The Indra Megaship Joins the Fight!

[Ian Doncaster]

A Megaship is being sent to aid the war effort, but by whom? Who's going to control it when it turns up? Who's going to be handing out the missions?

Frontier can set whoever they like as the controlling faction of the ship in its new system (and indeed secondary factions, for more variety in mission offers). If they do add multiple factions to the destination, possibly someone could put one of them in charge instead.

It'd probably make most sense to have it be labelled as AXI - plenty of (non-player-submitted) CGs have been administered by PMFs recently who just happened to control the relevant station - rather than giving it back to Merope Expeditionary Fleet, but either would work from a plot perspective. It's AXI the Pleiades-focused NPC group, not AXI the players, who'd be in control in-universe.

(If it did go back to MEF, such is the risk PMFs take on when capturing plot-relevant assets or systems)

 

[CMDR Saigon]

I see an AX CG in my future!

O7,

Here comes the Bond vault!

 

[Ozric]

Frontier can set whoever they like as the controlling faction of the ship in its new system (and indeed secondary factions, for more variety in mission offers). If they do add multiple factions to the destination, possibly someone could put one of them in charge instead.

It'd probably make most sense to have it be labelled as AXI - plenty of (non-player-submitted) CGs have been administered by PMFs recently who just happened to control the relevant station - rather than giving it back to Merope Expeditionary Fleet, but either would work from a plot perspective. It's AXI the Pleiades-focused NPC group, not AXI the players, who'd be in control in-universe.

(If it did go back to MEF, such is the risk PMFs take on when capturing plot-relevant assets or systems)

Someone elsewhere pointed me to this. I guess they requested to be inserted into HR 1185 on creation and so got control that way, and now they have decided to move it to the front line. (I am imagining there's a level of rp here and they were approached)

The last line doesn't bode well though. You don't normally get kicked off a Megaship before it jumps...

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I guess they requested to be inserted into HR 1185 on creation and so got control that way

Yes - though they were inserted long after Frontier changed it so that PMFs didn't get automatic system control, so they still had to fight normal elections to grab the assets.

You don't normally get kicked off a Megaship before it jumps...

That is unusual for ones which are expected to jump without incident. Though the Proteus Wave event had people not being kicked off and just appearing in a pile of wreckage (with or without their ship) so it doesn't seem entirely necessary either.

The jump location is not entirely obvious - it's about 60 LY "behind" Taranis: sure, there's an Ammonia World there, but not one that Taranis has shown any interest in capturing in the next few years. So it'll be interesting to see if there's anything new there on Thursday.

 

[Ozric]

The jump location is not entirely obvious - it's about 60 LY "behind" Taranis: sure, there's an Ammonia World there, but not one that Taranis has shown any interest in capturing in the next few years. So it'll be interesting to see if there's anything new there on Thursday.

Yes very much so. I don't think it's going to go up in flames straight away, but it seems odd because as you say it's the opposite side of the Maelstrom to all the populated systems in the bubble.

I guess at least it provides a base of operations for those coming from the Pleiades.

 

[CMDR Mechan]

From the AXI Discord:

***

*Incoming Hail * [AXI Fleet Command] >>> Warden Comms Relay

AXI Commits New Assets in Preparation of next phase of the Thargoid war

@everyone

AXI CMDRs,

The Indra served as the flagship of the Merope Expeditionary Force before being handed over to the Anti Xeno Initiative several years ago.

Since then, it has remained in vigilant overwatch above our headquarters of Ceres Tarn, serving as an orbital base of operations for our community and squadron.

With the tide of the Thargoid War looking increasingly unfavorable for humanity, AXI command has made the fateful decision to command the Indra to jump to the front lines, in direct support of the war efforts.

On this Thursday our megaship will, for the first time since it arrived in the Pleiades, jump to HIP 28128.

It’s primary mission is to provide combat support to local AX activities while investigating the Ammonia planet in said system for evidence of Thargoid activity.

