Defender_16

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/A-wingAttack.jpg "Have the hanger crew equip the second Gauntlet flight with missiles. Pull the interceptors back. Those little shooting stars can be death on Interceptors if we give them a chance. Raise shields and extend them around our slipway." Turbo lasers that could still fire despite the docking arms were crewed. Shields began to power up. Stormtroopers armed with shoulder fired missiles and torpedoes clambered into position on the outside of the station. "The missile equipped Gauntlets will be ready in three minutes." Admiral Dorja picked up him com. "Colonel Fel, try to keep as many of our pilots and fighters alive as possible." "Understood Admiral. Shielded fighters up front. We'll break their formation for the Interceptors to jump them." + + + The scratch built A-wing fighters were closing fast. Using their impressive speed to try and gain any advantage. At maximum range half of the tiny fighters fired concussion missiles. "Break! Break!" Yelled out a half dozen pilots over the com. "Fold formation!" Came Fel's distinctive voice. "Use lasers to shoot down the missiles!" A flurry of laser and ion Cannon fire started, then ball explosions began appearing. The designators for one Gunboat and four Interceptors blinked out before the two lines of fighters crossed and merged into a rolling dogfight. One full squadron of A-wings blasted right through the engagement, lasers firing, and out toward the shipyard. The gunboats fired torpedoes after the A-wing squadron before having to break off. Half the Rebel squadron fell back, targeting the missiles with lasers. At the same time Gauntlet Flight One broke free of the main engagement and headed after the squad. The trailing A-wing group had just destroyed the last torpedoes when Jag Fel's flight caught up to them. Three of the Rebel fighters never survived the first pass, the six laser cannon on each Gauntlet fast chewing through their weak shields. The return fire punched through a gauntlet's shields and sheared off a wing sending it out of control. There wasn't time for Jag's flight to stop and dogfight with the survivors. They had to get ahead and stop the other A-wing group. The three A-wings were about to turn in pursuit when the missile locks of Gunboats drew their attention again. + + + "Time until Flight two launches?" Asked Dorja. "Thirty second." Out ahead of the Destroyer six A-wings fired Heavy Rockets and torpedoes. "Gunnery-" "Already on them sir." Turbolasers opened fire on the missiles. Most of the bolts missed and those that did hit struck the slower Heavy Rockets. Six Torpedo detonations blossomed against the forward shields. "Dropping Ventral shields for fighter launch." Four Gauntlets armed with missile pods dropped fast from the forward launch bay. Before the Destroyer’s shields had even come back up the Ties were firing pairs of missiles at the Rebels. Each overlapping their missile fire. The A-wings broke formation and spiralled down toward the new threat. Most fired lasers while dodging heavily, blasting the missiles or out manoeuvring them. One unfortunate fighter caught six missiles simultaneously, turning into a bright orange fiery smear. Instead of turning to shoot down the remaining missiles, or battle the Gauntlet flight the surviving Rebels all flew straight for the nearest points on the ship docks. They reached the nearest docking arms and hull sections just at the missiles caught up, and used them to block their line of sight. Bright ball explosions lit up the dock next to Ardent. "Tell the Stormtroopers to stay alert. They may try terrain following tactics." Gauntlet Flight One soon caught up with the second flight. "Break by pairs, one laser equipped fighter and one missile equipped fighter." Jag didn't sound happy from what the other pilots could tell. "We'll have to hunt them down." Out at the main engagement the fighting was in a stalemate. Nearly a squadron of Interceptors was destroyed or so badly damaged they were out of the fighting. The A-wings would have had the advantage by now were it not for the Gunboats and the older Tie Avenger unit from Sevanar. "Colonel Fel, this is Admiral Dorja. No pressure but we're going to need help at the main engagement, and soon. Find those fighters." + + + "No Pressure." Jag muttered under his breath. Sensors were going to be near useless here, but sure enough down below he could see a fighter making a surface run towards the Destroyer. "Gee Five, on me." He called into the com letting his wing know to stay close. Then he heeled his fighter over and dove towards the likely intercept point. Before they could accurately judge where the A-wing was going to go, a Stormtrooper noticed the fighter and launched a missile at it. "Sithspit." Cursed Jag as the A-wing broke off, using a half melted communications array for cover. They followed the fighter into a large empty slipway filled with broken or disintegrating docking arms. Instead of heading into the tangle of armatures the fighter instead flew through a blown out cargo hatch and into the station. "Fel to Ardent. A-wings are inside the station. We are pursuing them." Com static increased as they entered the structure. For all he knew the Admiral could have ordered them out and they wouldn’t know. As they came around an intersection in the main cargo module conveyer way we spotted the A-wing up ahead. Artificial gravity still seemed to be on in places forcing them to bring up repulsors to stay in the middle of the corridor and limiting top speed. There were some sparks from ahead and the A-wing turned a corner. "Prepare to increase speed once we get around the corner." Before they reached the corner a particular piece of debris sitting on the floor of the conveyer way stood out. It was shinier than the surrounding carbon scored metals and debris. The Torpedo the A-wing had dropped on a timer exploded. The forward shields disappeared off of both Gauntlets and debris pelted them. They missed the turn the first A-wing had taken and the corridor ahead was straight for some distance. Then laser bolts from a second A-wing hit their aft shields. Jag swore again. If they turned in place in the narrow conveyer way the A-wing could shoot them through their unshielded front. "Increase speed!" With no other options Jag began firing lasers into the ceiling as they passed. Debris began raining down but the tie's were moving fast enough to get under it before it could reach the floor. The A-wing was forced to either slow or risk running into half melted Durasteel support braces at several hundred meters per second. At the next intersection Jag and his wing went off in different directions. + + + "We've accounted for all but three of the A-wings attacking us sir." Reported Wintle. "And the surviving fighters at the main engagement are now running. Apparently they've seen that their attack squadron won't be able to harm the ship." Dorja sighed. "Dispatch recovery shuttles. I want any extra starfighter debris, rebel or Imperial, brought aboard. We might be able to cobble a fighter out of it all. How many A-wings escaped?" "Five out of the nearly two and a half squadrons in the main fight." "And our vehicle losses?" "Heavy. We're down to four Gunboats, four Avengers and six Interceptors. All of those are in need of repairs." "Pilots?" "Many of our Tie pilots managed to eject but neither of the Gunboat pilots survived." "Find me some Rebel pilots Commander. I wouldn't mind having a talk with some. " 010

