Location: F10 Arium Major

Tags: Piracy, Vehicle, Spaceship, Military

Rumors of war were everywhere. The Kawashita Group had its fleet stationed over Arium Major, and nerves everywhere were on edge. The planetary governor of Arium Major, fearing an attack and lacking the fighter cover to protect both ground facilities and the water convoys, had broken up the conveys. Tankers now flew solo, departing from a number of points in a variety of directions. Perfect for foiling a fleet attack. But I wasn't planning anything that massive.

With a small crew, of course, boarding ships was something to be avoided. But there are other ways of taking an enemy ship's cargo, especially when that cargo happens to be water.

"There's our target."

"Accelerate to attack speed, and give me a target vector."

"On what? The turret?"

"No, the tank! Remember the plan?"

"So, you're planning on getting us shot?"

"Just

do it

, before they spot us and send fighters!"

"I'm clear! Firing the plasma cannons now!"

"Ha! Direct hit!"

"That's great, now can we take out the turret? You know, so they don't

shoot us back

?"

"Bit late for that! Evasive action!"

"Aye, aye, Captain Obvious! SHOOT THE @#^& THING, will you?"

"Firing plasma cannons!"

"Is it a hit?"

"It's a hit. Man, this thing works like a dream!"

"What's that? Near where we hit the tank."

"Looks like they've sprung a little leak. Bring her alongside while I ready a mooring cable."

"We're coming alongside. Aim a bit farther forward - we don't want to get tangled in the tanker."

"Cable's away! Looks like their cargo is coming clear quite nicely. Wouldn't want it all to freeze before it comes out of the hold, now would we?"

"Looks like the cable's caught in the ice."

"Perfect! Just a few more minutes and we should be ready to go."

"All right, that looks like all of it. Shall we be going now?"

"I think so. Wouldn't want Octan to come along and ruin our little party, would we? I'll signal the fleet and let them know where to pick up our little package."

Reveal hidden contents

My first weekly build. I'm experimenting with the storytelling style that seems to be going around, but it's pretty image-intensive.

I think I got the tags right ...

*Edited 1/31/2016 to correct plot exposition regarding war.

Edited January 31, 20169 yr by VK-318

Nice micro ships. I like how you did the fight between them. The way you stole the cargo is really inventive to.

Nice build and good introduction, but:

  On 1/28/2016 at 1:18 AM, VK-318 said:

We'd hardly wrapped up our shakedown cruise when we got the good news. War was on! The Kawashita Group had begun an invasion of Octan holdings on Arimu Major, a perfect opportunity for us. Octan's primary off-cargo in this system was water, carried in big, slow, lightly-armed tankers. And, given their lack of fighters, the tankers were still going up un-escorted. Someone in Octan System Command had decided that forming the tankers into convoys would just make them a bigger target for Kawashita, so they were being launched individually. Easy prey for pirates.

We're not actually at war with Octan; but since you're a pirate, you can take it however you want

Nice micro's, reminds me that I still need to grab those planets someday.

  On 1/28/2016 at 10:42 AM, Dragonfire said:

Nice build and good introduction, but:

We're not actually at war with Octan; but since you're a pirate, you can take it however you want

Eh, close enough, am I right?

Its ok, we have been stealing, sabotaging and spying on each other from the start (I mean MANTIS and Octan have. Kawashita would never do that ) We haven't had that much piracy yet so I think you win both largest single theft and the first to steel water.

I like the way you stole the water. It was very creative. (then I realized that water in a vacuum wouldn't freeze but boil. Still, we have had people breathing on asteroids and compared to Pombe logic this is rock solid science. We could even say Octan had a protective inner layer of the tank. They did start as an oil company after all. Not like we need to explain it at all, I just like too. Most of the time I just don't post it)

  On 1/28/2016 at 1:18 AM, VK-318 said:

My first weekly build. I'm experimenting with the storytelling style that seems to be going around, but it's pretty image-intensive. I think I got the tags right ...

You got the tags right and did a good job with the story. You don't need to make dialog or battle sequences. You could just taken the last shot and explained in text but it is cool to see the crew dynamics and battle.

Good job!

oh, and I really like how you made the frozen water blocks from pods and the micro ships are cool too.

Edited January 28, 20169 yr by EpsilonEta

  On 1/28/2016 at 5:19 PM, EpsilonEta said:

I like the way you stole the water. It was very creative. (then I realized that water in a vacuum wouldn't freeze but boil. Still, we have had people breathing on asteroids and compared to Pombe logic this is rock solid science. We could even say Octan had a protective inner layer of the tank. They did start as an oil company after all. Not like we need to explain it at all, I just like too. Most of the time I just don't post it)

Oops. Shows what I get for not doing my research properly. Let's just say that Octan put an additive in the water, so they wouldn't have to heat the huge tank, and that's why it froze instead of boiling.

Great builds! I love how you stole the water!

Cool micro build! Fun story too.

This is a great entry, not to mention first! The build itself is really good, and you show them off pretty well in the pictures where they are together. Clever story, too!

Welcome to AG!

Thanks all! Microships have always been my favorite thing to build. To be honest, that's part of why I stopped playing SoNE and came here - not very much room for cool microships there, but AG is full of ideas for ships. As far as the story goes, I always try to make the story interesting in its own right - I enjoy reading a good narrative almost as much as I enjoy seeing a cool build.

The judges awarded you 4 points.