"Couldn't we self-destruct the missile volley and then pursue the mercenaries until they were out of beam range of the merchant ship?" Jacqueline suggests nervously. She doesn't want to draw the captain's ire, and she is soft-spoken, as usual. "Then we could disable the enemy at leisure, maybe capture them and figure out what they were up to."
This message was last edited by the player at 09:31, Fri 19 Mar 2021.

With a massive salvo incoming - easily enough to erase the mercenary cruiser in its entirety - and more likely to follow at the behest of an implacable captain, there were only two possible outs for the vessel:

Surrender, hoping that the attack would (and could) be called off in time, and that they wouldn't be spaced on the spot for their trouble.

Attempt an emergency jump, despite the compressed time frame and the fact that they were still within the 100-D limit.


Several things were reported in rapid succession by the sensor operators and the small craft pilots: the mercenary cruiser was swerving hard in an attempt to make itself a difficult target for any last-moment beam fire, several missiles had just been launched and were rushing toward the stricken merchant - or perhaps toward the small craft that were moving to assist - and its jump drives were swelling with power at a dangerous rate.

A rate enough enough that, in absence of anything else, they'd probably make the jump before the Sharshana's missiles arrived, albeit only barely. The odds of emerging from a jump like that in one piece weren't good. The odds of emerging from the situation in one piece if they didn't make one had clearly been calculated as... worse.

In reply to Gvoellaekh (msg # 25):

     Watching the traffic control displays, Ishakhi didn't like what he was seeing,

     "Flight Control to Rescue Flight.  Missiles inbound to you!  Initiate evasive maneuvers!  Repeat!  Initiate evasive!  Missiles inbound!"

     ~~ Where the frack are our defenses?  Where's the ECM against those missiles? ~~ Ishakhi thinks to himself, trying to come up with some way to help his smallcraft.

     Then he remembers something from his fighter pilot days,

     ~~ Oh, the Captain is going to hate this... ~~

     Ishakhi touches the shoulder of one of the two techs seated before him,

     "Jackson!  Quick now, override control of Radar Three!  Narrow the emitter aperture as small as you can get it, then max out the signal power.  Point it towards those missiles aimed at the merchant ship and our launches.  Keep the beam on those missiles!  Burn out Radar Threes emitter, if you have to!  Just use our stronger radar beam to wash over the targeting sensors on those missiles.  Blind them!"

Thenroy was already in agreement with Kimpasherki even if the two didn't know it.

"Begin electronic countermeasures, full spread, against the incoming salvo. Leave the Sharshanna open if you have to just disable those missiles.

Fire control, weapons free with energy weapons. I want that cruiser disabled or dead."

Jacqueline does what she can to help the ship maneuver, whispering a quiet prayer; she is not at all used to the stresses of combat.

The Sharshana's fusion batteries flared as Hrolf's maneuvers brought the ship clear of the crippled merchant and gunnery had a solid lock on the target. The mercenary cruiser erupted in a scattered flare far brighter than even the cruiser's prodigious firepower would warrant; the shots must have struck just as power and fuel were being channeled into its jump drive.

There would be no survivors. There would be precious little wreckage to sift through either, and what little fragments that entailed were rapidly dissipating along the ship's trajectory. A few may even have been lost to the aborted jump bubble.


The merchant ship continued to drift at speed toward the planet, but with the field now clear - the missiles had quickly been rendered inert by the Sharshana's jamming efforts, as expected - the small craft were on course to intercept it. Boarding wouldn't be difficult, as EVA operations went. The task of getting everyone out, on the other hand...

The boarding party soon reported that they'd entered the vessel. They hadn't needed to cut their way in; the mercenary cruiser's weapons had already taken care of that. The still-sealed areas would take a little more doing. Decompression would put out any fires, but if the survivors weren't suited up...

One team was heading for the bridge, the two occupants there were still conscious, talking, and - most importantly - in emergency vacc suits. The status of the others remained uncertain.

Thenroy couldn't even try to suppress the grin on his face when the mercenary cruiser flared out of existence. Sure Intelligence would be upset about not having prisoners to interrogate and politicians loved to put pirates on trial but at the end of the day a swift death in cold vaccuum was the best thing for the enemies of the Imperium. No expensive trials, no having to waste any further resources on housing and feeding the scum. It was like the slate had been wiped a little cleaner.

He hit the comms to address the crew.

"Exemplary performance everyone. It is unfortunate the pirates did not surrender but the survivors of the merchant vessel will be rescued and we have sent a powerful message to the enemies of the Imperium. For our first real engagement things could not have gone better. Well done. Your performance will definitely be the highlight of my report."