I could definitely use this in larger more complicated games.

I think I must have missed that one. Oh well, Mad seems to have benifited from the topic revive though.

Yet another Topic Revive BUMP. I'm trying to see if anyone else joined Urban Dead all those months ago. http://www.urbandead.com I started back into the game for a few minutes at a time when I started posting NSO stories. I've only now just started to realise what sort of disasters have befallen in-game when I stopped playing. Caiger Mall, once the most powerful Human Stronghold has fallen (Now repetedly) and remains in Zombie hands. If possible it is my intention to go with as many SWRebel people as possible and establish a a safehouse near the Mall. With that under control we can attract more survivors back to the area with the intention of Retaking the Mall.

*Revive* So... has anyone heard what's happened?

So, I've recently finished reading War of the Spider Queen a 6 part book series set in the Forgotten Realms. (And since finishing it have resumed the New Sith Order.) I'm still reading more Realms novels but not at the break-neck pace I was holding before.

+ + + "So potentially anything Rimward of the Atrivis sector may have been taken." Dorja summed up. "Potentially." Agreed Wintle. "We still don't know if they're coming out of the Unknown Regions or from the Rim. That Yaga Minor was hit first would suggest the Unknown Regions." "If we knew they were coming in from the Unknown Regions we could swing back around Bastion and over to Helska. Likewise if we knew they were coming from the rim we could get out by way of Nirauan. Either way could be useless." "We could scout a route through Dantooine and over to Gravlex Med." Suggested Commander Devis. "Both systems are uninhabited, and we might find some abandoned ship repair facilities at the latter." "Is there anything at Dantooine?" Asked Fel. "No." Dorja was quick to reply. "There was a Rebel base there some thirty years ago. It was already abandoned before we found it." "Would these aliens use it?" "We haven't even seen them take any planets yet. Just bombard them." Stormtrooper head Taulen interjected. Dorja waved everyone quiet. "In either case the Raioballo sector would seem like a good place to break through. The sector has enough population that they have a full size sector fleet. If even a fraction of them have survived we'll have a large enough fighting force to get back to the Mid Rim. Commander Devis what do you have in the way of scout craft?" "We have six old Star Wing Assault Gunboats sir." "We'll have our hyperspace jumps end short by a few minutes and send two Gunboats in ahead of us. Let's get moving." + + + It didn't take long for the Admiral to find a flaw in using the old Gunboats as scouts. Their sensor packages had not been upgraded in more than ten years and were woefully short ranged. The Ardent didn't carry sensor equipment for these older model fighters, only tie craft or Blastboats. "Alien Cruiser Analog and two Frigate Analogs detected in orbit of Dantooine." Reported sensors once they had dropped out of hyperspace. "Have they seen us?" "It doesn't look like it. They appear to be sending landing craft down to the surface." "Make a note of where they're sending down troops. We may be back in a few weeks to... investigate." Wintle walked up to the Admiral's position at the forward view ports. "I'm sure Mr. Taulen would be interested in volunteering for that mission if given the chance sir." "He just wants to fight something on solid ground. He's not Spacetrooper qualified or he would have been out with the assault shuttles at Bastion." "Jumping to Gravlex Med in ten seconds... nine... eight..." + + + Hours later with four jumps behind them the Ardent and Sevanar reverted to real space in the middle of the Anx Minor system. "No contacts in system." Wintle checked over the sensor boards