Well - that was - Uhmmm - Exciting...

Nice story WW13. I've run a couple of those missions and they are fun. But, were you in the Type-7 or Phantom? Sorry, that kinda jumped out at me.

GL HF Commander Werewolf13

Sorry - it was the type 7. I'd been flying around in the Krait for the past couple of weeks and it was just stuck in my head I guess (or like my wife is want to say, "you have another senile moment, old man?". I chose the 7 because it was pre-loaded as a passenger hauler and it's yaw turn rate is crazy high (or feels that way). It also has a boost speed of 417. I typically use it to haul passengers. On occasion to haul 720T loads of high value metals or high profit medicines. It's like my 3rd favorite ship out of the 7 I own.
 
Heres where i got rocked by an explosion while landing. Station rescues are fun.


[video]https://xboxdvr.com/gamer/wolfe3/video/57563908[/video]
 
Just turn the shield off in front of the slot and let the hurricane of air leaving the docking area clean out the fire and all the debris with it. But where would the fun be in that?

Decompressing the docking tube in a heavily damaged starport would also likely be the end of a rescue mission as you'd kill off most of the survivors in the process.
 
Decompressing the docking tube in a heavily damaged starport would also likely be the end of a rescue mission as you'd kill off most of the survivors in the process.

One imagines that a station in SPACE would have an auxiliary air system kind'a like SUBS have today with EAB (emergency air breather) masks every where and hookups everywhere. In addition both during the attack and during the aftermath anyone who wasn't wearing their personal space suit would deserve exactly what they'd get - dead. Furthermore if there aren't airtight bulkheads and airlocks between the docking bay and the living areas then the designer of the space station should probably be spaced and his assistant promoted - he'd probably perform a bit better after waving good bye thru a port hole to his boss floating in space with his blood boiling away with his life.

Then again - we are talking the ED universe where missiles can't fly past 5KM, kinetic rounds slow down in the vacuum of space and MW lasers begin to lose power after a mere 1KM, so you may be right. Afterall the ED universe may not be an Idiocracy but sometimes it gets mighty close.
 
One imagines that a station in SPACE would have an auxiliary air system kind'a like SUBS have today with EAB (emergency air breather) masks every where and hookups everywhere. In addition both during the attack and during the aftermath anyone who wasn't wearing their personal space suit would deserve exactly what they'd get - dead. Furthermore if there aren't airtight bulkheads and airlocks between the docking bay and the living areas then the designer of the space station should probably be spaced and his assistant promoted - he'd probably perform a bit better after waving good bye thru a port hole to his boss floating in space with his blood boiling away with his life.

I'm mostly assuming that many of those formerly air tight bulkheads are now full of holes and that not everyone was able to reach their survival suits. Even those that could reach them may not have sufficient life support in them for the duration of the crisis and if the station is as beat up as it looks, a lot of the infrastructure will be damaged even in areas that retain atmosphere. In such a situations relying on what fire suppression systems are left intact and breathing fouled air until a rescue can be effected may be better than not breathing anything.

Navy subs are military equipment and almost everyone on one is a soldier; it's not really a great starport analogy as those are essentially a space cities, where the overwhelming bulk of the populace will be marginally trained civilians, who may not even know where to go to get a survival suit, even if the station has sufficient quantity for everyone. Expecting everyone on an ED starport to be within arms reach of a pressure suit at all times is like expecting to find a parachute under every seat on a commercial airliner, or two thousand sets of scuba gear on a cruise ship.
 
Great read OP, you write very well.

Many times in this game I forget myself and my imagination runs away with me until I snap back into reality. I find it very much like watching a film, total immersion.
 
You make many good points, Morbad, but you're also thinking like a land lubber. For people born and raised on a space station, dependent on it and its space worthiness for their very lives being able to react to loss of air emergencies would be 2nd nature. People on airplanes don't live on 'em or work on 'em. Soldier, sailor, airman or civilian - survivors do what they need to do to survive. The rest - well - the gene pool is better off without 'em and in the ED universe that is doubly true. [woah] :eek: :D

I think Morbad, that somewhere in all this there's a hell of a good ED Universe novel to be written... any volunteers?
 
Great read OP, you write very well.

Many times in this game I forget myself and my imagination runs away with me until I snap back into reality. I find it very much like watching a film, total immersion.

I've heard that before a number of times from a number of people both friends and not and in a number of places. Even considered writing short stories but alas my attention span is too short and I lose interest pretty quickly. I also have issues with details being a macro not micro kind'a guy and when it comes to fiction, "the devil's in the details". Thanks for the compliment. Always appreciated.
 
