>>2223119
Time for Deus Vult Quest!
>>Neutral
with a healthy dose of
>Boast

>>2223119
Neutral

>>2223119
>Neutral

>>2223119
>>Neutral

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>>2223119
>Neutral

"I'm fine." You reply simply. Small craft continue to tend to your ships. Containers of materials are loaded onto your two auxiliaries, everything needed to build more missiles and spare parts. "All systems are nominal, and I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Well, if you're not worried..." Ajax chuckles. You watch several of his screen test-fire their drives. Probably just got them back from the yard. "I did mean to mention, I was impressed by your performance when we worked together before. I'll be letting you take the lead on this one. Just tell me what you want me to do."

"Uh... thanks. I appreciate it." You're a little stunned, to be honest. Still, you're also sure that Ajax won't hesitate to call out any mistakes you make.

Shuttles and barges finish up delivering their vital cargo to your ships, and you take a brief overview of your combined force.

>TF Dauntless
2 BB, 7 BC, 4 CVE, 10 CR, 12 DD, 96 GF

>TF Ajax
16 BB, 15 CR, 4 DD

Everything seems to be in order. Ajax represents the main direct combat power of your force, while your battlegroup is more equipped to handle a larger variety of tasks. Hopefully, your new fighters will prove their worth soon. It isn't long before the last missile pods are securely stowed aboard Ajax's ships, and tankers detach with an empty hold. Everything is ready. Of course, there's time to do one last thing, if needed.

>Talk to somebody (write-in)
>Do something (write-in)
>No need, just get this show on the road.

>>2223293
>>No need, just get this show on the road.
Let's get moving.

>>2223293
>>No need, just get this show on the road.

>>2223293
>>No need, just get this show on the road.

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>>2223293
>Get on with it, Pixel

The combined ships of your taskforce form up on an exact vector for their jump as the squadron of fighters on CSP trap aboard their carrier. You run down the final checklist. Munitions, fuel, spare parts, fighters. Everything's still fine. Across the combined fleet, laser links stitch together ships. Ajax gives you nav control of his ships for jump, and after wishing Anson good luck, you punch it.

Surprisingly, the translation back into real-space isn't marked by plasma fire- the jump point is clear. Phew.

"An auspicious start, it would seem." Ajax notes as the capital ships' zero-point energy plants ignite, and you begin the transit the system.

Partly why this mission is so important is that the first of the systems the Legion forces are coming from is just one more jump away, according to the detailed brief Abbot Darius gave you. Also in the brief, however, is the warning that Legion light forces commonly patrol through, which isn't event taking into account any Legion fleets transiting through on their way to assault Bastion.

The system seems clear for now, however. Then again, light is very old by the time it reaches you, and you'll be here for the better part of a day at least. Maybe you should release your fighters for patrol, just in case. You'll have plenty of time to trap them again, unless a Legion fleet so large comes through you need to scatter...

>Keep fighters safely stowed for now.
>Release a couple of squadrons for combat space patrol.
>Release every squadron for a wide patrol.

>>2223355
>>Release a couple of squadrons for combat space patrol.

>>2223355
>Release a couple of squadrons for combat space patrol.

>>2223355
>They were worried they might have encountered an enemy fleet
I would have expected the few nearby systems to still be order controlled...

>Release a couple of squadrons for combat space patrol.

>>2223355
>>Release a couple of squadrons for combat space patrol.

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>>2223408
That's why you're clearing them out!

>>2223355
>Release a couple of squadrons

After a moment's thought, you notify Ajax of your intentions. He confirms, and so one of your carriers starts releasing its deadly cargo. Grav-fighters spill out from its spinal launch tube one by one. Their drive singularities flicker on ahead of their sleek, delta-winged form, twisting the stars behind the pinpoint gravitic twisting of space. They split into pairs and take up positions around the fleet, a light-second distant in all directions.

Hours pass, and you spend time discussing things with Ajax. He's happy to regale you with tales of old missions and horrifying alien races, and you're chatting quite happily when your tactical system alarms blare. What the hell- ships barely two light seconds away! How'd they get so close? Your fighters on CSP are already vectoring to intercept as you examine the ships.

You're travelling at .4 lightspeed, but they're keeping pace with you, clearly intending to merge courses with you. Your first thought is that they must be Legion, of course, but there's something about them... They're sleeker, for one thing. There's still the ovoid-shaped hulls, but whereas normal Legion ships are a little stumpy, their black surfaces rough and covered with random bulges that makes them look almost organic, these have hulls that look like polished obsidian, with bulges that look much more regular.