then looked to Dorja. "Awfully quiet sir." The older man nodded. "Status of the ship docks?" "They're all powered down. No activity. No life signs." "We'll have to chance it. Have Colonel Fel take a recon flight and make a visual inspection of the station." + + + The two Capital ships were approaching the outer edges of Gravlex Med's gravity well when Fel's Tie flight reached the station. "It looks to be in bad shape Admiral. Most of the slipways and docking arms are damaged. One third of the station is open to space. External cargo modules have been left empty or blown open. All weapons emplacements look as if they were destroyed by Tie fighter attack runs." Dorja turned to Wintle. "Rebels hijacked the Chimaera from here years ago. The platform wasn't worth repairing so it was decommissioned. Sometimes training squadrons jump out here and practice strafing runs." "I couldn't argue if another squadron was to show up Sir." Jag's voice came over the com again. "We found a slip that might be able to handle the Ardent. It's only partially damaged and the surrounding sections still have atmosphere." "I want troopers and repair teams assessing that dock ASAP. Launch our fighters, they're to perform a CAP, but keep Gauntlet flight two in the forward launch bay. Have the other fighters dock aboard the Sevanar when needed. Inform Commander Davis to position his ship just outside the gravity well of the planet and to scan for incoming ships." + + + Within two hours the Star Destroyer had been swung into position and backed into the remaining functional slipway on the station. Crews were already moving the giant docking and construction arms into place. The crews already knew their orders; get the hull patched as fast as possible. These repairs were to be quick and dirty. "The repair teams have found spare parts for Tie craft as well as lasers and Turbolaser assemblies. They were deeper inside the station in sections not damaged by strafing." "Any estimates for patching the worst of the hull breaches? We can always fit the Turbolasers while in deep space." Wintle scanned his datapad for the total time estimates. "The crew chiefs are looking at five hours minimum. Normally this would be a job taking weeks sir." "I know Commander. Time estimates if we were to fit the Turbolasers?" "It would push time requirements up to twelve hours if there weren’t any delays. So say fourteen with delays factored in." "I want contingency plans made for evacuating our people from the station if we have to get out in a hurry." "We have that in place sir. We moved an AT-AT barge and two shuttles over to the station." Dorja smirked. "It seems as if you have everything in order here Commander. I'll be in my ready room. Inform me if anything changes." + + + Half way into the repair work one of the sentry pilots uttered the words everyone had been dreading. "Enemy contact detected. We have incoming fighters." Wintle didn’t even wait to find out what the enemies were. "Admiral to the bridge!" He called out then started checking on the repair progress. The repair teams were one quarter of the way into welding on a large piece of armour plate near the reactors. They couldn't stop and leave it half finished. Dorja stormed onto the bridge at that point looking half asleep. "What do we have and where are they coming from?" "The contacts are coming up from the planet." "I thought the planet wasn't habitable." "It isn't habitable sir." Insisted Wintle. "Put the contacts on the screen. Sensors what are they?" "They're coming in fast. A-wings. We now have Rebel IFF contacts. Looks like three full squadrons." 009

The original is one of those classics that everyone has to see. It's fairly short too which makes it easier. I saw some of the John Carpenter Remake of The Thing and thought it was just really gory. It didn't have the same kind of feeling that the original did.