Thenroy leaned backwards, steepling his fingers as he watched the super heated metals that were once pirates glow and fade like thousands of stars burning bright and then winking out, one by one.

"Time for the forensics..." reflected Iita.

She put the recordings of the voice of the merc's ship "correspondent" through the computers, to identify the accents and the speech patterns. Maybe she could identify his home planet.

Selecting the best pictures of the cruiser, she had her team try to estimate the jump capability of the cruiser. Of course the pirates modified it. That is what made it unique and recognizable.

And the big system traffic control data - collected by the Sharshana on every system they went through would at last be useful. The Engineering team would try to determine if this cruiser had been spotted in those systems, near Gas Giants or anywhere, during those last three years. Thus, she might be able to retrace the mercs journeys, and may be have a hint on where it resupplied...

EDIT : reflecting on how to gather every bite of information about the pirates, Iita called Kimpasherki.
"Lieutenant, please tell the marines to bring back the Merchant's ship Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the bridge live recorder (BLR) - they improperly name it black box. It's very important - not as much as their lives, though. Thank you"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:38, Sat 24 Apr 2021.

Jacqueline was glad the situation had ended about as well as it could have, but even so she was a little rattled by the sudden death of the other ship's crew. She nodded at the captain's words, relieved that he seemed satisfied. She begins working on a return trajectory for the smallcraft, adjusted for the movement of both vessels. "Pirates, or mercenaries?" she muses aloud.

In reply to Iita Tsetsegma (msg # 31):

OOC:  Whoa!  I didn't realize it's been so long since I pulled my head outta my ... well, just say I hadn't realized I'd dropped off the world, for so long.




     "Affirmative, Chief Engineer." Ishakhi responds over comm, "Will instruct boarding teams to recover FDR and BLR from merchantman.  We can always plug the units back in, if we actually manage to salvage that ship.  Over to You."

     Ishakhi switches to the comm-channel being used by the search and rescue personnel of Rescue Flight,

     "Flight Control to Search And Rescue personnel." Ishakhi sends, "Requesting Status Update on location of all survivors aboard trader Zeglaashshish?  Also, anything new on vessel Status?  Can damage to Zeglaashshish be controlled, or is abandoning the Ship required?"

     "Further orders.  Any personnel able to do so safely, requesting best effort to recover ship's Flight Data Recorder and Bridge Live Recorder.  Repeat.  If possible to do so safely, requesting recovery of FDR and BLR.  Flight Control, Over to You."

Hrolf had been silently busy as he maneuvered the Sharshana like with every bit of her drives and maneuvering thrusters to first gain a favorable firing position and then to avoid the sudden field of debris from the exploding mercenary cruiser.  He felt a surge of pride as the refurbished war horse responded to his commands with a blaze of power that thrummed through the solid bones of the ship as if she were eager once again to go into battle.

"I'd think they were pirates or at least mercs down enough on their luck to try a bit of piracy.  The difference between the two is pretty slender out on the Fringe."  Hrolf began to maneuver the Sharshana back toward the rescue operation. "Feed me the rendezvous course if you would Jacqueline."

"Once we have the merchant vessel sorted out move us over that debris field. Perhaps there is some kind of salvage that can be turned over to Intelligence to figure out if this is a localized incident or part of a larger organization."

With that Thenroy leaned back and typed in a request to have some hot tea delivered. With the excitement of battle past he wanted to something to help calm his nerves so he wouldn't snap in irritation at the rest of his crew. Combat always gave him a rush and after that experience it was sometimes hard to deal with the drudgery of paperwork and processes afterwards.

"Right, of course, sir" Jacqueline said, forgetting momentarily in the moment that Hrolf didn't actually outrank her. Still shaken up from the battle, she momentarily picked up the wrong one of her tablets and it took her a little longer than usual to calculate the course and send it to Hrolf.
"Mercenaries could be paid to raid, to cause trouble" she noted quietly. "But I'm probably reading too much in to it."

It's clear from the feeds of the rescue effort that the Zeglaashshish is has been reduced to a shambolic and hazardous mess that is most likely destined for a scrapyard yard rather than for refurbishment, making things much more difficult for the rescue party. And yet...

If you didn't know that this was a very real - and very dangerous - operation, you might just manage to mistake it for a segment from some (poorly lit) action vid. Whatever combination of training, adrenaline, and luck you want to credit, the rescue party manages to locate and secure the crew (who are in various states of distress, but all alive) and recorders without being any the worse for wear beyond a few scuff marks on their vacc suits.