"Stealthed ships?" Ajax comments, his battleships forming up into a vertical wall of battle already.

"No idea." You reply.

The question of what they are is solved a moment later as signature plasma leaps from those bulges to intercept your fighters. You order them to engage, and missiles start to spill out from their internal bays as particle lances snap across the void. The enemy ships are somewhere between destroyers and cruisers, maybe a little closer to the latter in mass.

They're still too far away to reliably use energy mounts, but the first wave of missiles suddenly slash out from the enemy battlegroup. Well, that answers the question of what else they're armed with.

>TF Dauntless
2 BB, 7 BC, 4 CVE, 10 CR, 12 DD, 92 GF (20 launched)

>TF Ajax
16 BB, 15 CR, 4 DD

>Legion battlegroup
>17 ???

>Engage in a missile duel, and let the enemy close for an energy exchange.
>Fire missiles, and turn away to keep distance.
>Accelerate, see if you can outrun them.
>Decelerate and try to get onto a new vector.

>>2223474
>>Engage in a missile duel, and let the enemy close for an energy exchange.
We should be able to shrek them before they even get into range right

>>2223474
>>Fire missiles, and turn away to keep distance.

>>2223474
>>Engage in a missile duel, and let the enemy close for an energy exchange.
We've got 18 Battleships alone, we've got weight of fire and armor here.

>>2223474
>Engage in a missile duel, and let the enemy close for an energy exchange.

Looks like Legion haven't been idle. Let's see what other tricks they have up their sleeves.

Rolled 86 (1d100)

>>2223474
>Missile duel

Pound those enemy ships with 1d100s.

Rolled 43 (1d100)

>>2223671
>86
Are you kidding me

Rolled 13 (1d100)

>>2223671
oh boy

Rolled 61 (1d100)

>>2223671

Rolled 38 (1d100)

>>2223671

>>2223673
>>2223679
>>2223681
P-please daddy pixel n-not the belt!

>>2223671
>>2223681
>61 vs 86
Oof. You know, that's the first time you've ever rolled under in this quest? Truly a momentous occasion.
Anyway, writing.

>>2223689
"Well, there's only seventeen of them. I'll let you handle this."

"Much obliged." Menace understates Ajax's voice, and you're rather glad you're not on the receiving end.

Your ships pull back behind Ajax's vertical wall in space made up of battleships, carriers safely hidden behind your own capitals. Ajax is keeping his own screen protected by the armoured bulk of his battleships too, as they carefully jockey with thrusters to close ranks to just a few thousand kilometres. The first enemy missile salvo comes in, numbering around 200. Broadside lasers reach out from Ajax's ships, swatting them one by one. Only a single missile survives to be killed by a PD laser. Ajax's reply is mighty. Without even using missile pods, the internal tubes of his battleships put exactly 480 missiles into space. Their oversized AM drives kick in on the heels of the hefty velocity kick of the tubes' rails, and they vector in towards the Legion ships.

Meanwhile, your fighters are dog-fighting with the enemy. Of the 20 that survived to reach energy range, 17 are left, and it's impressive to watch. Using their drive singularities, the fighters jink, curve, ducking and diving as they unload particle lances at ranges of within a few hundred kilometres. They've actually managed to kill two of the enemy ships when Ajax's missiles reach PD range, and then... the space where the enemy ships should be turns into hash on all your scanners.

"What in God's name?" Ajax curses, "I've lost telemetry from my missiles."

Your fighters have disappeared from your display too. The only thing that's still working is your gravity scanners, but that's fuzzy and imprecise, not suited for targeting. Still, the stupid, limited brains on Ajax's missiles are good for something, because shortly after the effect seems to diminish until it disappears entirely, and you watch your fighters finishing off the remaining ship. You've lost 8 fighters in all, but your carriers should be able to put together some spares by the time you get to your target... But should you even keep going to your target? This is a hell of a leap forward in ability, and Abbot Darius needs to know as soon as possible.

>Turn around and get back to Bastion as soon as.
>Fire off a courier drone with your battle logs, you still need to complete your objectives.

>>2223768
Darn, I forgot to do a pic.