If you don't know we can't tell you. It's heavily classified. Awesome Gifs as normal J.

Life of Brian was yet another awesome movie by Mony Python.

You open a door for people like Tofu to exploit. RANDOM! Posting from my workplace! *Looks over shoulder* Do you guys need a hand? ...You do eh? ...oh.

+ + + "Hyperspace signatures detected at one hundred thousand kilometres." Reported the sensors officer. "Helm, are we ready to jump?" Asked Wintle. "Aye sir. We can jump to hyperspace with ten seconds notice." The doors to the Admiral's ready room hissed open and Dorja strode out onto the bridge. "What do we have Commander? Is it the recon flight?" Wintle turned his attention back to the sensors officer. "Sensors, what have we got?" "Something cruiser sized coming in. I've got our recon fighters..." The officer paused to double check the board then continued. "And a Vindicator class cruiser. IFF shows her as the Sevanar, part of Yaga Minor's patrol fleet." "Any more contacts?" Questioned the Admiral. "No sir." "We are being hailed sir." "I'll take it at the aft bridge station." Replied Dorja turning towards the back of the bridge. "Patch Colonel Fel in while you're at it." He reached the terminal in a handful of strides and activated the holopad. "This is Admiral Dorja, to whom do I have the pleasure of addresing? "Lieutenant Commander Mynar Davis sir." "What's the status of Yaga Minor and your ship Commander?" "The Sevanar is fully operational, our complete starfighter compliment is still intact. As for Yaga Minor we don't fully know what state it's in." "If I may sir?" broke in Jag. "Go ahead Colonel." "The entire fleet and the shipyards except for the Sevanar must have been destroyed sir. There were no contacts remaining in orbit nor were there any navigational becons left. The planet is shrouded in heavy cloud cover and I wasn't about to go any closer to the planet after what happened at Bastion." "Understood. Any orbital debris whatsoever?" "No sir. It must have been pushed into the atmosphere." "...Commander Davis, Colonel Fel, I want you both aboard the Ardent within the hour. I'm calling a planning briefing. Commander, transfer a squadron of Interceptors to the Ardent when you come aboard. Have the head of your fighter wing at the briefing. Dorja out." + + + The Sevanar came along side Ardent, taking up position to port of the larger ship. Several things about the ship were confusing Davis. The larger Destroyer didn't maintain a CAP of hyperdrive equipped fighters like most did. It was also odd that there were no support cruisers for a ship with an Admiral aboard. Everything started to become clear when his shuttle approached Ardent's landing bay. Holes the size of blastboats peppered the hull, and one great tear in the hull was nearly the size of his ship's command tower. There was a starfighter sized crater in the ceiling of the main landing bay. Besides all of that, the main bay was very nearly empty. The shuttle set down just as the squadron of Interceptors entered the bay, headed for the landing racks. When he reached the bottom of the shuttle's landing ramp there was a junior Imperial Army officer and four storm troopers standing at attention. The army officer waited until the Sevanar's starfighter commander joined Davis at the bottom of the ramp before speaking. "Welcome aboard the Ardent sirs. I'll direct you to the briefing room where the Admiral is waiting." "Lead on." Replied Davis, returning the salute. + + + Dorja sat at the head of a large table with Wintle on his left and Jag on his right. The stormtrooper commander entered, taking a seat next to Jag, then a minute later Commander Davis and his CAG enterd. Dorja waited until they were all seated then began. "Gentlemen we are facing an enemy quite unlike anything the Empire has encountered before. They use strange technology and tactics almost unheard of. Yaga Minor has been cut off for close to three standard weeks. In that time no communications reached the fleet groups of other nearby sectors. Pirates and insurgents have crippled the holonet where they could in co-ordinated strikes. Commander Davis when exactally did the battle at Yaga Minor occur?" "Approximately eighteen days ago." "The last registered communications out of Garqi were twenty days ago. Our engagement at Bastion took place five days ago now. How long after Bastion was first hit did we arrive there?" Wintle scrolled through his datapad then looked up. "We estimate three or four days previous to our arrival, but those could be off by as much as a day." "So we have a large fleet hitting the shipyard and the surrounding systems then relocating to Bastion. It's possible they have hit the inhabited systems between those two worlds and those with hyperlanes leading out of