Wernher

New Dawn of Civilizations(Always Open)

Kinda curious about the time skip schedule. As I said I kinda plan on being done with my first 5 years soon and I see our gm is still at his first month, some not even there.

Lancer [Mechs, Magic, and Intrigue]

Baron Wilhelm

"Excellent my children! Your make your empire proud!" The baron declared after helping the Armatus deal with some of the point defense guns to clear the way for Onyx-9. It seemed like the battle was about to finish up with the enemy cores on the run and the Shriek being boarded. Old Ironside used the opportunity to sneak behind the frigate, a pod on his left shoulder opening to let loose his big dumb uppercut missile. Needless to say, a frigate was not able to dodge it, especially at this range. A large explosion shook the rear of the ship as its main thruster cut off (he had been careful not to hit the core to give another job to Hartwig.

"She's dead in the water, tally-ho!"

With this the man allowed his machine to drift a little as he closed his eyes, taking deep breath to steady his heart and calm down a little. "A-ah, hahaha, t-too old they call me, bollocks to that, haha-ahhhh..."

Captain Mika Ganishka

Mika had a sigh of relief when she heard the news that the strike crafts were turning around. She'd be confident the Indomitus would win, but the ex-pirate knew every time you took a gamble you had a chance to lose, no matter how stacked in your favor the game was.

There was something odd about this. The miscommunication, the factions, how well equipped and timed this ambush was... She had her suspicions of course, the sector had a strong republican leaning so some might take the arrival of an imperial prince as encroachment (which was exactly what it was to be fair).

The captain was pulled out of her musing by Prince Cassian reminding her of their priorities. She sighed in agreement. "Yeah yeah. We'll at least get two of them though, that converted cargo ship is too slow to escape my marauders." She said with a smirk. At the start of the battle she had sent her auxiliaries take the long way around the battlefield just for the chance of picking up stragglers. Now, the cruiser was too much for them to handle, but a converted carrier?

She'd take care of that in a moment, before that there was the matter of the Shriek.

"Onyx-9, don't pull out. I repeat, do not pull. No reason to blow up a perfect prize ship! You're running low on ammo so wait on reinforcement before finishing clearing up the bridge. XO, add Reaver-1 to battlefield coms."

Another screen came up on the large display, showing a savage looking individual with a blond mohawk combed to the left and his lower jaw missing, it and his bottom teeth replaced by cybernetics. His glazed over eyes and the heavy bags under them made his drug use obvious to say the least. He sniffed and cleared his nose before speaking.

"Do I finally get to kill something?"

"Seems like you just might. But listen up good Tarsis, I'm running a military op now and you'd better remember it. No friendly fire 'accidents' and if they surrender you don't kill them, even if they shot at you first. You will show our new boss there is some value in keeping you around and there will be no fuck up, understood?"

"Yeah yeah, I'll be a good boy moooom, now please excuse me while I show these Imperial Marine babies how you do boarding action." He said while putting on his helmet on, the skull design obviously meant for intimidation.

There was an obvious unease on the bridge. The 'auxiliaries' usually kept their distance, but the Reavers were kept as a backup (or maybe the term was expendable) ground team on the Indomitus. Mika ignored the silent judgement of her new subordinates, if they disapproved of this they wouldn't like what was next.

"Open a broadband com channel, no encryption."

She wanted to talk to the enemy? Again this hesitation and glances to the prince, but the communication officers finally executed the order.

"Norton. I know it's you out there you stupendous fuck. You remember me? It's Mika! C'mon, I know you're being paid for this and the imps have credz coming out their asses, so how about we work something out? I'll even let you keep your toy, the Shriek's new, isn't it?"

There was a moment of silence and Mika wondered if he didn't take the bait. Finally there was an answer and a display opened on the big screen showing a man who's thin and elongated features made him look like a shaved rat with a cybernetic eye.

"Ganishka you fucking double crossing piece of shit, you'll spread your whore legs for literally anyone!"

Mika smirked as she crossed her legs and and arms.