>>2223768
>>Fire off a courier drone with your battle logs, you still need to complete your objectives.
Wahey look who just entirely negated our missile advantage
Should have gotten more carriers like I told you lads

>>2223768
>>2223780
Actually belay that order
>Turn around and get back to Bastion as soon as.
It's a critical information and the enemy already proved they can slip right by us, they could intercept our drone just as well
Besides it shouldn't be too long of a detour

>>2223768
>Fire off a courier drone with your battle logs, you still need to complete your objectives.

>>2223768
>>Turn around and get back to Bastion as soon as.

>>2223768
>Turn around and get back to Bastion as soon as.

On the second thought, with sudden jump in EWar ability they are likely to have few pickets in range ready to swat drones.

>>2223768
>Fire off a courier drone with your battle logs, you still need to complete your objectives.

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>>2223768
>Turn around and get back towards Bastion

"I've got a bad feeling about this." You comment, as your beleaguered fighters vector back in to trap on their carrier and rearm.

"I don't like it either. Should we continue?" Ajax asks. You think for a moment.

"I think we should head back for now, and make sure the Abbot knows about this." After all, you won't lose more than a day or two.

"Aye, that makes sense."

As one, the combined ships of your battlegroup flip end for end as soon as the last of your fighters have been trapped aboard their carrier and start decelerating.

"Something doesn't make sense, though." Ajax speaks up after a short while.

"What's that?"

"Well, there were just those new ships right there. Where were they going? Why don't they have any supporting ships? That could have gone a lot worse."

"Well, I suppose-" With the kind of timing only God himself could appreciate, the jump point you were heading to flares with light and a Legion fleet erupts into normal space at a fair clip. "I suppose you had to ask, didn't you?"

Looks like there's a significant Legion force, probably intending to head towards Bastion. Signatures suggests at least a dozen battleships, and there's no way to judge how many of those new ships you've tentatively dubbed 'EW cruisers' with them.

>Decel as hard as you dare, and try to keep ahead of the enemy.
>Launch fighters. You might not get them back, but they can distract the enemy.
>Prepare to face the enemy, and send off a drone anyway.

>>2223907
>>Decel as hard as you dare, and try to keep ahead of the enemy.

>>2223907
>Decel as hard as you dare, and try to keep ahead of the enemy.
But also
>Immediately send a drone, just in case

>>2223907
>>Decel as hard as you dare, and try to keep ahead of the enemy.

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>2223907
>Concentrate on decelerating

Roll those 1d100s. Maybe you'll get better rolls this time.

Rolled 68 (1d100)

>>2223971
>78
NOT AGAIN

Rolled 5 (1d100)

>>2223971

Rolled 4 (1d100)

>>2223971
doesn't look like it

>>2223997
>>2224010
>>2223973
We don't even pass with out totaled rolls

>>2223971
>68 vs 78

Man, you guys are just not having a good night tonight.

I'm having trouble staying awake for some reason though, so I'm going to end this here for tonight, and we can come back to it tomorrow.

Rolled 6 (1d100)

>>2223971

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Rolled 74 (1d100)

>>2224022
"Hard as you can, we need to keep ahead of them." You order, and Ajax flashes you an affirmative.

The hulking battleships that make up the core of your force is the problem here, as they accelerate the slowest. Even so, things are starting to look up as projections indicate you'll safely stay ahead of the incoming Legion ships by a couple of light-hours. That being said, the light that reaches you is already a few hours old, and- wait. The outline of the enemy ships seems to break up. You're still detecting the biggest signatures, but anything smaller than a battleship is getting wiped out by static. They must have more of those EW Cruisers. And worse, the enemy is starting to accelerate. That's not playing very nice with your projections.

"Dauntless?" Ajax breaks into your thoughts. "I could try dropping a wave of missile pods. They'll never detect them, and it'll be quite the surprise! I'll have to cease decel until they clear the drive plumes though." That'll take long minutes- minutes you're not sure you have.

You tactical systems notify you that your fighters have been re-armed. You could launch them for a high-velocity strike on the enemy ships- a quick attack won't expose them to much danger, and they might force the enemy to slow.

Then again, you could try both, but if something goes wrong you'll lose your fighters and not be any further away.

>Cease deceleration for a bit so Ajax can roll out missile pods.
>Launch a hivel strike with your fighters.
>Do both.
>Forget it, you need to concentrate on getting away.

Whatever you pick, roll a 1d100, and I'll take the best of 3 no matter which option is picked.

