Since the three of you are seperated from the starfighter battle and are in close enough proximity to chat on your commlinks, I've set up a PM so you can discuss what you guys plan to do in regards to your situation.  That way as soon as the starfighter battle is over we can rapidly fast forward to you guys.

What you know to date (I'll update as you gather more info).

* The shuttle has jumped in front of you and is now closing.  It goes a lot faster then the freighters so will eventually catch you.

* There is no jump point you can reach before the shuttle catches you.

* At full speed the freighters and Z-95's would need 100 minutes to regroup.  This wont happen as the Z-95's are still in combat.

* At full speed the Cloakshapes will need about 110-120 minutes to regroup.

* The shuttle will catch the freighters in approximately 85 minutes (assuming freighters flee from the shuttle at full speed and shuttle maintains full speed)

* The freighters have no shields or weapons.

* Lambda shuttles have shields and 3 x double-blaster cannons (two sets forward, one rear).  They can carry around 20 soldiers with full gear.

Game on!  Better get to discussing!  Aryan, you've been back with us for about 3 weeks now with not a single post.  Please contribute if you wish to continue playing.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:58, Sun 14 Nov 2010.

We run as fast as we can towards our fighters and prepare to be boarded in the meantime.

The freighters had turned and were heading back towards the fighters at full speed.  On the lead vessel, Captain Tobias was having a war of words with his engineer over the comm.

"I don't care about your precious engines.  Rip the guts out of 'em if you have to.  I need speed and I need it now.  We don't outrun this shuttle and your engines will be spread across space in little pieces, or serving some new pirate engineer after they board us, sell us into slavery or if we're lucky just kill us."

The engineer could be heard grumbling but soon had the engines at 110% capacity.  Tobias turned to Xil and shook his head; it wasn't enough.

Exilim nodded to the Captain to indicate that he knew it wouldn't be enough "We can all get to thinking about solutions, we have some time." He called over the ships comm again for the security team, such as it was brief and update them.

He sat down to think for a minute while he waited, however did not come up with any overly brilliant solutions.

Getting onto the Talons secure comm he contacted Sheila and Aryan "I haven't got much in the way of inspiration other than the fact we could split up the convoy. We may not be able to out run them outright but by splitting up we force them into making a decision on who to chase. It may give the others time to regroup with our fighters. What do you think?"

He continued to rack his brains as he waited for a response.

In reply to Exilim Nallis (msg #4):

"if we do that, who has the best chance of surviving, or rather, loses us the least?"

OOC:  There is an equal number of freighter personnel on each ship (1 commander, 1 pilot, 1 navigator, 1 engineer, 2 security, 1 Talon).  There isn't any significant difference in the freighter crews.  Tobias is the most senior captain and the only one do have had combat experience (he served on military transports during the Clone Wars).  If you want specific info on the rest of the crew, tell me what you're looking for.

As far as you are aware, the freighters are essentially the same.



Tobias, hearing Xil's conversation with Sheila, makes a suggestion.

"Not sure exactly what you're planning, but if you're looking to get specific crews on specific shifts, we might be able to set up a temporary cofferdam between the freighters and move crew around.  Downside of that is we have to stop and spend about fifteen minutes setting it up.  Shuttle will catch up to us a lot faster."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:42, Wed 17 Nov 2010.

"If we were to do that Captain we would have to somehow make sure they follow the right freighter. I guess it's possible but we would have to make sure that they don't pick up on that. I'll get back to you shortly on that."

Getting back on the Talons secure comm he relayed the option presented by Captain Tobias to Sheila and Aryan. Could they afford the time that it would take to achieve.

OOC: Was going to wait for Aryan to add something but it hasn't happened yet. This will post will give a little extra time.

Aryan, snapping out of his train of thought, speaks into the comm.  "Wesa have to make sure that they board the right one..if they choose thatsa one, we can put more on that ship and set up ambush points on the ship.  This may cost us a ship, but two will be spared.

Aryan scratches his head, then speaks again. "Setting ambush points should be easy enough...we just have to prepare right.  With teh right defence weapons and luck, we can defend the points.  The only issue is manpower and how well armed they are.  One grenade can alter that plan totally"

In reply to Aryan Jai (msg #8):

"'I'd say we move everyone but an absolute minimum crew, to one ship, let them catch and board it, and hope we can defeat them, or move everyone but the absolute minimum needed to set off the self destruct, let them catch that one and sacrifice the one ship to get them.  We'll have to set up spoofers so they think there's a full crew on that one, or not the overcrew if we fight it out.  If we do the self destruct, I'll volunteer."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:42, Wed 24 Nov 2010.

The commander of Sheila's vessel turns to her as he hears her outlining her plans.

"Uh, these ships don't have a self destruct function.  I think they only put things like that on military ships."

In reply to Master Servious (msg #10):

"Surely we cuold rig something if we decided that was the way we wanted to go, we're sitting on a load of fuel. We could overload the engines.  But it's a suggestion, that's all, not the plan."

A little extra info to help push things along.

After a little number crunching (and a successful astrogation check by Xil) you now know the following:

You know already that at maximum speed, the shuttle will catch you in about 85 minutes.  I've crunched some extra numbers for you to chew.

