>>2334483
Time for Deus Vault!

>Hold off for now, and just send them a greeting instead.
Tempting as it is, let's not get off on the wrong foot. And I suspect it wasn't simple tariness from their lack of ships. We'll give them a little leeway, for now.

>>2334483
>Hold off for now, and just send them a greeting instead.

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>>2334483
>No bully the humies.

As much as you'd like to, it would be mean. Instead, you fire a message laser to the human fleet to signal your location. After receiving an affirmative, you wait impatiently for another hour while they get close enough for a conversation. More waiting while the human communications officer on the battlecruiser flagship Count Tilly patches you through to their admiral.

Finally, a square-shouldered man with an impressive handlebar moustache appears on your feed. He's got an unlit cigar securely clamped between his teeth.
"Greetings!" He booms. He isn't shouting, he must be... naturally loud. "Rear-Admiral Tourville commanding the Second Olympus Fleet. Are you the chap here to welcome us? Sorry about the delay, some of our ships had engine trouble and we had to go on ahead."

>Scathing
>Neutral
>Polite

>>2334595
>>Polite

>>2334595
>>Polite
>engine trouble
Better than an ambush like I'd feared. While irritating, it is understandable; better to delay and have everyone together if you can while the legion is prowling about.

>>2334595
>>Neutral

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>>2334595
>Polite.

"Knight-brother Dauntless." You introduce yourself dutifully. "I'm glad you are safe."

"Why, much obliged!" Admiral Tourville nods. "The affected ships will be here when they can, hopefully in a few days. In any case, you have orders for us?"

"Yes, I do." You hesitate- should you just send them over? You're not sure how to deal with humans compared to your fellow Knight-brothers.

"Excellent. I'll be hosting a dinner for my staff in a few hours, would you care to attend? Get to know everyone, and let my staff meet you. We can discuss our orders then." He hesitates, and frowns at his screen, which you know is displaying a visual representation of your core. "Er... can you attend?"

>Sure, you can hook yourself up to a monitor.
>Maybe it would be best if you just told him now. You're no good at small talk.

>>2334744
>>Maybe it would be best if you just told him now. You're no good at small talk.

>>2334744
>>Maybe it would be best if you just told him now. You're no good at small talk.

>>2334744
>>Maybe it would be best if you just told him now. You're no good at small talk.

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>>2334744
>No bonding with humans, Admiral Weston is your only waifu

"Sorry, Admiral, but I don't believe I can." You reply, endeavouring to put an apology in your tone.

"Ah well. Send those orders over, will you?"

"Of course." You send the orders and briefing that the Abbot gave you, taking the time to glance at them yourself. They're simple enough- go to a system and clear out the enemy.

"These look simple enough." He grunts, before turning his gaze back to the camera. "My ships need to get some supplies from your station here, so will you be free for a strategy session at... call it oh-nine hundred tomorrow?"

You don't sleep, so you can only assume it's for the benefit of his officers. What's a human's normal sleep cycle anyway? You've never had the need to find out.

"Sounds good. I'll escort you in."

Your ships take up station around the human fleet, fighters and escorts instinctively flung wide in a far-ranging electronic web. Nothing happens, of course, but the human ships take up station near Bastion Station in the wee hours of their morning, and tankers start shuttling over. Well, it looks like you have some time free.

>Talk to the Abbot about the mission, and if he has any advice for dealing with humans.
>Chat to and share gossip with the Knight-brothers around Bastion Station.
>Double and triple-check your own battlegroup is checked out and ready to go.

>>2334912
>>Chat to and share gossip with the Knight-brothers around Bastion Station.

>>2334912
>>Chat to and share gossip with the Knight-brothers around Bastion Station.

>>2334912
>>Chat to and share gossip with the Knight-brothers around Bastion Station.

>>2334912
>>Chat to and share gossip with the Knight-brothers around Bastion Station.

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>>2334912
>Get a juicy dish of gossip.

