One Patrol Corvette vs. Three Vargr Corsairs

[robject]

I want to write the climax/payoff for a story, but I'm not sure of the events.

The setup: a corvette has tracked a Vargr pirate to a gas giant. Three corsairs (three, not one!) rise up from the atmosphere, quite distant from each other, forming a 2-D triangle of sorts around the Corvette.

        P



        C


P               P

Having superior engines, the Corvette can simply boost out of orbit and leave. Having superior firepower (and a character we care about), however, the Corvette can stand and fight -- which it obviously must and will do.

Also obviously, at least some of the Corvette's crew must survive.

That's where I am.

It mustn't be an easy fight for either side. So we have jump drives slagged, armor damaged in key areas, bridges blown out, and so on to ratchet up the tension. Because just because I won't kill off the main character, doesn't mean I can't kill off the main character, right? Or have him taken captive and sold into slavery. Or have him challenge the lead Vargr for top-dog spot in the corsair band, for that matter...

Ideally, I'd like the payoff to be where the corsairs are defeated, barely, with one of the un-important ones turning tail and abandoning the lead pirate, perhaps at a critical point, or perhaps even after the battle is decided.

But how do I write ship combat?

Here's how I cannot write it:

(1) ship A shoots ship B
(2) ship C shoots ship B
(3) ship B shoots ship A
...
YAWN.

So. I guess I have to write it from a people's-eye view. What a crewmember is seeing, rather than (for example) the captain, who is tactically engaged and knows everything that's going on. BORING! Or am I mistaken?

 

[Orr]

Or am I mistaken?

I don't think you're mistaken about a "captain" or "bridge" perspective being necessary. I also don't think it's boring.

Have you read any of David Drake's RCN series? The technology doesn't match Traveller very well but ships fight with missiles, worry about vectors, occasionally escape via FTL "drive" when a battle goes against them, etc. Drake presents his battles using a mixture of three points of view: Daniel Leary, the captain/Jack Aubrey character, Adele Mundy, the sensor-comm-hacker/Stephen Maturin character, and as a 3rd person narrator. Much like O'Brian did with Maturin in his series, Drake's Mundy is not a trained naval officer or rating and as such often needs decisions and events explained to her - explanations which also help the reader.

 

[jcrocker]

Where is the main character? Is the story told strictly from their point of view, or is there an omniscient third-party point of view?

If the main character is a drive hand, their knowledge of the battle is going to be red warning lights, overlapping alarms, emergency bypass procedures and very different from, say, the sensor operator. Unless someone is on the bridge, they won't know details until afterward, if ever.

A third-party description could the overall battle - how the corvette ran down the corsair in front of it, used its superior weaponry to take out the engines of the target and condemn it to slow death by gravity, all the while jamming and evading for all it could. How the other two fought the hero's ship to a standstill.

All the drive hand would know would be lurches, hard turns, the grav plates/compensators crapping out again, until the panicky voice from the bridge on the speakers (not the captain, what happened to her? and what's that whistling sound in the background?) announces "All hands! Prepare to repel boarders!" and then the thuds of something heavy gripping onto the hull.

I'd suggest you decide what you want to have happen overall, then tell it from the POV of what the hero would see/hear/feel and nothing more, at least until the survivor from the bridge fills in the blanks over a beer, days or weeks later.

 

[Enoki]

What's the speed of the ships and how far are they apart? Also, what's their acceleration? How close is the gas giant / world and what's its position relative to the ships? Details would help determine the corvette's choice of actions.

 

[flykiller]

What a crewmember is seeing, rather than (for example) the captain, who is tactically engaged and knows everything that's going on. BORING! Or am I mistaken?

sub hunt. gas giant atmospheres have features so there's plenty of tracking and targeting action for navigators and gunners. and damage control can provide plenty of engineering action and involve any other characters aboard.

 

[mike wightman]

Three 400t corsairs vs a 500t corvette.

It doesn't look good for the corvette.

If I was the corvette captain I would, as Fly suggests, get into the atmosphere asap; reduced weapon and sensor range, plus more powerful m-drive to offset the GG gravity and a good crew may just have a chance.

In open space at such close range the three to one odds mean the corvette is toast.

