Maneuvers Gone Wrong

The stargate pulsed and shot a sabre of energy across the cosmos as Capt Platinum orbited Thor’s Hammer at high velocity. Shocku selected the planet looming nearby and started the warp drive. A warning flashed up on his overview “Warp cannot be initiated due to interference. You are being warp scrambled.” Shocku suddenly broke into a smile, Capt had successfully scrammed his battleship with his little frigate. That would be very useful in real combat. Capt called over the com, “Can you hit me with your guns?” Shocku target locked the frigate and activated a couple of his 1400mm Artillery cannons. Slugs the diameter of a redwood tree hurled through space at the frigate, missing it like a hand swatting at a fly. Next he activated his mid sized autocannons. These fired projectiles only a fraction of the size, but could track much faster. Shocku glanced up at the overview and saw that Capt was halfway through armor, and quickly deactivated the autocannons. All was quiet for a moment, then suddenly a thunderous boom shook the ship as the artillery fired again. Shock looked in surprise and dismay as Capt’s frigate exploded in space, leaving only his capsule intact. “Capt, are you alright?! What happened, I forgot that artillery was still active, but didn’t think it would hit anyway.” Capt replied, “I activated my Microwarp drive and was moving away from you and went into range of your artillery. I forgot the great distance of those things… I was at 25km. Shocku sighed, “Yeah, my current fit has a range of 86km.” He then headed to station to get his salvager to save what he could of Capt’s wreck.

In their post mordem, the two pilots discussed lessons learned. The tackler will need to stay at range, whether close or far, until the target is destroyed by the unit he is supporting. Shocku suggests a smaller Microwarp or AB to make the capacitor last longer.

Later that night, after Capt has gone to bed, Shocku still feels a bit bad about scuttling his Frig, but has an idea. Could he fit a “Sniper Maelstrom?” Working with the fitting tool, he comes up with a fitting that will allow him to track and hit a target at a distance of 200km with 8 rounds of 1400mm artillery.