You link into the shared net around Bastion station. There's several Knight-brothers nearby, including Anson, who is refitting and rearming after his latest raid on the Legion. The others you haven't actually talked to before, but it seems your reputation has preceded you and they accept you easily.

"I reckon we'll be making the big push any day now." Knight-brother Orion opines. His battlegroup is somewhere similar to yours- a star carrier attended to by screening vessels. Apparently he's the next knight-brother to get grav-fighters.

"No we won't. We'd be leaving ourselves wide open." Anson retorts.

"Yes, we suffered losses blunting the last round of assaults." Benbow agrees. Significant cruiser force with only a few battlecruisers.

"That's exactly what I mean. If we don't make our move soon, then they'll overwhelm us." Orion seems very offence-oriented, you note.

"If the rumours are true about what the Legion has, then they could already overwhelm us." Knight-brother Barham weighs in as his battlegroup forms up for boost.

"You've got a point there." Anson says. "I've heard Flavius has something up his sleeve, though. I wonder what it is."

"Hey, Dauntless." Orion's attention turns to you. "You haven't said much. What do you think?"

>What do you think?

>>2335016
"An offensive push is risky, better to continue lightning raids to cripple their infrastructure and ability to repair while we develop our own. Fact is the humans are creating new innovations with our technology constantly and we're receiving reinforcements from a order.

If this continues, we will be superior in quality and equal in quantity. At which point the concept of a true offensive to capture systems and eliminate the entire Legion becomes feasible. For now, we hold the line and wait for orders from our Grandmaster."

>>2335016
>>2335029
this is good

>>2335016
A probing offense would make sense, but a full push is risky without info. If we are outmatched , asymmetric warfare is the counter.

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>>2335016
>Words

"A full offence is too risky, I think." You say thoughtfully. "So I think what we're doing with all these raids and assaults to keep them off-kilter is the way to go. Plus the Chapterhouse and now Bastion's construction slips are working all the time. I think we have a pretty decent chance at holding on for a while if nothing else."

The other knight-brothers signal agreement, accepting what you have to say.

"That's exactly what I've been saying." You're pretty sure Orion was talking about a full assault on your enemy but you're not prepared to contradict him.

"Plus, the humans that are working with Flavius are mighty inventive. Maybe they'll figure some kind of wonder weapon." You add. You idly wonder how that FTL drive is coming along. You haven't heard anything else.

After that, the conversation turns to the human vessels. Benbow has nothing but praise for their ingenious mass-reduction system, lamenting that Order ships would need a complete rebuild to take advantage of it.

The hours pass as the debate rages. The participants change as knight-brothers ship out or arrive. Eventually, you notice the time- almost time for you to brief Admiral Tourville. You sign off from the channel, and in short order you're looking on at Admiral Tourville in some kind of meeting room, with half a dozen assembled officers.

He nods politely at the pickup, and introduces you to his officers. It seems they're his staff, and you file away their names for later use.

"I'm sure waiting for us mortals must be quite boring for you." One of them remarks- Captain Robertson, the admiral's flag captain, a broad, dark-skinned man.

>Boast
>Neutral
>Polite
>Diplomatic silence

>>2335268
>>Neutral

Looks like we've slowed down a lot, so I'm going to sleep and come back in the morning!

>>2335268
>>Polite

>>2335268
>Polite

>>2335268
>>Polite

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>>2335268
>Diplomatic silence
Make it awkward.

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>>2335268
>Polite

"Not at all, Captain." You reply. "I've gotten used to it."

That seems to break the ice, as smiles sprout around the table. Captain Robertson chuckles, and nods to the pickup. Before he can say anything else, though, the Admiral clear his throat.

"Let's get this done, people." He unwraps a cigar from a foil packet and carefully places it between his lips, carefully lighting it with an air of ritual. Eventually, he puffs out a cloud of smoke directly upwards towards the ceiling- he's sitting directly beneath the ventilation intake, you note. "Dauntless, would you like to begin?"