Getting the wrecked merchant under tow takes a little more doing. The damage to its hull makes cable attachment a tricky proposition, but the shuttle crews prevail and it is soon brought under control.

Because that was a really good outcome on the rescue operation rolls!


With only a handful of survivors and the two recorders at hand, Intel is going to have its work cut out for it making sense of this mess. Maybe they can get some of the Zeglaashshish's sensor logs out of the wreck. Getting anything out of the debris field further on... well, you never know.

Iita had watched the operation minute-by-minute, helpless. opens a private channel to Kimparsherki : "I don't know if I must congratulate you or scold you... I appreciate that you recovered the recorders on top of the merchant's souls, but why did your crew waste the time to tow the wreck? There's nothing interesting in the wreck, it's already torn to pieces! Please, next time, your job is to prevent your overzealous rescue team to go beyond what is demanded and take unnecessary deadly risks. Do you have any idea of the weight of the burden you have to carry when you remind yourself, day after day, that you may bear some indirect responsibility in the death of your fellow mates - or subordinates - and the affliction of their families?!".

Iita realized she had raised her voice and was now yelling. She abruptly hung up the call, upset by the Vilani lieutenant and by herself.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:46, Mon 03 May 2021.

The Chief-Engineer assisted the Naval Intelligence Service team.

Each ship has a sensor signature. It evolves with the years, works and upgrades and breakdowns and repairs of the ship, but you don't change your M-Drives every week, and your J-drive even less frequently.

Those signatures were recorded in every system with a good starport control.

To retrace the wanderings of the merc/pirate cruiser, you only had to gather these traffic data on every world in the subsector, feed them to a giant server* with an advanced navigation software, such as the one in the I.N.S. Sharshana - and let it work out the moving needle in a haystack full of moving straws.

(* Artificial Intelligence have been ruled out of the Navy ships. The admiralty prefers "dumb" servers who don't second-guess orders.)

"We really need to solve this computer glitch", Iita reflected for the 200th time. "but when do we reach a real shipyard?".

OOC: I can't find the image with our route

She fed the main computer with the sensors data recovered by the merchant ship, on the brink of its destruction. She hoped that the sensors, though "civilian", may have caught some signature of the pirates' drives.

Iita Tsetsegmaa had lost patience with the Sharshana long-lasting glitches. She felt angry toward the system. She had started to nickname it "the punk", since it couldn't be disciplined. She bemoaned the software aloud :

"Uh uh. I know what you're thinking. "Is she going to reset the software if I freeze for the 565th time ?" Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself. But being this is a reinstall command, the most powerful tool in the world of engineers and it would erase your little stubborn personality, you've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?".

OOC : may this invoke the She Likes Us aspect of the ship?
It feels like Sharshana is glad to be back out among the stars. Systems are a bit wayward during, but some of the crew will soon swear that they can fix many problems by saying the ship’s name in the right tone. Phrases like ‘Come on, old girl, you don’t need to be so difficult’ can sometimes induce minor problems to just go away. CEI is increased by +1 due to the special relationship the crew have with their battered old ship.

04:33, Today: Iita Tsetsegma rolled 7 using 3d6, dropping the highest dice only with rolls of 2,5,5.  investigate intel roll

The Baron's eyes flicked across the screen as he read through Lt. Tsetsegma's proposal. It was difficult to assess his reaction as his brow was furrowed and all he seemed to do was emit the occasional sigh or grunt. Finally he set it down and took a moment to hold Tsetsegma's gaze. He was scanning her, looking for anything that might have gone unsaid or been exaggerated or embellished in the report. He might have skimmed her proposal but he was studying her with all his attention.

"You want to take the entire ship offline to track down this fault? A week with the guts open and on display?"

He paused and then with a grim sigh he pressed his thumb on the corner of the screen signaling his approval.

"Begin assigning work crews. Anyone you don't need will be added to a rotation for shore leave. It is about time that the might of the Imperium graces the local ruling class with their presence. Any senior officers not assigned to the work effort will be expected to attend the inevitable dinner and soiree. Dismissed."

For once Baron Thenroy was making an attempt to hide his foul mood. Having to put in for repairs right after a skirmish was going to call into question his report of a flawless victory against the pirate. It would all be explained in the report but anyone would be expected to think he might be distorting events. Even the hint of shade on his accomplishments seemed to drive Thenroy's temper but it seemed he was still feeling the goodwill of the victory as he did not feel inclined to take it out on his staff. In fact it seemed he was actually showing restraint and giving them the benefit of the doubt which was new for them to experience. No bombastic "THE EMPEROR NEEDS YOU" speeches, just quiet reservation that if the senior engineer felt the need to take the ship offline then the ship would go offline.

