First Name: Mira (which is short for Miranda)
Last Name: Castagnier
Gender: Female
Sub-Species: Therianthrope, with lizard/reptilian animal traits.

>>744739
Sounds good.

>>744739
This, but change species to Quoll/Wallaby hybrid. Original intent of this genetic modification was for extended periods in unfamiliar forest biospheres, with emphasis on chemical resistance to plant excretions and parasitic infections. Most combinations were not viable but this particular hybrid of animal genetics proved to increase general poison/parasite resistance by 7.7%, which is actually useful in the field as this confers up to an extended two days of survival upon infection of lethal chemicals or parasites, even for detriments whose lethal period can be counted in seconds. This may be the difference between calling for evac and expiring before the victim realizes they have been infected. However, long term effects of poison and parasite modifications are usually prevalent as they would be in regular humans; the resistance confers a defensive adaptation to the infection, increasing the victim's resilience to the infection's spread but not actually responding to the symptoms. The ears, fur, and tail are cosmetic genetics and confer negligible advanced benefits.

You were born on the somewhat unimaginatively named world of Gekkota, named such because it's inhabiting therianthrope sub-species were gentically crossed with lizards, more specifically geckos. The jungle climate hadn't been particularly harsh, in all fairness pure humans could have easily populated the planet, but your home system's relative proximity to the Sol system, birthplace of humanity, had made it ideal for testing gene modification techniques. As such, your genetic line had been born, more as a test of the feasability of the therianthrope project than anything else.

In your case, your animal ancestry manifested with limited external changes. Most noticable of your inheritance was the prehensile tail that even now was curled around your right leg, loose enough to allow for ease of movement without getting in the way of your day to day activities. You could detach it at will, though it and the regrowth period after doing so were incredibly uncomfortable, and there is rarely a reason to bother doing so. You'd also inherited parietal eyes, more commonly referred to as "reptilian" eyes, as well as patches of scale-like skin around your neck and the point where tail met torso. Otherwise, your heritage is less noticable, naturally you are taller than is average, standing at near 6'5", with a lithe frame and a figure that most wouldn't desribe as "womanly", though it has never bothered you. The main downside to your gecko-infused heritage is your sensitivity to changes in temperature, particularly the cold. While it is unlikely to kill you, you tend to become sluggish when exposed too long to cooler climates, and it takes longer to rouse yourself from sleep until you've warmed yourself up. Your hair is cut to shoulder length, and is an almost ebony black, and you have been told that even among other sub-species you are reasonably attractive, if a bit intimidating due to your height.

Your quick inspection done, you depart for the bridge, passing through the corridors with purpose. There was only one reason your presence would be requested on the bridge, by your first officer no less, and that was that a situation had come down regarding your current goal. Crewmembers collapse against the wall at your approach, offering salutes as you pass before continuing on with their duties. You allow yourself a small glimmer of pride, the men and women under your command were still holding to their military efficiency, even after everything that had happened. You could only hope you would do their efforts justice in the trials to come. You arrive at the command bridge soon enough, and take a last moment to smooth the imaginary creases from your uniform before enterring.

"Captain on the bridge!"

The words ring out as soon as you step inside, the distinctly female voice cutting through the air. Everyone on the bridge immediately jumps to attention, the normally industrious group waiting for your leave to continue with their tasks. Your own eyes snap to the one who'd shouted the command, taking in the appearance of your first officer.

Dressed in her uniform with an eye for accuracy that borders on the obssessive, Lillian Manning stood at attention herself, just inside the door, clearly having been waiting for your arrival. Her own dark brown hair was carefully put into a bun, in strict adherence to military regulations, giving a clear view of her bright purple eyes, a common feature of the cogitari. She stands nearly a foot shorter than yourself, and her frail looking frame is also keeping in typical cogitari appearance. Lillian herself is a fairly fresh officer, only just graduating from candidate school before being assigned to you. Her records, of course, show her being stellar in all academic pursuits and keeping a cool head during command excercises, though notably lacking in many of the more physical aspects. Still, it had been decided that she was to be fast-tracked to a command position, and you were selected as the best possible candidate for nurturing her growth as an officer. Even in the short time she's been with you, you have seen her grow in leaps and bounds, though she still remains far too closely bound to the regulations.