"Certainly."

You throw up the intel you have on the system on your wall screen, and recite from the briefing notes Darius gave you.

"This system doesn't have anything worth fighting over apart from the usual material resources and hydrogen. However, it is on Bastion's flank, so it appears that the Legion are trying to flank us again by gradually setting up shop. We don't have any current intel, but a scouting force noticed a significant force heading in this system's direction, and the others near it are mostly worthless, so it makes sense for them to set up here. There's a decent asteroid belt separating the rocky and gas planets, probably why they chose it. Easy to mine. We don't know if they have forts of any kind up, or the ship strength in attendance, but this is a relatively minor system so we should have parity at least."

You finish your prepared bits, and the Admiral opens up the floor to his staff for discussion. You've never really experienced debate like this- for the first time, it occurs to you how... fractious humans are. A Knight-brother would just decide on the course to take and do it, but three main suggestions slowly emerge from the human's debate.
The first is to send in some expendable ships (one of your destroyers, of course) and use it to scout the area around the jump point. If it doesn't return, then you can go in with guns blazing.
The second is to go in hard and fast, in a hit and run that would let you curve around the star, hitting everything you can find and bugging out quickly, but would make it difficult to stray from the planned loop to hit anything else.
The third is to go in hard, and secure the area around the jump point before finding the best target and going in from there.

Eventually, Admiral Tourville turns to the wall pickup. "Dauntless, you're half of our force here. What do you feel we should do?"

>First method.
>Second method.
>Third method.
>Suggest something else (write-in).

>>2336871
>Second method.
We are here to train them, and teach them our (suicidal) ways.

We can do option 1 and 3 combined, later at a safer and smaller location.

>>2336871
>>Second method.

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>>2336871
>Hit and run

Well, the one strategy that always works for you comes to mind. You wait a couple of (human) seconds before speaking. Apparently they're unnerved if you talk immediately after them.

"Speed is life. The second option is the better one, I think."

Admiral Tourville nods thoughtfully, and the rest of his staff look over at him. "I agree. Let's get it rolling, people. I want to be boosting in less than an hour. Dismissed." The humans all stand, and start to file out. For all their discussing and debating, the Admiral has the final say. Taking that as your cue to leave as well, you disconnect from Count Tilly's systems and see to your own battlegroup.

41 minutes later, the ships of your combined forces light their engines- your ships with their antimatter drives, and the human ships with their fusion flame. Normally the latter wouldn't be able to hit the accel yours can, but the mass reduction systems they use apparently function as inertial compensators as well as increasing acceleration. Your ships still have the edge, but considering the tin cans strapped with rockets that they used during the first Legion incursion into their system, you wonder if the Humans won't be eclipsing the Order someday. Shrugging off the strange thought, you issue course codes to the human ships and they form up amongst your battlegroup. You translate out from Bastion several hours later.

The next few days are spent transiting through systems, and you see hide nor hair of the enemy. Admiral Tourville spends the time putting his people through drills, and invites you to watch and suggest drills. You suggest they focus on...

>Weapons drills.
>Engine drills
>Damage Control and fire fighting drills.

>>2336871

How fast can we even go in with squishy meatbags involved?

If they don't slow us down too much, hit&run.

Guess that's what I get for not updating before I post.

>>2337187
>>Damage Control and fire fighting drills.

Better damage control, more surviving experienced meatbags for future operations.

>>2337193
Your ships can accel at around 600-ish gravities (it would be faster but your Star Carrier is pretty slow) and the human ships can get to 500 for short periods of time. It only matters if you're going from a dead start, though. Otherwise you have plenty of time to accel before you go through the jump point into the mission area.

>>2337187
>>Damage Control and fire fighting drills.

>>2337187
>>Engine drills
Better maneuverability gives more options in combat, including bugging out when things get too hot.

