| FS BR - Part 2 ( I didn't know it was this long :{ ) | | | Author: | | | IP: | StCatherXXXX | | Date: | 03/23/02 12:03 | | Game Type: | Other | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 10, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for |]agomar: 8.6667 |   |
Late Game
Bit of a status report:
The red zerg now has three expos, and is moving towards a third. As a standing army he has . . . erm, wait a minute . . . I'll start over =O.
The Shivan cruisers and their Destroyer are under continuous assault from our devastatingly powerful Carrier and three of the six enemy cruisers. As a result, they are now on their last legs, and will probably detonate any minute now. Luckily they're 1900m away, so the inevitable shockwaves won't do us any harm.
The enemy's sextuple cruisers are also approaching rather fast, now being about 2000m away. as they are moving at roughly 20m/s, they'll probably be within firing range in about a minute. That means we have that much time to destroy the bombers, which are now about 700m away from me. As I am travelling at 100m/s ( can't keep those afterburners on all the time ), and they at 50m/s, it will take me an estimated 14 seconds to catch up with them, let alone launch my missiles. Luckily, my ally is only 400m away, and is already firing. On the other hand, the Ursas seem just about ready to launch triple Harbringers, all at the same time. Needless to say, the effect will be devastating.
With regards to those duelling Vasudan Dreadnoughts up ahead ( each only a tad smaller than the Boston at about 2k long ) . . . it's almost an exact stalemate. A parting blast from a cruiser or a Tsunami missile from a bomber could tip the balance. Or even one of my Interceptors launched at a turret.
In short: we're losing. But we've faced overwhelming odds before and come out on top. Let's hope we can do it again.
For the umpteenth time I revved up those afterburners and pursued the Ursas. I was screaming by at blistering speeds about 100m above the hull of our 2100m Orion-class destroyer, so the landscape was an astonishing blurred myriad of twinkling lights, drifting sparks, rotating turrets and erupting guns. It was quite humbling, and breathtakingly spectacular. Truly nothing gives you a better scale for the size of such a flagship battlewagon as rocketing over it, engines ablaze.
In any case, the bombers were just up ahead. Starfish was doing a very good job of keeping at my side as the speck in my crimson recticle slowly blossomed into the menacing hull of a fully loaded Heavy Bomber, ready to deliver its crippling cargo. That lone valkyrie was buzzing about overhead, so we decided to banish this threat once and for all. I unleashed double Interceptors while she squeezed off two Hornet volleys. Unfortunately, however, this wasn't a large, immobile target we were dealing with, and soon we realized we had made a horrible tactical error. As the valkyrie darted off to the side with humbling agility, then screamed up, before diving down, evading both interceptors and twirling to avoid the hornets, all bombers suddenly released their apocalyptic Harbringer missiles.
I could only watch as the three massive bombs dove in upon their hulking target, now filling the entire screen. Twinkling lights beckoned at what was soon to be ground zero, and I could only imagine the chaos unfolding down beneath. Meanwhile, the enemy light fighter had dodged all but a few missiles, and was hurtling down upon us, firing off twin pheonix missiles at my unlucky partner, who slammed her burners, dumped a load of chaff and was off.
I looked up, smiled grimly, and released a hoard of furies. The valkyrie whirled about, attempting to avoid, yet now I matched speeds and pummeled the craft with a stream of Avenger fire. Just as an inferno erupted down beneath, the lightning-fast enemy interceptor screamed up out of range at 150m/sec, out into the depths of space. Doubtless, it would be back.
The Boston's armour was down to 60%. Muffled roars had told us the Shivan cruisers had perished some time ago, and, through twin shockwaves, had taken with them that second respawned Hercules. That, at least, was a good thing. Now no Shivan presence remained. On the other hand, all sextuple cruisers were bearing down upon our titanic destroyer. One enemy vessel was near destruction, but another 2 Harbringers would spell our mothership's demise. For the sake of the 10,000 cyber men ( and kinky women ) aboard the Boston, we had to kill those bombers!
Determined, I shot off in their direction. Starfish, who had taken some damage from those pheonix missiles, nevertheless accompanied me in my ongoing pursuit. We rounded a vast ledge at the rear of destroyer's battered hull . . . only to see 5 cluster missiles headed straight towards us. Then, off in the distance, I beheld the other two bombers unleashing their deadly cargo. The empty Ursa had apparantly been left behind to ambush us.