"At ease. Manning, a report on our status, if you please."

The crew returns to normal function at your command, even as you make your way to your chair, Manning falling into step beside you. You bring up diagnostics on your command desk as you sit, mostly as a formality and to check for inconsistincies, though you doubt you'll find any as Lillian begins rattling off the ship's status.

"Ma'am! The Leviathan is currently on standby at the edge of the Kingsway System, running on silent as per your orders. All systems are operational, and hull integrity remains at 100%. We remain on alert status Green, and there are no incidents of note from the night watch."

"Excellent."

Your eyes dart over the diagnostic reports, this time reconfirming once again the specifics of the vessel under your command. While you'd memorized the characteristics of the Leviathan before you'd even taken your place as her captain, you never failed to run through your checks anyway, particularly since the modifications you'd been forced to place her through nearly a year ago.

>Leviathan Ship Characteristics: Formerly the ISS Conquest, the Leviathan is a Dreadnought class battleship, designed and constructed to be a devestating force on the battlefield. Housing over 30,000 souls, the vessel was considered the second largest to be constructed by the Feldran Empire, and to this day, it has avoided capture by its enemies. This is thanks in part to its experimental Gate drive, allowing it to open a temporary Gate, instead of using a standard Gateway for ftl purposes.

>Armaments
-Lance Cannons x 3
-Point Defense Lasers
-Hangar Bay
-Shield System

>Select Modification

>ECM: An electronic warfare suite is installed into the Leviathan, allowing it to attempt to scramble enemy targeting systems and sensors.

>Boarding Assault Craft: The Leviathan's hull is riddled with small boarding cannons, capable of loading hollow shells that can insert boarding crew onto enemy vessels quickly. Requires enemy shields to be brought down before use.

>Auxilary Shield System: Additional shield generators are installed, allowing the Leviathan's shields to endure additional enemy fire.

>>744795
EMC

EMC

ECM

The Leviathan had been outfitted with an electronic counter-measure system, designed solely to disable enemy sensors and targeting systems. While the system itself is rather rudimentary, it had served you well on numerous occasions, and with enough time and money, you could potentially increase its abilities further, in no small part thanks to your engineering staff. Still, now was hardly the time to consider the future. You'd been called to the bridge for a reason, and it was best you get to it.

"Manning, I believe you requested my presence for a reason?"

"Yes ma'am. Passive sensors managed to detect the activation of the Kingsway Gate an hour ago. While there was nothing unusual about this per say, our sensors have recently picked up a military distress beacon bearing signal codes marked as Feldran Empire. We believe this beacon is on board one of the ships from a convoy that was previously thought to be civilian in nature." Lillian taps a few keys on tactical screen, bringing up a holographic display of the Kingsway system. Unremarkable in and of itself, only four planets to the single yellow star. The Leviathan is marked at the edge of the system, just inside the range of passive sensors to detect the Gate. Another series of small blips, six in total, is marked, seemingly taking a direct path towards the systems second planet. Two smaller displays spring into existence, revealing the most likely ship chassis of the supposed civilian convoy. From the looks of things, definitely a merchant convoy, at least on the outside. Four merchant frigates, lightly armed and armored but with greater top speeds, and two escort frigates, generally more heavily armed and armored, more to dissuade pirates than anything.

Well, not that the Leviathan wasn't classified a pirate vessel anyway.

"And now?"

"Ma'am, considering the abilities of Lieutenant Orions, I don't think we can just assume them to be a merchant vessel. Especially considering our objective, and the agreed upon procedure. Furthermore, by official records, there are no colonies in the system."

Meaning there was no reason for a merchant convoy to be taking a direct course for a particular planet. Or to even be in the system, for that matter. Certainly less reason for Orions to be on board one of them. Either way, it was decided. You would be going in to retrieve the intelligence officer, and more importantly, whatever information he felt was important he broadcast a distress beacon of all things.

You regard the "convoy" more carefully now, eyeing it with a mind to intercept. Thankfully, the vessels before you were not intended for war, and it would be a relatively simple affair to reach them quickly. Five minutes at most, at full burn. Still, you would rather go in with a plan. It wasn't like you could simply blow up every ship, not unless you wanted cargo and your intelligence officer. Perhaps a test was in order.

