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[Andres]

While our four engineers work on a heat sink (we may need some speed soon), we will send them a message saying that they must all lay down their weapons and surrender under threat of death. Fire a warning salve to get the word across. If they refuse, send our fighter to destroy their antenna (or whatever it is they communicate with) so they can't call for help. Afterwards, begin boarding procedures while keeping an eye on the hangars for any enemies trying to escape through though there.

[ShadowHammer]

While our four engineers work on a heat sink (we may need some speed soon), we will send them a message saying that they must all lay down their weapons and surrender under threat of death. Fire a warning salve to get the word across. If they refuse, send our fighter to destroy their antenna (or whatever it is they communicate with) so they can't call for help. Afterwards, begin boarding procedures while keeping an eye on the hangars for any enemies trying to escape through though there.

The occupation force that took this station had to defeat 400 U.E.F. Soldiers and 20 Fighters; even if they only left a tenth of the attack force behind to hold it, they still almost certainly outnumber and outgun our 3 marines, 1 corvette and 1 fighter. They would probably laugh at our threat.

We should wait until our heatsinks are ready, firstly. When they are, do the second part of Andres' plan -- send the fighter to destroy the antennae, but while it does so, have the Telemachus dive into a hanger, preferably a hanger that already has some ships in it for us to steal. Then, we send the marines to do some looting, while the ship waits in the hanger, using its guns to destroy any infantry that come to attack it. The engineers could make a fuse-breaking device for the marines to use a diversion -- it would have to be physically hacked onto some wires, and then it would dump a massive overload of current into them, causing widespread electrical failures and allowing them to move through the station without being tracked by internal sensors.
After the marines get back with their loot, we could choose to either fortify the hangar and attempt a systematic take over of the station, or we could just take our loot and escape.

[Parsely]

Question GM: how big do we suspect a 'small Uark garrison' would be?

[Chiefwaffles]

"Small Uark Garrison" according to the officer is 50-100 soldiers.

[Parsely]

Holy crap. Then we definitely can't take them on in a boarding battle. Shadow's plan sounds fun but I doubt we'd be able to just bust into one of the hangars if they didn't want us to get in (though there is a chance they left a door open and wouldn't shoot a strange fighter as it approached), and chances are if we weren't lucky enough to fort up in one with a lot of important, unsecured ships they'd simply open the doors and space us. Or they could just cut off the 02 and wait us out, and if the away team tried to fly away and escape they'd get cut down by the defensive guns.

Here's my take:
Their guns are tinier than ours so we zap them from beyond their range! Target the comm antennae, then the hangars leaving one intact to perhaps dock with once we've trashed them sufficiently, melt their weapons control, then fry their main power. Leave the bridge intact and continue hailing them the whole time with an order to surrender. Get the interceptor out there to watch for ships trying to escape, he should stay out of range of the defense weapons.

Then once we're finished if they haven't given up we can dock, seize the bridge with a rapid and surgical assault taking them hostage, and space the rest of the personnel on the station once we have control.

[Chiefwaffles]

It is relative to station size, meaning that the expected, well, density of Uark soldiers in the station is quite low.

[Sheb]

We still don't want them in alert. I vote for ShadowHammer's plan.

[Parsely]

We still don't want them in alert. I vote for ShadowHammer's plan.

Uh, is there something I missed apart from the antenna thing..? Cause that's there in my plan. We shoot the antenna, then blast the hangars so no one gets away.

[10ebbor10]

While our four engineers work on a heat sink (we may need some speed soon), we will send them a message saying that they must all lay down their weapons and surrender under threat of death. Fire a warning salve to get the word across. If they refuse, send our fighter to destroy their antenna (or whatever it is they communicate with) so they can't call for help. Afterwards, begin boarding procedures while keeping an eye on the hangars for any enemies trying to escape through though there.

I'm not sure how long we can stay undetected this close to the Uark Station. And bluffing them is not going to work.

On another note, shooting the antenna is not going to work either. Really, a station suddenly ceasing communications is rather unlikely. They will be suspicious.

