War for the Universe [Based in X2 Universe, imagined Online]

[TimberWolf]

Note: This is a story is based in the X2 Universe, a Space Sim, if it had a multiplayer ability based off a server. The admins of the server are Gambit, Wildchild, and TimberWolf. They each have already set themselfs up in the universe. Gambit is the economic master, with stations and fleets of trade ships. Wildchild roams the universe capturing ships and refitting the ones he likes to add to his rage tag fleet of fighters. TimberWolf has collected money from assasination missions and Xenon invasion missions to build up a fleet of Battle Ships and Carriers along with support ship, make up a full space fleet. Players of the server can get help from these people and often can get donations to help them when they are broke. The universe is rather peaceful until a secluded player uses unathorized tactics to build a force with the power to bring down the server. Can Gambit, Wildchild, and TimberWolf save the universe or is the server doomed to be wiped out by this force appearing from no where?

<Story is being expanded as I have the time to write it. It was written in parts in the X3 thread and each part has a different center of attention and perspective. I have left the original dividers so you can better identify when it changes.>

Check this link for info on ships in the story and for information about anything in the game that shows up in the story, such as the sectors or weapons. http://argonopedia.ppcis.org/ships.php? ... 93611349df



War for the Universe:

Apart from Gambit, Wildchild, and my self, there are no real super powers on the server. But a new force that will cause great pain to the universe had just joined in. Initially he worked as a trader, keeping under the radar. For a couple of months he operated several UT's and only a handful of fighters. But one day he wipes out Rolks Legacy and began a blockade where no one passes. It wasn't until a month later that players on the server called upon the server administrators to look into the problem. Since Gambit had already signed off for the night and Wildchild hadn't been on the message went straight to me.

At first it looked like the regular complaining about another player holding a local market hostage by destroying the competitions ships but it was far worst. This person, who no one had been able to identify yet, had destroyed an entire sector and was now blocking the only passage that serviced half of the universe. So I decide to send a scout out there to check it out, thinking the person wouldn’t mind if I just take a peek. I was watching the sector as my Teladi Buzzard entered the sector and then promptly was destroyed by 30 laser towers around the gate.

From that bit of information I now new this player was breaking a rule; he had not warned any players of this blockade and was not intending to replace the stations with his own to control the local market. With that info in mind I decide it was due to pay him a visit myself. I jump into the sector in my trusty Argon Titan named 'Lords of Steel.' The laser towers are quickly destroyed. I moved the Titan ahead and to the side so I can bring in another to control the gate followed by my Teladi Condor (M1) carrier. I open sector wide communications asking for the player to identify themselves and to come to the center of the map.

This player was identified as Xenon001; at least that’s what he called himself. I began to talk to him about what is going on and about the server rules. My Titan still sat safely next to the other and the Condor was just behind me. Xenon001 did not move anywhere onto the sector map and the fact that he had nothing but the laser towers around the three gates worried me. It was at that moment something caught my eye, there was more particles in the background than normal for this sector. Using the target next key brought a horror to my mind. Xenon001 had filled the entire sector with squash mines that currently lay inactivated. It was then I received a message from him saying "Goodbye to you and your rules." My radar and sector maps turned from black to red.

<continued>

In a panic I activated the jump drives of my other ships to get them out of there. The server begins to have problems trying to handle everything going on, the countless mines targeting my ships and the gun fire trying to destroy the mines. Seconds began to feel like hours; mines detonate on my ships hulls. Hoping to give enough time for my other ships to get out of there I set my engines on reverse. As the engines of the Lords of Steel were about to collide with the carrier, it and the other Titan jumped out of the sector leaving me on my own. Now only 2km away from the gate, hoping I could keep enough of the mines away to get through it without any hull damage. A quick look at the radar still shows no line between the mines that are locked on me and those that are sitting idle.

In a flash of revelation a thought came to mind, deploy fighter drones. Luckily I had just confiscated a hacked load from a new player with the intentions of destroying them, couldn’t have done that where we were due to population of the area. As a couple more mines detonate on my shields my cargo hold opens up releasing over 200 fighter drones. Quickly striking the “defend me” quick command key in time to see countless laser bolts flying around me attack the squash mines. It was hard to see any green on the radar through all that red but parts of the radar were thinning out. The end appeared to be in sight, still 1.68km till the gate. Shields had dropped down to 50% and showed no signs of regenerating, so it can only get worst.

Server lag has started to die down, going from almost 2 frames per second to now 14. A line became visible on the sector map showing me that at least no more mines are locking onto me. In another breath of desperation I began to fire every missile I could into the mines flying right at me. The constant explosions around the ship were making it impossible to see anything further than 1km. The turrets where having a hard time keeping up with the speed of the mines, but almost every shot hit something. The fighter drones were almost all destroyed with only about 70 left. Shields are down to 30% and the gate seemed out of reach at 1.47km. The computers voice comes out of the speakers, “Gamma Particle Pulse Cannon Destroyed,” “Gamma Particle Pulse Cannon Destroyed,” “Energy Cells Destroyed.”

In another act of desperation, amidst a brief lull in the explosions, I tried my own jump drive only to find out that too many of my energy cells have been destroyed to even leave the sector. Quickly looking at the clock in the room I was horrified that this only started 3 minutes ago. Frame rate has returned to normal, a quick look at the weapons menu showed me that one turret was now empty of its three GPPC’s, another turret was down to one, but the rest were still fully operational for the time being. A fast freight exchange with the docked ships allowed me to put some Gamma High Energy Plasma Cannons into the empty slots. For the time being the ship was fully armed, even though its shields were on the verge of failing.

As the apparent end began to blind my view, a hint of hope shined un-noticed in the radar. With desperation I launch 3 of the docked Argon Nova’s with the idea that they will either be destroyed by mines that would have hit the Lords of Steel or they could survive and destroy mines. One vanishes almost instantly as it launched, another looses its shields and is crippled, and the third one survives will little shield loss. The shields fail, hull damage starts quickly, and many more systems and weapons are destroyed.

1km away from the gate drifts the Lords of Steel, surrounded by the debris of countless mines and 3 destroyed Nova’s. The ship has one shield generator left and only the 3 Alpha Particle Pulse Cannons in the rear. It hangs in space with only 17% hull left and no signs of life. The remaining squash mines are far enough away to not detect this crippled ship. The radar extensions are destroyed so there was no way of telling what was left in the sector, or even if Xenon001 was still there.