"I'm not hearing a no~ Come on, I've fucked you Norton, you should be able to see my raiders burning toward you. You could make it out, buuut I'm going to blow up your carrier. You can leave with your ships and credits in your pocket or run away with your life and your dick in your hand. Oh and I guess you could fight me but, I know you're a coward, so..."

The pirate slammed his armrest and got up from his seat to scream.

"And I know your word is worth exactly jack and shit! Mark my word Ganishbitch, you shouldn't have come back here! And to any imperial units listening, your captain has betrayed literally everyone she's ever worked for in her entire life, if you think-"

The man started yelling insults but Mika pressed a button to mute him, he did keep the video feed on.

"Meet my old friend Norton, kind of a dick to be honest, but he's generous enough to give us a nice view of his bridge. Send the images to intelligence and see if anything can be learned." Indeed as Norton paced around, the camera generously followed his face and peeked at what was going on around him. Mika did spot some suspiciously well dressed people.

Aboard the enemy Shriek

"Reaver-1 Actual to Onyx-9, coming up on the next corridor, watch for crossfire." Gunfire echoed down the hall for a few seconds before it was silenced.

"Reaver! Reaver!" The incoming backup carefully advertised their presence as they came out of the smoke, that call out being more than justified as these guys looked like most of the pirate scum Volger had killed today, except these guys had a distinct 'red and skull' theme going on. A guy ran up the line and up to Volger, offering what was probably supposed to be a salute. This kid couldn't be older than 16. "Whatsup sir! We're your reinforcement! Here, spare ammo for you guys!" He was practically screaming in his face, obvious sign this kid had a grenade or two go off too close to his ear one to many time. Still he lowered his enormous backpack and opened it. "I got 10mm, 40mm, poppers, flash-" He began to list his supplies like a street peddler using thick pirate jargon, but he was efficient, handing over what he had to who needed it as he obviously recognized Onyx-9s gear just by looking at them.

"This is Reaver-1, progressing toward the bridge."

Their pirate allies were... something. On one hand, it was obvious they had experience: they cleared room after room with impressive speed and skill, but this was pretty much all they had going for them, that and fearless aggression that could only come from heavy use of combat drugs. The way up the corridors they had cleared was gruesome, these guys obviously had a love for auto-shotguns that were ideals for close quarter boarding like these but that also left a mess of the people on the receiving end. Another notable thing was that some of the dead enemies had their ring fingers or ears chopped off as the Reavers looted any obvious jewelry they could find as quickly as possible.

"Hey, look who decided to join us. Wazzup?" It was Reaver-1 Actual, 'Sergeant' Tarsis who casually filled his combat stims injector with another cartouche while behind him some other reavers were cutting open a reinforced blast door.

"Rats are doing a last stand on the bridge. That'd be the part where I bring up any survivor and slowly kill them in front of the camera to convince them resisting is a bad idea but the boss told me we don't do that anymore. So. How do you guys want to do this?" He casually asked.

New Dawn of Civilizations(Always Open)

And post. Love reading your stuff guys, and am eager to have the first time skip and have our characters meet and interact eventually!

@Crusader Lord Especially, love the details and character building.

EDIT: Added the tl;dr

New Dawn of Civilizations(Always Open)

Saga of Astrid - Year 1 Day 78

Things had been... tolerable, since Astrid's engagement with Chief Vilkas. She had been worried that this would be a distracting and painful affair, especially since the man already had two wives, but things had gone surprisingly well. The first wife, Bela, was about as old as Astrid and the least cooperative. She was extremely proud of her status as the first wife, always reminding the others that she was on top, that her son would be the chief one day, she was the daughter of another chief on the island and thus high born. The second wife was named Cidri and was actually a very nice girl. Cidri was half their age and one of the most beautiful girl Astrid had ever seen, even in modern days she could have been on a magasine, so it was easy to see why Vilkas married her. She was however only a commoner and just happy to live her life and help Astrid adapt, showing nothing but kindness since 'girls had to look out for each other'.