Rolled 61 (1d100)

>>2226131
Can we
>>Launch a hivel strike with your fighters.
And
>>Roll out missile pods the instant the ships complete full deceleration and start accelerating in the opposite direction
?

Rolled 71 (1d100)

>>2226131
>>Do both.

>>2226145
Sure, but depending on how you roll they might be able to detect your pods by that point and be ready to defend against missiles.

Rolled 22 (1d100)

>>2226131
>>Cease deceleration for a bit so Ajax can roll out missile pods.

Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>2226131
>Cease deceleration for a bit so Ajax can roll out missile pods.

>74
Robo-God, why?.

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>>2226286
The dice gods have a sense of humour apparently.

>>2226131
>Cease decel for missile pods.
>71 vs 74

"Do it." You order after briefly deliberating.

"Aye aye." Your ships receive new nav data from Ajax, and you hand control over so he can complete the maneuver while you settle back to watch. Each of Ajax's battleships roll six missile pods for a total of 96. They immediately start falling away to stern, and Ajax cuts drives to a minimum. As soon as those are out of range, he brings drives back up to full, and your battlegroup continues its deceleration. You haven't lost too much time... you hope.

Time ticks by, minutes turning into hours. Eventually, your battlegroup comes to a stop, and starts gathering speed. Your attention is glued to your tactical systems as they project your combined courses. Your ships have a slight advantage in top speed, but the Legion fleet is still slowly clawing its velocity ever higher. They're definitely gunning for you, but you can only hope that will lead them to be sloppier where their sensors are concerned.

"What's the range for those, anyway?" You ask Ajax absently.

"Maybe one and a half light-minutes, but I'm going to give them that much of a warning."

True to his word, the Legion ships get within just half a light minute when the missile pods Ajax rolled fire. They're already aimed and tracking with internal gyroscopes- no need to use thrusters that might be picked up. Each pod carries 10 battleship-sized missiles, and in the two waves there were 96 launched. You can imagine the alarm when 960 missiles suddenly spring up out of nowhere. They're too far away to be given updated telemetry from your ships - hell, what you're watching is already a few minutes old - but their onboard targeting systems do their best.

"What targeting orders did you give them?"

"Why, Dauntless-" You can hear the predatory glee in Ajax's tone, "I told them to go after the biggest ships they could find, of course."

They're not unopposed, of course. Legion EW and jammers send some missiles after the siren call of false contacts, and point defences reach out in an attempt to claim the rest. The sheer fury takes you by surprise, but the missiles with their idiot savant brains are undeterred, and follow the orders they've been given to the letter. Lasers begin to strobe as they reach terminal attack range, fusion-pumped x-rays clawing deep into obsidian hulls. Over 500 missiles survived to crash against the enemy fleet, and they serve their purpose well. Your sensors struggle to resolve the picture, but several battleships are either crippled or have stopped accelerating. Success!

cont.

>>2226400
It takes another few minutes for the movements of the enemy to become clear as they rearrange themselves, but it seems that the heavier battleships have stopped accelerating. That's both good and bad. Good because soon they'll not be able to catch you for sure, but bad because that means their cruisers and destroyers are free to come after you with their higher accelerations, and will definitely catch up to you before you can reach the jump point again.

"Want me to give them another dose?" Ajax asks.

>Roll another wave of pods- they'll catch up to you for sure anyway.
>Launch fighters- they're expendable if you need to jump out without them (list how many squadrons of 12 you wish to send).
>Let the enemy draw up alongside and engage them with the full thunder of your battlegroup's weapons.

>>2226401
>>Launch fighters- they're expendable if you need to jump out without them (list how many squadrons of 12 you wish to send).
6

>>2226401
>Launch fighters- they're expendable if you need to jump out without them (list how many squadrons of 12 you wish to send).
3-6

>>2226401
>Launch fighters- they're expendable if you need to jump out without them (list how many squadrons of 12 you wish to send).
8. Can we prioritize EW Cruisers?

>>2226430
The EW Cruisers appear to be staying with the battleships, which is why you have a clearer view of the cruisers and destroyers.

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Rolled 34 (1d100)

>>2226401
>Launch fighters
Looks like we'll be going with 6 squadrons for a nice average- that's 72 fighters.

I need one last roll of 1d100s.

