In reply to Brutus Cartwright (msg # 923):

It's sure to be right now...

"Skipper, any order to launch the shuttle?"

======
OOC: Not sure what crew it would need (without depleting our ship).

In reply to Gloria Flake (msg # 922):

Cutting the range to 10,000 miles is still going to be well out of range for the Gatling lasers, but the other two small craft are capable of assisting.

As you close and launch the 2 ball craft, the remaining enemy beam finally hits your hill, (10 dHP damage), but your beams totally destroy three of the big bugs. The enemy mother ship drops to ground level and begins to land, as do the remaining smaller craft and the drop pods.

20 Oct 2186, Hela (2235), Supplies: 3,080 person days (use 10 per day or 40 per day if not using VatFac, 6.4 dTons), $87,520,300
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:16, Sat 03 Sept 2022.

We were 10,000 miles away on the last round of firing (msg #922), so if we launched ships at that distance, do they get to fire at the same time (and distance)?
Or are we actually much closer, say 400 miles (penalty -4)? With a complete set of shots required?

Can our missile completely destroy the big ship?

What weaponry do we have on the ship(s) we've just launched?
This message was last edited by the player at 08:29, Sun 04 Sept 2022.

In reply to Brutus Cartwright (msg # 927):

I am assuming you are not (yet) following them into the atmosphere, as that would require your non-streamlined hill slowing down a lot. That will effectively keep the range at 10,000 miles as far as weapon effectivness goes. They, by contrast, are heading planetside at speed in a ship that, apart from the three precision hits, is fully functional. Given they have short range lasers that shot down the missiles in space, the missiles will have less chance of killing them in atmosphere.

The AKHB has a Beam, missile and sandcasters, but the AKHB Recovery only has a short range recovery laser, and the modular craft, the only craft designed for atmosphere operations, have only Gatling lasers.

20 Oct 2186, Hela (2235), Supplies: 3,080 person days (use 10 per day or 40 per day if not using VatFac, 6.4 dTons), $87,520,300

As the main berm gunners let loose on the larger drops ships Brutus gets his eye in with the just-launched AKHB. "Take out the main ship," he calls.

As the foe's main ship starts its planetary approach, the three beamers and Brutus open up on it.

======
OOC: I'm going to assume that the AKHB was launched because of its heavier weaponry and that Brutus got to fire its beam weapon* at the same time & targets as msg #921. Yeaa! He gets to do something other than look important to those that report to him and 'entertain' the important individual above him.
Actuallt it's nice to learn space combat.
Moving on. The above Brutus action would be an additive retcon for #921. I'll then post current round action, being 3 main ship beamings** at their main ship and a Brutus beam*** from the AKHB at their main ship. (Although this OOC post will be placed below the firings just mentioned.)

*Skill 15, with a -12 range penalty, +2 (sensors), +2 (sAcc) +8(SM, shape) washes out to 5 for precision shots, 15 for general shots.
**Skill 18, with a -12 range penalty, +2 (sensors), +2 (sAcc) +10(SM, shape) washes out to 10 for precision shots, 20 for general shots.
***Skill 15, with a -12 range penalty, +2 (sensors), +2 (sAcc) +10(SM, shape) washes out to 7 for precision shots, 17 for general shots.

*12:06, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,5,4.  Brutus retcon beam at cockroach general shot 15
**12:12, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 10 using 3d6 with rolls of 6,2,2.  Gunner 1 general shit, main ship 20
**12:13, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 8 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,1,3.  Gunner 2 general shot, main ship 20.
**12:14, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 15 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,5,5.  Gunner 3 general shot, main ship 20.
***12:15, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 12 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,2,6.  Brutus, general shot, main ship 17.


Query: is it coreect that we don't have enough crew without unacceptably de-manning the main ship to launch more than the AKHB ?
This message was last edited by the player at 11:17, Sun 04 Sept 2022.

In reply to Brutus Cartwright (msg # 929):

A little space and vehicular combat is fun! The AKHB Surveyor is hardly a fighter, but it has the same weapons as the ship's turrets. However, they do not get to fire in the round they are launched, so it does not get to fire retrospectively.

You do have quite a few security crew...see Vessels Available thread. You only need one gunner per turret.

The remaining enemy Laser targets your main ships hull, but fails to penetrate the heavy armour. Your beams are much more effective, slicing up the enemy ship to such an extent that it should, by all known ship theories, crash uncontrollably into the planet. Instead, it somehow makes an uncertain but  relatively controlled decent to the planets surface, before seemingly collapsing like an injured animal more than a starship! The remaining drop pods and 7 larger craft likewise decent to the planets surface, a region of light woods and Savannah's about 200 miles from the Karakhi colony.