And then there were the men of the house, which were easily handled as for better or worst, women were almost invisible to them. Another thing that worked especially in Astrid's favor was that with the wealth she had bought their town, Vilkas had decided to work on his own ambition: Conquest. He had bought the best bronze gear and armor money could buy, even hired some mercenaries as he went out to expand his domain. He was also surprisingly cunning about it, using piracy as a pretext to punish those who 'gave them shelter', forge alliances and compel others to swear fealty to him, all with a generous amount of bribes to cement his power.

This meant Vilkas was constantly away with his brothers and sons (he did not trust them to rule in his absence) and he left Bela to rule in his stead. Only thing, she was a disinterested and also incompetent ruler, meaning people mostly went over to Astrid for judgement, for they knew it was sound and that she would usually convince Vilkas to go along with it.

And so, Astrid maintained her power in a discreet and feminine way. One of her most useful knowledge was actually unique to the female gender as despite not being the most sexually active person back home, well, lets just say that modern people are on average much more exposed to these kind of activities through the media so she had quite a few tricks to show. As much as possible she did not perform said tricks, finding them mostly disgusting, but Bela and Cidri were always eager to find way to get their husband's affection and were thus very eager students. They were happy, Vilkas was very happy, everyone was happy.

At some point however, Astrid had no choice but to step up and was made to understand that she would perform wifely duties. And so, perhaps it was inevitable that one morning, a problem arose.

"Oh god, I think I'm dying." Astrid said with dejection before she began puking her guts out in a bucket. Behind her, Cidri massaged her back as she held Astrid's blonde hair out of the way with a sympathetic smile. "Oh Strid, you aren't dying. Quite the contrary in fact." A tired Astrid looked back to her with confusion. Cidri had come to understand the body language of her fellow wife and laughed it all off. "Life is growing within you Strid, you're pregnant, silly! Haven't you kept track of your cycle?"

Astrid looked at Cidri like she was the grim reaper. Pregnant? No, she couldn't be! Her doctors had always told her that she should be very careful with any pregnancy since she'd almost certainly have to deliver by C-section.

Saga of Astrid - Year 1 Day 91

Astrid wasn't sure about this as she looked down on the bowl with a greenish elixir inside it. She was a chemist sure and if she had the exact measurements -or hell, if she was sure of what she was actually mixing together here!- she'd be confident she could make something to... kill it, without killing herself. But here she was, playing the amateur poisoner with nothing but folk remedies and knowledge. She figured the earlier the better it was to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy, waiting to import an expert from egypt where she heard some people with this knowledge could be found might take too long.

Steeling her resolve, she quickly rose the bowl and drank its content down. It should be mild enough not to kill her, but strong enough to induce a failed pregnancy. Hopefully. She sat down comfortably, closing her eyes, taking deep breath as she waited for the effect to take hold. All of a sudden, a sharp pain in her stomach came! Astrid's eyes opened wide as she clenched her fingers on the armrest of the chair and she tried to hold in a scream. After a moment however she couldn't hold it back, did she overdo it?!

"AAAAAAHHHHHGHGH-"

Moments later Cidri ran inside the room. Ever since Astrid had found she was pregnant, Cidri had insisted to be with her every moment to comfort her, it was annoying but it was done. "Strid, what's wrong?!" She asked, coming in to hold her hand with concern. For just this moment, Astrid lost her composure and her eyes turned toward the small table with the empty bowl and various containers. Maybe she had grown to look at people around her with contempt, but it had not even cross Astrid's mind that her scheme would be discovered, she did experiments all the time, her having these kind of things was normal. Yet, her concerns, what she did today was oh so very human, something all women of any point in time could relate with.

Cidri looked at the bowl and back to Astrid with sadness. "Oh Strid, what have you done..."

___________

If anything one could call the reaction to Astrid's attempt as very sympathetic. Cidri explained Astrid's fear to the others and Vilkas scoured the land to find every wise women and doctors he could, making sure someone was with Astrid at all time so she could not try to hurt herself or the baby again. It was annoying actually, how they prevented her from working on her experiments by fear she'd try something else, forcing her take it easy and prepare. She was not very enthusiastic at first, Amatro, her priest friend, said he prayed and made offerings for her regularly. Was this the caliber of help she could expect?

