[LP CYOA] Epic

[Storyfag]

Remember how Adrahasis hid all his dreadnaughts? (super-heavy battleship? ugh. The sailor/naval fanatic in me protests!) Are we certain it's different this time?

 

[treave]

You can't get an accurate enough reading to determine if all the ships are there. Some jamming is in play to cover their retreat. Or apparent retreat. And there's always the option of deploying decoy balloons. You don't know.

 

[Baltika9]

The only way this could be a trap is if they had spies in our midst/we were sold out by one of the Admirals.

Otherwise, I see no way they could have anticipated our moves. This is either a deadly trap or we caught them with their pants down. Question is: do we feel lucky?

 

[Storyfag]

Question is: do we feel lucky?

THIS! IS! THE CODEX!

 

[Esquilax]

Let's try and examine some of the evidence:

All of the slipspace routes into the galactic core are now controlled by the League.
...
As for Armada Alpha, they should depart from the League’s home systems and begin heading towards the core to lie in wait for us.
...
Sector Armada Delta itself was on the move, travelling towards the jump point that led further into the core.

Okay, so they're heading towards the core, but what are their motives? I think it's quite possible that Delta wants to link up with Alpha Armada based on our intel. If we follow them with B, we could end up in very deep shit as we're surrounded by their two most dangerous fleets once we reach the other side of the jump point.

treave, Hasting has worked under Volkin Swicks before - does she have any comments on the situation? The man prefers an Imperial style of engagement, so a cat-and-mouse game seems somewhat out of the ordinary based on what little we know of him. Then again, the dude is a competent enough general that the Council gave him an Armada, so I'm sure that he has tricks up his sleeve as well.

The advantage of A if this isn't a trap is that our cruiser force is massive and we'd do a ton of damage to them before they got away.

 

[treave]

Imperial style of engagement doesn't bar using trickery in combat - exhibit A: Adrahasis. What it means is that Volkin prefers to rely on heavy firepower when the opportunity presents itself, hence his predilection for battleships. As for the situation, she is not committing to any particular answer, though she thinks it's likelier that Volkin is genuinely retreating out of the system. I'm sure there's enough information in the text for you to come to your own conclusion, even if the segment is brief.

 

[Azira]

Balls to the wall guys. Balls to the wall.

A

 

[Baltika9]

I'm sure there's enough information in the text for you to come to your own conclusion, even if the segment is brief.

Oh?

“From what I’ve heard, you might have admiral troubles later down the line. You might need my help to keep the peace.”

I narrow my eyes. “Who have you heard it from?”

“I have my sources,” she grins mischieviously. “I always do. Oh, I had one more thing I needed to say. I think I really like you.” I do bite my tongue this time. Before I can respond, she’s run off, only stopping to peek over her shoulder with a smile.

You don't say. Kawano, the crafty bitch. She's the one who has the most ties to the League and the most sponsors. No one would suspect a pop star to be a spy, especially not someone of her popularity.

This is reeks of a set-up. You don't just abandon a fortress-system. A is suicidal, and while I would love to go D (hell, I want to do it twice), it's foolish to reveal our trump card like that. That leaves B and C.
Yeah, it sounds paranoid as hell, but my gut is telling me something's up.

 

[Kipeci]

D. I'm not sure how they'd prepare themselves against a black hole cannon even given that this part of their fleet manages to survive our strike.

 

[treave]

Is a fortress system still a fortress system if there are no fortresses there? I wonder.

 

[Storyfag]

You know what? Fuck 'em. Transit to Bainur and take their VIPs hostage. If the League won't come out and play, they'll give their own fleets an incentive to defect. If they will come out and play, we'll face them on a battlefield of our own choosing.

 

[Jester]

can some of those fortresses use jump point?

in A we send super mech first and try to stall them or can we for example attach one of our familiars to ship and send nuke through?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Hahaha!

E - Ignore them. Set course for the planets themselves. Broadcast a message:

"Attention Star League cowards: Because you've chosen to run from us rather than fight, we will now utterly annihilate this system. There will be no survivors. There will not even be a star left. Only a small black hole will remain. That is all."

If they stay, we maneuver or fleet to intercept the enemy with heavy fire as they (or their drones) approach, leading them into our trap. If not, we make good on our threat and have Senya black hole each of the worlds, or just the star itself, or use the cannon - provided we can escape in time.

 

[treave]

You suspect the fortresses have already jumped. You'll deal with the fleet in A as best as you can with a cruiser force and the CFs. No more details than that.

Also, I have no idea why anyone would want to randomly destroy uninhabited planets but if that's what makes you feel all manly you can have it as an option.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

You suspect the fortresses have already jumped.

Also, I have no idea why you would want to randomly destroy uninhabited planets but if that's what makes you feel all manly you can have it as an option.

