The Concodiat ship was the last to arrive. Winging it's way in with it's forward rotors just barely turning, it hovered awkwardly on the edge of the field, it's remaining engine thrumming like an arhythmioc heart. After a moment's hesitation it began an unsteady descent, missing it's flare and grounding out gracelessly and digging a shallow furrow in the grass of the field.
Captain Dallas West leaned over Cordelia's rail to watch the spectacle, then cheered as CA made it's ungainly landing.
"On the ground, safe and sound!" He grinned, turning back to the other captains and cocking a thumb over his shoulder "You know I wasn't real sure I'd be seeing them again."
At the other end of the field CA-258's troop doors open and what remained of her crew spills out, her gunner and temporary Captain being carried by two of the loading crew. There was a loud hiss and a cloud of steam as the assault ship's pressure tank was vented, and a few moments later the churning rotors slowed to a halt. The ship and her crew is surrounded by crewmembers from Ariel, Cordelia and Iron Shrike in short order.
"...But, looks like she made it."
"And I'm glad so see it." Captain McCullough answered shortly. "But I'd like us to discuss the matter at hand right now if we could."
Dallas West made a face. "You're a cold man, you know that? I never had you pegged that way."
Kail shook his head. "Ain't about warm or cold. I look after my own, but we got important business to take care of first. Let's keep to our task."
Whitney nodded. "Agreed. Rosalind tells me Rotheschild Senior has succeeded in keeping the Princess alive, and that furthermore we have what we need of Dr. Mengler's equipment for her to perform the surgery. In a twist of fate we also seem to have Dr. Mengler himself on hand. Rosalind says he volunteered to perform the surgery himself, and claims that his new methods are superior to the old. She seems to believe him. So...What do we plan to do about all this?"
"Well...I'd suggest we just let him try, and if he tries to play games we... You know.. Blow his head off." West shrugged and began fishing around in his pockets for a cigarette.
"I... Agree." Whitney said, looking surprised with himself. "Rosalind should have enough knowledge to tell if he's playing us false. She can sit in on the operation."
"Sounds reasonable to me." Mccullough nods. "Is that all we have to discuss?"
Whitney's mouth twitched. "Not quite... I spent some time listening to the long-range wireless on the way back. I caught a speech by Peldane. Nyvella has been officially proclaimed dead, and as such the kingdom must find a new heir. 'luckily' one has stepped forward. A bastard prince of Amvere, Camris. He was indeed fathered by Savelle's late king, on some Amvere princess a time back when they hoped to cement a union between the two countries. At any rate. even though he's a half-blood, he's still has the strongest claim to the crown, and Peldane put him on the throne."
Mccullough scratched at his eye. "...Which makes Savelle an Amverran conquest in everything but name. Camris will be their puppet."
"Precisely."
"Shit!" West exclaimed loudly enough to startle the other Captains. They both stared.
"What? That's bad, right? Blast and damn, etcetera. ...Right?"
He looked between the two for a monent then gave up and went back to smoking.
"...At any rate," Whitney continued. "Camris himself arrived with a heavy escort of Amverran vessels and troops and now resides in the capital. Yesterday evening he was coronated as Savelle's king. From accounts the transition did not go smoothly, many people strongly oppose Camris as their leader. The speed with which he was installed raided many eyebrows as well. Adding fuel to this fire is the fact that Peldane ordered the entire Savelle air fleet grounded on suspicion of being complicit in Nyvella's assasination attempt. Amverran ships now patrol Savelle's skies, and rumor has it that Savelle's ships will be dismantled. I suspect they did this because their 'dead' princess is really only missing, and if she popped up again her fleet would side with her. With their ships unmanned and grounded, any sort of military rebellion would die in the ground before it began. Savelle's strength has always been it's air fleet, they have only token ground forces."
McCullough frowned. "...So in short, their coup has already succeeded. Where's that leave us?"
"Eh.. I'm gonna chime in and say fucked, coming and going." West growled around his lit cigarette. "Considering that Peldane or Amvere or whatever knows we have the Princess, and if the Princess is still alive then Camris is second in line again and his ass gets kicked off the throne. He won't wanna go of course, but if Nyvella lives that gives the people something to rally behind and fight for. So they're gonna be trying like hell to find her and kill her... And us in the bargain. ...Did I get that right?"
Whitney nodded. "That's the gist of it, yes."
West winked and blew smoke. "See, I pay attention sometimes."
Captain McCullough rubbed his temple. "So the upshot is we're actually in worse trouble than before. Instead of Savelle after us we've got Amvere. And even if the princess survives we can't use her to prove we had nothing to do with her assassination. Amvere will want to kill us and her anyway."
Whitney nodded. "Yes. And that's the next question.... What will we do now? We've done all we can, we've bought Nyvella a second shot at life.. And lost a few lives of our own in the process."
He looked out across the field. Ariel stood nearby, cratered by shellholes, and Iron Shrike with her sides blackened by the raging fire that had burned in her earlier.
"It may be we've done all we can, and that the best thing... It may be that our only chance is to just scatter to the four winds."
