The Battle of Gundabadt Station

Finally the corvette's armour was completed.  A thick top plate, and two side/dorsal plates protecting her engines and vital systems.

This armour is designed to serve as a backstop for when the shields fail under heavy fire.

After fitting the Alannis out with the homing missile turret design that I had built for my turret emplacements around the shipyard and factory, she was ready to take out.

I went looking for a fight.

Where better than to announce to Gundabadt that my space was not only defended but that it represented a threat if attacked.  I turned my navigation computer to the Gundabadt Station, drifted out of dock, and then engaged full throttle for my target waypoint.

Testing my shields, escape pod (I had Taxi docked for now), engines, radar jamming, and all other systems on the Alannis while en route.  Everything performed marvelously, and I was ready to hunt some pirate fighters and maybe even put a dent in the station itself.

Some distance away the station began to become visible, I engaged the AI controlling my turrets, and they automatically fired a full volley from every turret at the station.  No going back now...

As my missiles closed in on the station it sent out an emergency call for any nearby friendly to assist, and before long I found myself in the middle of a fire fight.

The skirmish lasted for nearly 15 minutes and I quickly discovered that Alannis's shields were sorely lacking but that her armour offered her great protection from the beam weapons used by the pirate fighters. Their shots would destroy most armour cells they hit, but because of the movement of all the vessels in the battle it was very rare for their beams to hit the same area. So the armour as a whole soaked up a tremendous amount of fire, supported by the shields regenerating from time to time.

My homing missiles on the other hand took down target after target, usually only 1 or 2 missiles fired at a target was enough to pop it.

Before long I was swimming in overheating cores and drifting wrecks, and the station was completely disarmed and peppered with craters from my weaponry.

I explored the vacuum-ridden station in Taxi, plenty strong enough to withstand any small-arms fire that might have come from any suited survivors... as it turned out there were none.  The place was vacant.  I had completely squashed the station and inhabitants of a clan of pirates that had held me and my family prisoner for so many years.

Alannis had taken a beating during the battle, so we limped home for some much needed repairs.  She had fought well and proven to be far more effective than Gustav and SVG Speeder combined.  Alannis was not capable of salvaging any of the wrecks she peppered the battle field with, and her shields were woefully inadequate, but for my first corvette she had done well.  And nothing could distract me from the elation I felt at having destroyed my former prison station.

For the first time in my life I felt truly and completely free.