A message appears on the screen, “What the hell just happened? It looked like the server was getting ready to die!” Moments passed with the feeling of years. “TW, you there?” With that I looked to see who was sending the message. Iceman had logged on just before the trouble and had experienced it all, along with the rest of the server population. I then typed out a reply message, “Yeah, I’m still around but could use some duct tape and a tow right now. Just had my life race in front of my eyes.” “What? Where are you, I got to see what could do this to you” was Iceman’s reply. As quickly as I could type “Don’t enter Rolks Legacy! I need you to setup gate blocks in the three connected systems.”

After flying in reverse, at the rate of 1m/s, for almost half an hour the Lords of Steel appeared in the sector Lucky Planets where Iceman had just deployed Navigational satellites around the gate, each being renamed ‘Do Not Enter, Administrators orders.’ Several member of the server had traveled to Lucky Planets in hopes of hearing about what happened and why warning beacons were being deployed but as soon as they saw the condition of the capital ship that just entered the sector they all jumped up to render aid. With in moments a TL and 7 Argon Titans jumped into the system from the West gate. All of these ships belonged to TimberWolf, carrying parts to refit the practically defenseless Lords of Steel and escort it to the ship yards in the sector.

Over the course of the next hour Titans were set in front of each of the gates leading to Rolks Legacy, blocking them by having them stand on their ends with respect to the sector plain. Iceman took his small fleet and started searching the un-known sectors for signs of Xenon001. Several people volunteered their fighters to aid in searching the universe but no one could locate the player, even though he was still logged on.

When the server was set up there were certain things that were locked out from the bulletin boards so no players would even get them, such as the co-ordinates of khaak sectors. Since then cheaters had found ways of bring their single player maps over into the multiplayer game. The idea of Xenon001 being one of these cheats had not yet crossed anyone’s mind, the common thought was he was hiding in deep space in one of the lesser used sectors. Only after a day goes by that Xenon001 is found again attacking Tharka’s Sun, a home sector of the Split and one of the more heavily player populated sectors. This time Gambit, with his economic empire, was the only admin logged on and was flooded with message for help.

<continued>

Gambit’s assets are centered on building his economy and helping new players setup their factories. He would go out of his way, and at great expense, to give the new players a chance in starting out. With the knowledge that Wildchild and TimberWolf regularly patrolled all the sectors Gambit never invested a lot of credits in combat ships. His fleet consisted of 7 TL’s, 3 of which are full of stations at any given time and the others being used as garages to upgrade and replace damaged transports.

As the jump tunnel vanished, Gambit soon realized he was way out classed and out gunned. Launching all of his gathered fighters, all 35 of them, he took a long look at the sector map seeing lines of players and player ships trying to get out of the gate he just came through. In the one or two minutes Gambit was looking at the sector map 3 stations were destroyed. Xenon001 was attacking with 3 carriers, Split Raptors, each fully loaded with 150 fighters. Looking down the list 6 Split Dragons showed up and appeared to be protecting the carriers. Another player station vanishes from the map as an idea crosses Gambits mind but he knew he didn’t have the resources or the combat skill to do it.

Sending out a universe wide message, which only Gambit, Wildchild, and TimberWolf can do, Gambit asks for volunteers to help save Tharka’s Sun. Looking at the server list and hoping to see Wildchild logged on, Gambit was shocked to only hear Iceman and Sir Diesalot step forward with their handful of fighters. They are asked to dock with one of Gambits TL’s that is close to them and he will bring them to the fight. Once they docked Gambit provided some upgrades to them that they didn’t have and began to brief them on his idea before the TL’s jumped to the sector Cho’s Defeat.

As yet another pair of player stations disappear from the map, Gambit moves his TL with its 35 escorts forward to engage some of the enemy fighters. By the movement of the fighters it appeared that Xenon001 is commanding them manually from some where, most likely from one of the carriers. Hoping that his handful of fighters would prove to be a good enough attention getter, Gambit begins his attempt to protect player assets.

As a set of three of Xenons001’s fighters are destroyed by Gambits combined power another wave of ships appeared through the east gate blocking the escaping players. With the new cries of help Gambit calls to Iceman and Diesalot to begin their attack. Players are starting to swarm around Gambit asking for permission to land and be taken to safety, preventing him from moving with his fighters and providing a target for the enemy fighters.

Iceman comes through the gate first to be welcomed by the sight of the exhaust ports of the 3 carriers. He quickly heads to the one in the middle, thinking that would be the most likely place for Xenon001 to be. When Diesalot emerges he targets Iceman and follows. So far it appears that Xenon001 doesn’t see them or doesn’t care. Either way they know that their target has to be destroyed.

Only the carriers fired a shot at the strike force at first, then their Dragon escorts. Iceman, who is flying a Peranid Pursues, has 3 Beta Phased Shock Generators equipped tells Diesalot, who is in Teladi Falcon and has 2 Alpha Phased Shock Generators equipped, to take care of the two escorts. Each of these brave souls brought with them 2 Argon Nova’s that were donated by other players as their own escorts. The Nova’s are good for this because of their back turrets. As Iceman begins strafe runs on the first carrier, slowly draining the shields with each pass, Diesalot tries to keep pace with the fast moving Dragons without hitting Iceman’s wing.

Gambit opens the hangers of his Split Elephant to the players trying to run. He can only take on 30 ships and knows that most of the players out there will die unless he can get more of his TL’s here or can get a hold of some carriers to pick them up. His fighters have been recalled to start protecting the players that are fleeing to his position, as he forms a fleet of various ships, from M5’s to TS’s. Gambit tries to lead the away from the combat and get some of the players in combat ships to work together to protect the others while his fighters are away.

Almost an hour later, Iceman finally gets the hull of the first carrier down to around 50% but has lost both of his wingmen. It seems like Xenon001 has begun to manually target the escorts of Iceman and Diesalot. Both of the escorting Dragons of this carrier have also been destroyed. Around 70 fighters have stopped attacking stations and turned to return to the carriers with only Diesalot standing in their path. The fighters start their attack on the Falcon as Diesalot uses its APSG to cause damage to as many fighters as possible, destroying 3 and crippling a couple of more. Iceman cried out in joy as the first carrier finally brakes apart and explodes in the darkness of space. A third of the fighters stop moving suddenly, giving time for Iceman to join Diesalot in destroying most of the 70 fighters sent against them before they started moving again.