It took one old wise woman to convince her maybe there was hope.

'You are a very smart woman lady Strid, yet I see that when you wish for some strange device to be crafted for you, you ask for a smith to do it. Obviously, you understand the smith who has spent all his life knows how to do at least some things better than you do. Well Lady Strid, I have given birth to 15 children myself and helped hundreds more be delivered. I won't lie, it won't be easy, but your death is not certain either. I only wish I was a smith because bronze doesn't talk back when it is being shaped, so please stop worrying, eat up and do these exercises. You have two more seasons until you give birth, it is time enough to become stronger and more resilient. It's all you can do now.'

There was little more indeed. Well, there was a few more things. Astrid had papyrus imported, lots and lots of it, and in her free time, she thought Amatro to read and write her latin letters, that is she did whenever she was not writing down everything that she could. Everything about modern science and law that she could recall, anything that she thought might be useful if... the worst should happen.

TL;DR
- Astrid gets comfortable in her marriage and grows in influence behind the scene.
- Her husband uses the wealth she is creating to try and conquer the island.
- She learns she is pregnant and tries to terminate the pregnancy by self poisoning, she fails.
- As the delivery approaches, she teaches an intelligent friend of hers about latin letters and writing and writes down all she can on imported papyrus.

New Dawn of Civilizations(Always Open)

We're immortal and we'll do 10 year timeskips (maybe even bigger ones?) its not like we're in a rush lol

New Dawn of Civilizations(Always Open)

I think I'll make 1 or 2 more posts and I'll be ready for the first timeskip.

New Dawn of Civilizations(Always Open)

Saga of Astrid - Year 0 Day 124

In Sardinia, winter is usually mild and balmy, this one was no exception, but it was longer than average as Astrid had been told by Amatro the Priest, which she had gotten very friendly with. It turns out in this day and age, those with a penchant to question the universe were attracted to the divine as proto-philosophers of sort. It also turns out their astronomy was more advanced than Astrid would have expected and could calculate time of the year by measuring shadows with painted sticks.

Painted sticks... Astrid was not satisfied by such a unit of measurement. Even in her commercial business this had caused problems, people who argued about buying a foot or a hand's length of something, with weight it was even worst and it was often measured at the eye and the feel! Initially she figured screw it, she'd make up a decimal system based on what 'felt' like a gram, a centimeter, etc. But then as she had a lot of time to contemplate life without the distraction of screens around her, her mind wandered... Decimals had the unfortunate problem of not liking to be divided and introduced fractions. 10 has the factors 1, 2, 5 and 10... But 12 on the other hand? 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12! A third being 4 instead of 0.3333 ad infinitum. Sure the human had 5 fingers, but she saw the locals count not with their fingers, but instead the phalanx of their fingers (excluding their thumbs), 3-3-3-3, so 12!

Astrid was grinning to herself like an idiot as she thought up those things, feeling the closest she had to doing her morning crosswords and sudoku. Yes. A Dozenal system would work nicely.

This would somehow prove to be the most annoying thing Astrid had done yet to the villagers. She had her containers, her rulers, her weights and her balance, if you wanted to buy from her that precious soap or delicious spirit, you would trade using her instruments. But little did she know, it was something else that would cause the most controversy of her stay, something she had decided to do as a favor for someone in need even.

Saga of Astrid - Year 0 Day 127

"So we are clear: As everyone here is my witness, I, Astrid Palmkvist, am buying all of your future barley harvest for this year in exchange for this copper now. Press your thumb on the slate as your signature and the deal will be done."

Indeed the winter had been long and spring was the time of struggle. People planting their seeds and having to tilt the field and wait for the next crops to grow. Some had saved up less than others and now paid the price in starvation. It was not a general famine, thank god, but there it was. If he had gone around and asked for charity, Astrid was quite certain no one would have let this poor farmer and his family starve of course, but there was an element of pride. Here, Astrid gave him the coin to provide for his own family in exchange for future labor, not only that but she took the risk: Would this crop be good? Bad? Who knew! The man was all smile as he eagerly pressed his thumb on the clay tablet and took her copper. All around her however, those she had brought to be witness to the contract looked at each other with incredulity. A 'future's contract' was a novel idea after all!

