[AdmiralTigerclaw]

Time to play a little game.

This game is called: Cradle Robber.



The objective of the game is to win the scenario through your choice of actions voted upon. You have three lives.

Shal we begin?

Spoiler for START!:

[LOADING...]

GCFA FORWARD OPERATIONS COMMAND
Phantom Class Carrier: Silent Hill

"We apologize for waking you at this hour commander, but this came up rather suddenly."

Fifteen minutes ago, we detected a massive disturbance on the surface of the planet Mid-Childa, our current orbital stealth survey assignment. I didn't believe it myself until I saw the satellite footage, but it looks like that maniac Scagletti wasn't as stupid as we thought.

The mad scientist has managed to dig up, power up, and launch what appears to be a fully operational Battleship... Of unknown design. And not just any battleship, but a magically powered Juggernaut. This thing is MASSIVE. Six kilometers long, one kilometer wide, and radiating power in the astral spectrum the likes of which would make the Andraste sweat.

StratOps have been making a risk assessment, and they aren't liking the results. If this vessel is allowed to make orbit, it would take a full scale assault and massive losses in order to cripple, capture, or destroy it. In the hands of a rogue entity like Scagletti, this could well be a galactic level security issue.

We also intercepted a transmission that for some reason, the heavy hitters of RF6, who were on their way to engage the target, disappeared without a trace during their approach. That does not bode well for the TSAB forces currently attempting to handle the threat.

As such, I have decided to authorize action against this threat.

Currently, the vessel seems to be in more or less passive operational state. It's weapons systems are fairly inactive, and it's rising at a lazy 58 feet per second, and will reach low orbit at 120 miles in roughly three hours. It's almost as if whoever's in control doesn't really know how to handle a capital ship. According to scans, it has a huge block of engines and should be capable of far greater thrust to weight power. Should someone onboard figure out how to get the main drives up to full power, its TTO could decrease alarmingly.

Thus, we need to strike the vessel, and strike it NOW while it's weak.

StratOps warns that direct carrier intervention on our part is suicide given it's weapons displayed thus far, but based on the number of TSAB mages attacking it, there is a high probability that a fighter equiped with anti-capship weaponry can destroy, cripple, or at least slow the vessel down in its current state, buying time for the TSAB task force to intercept.

This is where you come in. You're our best fighter pilot. You will engage this vessel, and attempt to cripple or destroy it. I can't trust any of our other pilots to this mission.

Failure is not an option.

You will be allowed to select the vehicle and armament best suited to your skills in this mission...

X to Continue...

Spoiler for X :

You find yourself suited up on the flight deck. Before you, several fighters are being prepared for launch. Each one of them has an insignia painted on it. The insiginia appears to be a mouse with a flght helmet on, visor down, but an angry sneer visible in the teeth below. The mouse is flexing it's arm, showing off bulging muscles while it pulls on the whiskers of a rather beat up looking cat. Below it are words...

MOUSE
151rst Tactical Starfighter Squadron
"No one is mightier."

A flight technician runs up to you, saluting quickly before speaking.

"We're ready when you are sir! We prepped the craft and weapons as the commander wanted them. All you've got to do is tell us which weapons you want, and which fighter you want them on, and we'll have it ready by the time you're strapped in...

[SELECT YOUR FIGHTER]

A: SF-36 'Raptor Intercecptor' ATASI

"The SF Thirty-six is designed for Aerospace superiority and is the most advanced interceptor fighter in the fleet. It is fast, agile, and quite capable of handing itself in any dogfight. However, it lacks ordinance capacity of earlier fighters."

SPEED: Superior
MANEUEVERABILITY: Superior
FIREPOWER: GOOD
DEFENSE: GOOD
PRIMARY WEAPON: Stormbolt III-A7 'Switchblade'
SPECIAL: Oracle Combat Management Computer


B: SF-30 C "Phoenix" Fighter/Bomber

"The Phoenix is quite the favorite for many pilots because of its praised ability for hypersonic attack runs. This bomber has the ordinance to pack against even large capital ships thanks to the ability to carry larger anti-ship missiles in the most numbers. However, it's design emphasizes speed blitzing targets over agility. When it comes to a turning fight, it's not the best at cornering, but can handle very wide high G turns at high speed."

SPEED: Excelent
MANEUVERABILITY: Okay
FIREPOWER: AWESOME
DEFENSE: Good
PRIMARY WEAPON: Stormbolt III-A4
SPECIAL: Immune to light, thermal energy based weapons. (Drone lasers not strong enough to damage thermal protective coating.)

C: A/GS-80 "Venator" Assault Gunship

"The Venator is a versatile multipurpose attack craft, at home in either ground attack, air, or space combat roles quite equally. It carries an array of anti-vehicle weapons designed mainly for ground attack, though capship work is perfectly possible. The added bonus of the gunner allows this vehicle to engage multiple targets simultaniously with a forward mounted, turreted rotary Stormbolt A-II C variant. However, the Venator is not very fast compared to most advanced starfighters, and has rather poor accelleration... Though because of the number of directional thrusters onboard, it can 'dance' in the air quite impressively with the right pilot."