A small victory has been won, but the battle is far from over. Gambit watches from the bridge of his TL, the Split Elephant, as the first carrier explodes in the far distance. Hoping for the battle to be over when player that owns the fleet is killed is saddened to see that Xenon001 was not on the ship. “He must have had a transporter on it or was never on it,” says Gambit to himself. He sends another universe wide message asking for anyone with a carrier or any ship that could be used to evacuate players from the sector, but no one stepped forward. The situation looked grim for these players and he knew that if he jumped out that he would never be able to get back in.

Unknown to those in the battle, another fleet was gathering nearby with the intent to enter Tharka’s Sun to fight. A beep goes unheard by Gambit, as his ears can only hear the shots firing across the sector, stations exploding, and players crying for help. This beep continues on trying to get his attention to see an incoming private message.

<continued>

Wildchild isn’t one to set down roots or stay in an area longer than a few hours. Because of this wondering about the universe all of his assets are scattered randomly about the sectors where he left them. Feeling comfortable with only 4 wing men, he goes into sectors most players avoid unless they had some big guns with them. Along with his scattered firepower were also scattered favors that were earned from battles. Wildchild had only been logged only for moments when he saw Gambits second request for help.

First thought was to fly to Gambits rescue from what ever is attacking him and maybe earn a discount on some new hardware for his scattered fleet. A quick glance at the universe map convinced him otherwise. The problem being that Gambit was in a sector 20 jumps away from where he was currently, sector Depths of Silence. He had been meaning to drop by the Goner temple and buy some jump drives for his wing but just hasn’t gotten back to the core sectors yet. A quick message went off to Gambit asking for a lift to bring him there or if other players are helping him. Several minutes went by but no response, strange that there was no reply to an offer of help. Thinking that the situation was under control, Wildchild went on his way heading towards the Paranid home sectors.

Almost thirty minutes later another help message from Gambit appears on the universe chat window, under urgent. Again Wildchild sent a reply, but no return message from Gambit again. This was definitely strange. Trying to make sense of what is going on, he brings up the Admin server logs to see what is going on, thumbing through the list of fights, trades, logons and logoffs. When the logs from the prior day popped up his eyes widened and his jaw dropped to his desk. Page after page, dozens of them full of mine detonations either on the hull or shot by the Lords of Steel in sector Rolk’s Legacy. Quickly strumming through the pages to see what became of TimberWolf’s ship, and maybe even TimberWolf himself, only to find no entry about the ships destruction. With great haste he switches over to sector view of Rolk’s Legacy to view the see the sea of red mines laying there.

With that frightening sight, Wildchild returns to the Admin logs to see the most recent entries of stations and players destroyed. Now understanding why Gambit couldn’t respond, he began to ask around about getting a lift. Calling in any and all favors so he can barrow any ship that he can dock his fighters in and jump to Cho’s Defeat, which is east of Tharka’s Sun. As the search goes on, Wildchild sent a general command to all of his ships to head to Cho’s Defeat.

Now almost an hour since logging on and Wildchild was only in Trinity Sanctum with 10 ships, including his own. 5 other ships have docked at the ship yard in Cho’s Defeat. No new messages have come from Gambit but the Admin log was still filling up with player deaths and station destructions. Looking at his map from the last time he passed through Tharka’s Sun and the number of stations destroyed, more than what was in his ships logs have already been lost. The fear that he wouldn’t get there in time started to over whelm Wildchild.

A beep emerges from the computer speakers; a new message appears in the in box. It is one of the people that owed him a favor that had just logged on. They were in the position to turn over their Argon Colossus (M1) to Wildchild to get his forces to the battle. The player quickly loads the Colossus with energy cells and empties the hanger bays before transferring controls over to Wildchild. With this carrier at his command, he can now get more ships to the battle then he had originally hoped.

Mean while in Tharka’s Sun, Gambit had been flying off into the depths of space being followed by anyone who saw him head that way including the fighters belonging to Xenon001. Iceman and Diesalot had finished off the other two carriers and joined up with Gambit and the other players in hopes that the fight would be over soon. There were still over 200 enemy fighters attacking anything that moved with most of them following the fleeing ships. Gambit had been fighting for almost 3 hours now, his TL has taken some hull damage and all of his fighters are destroyed. All that was keeping the enemy fighters from over taking them was Iceman and Diesalot with a few volunteers.

The core of the sector was no longer visible even through video enhancement goggles, some where 100’s of kilometers behind them. Every so often a player would report that their station just went. Gambit knew that if this sector turned into another Rolk’s Legacy then the universe economy will start to collapse. But what could he do, things like this were allowed but the complete and utter blockage of a sector was not. Now Gambits thoughts go towards all the stations he owned and all the fortunes stockpiled in them, but he had no way of putting them all to good use since every shipyard in 7 sector radius was sold out of all fighters (M3/4) and corvettes (M6). If he bought a battle ship (M2) he would be unable to equip it without being there to manually load it up from his stock piles of equipment. But for the moment all was fine for him and the players following him as the fight slowly falls back behind them. Or had it?

<to be continued> (Added 11/21/05)

Iceman hears his computer but didn’t catch the words. As he looked down at the message box he saw to his horror that he had lost one of his BPSG’s and a large hull drop. Shields down and incoming missiles, Iceman makes a quick decision to jump out of the sector to save himself. Now alone, all the volunteers have been destroyed, Diesalot attempts to break through the enemy ships to get behind them but to no avail. They are just swarming him, bringing down his shields quickly, destroying his jump drive and bringing him to near death.

With no radar, Diesalot appeared to be about to fulfill his name sake as the sea of red ships around him fired as they flew by. But as his ship spun around to face the on coming ships his eyes were greeted with explosions. His video enhancement goggles were destroyed so he couldn’t take a closer look and the explosions were happening out side of his radar rang. A quick look at the sector map showed that Gambit has led the fleet in a large circle that was bringing them all back to the west gate. More explosions, various forms of weapons fire, more explosions, and then the enemy fleet were past him. His hull is down to 7%, only 1 of 25MW shield out of 3 remains, no weapons, no jump drive, no missiles, and no hope of getting to a gate in his life time. Now nothing showed in the space around him, nothing moving, nothing on the radar, and hopes of rescue fade from his mind. A quick message to Gambit and Iceman to update them on his condition and get new information proved to him that what he saw was not caused by them.

An area broad cast, spanning only a few dozen km, bears no responses. Targeting the West Gate Diesalot gets underway to dock at a station in the next sector, which will take several days at his current speed. Iceman is currently repairing and rearming his ship, but has run out of funds and is waiting for Gambit to make some time to give him some more. Gambit is busy talking to the players following him and a player who finally stepped forward with a Carrier to pick them up with. Trying to coordinate all of the people is taking all of his time, causing him to over look key messages that could save lives.