The three Captains stand in silence on Cordelia's deck for a long moment. At length McCullough leans up against the rail with a sigh.
"Way I see it, there's a girl who needs help, and we're the only ones in the world who can help her. We can run and disappear, I suppose.. Maybe we'd make it or maybe we wouldn't. The right thing to do isn't always the best thing to do, and it sure as hell ain't ever the easiest ...But this time I think the right thing to do is to stay with the Princess and see this through. Maybe just 'cause if it comes down to it I'd rather die with a gun in my hand that die runnin'."
Whitney nodded. "Well said.. And for the record I agree. But I always play the devil's advocate. ...If this is to work though, we'll have to find allies, somewhere. But I agree. We should see this through."
A significant pause followed.
"Dallas?" Whitney prompted.
"Huh? Oh.. Yeah... I guess we fight? Okay. ...I really need to get Ariel patched up first."
Whitney laughed, in spite of himself. "I guess that's as good as it's going to get. So then it's agreed. If Nyvella recovers, we'll try to find a way to get her throne back."
===============================================
::NOTES::Well that about does it.
The current game is officially closed down now, but I did the ending writeup for your perusal if you're interested.
Incidentally, I have a strong feeling that the events and characters from this game are going to become Canon, as soon as I begin collating NPCs.
Personally I thought you did an awesome job on the mission, it did get a little hairy for a while there especially for Shrike and CA, though Ariel was one unlucky hit away from being in serious trouble for a LOOONNNGGG time. : /
So anyway, if either if you want to give your thoughts ont he mission or on the game as a whole, you're more than welcome, to, and suggestions are welcome as well. Obviously the game's biggest flaw as I see it is the time it takes for me to go through a round once there are a lot of ships involved, and there really isn't a way around that short of drastically simplifying things.. Which I guess isn't totally out of the question, though I'd have to find a way to do it that I'd be happy with.
===============================================
:: MISSION COMPLETE:::Recover Doctor Mengler's Lab Equipment(COMPLETE!)----
::BONUS MISSION OBJECTIVES::- Time is money ($30,000 completion bonus, reduced by $1000 per round)
Destroy or chase off Furie ($10,000)(COMPLETE!)Destroy or chase off Grunwald ($10,000)(COMPLETE!)Destroy or chase off Coyote ($6,000)(COMPLETE!)Rescue Dr. Mengler ($30,000)(COMPLETE!)-----
:::GAINS::
Time Is Money: $7,000
Destroy Furie: $10,000
Destroy Grunwald: $10,000
Destroy Coyote: $6,000
Rescue Dr. Mengler: $30,000
Total Salvage: $15,000
TOTAL:: $78,000
SPECIAL ITEMS:
• Overcharger's's Kit (+10 to Mechanical) ((JAZZ))
• Engineer's Kit (+10 to Repair) ((BRENDUR))
((Hokay.. New method of splitting up items.. I'm gonna use a loot roll system. Y'all are free to trade whatever specials you like between yourselves, though))
=====================================
OVERALL MOVEMENT=====================================
===============================================
::OPPOSING FORCES::FURIE::
• 443 Armor Damage: $44,300 to Replace
• Aft turret damaged: $10,080 to Repair
• Side Cannon Destroyed: $18,000 to Replace
• Bunkroom Destroyed: $2,000 to Replace
• Bunkroom Destroyed: $2,000 to Replace
• Forward Turret Damaged: $20,160 to Repair
• Aft Engine Destroyed: $27,000 to Replace
• Pressure Room Damaged: $4,266 to Repair
• Boiler Damaged: $19,200 to Repair
• Forward Engine damaged: $5,400 to Repair
• Cargo Room Damaged: $400 to repair
-TOTAL: $152,806
::5 KIA::
::1 MIA::
GRUNWALD::
((Not counting final crash damage)
• 373 Armor Damage: $33,700 to replace
• Aft Turret Destroyed: $25,200 to replace
• Bridge Destroyed: $6,000 to replace
• Bunkroom Damaged: $1,600 to repair
• Aft engine damaged: $7,200 to repair
• Forward engine damaged: $18,000 to repair
• Aft Cargo Room Destroyed: $2,000 to repair
• Forward Cargo Room Destroyed $2,000 to repair
-TOTAL: $95,700
::5 KIA::
COYOTE
((Not counting crash damage))
• 116 Armor Damage: $11,600 to replace
• Boiler Destroyed: ($4,000 to replace)
• Bridge Destroyed ($4,000 to replace)
-TOTAL: $19,600
(lol they're cheap)
CHARGER
• Just fine!