SPEED: Okay
MANEUVERABILITY: Wicked
FIREPOWER: Vicious
DEFENSE: Low
PRIMARY WEAPON: Twin Stormbolt IV Light Capital Cannons
SPECIAL: Rotary Stormbolt II C Variant.


[ORDINANCE SELECTION]

Originally Posted by Weapons Available

::PRIMARIES::

Stormbolt III-A4

"These are the fourth upgrade to the starfighter standard Stormbolt III medium particle cannon. An effective dogfight and strafing energy weapon running directly off the fighter's power supply. As long as the fighter can fly, it can shoot. Their penetration power isn't the best, but they are effective at tearing through armor plating and penetrating shields."


Stormbolt III-A7 Switchblade

"Switchblade cannons are a two mode combat particle cannon operating a six-barrel rotary cannon for rapid fire centered around a larger single barrel pulse cannon. The Switchblades can select between fire modes by a thumb switch to deliver the desired form of fire the pilot wants to targets. The rapid fire mode has penetration attributes similar to most low yield particle beam weapons, while the high power burst fire mode sports a modestly destructive explosive force."


Stormbolt II C Variant

"The stormbolt II C variant is six barrel, light anti-vehicle particle gatling cannon mounted on a rotating turret mechanism to allow for precise, wide fields of far to gunners using them. They have only one power level."


Stormbolt IV LCC

"Equipped on the Venator are a pair of fixed, forward looking stormbolt cannons, normally equipped on capital ships as point defense weapons. They are often used for peppering target areas with explosive firepower where guided munitions are either unavailable, or unadvisable. They lack penetration power, but make up for it with their ability for splash damage."

::SECONDARIES::

SIM-11 CRUSADER

The, Space Intercept Missile type 11 CRUSADER, is a small, medium range, anti-ship missile, designed for precision rather than firepower. The CRUSADER can be launched by fighters with payloads as small as the Raptor Interceptor, up to full sized capital ships. It's onboard targeting system allows it to profile an enemy ship from the combat computer of the launch platform, and locate its target impact point, allowing this small munition to hit critical areas. It is incredibly fast, and highly manueverable.
It's detonation charge is an enhanced armor penetrator case filled with a plasma explosive, which sits mounted on a tandom detonation charge that's used to force the warhead through most shields and armors."

SIM-56 Black Reaver

"This Space Intercept Missile is a medium, long range, stealth missile. Used expressly for stand-off attacks against Same System starfighter and medium support craft platforms. It's name is derrived from the black sensor absorbant coating it has, as well as the fact that it impacts targets at extremely high velocities, nearly ripping the smallest ones in half. It's not very manueverable, and is not meant for dogfights."

SIM-7 SHURIKEN

"The deadly, short range fighter to fighter SHURIKEN, is the sidewinder of outter space. It is small, cheap, and fast. It manuevers extremely well, and targeting computers can lock them on to heat, magnetic, or ionic sources in less than a second. Their flexibility of use at blinding dogfight speeds makes them very similar to the split second use of the Ninja Stars of old."

SIM-66 SLEDGEHAMMER

The Sledgehammer is one of the largest fighter launched anti-ship missiles available. Similar in detonation mechanics to the Crusader, but with a directional fusion warhead, it is designed for medium range, starship crippling attacks. Because of its larger size, it is programmed to weave to avoid defense fire.

"Sir, select your ordinance Profile..."


1: Aerospace Superiority
"Your ship will be equipped for dogfighting. Shurikens will be your primary loadout, with a side of Black Reavers for tougher targets. Whatever you encounter, you expect the biggest issue to be from attacking drones, and need the ability to handle them so you can concentrate on your objective. You'll save your guns for making attack runs on the capital ship after you find a good weak point to exploit."

2: Versatile loadout.
"We'll load your craft up with Crusaders. Those things can target just about anything that your sensors can identify. They aren't the best against faster targets, but you can shoot what you have to, and still pack a wallop against larger targets."

3: Assault Mix ( I or II)
"This is a favorite for most strike missions. We'll load you up with an aerospace combat loadout, but leave 1/3 of your capcity for using Crusaders (I), or Sledgehammers (II) for doing the heavy hitting. Be warned. You can only hold half as many hammers as crusaders." [ALERT! Sledgehammer not available on Venator]

4: Anti-Capital
"I understand that since your target is a very LARGE capital ship, you want to forego wasting space on light weapons and just go with the biggest weapons in the arsenal. We'll load you up with Sledgehammer missiles and let the fusion warheads do the work. I needn't remind you that the fusion warheads might be a bit dangerous to use within an atmosphere with friendlies in the viscinity. But what choice do we have? Remember of course, that you can only hold half as many Sledgehammers as other missiles due to their larger size."

Are you up for the challenge?

Select your fighter, and select your ordinance loadout, and prepare for launch.