Welcome to the Fer-de-Lance “TDL PhotonFlinger”
16 Mar 2016TheDarkLord
Ising Dock, 109 Piscium. Fer-de-Lance “TDL PhotonFlinger”.January 3302
With many ships in the ownership of members of The 9th Legion, I decided to prefix my fleet’s names with the designation “TDL” to uniquely identify them in the ranks.
The Emperor’s salary cheque burned a hole in my pocket as I blew down to 109 Piscium in a HaulerTaxi. It seemed almost a shame after such sterling service, but ComebackKid was to be placed in semi-retirement as a short range exploration/attack boat.
I stood in the shipyard in front of my new ship. The Saud Kruger Fer-de-Lance. My shipyard rep Jos looked at me differently. “Going up in the world?” he commented, semi-sarcastically. He ticked through the various boxes on the spec sheet, confirming my choices. Four pulse lasers, top-of-the-line jump drive, life support, and thrusters. And a giant fuel scoop for corona-grazing. For the first time ever, I’d dropped some cash on a paint job for it. “Vibrant Orange” apparently, but it looked a bit more like yellow to me. More outfitting still to do, but the lesson of the lost Clipper remained raw, and I kept a weather eye on rebuys, especially since I was in harm’s way much more often.
As she lifted off from the pad, PhotonFlinger immediately felt very different to any ship I’d piloted before. I’d fitted fixed lasers to half of my weapons hardpoints to prepare for more battles with commanders, and to offset the increasing use of chaff by the enemy. It seemed pragmatic to make for a nearby pirate hangout, to get used to the new ship in relatively controlled circumstances.
Although I was engaged in essential training, It wasn’t long before the covert missions started to come in again. It was a testament to the comradeship of the 9th Legion that although I lacked a key piece of equipment – the Frame Shift Drive Interdictor – I was welcomed into wing after wing to destroy enemy hordes across Federation Space.
PhotonFlinger performed admirably, despite being neither fully armed nor fully armoured. She required a different technique in power management to my previous ships. Without at least one pip in Engines, her manoeuvring thrusters didn’t really fire, incurring a significant agility penalty. And the four pulse lasers drained the Weapons capacitor. Running 1-1-4 across the power distributor worked to stop the shield erosion when fighting against wings, but the choice between shields and agility led me into some tense battles.
I maintained Rank 5 with ease, as the 9th Legion dispatched target after target. Our enemies were feeling our wrath, and their message boards were alight with tales of precision destruction of their targets. The covert nature of our missions prevents me from discussing them in detail, but it seemed that our operation had come of age, and this had been recognised by our commanding officers.