who we are. I'm isolating their location, and we'll boost hard once I know where they are coming from."

A broadcast comes in from one of the three ships that boosted out shortly before you. It is from the 200 ton ship and the message is, "Hey! Is anyone else getting pinged with a tight beam? It's sending some sort of data, control codes, we think, but it doesn't make any sense. It appears to be coming from...<and a vector is given>...but no ships or planets are showing up along that vector."

Using the other ship's report, and assuming it's from the same source as the tight beam transmitting at you, you attempt to triangulate the location of the signal's origin. You get a location. The signal's origin is just beyond the Jump Point about 1% north of the elliptic.

Thirty seconds pass and then screens light up with active pings! A ship lights its maneuver drive at the location you derived and starts boosting at 2 g toward you.

"We've got a live one! He was hiding out where we should have been heading toward. He's pinging with active sensors and coming in at 2 Gs. Let's make them work for it."

Flighty will curve around and head off on the course that will give them the most distance from the aggressor at full acceleration while still getting them to the jump limit before the aggressor can close too much distance.

He will transmit to the other ships. "Looks like a pirate! We're getting out of here!"

Then he will switch to the flight control channel. "Control, this is Dealer's Choice on outbound. A ship was hiding out past the jump limit and sending odd signals at all the outgoing ships. We could trace the signal, but the sensors didn't show anything there. Now there's a ship boosting in at 2 Gs. We're going evasive because it smells like a pirate. Request someone do something about him, please."

Doug pats his new shotgun, not that anyone can see it. You might want to let everyone out there know that's a pirate come their way. Maybe someone will take a pot shot at it as it passes them.

He then start humming and singing to himself Get your motor running. Head out on the highway.

trawets wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 12:37 am Doug pats his new shotgun, not that anyone can see it. You might want to let everyone out there know that's a pirate come their way. Maybe someone will take a pot shot at it as it passes them.

He then start humming and singing to himself Get your motor running. Head out on the highway.

"Just did. Hope they get in a lot more trouble than they expected."

It is a tense couple of minutes before you finalize the data. The boogie is boosting at 2g, it hasn't gotten any faster. You're best is 1g, but that should be enough. They will gain on you, but you'll hit 100 d with it trailing you by several thousand kilometers.

As the boogie passes through the path of the other three ships you pick up flashes coming from the boogie. It has fired 2 missiles off at the 200 ton Trader that reported that it was also getting pinged. Static fills most of the radio frequencies and you see blooms of sand popping up around each of the three ships heading for the jump point...hopefully the sand canisters will kill the missiles!

The boogie, Pirate or something else, doesn't stop for the other ships though, it keeps charging after you! Another pair of flashes and you pick up 2 missiles coming toward you at not 2g, but 6g! A quick calculation shows them intersecting with your vector before you can hit the 100d jump limit. You'll be at 81 diameters. You can jump out from there, but there is slight risk of a misjump.

While all this is happening three System Patrol Boats are moving in. One from orbit and two vectoring in from other areas out from Jenghe. None of them are going to make it anywhere near where the action is taking place before it is over, though.

As soon as the unknown ship begins boosting toward them Donovan gets up. "I'm going to man the turrets. They may try missiles to catch us since they don't have the legs to overhaul us before the jump point." Donovan heads toward the turret and sets up a fire control solution on the missiles. "Two inbound vampires. Engaging now! Firing as they get into range."

helvorn wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 4:18 am As soon as the unknown ship begins boosting toward them Donovan gets up. "I'm going to man the turrets. They may try missiles to catch us since they don't have the legs to overhaul us before the jump point." Donovan heads toward the turret and sets up a fire control solution on the missiles. "Two inbound vampires. Engaging now! Firing as they get into range."

"We all need to get into our vacc suits," Zaki says. "If we take a hit, we're going to lose atmosphere." She runs to her cabin and puts on her own suit.

Karcsi does the same, checks his weapons and does a few tentative trusts with his spear.

"Should we think about what entey to give them if we need to, best to defend."

Karcsi

Eris wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 4:00 am It is a tense couple of minutes before you finalize the data. The boogie is boosting at 2g, it hasn't gotten any faster. You're best is 1g, but that should be enough. They will gain on you, but you'll hit 100 d with it trailing you by several thousand kilometers.

As the boogie passes through the path of the other three ships you pick up flashes coming from the boogie. It has fired 2 missiles off at the 200 ton Trader that reported that it was also getting pinged. Static fills most of the radio frequencies and you see blooms of sand popping up around each of the three ships heading for the jump point...hopefully the sand canisters will kill the missiles!

The boogie, Pirate or something else, doesn't stop for the other ships though, it keeps charging after you! Another pair of flashes and you pick up 2 missiles coming toward you at not 2g, but 6g! A quick calculation shows them intersecting with your vector before you can hit the 100d jump limit. You'll be at 81 diameters. You can jump out from there, but there is slight risk of a misjump.

"Missiles fired from the bogie. We'll be short of the jump limit. Guns, see if you can take them out."