Wildchild’s fleet swarms across the sector from the east gate. He sends squads out into the depths of space looking for enemy ships or to find Gambit and the others. After a quick skirmish with one of his teams, he sets off with the bulk of his fleet in that direction to follow the enemy fighters that were spotted. The squad was only able to pick off some of the slower fighters that had already taken damage and was then set to follow the enemy. No signs of squash mines or any more enemy capital ships brought fears to mind. Are there more following the fleet? Are they jumping in? Are there already squash mines deployed but not activated?

Hopping for a big, a life changing battle, Wildchild hopes that the enemy fleet is coming and that they won’t use the skill-less squash mines. An hour later his questions are answered. He had passed the west gate long ago and now can see the enemy fighters coming in from his left and his trailing fighters can see many enemy M2’s entering from the west gate. With this answer the enemy also brought another answer to a question that had not yet crossed Wildchilds mind, they have all turned for him. The squads’ following close to the enemy fighters engages in combat, being quickly over whelmed. The few fighters trailing new the west gate also come under attack from the 7 M2’s that have already entered the sector.

Cornered in the vastness of space, Wildchild sees enemy fighters in front and enemy M2’s behind him. The enemy fighters were now encountering the bulk of his fighter fleet and were being wiped out quickly. Now the trouble with the M2’s behind him, with a higher top speed then all of his fighters, brings the fun idea of rushing them to mind. Once the last enemy fighter is destroyed he commands all of his fighters to target the lead M2. It wasn’t long before the fleets collide.

<to be continued> (Added 11/21/05)

Streaks of PPC fire blaze across Wildchilds view striking his fighters. The first M2 was exploding from the waves of missiles that have impacted its side. Without thinking about costs of replacing fighters, which had only cost him repairs and equipment, he sends them onto the next M2. His combination fleet goes through the M2’s quickly at first until the last 3 which begin to use PSG’s that rip through the fighters. The fleet of hundreds of fighters had quickly dropped to dozens by this time. During the entire battle Wildchild had been off fighting M2’s on his own as his fighters kept the others busy. Now he had joined up with them to take on the remaining 3 that had grouped together.

After a wave of fighters pepper the sides of the M2 on the left, Wildchild sweeps across with his own APSG’s causing the shields to go down further. On the 5th attempt the M2 explodes, and the center M2 had turned towards Wildchild before the M2 exploded catching him off guard as it emerged from the debris. Being surrounded by fighters there wasn’t no real choice to get out with out either destroying his own ships or being destroyed himself.

Quickly issuing the “protect me” command to all of his fighters, Wildchild attempted to skim the surface of the M2 to escape, causing several of his escorting fighters to slam into its side. Suddenly changing course to avoid a firing turret, then weaving to fly by the bridge, and dropped a large batch of Fighter Drones in his wake that went off to attack the M2. The M2 began to attack the Drones, allowing his fighters the chance to inflict major damage to the ship leading to its destruction. With only one M2 left, Wildchild quickly ordered all of his assets in the sector to attack it. But to his surprise it dropped a huge load of squash mines then waited. Using his APSG’s, Wildchild tried to destroy as many as possible as his own fighters attacked the M2.

One moment it looked like victory, the next a defeat. The M2 vanished in a flash of light just as the Squash mines became active. In great fear for his own life, he threads through the explosions engulfing his fleet around him. With great relief Wildchild makes it away from the mines with none of the fighters that were with him, but he had 7 on the other side of the sector keeping an eye on the east gate. With his shields recharging he goes off into the depths of space to find Gambit again to bring him and the others home. Another sector is lost while others begin to over fill with refugees seeking protection. But where is it safe?

<to be continued> (Added 11/21/05)

Days later, Gambit gets Wildchild and TimberWolf together for a council of war to discuss how to eliminate the threat and to rebuild the economy. Trillions of credits have been lost in stations alone, along with countless credits of products, the loss of mining asteroids, and the long term disruption of production across the universe. Profitable mining fields were now separated from buyers because of the Squash mine blockade of Rolk’s Legacy. Traders are now scared to approach Tharka’s Sun in fear that they maybe attacked by Pirating players or anything Xenon001 may have left behind. Because of this the traffic through Priest Refuge to Barren Shores and Shareholder’s Fortune to Family Whi has more than doubled.

Many players have started putting more of their resources in Home Sectors were there are capital ships provided by that empire and countless others controlled by players. In one such sector is the bulk of TimberWolfs own fleet of capital ships. In an attempt to keep his forces at the “Front Lines” to help other players he has taken Omicron Lyrae as home base with 4 Titans stations at each of the three gates, sitting there ready to destroy any enemy that came through. Out in the depths of space in that sector were also his weapon and shield fabs that supplied the bulk of his fleet. On a chance discovery a stray fighter located several silicon and ore rich asteroids many kilometers out.

Omicron Lyrae was once a bustling hub with freighters passing through from the Unknown sectors carrying ore and silicon for a nearly a third of the universe. Because of the over building ore and silicon have become major money makers but that appears to be changing as now many factories have begun to run short on other supplies. Even with the increase use of jump drives to get from one side of the universe to the other has its own implication to the economy by draining power from those regions. Even if Xenon001 never attacks again he has already left a very long term mark on the universe. Many players gave up after loosing so much, many have lost all and are forced to start over again from the beginning, and others are scared to expand and have begun to put all of their resources into their own defenses.

At the end of the meeting it is agreed upon that Wildchild is in no condition to fight large battles, having lost over 2/3rds of his fleet, and that Gambit doesn’t have the time to manage a large battle fleet and organize the rebuilding of the universe. This left the problem of finding Xenon001 and eliminating his ability to wage war on TimberWolf. With this mission in mind, TimberWolf buys and outfits several carriers to conduct search operations in the Unknown and Xenon sectors by sending out M5’s.

But unknown to TimberWolf, Xenon001 has already staked out his next target with the intent of eliminating the last direct threat to his conquest of the universe. To achieve this he launches an attack in Family Whi, Barren Shores, and Argon Prime. The driving idea is “Divide and Conquer.” With One M1, fully loaded with fighters, destroying freighters and 2 M2’s protecting the M1 in the first two sectors it was impossible to ignore. But with the attack on Argon Prime, where 50% of the server population called home, where the incoming enemy freighters deploy laser towers around the gates and squash mines about a kilometer out cut all attempts to flee. The choice of where to fight first was impossible for TimberWolf to make.