the area. Commander Davis, did you bring your sensor reconds of the battle?" "Yes Admiral. Because of our position they are not the most accurate though." Davis plugged his datapad into the holopad that made up the center of the table. A slightly grainy image appeared showing the rocky ovoid shapes that the Ardent's crew had become familiar with. "Once the asteroid bombardment was finished we were able to pick out the ships from the rocks. There were two big ones both larger than an Imperator, and four the size of Mon Cal cruisers." "Sounds like the Carrier group that tried to interdict us as Bastion." said Wintle. "There were more ships through the system." Continued Davis. "Interdictors. We picked them up when we tried to plot a jump to Garqi. A whole string of them across the other side of the system." "Were you able to get visual confirmation on any of the other interdictors Commander?" "No Sir. We had watched the opening phase of the battle through video feeds from the shipyards. When the Destroyers all went down in the first volley I decided it wasn't worth losing the ship by jumping into a one sided a battle like that. When we couldn't jump out I ordered us into the gas giant's atmosphere. It's not designed for it but a Vindicator can stay alive in the atmosphere for quite some time. I figured that given enough time either an Imperial response force would come or they would move their interdictors." Dorja thought for a moment, staring at the images on the holo projector. Davis might have been charged with cowardice in the face of the enemy by other Commanders or Admirals. He'd seen men executed for less in the Imperial Navy. But the young man had essentially made the same choice he had at Bastion and now the Empire had information on how two fleet actions had taken place. "Commander I think you did the right thing. Judging by the gravity well readings you might have been facing as many as six Cruiser Analogs if you had jumped. On top of that you had no idea how the enemy systems worked. You surely would have been destroyed." "Thank you sir." "Now, how do these enemy systems work? We have some basic defenses that let us stay alive long enough to run. We need more." Wintle cleared his throat. "I've had a group of junior officers working on analysing everything that happened at Bastion. Some of the spare relief pilots helped as well. Everything points to a powerful combined gravity control system. It can be used for propulsion, for defence by forming microscopic singularities, for offence by striping a target ship of it's shields, and lastly for interdiction. We can use inertial compensators to prevent shields striping but it puts a great deal of strain on the system. One of the pilots suggested using laser cannon shots to spread out the void defenses for the heavier turbolaser shots." The stormtrooper commander spoke up. "Sir's I watched the sensor feeds when the assault shuttles made their run. For all we know the ship might be one giant projector, there could be no limit to the number of voids they put up." It was Jag's turn this time. "The fact that mass fire tactics have worked at all suggest that they might only be able to block so many shots at a time. If we were to equip fighters with additional lower power cannon it might allow the heavier bolts through more often." "Talk to the flight techs about it after the meeting Colonel." Suggested Dorja. "If you feel it's worth the risk to try, go ahead. Now, their plasma weaponry." Wintle resumed. "It looks to be rock superheated to a plasma state. Shields can handle it as if it were normal turbolaser shots, but they become very dangerous if we lose shields. Once it impacts the hull it can continue melting it's way through until it cools enough. The only real defence we have is keeping the shields up." "Fine. What about those carriers. We saw them launching larger objects before." "We believe those were unmanned fighters or some kind of directed cruise missiles." Wintle keyed the holoprojector to the appropriate scene. "As you can see here this Carrier is literaly throwing starfighter or similar sized chunks into a Destroyer. We took a half dozen hits from these as well. A correctly placed salvo of these might be able to take down a destroyer's wepons on one side." "Anything we can do about them?" "Push them away with tractor beams and have fighters shoot them down. As these large missiles are also propelled by the same kind of gravitic system as the other ships, they have the same singularity defenses." Groans of frustration issued from both starfighter pilots present. 008 http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/ArdentandSevenar.jpg Anyone who wants to take a crack at making up images that match the events of the story are welcome.