20 Oct 2186, Hela (2235), Supplies: 3,080 person days (use 10 per day or 40 per day if not using VatFac, 6.4 dTons), $87,520,300

Msg 922, covers what got launched.
The AK APC is atmospherically capable and armored, it's gatling laser should wreak some havoc among the smaller creatures.

The Hull hit doesn't do much IF it is only doing 10 points to start ... or is that the final damage?
Brutus can lead the small craft, I'll handle the ship.  But since it's Brutus's people shooting, I'll let him continue to roll for them.

I gather their lasers are not all that powerful?

"Any idea what we're dealing with here? Organic mothership? Did the scanners show what inside either the drop pods or the larger craft?" Brutus comms to the main ship.

======
OOC: From #922 - Does that mean we've launched 4 manned craft? 1) Shuttle, 2) AKHB Surveyor, 3) AK Modular APC and 4) AK Modular Surveyor ?
Of which only AKHB Surveyor has a beam?
Are all of the opposing foces now protected by atmospher from our beam weapons?
Does that mean only the "modular craft, the only craft designed for atmosphere operations," is the only option to pursue?

In reply to Gloria Flake (msg # 931):

Hull hit was final damage, after DR. Second hull hit was reduced to 0 by DR, hence ineffective. TBH, the damage from the first is not that serious either. The Mothership entered the atmosphere before launching the small craft, so yes, all have the protection of the atmosphere (half damage, range penalty as per rules thread). Any craft can enter atmosphere and all will have some speed restrictions, but non-streamlined ones suffer greater speed and maneuverability restrictions.

Sensors suggest each drop pod has a life form in it, type unknown. About 200 were launched. The larger ones had about 20 life forms, you estimate.

The Gatling lasers are infantry support weapons, not space combat weapons. They will be effective once in range...msg #922 described their launch from the ship in orbit, they need to enter the atmosphere (1 rnd) and close range before they can be brought to bear... chasing drop pods with a 20 minute head start is no easy feat. But on that note, I have not had actions from the small craft for this round yet. I am assuming that they enter the atmosphere?

20 Oct 2186, Hela (2235), Supplies: 3,080 person days (use 10 per day or 40 per day if not using VatFac, 6.4 dTons), $87,520,300

On private channel to Gloria brutus calls, "Enganging, skipper, yes?" he switches channels to the general ships' band, "Get us close as you can so the shots count. Strap in if you ain't!" He looks at the targeting screen to guage the distance to potential targets.

OOC: How about Gloria does (rolls for) piloting for each of the 5 craft and I'll do gunnery?
That way no one's left out.
Just to check, if the foes' mothership effectively done for? Or does it need a bit more pounding?
Yes, our they enter atmposhere unless Gloria orders otherwise.
We can always swop over after a bit.

Hi Bonny! Wasn't expecting you to join us... don't be concerned about my involvement, I have plenty to do yet.

I am concerned about what sorts of things are landing, it seems as if the Locals here were shot up/damaged.
Goal is to reduce whatever threat they pose.

The Main ship moves over the colony here, we establish Comms.
How many of you are there, if we need to pull you out?
One of your ships is in route as well, we were just a bit faster.
These "bugs " atacked you first? ; Did you do anything to incitie that?

Ha!

In reply to Gloria Flake (msg # 935):

Brutus, are you bringing in the AKHB Surveyor as well, or leaving it in orbit above the mothership? What is the AKHB Recovery ball doing? I have the 3 modular craft with Gatling lasers as able to enter the atmosphere without problems...do they follow the mothership, your ship, or go to shoot drop pods or larger bugs?

"There are 257 of us, including 48 badly injured. The creatures on this planet include some capable predators, so we have some pretty significant fortifications, including an area suitable for landing, and a lot of spare weapons and vehicles. Not quite sure we are ready to pull out though. Can you make sure that mothership is dead?

Be careful of the dragonfly things, by the way."

As if on cue, 2 large dragonfly-like creatures pop up over the tree line, only to be shot down by multiple small arms from those on the ground.

Main ship's beamers remain focused on finishing off the mothership.

AKHB Surveyor shoots a beam at a larger bug.

AKHB Recovery ball and modular craft chase larger bugs as hard as they can to get in range soonest.

======
OOC: Not sure on actaul range to halve so these are unmodified rolls. Is it 500 miles? Or..?
Not sure if the gatlings are in range yet nor their distance from large bugs.
07:20, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 8,7,9 using 3d6,3d6,3d6 with rolls of 4,3,1,1,4,2,3,3,3.  Main ship gunners 1, 2, 3, general shots v mothership. Skill 15
This message was last edited by the player at 06:43, Mon 05 Sept 2022.