Rolled 33 (1d100)

>>2226552

Rolled 45 (1d100)

>>2226552

Rolled 97 (1d100)

>>2226552

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>>2226566
Hot damn

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>>2226552
>97 vs 34
Is it just me or are you guys much luckier where fighters are concerned?

"No, I've got it." You decide, taking over maneuvering control of the battlegroup again. Again, they cut accel, and your carriers flip end for end to bring their spinal launch tubes to bear. Fighters are flung down the electromagnetic launch rails at 15 Gs and out into space. Another is pushed into place, and another emerges a minute later. later. It takes your four carriers 18 minutes to put six squadrons into space, and under your control they dive towards the incoming enemy screen as your own ships resume acceleration.

Freed of the capital ships they're escorting, the lighter Legion screening ships catch up to your far more rapidly than before. However, without those EW screening ships or the heavier EW capabilities of the battleships, they're much easier to target. Both your grav-fighters and the Legion ships attempt to score long range hits with particle lances and plasma batteries, but there's too much jinking for any hits to actually connect. As the range lowers, one of your fighters scores a lucky hit on an enemy destroyer. The front third of its hull crumples, and it stops accelerating.

>TF Dauntless
72 Grav-Fighters

>Legion Fleet
37? CR, 45? DD

You issue the last orders to the systems of your fighters, light-lag imposing its draconian rule upon your commands. But they know what to do. Still jinking by throwing out drive singularities to above, below and the sides, missiles stream from their internal bays. Nuclear explosions erupt in front of your fighters, wiping them from Legion sensors for vital seconds. They fire blindly, and a single fighter is hit by chance. But the rest? Their targeting is just fine, and as they reach half a light-second, their spinal lances open up on full.

Devastation rips through Legion ranks as destroyers are ripped asunder and cruisers tumble under the assault. Nukes strobe again at point-blank range, stripping sensors and PD plasma turrets from the hulls of ships. Half your fighters swivel in place as they interpenetrate the enemy formation, still firing off deadly bursts with their particle lances. As they fall behind and throw out drive singularities ahead to start slowing, their fire never stops. The others throw their singularities to the side and whip around them with G-forces that would kill a human in an instant. These fighters mingle within the enemy formation, dodging between ships with kilometres or less to spare. With ruthless precision, like wasps attacking wolves, your fighters whittle down the screening ships.

>TF Dauntless
67 GF

>Legion Fleet
26 CR, 37 DD

>This is good. Keep on your way back to Bastion, trapping your fighters if you can.
>Maybe you can destroy these ships, and then go for the rest of them to defeat in detail.

>>2226739
By the way regarding fighters.. what is that star carrier ship you mentioned? Just a bigger carrier ship?

>>2226740
Yeah, basically. It carries a bit more than double the fighters of an escort carrier, has its own laser broadside, and so on. It may also give a bonus to fighter coordination, but I'm not sure about that mechanic yet.

>>2226739
>>This is good. Keep on your way back to Bastion, trapping your fighters if you can.
I'd say we pretty well spoiled whatever attack this fleet was going for, let's beat feet and deliver this info.

>>2226739
>>This is good. Keep on your way back to Bastion, trapping your fighters if you can.

>>2226739
>Maybe you can destroy these ships, and then go for the rest of them to defeat in detail.
Defeating the screening ships now would be useful. No real need to go after the battleships though.

>>2226739
>This is good. Keep on your way back to Bastion, trapping your fighters if you can.

Make the last few mop up the husks of the others to deny the enemy research materials

>>2226739
>This is good. Keep on your way back to Bastion, trapping your fighters if you can.

>>2226756
Hmm... maybe it could be a factory ship? being able to turn salvage and asteroids into new fighters like other ships do with ammo. Also not sure why it needs ship to ship weapons. I think a ton of point defenses would work better. I think IRL carriers rarely carry other weapons. I know Russian carriers have cruise missiles but I never heard of carriers with main cannons.

>>2226794
>I never heard of carriers with main cannons.
some WW2 carriers (mostly those converted from BBs and BCs) had heavy artillery

>>2226794
All your carriers can already produce fighters (star carriers much faster than your escort carriers) and I was thinking it produces munitions, but that's already abstracted with the 2 auxiliary ships you technically have with you but I keep forgetting about. I'm probably going to add a new 'point defence' stat to all your ship classes.

