Sirius Business - a C# Aurora forum game. v2.5

[blue emu]

The Battle of the Mechanus Jump has been raging for 40 seconds.

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On the Modron end of the jump the remaining enemy ships have fled through the jump point, and the confusion of battle has given way to a deadly calm.

Rowan of Elton's squadron had the bad luck to appear right in front of the enemy fleet, and that entire squadron was obliterated in the first few seconds of battle.

... but Rowan of Elton himself fortuitously ejected and survived, thus giving him a ring-side seat from which to watch the ensuing carnage.

In other news, both Blue Emu III and Dai Orribly also survived the battle.

So all three of the Player Characters lived through it. None of us got a kill, but I'll settle for survival.

 

[blue emu]

In addition to SteveZAX's Winged Hussar vs Sarthe kill, our player character Blaaat in ESN Shock got a kill as well.

He took down the first Gard, the AMM-PD Light Cruiser.

The Fighter strikes by the ESN Orion (Son of Liberty) and ESN Crab Nebula (Bora Horza Gobuchul) each bagged a PD ship (Vosges and Gard), so they scored too.

 

[blue emu]

Should our Combined Fleet (ie: the unshielded part of our fleet) evade the immobilized Sarthes simply by jumping through to Mechanus?

We've already won the battle there.

 

[randakar]

Should our Combined Fleet (ie: the unshielded part of our fleet) evade the immobilized Sarthes simply by jumping through to Mechanus?

We've already won the battle there.

Makes sense if the remainder is strong enough to take on whatever of theirs is still in fighting shape

What do they have left right now anyway?

 

[blue emu]

Thinking about this: Have we just seen the AI do to our party starters what we wanted to do to their missile boats, with the jumps being slightly staggered by order response times?

With the unforunate (or fortunate for us) outcome that they instead jumped straight into a JP ambush.

Yes, this is the same trick we were planning to pull. Squat on a jump point, wait until all the missiles are incoming, and then wave good-bye and jump out.

... unfortunately, we had set an ambush on the far side of the jump.

 

[blue emu]

Makes sense if the remainder is strong enough to take on whatever of theirs is still in fighting shape

What do they have left right now anyway?

They have seven ships left, four of them immobilized and the other three in jump shock.

They have one Vosges and two Lot-et-Garonne just arrived from fleeing the Mechanus battle, still in jump shock. They have two Sarthes immobilized but still dangerous. They have another Vosges and a Gard both immobilized. I'll just kill them, since I dumped all of our Marines on the Sarthes in pursuit of a quick win.

Our Gunships can easily dispose of the remaining Modrons.

Our Marines are already aboard both immobilized Sarthe.

Our fleet aren't needed here. I think they'll just pop off.

 

[Wagonlitz]

How's the Sarthe boarding going?

 

[blue emu]

It's hilarious that it's only been 40 seconds since we jumped in the Partystarters, and already there are only remnants left of the enemy force and we have boarding parties aboard two of their ships.

Those ships are still very dangerous, though.

How's the Sarthe boarding going?

They are inside.

It will be another minute before the first round of boarding combat is fought, and it might take several minutes to win the battle.

In the meantime, the Sarthe will probably shoot at stuff.

I'm evacuating everything that isn't either shielded (like the Fortress, the Emotions, etc) or so obsolete that the Modrons would be doing us a favor by shooting at it.

 

[Avernite]

It's hilarious that it's only been 40 seconds since we jumped in the Partystarters, and already there are only remnants left of the enemy force and we have boarding parties aboard two of their ships.

The Longest 40seconds?

 

[blue emu]

ESN Silent Rage (Iche Bins) kills a Vosges Laser PD vessel. Our player characters are racking up the points.

ESN Thoughts, ESN Prayers and ESN Epiphany each bagged a ship.

Only three ships - the two immobilized Sarthes and a fleeing Gard - still remain.

 

[blue emu]

The Longest 40seconds?

Since the first round of boarding combat should be at the one-minute mark (actually, at 1:20 or 1:25) we could call it "The Longest Minute".

 

[blue emu]

The fleeing Gard is whacked.

Now only the two immobilized Sarthe remain, while the boarding combat rages aboard them.

We'll dance around at medium range with the Gunships, to give them something to shoot at.

More likely they'll just shoot up the maintenance workshops docked at the Fortress.

 

[randakar]

Or each other, if they don't get captured simultaneously.

 

[blue emu]

Tactical, Mechanus star system - The battle is over.

Tactical, Neutral Zone - only the two immobilized Sarthe remain, both have our marines aboard.

 

[blue emu]

Fifty seconds exactly, from beginning to end.

 

[Wagonlitz]

The fleeing Gard is whacked.

Now only the two immobilized Sarthe remain, while the boarding combat rages aboard them.

We'll dance around at medium range with the Gunships, to give them something to shoot at.

More likely they'll just shoot up the maintenance workshops docked at the Fortress.

Can they tell if something is shielded or not?
How nig of a loss is the maintenance shops?

Tactical, Mechanus star system - The battle is over.

View attachment 1315957

Tactical, Neutral Zone - only the two immobilized Sarthe remain, both have our marines aboard.

View attachment 1315961

Does those red energy weapon strikes mean the Sarthe have started shooting?

 

[blue emu]

This is the one-minute mark of the battle.

The two Sarthes are still in jump shock.

The first round of boarding combat should take place in another fifteen or twenty seconds, and then more rounds at one-minute intervals after that.

Can they tell if something is shielded or not? - Yes. It leaks a bit of energy at EM wavelengths. In-game, we refer to it as "shield harmonics".
How nig of a loss is the maintenance shops? - I'm currently building them 21 at a time in commercial shipyards. Not kidding.
Does those red energy weapon strikes mean the Sarthe have started shooting? - Those are our own shell bursts. Nothing but Partystarters has been shot at yet.

 

[blue emu]

At the one minute and twenty second mark, the first of the Sarthes comes out of jump shock and opens fire... on the ESN Radiant Joy.

Excellent!

I had been dancing around at half-a-million km range with the Gunships, hoping to draw the enemy fire away from the unshielded maintenance depots.

The first round of boarding combat should be coming up soon.

 

[blue emu]

In the first boarding combat round, we killed 105 crew (on both target ships combined) for the loss of 8 marine troopers.

 

[blue emu]

Even at a range of over half a million kilometers, being shot at by one of those Sarthe is not a pleasant experience.