In reply to Brutus Cartwright (msg # 938):

The recovery ball laser is really just the equivalent of a heavy industrial laser used to cut stuff up. It is otherwise unarmed, and not good in atmosphere. Are you sure you want to send it to the front line?

The Mothership is 200 miles from the base, and your ship is about 50 miles up to give it a clear shot of the mothership, so range is approximately 206 miles, giving a -2 penalty. The beams slice into the alien ship repeatedly at that range, literally cutting it into pieces.

You can roll for the rest of the attacks...you can assume that the modular craft can reach the planets surface for strafing runs.

[Private to GM: Remaining Aliens: 200 dropped + 140 in APCs + 8 Fighters + 100 (80 injured) around mothership.]

20 Oct 2186, Hela (2235), Supplies: 3,080 person days (use 10 per day or 40 per day if not using VatFac, 6.4 dTons), $87,520,300

In reply to Brutus Cartwright (msg # 938):

The AKHB Recovery was NOT launched!! It is not combat capable.
I listed the ships launched.


So they initiated combat ?

I am not sure what exactly is going on.
We would have issues pulling that many out, but could take your wounded out for care.
Our small craft are trying to run down and kill as many of the bugs as we can.

Having dropped all our combat capable small ships to soar down into the depths of the atmosphere for a bug hunt, brutus calls, "Prioritise big bugs but anything's fair game!"

The ships' gatling laser try to line up multiple targets for their straffing runs..

======
OOC: Gloria is the skipper so whatever she says is right!
Very OOC - I don't know anything much about space combat and was winging it on the (mistaken) understanding that all our named smaller craft are combat capable.
I also just spotted that I messed up copy pasting this morning for the beam firings, somehow compounding two rols/copy/pastes into one. Should have been:

07:20, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 8,7,9 using 3d6,3d6,3d6 with rolls of 4,3,1,1,4,2,3,3,3.  Main ship gunners 1, 2, 3, general shots v mothership.
Skill 18. (resolvesd)
and
07:23, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 13 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,5,3.  Surveror beam general shot v large bug.
Skill 15. (not yet resolved)

msg #922 cites launching "Shuttle... The AKHB Surveyor... ...the AK Modular APC and AK Modular Surveyor". I'm not sure if that is 4 small ships or 3. i.e. is "shuttle" = "AKHB Surveyor" ? etc

Gatling straffing runs:
1) Is staffing a thing? e.g. a specific form of attack that may damage multiple foes?
The Gatling attacks appear to me to be:
Skill 18, -1 range penalty (flying guess), +2 (sensors), +18 (sAcc) +8(SM, shape) washes out to 35 for precision shots, 45 for general shots.
If it's really net 35 for precision, can some number of targets be lined up (straffed)?

Here's a couple of rolls:
21:13, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 10,21 using 3d6,6d6 with rolls of 2,4,4,6,4,5,3,1,2.  Gatling laser straffing runs unmodified. to hit & dam.
So unmodifioed 10 to hit, damage 6d6x2(2) = 42(2)
21:15, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 9,19 using 3d6,6d6 with rolls of 1,4,4,5,3,2,2,3,4.  Gatling laser 2 straffing runs unmodified. to hit & dam.
So unmodifioed 9 to hit, damage 6d6x2(2) = 38(2)
Fingers crossed

This message was last edited by the player at 20:17, Mon 05 Sept 2022.

In reply to Gloria Flake (msg # 940):

Thanks, Gloria, that clear up about the recovery ball. The colonists had been engaging a number of the flying critters that had attacked and taken down the ship. Again, no communication or warning. Once the ship was forced down, the bugs continued to press the attack from the air, but no ground forces have yet been engaged. With you bringing down the Mothership, they would rather stay and fight for the planet, if they can, and to that end they welcome your help. Bug ground forces from the drop pods are still somewhat distant though.

The AKHB Surveyor (meant for surveying systems) is separate from the Modular surveyor (meant to survey a planet) but there is no separate shuttle, for that the modular APC is used.

The AKHB Surveyor smashes one large bug from orbit most effectively on the ground, as space weapons, HP and DR are decade scale. However, Gatling Lasers do not benefit from sAcc (=Acc+30), and use regular Acc, damage and DR, as well as RoF and regular combat rounds. Since we are entering into regular combat, the space weapons will now only fire once per round, longer for space missiles.

This also means we use regular ranges, as space combat range is zero at 75-100 miles, which is a regular range penalty of -30 (countering the sAcc of +30). Hence, there is actually no variation in rules, but in space we move the zero point to make numbers more manageable.

