Mission 3 - Not so good at all...This should be a cake walk. Fast ships for a quick "in, hit and out" action. I opt to pilot a Wasp light interceptor. 2nd Lt. Inteuniso gets a Lynx light stealth multirole gunship. Sgt Bulldog keeps his high tech scout craft, which didnt need much reloading after last mission
. Fleshing out our numbers are Pvt's Hanzoku and Jopax, both in Super Drones, a ship with well balanced attributes and low cost. Should they perform well one or both might be assigned an upgraded ship, if we can aquitre more funds through more kills.
Seeing as command wished this to be an ambush, I order the squadron to take up position just inside an asteroid cluster, in a tight formation. We should make a nice suprise for any enemy patrols that encounter us. We take up position and wait...
2nd Lt. Inteuniso is the first to spot our quarry - an enemy drone. Break formation and attack - before more serious threats arrive.
I dont fancy its chances much, do you?
Disaster. Sgt. Bulldog is Wiped out by a single heavy missile from the drone - he never even saw it coming. This will hurt us as he was the eyes and ears of the squadron. I try and enact some vengance with a few pot shots at his killer...
but manage to miss, and those 2 missiles could pick up on either of our new recruits... no time to worry about that, I have another shot on the drone.
My shot hits, destroying the drone. Satisfying. Also, thankfully my missiles miss both our drones, who are circling back to find targets of thier own. I have a shot at a recently arrived enemy stealth bomber. So would Inteuniso, but I am very much in his way.
My first 2 shots miss, so I turn to chase it - if I loose it, I might not find it again.
The inevitable happens. The stealth bomber vanishes from our sensors. Worryingly, another stealthed craft can see us, and is taking a number of pot shots at Jopax.
One of those pot shots hits me full in the face, dropping my front shields by 33%. The enemy stealth bomber emerges from the sensor noise, and we might have a few shots on him...
Hanzoku launches 2 warheads at the bomber just as it drops off our sensors. I take a hit from the mystery ship. This isnt good - I lose all drive, but I can still manouver. I also lose one missile tube. The mystery ship turns out to be an enemy scout, and Jopax chases it for a few seconds, before it too vanishes. If only Bulldog hadnt got himself wasted. We take this opportunity to regroup into a more solid formation. But before we can do so properly...
we stumble onto either enemy reinforcements, or the rest of thier squadron - though the only ships we can see that we have not encountered yet is another drone, perfectly in range for me to have a pop at...
My missiles impact on the drones front shileds and they are dropped. Now the tricky bit, getting past it without getting hit in my badly damaged port side. The unseen bomber is lurking off our flank, giving us all a hard time, particularly Inteuniso who has to swerve to avoid a constant barrage of badly aimed shots. Speaking of badly aimed shots, our brave 2nd Lt. shoots at the enemy drone, misses, and looks to be killing one of our own...
But with ninja like dexterity, Jopax calmly swerves between the two missiles as they overtake him. Balls of steel. Things dont go well for our 2nd Lt. though - he takes a number of hits from the very annoying stealth craft, and elects to eject as his badly damaged craft passess into range of the 2 enemy ships we can see. I am scrubbing speed and turing to face them, hopefully I will be making a pass on them after our 2 Pvts have softened them up - Jopax makes a good start on this by landing a hit on the enemy scout.
Then things get nervy. Some poor piloting on my behalf means a nudge Jopax while turning. This brings me to a dead stop, and I lack the thrust to get going again due to prior damage. This actually helps Jopax turn to target a scout, which he has a good chance of finishing off. Hanzoku could be in trouble though...
The enemy drone doesnt react fast enough to get Hanzoku, and he survivs the danger. Jopax wipes out the enemy scout with a well timed shot, but then finds himself in danger from the drone sweeping across us. I try and give the enemy something to think about by firing some missiles of my own - in hope of keeping him off Jopax more than anything.
Jopax again oes some legenday dodging and avoids the shots from the drone. My 2 missiles probably help here as it has to deviate its course to avoid them both. SPeaking of serious problems, Hanzoku is getting shot up by what I suspect is the bomber (losing all drive engines), and I get hit by 2 missies from a scout, that promptly dissapears. My ship loses all sensors, and I am in a bad way - I will have to eject at the next hint of a threat if I wish to avoid death. I now await the next action as our 2 Pvts circle my immobile ship, chasing the damaged enemy drone.
Then I have to eject. The enemy bomber that has been a thorn in our side all mission is coming straight at me. I have nothing left to do other than eject, so I do so. The bomber vapourises my ship, but I escape the sector. The same fate awaits Hanzoku and Jopax - after getting hit they to elect to eject, happy to escape with thier lives.
DebriefMission failed. We were seriously outnumbered and outgunned. The enemy relied heavily on stealth craft, and the loss of our scout proved pivotal - we cant shoot at what we cant see. We lose all our ships. Bulldog is wasted, promoting Hanzoku to Sgt. Jopax appears to have some mighty dodging skills. It is a miracle 4 of us get back to HQ. I bag an enemy drone, and Jopax bags an enemy scout. Heres hoping for a more straightforward mission in the future.
Pilot Roster, Ship Preference and Combat RecordsOn Duty- Lt. Monkeyhead - Fighter/Bomber (3 mission, 7 kills, 2 ship lost, 1 Gold Cross)
- 2nd Lt Inteuniso - Fighter/Bomber (3 missions)
- Sgt Hanzoku - High Speed Attack Craft (1 mission)
- Pvt Jopax - Low Speed/Firepower (1 mission, 1 kill)
At Base:- Pvt Warhammer Jr - Heavy Weapons
- Pvt Cyrus - High Speed
- Pvt Dsarker - Dakka
- Pvt Delta Foxtrot - Scout/Drone
- Pvt Hexedmagica - Shields
- Pvt Elfeater - Fighter
- Pvt PhantomSpaceMan - Scout/LR
- Pvt Bulldog (Clone) - Scout
- Pvt Mormota - Fastness
- Awaiting Further Recruits
The Glorious Dead- Sgt Warhammer - Killed by an enemy Drone during Mission 1: Attack Hospitals (1 mission)
- Sgt Bulldog - Killed by an enemy Drone during Mission 3: Ambush (2 missions)
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Topic: Lets Play Critical Mass Again: Mission 7 complete (More pilots always wanted)... (Read 5538 times)