Saga of Astrid - Year 0 Day 301

"You signed a contract Uris, I have your mark, I have 3 witnesses who will agree: Your crop, good or bad, is mine by right."

"Y-you fleeced me! How was I supposed to know this year's harvest was going to be exceptional? A-and she wants all of it! Not even leaving me anything to feed my children during the winter, nothing to put into the ground for the next harvest!"

"And the witnesses will testify this was explained to you, you were told to manage your coin to have some left to buy food for your family once the harvest began, but you squandered it all. Yet the contract remains, you agreed to this, you were warned."

Chief Vilkas was holding a court of law in front of his longhouse, Uris the farmer begging him and insulting Astrid, calling her a witch who cast a spell on him, something that thankfully was ignored since Astrid was friend with the priests and contributed generously to religious festivals. She ultimately rolled her eyes and waited patiently. She had already won, he had admitted to signing the contract! Now this was all a waste of time.

"Hm... The amount of coins paid is rather low for such a bountiful harvest." The chief declared.

Immediately Astrid began to blink and look around in confusion as everyone around her nodded in agreement. Even one of her witness! What was going on here?!

"What does this have to do with anything?" Astrid spat out. "The contract did not state any amount of barley, it stated all of the barley. What if the harvest had been poor? What if his field had been... flooded or something?" The blonde immortal frowned, for the first time wondering if these people were all too stupid to understand the nature of a contract.

Then, Amatro the priest, one of her witness to the contract and one she judged to be a personal friend placed a hand on her shoulder. "Please, Strid. If it had happened, we would have worked something out between the two of you. Uris was a fool and mismanaged the coins you gave him, that we all agree on-" The people around them nodded in agreement. "-and for this he should be punished. Take the excess of his harvest this year and the next one in compensation, but his family should not suffer for his foolishness."

This seemed to make consensus in the crowd, but Astrid was mad like she had never been since she came here. This was a contract freely made! And it's not like Uris was left destitute, he had land he could sell! Oh sure it would force him to become a thrall, a landless worker which was a huge step down in this day and place, but that was HIS business! Suddenly however she noticed the looks people around her gave her. Contempt, for everyone else around her, her logic was cold and cruel, evil. She understood that in the court of public opinion she had lost.

"...I suppose we did things differently back in my home." She simply declared, trying to handwave this away as cultural miscommunication.

"Strid. Join me in my house." Chief Vilkas suddenly commanded her.

Still mad as hell, Astrid walked through the circle at the center of the crowd and into the house of the chief, closing the door behind her. Vilkas looked into her eyes, he was taller than most so he didn't have to crank his head up as much as the others to do that. "You've been with us for a year now, Strid."

There was a couple months missing of course, but she knew better than be nitpicky with this man. Where was he going with this though?

"You made quite the name for yourself. No words from your father yet however... I was waiting for him to come rescue you to ask him for you to be mine." He casually declared. Astrid frowned as her mind raced, what the hell did that mean? Vilkas was married already! Twice in fact, so then again why not trice.

"A very... flattering proposition, Chief Vilkas, but-" He nodded, as if her calling his proposition flattering somehow meant she agreed with it.

"That would make things much simpler for you. You like to play merchant, but you do not have a husband to back you up, as we're seeing right now with this Uris business. I suppose this is a little bit direct but I think you're a woman who appreciates directness so here it is: Marry me, Strid, and your interests shall be mine. You can focus on your numbers and your crafting and I will handle the people aspect of things."

Astrid simply looked at Vilkas silently. From the outside she was as cryptic as ever, but from the inside, ohhhh, she was boiling with rage. How dared he, wanting to pull everything she had accomplished under her? Treat her like she was his inferior?!