"Manning, your advice on approach."

Lillian startles slightly, looking caught off guard, before her cogitari mind catches up. "Ma'am, I would personally advise bringing us up to full power and assaulting at full speed, while performing active scans on all merchant ships to identify which has Lieutenant Orions on board. All others can be ignored or destroyed, and the target vessel can be disabled and boarded at our leisure."

A sound plan, all things considered, if a bit bloodthirsty. And loud. If even one of the ships makes it back to the gate, reinforcements could be brought into the system, and while the Leviathan is a capable ship, you'd still be on your own against whatever could be brought to bear. There was of course the possibility of waiting till a better opportunity presented itself, perhaps an ambush at the planet, or even on the return trip to the Gate for travel to whatever system they'd come from. You might even try to sneak up on the convoy, perhaps utilize the ECM to evade their passive sensors as much as possible before attacking...

>Input

>Well, not that the Leviathan wasn't classified a pirate vessel anyway.
Methinks a double negative got away from you.

>Kingsway Gate
Are we dependent on this gate for our own passage in and out from this system, or do we have an alternative means of ftl?

If we're dependent on the gate for our own exit, it's imperative we don't have an enemy force waiting for us or holding the gate. Allowing the enemy to summon reinforcements would be unacceptable.

>You would be going in to retrieve the intelligence officer, and more importantly, whatever information he felt was important he broadcast a distress beacon of all things.
I'd assume your officer is undercover. If he's transmitting, it's possible the convoy is eventually going to pick up on that. We've got a time limit until he's made. Or he's already in a bad enough situation that he had no choice.

Unless you have reason to believe your spy's transmission won't be detected?

>what do
If you're confident in the transmission not being noticed by the convey, I say we attempt to sneak up on them and ambush with the emc. If we're not, go in hot and ruthless. Don't leave your agent's life to chance.

We could disable the gate. With nowhere to run the enemy would be forced to surrender. I significantly doubt they could make planet-fall quickly enough to hide.

If ECM's aren't enough to shut it down, The weapons could be used to sufficiently damage instead of destroy the thing. With 30k souls aboard, could we not just repair it before we leave the system?

Why engage now?

Most probably pirates. Most captains would identify the situation and not let rats slip out of your grasp lying to themselves. But we're not that kind of a captain or a ship. We excel. Whatever social progress gave us the ability to reach for the stars and passage between empty void in a matter of hours instead of dozens of years didn't lean onto old dogma and a way to get things rekt as fast as possible with an old man's theory of how everybody else should build around his hole when he's sleeping. Incinerate this thoughtform now!


We are not lucky.

Out of all seven thousand chances and possible encounters we're not encountering pirates here, today. They're elsewhere. We are better than this. We can extract the honey from the bee nest without consequence.

This is wrong.

If we're captain on the second most powerful ship in the Empire, we're hell yes given more choice than to go everywhere guns blazing and destroy. We can extract the information of this situation and give it to social scientists to solve this problem of space piracy. They are people, either to be prisoners and brought to justice for the glory of humanity or subjects in need of assistance of our re-education and resource supply institutions.


Do not engage with guns blazing! That is only a way to destroy our own integrity and trust in a lie that will drift our ship unsteered into shallows.

>>745228
Back out of the system, loop around so the gate is directly between you and the convoy, build up a head of speed outside their long-range sensor range, then coast in silent with the ECM ready, right past the gate (which ideally would provide some sensor blindess to them too, like 'flying out of the sun'). Get as close as possible before going loud, don't give them the chance to peel anyone off to reach the gate (which would need to get past you anyway).

The 'convoy' is already suspicious, so there's a good chance these 'merchantmen' are nothing of the sort, so be prepared for them to be a lot harder target than expected. If the run in gives you enough time to identify the ship Lt. Orions is on, and assess the threat the other ships present, then we can decide during the coast whether to destroy the other ships and extract the Lt. at our leisure, or perform a targeted smash-and-grab and continue on out of the system. We only need to outrun any reinforcements long enough to prepare the Leviathan's Gateway drive.