I cursed in disqust as I set all my shields to maximum frontal and slowed to 40m/s. My ally dashed off in an attempt to evade the bomblets, acting as a diversion as I held my ground. Two rockets slammed into my forcefields, but they held with some weakening. The enemy must have seen what was coming, for he wheeled slowly about with his bomber . . . just in time to see 6 Interceptors screaming out from my missile bay. All my rockets reached their hulking target, smashing through the already damaged shields and inflicting mortal damage. I squeezed off another 5 or so furies, then fired away wildly with my deadly avenger cannons. The sheer strength of the Ursa's armour astonished me as my blasters were doing about as much damage to the bomber as a Kakaru does to a Ursadon. Suddenly Starfish, her battered hull now down to 60%, swooped in from above, and annihilated the evil bomber with a perfectly timed salvo of hornet missiles.
Just then, however, this victory was overshadowed by the impact of the Harbringers. In two crushing blows our beloved flagship was beaten down to 40% hull integrity. We launched all our remaining missiles at one of the remaining bombers, both of which were retreating back to their cruisers, whose shields were quickly crushed. The lumbering ship's armour was down to 70%, and so we called in the Hercs to finish her off. These, now only 300m distant and fully resupplied, quickly agreed and, with a massive volley of Pheonix missiles ended the notorious existence of the devastating Ursa . . . at least until it could respawn.
The other bomber was quicker and made it to the advancing line of enemy cruisers without much difficulty. Drat.
Finale
Both Alpha group and my Beta Group now travelled quickly away from the Boston. Its hull was being beaten down rather quickly, so it seemed only a matter of time before it would detonate in a garguantuan shockwave. What's more, it was evident the enemy valkyrie had gone off to take pot shots on the friendly Vasudan destroyer, one of whose turrets had been blown to smithereens courtesy of the light fighter's pheonix missiles. Its armour was now 1 or 2% lower than that of the opposing Vasudan, meaning it would likely lose the dual.
I was first to call in a support ship as I eased to a halt about 700m away from our Destroyer. 20 seconds later I had a full complement of missiles, yet the Boston's hull had sunk to 20%. A couple heavy Vasudan bombers tried to block my way as I raced to help, but I veered around behind them, shattering each like so many wine glasses. Lumbering AI Bombers don't fare well against human fighters, specially not goliaths like these.
Then, suddenly, two enemy cruisers spewed fire from their sides as explosions began to riddle their hulls. A brilliant light erupted from their cores and soon both were engulfed in titanic fireballs which sent shockwaves smashing into the nearby vessels.
All of us were cheering, yet we knew it wouldn't be enough. Our mothership had now faced no fewer than 8 cruisers, yet there is only so much even the bigest ships can do. I set off with my newly resupplied wingman to catch the enemy valk as the Boston's last desperate defenses were smothered under intense cruiser bombardment.
We rapidly closed in on the enemy light fighter, which had already been badly damaged by a passing blow from the otherwise preoccupied friendly Vasudan. The titanic ship loomed overhead, creating its own artificial horizon of tough brown hull and twinkling yellow lights. Massive turrets spewed searing beams of energy out into space, some of which came uncomfortably close. Incoming fire blasted the already scorched chassis, and through it all we hurtled down upon our prey.
My pulse raced as I locked on to the enemy fighter's engines. He realized our approach too late to whirr around to face us, and, in desperation, hurtled off to the relatively distant space station. Knowing the danger of letting this highly experienced pilot remain alive, I raced off after him while my partner remained to help our Vasudan battlewagon. The chase was a wild one.
When we reached the station, the valk pilot twirled and, being out of missiles, fired off whatever beam weapons he could before I could get a good shot. He darted off again, avoiding my retaliatory fire, and actually dove through the space station - straight through the huge hole carved into its side!
My larger, less nimble ship couldn't hope to follow, and I swerved around the far edge of the structure, losing him behind the girders. Meanwhile, he cut up behind me, tumbling closer, cruising just above the station's lights. Amazed at his skill, I checked my radar and realized his plan. The valk pilot swung around the metallic horizon, only to meet the full force of my beam weapons head on. Frantic, he plummeted down, up, and screamed away skimming the landing deck of the station. Cursing, I raced off in pursuit, knowing I was losing valuable time. A remaining Shivan reconnaissance fighter ( scorpion class ) tried to badger my chase, but, being badly damaged, it wasn't a match for me as I thundered past.
