>>5842162Crane looks back at you from the communications console. “They buy our history, but since the ship doesn’t have a scheduled time, they don’t want to turn on the dock.”
You purse your lips for a moment, running through a list of possible responses. “Tell them we’ve got a crewmember suffering from an acute case of, uh… Marik’s rot, and our med unit is insufficiently equipped.” Well, <span class="mu-i">that</span> much was true. “It’s in a late stage, we need him stabilized before we go any further. It’s a matter of hours.”
The crewman translates the words, and while you don’t speak the language, he seems to be a good actor by any means. The fake please is punctuated by an uncomfortable silence, then a succinct reply from the station.
“The dock is green, captain,” helm tells you. “Proceed?”
“Yes, let’s fly in. Slow and steady. Sensors, what’s the read on the station?”
“I picked up some more detail on the commsuite, docks, and habitation levels,” he replies. “As for the station’s equipment, only light shields and point defense opticals. Again, nothing serious.”
You tap the arm of your chair to get your XO’s attention. “We can play this angle as long as possible, get docked and disembark en masse. The defense platforms won’t fire at us thanks to our proximity with the station.”
“Based on our understanding of the structure of the station, an attack through more unconventional means may prove more effective, possibly an EVA-based assault.” Shis’so is a pragmatist, thinking in terms of quickly winning an engagement. But of course, there are other considerations.
<span class="mu-i">Your ship is currently on approach to the General Systems station, disguised as a distressed civilian cargo hauler. How do you proceed?</span>
>Dock with the station normally. Once a connection is made, you can board the place with your assault teams. It’s debatable how much resistance the station will give your assault teams, but this option is certainly the easiest when it comes to getting your ‘troops’ off the ship.>Deploy assault teams beforehand. They’ll spacewalk to the station and infiltrate via suspected weak points. Though this would definitely catch the station’s crew by surprise, and the assault teams do have spacesuits, you would certainly call it risky. >Precision strikes before boarding. You’re still within the acceptable firing area for the defense platforms, but now that you’re close to the station, you could take out the station’s communications array before it raises shields, blast the outer defenses, and then board once that’s been dealt with; essentially prioritizing space targets before boarding. 