Was playing around with my torpedo chopper against a few Onyx Watch ships. The Meridian was a curbstomp, as it's 22 broadside guns can't shoot up, and the ship was marked as too damaged after a solid hit on the side(and it's very satisfying watching it sink).
Spawned in a Buttress, which one of the Onyx Watch's specialties; heavy-armored ships referred to as "castle-ships".
For a reason.
Waves of torpedoes slammed into its front, while I nimbly evaded its two massive CRAM guns(which
do shoot up). And by "nimbly", I mean I cut the lifters and drop like a rock and hope I can get under the shells. This strategy actually worked for a while. I took one hit to the left wing, not sure what got taken out as it didn't affect my flight capabilities and my suit tentacles quickly repaired it.
A few salvos later, I take another hit to my right wing, this one actually took out the lifter, and possibly both of the rotors, as I began to spin out and fall. Given that the entire helicopter is made of light alloy, it's
very bouyant. The trick was not to flip over, which was accomplished by punching whatever drives the helicopter had to the maximum and several ill-advised prayers to whatever deities were listening. My suit managed to repair the entire craft in due time.
Renewing my attack on the Buttress, I took a hit to the cockpit. It did little damage, but it did take out my chair and controls. As those two bits finally repair and I start flying again. I see two CRAM shells closing fast, no time to dodge. Direct hit, down the center, the ammo storage goes up. I'm blown out of what used to be the cockpit, and as I hit the water I see scrap splashing down around me. Buttress for the win.
Took a good look at the Buttress' damage. Much of the front end was gone, and the ship was halfway to being an open-air submarine. As I'm examining the ship, the forward CRAM(also damaged by my attacks) tries to fire at something and explodes. I'll bet if I hit from different directions, I could have sunk it.
From the Depths. The helicopter is a full light alloy shell with two wings that have a lifting rotor as well as 6 torpedo launchers each. There's also two turing rotors on the tail, and two jets for forward propulsion. Cost is around 4500 materials. I just wish the AI could handle it better.