Jacqueline perked up at the idea of spending a week with the ship being repaired. A week with nothing to do but explore the planet and make her calculations sounded heavenly, although she did have some skill with computers and might be called on to assist with repairs. She looked thoughtful when the Baron mentioned the inevitable soiree and dinner party. "May I speak to you privately later, sir?" she asked quietly.

The Baron nodded but otherwise remained silent.

"Though this is the most populated world this side of the subsec, our crew may be disappointed when it comes to soiree and dinner party", Iita quipped, calling the general information on the screen. "Except drinking and brawling with prospectors".

Iruku wasn't much to visit. The library data had said so, and the reality on the ground proved it right. Oh, there were worse places out there - Iruku itself might be a rockball, but the orbital starport was of good quality, and there was enough traffic through the system to make it an interesting stopover. And if it lacked much in the way of high society, well, that made a visit from a cruiser captain and his senior staff all the more significant, and a few well-reported tours and visits of the planetside facilities (minimal as they were) made a great impression on the populace, coming right as it did on the heels of a very visible display of naval authority!

On top of that, the work on the Sharshana proceeded much more quickly than expected: by the end of day five the last of the faulting systems had been tracked down and replaced or recalibrated, and the resulting cascade of failsafes and emergency reroutes had been put to rest. Perhaps the crew was getting to know the ship and its foibles even better than they realized; perhaps the thought of getting everything back to normal had provided just that little bit of extra motivation. Any which way, it meant that the mission was closer to being 'on time' than expected, even allowing for a couple of days of proper patrol duty (much less exciting than their arrival, although there were plenty of ships to inspect) without having to overstay.

Intel had labored through all of this, focusing more on the records kept at the starport than the records kept in their oft-inaccessible ship systems until the latter were once again working reliably, and the extended stay had allowed the quartermaster to obtain a few minor luxuries from the trade passing through, making for a memorable back in action dinner on day six!

During the patrol days, Iita ordered the engineering team - those freed by the repairs done - to help Intel. "We've got to know the pirate's hideout!", she insisted. "A cruiser is a massive ship, it can't travel undetected!" - and then the carrot: "finding a pirate base will shine much more in your individual Navy files than just boring patrol. This means promotion at the end of your term... and I'm the one grading and commending the best among you."

(it seems the captain's style has bled onto someone) ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 20:46, Tue 25 May 2021.

Baron Thenroy was leaning heavily on intel. By all accounts it sounded like they had discovered an honest-to-goodness pirate organization that was moving in and setting up shop. Cracking a pirate lair and blasting apart their fleet would be quite the achievement on a first patrol and would really help set the path for his career as well as those underneath him. Baron Thenroy had gotten a taste of commanding a battlecruiser into combat and now he wanted more.

He was ready to authorize any methods necessary to get the location of the pirate lair. Bribes, torture, undercover agents...whatever Intel needed was approved if they could bring him those coordinates.

Iruku is the spinwardest world on the trip (at least, as planned); so this is "half-way", and the rest of the trip will be back to Zeng. Therefore, this is the "half-way party". A local community center has been rented, for the use of the crew only.
Music is loud and a DJ strings the latest hits from Zeng (3 months ago). The Engineers are also projecting stroboscopic lights and vertiginous videos.

Food and light alcoholic beverages abound - but there's a cocktail contest : who can best mix the beverages available on Iruku and those brought in the ship?

In short, drug is forbidden, but all efforts have been made to confuse the senses

There's a "find the pirate base" game - one of the buffet plates hides the pirate base, and people have to bet on the plate number, given a few clues such as ship range, local world politics, etc.

All those who (think they) have a little talent are invited to show it on the stage, and yes there's a price for the winner.

The dress code is "jumpsuit", since the protocol is relaxed, and there were already many occasions .

The party is planned to go all night, across several shifts, so everyone could participate and enjoy.

Once it was started, Iita relaxed and wondered how to accomplish her secondary objectives : push Yune in the arms of Standarsson (since those two had been turning around each other for too long) and a way to "unfreeze" the uptight Kimpasherki - she'd try to make him drink, tell his adventures, dance, exchange compliments on the beauty of their eyes, get drunk, lower his inhibitions, kiss, whatever.

more info

Next to the local community center stands in fact a strip-tease club, also rented;  though no strip-teasers have been requested.
There's an animation late in the night - after the captain's visit. The DJ moves from the center here, where crew-members inebriated enough have the option to jump on the catwalk and show their talent (officially songs and dances...)

What Iita secretly wishes, is that the low lights and private booths will help to form couples...