 

[Enoki]

The reason I asked the questions is that I start from Big Picture and shrink the story to individuals, rather than try to just wing it and make it up from the individual level.

All those things, as LBB 2 would suggest, the ships can be plotted on a maneuvering board along with the gas giant. Four ships can be defined as a plane surface so they can be rendered in two dimensions relative to the planet.

You then carry out their maneuvers using the board's nomograms and the LBB 2 instructions. All sorts of oddities will pop up, they always do. The story then flows from the way the ships maneuver.

Oh, I'd add the questions, how big is the gas giant, and how far are the ships from it?

Big to small... It always works.

 

[Major B]

Rob, I have a couple of ideas that I hope you'll find helpful.

First the Corvette is in a bad tactical position. He needs to use some past tactical lesson he learned to maneuver into a better position. (I'm saying 'he' because I'm thinking of the story from the perspective of the corvette's commander)

His best option is to get into the gas giant. Maybe his ship has better armor so it can withstand the pressure and go deeper. Also better sensors.

The corsairs aren't military and may be rivals cooperating for the moment but not willing to stick their head out for one another or they all want to rush in to get credit for the kill before someone else gets it. Any way, they won't always act smart or cooperate well. That allows the corvette to double back under cover and pop up where he can get a one on one fight. Not on the pirate leader but on minion one. Corvette kills minion one but takes some damage.

When the other two pirates turn to engage, the corvette rolls back into the gas giant. The pirate leader sends minion two in with active sensors going full blast. The corvette ambushes minion two taking advantage of the corvette's stealth mask. They trade some point blank shots. The corvette takes more damage but minion two is taking the worst of the exchange and decides to cut and run.

While the corvette is trying damage control to get one or two critical systems back on line, the pirate leader comes in for the kill. He disables the corvette's remaining weapons. Maybe he even boards. Then either the critical system gets repaired or the boarding action fight culminates in a win for the corvette.

Or... start the story with the corvette captain complaining about having to carry a marine squad with him or even doing a Captain's Mast to punish one of the marines for fighting. Then when the ship is critically damaged, he tells his gunner's to cease fire knowing the pirate leader will try to board and capture the corvette. He arms the crew and sets an ambush with the marines that allows him to defeat the boarding party and then capture the pirate ship instead. But showing the marines on board at the beginning is sort of a Chekov's Gun nod.

Anyway, that's a VERY rough sketch of the main parts of the fight. I think a 3rd person narrative from the perspective of the corvette commander is a good way to tell it because its not ship A fires then ship B fires. Its about what decisions he makes, what orders he gives, what he knows and what he doesn't know yet.

When I started I thought this would be a short post but I feel I sort of rambled. I hope something in it makes sense and its helpful.

 

[Orr]

The corsairs aren't military...

That's most likely the biggest advantage here; definitely military vs. paramilitary at best.

I don't know which ship combat rules robject is using, but there isn't a lot of difference between the two designs. Assuming the "corvette" is the classic patrol cruiser, both are designs are 400 dTons with two triple laser and two triple missiles turrets. The patrol cruiser is TL15, the corsairs TL14. The PC are J3/4G, the corsairs J2/5G. The PC has a size 3 computer, the corsair a size 2.

There aren't many "bells & whistles" in the Classic rules and only a few more in Mega, but the Mongoose version added quite a few nice bits that could help the corvette. Passive and active ECM, better sensors, stealth, armor, and other such capabilities could help the military corvette against the paramilitary corsairs. SS3 has rules for building, but not using, sensor missiles/drones. Perhaps the corvette could be using one?

 

[The Pakkrat]

Perform this battle as the posts above suggest. Here's my addition. Try the battle out in Traveller⁵. Watch as sections and compartments get slagged about the main character. Build tension. "I was just in that compartment moments ago."

I say go with the tactical and then cut repeatedly to what is happening to or around the main character, balanced by what they sense and know via intercoms and orders.

In Traveller⁵ starship combat, a hit location is not necessarily destroyed, but is assumed unusable until a damage control diagnosis is attempted by the crew. It always looks worse than it is to the main character, right? Casualties in the hit locations may not be dead. The metal may be mangled about the console needed to save the day. Just gotta stretch....a little more to....purge the cabin pressure.