I start by finding a planet I can force into uprising against the computer, then take it, giving me a full sector early on in the core. I tend to send Han, Chewy and sometimes Luke on a Corvette into enemy sectors and sabotage enemy shipyards before day 100. I form up my starting ships into small fleets and add carriers as soon as possible. Before long my fleets are maxed out with X-wings and Y-wings. By day 300 about, the Empire forces a fleet battle with me using it's starting Destroyers and other ships. My Corellian Corvettes and X-wings mow down the Ties. After that my X-wings and Y-wings decimate the Destroyers while they try to kill my Bulk Cruiser and/or Dreadnaught. I'll normally lose my two or three most powerful cruiser type ships in the galaxy at that point but I'll still have the carriers. Meanwhile the Empire loses half the Destroyers they sent in before retreating. End result: I lose my crappier cruiser types and the maintinence drain they cause just in time for the Mon Cal's to enter production. The Empire never recovers as they can only defend their shipyards near Coruscant and can't match the output of my multiple yards. (One normal production planet with 3 to 5 yards in each Core Sector I control.) By the time I assault Coruscant (Day ~800) I have 1 sector fleet, each based around a Mon Cal, for each Core sector. EDIT: I killed another thread didn't I?

Guess I'll have to re-install Rebellion soon to flush out all of those busted mod's I've got.

You just summed up the cold war.

+ + + "From what we have been able to determine, the alien fleet is no longer perusing us." "Now all we need to do is get back to the fleet, Commander." Dorja paced behind his desk, something he never would have allowed himself to do on the bridge. "A good three weeks in a repair dock and a wing of starfighters are all we need before getting back into the action. If I'm able to retain my command that is." "You have a loyal Imperial crew Admiral. Everyone I've spoke to believes you'll get us back to the fleet." "Thank you Commander. Now, we need to find a way station of some kind with more supplies. There are only so many hyperlanes from Bastion and it's surrounding sectors back to our rendevous point. There is a good bet that those lanes could be watched and we wouldn't stand a chance in a straight up fight. How close are we to Yaga Minor?" Wintle leaned forward and sorted through several hardcopy star charts then compared them to his datapad. "We can get there in two jumps. Say eighteen hours if we don’t lose any more hyperdrive efficiency." "Equip two of the Gauntlets with hyperdrives, one of them with a recon package. We'll drop out between systems, say twelve light hours out. Then the recon fighters go in." + + + Jag Fel's fighter dropped out of hyperspace followed shortly after by his wing mate Tarth Elsin. Jag's fighter had been fitted with two high power sensor pods on it's hard points. External belly tanks had been fitted to increase the range of the fighters. Since the hyperdrive module used the same port that the shield module normally did Jag's fighter had reduced defences. Tarth's fighter had one of the prototype combined shield/missile pods equipped but the shields were only half the normal power. The other mount had a wing laser, giving the fighter an off balance look. If they were attacked Jag would have to rely on his wing mate for support. To add insult to injury the Tie's lasers had to the powered down while the sensors were in use as their emissions caused interference. They had entered the system at the orbital distance of the system's largest gas giant. The planet was on the far side of the system at this point of it's orbit. "Anything on the sensors yet sir?" asked Tarth who had wisely switched to burst transmission. "Not at the moment, they're taking a bit to warm up. Loop out to thirty kilometres to be sure you're not interfering with my scans." "Aye sir." After a minute of silence the sensors finished