The valk pilot cleared the structure, but decided he'd count on his speed above his maneuverability. Bad move against a human player. With a tight smile I altered all my weapons to fire at the same time, and finished him off in a couple bursts of blinding fury. I laughed, and tore back to my wingman as fast as my engines could take me.
Then, as we sailed toward the enemy Vasusan Destroyer, a tremendous roar rolled into our fighters like a vast acoustic tsunami, nearly knocking me back out of my seat. I whirled about to see the Boston split asunder in an eruption of unearthly proportions. Further explosions blasted through the giant hull until the entire vessel was consumed by an immense fireball resembling a supernova, lighting up space for hundreds of miles in all directions. Suddenly, I realized one of our Hercs was too close. The brilliant nova soon folded down upon itself, but out of its lessening fury raced a devastating shockwave of even greater intensity. Our Herc, its hull already down to 80%, was slammed back, shields flickering, and finally smashed into a cloud of burning vapors.
I grieved for the thousands lost in the blast, and furiously vowed my revenge. Vast hunks of charred metal, some nearly 1500m in length, were all that remained of the former pride of the fifth fleet. They lumbered out from the epicenter of the explosion, one slowly advancing straight towards the enemy Vasudan Destroyer . . . .
We closed in upon that very same ship, guns ablaze. All that was left in our fleet were two cruisers to combat the enemy's four, and there was still one bomber left, undoubtedly resupplied and closing in upon our nearest ship. Our remaining Hercules was dispatched to deal with that bomber and the two newly respawned ones, though by now we were all fairly resigned as to our fate.
Vasudan defenses began to erupt all around us as we narrowed in upon our intended target: the enemy sensor bay. A lingering Vasudan cruiser at 2% hull integrity tried to bar our advance, but with bursts of concentrated fire and a heavy laser blast from the friendly destroyer it erupted in flames. A few bombers then appeared, but their sluggish speed made them rather ineffective When we were about 200m distant I launched three Interceptors and 5 furies, then tweaked my primary weapons system so I could fire the maximum number of beams in a single shot ( although with longer cooldown rates ). Space lit up all around us as we continued our attack, then suddenly I was jolted jarringly off to the side by powerful turret fire, my shields crumbling and my hull down to 70%.
I diverted more energy to my force fields, barely avoiding another blast and launching a hoarde of furies. I whirled about sharply, only to see my ally take it hard in the side by a crippling bolt of plasma. Her armour was at 60%, and her shields were completely out, so we powered up our afterburners, only just escaping with our lives.
Just then a brilliant blaze burst forth from the friendly Destroyer, with its enemy counterpart at only 2%. The piercing light spread rapidly, then smashed through the vast ship's battered hull and erupted in a devastating explosion which sent spectacular shockwaves rippling through the entire battlefield. A mighty roar drowned out all other noise, and soon there was only the emptiness of space where once had loomed a glorious dreadnought of the spacelanes.
No sooner had this Destroyer perished when the other collapsed in upon itself, having been rammed by a rather large chunk of our former mothership. I could hardly believe my eyes as I saw the doomship detonate in a second titanic fireball as awesome as the first. One could almost say the Boston was more effective in death than in life!
Stafish and I rode out both explosions with some success, our regenerated shields taking a brutal beating yet holding out in the end. My vessel buffeted wildly from side to side, then eased into a familiar glide as the shockwaves dissipated, the fireballs cooled, and the frigid winter of space returned to reclaim its former domain.
Looking down at the unfolding battle 1000m distant, I still saw little hope for the remnants of our fleet. The 4 opposing Cruisers advanced confidently upon our two, as our double heavy fighters dueled with the three enemy bombers. All hell broke lose as the battle was met between the 210m long capitol ships.
Now, another shocking event burst upon the scene in this endlessly surprising battle. Two mighty wormholes flared into being, out of which rolled double Shivan Tarsonis-class cruisers ( not as powerful as the Lillith but they look rather similar ). Another two Shivan transports, both large and heavily armoured, emerged from their own Warpoints, right between the enemy bombers and our Cruisers. The Shivan warships, on the other hand, smashed straight into the enemy Terran cruisers and wreaked absolute havok. Once again, the outcome was anyone's guess as we soared into combat for yet another furious squirmish.