But a quick choice is made, to jump into Family Whi to eliminate the bulk of the enemy ships and leave anything else to the now well armed militia that have begun to form. This choice runs the risk of loosing many more well-to-do players in Argon Prime. (When ever a player dies all of their remaining assets is turn over to NPC’s and they start from scratch again.) Jumping into Family Whi with 11 Titan’s, TimberWolf intended for the battle to be over before it even began. Even before the enemy fighters had the chance to react, their carrier was already breaking up along with the escorting M2’s showing more resemblance to swish cheese. Strangely the bulk of the fighters didn’t chance from attacking the freighter to attacking the new arrivals. Once it appeared the local militia had it covered, the 11 Titan’s jumped to Barren Shores to repeat the process.

Again the enemy capital ships fell quickly and the local militia was able to handle the fighters attacking the freighters. Two problems down and one big one to go. It had already been an hour since the gate blocking had begun and many capital ships coming into Argon Prime have fallen victim to the squash mines and laser towers. Gambit calls out a mayday, he is now under attack in Seizewell where he was helping some players set up factory loops. He reports that the enemies are targeting him alone and have not attacked anything else in the sector. Wildchild messages in that he is in the area and will try to save Gambit and that TimberWold should go and save Argon Prime.

With that message, TimberWolf jumps to the Argon Prime south gate, but not jumping himself. The sector map of Argon Prime quickly updates as the first Titan jumps in and engages the laser turrets just before squash mines begin to bash into it. Then the second enters the sector just as the first cleared the gate area, then the third. The first was taking hull damage from the mines. The laser towers were all but gone by the time the fourth Titan jumped in. As the first Titan explodes, number 7 and 8 jump in finishing off the laser towers around south gate and begin clearing the remaining mines.

The rest of the gates were easier to clear with the 10 Titans and the other ships in the sector helping. When preparing to jump to Seizewell another message for help comes in. This time it is from the miners in two Unknown sectors, one on either side of the universe. And another message of help comes in from Scale Plate Green but this time it’s the Xenon invading. Then to TimberWolf surprise yet another cry for help in Nopileos’ Memorial. The only thought crossing TimberWolfs mind is that this is getting ridicules and that the timing of the Xenon attack couldn’t have been worst.

<to be continued> (Added 11/22/05)

There is only one person who knew how many ships TimberWolf had under his command, even though Gambit and Wildchild could easily checked the server logs to find out. Players had remarked that more money was spent by TimberWolf on his fleet then all of them did on factories. Early on it was rare to not see packs of 5 Titans roaming the universe. But since complaints by Players about how they can’t find challenges due to the Titans destroying everything that threatened them, those Titans had apparently vanished. No one could account for them all since then but they assumed that many were sent into deep space to hide until needed. But it is only a rumor of fleets in the darkness.

From what players, such as Xenon001, could gather there are 12 Titans stationed at the gates in Omicron Lyrae and hints of more hanging around TimberWolfs stations. Then there is the roaming fleet that was used to handle disturbances consisting of 20 Titans, 10 Condors (M1), and 40 Ospreys (M6). But at any given time the fleet is dispersed across the universe for various things. All of the Condors along with half of the Ospreys were know to be on long term patrol of the Unknown and Xenon sectors looking for Xenon001. 11 Titans had been set aside for quick reaction to attacks, but one has been lost. The other 9 Titans and the remaining 20 Ospreys were patrolling the Pirate sectors in the middle of the universe, looking for any clues to hidden stations.

As for Gambits assets, they consist mostly of credits in the factories. Until recently he kept little his personal defenses, relying on hiring players to defend when needed. But after the events of Thark’s Sun he had begun to amass a fleet of M6’s to patrol around all of his stations. Gambit already had all the equipment in storage from his own factories. In the days between the attacks he had purchased created enough fire power to bring him from one of the weakest players’ weapon wise on the server to competing with TimberWolf. The problem is most of them didn’t have jump drives, due to a shortage at the Goner Temple, and is forced to leave them on sector patrol where is stations are located. Unfortunately, he didn’t have more in and around Seizewell to protect him because at this very moment 10 Split Dragons (M6) were about to cast a death blow to his TL.

In advance Gambit had transferred his jump drive with all of his remaining energy cells to his new personal fighter, a Boron Barracuda (M4). As the missiles scream closer Gambit switches to his fighter and launches in time to get clear before his TL explodes in a great fire ball. As the Dragons turn around to continue their attack on Gambit, he makes an escape into the near by asteroid field with the hope that they might destroy themselves following him. Wildchild engages one of the Dragons and brings it to its knees with Ion Disruptors and a quick succession of missiles. He then tries to repeat the victory on the next one but only to find that their turrets have now been set to missile defense.

TimberWolf sends 3 Titans to Seizewell to help Gambit, but it will take some time for them to catch up to the faster Dragons. 2 Titans are sent to each of the Unknown sectors under attack to reinforce the ships already there since the Condors are carrying mostly scouts. The final 3 Titans are sent to Nopileos’ Memorial to reinforce the Titan and Ospreys already there. After the jump a major tactical problem becomes apparent, almost all of the Titans have used up their energy cells jumping around and could now only jump up to 4 or 5 sectors. TimberWolfs’ fleet has in essence become disabled.

Gambit continues his game of hide and seek with the 9 Dragons, which have a higher top speed them his Barracuda, following him with Wildchild trying desperately to get their attention. With some effort to avoid the cross fire and the asteroids, Gambit is able to turn around and start heading towards the Titans flying his way. The on looking players keep away in fear of causing more enemy forces to jump in to attack them. Suddenly Gambits hull begins to drop but his shields are still fully charged. In a pain of realization Gambit scans the Dragons to see that they have switch from Gamma High Energy Plasma to Mass Drivers which bypass shields. With new energy, and new determination, Gambit begins to show flying skills resembling Obi Won’s asteroid run in Episode 2.

Wildchild fails to keep up with the Dragons and becomes stunned when he saw the way Gambit was flying. Before he regained control over himself one of the Dragons had impacted another causing it to fly into an asteroid to explode on its surface. The other Dragon sustained enough damage to no longer keep up with the rest, leaving it as the perfect target for Wildchild. Still thinking there must be a server glitch or something, he takes another look to make sure that was really Gambit flying that thing. The Titans continued their slow approach.