>>2337198
How about without the star carrier, out of curiosity?

>>2337187
>>Engine drills

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>>2337187
>DamCon

You politely suggest that the humans work on their Damage Control and repairs, and spend the transit time keeping an eye on them. You also come to realise what Darius meant about them being 'green'- they're skilled and motivated, but you get a scene of... hesitation, almost. The experience and confidence from Admiral Weston and his crews aren't there. Still, Admiral Tourville and his staff seem like good people, and they take your advice and polite criticism without much fuss.

Human repairs are also quite interesting, as well. Your ships carry nanite-infused armour to repair small holes, and make to with wholesale replacing of armour plate for large ones from an onboard stock, with a small cadre of repair drones on each vessel. On the human ships, however, it seems every single crewmember is trained in at least basic repairs, even officers- though you're willing to bet it's been a while since the Admiral and his staff had had to replace an atmo filter.

Four days after jumping out from Bastion, you're cruising through the last system towards your mission area. All your ships are in good shape and ready to go. Your fighters trap aboard their carriers, your battleships pull to the head of the formation for their door-kicking duties, accompanied by the cruisers to support them in the moments before the capital's zero-point energy plants come back online before a jump. As the human vessels form up behind yours, the Admiral contacts you.

"Ready here, Dauntless. Do you want some of my ships to accompany yours in the vanguard?"

Well, their particular missiles could be useful to screen your ships if there's a picket. Still, it'll be pretty dangerous, and you'd rather lose one of your battleships than, god forbid, a single human be killed.

>Accept his offer.
>Politely decline, you can handle it.

>>2337522
Not much different, since battleships aren't much faster. If you guys want, I can add 'Max accel' to the ship class info in the pastebin.

>>2337552
reee

>>2337575
>Accept his offer.
This is their shakedown cruise after all we are just here to babysit.

>>2337575
>>Politely decline, you can handle it.
>My ships lack a crew and are more easily replaced.

>>2337575

> Accept the offer

Tell them to stay back and support the BBs, but if it starts going bad to bug out immediately.

>>2337575
>>Accept his offer.
We can handle the brunt, but it's good practice. Better to get ambushed now than later when they're on their own.

>>2337575
>Politely decline, you can handle it.
>Drones are expendable, people aren't.

File: flagship_fleet_by_shimmer(...).jpg (119 KB, 1098x800)

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Rolled 78, 94 = 172 (2d100)

>>2337575
>Accept

"That would be helpful, Admiral." You reply after a moment's thought too quick for a human to pick up. "However, my ships are all expendable. If you could order your crews to support my battleships and pull back if there's trouble, I'd feel a lot better."

"Roger that." Tourville has gone back to chewing on an unlit cigar. Maybe his ship's fleet bridge doesn't have good enough ventilation. "I'll speak with 'em myself."

Your battleships and a small force of cruisers take up position ahead, joined by a small unit of human destroyers. You get closer and closer to the jump point, your vanguard half a minute ahead of you...

>Roll 1d100, best of 3.

Rolled 66 (1d100)

>>2337684

Rolled 93 (1d100)

>>2337684

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>2337684

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>>2337684
>93, 94 vs 78

Your vanguard disappears from your sensors, and your system clocks tick down the seconds until you, too, jump away. There's the Cherenkov flash as your formation erupts back down into n-space, and your sensors sweep out through local space. Your cruisers are engaging enemy vessels in close proximity to the jump point- a little further off, you can see the husk of a fort being constructed. Nuclear flame blossoms in the dark, howling electromagnetic storms reducing Legion sensors to mush as your battleships' power plants come online. The energy broadside obliterates the remaining picket ships as your task force carries on through.

Through your link to Count Tilly, there's a cheer among the Admiral's fleet bridge staff.

"Your crews did excellent work." You tell him before turning your attention to the light-lagged plot. You have enough delta-v to change direction to head for a specific point, but you'll be locked into using the local primary to turn yourself around whatever you do.