Uninhabited? I though the garrisons or the population would have.... Ah, screw it. Can't a guy twirl his mustache once in a while?

C - Like we could have done with Adrahasis' obvious trap, ignore the trap and scram.

 

[Jester]

Hahaha!

E - Ignore them. Set course for the planets themselves. Broadcast a message:

"Attention Star League cowards: Because you've chosen to run from us rather than fight, we will now utterly annihilate this system. There will be no survivors. There will not even be a star left. Only a small black hole will remain. That is all."

If they stay, we maneuver or fleet to intercept the enemy with heavy fire as they (or their drones) approach, leading them into our trap. If not, we make good on our threat and have Senya black hole each of the worlds, or just the star itself, or use the cannon - provided we can escape in time.

neh they aren't stupid enough to do that in my opinion and that bad PR we would get from doing that, although if we would know any cleaning company caled black hole we could do niece commercial in this sector.
"Black Hole cleaning even star stains in cold atmosphere! Buy now."

 

[treave]

It has three gas giants for planets, mentioned in the update, and no industry to speak of. Whatever people lived here would have been on the fortresses. Which don't seem to be here anymore. The system's value is in terms of the slipspace routes that it guards. It can give easy access to surrounding systems, including Dormungan, Bainur, and the fastest route to the very important Carneus Beta (note that both other choices previously mentioned specifically stated they could lead to Gelmark in particular), while having nothing of note in the system itself that an enemy can use to force capitulation. That is why it was a fortress system. It is - or perhaps was - a literal fort.

I'm not sure I should be pointing all this out actually. So I won't, from now on.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Hahaha!

E - Ignore them. Set course for the planets themselves. Broadcast a message:

"Attention Star League cowards: Because you've chosen to run from us rather than fight, we will now utterly annihilate this system. There will be no survivors. There will not even be a star left. Only a small black hole will remain. That is all."

If they stay, we maneuver or fleet to intercept the enemy with heavy fire as they (or their drones) approach, leading them into our trap. If not, we make good on our threat and have Senya black hole each of the worlds, or just the star itself, or use the cannon - provided we can escape in time.

neh they aren't stupid enough to do that in my opinion and that bad PR we would get from doing that, although if we would know any cleaning company caled black hole we could do niece commercial in this sector.
"Black Hole cleaning even star stains in cold atmosphere! Buy now."

Well, If they had remained in they system, the fleet would have been forced to protect the population. If they didn't, well, we already have bad PR - we're the enemy after all. :shrug: Somebody's got to Shulgi and it might as well be us.

But the population isn't there so forget it...

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

It has three gas giants for planets, mentioned in the update, and no industry to speak of. Whatever people lived here would have been on the fortresses. Which don't seem to be here anymore. The system's value is in terms of the slipspace routes that it guards. It can give easy access to surrounding systems, including Dormungan, Bainur, and the fastest route to the very important Carneus Beta (note that both other choices previously mentioned specifically stated they could lead to Gelmark in particular), while having nothing of note in the system itself that an enemy can use to force capitulation. That is why it was a fortress system. It is - or perhaps was - a literal fort.

I'm not sure I should be pointing all this out actually. So I won't, from now on.

Well, it is common knowledge, so it's kind of is something we should know... (though we should have picked up on the fact you said the fortresses were moveable...)

 

[treave]

Huh, checking back, I accidentally said that the inhabited planets would be strongly garrisoned in a previous post. That's my mistake, I was referring to how a fortress system would be set up in general. If they set one up in an inhabited system that is. Doesn't apply to Gelmark, but I can see why you made the assumption.

My bad.

Whenever you arrive in a system you will be given a brief description of anything important, so if it's not seen there you can assume it doesn't exist, unless it's a nasty enemy trap.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

It's cool, though I just had a thought: if we proceed to the prize world, wouldn't we arrive before Ean's group? May be a reason to reconsider...or not. Not sure...


edit: they couldn't cloak a fortress...could they? That or I suppose they could assume we'd keep our fleet together and set an ambush with most of them at the jump point...

 

[treave]

Ean will reach there in 5 days assuming no interruptions, you will arrive in 7 if you make the jump now.

They could cloak a fortress if they had an immortal powerful enough, or several immortals with the right power set and coordination.

 

[TOME]

Sector Armada Delta itself was on the move, travelling towards the jump point that led further into the core.

treave, does further into the core mean Carnelius beta or could it mean other systems as well?

I'm sure this is some sort of a trap. They rigged the binary stars to explode or something. Which means they knew we were coming, and they also know we are going to Bainur. So do we head for Bainur to warn Ean or do we try to tail delta and see where they go?

I say we try to team up with rest of the fleet.

C.

 

[treave]

It's the route that goes three jumps to Carneus Beta. It could branch out somewhere in between there, but that's not too important right now.

 

[Storyfag]

treave
Any chances to get a map? Even a sketchy one made in Paint?