Based on my numbers, assuming the freighters fly away from the shuttle at max velocity, and the fighters will attempt to regroup at max velocity, in 85 minutes when the shuttle catches the freighter:

* The freighters & shuttle will be about 400km within the gravity well

At this point in time:
* The freighters will be ~40mins from the gravity well at max speed
* The shuttle will be ~30 mins from the gravity well at max speed
* The Z-95's will be about 30 mins from the convoy and about 50 minutes from the gravity well
* The Cloakshapes will be about 40 minutes from the convoy and about 60 minutes from the gravity well


So in short, if the shuttle decides to turn up and destory the convoy you're screwed, totally and utterly.  However, why use a shuttle for such a job when you have fighters?  It is more likely they brought the shuttle to board and capture a freighter (or three) which gives you some choices.

Some logical choices (to me) are to:

* Abandon one or more freighters - this is costly, both to Phindar Petroleum and the Black Talons as both need all 3 freighters intact in order to make money (losing even one freighter may bankrupt the company, and perhaps the Talons).  On the upside, the time it takes for them to board/capture the freighter 'might' be enough time to allow the other ships to regroup with the fighters.

* Attempt to delay the shuttle somehow - if the shuttle is kept 'busy' long enough, the Z-95's can catch up.  On the down side, you'd need to delay them for 15 minutes to make it impossible for a freighter to escape and 25 minutes for the shuttle to escape.  Note these times are after they've caught up to you

* Get bloody!  The only way you can fight them is if they board you.  Then you would have to face armed boarding parties.  Also if they get wise they might blow the freighters away!  Still it offers a chance to fight back and if you're REEEEALY lucky, capture a shuttle (hell you took Nightshrike in a similar way so why not a shuttle)?  This is also very high risk as they could have up to 20 armed and armoured troops on that vessel while you only have one talon, 2 (minimally trained) security guards and some civilian crewers.


Every possibility has strong pros/cons.  Of course you might come up with a 4th option I've missed.  Good luck!
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:02, Mon 29 Nov 2010.

The commander of Sheila's ship nodded as she suggested igniting the fuel.

"So what is the plan?  Aren't you mercenaries here for just this situation?"

Xil shook himself at little to get his mind re-focused on the job at hand. They couldn't really afford to lose even one of the freighters. A fireball might be effective but would in real terms mean that they would still not come out of the overall situation ahead.

He glanced quickly at Captain Tobias and then got onto the Talons secure comm "Three and Eight as much as I love the sight of a fireball it is not going to achieve us our end goal. Three I need you make it look like your freighter had developed some engine problems so that it flies a little slower that the other two. It is going to be our bait." he took a deep breath and continued "We will briefly hook up the three freighters as suggested by Captain Tobias,then get all Talons, security personnel and anyone else that can be spared and can fire a weapon onto the bait freighter. We also need to somehow make it appear that the opposite has occurred and that the bait freighter has lost people not gained them and that the two fleeing ships have got more people on board than they actually do."

Exilim wondered if this gambit would pay off, it heavily relied on a guess that the shuttle didn't want to destroy the freighter but capture it, he hoped he was right.

"Once the transfer of personnel has occurred all freighter will head towards our fighters, the bait ship lagging a little behind. Questions?"

He will wait a couple of minutes before initiating the docking of the three freighters.

I have a few ooc questions!

* How will you sell this deception?  Three ships linking together and then two flying off would make me suspect one of two things:  you're abandoning the freighter to try and escape or you're trying to make it look that way to set up an ambush.  Obviously you're doing the latter but trying to make it look like the former.

* Ships have scanners and the shuttle could scan for lifeforms before boarding.  There are ways to fool scanners (radiation leak, jammers, etc) but it's another deception you have to sell.

* Where do you set up your ambush?  Obviously an airlock is a good place to set up an ambush as you have lots of baddies in a tightly packed area.  Of course this is dangerous as the shuttle could get warning and lock the hatch.  Even worse, a stray shot or explosive could open the area to space.  Explosive decompression!  Yum!  Also there are four seperate airlocks on two decks they could lock on to.

* Whilst more is merrier, do you really want too many of the civilians around in a firefight?  They're more likely to panic then be of great use.  Also you still need crews to fly the other freighters.


I found a declpan for a CEC Action Tranpsort VI (you're on a IV but it's as close as I could get).  Thought it might help a little:

http://deckplans.00sf.com/CEC/Action6.html
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:09, Mon 06 Dec 2010.

OOC:
Sorry in the delay in posting.

You pose some good questions and as for answers any help from Sheila and Aryan would be appreciated.

As for the civilians, you're right, we should limit them. A possible solution to some of the overall number issue is to have the Talons and security personnel replace them.

Any other suggestions team?

In reply to Exilim Nallis (msg #16):

Well, if we put the talons and the security guys on the one ship, yes, that takes care of the excess peoplethen we have to convince the bad guys that this is the one ship they can take.  I'm not real sure how to do that.  We can fake problems, in which case, they might go after the others and come back and get us..

The Navigator on the middle freighter was standing around since Sheila took his station a while ago. The enemy ship were crawling ever closer on the monitors. He had done the calculations in his head over and over, they were not getting away in time.

He leaned over and tapped the Talon on the shoulder. "Miss Talon, if you want help in fooling the pirates, then I might have a suggestion."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:00, Thu 16 Dec 2010.