The Tiacken Tribune

A Pirate Named Jesus Nix (Bryan - TT Investigative Reporter)

In our turbulent times there is something to be said about a person that knows what they want and ruthlessly pursues it. Especially if in the process they coincidentally find their perfect place in the universe. That being said, this reporter must now state that he is strongly opposed to piracy, though I decided to risk my own life to bring to you, the reader, a glimpse at the next generation of famous pirates. In a small booth of a backwater space tavern, in a location I cannot disclose, I found him. I still vividly recall the laser pistol that sat on the table before him. A snub-nosed S&W brand…no fancy settings on that model. It was made for only one purpose: killing. I swallowed hard and decided to go for it. I casually walked up to the table, flashed my press ID, and asked, “You up for some Q&A?” He looked at me, puzzled, and said, “What the hell, just make it quick I got to get going.”

Bryan: First I must thank you for participating in this interview Mr. Nix.

Jesus Nix: Fine, fine… Just let it be known that I am not representing my alliance, only myself, just get on with it.

Bryan: Of course, so let’s begin… Do you consider your behavior piracy?

Jesus Nix says: I would have to say yes. – He smiled

Bryan says: What is it about Piracy that drives you?

Jesus Nix says: Not really sure, it’s just me, what I am; I’ve always wanted to be a villain.

Bryan: You are in the Moonies, right?

Jesus Nix: …Yes.

Bryan: What made you choose them?

Jesus Nix says: Well after being kicked out of QI for reasons still unknown, and after Joelle said “why not just join The Moonies if your this type of person,” I took the advice, and then once in, I realized the alliance just fits me well…maybe it’s just the excitement of always being hunted.

Bryan: Do you have anyone you would consider an enemy?

Jesus Nix: Well no, if people complain I just kill them. For that matter if they don’t and I find the hanging in open space, they’re dead. No enemies on a personal level. If I see a QI in open same as any other pilot I will shoot them for sure.

Bryan: What do you think you would like to do with your career in the moonies?

Jesus Nix: Kill and raid, in fact I’m working on catching up to Bobo’s kills, will take some time.

Bryan: On average, how much do you make a day raiding, what would you say is a good find??

Jesus Nix: I don’t usually raid all day, but just if I happen across a good find such as a TO with a lot of drugs or a DAC with a lot of droids, I can make between 100k- over a million.

Bryan: So as far as heroes do you have any? You mentioned Bobo, and you aspire to be like him. Other than him were there any others?

Jesus Nix : I remember Scrotor Mcgrew was somewhat of a hero of mine. When I was a young pilot I would always hear news of him and of people hunting him. Another favorite was Amazon Jim. Just something about the bad guys, they make life so much more exciting.

Bryan says: Can you give me a little information about your past?

Jesus Nix says: Sure, started off on SKA and was always the hellraiser - didn’t follow rules, and I knew the stars were my destiny. I stole my first ship, then traveled to the sector of Tiexen where I made good friends with a pilot by the name of Varamin. I stayed in Tiexen for a very long time and became one of the first to join up the alliance TIRO. After months of being in there and in Tiro and after a few pirate rampages I soon left them once some others and me had a problem with how it was being run.

Bryan says: A few details?

Jesus Nix says : I didn’t agree with him or his policies, he was just annoying treated me like a kid, and he always liked to speak down to me like he some intergalactic psychologist. I said forget this and left to start the first of 2 alliances, first being the Crimson Knights. I left them, and started another called Element X, where I traded drugs for a while. What else? Oh yeah, and SG exhorted me for 3 million credits… when I controlled the Diphda nook. I was running Controlled Havok at the time. Wasn’t until Serio Beneficum took down my MO that I left alliances for a while, then to QI. I joined them because their nook had loads of swarmlings, and while I didn’t use them use them… I was loyal, I wasn’t mad to be booted. And finally the Moonies who don’t complain about my past, or path.

Bryan: Ok just a couple more questions. Do you work off whims or calulations in your piracy?

Jesus Nix: Whims, Some of my best acts of piracy were whims.

Bryan: Do you have any regrets?

