Open Play Week 5 Hunt: Mysterious Shipment from Prime's Lab Moon

The Ambassador Engine pulsed as boiling blood flowed through its impossible glistening form. The mass of tissue seemed to strain against the barbed iron framework it was grown around as it writhed; and blood hissed as it was freed from those struggles and fell to the sterile floor. Five wispy clone scientists raised their hands, and countless metal limbs extended from the ceiling to make a transport chamber for the horror. Soon it would be aboard a Dreadnaught. Soon after, it would be at the Unity's black fortress in Krypos, ready to strike against the Quall.

But first..."Diplomacy"

One of the five scientists turned to a long-distance communicator capable of converting Unity code communication signals to the binary disconnected networks. It was getting harder and harder to send messages these days...but such was the price of progress.

"Officials of the EEF; we have need to transport a valuable weapon to the Plane of Fire, but must use a weak-point in the planar sub-structure for this movement. The cargo is incredibly valuable, and leyas disruption caused by a bridge formed in a non-nexus local of the cargo could lead to destruction of the weapon's functionality."

The scientist quietly cursed. He had forgotten to add encryption! BLAST those dam disconnected transmission terminals. He switched it on and continued.

"Under our cease fire accords, we ask to transport this cargo across EEF space. If this weapon makes it to our broadcasting station in Krypos, we can keep the peace with the Quall by threatening the integrity of their Hivemind."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pirate listening stations had been trying for weeks to learn ANYTHING about the goings-on of the Prime Lab. There had to be valuables being made there, but communications from the moon were impossible to decipher.

The pirate in front of a listening terminal sprayed thick beer when he received an incoming unencrypted transmission.
"Officials of the EEF; we have need to transport a valuable weapon to the Plane of Fire, but must use a weak-point in the planar sub-structure for this movement. The cargo is incredibly valuable, and leyas disruption caused by a bridge formed in a non-nexus local of the cargo could lead to destructiN183762.
Birdfishalpha
Jirq52787&*)@)^$."

He turned, wiping his beer off. "BOSS! We have a transmission from the Prime lab! Send it to the pirate lords and we will be RICH!"

This mission is open to any player with Pirate affiliation, the Free Systems players, Independent Corps and those they wish to invite. This mission is also open to all EEF commanders. The obvious defenders of the cargo will be a Dreadnaught with full crew and 50 Saggitae. The EEF may wish to give the Unity additional protection in their space. Mission threads will be put in the proper forums where you can discuss stealing my hard-made abomination.

If the players involved make this a space-battle, it will be a single mission without you getting the chance to adapt to any hidden defenses. If Pirates are sneaky about getting elite operatives on the vessel, then there will be a second mission regarding the defenses they find on the Dreadnaught.

The end date for this mission is Nov. 4 11PM est. All players get one post excepting for the ambush rule.

Hari sighed as she sat at her desk on Maxa Provo 9. As CEO of Maehl Holdings, she still did essentially what she used to do, manage the day to day operations of the intergalactic corporation. Su did all the leadership things, she did the nitty gritty details, it was her specialty. She served as Maehl's vice-captain for years, and she was always good at covering his gaps. Those days are long gone, Hari She rubbed her head as she looked over the memos sprawled over her desk, most of which pertained to public speaking, client relations, and a quarterly banquet; CEO is a lot more public than her last job. In a way, hers and Su's positions have changed. He does things behind the scenes, and she's the new face of the company.

However, one thing she still does out of habit. She spends one hour a day listening to "rogue" transmissions. Few people know it, but Maehl Holdings spends a significant amount of resources monitoring transmissions, for the purpose of ensuring that these rogue elements don't attempt to interfere with day to day operations. While they have little to fear from proper pirates, crimelords are unscrupulous vermin that warrant attention. On most days, Hari doesn't hear anything of interest. Today, however, the motherload of transmissions came through the proverbial wire:

"Officials of the EEF; we have need to transport a valuable weapon to the Plane of Fire, but must use a weak-point in the planar sub-structure for this movement. The cargo is incredibly valuable, and leyas disruption caused by a bridge formed in a non-nexus local of the cargo could lead to destructiN183762.
Birdfishalpha
Jirq52787&*)@)^$."

Hari almost fell out of her seat. "Fuck me sideways, I did not just hear that!!!!!" She ran over to her private communicator, highly encrypted, having only one destination: Su Maehl. The response was clear: Protect the cargo, do not let anyone get their hands on it. "And I thought today was going to be an easy day," she smiled to nobody in particular, and sent the orders through.

"Dear EEF leaders,
There is a small Unity force that has recently requested permission to travel through your territory. We have reason to believe that rogue elements throughout the universe may attempt to attack this flotilla. As such, we request permission to assist in the defense of this force and traverse your territory. We will not take action against any EEF forces, and should you choose to attack this Unity Force, we will not prevent you from doing so, as it is not within our right to do so.

Upon entry into your territory, we will hail your forces as per protocol. Unless we receive a cease and desist order, we will presume to have the permission to do defend this force as per the permission granted to them.

We appreciate your patience and cooperation.

Yours sincerely,
Captain Ballack
13th Armada of the Free Systems

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All ships are listed as Free Systems.

The Main Defense Force
10 Heavy Frigates
100 Cudgels
20 Antares with Helios Cannons, docking 5 Machetes each (100 total, loaded out for anti-starship battle)
100 Aegis with disabler cannons

This defense force will be the obvious protection and will shadow the Dreadnaught. The load outs will be for heavy defensive firepower. The Aegis will handle the dogfighting, the cudgels as their defense, and the frigates and antares will take on capital ships.

The hidden force
100 Tridents - in 10 different units, all fully armed (with missiles), will create a perimeter around the dreadnaught. They also serve as scouts. If capital ships attack the dreadnaught, they will unload and warn the troops.

The reserves
20 Pirate Light Frigates
400 Stilettos (synced with the frigates, with disabler cannons)
40 Albatrosses (with Nanite Artillery)
80 Kingfishers (with disabler cannons)
20 Antares (with Cerebrus Lasers) and 5 Machetes each, anti-capital ship load outs (100 total)
150 Cudgels

These will come into play only if there are any attacks on this ship. They will come out in four waves from four different directions. The first wave will be the stilettos (arriving via Light Frigates). They will focus on any attacking capital ships, hopefully from the rear. As they strafe across the field, they will leave the theatre of battle and attempt to sync with the Light Frigates to move to another part of battle. They will be followed up by the Machetes, which will have support fire from the lasers (antares). The cudgels will follow the rear, defending the Antares. The Kingfighers will disable capital ships, the Albatrosses will tear apart starfighers, and then finish off the capital ships (as they will be disabled by this point). Machetes finish off anything needing it.

***request for clemency regarding prior post. My computer jammed and didn't post the message for about 10 min. I left the computer after pressing send, and it just didn't. My computer sucks***

***Its not locked, and so I think its fine. Even though you've made my space battle into some sort of benny-hill disaster which I'm crazy excited to write . ***