Strafing is just a fancy name for spraying or suppression fire (B409). It is an effective way to engage a lot of targets in a small space, such as exiting a large bug...you note each large bug had about 20 occupants as you neutralize 3 more, but the rest seem to have disgorged their cargoes, and you are starting to see some return laser fire. So far, it has been ineffective.

[Private to GM: Remaining Aliens: 200 dropped + 60 in APCs + 8 Fighters + 100 (80 injured) around mothership.]

20 Oct 2186, Hela (2235), Supplies: 3,080 person days (use 10 per day or 40 per day if not using VatFac, 6.4 dTons), $87,520,300

We will move into low orbit and add our beam weapons to the fray, mostly looking for the larger targets.


15:19, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 15 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,4,6.  Beam 1.
15:19, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,6,4.  Beam 2.
15:19, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 18 using 3d6 with rolls of 6,6,6.  Beam 3.
15:19, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 10 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,3,4.  beam 4.
15:18, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 10 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,3,5.  Beam 5.
15:18, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 17 using 3d6 with rolls of 6,6,5.  Beam 6.
15:18, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 5 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,2,1.  Beam 7.
15:18, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,2,4.  Beam 8.
15:17, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 7 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,3,1.  Beam 9.


So did you want us to pick up your wounded or not?

The main ship continues to pound the larger bug ships to prevent them being used again and to impair use of any resources therein.

The three small ships zip back and forthe straffing pcokets of concentrated bugs.


======
OOC:
23:18, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 13,9,4 using 3d6,3d6,d6 with rolls of 6,2,5,1,4,4,4.  Main ship gunners 1, 2, 3, general shots v big bugs.
Skill 18
23:21, Today: Brutus Cartwright rolled 14,10,3 using 3d6,3d6,d6 with rolls of 4,4,6,3,6,1,3.  Straffing pockets of bugs, general, skill 18.
1 beam and two Gatling lasers.

In reply to Brutus Cartwright (msg # 944):

As the main guns pound the remaining larger vehicles, the remaining creatures, large insecticides armed with Blue-Green laser weapons take cover and begin to fight back. All the modular craft come under fire.

The modular surveyor, with minimal armour, takes several hits around the engines and is forces to land! The crew are minimal: Pilot, Scientists with fringe mechanic skill of 12, scientists with fringe gunner skill of 12.

Unable to depart or safely exit the vehicle to conduct repairs, you can see the bugs beginning to gather in the foliage around. The Gatling Lasers, in a dorsal mount as is usual for AK craft, has a commanding view of the area, but if attacked from all around, they may have problems.

From orbit, targeting individuals is challenging to say the least. They are hare to see, and quick. Brutus, which craft are you in? The Miniminer really only has room for 3.

[Private to GM: Remaining Aliens: 250 + 8 Fighters + 80 injured around mothership.]

20 Oct 2186, Hela (2235), Supplies: 3,080 person days (use 10 per day or 40 per day if not using VatFac, 6.4 dTons), $87,520,300

He's in the downed ship of course.
How many foes have been downed ? That's assuming the smaller craft have been achieving something while being shot at..

Noting the ship gone down, Gloria has the Gashidda brought in over the downed ship and deals some pain with the lasers.
We'll stay up about 16,000 feet to make their lasers ineffective while hopefully ours still do harm.

The Recovery Ball work in the atmosphere?

20:20, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 7 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,2,1.  Beam 1.
20:20, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 10 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,5,3.  Beam 2.
20:20, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 12 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,4,4.  Beam 3.
20:20, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 13 using 3d6 with rolls of 6,6,1.  Beam 4.
20:19, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 13 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,5,6.  Beam 5.
20:19, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,2,4.  Beam 6.
20:19, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 10 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,4,1.  Beam 7.
20:19, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 12 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,5,3.  Beam 8.
20:19, Today: Gloria Flake rolled 8 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,4,2.  Beam 9.

UPDATED WITH GM's INPUT
This message was last edited by the player at 23:19, Tue 06 Sept 2022.

In reply to Gloria Flake (msg # 947):

The Gatling lasers have killed scores, but exact numbers will take some time. Recovery ball will work in atmosphere, but lifting the other craft will rely on pure engine power, assuming connection link holds. Getting the connection under fire might be more troublesome...

However, bringing the ship down to 16,667 yds (9.5 miles, -23+32 (Acc) = +9 Acc) will help in keeping them at bay. There are no known hand-held lasers with a range of 10,000 yds.

For now at least, the few that attempt to approach are dealt with. However you note smoke coming from the vacinity of one of the downed transports.

[Private to GM: Remaining Aliens: 235 + 8 Fighters + 80 injured around mothership.]

20 Oct 2186, Hela (2235), Supplies: 3,080 person days (use 10 per day or 40 per day if not using VatFac, 6.4 dTons), $87,520,300