Flighty will plot an early jump. If the missiles get through, he'll jump before they reach the ship. It's a risk, but not as bad as being shot to pieces.

joertexas wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 1:12 pm

helvorn wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 4:18 am As soon as the unknown ship begins boosting toward them Donovan gets up. "I'm going to man the turrets. They may try missiles to catch us since they don't have the legs to overhaul us before the jump point." Donovan heads toward the turret and sets up a fire control solution on the missiles. "Two inbound vampires. Engaging now! Firing as they get into range."

"We all need to get into our vacc suits," Zaki says. "If we take a hit, we're going to lose atmosphere." She runs to her cabin and puts on her own suit.

"Somebody grab mine. I'm a bit busy."

Eris wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 4:02 am While all this is happening three System Patrol Boats are moving in. One from orbit and two vectoring in from other areas out from Jenghe. None of them are going to make it anywhere near where the action is taking place before it is over, though.

Hopefully at least the one in orbit will engage the bogie. They'd have to pass close enough to be in range since they are shooting at us. It would be nice to see the good guys win one for once. This is what they've been training for!

helvorn wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 4:18 am As soon as the unknown ship begins boosting toward them Donovan gets up. "I'm going to man the turrets. They may try missiles to catch us since they don't have the legs to overhaul us before the jump point." Donovan heads toward the turret and sets up a fire control solution on the missiles. "Two inbound vampires. Engaging now! Firing as they get into range."

See earlier post, Guns!

terrymixon wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 3:00 pm

joertexas wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 1:12 pm

helvorn wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 4:18 am As soon as the unknown ship begins boosting toward them Donovan gets up. "I'm going to man the turrets. They may try missiles to catch us since they don't have the legs to overhaul us before the jump point." Donovan heads toward the turret and sets up a fire control solution on the missiles. "Two inbound vampires. Engaging now! Firing as they get into range."

"We all need to get into our vacc suits," Zaki says. "If we take a hit, we're going to lose atmosphere." She runs to her cabin and puts on her own suit.

"Somebody grab mine. I'm a bit busy."

Zaki collects and delivers vacc suits after hastily donning her own.

joertexas wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 5:32 pm

terrymixon wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 3:00 pm

joertexas wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 1:12 pm

"We all need to get into our vacc suits," Zaki says. "If we take a hit, we're going to lose atmosphere." She runs to her cabin and puts on her own suit.

"Somebody grab mine. I'm a bit busy."

Zaki collects and delivers vacc suits after hastily donning her own.

"Thanks," Flighty said, stripping off what was needed to get into his right on the spot, modesty be damned.

Zaki runs around getting vacc suits to everyone while Karsci and Sigrun make sure the ship is buttoned up and ready for a boarding action. Sigrun wants to be in a turret firing lasers at the priates and their missiles, but Donovan has some skill at that, so maybe her best efforts are elsewhere for the moment. Karsci has no training with the Ship's Weapon systems, but if he could stab at something with his spear he feels he would hit it...maybe he needs to learn something about the big guns on this ship?

Back in Engineering Doug monitors the systems and prepares the Jump Drive to kick in at the earliest moment. He knows that if the ship has the M Drive program running and the drive operating when the Jump Drive fires up there will be a system shock. Everything is in order with the drives so it should go off as it should, but it could be a rough transition. There could be some damage to the M Drive, but the circuit breakers should handle the power surge and shut things down. Might have to replace the circuit breakers though and he should check to see if there are any in stock. Of more concern is the ship forming a stable Jump Bubble once in JSpace. If the ship is still accelerating the geometry is going to be tricky. He is confident in his Engineering Skill to get that balanced before any damage can occur!

On the Bridge, Flighty takes as little time putting on the Vacc Suit as he can, because he is trying to juggle several things at once. The Ship could jump without re-crunching the numbers for the insertion into JSpace, but that's a little risky. Recalculating based on a jump at, say 75 diameters, would pull some of the risk out of an early jump and most of that will be done by the Ship's Computer with the Generate program, but while the Computer is busy with that it is going to put a crimp in Donovan aiming the Laser at missiles. Starting that now will allow the programming to switch back to assisting Donovan with firing solutions before the missiles get in range. He also has to decide whether to ride the MDrive and its Maneuver program right into the transition before switching to the Jump program and firing up the JDrive. He also needs to switch out Maneuver for Maneuver/Evade so he he can jink the ship to help avoid the missiles if they get through the laser fire, that should lower the chance of getting hit. He also has messages bombarding him from both ships and Jenghe's Traffic Control wanting to know what is going on...and ha, ha, "does he need help?" Wait a minute! Somebody needs to be in the Computer Room to swap those programs around!!!

Donovan moves his fingers over the controls in the turret, bringing the pulse laser online and...asks the Bridge for permission to load the Target, Predict 1 and Gunner Interact programs, he knows if he does Flighty will lose Maneuver or Navigation as the Computer doesn't have room to run everything at the same time. Wait a minute! Who is in the Computer Room!