First of all, there's the nearby gas giant. No fort or refinery that your sensors can detect, but there's apparently a small Legion force in orbit, or... you're not sure, actually. The signatures seem incredibly close for being in orbit, so it's impossible to tell.
Secondly, there's a cluster of Legion stations in the belt. Probably mining. Getting rid of those is important, but if you head there it's almost certain that every Legion ship in the vicinity will move in, and you'll have to deal with them as well as the stations- not least of all a significant cruiser force in orbit of one of the rocky planets.
Finally, there's a gas mining station around the other gas giant. You could try and curve around the outer reaches of the system, and lure any Legion forces to intercept you there instead of near the bigger and presumably more heavily armed mining stations.

>Find out what the ships are doing near that gas giant.
>Strike straight for the miners.
>Lure the mobile forces away to the gas miners.

Additionally:
>Keep your fighters close on CSP for missile defence.
>Use your fighters to strike a target (which?)

>TF Dauntless
1 CV, 2 BB, 7 BC, 6 CVE, 10 CR, 12 DD, 204 GF, 2 AX
>OSN Second Fleet
8 DD, 14 CR, 2 BC, 1 AX
(Keep in mind that human ships are smaller than yours and totally focused on missiles.)

>>2337830
>>Find out what the ships are doing near that gas giant.

Miners can't run away, defensive forces won't run away… but these sound like bad news.

>Use your fighters to strike a target (which?)

Strike the miners to force the defenders to split their attention.

>>2337855
support.

>>2337855

Support

>>2337830
>>Lure the mobile forces away to the gas miners.

>Use your fighters to strike a target (which?)
>Strike the miners to force the defenders to split their attention.
This works, though I doubt we'll get those fighters back.

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>>2337830
>Investigate the gas giant
>Strike the belt miners

Something smells fishy to you, but first thing's first. The sooner you launch your fighters, the less time the enemy has to react. They come streaming from your carriers, dumping out in a daisy chain from your star carrier's rotating flight bays as well as the ones being fired from its central launch tubes. While that's doing, you signal Admiral Tourville's attention.

"Something doesn't feel right about that gas giant. I'm going to have a look." You inform him.

"Very good." He nods, glancing at his main display. "I see you're launching fighters at the enemies in the belt. Do you want us to come with you, or follow your fighters in?"

Well... this is meant to be for their combat experience.

>You should stick together, just in case.
>The humans should roll up behind your fighters on a stunned enemy.

>>2338015
>>You should stick together, just in case.
>I smell a trap, so let's not. It's a good idea though.

>>2338015
>>You should stick together, just in case.

Fighters are squishy, if they have to hang back and escort the meatbags they'll be sitting ducks.

>>2338041
Your fighters have a standard SOP of delivering a as-close-to-relativistic strike as possible, then sticking in the area and dog-fighting with any remaining enemies until friendly forces can sweep in to clean up.

>>2338015
>>The humans should roll up behind your fighters on a stunned enemy.

>>2338015
>>The humans should roll up behind your fighters on a stunned enemy.

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Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>2338015
It's a tie! Odds for sticking together, evens for splitting up.

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>>2338161
>Stick together.

"My fighters will keep their mobile forces pinned down." You're not comfortable letting the humies off on their own.

"Very well. We'll let you take the lead." Tourville turns and issues orders. The human vessels, a little sluggish compared to yours, turn and burn hard as your ships come around and align their bows on the gas giant. With fighters deployed, your CVEs aren't of much use, so you put them in the rear of the formation along with your auxiliaries as your combat ships form up around your star carrier.

An hour passes. The Legion vessels by the gas giant abruptly boost for orbit- yes, right after the light of your arrival got to them. The light-lag gradually decreases, and fighting solutions start to lock in. That's when hell breaks loose.

>Roll 2d100. One for you, one for the humans.