"Of course you can chose to refuse, I understand that without your father's blessing this is a bit awkward. But in this case I'd say its time for you to look for him. I'll have passage on a ship prepared for you for wherever you want to go and I'll even give you some coins, if that's how it has to be."

She stared at him some more, calculating if he was bluffing or not. But by god, to endure living at the mercy of someone who thought he controlled her like that...

"How... generous. But I can charter my own ships, I have accumulated quite some things during my stay here."

"What? Hahaha, you won't be leaving with all of the tools! Strid, you're a woman and I welcomed you here, that makes me your guardian! You can't just leave with my stuff!"

Astrid suddenly went from boiling to terrified.

"You can't-"

"I can't what, Strid? What can't the chief do?"

...If she left, she left with nothing. Hell, this was actually a generous offer, Vilkas gave her a choice, something he didn't even have to do. Astrid had tried so hard in these last months to rebuild modern amenities and comfort that she had forgotten that the greatest gift of modern society was nothing so material, it was the law. Neutrality of the state, a socially upheld idea of justice and a world where arbitrary lords with powers of life and death over others didn't exist anymore.

She considered making a point and leaving, but she knew it wouldn't be as easy anywhere else. She had taken the low hanging fruits and now she would have to compete against her own old operation in Sardinia. And anyways, would wherever she end up be any different? Would it be worst than here?

Astrid vowed this was not the end of it, she would not stand for an arbitrary lawless world and one day, she would change things. But for now... She raised her head and pouted, cocking her hip girlishly as she crossed her arms.

"You can't possibly ask me to be a concubine."

Dodge and deflect, if Vilkas understood how much she hated his offer he'd put a leash on her, she had to negotiate in a way that she could fake being satisfied with the result.

"Of course not, our children will be equal to my others."

Children? Astrid did her best not to shudder.

"I am also a chief's daughter and I built all I did to provide for them, the son I'll give you deserves to be your heir."

She studied Vilkas' features. He was annoyed, but he seemed to take it seriously. This was his language, these demands he understood.

"Your children will inherit what you've built, you have my word, but my eldest will rule."

As if she cared about inheritance, Astrid had no plan to have any kids! But she rolled her eyes and sighed, as if displeased of the answer, squirming for the satisfaction of the chief to know he held her in the palm of her hands, that she danced to his tune and that 'inheritance' was a string he could pull to manage her in the future. This was the best bluff she could manage.

"Alright, then so be it... dear husband. Now, on the subject of Uris~" It took all the mental fortitude of Astrid to manage a smirk and Vilkas laughed it off, signaling her to follow him as he walked out.

The chief stood in front of the tribal assembly with a big smile. "I have come to a decision! Uris, as you have failed to heed your own word, your lands are now forfeit." Whispers of surprise and outrage came from the crowd, this was harsh! "They will instead be managed by my wife, Strid. Obviously she'll make them more prosperous than you ever could."

There was a moment of silence and suddenly someone cheered, then others followed as they realized this whole judgement thing had just moved on to the chief marrying Astrid and so, the sycophants congratulated him.

Astrid turned her eyes to Uris with pity. Even if she had won, this was not justice.

TL;DR
- Astrid creates a measuring system for her own use but imposes it on others who want to do business with her.
- She makes friends with the village priest over a common passion for Astronomy.
- She creates a 'Future's Contract' with a farmer but has to go to the Chief for judgement when the farmer refuses to honor it during the harvest.
- Chief Vilkas asks Astrid to marry her or leave the village, leaving everything she's built behind. Astrid agrees to the marriage but vows to make a world without petty tyrants like him.

Lancer [Mechs, Magic, and Intrigue]

Baron Wilhelm

"Lance, Ironside. -ngh- Enemies are converging due to Indomitus fire curtain -heave- charge on the mark of Armatus missile fire... Mark!" The Baron said, his voice laborious under the strain of Gs and his own age. He continued his advance, aiming to soak as much fire as possible while his allies got into position. Finally, the enemy Cores were forced to land on the hull of the Venture where they knew the Indomitus would not shoot at them.

