Well putting the agents down requires a very deep penetration ... given the fighters and other ships, that seems very high risk. Capturing Freighters makes good sense ... Duke, how long would it take to either make the freighter a drone or to slip a nuke on one without alerting them? The second option would seem easier ... then command detonate it.

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 17):

"I could make something like the equivalent of a nuke limpet. If attached near the engines, the radiation from the reactor would mask it's presence, and take only 30 seconds in the right location. Perhaps a minute  or five for someone walking on the hull in a powered suit like mine..."

"I do think we should change some of our tactics to keep the government off guard. Plus if we can keep hitting them till the main fleet is ready, they might not be able to gain strength." She looks at the old commander "Just so you know, I am the chief pilot of the Dastavka, not a secretary.

In reply to Katherine 'Kat' Steele (msg # 19):

The Alien faces create an expression you have not seen before, perhaps surprise.

"A female pilot? The females of your species must not be as emotional as ours then. That is good to know...

A change of Tactics could be a good tactic, we agree, but the swarms of Fighters, Cruisers and Orbital Bases are where their real strength is, so finding ways to take them out of commission will be needed."

Oh I don't know about that... Cyril smiles...

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 21):

"Oh. If our females flew after a domestic disagreement, they might just fly into an asteroid on purpose. But that is not your concern.

Back to the topic on hand...if you were to jump to one of the gas giants, they would unlikely send anything more than fighters and frigates to hunt you. How many do you think you could destroy? Or better yet, disable. If you could attach the bomb to the hull in a 'failed' boarding attempt, that might work..."

Their frigate is just a bit bigger and more powerful than we are... our advantage is the missiles. Accosted by fighters and a frigate or two puts us in a serious spot. I think working out by the jump points and attacking incoming merchants somewhat ineffectually is our best ploy. We could also gain some supplies as well, but need to be alert for the same bomb ploy in reverse.

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 23):

They pause for a bit.

"That unfortunately is a good point. You will have to watch for their own suicide fighters."

"If only there fighters and frigates will chase us, we draw them off and then attack the larger ships while they are gone. And we can be emotional, but no more then men, especially if their sports team losses. " she says with a grin.

Cyril makes a face  Sports .... bah!

I don't see how we can draw them off very well, when both the frigate and the fighters are faster than we are ... Let's stick to attacking the merchants which are none too easy targets themselves.

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 26):

"The frigates are a little slower, but the fighters are faster. They would be a worry...but they would still take many hours to reach you at one of the Gas Giants. Whilst the merchants would never visit them, perhaps a few trips to there may be enough to cause them to allocate some of the frigates to the Gas Giants, leaving the merchants leaving and arriving at the system more vulnerable."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:29, Wed 22 June 2016.

OK, that is true... and we could scan from there gaining some information... as an aside, rocks and debris fly around space with some regularity ... if a rock around 2 feet or so in diameter (he holds up his hands to approximate two feet or so) came around the planet, how close might they let it get?

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 28):

"The asteroid collision alarms would sound, and fighters would be dispatched to intercept it before it got within 100,000 of your miles of either the colony or the orbital base."

So that's no way to float a mine in ...  just trying to think of ways to attack surreptitiously ... although getting fighters dispatched might be useful...

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 30):

"If you can come up with something else, let us know. As we mentioned, we are upgrading our fleet, so our operational ships are minimal at the moment."
This message was last updated by the player at 06:02, Thu 23 June 2016.

We may just have to be happy mugging their Fighters... it will cause some issues when they run short.

We could do a war of attrition on the fighters and hopefully we can gather some intel from that"

That's what I am saying... and maybe a freighter or two...

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 34):

"So do you want to take the Agents now, or come back for them?"

I think we have agreed that putting them down safely isn't possible yet, but a prize crew might be good to have should we be able to grab a merchant. They would need an IFF and basic computer to jump to here, in case the crew wrecks theirs.

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 36):

"But was not the whole point of capturing a freighter to attach a nuke and have it fly to the Orbital base?"

Indeed it is... but we also need to look like we really are pirating them, not just roughing them up... that would be suspicious... they have some idea of the power of this ship, so we need to use it ...  I may have Duke see about flying the bomb to the freighter we choose to let go... hopefully mixed in with damaged parts and the like, it won't be noticed.

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 38):

"I can look over the freighters blueprints while we are in hyperspace..."

In reply to Raymond 'Duke' Vurhund (msg # 39):

"Let us know when you are ready to go and we will have a pirate crew ready then..."

"Oh great, now we get to play pirates."