Devastate the reader's hopes but then correct those assumptions with the main character's skills, actions, know-how and the battle aftermath's diagnoses of damaged compartments, bulkheads, sections and casualties. Injure your main character and make it an internal conflict as well.

 

[Enoki]

I avoided specifics of damage as I generally use a homegrown version for that, but it sounds like T5 might be something similar. But, you really can't beat LBB 2's system for a small ship battle when it comes to maneuvering, particularly on a "MoBoard."

This gives you the details of the ship's maneuvers, the effects of the planet's gravity and even atmosphere if it comes into play. Big picture to little picture...

 

[Condottiere]

Plotwise, it can depend on doctrine.

Traditionally, Royal Navy officer corps had to balance aggression with pragmatism. Generally, you can't go wrong going in guns blazing, since Britain can afford to lose more ships, but they didn't. The crew might be incentivized with prize money.

The weapon systems mix might influence whether you close the range as fast as possible, or try to open it up.

If you can knock out two Vargr ships, your armament is destroyed, the Captain could try closing and boarding the last one.

The Vargr's own natural aggressiveness might keep them in the fight even in the realization that they are losing, being optimists.

 

[Brandon C]

I want to write the climax/payoff for a story, but I'm not sure of the events.

What the story is for determines how you are going to write it.

If it is a short story/novel for general scifi fans, the Traveller combat system doesn't matter. You are writing to entertain and games rules should not interefere with this.

If it is a story for Traveller players, such as to dramatically present the starship combat system or part of a play by post game, I'm not sure if you need to make it especially good literature. Personally, if it were PbP, I'd just want turn by turn blows.

 

[Orr]

... Vargr's own natural aggressiveness...

That's an important point and one which isn't addressed in many, if any, of the game's space combat systems.

Striker modifies Vargr morale, dropping it for recruits and regulars and raising it for veterans and elites. Morale in turn effects initiative. Assuming they're all volunteers and assuming any phonies would be detected through the constant charisma "games", would a corsair's crew be all vets and elites? If the crew is mixed, would a certain amount of damage cause a corsair crew to "break away"?

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

speaking of the corsairs, are they a known plot element at this point? could we switch viewpoints to the corsair bridge, showing the vargr captains problems of both fighting the corvette and his own crew (ie he would like to break off, but doing so would cost him is command and possibly his life, or how he is wary to trust the other two captains and they don't trust him, etc)

other ideas:

have the main characters sections become depressurised, and describe the sudden loss of life support as his helmet snaps shut, about how he can no only hear the radio and theirs no background noise.

Or maybe have his suit spring a leak and have his attention diverted to fixing and sealing the breech (good if you need a quick time skip)

 

[Major B]

Some additional input after reading more recent posts: The critical system that is down after forcing minion two to retreat is the nuclear damper. Some heroic action by the crew, maybe even the commander himself leading a damage control team, is getting the damper back online just before the Pirate leader closes to range to fire a nuke. With no option for a quick kill, the Pirate leader decides to board and kill everyone. The marines and remaining crew set an ambush, defeat the boarding team, and counter-board to capture the corsair and kill or capture the Pirate Leader.

The Nuclear Damper is an option in T5 but not in other rule sets.

 

[Enoki]

Another point to keep in mind: Pirates don't want to destroy the ship they're attacking / raiding. Destroying it means it's largely worthless except as scrap. So, initially, unless they're simply bent on eliminating this ship, I'd think they'd be trying to disable it in some way that would allow its capture.

 

[Orr]

Nukes or not, boarding or not, capturing or not, killing or not, we just don't know enough about the corsairs' intent to talk this out.

At first glance with one corsair seemingly leading the corvette into an ambush by the other two corsairs, I thought of this scenario as a straight up fight. No boarding, capturing, or any of that. The corvette had been a nuisance to the corsairs and they'd decided to eliminate it.

That was just at first glance though. Thanks to all the other posts by all the other posts I'm seeing all the other possible stories behind the scenario.

The backstory is going to influence the story of the battle and how it is told.