The battles in the Unknown sectors were not ending any time soon. For every ship they destroyed another 2 would come through the gate in their place. The battle in Nopileos’ Memorial was having similar troubles. One thing that didn’t cross TimberWolf’s mind was the lack of capital ships in these attacks. In every attack prior, as far as been reported, there had at least been one. The reason why appeared in the form of a three way invasion of Omicron Lyrae. Teladi Phoenix’s (M2) began to emerge from the three jump gates, protected by their 750 MW shields. They easily take the initial barrages of the sitting Titans as more Phoenix’s entered. In a matter of minutes the first Phoenix from each gate was destroyed but there was now 4 more sitting there attacking the Titans with their weakening shields. The gates to this fortress have failed and this king is away with his army.

<to be continued> (11/30/05)

It is estimated that one in 20 trade ships in the universe is owned by Gambit. With hundreds of thousands roaming the universe, there are hundreds of millions of credits in transit for Gambit who has long ago stopped watching his bank account. There are so many Universal Traders going around that he never noticed that most of his factories have lost all of their original transports. But that also helps new players by giving them products they can sell for profit.

At this moment and time not a single one of those ships can help him. Out gunned, out paced, and starting to run out of asteroids to fly around, Gambit knew that either his time will end and the NPC’s will take control over his empire or he can bide enough time for the 3 Titans to come into range to dock with. Continuing on his mad flight through and around asteroids, Gambit spots a potentially helpful situation. The local Teladi Phoenix was wandering by a few kilometers west of his current position, but in that small of a distance the Dragons would surely catch up and pound him into the Stone Age. In a craze, Gambit turns around and heads back into the Dragons, causing them to ram into each other as they each tried to turn around at the same time, and goes the long way around the asteroid in hopes of gaining a few extra seconds to reach the Phoenix.

Wildchild comes around an asteroid in time to see the Dragons ramming each other in a furry to get Gambit. This time he couldn’t help but take a screen shot and laugh his head off from the sight. The image of the three stooges came to mind, but in this case there are 7. Flashes from the mass drivers pelting the asteroid pepper the Wildchilds screen. The thought of what would have happened if those all hit Gambit crossed his mind for a moment, then the wonder at how Gambit was able to avoid being hit.

Gambits move worked, for the most part. He had gained more time but not enough to get out of the range of the mass drivers the Dragons were currently using. The idea of using the Phoenix as a shield to cause the Dragons to attack it forcing it to retaliate soon vanished. His speed had dropped from a couple of more hits but what really scared him now was he had lost his jump drive. The worst part of all of this was he had it but couldn’t jump because the system automatically brings you to a stop to jump which would have been fatal.

Seven sectors away TimberWolf was working on solution to his energy cell problem. The Pirate sectors have been left open to NPC’s and Pirates so there will always be a “natural” area for new players to visit. Think of it as a national park. Because of this there is a large demand for power in the area which means there is not enough to get even one Titan to Omicron Lyrae. But something came to mind that hadn’t been thought of in months. Just like any other player TimberWolf had personal craft that usually sit somewhere collecting dust until the player feels like a joy ride. In this case there is a fully armed Perseus with 3 Beta Phased Shockwave Generators and jump drive sitting in the hanger of a TL with enough energy on board to send it from Omicron Lyrae to Nopileos Memorial and back.

With that thought TimberWolf issues the command and then commands the Perseus to dock with his Titan. Leaving the battle behind was the easy part, but entering a battle against 12 enemy Phoenix’s and living is the hard part. With fear of being ambushed on the other side of the gate, TimberWolf jumps to his home sector to personally defend his stations.

<to be continued> (2/17/06)

Having been away from the game for nearly a month, Ashaman was surprised to see how much of his empire was still there bringing him profits in Spaceweed Drift. When he last played he placed a couple of Space weed and Space Fuel factories there and got them running but didn’t see any profits before signing off a couple of hours later. But now he looks at their bursting vaults with several million credits each. No more money woes.

Ashaman flies to Seizewell in his Argon Buster to look into buying a ship that better matched his level of wealth. Complete aw strikes him as his radar updates his sector maps with dozens of new stations and un-imaginable numbers of ships. Taking a closer look as some of the stations showed that they were built for the sole purpose of supplying his stations in failing attempts to maximize profits in the sector. Then a dreaded sound comes from the speakers, “incoming message.” A quick succession of types brings him to his message screen where over a hundred messages sit waiting to be read. Most are from other players asking for sole rights to supply or buy from one station or another he had built in some of the fringe sectors. Others were junk messages trying to get him to waste his money or time. Nothing that he looked at hinted to the troubles that had been going through the universe while he was gone.

Marveling at the growth as he goes along through Seizewell, the constant moving of ships hid the fact that one of his friends is close to loosing their life a short distance away. Busy watching the constant flow of traffic and going through his messages kept his attention from seeing a Barracuda dancing with 7 Dragons around asteroids. If Ashaman had seen it he would have checked his scanner to see who it was and gone to help if they were a friend. In this case it was nothing more than moving stars to him. Once docked all he could think about was what type of ship to get, maybe a Teladi Osprey (M6) or fly the distance to get a Split Dragon. With that thought he recalled seeing both ships flying through the sector so he left the station to go take a closer look. First spotting the Osprey and seeing its great potential in staying in a fight for a long time, then looked at one of the Dragons flying around asteroids and marveled at their speed. The fact that the Dragon was moving in a group and flying circles around asteroids only made Ashaman believe they were being flown around by some newbie.

Ashaman decides to contact the owner of the Dragon to ask some questions using the ask unit message ability. A message comes back with the ships ID as its sender name. The owner says that he is more than willing to demonstrate the ships abilities to him. With that two of the Dragons turned red and began flying right for him. Hoping it was just an error on the strangers’ part Ashaman sends an email telling him about it but got no reply. Traveling amongst a dense travel lane between gates afforded Ashaman some cover but a quick look around him proved that this fight would have been better done a month ago when he still knew how to play.

<to be continued> (2/21/06)

A quick glance around gave Ashaman the information he needed to plan his next move. There was a group of freighters with escorts nearby operated by players. He begins to head over there with the idea of flying between their ships to cause the enemy Dragons fire to hit them and bring them into the fry. The reality of the situation dawned on him as his comm. beeps for his attention and immediately pops up on the screen. It is an emergency communication from Gambit asking everyone in the sector for help in destroying the 7 Dragons attacking him. What was written towards the end of the message was what brought a cold sweat to his face. Rereading it for a 5th time, Ashaman forgets his own problem as a hint to the troubles begins to enlighten him. The test states that TimberWolf’s fleet is currently disabled and dispersed across the Universe and unable to respond to any cry for help. The idea that such a fleet could have been ran around so much that it never got a chance to refuel could only mean major troubles.