Everybody is thinking..."Let's see...programs...we can have 4 units installed at a time, but somebody has got to switch programs and that can't be Flighty on the Bridge, Doug in Engineering or Donovan in the turret. Somebody has to be in the Computer Room switching out programs!"

Both Flighty and Donovan come on the Comms at the same time, "Who has Computer Skills? Zaki! Zaki, to the Computer Room, on the double!!!"

Isn't it interesting that Zaki is the only one aboard with Computer as a skill? Anybody can swap the programs, but I'd make rolls for that, only someone with Computer 1+ can make the swaps without the random chance of failure.

Here is the Computer Breakdown for you:

You have a Model 1bis 4/0 Computer aboard. This model of computer has a CPU that can run 4 units of programs at a time, but can store 0 units. Each program must be loaded/unload from Cassettes by a Computer Operator. The Computer Operator needs to be in the Computer Room switching out those cassettes as called for by the Pilot, Engineer and Weapon's Operators.

Right now the Computer has Maneuver 1, Navigation 1, and Jump 1 loaded with 1 unit free. That's all you'd normally need to fly out to the jump point and go into JSpace. If combat is on the table, though there are problems!


Minimum to fly the ship in normal space is Maneuver 1 and Navigation 1, so you can free up 2 units in normal space to use on other programs. Jump 1 must be running to go into JSpace, but you could replace Maneuver with it if you cut the MDrive before you jump.

If Flighty wants to calculate a new jump solution that requires Generate to be loaded: Generate 1.

If Flighty wants to try jinking the ship to avoid getting hit, he'll need Maneuver/Evade 1 loaded, not Maneuver.

Before the ship transitions into JSpace then Jump 1 has to be loaded.

Donovan will want both Target 1, Predict 1 and Gunner Interact 1 loaded so he have the best chance to hit those incoming missiles and apply his Gunnery skill to the firing solution! Edit: And if Sigrun (or Karcsi) want to man the second turret that is going to need another Predict 1 or Gunner Interact 1 program loaded!

And that's a lot of program swapping that somebody with Computer skill, that means Zaki, needs to do!

I'll add this to The Ship With No Name Thread, but here is what you have for your Computer


Whoever is the Computer Operator needs to keep the following filled in during this sequence. Zaki will do it, but that will be based on whatever Flighty, Donovan, Doug, and maybe Sigrun tell her.

Programs loaded now (max 4 units):
1 Maneuver
1 Navigation
1 Jump-1

Eris wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 7:34 pmAnd that's a lot of program swapping that somebody with Computer skill, that means Zaki, needs to do!

Zaki runs to the computer station and keys her comm. "I'm ready."

joertexas wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 8:22 pm

Eris wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 7:34 pmAnd that's a lot of program swapping that somebody with Computer skill, that means Zaki, needs to do!

Zaki runs to the computer station and keys her comm. "I'm ready."

"I need generate to calculate jump and maneuver and navigation to fly. I can release generate when I've got jump ready."

He'll prep the jump and hopefully release generate for when Donovan needs to do some shooting. If he needs to jink, he'll call out and see how Zaki balances things. The goal is to kill maneuvering before jump to ease the potential for damage.

terrymixon wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 8:36 pm

joertexas wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 8:22 pm

Eris wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 7:34 pmAnd that's a lot of program swapping that somebody with Computer skill, that means Zaki, needs to do!

Zaki runs to the computer station and keys her comm. "I'm ready."

"I need generate to calculate jump and maneuver and navigation to fly. I can release generate when I've got jump ready."

He'll prep the jump and hopefully release generate for when Donovan needs to do some shooting. If he needs to jink, he'll call out and see how Zaki balances things. The goal is to kill maneuvering before jump to ease the potential for damage.

Donovan calls out to Zaki as he squirms into his vacc suit. "Give Flighty Maneuver/Evade instead of regular Maneuver so he can dodge. Give me Target for now so I can at least fire up the systems."

helvorn wrote: ↑Sun May 18, 2025 12:18 am

terrymixon wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 8:36 pm

joertexas wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 8:22 pm

Zaki runs to the computer station and keys her comm. "I'm ready."

"I need generate to calculate jump and maneuver and navigation to fly. I can release generate when I've got jump ready."

He'll prep the jump and hopefully release generate for when Donovan needs to do some shooting. If he needs to jink, he'll call out and see how Zaki balances things. The goal is to kill maneuvering before jump to ease the potential for damage.

Donovan calls out to Zaki as he squirms into his vacc suit. "Give Flighty Maneuver/Evade instead of regular Maneuver so he can dodge. Give me Target for now so I can at least fire up the systems."

The missiles should still have been a ways to go and Flighty needs navigation to keep heading for the jump point. Eris, if that is correct, he'll say the following.

"Hold on to that change for me. I have to have maneuver and navigation to keep heading for the jump limit. I'll let you know when to switch to maneuver/evade."

If Donovan is correct and the missiles are going to arrive sooner, he'll let the instruction Donvan gave stand.