Quote from Drummer_the_Dragon_Slayer >>

 "So I would be in charge of another ship? Or would I just be on another ship?"

"We shall see the exact details as the battle plays out. We've made our plans, but only once we see the enemy's plans will we know the final reality."

Quote from Drummer_the_Dragon_Slayer >>

[[OOC: That's not what I meant. So basically, if you capture a ship it becomes part of your fleet, as long as it's still in working order. Once you have captured said ship, the rest of the enemy fleet can chose to completely cut off all communications and control with that ship, immediately turning it into a hostile for themselves. They do this so you can't use the coms on your newly captured ship to try and influence the rest of the enemy fleet into joining you. If all ships were controllable from the flag ship this cutting off wouldn't be possible.]]

[[OOC:

I guess I'm getting a bit hung up on the control part. What exactly is being controlled?

The communications makes sense to me. Sounds akin to a private chat. If you had a chat with 9 friends and then one lost their phone, you'd remove their old phone from the chat to avoid having some stranger in your chat.

But the control part is tripping me up on what's meant. Since if the ship can be piloted and use its weapons by local control, then what control is being cut off?

]]

Quote from VitusW >>

Quote from Drummer_the_Dragon_Slayer >>

 "So I would be in charge of another ship? Or would I just be on another ship?"

"We shall see the exact details as the battle plays out. We've made our plans, but only once we see the enemy's plans will we know the final reality."

Quote from Drummer_the_Dragon_Slayer >>

[[OOC: That's not what I meant. So basically, if you capture a ship it becomes part of your fleet, as long as it's still in working order. Once you have captured said ship, the rest of the enemy fleet can chose to completely cut off all communications and control with that ship, immediately turning it into a hostile for themselves. They do this so you can't use the coms on your newly captured ship to try and influence the rest of the enemy fleet into joining you. If all ships were controllable from the flag ship this cutting off wouldn't be possible.]]

[[OOC:

I guess I'm getting a bit hung up on the control part. What exactly is being controlled?

The communications makes sense to me. Sounds akin to a private chat. If you had a chat with 9 friends and then one lost their phone, you'd remove their old phone from the chat to avoid having some stranger in your chat.

But the control part is tripping me up on what's meant. Since if the ship can be piloted and use its weapons by local control, then what control is being cut off?

]]

 Victra nods, and then leaves in search of Tactacus.

[[OOC: Sorry, I'm not doing a good job of explaining this. When I say control, I mean this: As you are the captain of this fleet, you can order the pilots of the other ships in your fleet to do stuff. That's what I meant by control. It's more like influencing and ordering the other ships. If, like you said with your phone example, one ship is captured by the enemy and you have to cut of communications with it, ordering the captured ship will not be possible, and so you are no longer in control of it. Hope that helps :)]]

"Sir, T minus 4 hours until we reach Phobos."

Lazaren decides to practice a bit with the pulse spear. He seems to like the way it works. 

Quote from Yondor_The_Fantastic >>

Lazaren decides to practice a bit with the pulse spear. He seems to like the way it works. 

 *Do you have proficiency in spears? If you don't we could do a little training for you to earn proficiency whilst we wait for Vitus...*

Quote from Drummer_the_Dragon_Slayer >>

Quote from Yondor_The_Fantastic >>

Lazaren decides to practice a bit with the pulse spear. He seems to like the way it works. 

 *Do you have proficiency in spears? If you don't we could do a little training for you to earn proficiency whilst we wait for Vitus...*

 [[Actually, I do.]] 

Quote from Yondor_The_Fantastic >>

Quote from Drummer_the_Dragon_Slayer >>

Quote from Yondor_The_Fantastic >>

Lazaren decides to practice a bit with the pulse spear. He seems to like the way it works. 

 *Do you have proficiency in spears? If you don't we could do a little training for you to earn proficiency whilst we wait for Vitus...*

 [[Actually, I do.]] 

 [[Okay, we'll just wait for Vitus then and we can continue]]

Quote from Drummer_the_Dragon_Slayer >>

Quote from Yondor_The_Fantastic >>

Quote from Drummer_the_Dragon_Slayer >>

Quote from Yondor_The_Fantastic >>

Lazaren decides to practice a bit with the pulse spear. He seems to like the way it works. 

 *Do you have proficiency in spears? If you don't we could do a little training for you to earn proficiency whilst we wait for Vitus...*

 [[Actually, I do.]] 

 [[Okay, we'll just wait for Vitus then and we can continue]]

 [[Coolio!]] 

"Thanks for the update." says Garagas, "Any information from Phobos' Gift's sensors?"

Quote from VitusW >>

"Thanks for the update." says Garagas, "Any information from Phobos' Gift's sensors?"

 "None so far, sir. Seems to be clear out there for the moment."

[[When I get some time I'll describe you arriving at Phobos]]

Quote from Drummer_the_Dragon_Slayer >>

Quote from VitusW >>

"Thanks for the update." says Garagas, "Any information from Phobos' Gift's sensors?"

 "None so far, sir. Seems to be clear out there for the moment."

 

[[When I get some time I'll describe you arriving at Phobos]]

 "Sir, we will be arriving at Phobos shortly."

As you finish the last jet thrust to Phobos, you finally see the small moon. There's lots of infrastructure upon its surface, but it seems to be abandoned because of the practice war. 