coming up to full power. Jag focused the sensors in on Yaga Minor hoping to find signs the shipyard was still intact. At this range even the high powered sensors could distinguish little. The planet itself was covered in thick clouds obscuring the view of the planet below. He keyed his com. "Tarth, do you know what kind of weather is normal for Yaga Minor?" "Not really sir, I'm from Tynna. The only other worlds I know much about are in the core." "I can't find any signs of the shipyard from here, but I'm betting it's already been taken out. I can't even find any navigational beacons." "We arn't in any gravity wells here. We could try to raise someone on the com and if any trouble shows up we jump to hyperspace." "You plot a jump for us while I try communications." The whole situation struck Jag as odd. If Yaga Minor had been attacked then they should have been able to raise the small base at Garqi. That should have sent word back to a dozen worlds and brought a much faster response even with the holonet transceivers being ravaged. Despite all of this Bastion had been able to get off a distress signal that reached a fleet group. It was still odd. He set the gain on the communications systems to maximum and keyed it on. "This is Colonel Jag Fel to any Imperial forces in the Yaga Minor system, please respond. Any Imperial vehicles or vessels respond please." The com remained silent except for background radiation. "Sir..." came Tarth's voice "I've got the jump plotted." "We'll wait a minute." Jag responded before switching back to the high gain signal. "This is Colonel Jag Fel off of the Star Destroyer Ardent. Any Imperial survivors please respond..." A light crackle issued through the com unit for a moment then subsided. Seconds later the crackle reappeared, again disappearing seconds later. The third time the crackling sounded very much like Imperial encryption code but was still so garbled that that the computer could make no sense out of it. Then the sensors pinged with an IFF contact. "I've got something coming up out of the gas giant's atmosphere. The IFF looks Imperial but it might be a trap, get ready to jump." "Th-- i- L---t--an-- C--and-- Dav-- of--he V---icat-- C--ise-- Se--na--" "I don't think it's a trap sir." "Keep your hand on the hyperdrive lever either way." "T--s is Lieutenant C----ander Davis of t--- ----dicator Cruiser Sev---r to Impe--al resc-- party plea-- respon-. I repeat, this is L-eutenant Comm-nder Davis of t-e Vindicator Cruiser Sevana-. Imperial rescue party please respond." Jag directed the com toward the gas giant. There was no point in having the entire system listening in if he needed to give co-ordinates. "This is Colonel Fel. It's good to hear you Commander." "It's good to be heard Colonel. Some of us were starting the wonder if the fleet would ever come for us. Two weeks can feel like a long time." So can five days, thought Jag. "Commander, can you tell us how you were hit?" "It was odd, we had some kind of weird Mynock infestation. They started chewing on the communications arrays, then there was an asteroid bombardment." "Asteroid bombardment?" "Yeah. The ships in orbit tried to force them off with tractor beams and then lasers but they just kept accelerating. Once the orbital platforms and the shields had been hit these weird ships made of processed rock showed up. Before we knew it the big Destroyers all lost their shields. The carriers were all hit before they could prep droid fighters." "Why didn't you jump to Garqi to warn the fleet?" "We were on the wrong side of the system and more gravity wells were appearing every minute. We wouldn't have survived a jump." "Fine. Commander when you get out of the gas giant's gravity well jump your ship roughly towards Bastion for a distance of twelve light hours. Understood?" "Acknowledged." 007 Btw: I'm starting to add pictures into the thread again. I threw the Gauntlet in on the 1st page incase you're not yet sick of looking at it.