Actually, that reminds me of something I've been meaning to ask you guys: originally the fighters were just meant to be a supporting thing, and I wasn't expecting for you guys to go so heavily into them (hence why I only planned out three upgrades for them). Would you all prefer I work out some additional upgrades for you guys to go full carrier battlegroup, or are you fine with the upgrades as they are now?

>>2226794
It's not unreasonable for it to have some ship-to-ship weapons for self-defense, but the bulk of it should be dedicated to carrying fighters.
Factory ships already exist I think, that's the sort of thing you'd take on campaigns, and would stay behind with the colliers and such.

>>2226828
We shall blot out the local star with our fighters.

>>2226826
That's interesting. Probably they never really used it since carriers have WAY more range with planes over cannons. And since they are relatively squishy. I can understand secondaries and point defense but I can't really get slapping a ship to ship cannon on one. Unless carrying planes is not a primary weapon.

>>2226828
Fighters seems to have powerful alpha strike abilities, but limited use after. I'd be glad to have more fighter options, but I'm wary of specing into them too much, as we lose a lot of flexibility but relying on them.

>>2226838
I have fuzzy memories telling me strapping StS weapons on carriers and 'carriers' was one of the ways around the treaty of versailles.

>>2226828
I was also thinking of giving you the option to switch upgrade paths completely to fighter/carrier upgrades, such as investing in new fighter designs and so on.

>>2226838
The German carrier Graf Zeppelin was supposed to have significant secondaries, which I can't really fault them because >German surface fleet. The two US carriers Lexington and Saratoga, CV-2 and CV-3 respectively, carried 4x2 8-inch cannons after their conversion from battlecruisers to carriers. I don't believe they were used much before they were both rotated home to serve as training vessels around '44.

>>2226828
I don't think full carrier battlegroup is a way. I think we really need to balance it out until we slam into a fleet that consists out of 60% of point defense cannons by weight or simething. Fighters might be a way to go as main source of damage but we need to upgrade other stuff. Also maybe we could slap on weapon upgrades in them? Like if we get better point defense we can unlock a fighter made to intercept missiles or if we get some amazing missiles we could get bombers. You know, along with adding these guns to other ships in the fleet.

>>2226838
some of the Japanese converts (Mogami (CA), Ise (BB), maybe other) only had the stern of the ship converted, while the bow guns where left in place

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>>2226853
I'm already considering letting other (offence and defence) upgrades influence your fighter complement as well as your ships, so quite possibly, yes.

>>2226871
Don't even bring up Japanese 'aviation' battleships.

>>2226739
>Keep going back

Well, you haven't even done anything related to your mission yet, but this is too important to wait.

"I think we should just head back to Bastion for now." You tell Ajax as the rest of your fighters swing around to catch up with the Legion screen.

Destroyers continue to wink off your sensors with each coordinated strike. It usually takes a couple to hits with a grav-fighter's particle lance to put it fully out of action, while a cruiser requires four or five. Still, your deployed fighters methodically destroy the ships chasing you despite taking the occasional loss. Eventually, they just start decelerating, rapidly pulling away from your fighters. Not wanting to lose any more, you pull them away.

>TF Dauntless
59 GF

21 CR, 15 DD

"Well, that was exciting. Those new fighters of yours are certainly something." Ajax comments, as they make their way back to the safety of your battlegroup. With the Legion ships decelerating and the battleships still far behind, they won't be able to reach you now.

>Boast
>Neutral
>Polite

>>2226965
>Polite
Flavius does great work.

>>2226965
>Polite
With a bit of >Boast

>>2226965
>>Polite

>Don't even bring up Japanese 'aviation' battleships.
I didn't say they were useful

>>2226965
this
>>2226989

>>2226828
>>2226828
By the way, I have been thinking of ways to have hard sci fi point defense for my own setting. You might find this helpful for flavor text:
1) sandblaster: a mass driver that fires a tight beam of millions of tiny sub gram pebbles made out of some mard material like osmium or tungsten at several hundred km/s. I ran into this idea in Children of a Dead Earth community. This kind of weapon seems to be highly accurate and capable of piercing almost any armor that is not designed specifically to stop these pebbles or being something ridiculous like several meter thick layers of osmium.
2) Optical Phased Arrays: if the technology is developed and weaponized you can have a laser without a turret as a beam could fire and track at an angle from the source. If it is refined enough you could potentially plate the whole ship in tiny phased arrays and fire lasers from any point of the hull. A bit like phasers in star trek. Also doubles as optical camouflage technology but it is kind of useless in space.
3) Anti-missiles: these are pretty standard but they can be way cheaper than normal missiles in your setting. The ship to ship missiles you have seem to be ‘torch missiles’ meaning they use a whole ship equivalent engine. Antimissiles can carry chemical propellant which would give them tiny range but they would be dirt cheap and they only need to get in the way of a torch missile to kill it. Probably can be launched from a mass drivers in swarms of hundreds per incoming missile and for some extra investment each can also be a missile bus.