When finally Aria confirmed her lock on the enemy and they once again had to move to dodge the incoming missiles, Willy switched from defensive to offensive, stabilizing his particle rifle to blast at one of the enemy in the middle of its own evasive maneuver, testing its ability to multitask. It reacted promptly enough to dodge the first few shots of the Ironside, even letting out a counter volley that blasted through one of the Black Knight's shoulder pads, and then even narrowly managed to dodge the Armatus's missile! The Baron let out a whistle of admiration, right as he fired another shot straight into the Core's cockpit. This one, he didn't dodge.

"Ah-ha! Kill confirmed! Keep up the pressure!" As he said this however the alarm of a new contact entering the field blared and from the side of the Venture, another smaller space ship emerged. "New contact! Shrike-class frigate!" He quickly pushed the throttle to get out the way of incoming battery fire. "Hypo-7, I suggest you keep dancing with your partner so you don't catch the eye of the fat lady."

Captain Mika Ganishka

The battle proceeded steadily, the pirates inside the Venture had no chance and the Cores outside were being moved into a kill box, everything was going well... then why did Mika have this nagging feeling that something was amiss.

"Launch window for Hartwig's departure T-30 seconds."

The captain nodded as her eyes instead fixed the Phantom on the tactical map.

"Phantom completed her sweep, detecting two bogeys... one is a third freighter, the Mantua, second... cruiser, eagle-class!"

Ah, there it was. The sense of something being amiss suddenly became familiarity and Mika smiled.

"Haha, do not let this fool you gentlemen, this is no cargo ship! You can enter the name 'Torch' for that cruiser, while the Mantua is what passes for a pirate carrier around this sector! Full sensor sweeps on vectors that might have been launched by the Mantua, there are strike crafts on low impulse sneaking up on us, find them! Excellent work Phantom, beers on me tonight!"

Mika had a smug smile as she mentally patted herself on the back for having the intuition to find these little rats before they snuck up on her, but this only lasted for a moment before all of a sudden everything was flipped on its head.

"Hartwig departing, designating his shuttle as 'Savior-1'... Incoming frigate behind us! Shrike class, it was hiding behind the Venture!"

"Sensors confirm strike crafts within fire range, they picked up on our sweep and are accelerating!"

"Shrike is firing a volley of torpedoes on a long ark toward starboard, they aim to overwhelm us in conjunction with the strike crafts, they are also firing railguns and lasers at us!"

The ship shook under the hit of light caliber weapons from the Shrike but it was barely noticeable, the Indomitus was a behemoth compared to the tiny frigate.

"Return fire at the Shrike but do not fall for its provocation, keep course to block their line of sight from Hartwig's shuttle. Fire everything at the strike crafts, throw the kitchen sink at them if you have to but don't let them get close, focus all PD weapons on them before the torpedoes of the Shrike!"

The XO piped up again in confusion. "But captain the torpedoes-" Mika already knew what he was going to say, torpedoes had to be the greater danger, strike crafts usually only were a menace to capital ships in much greater number and carried lower yield weapons, at least this is what doctrine said. "-XO, I don't know how it is in quaint civilized space, but here in the frontier we strap R7's with nuclear mining blasting charges and pirates play chicken with battleships on the regular, sometimes they even win."

Mika sat at the edge of her seat. There wasn't any reason to panic yet and statistically no missile should go through with the warning time that Phantom gave them, but there was always the odd chance to have 10 misses in a row even with a 70% accuracy.

"Onyx-9, does this rust bucket have anything that can shoot at the Cores dancing on its hull? Ironside, Hypo and Armatus, try and keep the frigate distracted if you can. Phantom, we have incoming strike crafts with nuclear mining charges strapped to their missiles, try and take out as many as you can before they can fire."

New Dawn of Civilizations(Always Open)

Ayy, understood.

New Dawn of Civilizations(Always Open)

<Snipped quote by Wernher>

You can go back to your original location, but I will say this will be the last time you can swap.

@Theyra

Eh, I mean I already posted so nvm.

Edit: I mean, unless this counts as me flip flopping again, your choice, ultimately I dont think it matters much either way.