A
Reasoning:
Our carrier(Sparrow) is understaffed in terms of people, but our autonomous bomber drones still pack a punch.
The Scudo is designed as a frontline vessel: Good shield, crappy main battery.
Splitting our crews is a good way to get ourselves divided and subsequently destroyed, while voting C...Heartless, plain heartless.(And stupid to boot, why go through all the risks of saving them, only to get them killed right after?)
My reasoning for sticking together is: Should we stumble upon a better carrier(Hali's taken the outside screen right off SoaSE I assume) or find additional drones, we're in a good situation to both fight boarding parties and normal ship attacks, while if we split up, we're more vulnerable due to having ships manned with less than a skeleton crew.
Enfin, should the vote be against me, keep our shield-engineer, captain and Davis at the Sparrow, and get our others to the Scudo.
B Take both ships... Splitting the crew as thus... Kar'rat and Uyard on the Sparrow... While the girls all take and crew the Scudo... Scarlet piloting it, Jeana on guns, and Yumi on shields...
B Take both ships I say, strength in numbers as it is the most sensible thing to do. Plus since the Sparrow has no actual guns it would be helpful to have a ship that does have a weapon's system on board of some sort. Splitting the crew as thus... Kar'rat and Uyard on the Sparrow, since Uyard is a drones expert and that's all the Sparrow has for fighting he should control the drones and such, with Kar'rat piloting it and staying on board to help defend since he's a combat expert. While the girls all take and crew the Scudo for the moment, with Scarlet piloting it, Jeana on guns, and Yumi on shields since it has hardened shields and because she's also a combat expert and can help defend against boarders, this way we've got a combat expert on both ships to help defend.
B - I like the above setup. Although I will note that FTL-esque defense drones don't target hostile offense drones, so that's not as much of a concern as it might be. Running out of drone parts, however, is a problem - though I will note that that stat isn't being tracked.
B Take both ships I say, strength in numbers as it is the most sensible thing to do. Plus since the Sparrow has no actual guns it would be helpful to have a ship that does have a weapon's system on board of some sort. Splitting the crew as thus... Kar'rat and Uyard on the Sparrow, since Uyard is a drones expert and that's all the Sparrow has for fighting he should control the drones and such, with Kar'rat piloting it and staying on board to help defend since he's a combat expert. While the girls all take and crew the Scudo for the moment, with Scarlet piloting it, Jeana on guns, and Yumi on shields since it has hardened shields and because she's also a combat expert and can help defend against boarders, this way we've got a combat expert on both ships to help defend.
If possible try and salvage another weapon or two from the other ships docked at the station, but if it isn't possible then leave them and take the Sparrow and the Scudo and move on to the next star system. If a fight happens, then we've got two ships to fight with, the Scudo can stay in close and keep the enemy distracted, or do covering fire for the Sparrow, while its drones pound the enemy ships to pieces for them.
B - I like the above setup. Although I will note that FTL-esque defense drones don't target hostile offense drones, so that's not as much of a concern as it might be. Running out of drone parts, however, is a problem - though I will note that that stat isn't being tracked.
Actually if they are defense drones mark 2 they can shoot down anti ship drones, I've had them do that before to mine at least and lost because of it, as they shot down too many and I couldn't take down the enemy shields to take out their drone system fast enough before I lost all mah drones.
Edit: What Lurker 01 below me says is true, I'd almost forgotten about defense drones mark 2 shooting lasers down as well. So my vote stays the same, the more we've got to shoot at an enemy, the better.
Do i needed to add they shot down lasers? WTF, also you probably coul'nt take 1-2 points of shield with 4 laser shots, athrought it possible but atleast 1-2 shots get taken down. atleast it worked that good for computer controled drones, mines just shoted too slowly so the laser did hit the shield most of the times.
Thanks for bringing that up Matt! I wanted to give Drones a little reworking for the purpose of this CYOA. My plan is to make Drone Parts more rare, but to make all intact drones reusable. (A little like Drone Recovery Arm) The crew will still be able to build drones they have the schematics for, but they will have to rely more heavily on keeping their drones in good condition, like their ship.
Note: This also allows the crew to recover enemy drones for future use or reconstruction.
Another rumble shook the station, Scarlet nervously eyed a display in the medical bay, the rest of the station had begun to turn pink, the words "Quarantine" beginning to flash across the main corridor. "Guys, whatever we do, we've gotta do quick." She said, a hint of nervousness in her normally strong voice. She looked across the room at the other four.
Kar'rak nodded, in agreement, but Uyard spoke first, "Well, if we leave now, we can get away, Scarlet, you should get to the cockpit, without an AI, you're the only one that can pilot it." He said with a confident nod, pointing to the cockpit. He then moved his arm to point at Kar'rak...
Before he could speak the Hunter snatched his hand from the air, glaring at him with narrow, black eyes. "You don't give orders Small One." Kar'rak snarled, "You listen to us." Violently he threw his hand away, standing tall over him.
"The rest of the station is already under Quarantine Kar'rak, unless you wanna find out what else is on there, we should take the Scudo and move to dock with the Sparrow." The rest Jeana nodded her agreement quickly.
"Y-yes, that sounds good. I'd rather not encounter any more of those things today, friends or no friends." She said, her voice trailed off to a faint whimper.
"Maybe I'm stating the obvious," Yumi said, a concerned look on her face, "but couldn't we just take one of the ships? And stick together? Moving through space on a fleet is one thing, but with only a ship or two, we're sure to be a target."