While our four engineers work on a heat sink (we may need some speed soon), we will send them a message saying that they must all lay down their weapons and surrender under threat of death. Fire a warning salve to get the word across. If they refuse, send our fighter to destroy their antenna (or whatever it is they communicate with) so they can't call for help. Afterwards, begin boarding procedures while keeping an eye on the hangars for any enemies trying to escape through though there.

The occupation force that took this station had to defeat 400 U.E.F. Soldiers and 20 Fighters; even if they only left a tenth of the attack force behind to hold it, they still almost certainly outnumber and outgun our 3 marines, 1 corvette and 1 fighter. They would probably laugh at our threat.

We should wait until our heatsinks are ready, firstly. When they are, do the second part of Andres' plan -- send the fighter to destroy the antennae, but while it does so, have the Telemachus dive into a hanger, preferably a hanger that already has some ships in it for us to steal. Then, we send the marines to do some looting, while the ship waits in the hanger, using its guns to destroy any infantry that come to attack it. The engineers could make a fuse-breaking device for the marines to use a diversion -- it would have to be physically hacked onto some wires, and then it would dump a massive overload of current into them, causing widespread electrical failures and allowing them to move through the station without being tracked by internal sensors.
After the marines get back with their loot, we could choose to either fortify the hangar and attempt a systematic take over of the station, or we could just take our loot and escape.

Fusebreaking devices sounds as things that are not physically probable. Basically what you're asking for is a portable Electrical Pulse device, which requires a high yield powersource. Don't think we have any of those.

Holy crap. Then we definitely can't take them on in a boarding battle. Shadow's plan sounds fun but I doubt we'd be able to just bust into one of the hangars if they didn't want us to get in (though there is a chance they left a door open and wouldn't shoot a strange fighter as it approached), and chances are if we weren't lucky enough to fort up in one with a lot of important, unsecured ships they'd simply open the doors and space us. Or they could just cut off the 02 and wait us out, and if the away team tried to fly away and escape they'd get cut down by the defensive guns.

Here's my take:
Their guns are tinier than ours so we zap them from beyond their range! Target the comm antennae, then the hangars leaving one intact to perhaps dock with once we've trashed them sufficiently, melt their weapons control, then fry their main power. Leave the bridge intact and continue hailing them the whole time with an order to surrender. Get the interceptor out there to watch for ships trying to escape, he should stay out of range of the defense weapons.

Then once we're finished if they haven't given up we can dock, seize the bridge with a rapid and surgical assault taking them hostage, and space the rest of the personnel on the station once we have control.

Smaller guns don't imply closer range. Especially not for lasers. In addition, considering their version is covered in lasers, they'll probably do better than us in a long range battle. Each laser individually produces less power, but they can focus much more of them on the same general area. The fact that their laser are diffused matters less to them (they can hit the same general area much more often than us) than it matters to us (we need to do damage on each hit, because of our lower fire rate).

So first : More information :

- Does the station have any automated defense mechanics?
- How decent is their scanning system?
- How long would shields hold up under concentrated fire?


Here's my plan.

1) Our small fighter comes in with the boarding squad, dropping them of outside in pressure suits before flying into a hangar.
2) Enemy forces scramble towards the hangar.
3) Once sufficient forces have gathered in the hangar, our vessel uses it's powerful main guns to blast open the hangar doors, depressurizing the interior, and hopefully incapacitating the majority of the garrison
4) Boarding squad, having found an alternative entrance, uses the confusion to find any computer terminal, and uses it's codes (it's our station, we should have control codes) to override the enemy  defense systems, and perhaps lifesupport as well

It has the advantage of ensuring we have an escape route, and that we board the enemy space station.

[Parsely]

Smaller guns don't imply closer range. Especially not for lasers.

In addition, considering their version is covered in lasers, they'll probably do better than us in a long range battle.

The guns shoot balls of energy condensed by special crystals, so they're not lasers. We in soft sci-fi land, your Earth-style physX do not apply here.

Until waffle weighs in let's neither of us make any assumptions.

1) Our small fighter comes in with the boarding squad, dropping them of outside in pressure suits before flying into a hangar.

Eh.. What's stopping them just zapping him with the piles of defense guns as soon as he gets close? We'd either need to knock out the weapons on that side of the station or cause a distraction for him to get close.