>>745327
Alternate Plan B: Loop around and fly past the gate again, but instead use the ECM to disguise the Leviathan as a plausible merchantman who has just happened to enter via the gate. Keep the ruse up long enough to get into engagement rage with the convoy.

>>745327

This is good.

If we don't have time for that, rig for silent running, activate ECM, and move to intercept immediately. Try to stay hidden until we're as close as possible.

Do we have the supplies and manpower to crew and operate one or both escort frigates if we capture them?

Your course of action is quickly decided, and within moments you are directing your crew to their positions. The Leviathan is maneuvered further out into the void beyond the Kingsway System, then set on a course inward, aimed at the convoy and bringing you as close to the gate as you can manage without risking damage in an attempt to make it seem like you've passed through the gate. Already, unnecessary systems are being shutdown to make your signature as small as possible, though a ship the Leviathan's size will be noticeable eventually. Other systems are brought just below operational, ready to be brought to full power within a moments notice. Then, with a quick burn of the engines, you are hurtling through the void towards your targets.

"Time estimate?"

"Ten minutes to sensor contact, though ECM will make us difficult to identify. Fifteen till we're within firing range."

"Good. As soon as we can pinpoint Orions' exact position, I want to know."

"Yes ma'am."

The next ten minutes are silent, as the Leviathan "drifts" closer. The convoy seemingly picks up on your presence sooner than expected, changing its path to avoid a direct collision, though still close enough to likely provide them with in active scan. The ECM soon pings a sensor sweep, though it successfully scrambles the attempt and preventing them from receiving anything specific. The assault ships bring themselves into a defensive screen between you and the merchant vessels soon after, likely a direct response to the scan failure.

"Ma'am, we've just entered firing range. Passive sensors are detecting energy build-up in all ships."

A quick glance at the situation provides you with further specifics. The merchant vessels are still making their way towards their target planet, with energy building up in their shields. Likely readying themselves for possible conflict, all things considered. The assault vessels are powering up shields and weapons, for the same reason. Whether this means they are taking a hostile stance or not is uncertain, as they could just be preparing for the possibility. Still, if they were to fire upon the Leviathan unexpectedly, they could do a fair amount of damage before the shields could be brought up. As it stands, you could spring you assault now, bring all systems to fully operational and fight from here, or see about drifting closer. Still, to board an enemy vessel, you need to be a great deal closer, and you're going to have to board a ship to retrieve Orions. Not to mention you still don't know which ship exactly Orions is on. More than likely you'll need to do an active scan for the specific signal you're looking for. You take a deep breath in as you consider your options, weighing the possibilities in your mind.

>Input

>>745848
Can the shields be brought to a 'low idle' level? Not raising shields in this situation would be itself suspicious, and having the generators at idle would let you bring them up to full in a shorter timeframe.

Also: what are the primary ship-to-ship weapons used here? Missiles, directed-energy, projectiles? And other than directed energy, what sorts of travel times are there at normal engagement ranges (i.e. on detecting a launch, do you have minutes or seconds to prepare)?

Bring all systems to full operation. Broadcast to the ships to stand down and prepare to be scanned and possibly searched for contraband.

Should they open fire, Use the Lance Cannons to crack through their shields and the PDL's to disable their weapons. (and engines if they attempt to flee.) Don't want a heavy shell piercing a ship and killing our man.

Since we're using the PDL's offensively, scramble fighters to provide missile interception.

>in an attempt to make it seem like you've passed through the gate
I'm not really clear on what tactical advantage we gain from trying to pretend we just arrived in system. Unless our rivals control that gate network (and the implication so far is it's a network others have access to) that doesn't really mark us as a non-hostile.

>The assault ships bring themselves into a defensive screen between you and the merchant vessels soon after, likely a direct response to the scan failure.
Hmmm. We either need the ability pass through scans without pinging them at all, or the ability to spoof the information sent back. Sending back a scrubbed scan is as good as declaring we have ill intent and are hiding our capabilities.

>what do
Raising shields is something even a normal merchant would do when approaching ships that are noticeably charging weapons.

If we wanted to stall for time, giving us a chance to drift close before attaching, we could attempt to hail them. It doesn't always work, but people are less likely to make a preemptive strike if you appear to be attempting to parley. Faking a communication difficulty could stall further.