 

[Enoki]

Well, working out some rough idea of the vectors these ships would be having near the gas giant I came up with this:

I assumed the first corsair was trying to draw the cutter into a trap so it was allowing the cutter to slowly close with it and staying on a vector that would keep it out of the planet's gravity well (beyond .25G gravity). This means this corsair and the cutter both have velocity with the cutter moving behind the corsair on the same course.

The two corsairs in the planet's atmosphere have to begin to rise out of it before the cutter passes their position as a tangent to the planet's radius. If they don't they won't catch the cutter. This is because even with a 1G advantage in speed, they are in a gravity well and that's slowing their advance. This results in a curve of pursuit by these two ships.

I assumed these two ships were roughly equidistant on either side of the cutter's and first corsair's flight path past the planet.

Both the cutter and the corsair they're chasing are under acceleration and have some serious velocity that's increasing. Otherwise, the cutter would catch the first corsair well before the other two can arrive climbing out of the planet's gravity well.

So, the cutter Captain has several options here.

A. He decides that the ambush is too serious to take on three ships and changes his course to move away from the planet, breaking pursuit of the first corsair. This leaves the two new corsairs climbing out of the planet's gravity in the proverbial dust and the cutter gets away clean.

The first corsair (the one being pursued) could also change vector and increase speed to try and intercept the cutter hoping his buddies will catch up. This turns into three ships chasing the cutter rather than surrounding it. Their greater speed means they'll eventually start closing with the cutter.

This looks like a tetrahedron with the apex being the cutter moving away from the planet.

B. The cutter breaks pursuit and uses the planet to slingshot itself back into space at a higher speed using the planet's gravity.

This leaves the first cutter in the dust as it is further out of the gravity well and will have a harder time making a good curve of pursuit. The other two are left trying to accelerate up and out of the gravity well while still deep in it. They too can't catch up easily.

Again, at best it ends up a pursuit by the corsairs.

C. The cutter decides to go after one or both of the corsairs in the atmosphere.

Here, the cutter changes its vector towards the planet and one of the corsairs. This leaves the one being pursued out of the picture and depending on separation of the two climbing out of the planet's atmosphere, possibly results in a one-on-one. Once that one is defeated, the cutter could turn on the second and the result (assuming it's favorable to the cutter) is a defeat in detail. The second corsair loses, and now it's down to the cutter versus the one remaining one that likely has returned to help it's buddies... Unless it's fled seeing the others defeated.
Depending on their separation and how close they are to the planet, it would be possible that the second corsair loses a direct line of sight to the cutter and first corsair due to the planet's curvature...

Well, there's three good options for the cutter Captain...

 

[whartung]

This is the Kobayashi Maru.

Escape is his victory, as he can't take them on.

If he can outrun them, he should. He can either vector straight toward one of them, firing in order to distract/disable them at the risk of his own ship, or vector between two of them and make for deep space.

You'd think he'd just "turn up" and go, but then he has three ships, none with a disadvantage, as they all have the same range (some may have stored velocity on him as they're powering out of the giant). If he splits 2, then the 3rd is further behind, ideally given that one a singularly distinct disadvantage compared to the other 2.

Also, by using his original target as one of the two he splits, then that ship ideally has a forward vector that it would have to overcome in order to pursue. In the end, leaving 3 ships strung out at different ranges as you turn and burn to get away, ideally tossing missiles back at them to let them shoot at something besides you, and perhaps turn off.

All depends on how much more dangerous marginally closing the range as you split them is compared to just going "up".

In the end, you determine the outcome. You already know the outcome, the trick now it to dramatize it.

If the Corsairs are simply objects on a scope, the combat can be solely from the bridge wth occasional interruptions from Engineering to talk damage and turning the reactor to "105%". Discuss the maneuvering, what the captain is thinking, why he does what he does, projecting on to the corsairs what he thinks they're thinking and how well they live up (or don't) to his expectations.

Otherwise, you need to go back and forth between the conns of each ship (or at least the least Corsair), to visualize the combat.

I would not "dive" and play sub hunt. 3:1 they will find you, and being stuck in a nasty gas giant gravity well when your power plant goes dark due to damage -- not a nice place to be.