===============================================
::PLAYER SHIPS::• 160 Armor Damage: $16,000 to replace
• Aft bunkroom damaged $800 to reapir
• Forward turret damaged $15,120 to repair
• Pressure room damaged: $2,400 to repair
• Boiler damaged: $3,200 to repair
• Forward engine damaged: $18,900 to repair
TOTAL: $56,420
• No Damage
• 100 Armor Damage: $10,000 to replace
• Forward Engine Destroyed: $7,500 to Replace
• Aft engine damaged: $1,500 to Repair
• Bridge Damaged $2,850 to repair
• Turret Destroyed: $8,400 to replace
TOTAL: $30,250
• 259 Armor damage: $25,900 to replace
• Aft turret damaged: $6,300 to repair
• Aft bunkroom Damaged: $600 to repair
• Forward bunkroom Damaged: $400 to repair
• Forward turret damaged: $23,940 to repair
• Pressure room damaged: $4,000 to repair
• Boiler damaged: $14,080 to repair
• Forward engine damaged: $17,100 to repair
• Cargo room damaged $500 to repair
TOTAL: $92,820
===================================
•Promotions:
Rosalie Pratt promoted to Veteran Canoneer
Jake Glenn promoted to Veteran Canoneer
Lucio Glass promoted to Veteran Engineer
Adella Glass promoted to Veteran Medic
Eugene Wells promoted to Veteran Musketeer
Thaddeus Gillian promoted to Veteran Musketeer
Adam Bowyer promoted to Veteran Roustabout
"Lizard" promoted to Veteran Musketeer
Sun Kizami promoted to Veteran Cannoneer
Stitch Finnigan promoted to Veteran Medic
===========================================
BRENDUR=======
::SHIPS::
Iron Shrike (Vagabond Class)
CA-258 (Condor (Assault) )
(30% Loan)($34,600 remaining)
=======
::BANK::
$36,600
(+78,000 (-30%) = $54,600
TOTAL: $91,200
=========
::CREW 1 (IRON SHRIKE))::
-Captains-
[Kail McCullough]Elite Captain][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill - Leadership][Jet Pack][Sapper Bomb (1/2)]
-Pilots
[Six][Elite Pilot][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill-Firing Platform][Parachute][Item2]
-Musketeers
[Jim Reynolds][Veteran Musketeer][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Jetpack][Cutting Torch]
[Elizabeth "Lizard" Reynolds][Regular Musketeer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Grenade]
-Swashbucklers
[Bill Addison][Veteran Swashbuckler][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Jetpack][Grenade]
[Oleg Nikoliev][Regular Swashbuckler][10/10 Health][1/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]((-5 to rolls))
-Medics
[Stitch Finnigan][Veteran Medic][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
-Cannoneers
[Shin Kizami][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
[Jukka][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][2/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
[Sun Kizami]][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Grenade]
[Lidia Ozipov][Regular Cannoneer][10/10 Health][1/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-Engineers
[Roban][Elite Engineer][10/10 Health][-/-xp][Skill: Reinforce][Parachute][Item2]
[Griselda "Griz" von Sozer][Elite Engineer][10/10 Health][-/-xp][Skill: Damage Control][Parachute][Item2]
[Pavel Oslov][Regular Engineer][10/10 Health][1/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-Roustabouts
[Kazimir Alber][Regular Roustabout][10/10 d Health][1/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Nicolai Samuil][Regular Roustabout][10/10 Health][1/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Midge][Regular Roustabout][5/10 Health][1/3 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]((-10 to rolls))
==============
:::INVENTORY::::
Sapper Bomb
Parachute
Parachute
Engineer's Kit (+10 to Repair)
====================================
====================================
JAZZS3QUENCE============
=======
::SHIPS::
Ariel (Vagabond Class)
Cordelia (Vagabond Class)
===========
::BANK::
$56,600
(+$78,000)
(-$5,000 Captain Fain)
TOTAL: $129,600
=========
::CREW:::
-Captains
[Dallas West][Veteran Captain][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
[Daryl Whitney][Veteran Captain][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1-Parachute][Item2-None]
-Pilots
[Elias Graves][Elite Pilot][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill - Extra Evasive][Parachute][Item2]
[Eli Marsh][Veteran Pilot][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Pilot's Goggles(+10 Piloting)]
-Musketeers
[Eugene Wells][Veteran Musketeer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Sapper.Bomb(1/2)][Jetpack]
[Thaddeus Gillian][Veteran Musketeer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][None][Jetpack]
-Swashbucklers
[Tanya Morse][Veteran Swashbuckler][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Jetpack][None]
-Engineer
[Lionel Potts][Elite Engineer][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill - Reinforce][Parachute][Item2]
[Cheri Richmond][Veteran Engineer][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
[Lucio Glass][Veteran Engineer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
[Adela Tyler][Regular Engineer][10/10 Health][1/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-Medics
[Rosalind Clements][Elite Medic][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill-IV Drip][Parachute][Item2]
[Adela Glass][Veteran Medic][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
-Roustabouts
[Oliver Kirkland][Elite Roustabout][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill - 2nd Strike][Parachute][Grenade]
[Adam Bowyer][Veteran Roustabout][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][None]
-Cannoneers
[Wayne Gray][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
[Lillie Ellisson][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
[Terrence Hopper][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
[Rosalie Pratt][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
[Jake Glenn][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
[Gary Kline][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][3/5 xp][Skill-None][Parachute][Item2]
=====================================
:::INVENTORY::::
Grenade
Grenade
Parachute
Parachute
Parachute
Parachute
Parachute
Parachute
Overcharger's's Kit (+10 to Mechanical)
============================================
Oh and as for the princess?
She makes it, obviously.