All AXI pilots are hereby requested, where possible, to provide combat and logistics support on Thursday and Friday as we establish a beach head in this new system.

All mission listings are suspended in preparation for said advance. All CMDRs still docked at the Indra at Thursday’s weekly server reset will be automatically undocked.

Agents, members and allies; we hope you all find the Indra suitable to your needs

Glory, To Mankind!

 

[CMDR Mechan]

It's about time the Super Powers started pulling their weight!

I know that’s not what you intended. But there’s some sweet irony here - as the Anti Xeno Initiative has arguably done more in the Thargoid War than the individual Superpowers have.

 

[goemon]

A PMF who get to expand into an uninhabited system, one of the Superpowers while the other two sit idle, or some random group that has commandeered it?

this really depends how it is set up. prima exampel gnosis, dockable megaship. faction control is hardcoded AND the faction controlling it can not expand, or get into conflicts with any of the in-system-factions the gnosis visits.

there are some of this rather special "factions" with unusual rules - engineers are another exampel (you can not win an engineer base by conflict AND the engineer can not expand - but right when horizon hit you could calculate the engineers influence in system, as engineer systems where missing several % to 100 hundred)

 

[Ned Flandalorian]

I guess not enough people noticed the attacked dockable megaship model used out in Witch Head (Onoros) so they're going to put one in the bubble.

 

[LCU No Fool Like One]

The Indra was a home from home for me back in the day when I was experimenting on the Thargoids.

I for one am delighted for AXI to have a megaship at their command. Hopefully they can't lose ownership via BGS! I hope they are able to move it around to places where it is needed and that this is not just a one-off. Personally I would ask for it to be moved into or within sight of a maelstrom or into a thargoid CZ.

Of course megaships seem to be a bit fragile when it comes to Thargoid combat. Have any apart from The Gnosis survived a Thargoid attack?

I wish they had made fleet carriers use megaship models so that they could be piloted by players.

 

[DemiserofD]

Maybe this will be part of how they justify the adjustments to the war effort?

It'd be nice if they made the Indra a rescue point, too.

 

[Coehoorn]

AXI is "investigating" Ammonia worlds now, huh?
RIP story of Elite Dangerous. It was fun while it lasted

 

[nanothargon]

Love that we have a flagship in the fight. Really makes things feel coordinated and immersive, in a battlestar galactica kind of way.

I’m still trying to build my meta chieftain, so it’ll be a while before I can ship out (engineering grind). Good to have a rallying point to head for when I get done, assuming it hasn’t been blown up by then.

 

[BDelacroix]

AXI is "investigating" Ammonia worlds now, huh?
RIP story of Elite Dangerous. It was fun while it lasted

I'm not a particular fan of AXI for my own reasons but why does this end the story of Elite Dangerous?

 

[Coehoorn]

I'm not a particular fan of AXI for my own reasons but why does this end the story of Elite Dangerous?

It doesn't end the story, but it's another step in streamlining the lore and refocusing all of it on a single group in the community, of which Frontier apparently believes it's the only one, or at least the only one that matters.

 

[Darrack]

AXI is "investigating" Ammonia worlds now, huh?
RIP story of Elite Dangerous. It was fun while it lasted

O7

 

[Coehoorn]

O7

Source: https://giphy.com/gifs/workingtitlefilms-rowan-atkinson-secret-agent-johnny-english-JUHFU24yRrWRRnzZ6v

 

[angusmadmac1]

I'm amazed that it's the same ole folk who bring the Doom memes into a thread ?? And they are the ones who "love " the game .

 

[Ned Flandalorian]

The last megaship that required everybody to undock before it jumped was the Alexandria, something tells me this megaship isn't going to be making much of a future contribution to the war effort...

 

[Coehoorn]

The last megaship that required everybody to undock before it jumped was the Alexandria, something tells me this megaship isn't going to be making much of a future contribution to the war effort...

They'll probably just make it a "cooler Kingfisher" where the ship gets attacked but the supporters are actually allowed to defend it.