"I agree with the Pilot." Kar'rak said, his expression seemed to say that he didn't plan for that to happen very often, "There are known slave routes along the way, we can collect extra crew as we go, but ships may be harder to come across. More metal is better than extra flesh."
Kar'rak successfully ended the conversationn, Scarlet quickly moving to the cockpit to get the Scudo off the platform, Yumi and Jeana quickly took their positions at weapons and shields respectively. Kar'rak reached down, grasping Uyard by the back of his collar, tugging him along, "You'll come with me to the engine room until we get to the Sparrow." He said, a slight smirk crossing his face.
Within a few minutes the Scudo's engines began to spin up, the ship hummed to life again. Scarlet's voice came over the ship's internal speakers, "Alright everyone, get ready for departure," She said, the sound of the airlock venting echoed through the small ship, and then a clank. The ship swayed from side to side as it pulled away from the station. From the windows they could see the station, framed by the partially volcanic planet below, the red glow washing across the fleet. The more distant capitol ship Longboat was gone, Overlord still hung in orbit.
Slowly the Scudo arched over the Frigate Station, four ships still attached to the station, the Sparrow included, though not by an airlock. Steadily the ship leveled with the other side of the Sparrow, coming in to dock. Scarlet leaned into the com, quickly radioing the Sparrow. "Jack, this is Scarlet, I'm moving the Scudo over to dock with the Sparrow, I need you to pressurize your end of the airlock."
The accented voice of the pirate responded, "Alright, here you go love, all ready to welcome you aboard!"
"Sorry Jack, I won't be joining you. Someone broke the AI on this ship." Scarlet said, an ounce of bitterness to her voice.
"No, not ol' Jesibelle!" Jack sounded disappointed, but only for a moment. "Eh, its probably for the better, I hadn't visited in a while."
Scarlet rolled her eyes, "Initiating docking procedures." A hiss of air flowed from the Scudo into the umbilical docking tube. "Alright, Kar'rak, take who you want over to the Scudo and..." Her voice trailed off as the cockpit was filled with light. Overlord's engines began to heat up, turning blue, and then white... Then, in a silent explosion, the hull of the Overlord began to fracture, and then erupted in plasma.
"Uh, Kar'rak, get there fast! The Overlord just spaced, its too close, that eruption is gonna rip the frigate station to pieces!"
Wordlessly, Kar'rak grabbed Uyard Lawrence and pulled him along, dashing through the ship, lifting the short Asura off his feet for most of the journey. The two dove through the airlock of the Sparrow, Uyard let out a yelp as he hit the ground, Kar'rak continued to the bridge, Jack was already waiting.
"Hurry, press the button to do the thing!" The AI panicked, fortunately Kar'rak knew the essentials of the start up process from watching his partner. The airlock hissed as the Scudo pulled away with Scarlet, Yumi, and Jeana on board. The docking clamps pulled away from the Sparrow, and it drifted aside.
"Jack, follow the Scudo." He ordered, engaging the thrusters and making slight adjustments as the ship maneuvered away from the Frigate Platform. Private Lawrence stumbled his way onto the bridge, his wide eyes looking out the window as the cloud of debris from the Overlord ominously made its way towards them.
Scarlet banked the Scudo back over the station, moving swiftly to the edge of Hell 2's Gravity Well. She radioed over to the Sparrow as the pair of ships slipped through space, the Frigate platform melting behind them from the force of the Overlord's explosion. A few other small craft danced at the edge of the debris field. Kar'rak, spin up your FTL drive!
The hull of the Sparrow began to quake, soon after that the Scudo followed suit, "Initiating Mini-Jump, sending coordinates to Jack." Scarlet said through gritted teeth. Small blue windows opened at the bow of each of the two ships, and in rapid succession the two ships appeared to disappear into thin air as they moved through their windows.
Not a moment later, in a quiet area of space about five hundred kilometers from the planet, the two ships exploded back into existence... Floating listlessly away from the planet, their crews took a collective sigh of relief.
"Kar'rak, are you there?" Scarlet called though the area, sounding breathless from their experience, "All systems on the Scudo are green." She said with a smile.
Kar'rak's voice responded over the radio, *Yes, the Asura and I are well.*
*I'm fine too, thanks for askin'.* Jack muttered over the radio.
*Our path is yet uncertain though.* Kar'rak added.
"No kidding, we could make a break for the core worlds, or try to contact the expeditions on some of the other planets." Scarlet said, putting her head in her hands. "Ugh, I've had enough thinking for one day." She moaned.
CHOICES
A- Plot a Course for another planet to contact other expeditions and the Skorm Fleet.
-1: Hell 1 (Research Station)
-2: Hell 2 (Current Location)
-3: Hell 3 (Mining Station)
-4: Hell 4 (Mining Station)
-5: Hell 5 (Military Outpost)
B- Plot a Course for the star, The River Styx to allow the ship's sensors to scan for other nearby stars.
C- Wait
D- Other
Should I feel bad for not catching the reference until now?
Especially when I think Johnny Depp is fucking sexy
Anyway, guys, we just flushed an entire hangar of I-think-I-heard-somewhere spess mahrins out the airlock because we were paranoid. Let's not go to the military base pls.
I'm torn between Garg's suggestion on the mining outpost for more scrap to buy stuff with, and the military outpost for extra weaponry and possibly crew for both ships.
At the moment though... I believe A5 is the way to go and that we can and should head to the military outpost first since neither ship is damaged, for the possibility of more weapons and crew, but then we should go to a mining outpost for some scrap afterwards, and then the research station definitely, because who knows what kinds of secret weapons they might have been working on there.