...I don't suppose we could hide or embed the active scan in the hail? With our emc up, their scanners should be impeded, and maybe we can prevent them from picking up on the fact we're broadcasting on multiple frequencies quickly enough.

As soon as they realize we're stalling, or as soon as we identify out target, we go hot. Kill or disable any ship that's not carrying our agent as expediency allows. Disable only, if the fighting starts before active scans pinpoint him.

>>745963
We're one of the few (only?) vessels with a Gate Drive. Arriving obviously independently of a Gateway reveals our identity regardless of scans.

>>745850
>Primary Ship-to-ship weapons
All galactic governments currently recognized under the Treaty of Mars use directed energy weapons, most notably the various forms of Lance Cannons, for capital ship to capital ship engagements. The reason for this restriction was that mass driver weapons tended to cause vast amounts of collateral damage, particularly when fighting in populated systems. Too many instances of mass drivers missing intended targets and smashing into nearby inhabited planets, thereby reducing productivity and, the most likely cause of concern, a reduction in taxes for that planet. Directed energy weapons are far more accurate, therefore less issue of miss fires into civilian populations. Still, rogue governments, pirates and other less savory types have been known to use mass driver weapons, for the versatility in terms of munitions types and the ease at which they can be used without significant energy draw. Missiles are fairly common, though mostly on fighter craft, while capital ships tends towards torpedoes.

The Leviathan, due to circumstances, is currently only equipped with three Lance Cannons, though its hull is capable of being outfitted with conceivably any known weapons or system currently known to man. Versatility is the goal behind its design.

"Bring shields up to full power. Keep weapons on standby."

"Yes ma'am!"

The familiar hum of the shield generators coming to life washes through the ship, and you allow yourself a slight smile as the Leviathan's shields read green across the board. That'll keep you from taking any substantial damage from a surprise attack. Now for a bit of trickery and luck...

"Send out an open hailing channel. See if we can't get them to talk to us, and buy us more time to approach. Can we disguise an active scan in the signal, find which ship has Orions?"

"Negative, the ECM is doing to much just trying to jam five ships at once, ma'am. If we can get closer though, I'm fairly certain I can pick out our target with the passives though."

"ETA?"

"Five minutes at the least till we're in range."

"Ma'am, we're receiving a response to our hail. Routing it to your terminal now."

Turning your attention to you personal terminal, a holographic screen springs into existence, revealing a grim faced man with far too many scars to be a merchant. Still, you do your best to keep your face and voice overtly neutral, as would be proper for a captain of a trading vessel.

"Greetings, Captain...?" His voice is gravely and harsh, the kind of voice one wouldn't find among merchant captains.

>Input

>Still, you do your best to keep your face and voice overtly neutral, as would be proper for a captain of a trading vessel.
We went to full visual, and not audio only? If your military uniform isn't cropped out of frame, the manner in which you're holding your expression might not matter much.

>"Greetings, Captain...?" His voice is gravely and harsh, the kind of voice one wouldn't find among merchant captains.
Obvious first stalling tactic is to give him a name, followed by the name of your vessel and registry. And then wait for the opposing captain to return the courtesy.

Assuming there's no ftl hypernet those ships can use to confirm your story or check your dossier, you don't even need to use a fake name for yourself. You probably need to give false information for your vessel, since honesty defeats the purpose of running the EMC in the first place. You don't want to be recognized as a government warship.

Uh, past that, I'm kind of pressed for what deception to sell. We don't know a lot about the setting or the players, here.

Obvious first questions on his part are going to be to demand to know what you're doing here, and likely why you've got that EMC up.

I suppose... could we play ourselves off as a smuggler, or courier? If we're doing less than strictly legal deliveries that would explain the EMC. It also gives us an excuse to be cagey and try to get them to tell us who they are. Play like we were paid to make a delivery in this system at this time, and we're trying to make sure they're who we were expecting? Assuming they work for someone or are part of a larger organization, they'll be suspicious but less likely to destroy whatever we're carrying while they scramble to figure out if we're genuine.

The story won't hold, but it might buy us a few minutes if you're cagey about it, and they're more cautious than trigger happy. Obviously, weapons hot as soon as we have our target or they realize you're lying.