Jesus Nix: No, none what so ever. I am happier than ever…If that’s all, I really have to be going. The hunters are tireless. You take care of yourself Bryan out there in open Space. – said as he swiped up his pistol, and made towards the exit.

Whether Jesus Nix ends up following his dream and becoming another in a shrinking list of famous pirates remains to be seen. This pilot, however, knows one thing: I don’t ever want to see that revolver up close again.

A Beginner’s Lesson of Starbase Combat – from a Beginner (Brackard)

I’ve owned a few starbases in my time but I’ve never really had to worry about actually protecting a starbase. TST’s relations with most alliances have been relatively peaceful, despite TST’s occupation. However, I now find myself with a new starbase at the edges of Empire/Federation in the new Pardus cluster - without any REAL clue as to what to expect when the Imperials decide to get uppity again….err, when the Union decides to play one side against the other again, err, when the Federation performs another dastardly act of cowardice upon an unsuspecting populace and needs to be exterminated, errr, how about when the factions just want to shoot at each other a bit more and get rewarded by their faction for it.

So, with that being said, I figured it was time for me to learn as much as I could about starbase combat without actually, well, destroying a starbase. So where to start? Seeing as I wasn’t going to be attacking anyone soon, that I had plans for anyway, I figured I’d start with defenses. Exactly what does it take to take out a starbase?

So I pulled out the blueprints for my starbase and started taking a closer look:

In the very center of the starbase is the Starbase Command Center. You destroy this, the base goes Boom. You capture this, the starbase is yours. Surrounding the Command Center is the Starbase Habitat Ring. Before getting to the Command Center, you have to get through the Habitat Ring. Seeing as I’d never tried to examine another person’s CC, I never knew this (actually went and tested this on another starbase just for fun – sure enough, you can’t get through).

Along the pylons of the starbase are starbase buildings and/or defenses. In the example we have here, we’ve got a number of Heavy Defense Artillery units and a repair facility along the pylons. The automatic 4 Standard Defense Artillery (included within the Habitat Ring) are not shown on the inner starbase screen.

So for starbase combat, you have two options, you can attempt to destroy a starbase, or you may attempt to capture a starbase. To destroy a starbase, a group of bombers must pass through a section of the habitat ring and destroy the Command Center. Sounds easy enough right? To capture a starbase, the bombers must destroy the entire habitat ring (all eight sections), and the capturing pilot must sit upon the Command Center for a set period of time (10 minutes?). After the time is up, the base is captured.

Ok, so we know HOW to capture or destroy a base, but how do you get the bombers and/or fighters? Easy enough! Any alliance or friend-listed starbase will have an option there for you to “Hire Squadrons”.

Here you’ll find a listing of the squads available for hire. In this example here, you can tell they are not exactly cheap (nor should they be). The handweapons payment requirement is due at the time of hiring and every 24 hours afterwards. Handweapons can be paid to the squad ahead of time if you know it’s going to take several days of travel (very similar to building supply).

The cost of fighters/bombers can be summed up as:
Bombers: 4000 credits * # of bombers + 1 HandWeapon/bomber/day
Fighters: 1500 credits * # of fighters + 2 Handweapons/fighter/day

Full a full squad of 100 bombers, it’s going to cost you 400k credits + 100 handweapons, + 100 handweapons/day thereafter. With handweapons running around the 4k mark (on the low side), a full bomber squadron will run you about 800k + 400k/day thereafter. A full 100 squad fighter will run you about 950k + 800K/day thereafter.

Squadrons are not quite as efficient as your typical high-end fighter. The squads are equipped with Ion drives (can’t get there QUITE as fast as most starbase owners), and the maximum squad AP is much lower as well – somewhere in the 850 AP range meaning if you plan on getting from here to there, you’ll need to baby-sit your squadrons quite a bit (moving several times a day to avoid losing AP).

Ok, so you hire your squadron. You can see your squadron sitting right there with you on the starbase you hired the squadron at.

So how do you actually MOVE your squads and such? Easy enough, from your Overview screen, you should see a new tab called Squadrons.

Hit the command button, and you are ready to go!