The big Transports were our primary concern, as they were the only Shivan vessels which were actually firing on any of our ships. Both the opposing Ursas and our Hercs were taking quite a beating, yet since these two ship classes are both heavy on defense their shields were in no danger of collapsing quite yet. The bombers had revved up their afterburners to clear the continual barrage, but with their altogether sluggish speed this wasn't doing all that much good.
While all hell broke lose among the cruisers I swooped down in upon the leading transport, and asked my wingmate to help obliterate the even more threatening ( to our capitol ships, at least ) bombers. She quickly agreed and thundered off, as I locked onto the alien freighter's engines and opened fire. Without its motors, the black battlewagon wouldn't be able to get within range of our cruisers, while still being able to inflict damage upon those lethal bombers. As a Shivan cruiser and its Terran counterpart blew themselves to oblivion behind me in a deafening roar, I soared down behind the Transports engines, launching all my Interceptors, yet reeling from a powerful counterattack provided by the second freightor. I maneuvered heavily as my hull sank to 59%, only to see one of our Hercs perish in a blazing inferno far out into the distance. I wailed in dismay, yet stuck to my guns, diverting surplus energy into shields while continuing to pummel the massive engines before me with bolts of searing plasma.
Soon those motors sunk to 20%, and with me huddled to the back of the transport I was beyond the range of the majority of enemy turrets. I heard hoots of pure joy erupt from my wingmate as two of those evil bombers disintigrated fo the last time in brilliant fireballs of iredescent fury. The last remaining Ursa had passed the range of the transports, and our only surviving heavy fighter was on its last legs, yet with Starfish's help it seemed almost certain the devastating bomber would not reach our cruisers to launch its nuclear salvo before being blasted to spacedust.
Finally, with a final, stubborn flicker, the hulking engines before me shimmered into darkness. A sudden shockwave rippled out accross the battlefield as the final Shivan cruiser suffered a primary coil meltdown and detonated in a flash of blinding light. I veered off to disable the final transport, evading heavy turret fire, as I surveyed what was left of the enemy flotilla.
Three cruisers remained to combat our two, a seemingly insurmountable advantage for the opponents. Yet of those capitol ships one was nearly entirely crippled, with the vast majority of its weapons systems broken and its battered hull smashed down to 8%. The second enemy vessel was down to 30%, and was under a continual barrage of heavy fire from both our nearly undamaged cruisers.
Providing those transports wouldn't reach our armada any time soon, the tide had certainly turned. My shields flickered wildly as my hull was violently pummeled down to 30%, yet I finally managed to shatter the final transport's engines for once and for all. Two helpless behemoths, dead in space, remained in my wake as I rocketed my limping ship back out into space as fast as its straining motors could take it. The final bomber erupted with a distant roar, and all of us now sailed into the void to watch the unfolding battle from above.
It was quite a show. One enemy cruiser detonated into a sphere of smoldering scrapmetal nearly immediately, and now it was a classic 2v2. Fortunately for us, one of the opposing leviathans had sunk from 8% to a mere 2, and instantaneously collapsed in upon itself before vaporizing into a cloud of superheated space dust. One of our ships was now down to 50%, yet the final remnants of our grand fleet lumbered in to utterly smash, once and for all, the evil rebel humans who had been so bold as to challenge us. We all cheered as the final cruiser was blown to a million cinders and the Galactic Terran Alliance was united once again.
Flickering sparks wafted down from my damaged warhorse as our cruisers warped off to some new assignment in a star system far, far away. Somehow - somehow - we had won, and the dark mantle of peace was once again draped over this lonely patch of space, lost in the greater grandeur of the galaxy for which we fought.
So, that was a cool game. Here's another screenshot I took a year ago, in another game, which I found worthy of being posted:
And here's some stupidity, which I'm sure you all can relate to:
Wow, I can't believe I'm done. Jeez. Took me a while. Any logic errors are due to the fact that it's now nearly 4:00 AM. Holy mother of wombat. You bastards. BASTARDS! Making me stay up this late . . . what are you doing to me?!
LEAVE ME ALONE! MOMMY!
I'll stop now.
Errr . . . bye, or something.
( crowd boos, large piano comes tumbling down )
"NO! DAMMIT GEORGE W BUSH! NOT THE w#%!t* PIANO!"
I need sleep.
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