As soon as that thought finished forming the missile alarm goes off. The two Dragons have each fired a missile and he had just passed the group he had hoped to take cover in. Without thinking, Ashaman turns his Buster around and begins firing at the incoming missiles. The first falls quickly but the second was on the verge of impacting before it succumbed to his fire. The Dragons go plowing through the group, ramming and destroying an escorting Buster and taking some equipment off of a Nova as it did so. The other Dragon plows right through another Nova, destroying it, and taking out two escorting Discoverers. The convoy was now split in two and disoriented and unable to figure out what happened in the crowed before weapons fire erupted above it. Ashaman opens fire at the first Dragon with missiles of his own and 2 Gamma Particle Accelerator Cannons (GPAC). The already weakened shields of the Dragon fail under the destructive force of the missiles and its hull begins to take damage fro the twin GPAC’s. The few remaining escorts of the convoy add in their fire into the conversation, bringing the Dragon to its death in seconds. The second Dragon quickly dispatches last Nova from the convoy and begins attacking the transports.

With newly found confidence with the help of the escorts, Ashaman pushes on with his attack on the last of the Dragons sent against him. Its shields had almost fully recharged and begun flying through the crowded trading lane with no regard to other ships, bumping into some and playing chicken with others. A couple of freighters ram into each other trying to avoid the mad ship, one busting into a ball of fire and the other one becoming crippled in space. Trying to keep up with it Ashaman and the last 3 escorts follow the Dragon outside of the trade lane. But the enemy ship is gaining ground on them and any hope of destroying it is quickly lost. But just as soon as it looked like the Dragon was about to evade destruction it began to rain PPC fire around it. The trade lane quickly disperses away from the barrage of fire from two capital ships coming in from above. The Dragon begins to engage the two Titans, allowing for Ashaman to catch up and join in the battle again. Moments later the Dragon bursts into flames and its guns fall silent. With that danger eliminated Ashaman looks at the radar to see the 5 remaining Dragons still pursuing a Barracuda which is registered to Gambit, along with a Perseus attacking the Dragons with Alpha High Energy Plasma Throwers registered to Wildchild. Seeing these two friends made him want to see who sent the Titans to find that the two he sees are with a third belonging to TimberWolf. Without even trying Ashaman has been drafted into Universe Defense Command when he sees Iceman’s message instructing him on what to do and what has happened to date.

Else where in the Universe, TimberWolf exits the gate in his Perseus. There appeared to be no enemy presence at first, and no stations left. A quick run towards the center of the sector showed that the Shipyard was still there and that several TL’s belonging to Xenon001 were in the process of being loaded with stations and ships. With no noticeable defense fighters TimberWolf proceeded to engage the nearest TL and destroys it. The second TL launches defense fighters but also falls to the triple BPSG’s. The other TL’s begin launching fighters and more begin to emerge from the depths of space towards the location of his stations. The TL docked with the stations jumps out of sector and the next TL docks with it and begins loading. For what ever reason, Xenon001 must need more stations to support his war effort, and with the blockade of all other shipyards he has to use this one until he losses access. With some quick movements of the joystick, TimberWolf places himself directly in front of a TL with the fighters behind him, does a 180, and begins assaulting the enemy fighters as their fire strikes the TL. Several fighters are destroyed and the TL’s shields are on the verge of failing. With another quick turn of the joystick TimberWolf does a fly by of the TL and commits the final attack that destroys it. Another two TL’s jump out of the sector and the enemy fighters are quickly dispatched, leaving the radar clear of enemy ships. Where did the enemy go?

Diesalot has been silently limping his way to a station for repairs. Having no other ship to summon to him or any success in getting someone’s attention he has been left alone in the depths of space to move his nearly dead ship to a safe place for repairs. The last thing he heard from anyone was that Gambit was leading players around in a fleet reminding him of Battlestar Galactica. He still has been unable to figure out what those explosions were in the distance was days ago. A matter of hours left until he reaches the west gate to get to Cho’s Defeat where there is a Wharf to repair at. The current condition of the universe is unknown to him because everyone who knew what was going on was to busy to post on the forums or respond to messages. Has it all ended yet?

<to be continued> (2/22/06)

Silence, darkness, and a barren sight to see; the asteroid drifts in space waiting for a reason to exist. A flash of light, explosions, silent, debris scatters from the surface below as the light from several engines stream through it. Most streams of brightly colored light pass between the vessels. A set of engine lights vanish into the asteroids surface, followed by another, but others move away and turn to fire into the asteroid blasting chunks of the surface away. A short distance under the surface those engines go silent and the gun shots stop along with their own engine light. A stalemate falls onto the screen as neither side makes a move.

Suddenly the surface of the asteroid erupts in into life as blue balls strikes the ships floating nearby and the asteroid. Moments later the surface becomes bright as a ship explodes in the darkness, and two sets of engine trails are seen leaving the surface heading into the sea of blue balls. Another explosion lights up the surface, green balls of light strikes a blue barrier protecting ships far larger than the ship that fired. Three little pairs of engine lights dance through the blue balls, striking at the aggressors. With the darkness brightened by the lights of combat, silence filled with communications, and the barren sight of a scared asteroid, three quick bursts of brilliantly white light exposes the 6 ships to on lookers for a moment before darkness engulfs them again.

A moment of rest is won for Gambit, Wildchild, and the confused Ashaman. They dock with the nearest Titan to bring Ashaman up to speed and help him spend his money wisely to better help the war effort. Something worked towards their favor, the remaining three Dragons could have fought to the death but for some reason they were called away. Gambit takes a long look at the Admin’s universe map to see that there are no more fights any where, all Pirate stations have been destroyed, and that TimberWolf’s entire fleet that remains is moving towards Omicron Lyrae under regular engine power. A quick check of messages shows that TimberWolf has asked for people to transport energy cells to any of his ships he sees to allow them to get into combat sooner rather than too late.

The Titan that carries Gambit, Wildchild and Ashaman jumps to the west gate of Tharka’s Sun and begins to head out into the darkness. With confusion Gambit messages TimberWolf to send the ship two Cho’s Defeat or some other sector so they can get more ships. But quickly the reason why enters the radar range. The Titan was sent to retrieve the limping Diesalot from his nearly destroyed fighter that was still days away from reaching a station at his current speed. With the Titans hanger bay full it quickly carries its passengers to the neighboring docks for repairs and rearming.