So we officially have a bomber squadron at our disposal! Now, what to do with him, what to do….well, the nearest starbase was some FHA member named Kaela who says she hates slavers, blah, blah, blah.. I won’t go into all the insults I’ve received from her seeing as only half of them are true. The other half, well, time to go test these bomber pilots’ skills against a starbase shall we? I did kind of bribe these pilots with a ridiculous game – the last survivor would receive an insane amount of credits – think of chicken, but with no survivors.

You maneuver your squadrons just like your ship. Nothing strange here. You head to the starbase interior (fly close), and voila, you’re all but there! But uh-oh, it looks like Kaela ‘smelled’ me out. As I attempt to walk onto the habitat ring to do some ‘major’ damage, I run into a fighter squadron. The fighter squadron has been set to ‘block the pass’ such that I have to get THROUGH the fighter squadron before I can begin doing damage to the habitat ring.

I went ahead and toyed with her fighter a round before deciding the odds weren’t exactly in my favor and tried something else. I went and picked another habitat ring to go toy with.

Just like any other building attack, you can damage the building. When you do attack the building though, you are attacked by not only the 4 SDA’s that inhabit the habitat ring, but every other defense that is installed on the installation. Assuming you’re going for the kill, you need to destroy one section of the habitat ring, and then move on towards the command center where you can destroy the starbase. Assuming a capture, you need to destroy each of the eight sections of the habitat ring and hold the CC for a set period of time.

Like any misadventure, my bombers met a rather gruesome end against the defenses of the starbase. And like any misadventure, I had to ‘convince’ Kaela that the attack was really just a grave misunderstanding.. You know, the coordinates I gave my bombers to attack were actually in another sector, and well, somewhere along the way they got confused and attacked the first starbase they saw. She believed every word…

How many squadrons does it take to take out a starbase depending on how many heavy defenses it carries? How many does it take to capture? How many bombers can a single fighter squadron take out? These, and other answers, are unknown to me – and known in detail to the few who have actually gone through with the actions. I am not one of those few. The numbers are jealously guarded – trust me, I’ve tried prying some numbers out of some people with little success.

One last note about starbase combat – starbases have the building of short-range scanner. What does it do? I hadn’t a clue. Kaela was kind of enough to send me a few pics. One from the starbase overview screen – and one from entering the starbase (as the owner). The scanner was able to pick up my bombers as they approached and convey the location to Kaela.

I hope this overview was useful to all the new starbase owners out there. Good luck. It’s going to be ugly.

Origin of Z-fighters Unveiled!

The Tribune has received a shocking report that the Federation has misled the entire universe about the origin of the Z-series. While initial reports were widely confirmed that the Federation was using the Z-series as a training tool and as a tool to gather intelligence about Imperial fighter pilots, the Tribune has uncovered the truth behind the sudden appearance of the deadly machines. Was the federation responsible? Partly. The truth of the matter, however, was obscured by the machinations of the Union. So, what is the truth? It seems that the Federation got their hands on an unlicensed clone of Thornal Malat, dread commander of Ye Olde Candy Lords. The cost to the federation was, in all likeihood, astronomical, but the rewards would have been great. The clone of Thornal Malat, however, initially rebelled against its Federation owners. So the Feds did the only thing they could think of: they replaced the clone’s brain with a mechanical one. Unfortunately, federation officials, while long enjoying dining on illegally obtained Ska’ari legs, never learned that a Ska’ari’s brain is split into two halves, connected by a fibrous nerve. The feds only removed half of the clone’s brain, and when the AI chip was introduced to that cavity, it somehow merged with the remaining portion of natural brain. The Thornal Malat clone, named Z-model 23, quickly began construction of a fleet of fighters hellbent on the destruction of the Federation. And so the Z-series was born. Federation officials have declined to comment officially on this matter, but a source speaking on the condition of anonymity claimed that soon after the release of the Z-16 drone, the Z-23 model escaped from captivity in Miarin and was last spotted heading East through Fed-Pass 01. While some doubt the veracity of this report, trust the Tribune in this advice: if you see the Z-23 or the pilot on which it was based, run.