2) Enemy forces scramble towards the hangar.
3) Once sufficient forces have gathered in the hangar, our vessel uses it's powerful main guns to blast open the hangar doors, depressurizing the interior, and hopefully incapacitating the majority of the garrison

But, according to your plan, won't our fighter be inside that same hangar when that happens?

[Sheb]

Can't we drop our landing team from beyond sensor range and have them drift to the station? If we send them drifting at ~6m/s (equivalent to falling from 2 meters up on Earth), they could do over 20km in one hour.

[Parsely]

Can't we drop our landing team from beyond sensor range and have them drift to the station? If we send them drifting at ~6m/s (equivalent to falling from 2 meters up on Earth), they could do over 20km in one hour.

That could work if they have the right equipment! I like that idea. Even if passive sensors pick them up, which is doubtful, they'd just seem like debris. Hopefully GM can tell us a bit more about what we know about the sensors.

[Chiefwaffles]

- Does the station have any automated defense mechanics?

The turrets are "aimed" by several people at several consoles. Each console lists the status of the turrets, and the person can choose the target and generally manage any aspect of the turret. This principle goes for most vessels, with larger guns having more consoles for the same amount, and vice versa.
So basically if you throw something into their range, they won't immediately detect it and obliterate it. Sensors alert the crew, who then configure the turrets to fire at said something.

- How decent is their scanning system?

It's fairly foolproof. Though because of the heat based system, if a ship disables everything/I], including life support/gravity/etc., then they may be able to pass through the sensors.
Before Uark forces took earth, there were rumors of a stealth ship being developed by U.E.F.

- How long would shields hold up under concentrated fire?

Depends on the ship and weapons. For the Telemachus and the station's weapons, it would last a while under sustained fire. Any actual survival period is unknown. Shields are pretty durable, but as they lose power, blasts on the shield can be partially let through.

[10ebbor10]

Smaller guns don't imply closer range. Especially not for lasers.

In addition, considering their version is covered in lasers, they'll probably do better than us in a long range battle.

The guns shoot balls of energy condensed by special crystals, so they're not lasers. We in soft sci-fi land, your Earth-style physX do not apply here.

Until waffle weighs in let's neither of us make any assumptions.

In that case, I'll resort to common sense.

It's pointless to have a static station that can be outranged even by non dedicated combat ships. (Ie, our small carrier)

1) Our small fighter comes in with the boarding squad, dropping them of outside in pressure suits before flying into a hangar.

Eh.. What's stopping them just zapping him with the piles of defense guns as soon as he gets close? We'd either need to knock out the weapons on that side of the station or cause a distraction for him to get close.

The GM said we can do this if we're fast enough.

2) Enemy forces scramble towards the hangar.
3) Once sufficient forces have gathered in the hangar, our vessel uses it's powerful main guns to blast open the hangar doors, depressurizing the interior, and hopefully incapacitating the majority of the garrison

But, according to your plan, won't our fighter be inside that same hangar when that happens?

Our fighter should be capable of handling vacuum.

- Does the station have any automated defense mechanics?

The turrets are "aimed" by several people at several consoles. Each console lists the status of the turrets, and the person can choose the target and generally manage any aspect of the turret. This principle goes for most vessels, with larger guns having more consoles for the same amount, and vice versa.
So basically if you throw something into their range, they won't immediately detect it and obliterate it. Sensors alert the crew, who then configure the turrets to fire at said something.

Okay, so for some reason automation and fire control is stuck in the twentieth century, but I'm not going to complain about that.

- How decent is their scanning system?

It's fairly foolproof. Though because of the heat based system, if a ship disables everything/I], including life support/gravity/etc., then they may be able to pass through the sensors.
Before Uark forces took earth, there were rumors of a stealth ship being developed by U.E.F.

Heat based is quite easily disturbed. If we come in from the planet, we should be rather invisible, assuming the station is close enough.

- How long would shields hold up under concentrated fire?

Depends on the ship and weapons. For the Telemachus and the station's weapons, it would last a while under sustained fire. Any actual survival period is unknown. Shields are pretty durable, but as they lose power, blasts on the shield can be partially let through.

[Chiefwaffles]

The guns are definitely longer ranged than the Telemachus' guns. Telemachus, as stated, is like a humongous fighter.

..I'll be more thorough next time.