Suddenly, hyper blast rounds fly from the planet and head towards your fleet. [[Hyper blast rounds, or HBR's, are the space cruiser equivalent of normal combat rounds. Just basic ammo, meant to weaken ships hulls as it can't be blocked by flank.]]  The shots just miss you, soaring over the fleet. You can tell its a warning shot, but it was a little too close to feel very peaceful.

"Phobos space control is requesting a com link with us sir." Says the head pilot. But just as she says it, another pilot perks up.

"Sir! Sir, Phobos's gift has got something on radar, and it looks big."

An eerie boom comes from behind the ship, and the lights flicker.  

"Big? How big?" asks Garagas. He turns to the head pilot, "Enable the com link with space control." 

He turns to Victra, "I want you to be ready to shuttle over to another ship."

[[OOC: Current prediction is that somethin has gone... awry with the practice war. Methinks that big thing Phobos' Gift detected is a genuine warship from a faction and that the space control was weary our fleet had come to attack.]]

"Phobos's gift is getting closer sir...  The commotion it has detected seems to be 2 fleets engaged in battle. They're still very far off, just under 1000 miles from Phobos's gift. They don't seem to be scanning the area, they're more concerned about fighting the other fleet. Flag ships AI says there's a 56.8% chance they haven't detected Phobos's gift."

"Yes sir, establishing com link now."

The speakers around the bridge buzz, and then start working. "Augustus lancer fleet, do you read? This is Phobos's space command."

Victra nods, seemingly ready to move if needed.

[[I like your thinking, we'll see if you're right or not.]]

"Any count on how many ships in each fleet?"

"I read you, Phobos Space Command." replies Garagas. 

"One side has more then the other, totalling at around 5 whilst the other only has 3. If you count the destroyed ships as well, each fleet seems to have had about 10 ships at the start of the battle. The destroyed ships don't really look very destroyed though, they seem to be just dormant, in a rest mode of sorts."

"Are you the Lancer in charge?"

Garagas lowers his shoulders in slight relaxation. He turns to Victra, "It seems that fleet is another practice war. However it could still have tactical impacts on ours with the Bellona&Acros fleet. I want you to board Phobos' Gift and keep an eye on the situation for the time being." He responds to Space Command, "Indeed. Garagas au Gathakanathi speaking."

Victra nods, and then races off to the ships docking station. 

"Phobos has been evaced for your training exercise so no one gets hurt. However, we would rather not have the infrastructure of the moon damaged. Take this as another test of sorts. The test has but one rule: Don't fire anything at this moon. If you break this rule, I have full permission from lord Augustus to blow your fleet to smithereens."

"Sir, Phobos's gift has detected a change in the battle it detected. The battle seems to be splitting up. In other words, the side with only three ships is retreating."  The head pilot taps frantically on a holographic keyboard, trying to get something up on her admin screen. "Sorry sir, just bringing Phobos's gift's sensores around... There. It seems the retreating ships are marked with the sword of Acros. They're coming straight towards us, though they haven't seemed to have noticed us, whilst the victorious side is traveling in the opposite direction."

"Sir, a small attack shuttle is requesting to leave the flag ship. It harbors a gold and 2 pilots, and seems to have a course set for Phobos's gift."

Lazaren is standing near Garagas, letting his presence be known, but not interfering, just waiting for something, maybe a command. *that's alotta commas* 

[[OOC:

Commence bombing of Space Control. Take out the artillery first to disable their defensive capabilities. There shall be only one moon of Mars when we are done. For today we bathe in the blood of Phobos!!!

Anyways, now that I got that out of my system, on to what Garagas actually does.

]]

"Acknlowedged, Space Control." says Gargas."The gold with that shuttle is Victra I assume? Permission granted."

He pauses for a moment, "Have Phobos' Gift fall back to keep the distance between it and the approaching fleet constant. I also want two more ships to be ready to make a burst of speed to join Phobos' Gift when the fleet is nearer. The goal of those three ships will be to cut off their escape as our main fleet engages. We have numerical superiority so my main concern is preventing their escape." He takes a breath. "Lazaren and Roque, I want you to prepare for boarding. If we can expand the size of our fleet with prize ships that should be most helpful when taking the fight to the fleeing fleet."

[[

OOC: Thinking along the lines of the Battle of Cannae. Although Hannibal didn't have to worry about the Romans escaping through the ground or up in the air.

1,000 miles from the Gift, Gift is 1500 miles from the fleet, nuke range is 500 miles, engage fleet 1,000-2000 miles from Phobos perhaps. (self-note for numbers)

]]

Quote from VitusW >>

"Lazaren and Roque, I want you to prepare for boarding. If we can expand the size of our fleet with prize ships that should be most helpful when taking the fight to the fleeing fleet."

 

 "Alrighty!" Lazaren sprints off, finds Pax and Mave, and makes sure they are ready. 

[[So Vitus, are Lazaren and Roque each assembling their boarding parties and whatnot, and then getting into their own ships, flying towards the enemy, and boarding them then?]] 

[[

OOC: Good question.

@Drummer, for boarding is it meant to be "latch on to the enemy ship and board" thing akin to the Roman corvus in the 1st Punic War being used to turn naval battles into land battles. Or is it akin to boarding a Star Trek shuttle and sneaking on the enemy ship?

]]