Yes, but they need those nukes to defend themselves against their neighbours after they bomb Iran. I've thought this situation through before. It's crazy either way.

Woah, looks like ytmnd's are making a comeback. That ninja thing was cool J. I've now gone and used it in a couple of other forums. Random

Especially if the US gives some mini-nukes to Israel and have them nuke Iran.

Yes, yes it does. Went and saw 300 the day it came out and forgot to mention it I think. Everyone should go see it, well everyone old enough anyways. "Not as gory as I thought it was going to be." -Defender_16

So after all of those songs posted by Tofu we all know what drinking the tapwater in Kingston does to kids growing up there. They get really loopy and decide to make music albums. So loopy someone should pinch them. Awwww.

Ever since I got back from skiing it's been hovering arround 10 Degrees here. Almost all of the snow... Yeah, it's all gone.

While having the name of Rebedwiki it really does seem to pertain to all aspects of editing the game. (Despite being incomplete.) I think the name fits it, though it could use a little more visibility arround the site.

"Hyperspace signature detected aft." "They followed us through another jump." Commented Wintle, before the bridge shook from the impact of plasma weapons hitting the shields. "Ranged shot, superficial shield damage." They had performed more than a dozen jumps over the past two days. Most of the bridge crew besides the navigator and helmsman had lost track of where they were. "What are we looking at this time." "This system seems to have a series of very dense debris belts in the middle to inner system." "It'll do. Helm plot a course to take us through the densest sections of the belts then a slingshot trajectory around the star." "Aye." "We have incoming Shards. Four squadrons." The few pilots remaining had taken to calling the enemy fighters 'shards' since they had so easily and repeatedly been mistaken for asteroid fragments at Bastion. Techs had been working non-stop, upgrading target recognition programs to pick out the similar yet slightly variable shapes of the fighters. "Tell Colonel Fel to hold his launch until they get within one thousand kilometres. Status of the Capital ships?" If possible the Capital ships varied between each other even more than the fighters. Some of the same basic type might have what looked to be a large well healed scar while another might have a bulge in the hull filled with plasma emitters. Then there were the coral like outgrowths which not only had more weapons most of the time, but acted as a docking array for more fighters. "One Carrier, three Cruiser analogs and two Frigate analogs. The same ones from Bastion again sir. Wait, correction. I'm now detecting what appear to be corvette analogs. Two of them." Sithspit. "Time to intercept?" "The Corvettes and the damaged cruiser analog will reach us just after we enter the belt. The others are matching our speed." + + + Eight Tie craft launched from the main bay of Ardent, six Gauntlets and two Interceptors. The tech crews had been able to fabricate two more starfighters using spare parts and other materials kept aboard to replace losses. "All fighters stay in formation until we reach the belt. Use your speed and maneuverability to your advantage. If you take damage then return to the ship, we cant afford vehicle losses this time." The ties held back with the Ardent until the incoming fighters reached weapons range. The Destroyer's few aft batteries opened up to support the ties, then the two lines of fighters were swarming toward and around each other. The two Interceptors each stayed near a shielded Gauntlet pair, using the other ships for cover if needed. Instead of missile pods the Gauntlets had been fitted with an additional tie solar array wing and laser cannon bumping the total cannon up to six. Using single fire the outfitted ties were bound to score a hit on the enemy fighters eventually just through sheer total fire. Despite the obviously incredible flying talent these remaining pilots had it didn't take long before they started to take damage. + + + "Entering the belt." Reported the Commander. "We are now within weapons range of the Cruiser analog but the enemy fighters harassing us may prevent them from firing." "Good, we needed a break." Dorja marched up to the forward viewports to get a better view. "Use the tractor beams to try and redirect some of the asteroids that we pass. Try and drop them into the cruiser's flight path." After a moment studying the floating rocks and debris ahead he spoke again. "Tell our people to mind the asteroids and not to fall behind." The bridge began to shake continuously under hits from enemy fighters. "We cant keep taking hits like this sir." Whispered Wintle to Dorja. "I know that Commander but we need to find the perfect... there!" The Admiral, stabbed a finger at a particular group of asteroids on the scanner displays. "Helm! Swing us close to those larger asteroids twenty degrees to port, then put our engine wash over them." "Another plan?" "Something I saw a smuggler do once. Prepare to direct all shields aft and put available power to engines." + + + Four Ties still looped and fought with four times their number of shards. The others had withdrawn to the Ardent after taking damage. Most of the pilots concentration now was on keeping fighters away from the Main landing bay. One shard had already entered the bay while an Interceptor was landing. The interceptor pilot had spotted the shard in time to shoot it down but debris had blown a hole in the top of the bay. "Ardent to Fel. Colonel, keep your fighters away from the aft end of the ship. We're expecting heavy incoming fire." "Understood." Replied Fel as he dodged around a large rock and back toward the bay. + + + "Changing course forty one mark twenty seven. Bringing sublight drives to one hundred and five percent." Reported the helmsman. "Directing weapons power to engines and shields. Doubling aft shields." Said the operations officer seconds later. The deck vibrated under the strain of the engines. Dorja looked over to Wintle "Here's where the fun begins Commander. Hang on to something." "Incoming fire from the cruiser." "Brace!" The bridge shook heavily as the plasma struck the reinforced shields. Behind them the ship's engine wash began heating the cluster of asteroids. "The fighters have withdrawn to a safe distance." "More good news. Sensors status on the asteroids." "The... the asteroids are deforming, they're... They're exploding sir! Debris is hitting the Cruiser and corvette analogs." "That'll do then." Said Dorja sounding wearied. "Bring the fighters back aboard and get us out of here." "Permission to throttle down to safe levels sir?" "No, continue to pour on the speed until we're in mid slingshot around this system's star. Once we're out of sensor contact with the enemy change course and enter hyperspace on a different heading." Wintle caught on right away. "If they follow the course set by our slingshot they'll end up jumping to a totally different system." "Exactly. But only if it works. Despite that last trick these people don't seem like fools." "Cruiser analog has broken up sir. Fighters are retreating to the carrier." 006

I was going to suggest setting the screen resolution righer perhaps. I use IE and don't have ...many, problems. Though occasionally something like that will happen with other articles.