Rolled 22, 42 = 64 (2d100)

>>2338215

Rolled 66, 18 = 84 (2d100)

>>2338215

Rolled 68, 47 = 115 (2d100)

>>2338215

Rolled 60, 9 = 69 (2d100)

>>2338215

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Rolled 84, 10 = 94 (2d100)

>>2338215
...

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>>2338263
The first salvo comes from the human vessels. With your targeting systems intertwined, they turn to port and let off a ripper of a broadside. They immediately come all the way back around and start decelerating. You have a little longer to work with, though, so you wait until the human missiles are ahead before firing your own broadside. Just as they get into range of the defending Legion ships, the human missiles detonate, blinding sensors to the real threat boring in on them. Almost completely unopposed, your missiles fire in a rolling stream of destruction. X-ray lasers spear through enemy vessels, coring them with deadly lattices of radiation. By the time the last missile detonates its warhead, there are no living ships left.

But the enemy isn't dead yet. For a moment you think that some kind of massive swarm of bats are lifting from the drifting stormwalls of the gas giant's atmosphere- but no, it's hundreds of some kind of attack craft, rough and obsidian like the other Legion vessels but only double the size of one of your own grav-fighters. Two of the human destroyers are killed in a furious plasma stream before you can react, and another of their cruisers starts to wither under the attack. Your ships don't escape harm, as one of your battlecruisers rapidly loses half its broadside weapons and a cruiser's fusion plant detonates as plasma burrows its way into its hull.

"What the devil!? Fire, damnit!" Tourville's voice breaks through your surprise as he shouts orders to his crews, and your ships likewise respond. But they're hampered by friendlies in the close confines of the approach towards the gas giant.

>Fire everything!
>Order all your ships and the humans to pull back immediately!
>Order the human vessels to pull away while your ships keep them occupied!

>>2338324
>>Order the human vessels to pull away while your ships keep them occupied!
We're better built for slugfests, and the Humans nukes would make targeting even more difficult.

>>2338324
>>Fire everything!

>>2338324
>Order the human vessels to pull away while your ships keep them occupied!

>>2338324
>>Order the human vessels to pull away while your ships keep them occupied!

>>2338324
>Order the human vessels to pull away while your ships keep them occupied!

I really shouln't be surprised. At least it was revealed during minor clearing ops rather than critical fleet battle.

Rolled 53 (1d100)

>>2338324
>Send the humans away while big daddy Dauntless deals with this.

"Admiral!" It takes a minute for Tourville to turn to you, as plasma ruptures one of your destroyers. The flag bridge shakes on your screen as Count Tilly takes a series of strikes that leaves it leaking atmosphere. "Get your ships out of here. I'll take care of this."

He nods fiercely, and turns to shout orders to his harried staff. You cut the link and turn your attention to the battle. Your carrier fires its weapons in anger for the first time as a brutal energy broadside burns down a dozen of the enemy fighters.

>Roll 1d100.

Rolled 22 (1d100)

>>2338413

>>2338413
Darn, forgot a pic. Annoying.

Rolled 46 (1d100)

>>2338413

Rolled 18 (1d100)

>>2338413

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>>2338413
>46 vs 53

Not all of the human vessels can move under their own power- the damaged cruiser stays where it is, belching out missiles from all tubes. They dazzle and strobe in the gas giant's upper atmosphere, vaporising multiple fighters with each strike. They don't do much for your targeting sensors, but it isn't long before the fighters claim it anyway.

Your ships, on the other hand, defiantly spit coherent energy across the void. Your support-oriented ships, the escort carriers and auxiliaries, desperately boost after the human ships, their PD laser clusters slowly claiming enemy fighters one by one. The rest of your ships gradually burn down the rest, but not without suffering further losses and damage. In such close quarters, your broadside lasers can't be brought to bear as effectively.

You count your losses as your ships maneuver into a stable orbit of the gas giant.