The core sectors begin to relax as players across the universe signal the all clear. All of Xenon001’s forces have vanished from sight. Militias begin to spread out their patrols to ensure that no enemies are hiding just outside of the sector map. Other groups setup laser towers around the gates to key sectors along with navigational satellites to provide constant radar in the region. At the moment these acts were approved of by the people to ensure their security from the unseen empire that seems to randomly strike, but this is the first steps to economic recession. Entire corporations are built around the demand for laser towers and navigational satellites, while others build exclusively the weapons and shields to conduct war. The entire economy has been converted to support the war effort.

The destruction of Omicron Lyrae’s Shipyard and Warf has made it difficult to rebuild fleets and stations in the region. TimberWolf continues his trek out in the direction he saw the enemy come from in hopes of reaching the fleet before they find his stations. One thing does bring him hope, even if a player knew which direction a ship came from they don’t know how far or if they made any course corrections on the way. To help ensure secrecy of these stations TimberWolf usually has the equipment ships jump to a gate instead of flying and only send them back when they are docked with his Split Raptor to help reduce the chances of anyone following it. The security and secrecy of these stations were TimberWolf’s first priority when they were constructed and then actually making them without drawing attention. But once they were fully operational and self sustaining almost all fears were laid to rest. Almost all fears but the rest was soon handled.

<to be continued>

[XMEN Gambit]

(I was going to move that thread here, the way it was going, but I'm glad to see you did it. Thanks!)

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

I don't want to play X3 anymore and just find out what I am going to do next in this story. Keep it up.

[TimberWolf]

Three new sections are up with Iceman and Diesalot falling out of the picture in the first one and Wildchild taking lead then but to end with multiply cries for help to the very people who are being targeted. It ends with a lead to the next chapter in the story. (when ever I get the chance to write it, since I am looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving it maybe a while.)

[TimberWolf]

If anyone wants to be a part of the story post your name and a little about yourself. It would also allow me to bring in more side stories to add depth to the main plot.

Is everyone enjoying the story so far? I am enjoying writting it when I can. I think this story is following along with the "New Jedi Order" of Star Wars books because there a lot of the old traditions being lost or destroyed (such as the admins getting their butts kicked or destroyed) but some long lost things are rediscovered and used (such as rediscovering ones own potential instead of relying on others).

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

Asha

Age: 28

You could just go with what you know of me and see where it goes.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

I love it thus far TW.

It is so amazing that even before I played the game in the storyline you have pretty much pegged how I have been playing X3. Building up a fleet to dominate one sector at a time.

In the X3 board there has been talk of seeing a Sector up for sale, I may strive to do that.

What I plan on doing once I get enough working ships is install the duplex or triplex scanners and have them search Argon Prime from top to bottom as far as I can go on the map, since there is apparently stuff beyond the 100% sector map. Then I will set my growing fleet a few hundred meters outside of the normal sector. Build some laser towers out there to protect the derelect ships. And go from there.

I have four ships now, three fighters and one hauler. I will get a few more haulers to set up as ST then UT to get constant income, but my main focus will be to physically dominate the universe one sector at a time. Trading isn't my thing right now but there are some good guides for it in the X boards. I will stick with capping.

[XMEN Gambit]

I'm not sure there is a top or bottom limit on the sectors. There doesn't appear to be in X2, anyway. I once let a ship fly into a planet to see if I could go that far - and this was not a really close, hanging over your head type planet, either. Prolly took 20 SETA minutes in an upgraded disco to get there.

[TimberWolf]

I flew for an hour on seta once by accident. I had thought I paused the game by pressing shift-p but it just continued on. My ship was the Teladi Osprey with a Harrier docked. The sector was Kingdom End were I had been setting up some factories (my first game). When I got back to my computer I could no longer see anything in the sector with video enhancement goggles. When I targeted the south gate it said it was over 900km away. But one thing that I did find was a huge cloud of Space flies swarming around my ship. Too bad I didn't have any Ion-Disrupters and a Space Fly Collector or I could have made millions.

[TimberWolf]

I am currently trying to write another part to this story and pick up another story that I had started 3 years ago but never got very far on. With all the family christmasses going on right now, brother visiting from Texas, and the impending return to dorm date drawing closer, I will try to sneak in times to write and hope to have something up by the end of next week before I go back to the dorm.

[TimberWolf]

An new section has been added. I wrote this about 2 months ago and forgot about it with the way class has been going.

Ashaman enters the battle as an unknowing bystandard.

[TimberWolf]

A new section is up.

This part continues Ashamans story and merges it with what is going on with Gambit and Wildchild. The end of Gambit is starting to look further off now with Ashaman joining up with the Titans TimberWolf sent and the destruction of 2 of the 7 Dragons. Diesalot's story continues from where we last saw him, a drift in Tharka's Sun, slowly making his way to Cho's Defeat for repairs. TimberWolf enters his home system to see the enemy stocking up on supplies for a prolong war.

*EDIT*

A new section is up.

A conclusion to the Gambit in trouble story, the rescue of Diesalot, and a little back story of TimberWolfs stations and hints to the great lengths he went to construct them without anyone knowing of them. Also some key points to future sections were hinted in this update that will be explored more after the Xenon001 story arc is completed. Also thanks to Wildchild for the ideas that will be showing up later in the story.

If you have an idea or story you would like to see integrated into this then pm or email me with them. I have started a file just for that and will soon be going back through the entire story to create a support file to better keep track of all the little details. I will also be looking into going back to the begining and doing spelling, grammer, and story corrections from prior sections. I will post if any changes are made.

[ATF Ravok]

If you ever need a 'scapegoat' good guy to make a last stand, that is what Ravok specializes in. Its the way I have played this name even since Tribes.

Age: 33

The best that Ravok ever does, is to pull pressure off his friends and simply last as long as he can. Back in the day, I was Capper escort. I would feint at the flag in order to clear it for the main capper. Sometimes, I would pick off enemy capper chasers with a well placed disk shot.

In X3, I would be the kind of player that invests heavily in carrier detachments with fighters. (I think) And do ship-drops to support my allies. If I had a fleet, it would probably be comprised of loaded carriers in various sectors that can deploy ships to help out my buddies. Something along those lines?

However you decide to use it, I would love to have a glorious Klingon Death Scene. Those are my favorite.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

It's been a while since I have read this. I still love it. Can't wait to see my "conversation with TW" come to the light. I'm excited.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

I came back just to read your updates TW!!! I stopped playing X3 but may boot it up again and start all over.