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>>2227123
Sandcasters are already a thing, if you check the possible defence upgrades from last thread. Same goes for anti-missiles. Thanks for the suggestions though!

>>2226965
>Polite

"Flavius does great work." You reply solumnly, and Ajax chuckles.

"Doesn't he just? I heard he's gotten some humans to help him, too. I wonder where that will end."

You're not really sure how to respond to that, so you settle for monitoring the remaining Legion forces. The screening ships are falling back towards the battleships they left, it seems, but the latter is still coasting, not decelerating. Hm. The next several hours of travel back to the jump point leaves the Legion fleet pacing you by almost 30 light minutes, but no attempt to catch up. Your headlong rush has left your ships at just over .5 lightspeed, which will be fun to surprise the jump forts with.

"Perhaps I should stay here." Ajax says suddenly.

"...What?"

"Well, what if this was their objective all along?" He suggests, indicating the Legion ships pacing you. "What if they intended to hang around the jump point and take out anyone coming through like we do to them? Maybe I should stay and make sure the jump point stays clear for when you come back."

Well, it's an interesting suggestion, one that very well could be true. But if you leave Ajax alone, who knows what will happen? After all, you still don't have an accurate count of ships behind that jamming. If the Legion have a numbers parity to Ajax, that could mean trouble. But then, if they are planning on camping the jump point, it'll make it that much more messy to come back through here later.

>Ajax is right. Order him to stay in this system and defend the jump point back to Bastion.
>It's too risky, and you can fight your way back through here later. Ajax should come with you.

>>2227258
>Ajax is right. Order him to stay in this system and defend the jump point back to Bastion.

If things get to hot don't be afraid to jump out

>>2227258
>Ajax is right. Order him to stay in this system and defend the jump point back to Bastion.
Give him command of the rest of our fleet.

>>2227258
>>Ajax is right. Order him to stay in this system and defend the jump point back to Bastion.
Give him the bulk of our fleet, but keep a handful in case we get jumped later.

>>2227258
Yeah I saw them. They were more “space shotgun” and less “space machine gun on steroids” though

>>2227258
>>Ajax is right. Order him to stay in this system and defend the jump point back to Bastion.

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>>2227258
>Ajax should stay

"Yes, I think you're right." You decide. "Stay here, and keep them away, but don't be afraid to jump out if you need to."

"Aye aye." Ajax gives the impression of a nod. After thinking for a few more moments, you continue.

"I'll give you some of my ships, too." You shift most of your battlegroup to Ajax's command- your battleships, three of your carriers, half your battlecruisers, and most of your screen. "Take care of them now."

"I won't let them get a scratch." He promises, forming all his ships together in a tight formation that starts to decelerate sharply, falling away astern. Shortly after, your much-diminished task force reaches the jump point, and you punch out of normal space in a blaze of light.

A few moments later your ships arrive back at Bastion. The automated defences are just about ready to put holes in you because of your speed, but they accept your IFF as you decelerate sharply. You're assembling a message packet to beam to Bastion Station when you pick up an automated message from Abbot Darius.

"Attention all Knight-Brothers of the Orders, hear this. The Legion is pushing on all fronts. Contact me as soon as possible to receive defensive assignments."

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>>2227390
I feel like that's a good place to end this week's chapter, because who doesn't love cliffhangers?

Usual stuff, follow me on twitter to know when the quest is running, and all that. Hope you all enjoyed.

Going to stick around for a little bit tonight, so I'll answer any other questions until I go!

>>2227401
>ohboyherewego.jpeg
Thanks for running!

>>2227401
Thanks for running.

>>2227434
>>2227439
Thanks for playing! I usually don't stick around long enough to say that, but without you anons participating I wouldn't be able to run in the first place.

Thanks for the thread, although I was late.

>>2227390
Oh_shit.jpg

>>2227455
Thanks for running, Pixel. Hope I can catch the next one live.