>TF Dauntless losses
1 BC, 3 CR, 2 DD
>OSN Second Fleet losses
1 CR, 3 DD

Now you have a moment, your sensors probe the gas giant, and to little surprise you find some kind of hovering platform. Presumably, that's where they were based. It's pretty big, so it might have some kind of core on it, if you can secure it. However, it looks like another group of Legion ships are coming at a pretty fair clip. Most of your ships have at least one broadside still intact, but you don't really want to fight them off either way.

>Start to secure the platform, trust in your ships to hold off the Legion.
>Start to secure the platform, call in the humans to help defend you.
>You've taken too many losses on what's meant to be a milk run. Bug out and look to repairs.

>>2338598
>>Start to secure the platform, call in the humans to help defend you.

>>2338598
>>Start to secure the platform, call in the humans to help defend you.

>>2338598
>>Start to secure the platform, trust in your ships to hold off the Legion.
Humans are already moving away from the gas giant.

File: cb519a03d7ea4b441ed55bba9(...).jpg (43 KB, 736x646)

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Rolled 55, 34 = 89 (2d100)

>>2338598
>Boarding action me maties!

You send a quick message to the humans, requesting their assistance. Meanwhile, your carriers maneuver into orbit above the platform while your battleships and screen move out a bit to start engaging the incoming Legion. Hundreds of boarding drones drop from your carriers, and shuttles shriek down through the atmosphere towards the platform, tens of miles long and wide. It's hovering by some means of gravity thruster you're not interested in at the minute. You're just here to kick ass and take names.

>Roll 2d100. One to fight off the Legion, second to board the platform.

Rolled 17, 74 = 91 (2d100)

>>2338766

>>2338766

Rolled 45, 1 = 46 (2d100)

>>2338766
>>2338789
lets try again

Rolled 74, 96 = 170 (2d100)

>>2338766

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>>2338793
holy shit anon, first ever crit fail, congrats

>>2338766
>74, 1 (critical failure!) vs 55, 34

Missiles throw themselves across the void and energy crackles through the black towards the incoming enemy ships. Your systems are handling the space battle fine, so you focus on the platform and the hundreds of drones plunging towards it. The engines of shuttles flare as they go into a decel burn... and then everything goes wrong. The entire platform seems to light up with defensive fire that shreds through the incoming drones and strikes down your shuttles. Most of them plunge off to the side, but one of them, stricken with its engines on fire, plunges straight through the floating platform, a series of explosions following it through the hull plate and out the other side. The platform begins to list to the side almost immediately.

Oh dear.

>Attempt to use your ships to hold up the platform (very dangerous).
>Try to take it again (extremely difficult).
>Leave it to its fate, see what's going on otherwise.

>>2338916
>>Leave it to its fate, see what's going on otherwise.

>>2338916
>>Leave it to its fate, see what's going on otherwise.

>>2338916
>Try to take it again (extremely difficult).
Boarding drones are a lot cheaper than ships.

>>2338916
My first ever roll for the quest and I roll the first crit fail...I'll see myself out

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>>2338916
>Leave the platform

You recall the rest of the shuttles, and they reach the hangers of your carriers just as the platform begins to tip onto its side, its gradual fall becoming more rapid. Soon, it disappears into the orange, swirling clouds of the gas giant, hidden by the immense, cliff-like storm walls. That didn't go too well. Embarrassingly so, almost.

However, it seems that the incoming ships have been deftly dealt with by the humans and your other ships, with no losses whatsoever. At least there's one bit of good news. You receive a comm request from the Admiral. He's lost his cigar, and his brow is knotted in a furious frown.

"There you are, Dauntless. What the devil happened with that station down there?"

"Er... self-destruct sequence?"

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And that's where we'll be leaving this week's chapter. I hope you all had fun and so on, hopefully my schedule will be more solid for a while.

Next week: Dauntless kills more Legion!

Thanks for the run.
>first critfail
It was bound to happen eventually anyway. At least it happened during a 'milk run'.