You make many good points, Morbad, but you're also thinking like a land lubber. For people born and raised on a space station, dependent on it and its space worthiness for their very lives being able to react to loss of air emergencies would be 2nd nature. People on airplanes don't live on 'em or work on 'em. Soldier, sailor, airman or civilian - survivors do what they need to do to survive. The rest - well - the gene pool is better off without 'em and in the ED universe that is doubly true. [woah] :eek: :D

People do live in cities though, and even in cities where there are known threats, people are often wholly unprepared for them. Think of all these major hurricanes or blizzards that overwhelm local infrastructure and emergency response. Thargoids would be much worse, the rough equivalent of the 2004 and 2011 Indian Ocean and Japan tsunamis.

You're a 40th generation occupant of space (space has been permanently inhabited for longer in the ED universe than non-handwritten books have been around in our world) and everyone has gotten used to space being nothing special. Almost nothing ever goes wrong with the critical systems in space habitats at this point; they are heavily automated, fully mature, collections of redundant systems. The station defenses can hold up to almost any attack you've ever heard of and almost all attacks on starports are insurrections to seize them, intact, because they are valuable real estate...to human people. Early disasters are ancient history. People are complacent, and even if they weren't, many people aren't exactly priority anyway. Half the non-critical subsystems in many of these starports haven't worked in years; it may be in space but it can still be a backwater, ghetto, or ghost town.

Then the Thargoids show up with corrosive weapons that put gaping holes in something you had always thought of as an immutable, virtually indestructible, terrain feature. They aren't here to claim your home, put their banner on it, and charge you rent...they are here to kill you all, or at least prove that they could. You've never conceived of this. No drills or emergency prep, if you even had any (those were for the rich kids), has ever come close to preparing you for this. Everyone panics...it's a riot. Whoever gets to the emergency supplies first hordes them out of fear or greed. People are killing each other over survival suits, access to oxygen generators/hook ups that could fail at any moment, food, ships, etc...causing even more damage in the process. All the secondary infrastructure that supposed to help in these kinds of situations starts to fail cause it's never really been maintained (budget cuts, human capital flight, penny pinching, whatever). Only the fact that the starports were originally designed to last for centuries, and stand up to frequent wars as they changed hands, keeps them from popping like balloons under the onslaught.

I think Morbad, that somewhere in all this there's a hell of a good ED Universe novel to be written... any volunteers?

Where's that Drew guy?
 
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Sorry - it was the type 7. I'd been flying around in the Krait for the past couple of weeks and it was just stuck in my head I guess (or like my wife is want to say, "you have another senile moment, old man?". I chose the 7 because it was pre-loaded as a passenger hauler and it's yaw turn rate is crazy high (or feels that way). It also has a boost speed of 417. I typically use it to haul passengers. On occasion to haul 720T loads of high value metals or high profit medicines. It's like my 3rd favorite ship out of the 7 I own.

I'm old too. Typos happen.
 
Thanks for posting, I enjoyed reading that. I seen that same video you mentioned and I want to go do that but I was already out in the black by the time I seen it. Hopefully, its still a thing when I get back. I still have a little rank left to get.
 
Good story, well told OP ;)

I was in the same station in a T-9 filled with economy seats (Cattle Grid) and as you say the first time experience is awesome and remains dramatic on several repeat visits. I'm already an Admiral & didn't consider my reputation but as a high ranking Fed officer I felt obliged to motivate the troops & over several trips delivered approximately 1,500 refugees to safety with a gaggle of condas & pythons, all of us racing each other to & fro. I then went back to the local high-tech system, switched to my other T-9 ("Maggie", this iron lady's not for turning) to deliver a few thousand tonnes of basic medicines 736t at a time.

On the cargo runs I was hyperdicted a few times (never seen one before), again a cool experience. I was FA-off & got one boost in on the second occasion, I was left alone each time.

The general experience & sense of occasion has been well done, doing it in Open & giving & receiving o7s & <Os from the various Cmdrs in other cargo & passenger ships, and combat ships off to the AX CZs gave a certain sense of camaraderie too.
 
People do live in cities though, and even in cities where there are known threats, people are often wholly unprepared for them. Think of all these major hurricanes or blizzards that overwhelm local infrastructure and emergency response. Thargoids would be much worse, the rough equivalent of the 2004 and 2011 Indian Ocean and Japan tsunamis.

Your logic is right, your example too complicated. Much simpler: people live in houses since thousands of years. Most people are not prepared for their house being on fire. And even fewer are prepared for their house being set on fire by an invading army, no matter if the army is human or not.
 
and even in cities where there are known threats, people are often wholly unprepared for them. Think of all these major hurricanes or blizzards that overwhelm local infrastructure and emergency response. Thargoids would be much worse, the rough equivalent of the 2004 and 2011 Indian Ocean and Japan tsunamis.

People who aren't prepared for such are just plain ... stupid. Same thing happens over and over, and they learn ... nothing? Can IQ be negative number?
 
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A fair portion don't have anywhere else to go, and don't have the means to prepare, but regarding those with actual means, I'd agree.

Moving elsewhere can be difficult, very much so, but not learning from things of the past?

But srs. Why build above ground (where hazards are happening in almost clockwork fashion) when can go below, and with suitable setting flooding of said underground can be avoided, too.
 
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