I grab my repair tool and set to it, working to restore the conduit fully. The last of the embers died but still the gun would not charge. Engineering, divert more power cells to science.” “Science run boost program and then attack with a sitting duck virus. “Weapons damaged, charge to the main turret is incredibly slow,” reported Corsi. The main power conduit and console was on fire so I quickly grab the fire extinguisher and begin spraying down the fire. I jump from my captain’s chair to run to the teleportation room, which leads me to the weapons bay. The lights flicker momentarily then they’re back as I notice on the status screen our shields are not only down, but the weapons bay has taken serious damage. The shipped rocked sideways, an explosion setting off alarms. “Core temperature rising, captain,” warned Naomi from the reactor room aft. Cocainee struggled to adjust the ship’s course against the powerful laser’s shot. The ship lurched from the recoil as the laser spewed to the port side of the ship, towards the enemy cruiser that was, until now, 5 kilometers distant. Just as he left, a red flash indicated our main turret fired. Naomi, the engineer, pressed a few things on his console and then ran out of the bridge to man his station in the reactor to ensure we would not overheat. “Engineering, initiate jump drive charge and head back to the reactor. I turn my chair directly behind to see the engineer and the scientist officers at their station. Thankfully our range has kept the worst of the damage from us. “Enemy is firing lasers! Permission to fire!?”Ī cursory glance at my control screen shows we’ve lost a quarter of our shields. “Incoming fire!” Hurske, the weapons specialist called from his station at the main turret, located directly on the top of the ship. The planet beyond the view screen rotates as he manipulates the yoke of the Intrepid-class light frigate, we were turning upside down and slowly away from the bright disc.

“Pilot,” I call from my captain’s chair, addressing Cocainee at his controls directly in front of me at the base of the view window, “keep our distance and maneuver to get a shot.” Winkle calls out a warning: “Hostile ship, scanning!” The readouts in front of me pulsate as I glance over the status. The HMS Dauntless drops out of warp in the Adalmaak system, a pretty large orb of blue directly ahead shifts into our main view. Does this new approach herald a great game, or does it fall short?

Well this is a breath of fresh air: this is what it would really be like to control a ship with a crew of five, each officer responsible for his station and ensuring mission success and survival. But in any case, we’ve always controlled that craft with simple mouse clicks, controls and joysticks. We’ve all played games where we control a starship – smaller ships that could be manned by as small as a 1 man crew or some that needed thousands of hands.

Pulsar lost colony boarding