THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod

Satisfied that all was well in the sector, Ikeprof, jumped back into
Outpost Station sector and went full burn towards Arkans Cloud. Jumping
without incident, he traversed Arkans Cloud and Primus Point sectors
quickly. Tensing his thumb over the flashfire button, he quickly
inquired about gate camp issues at the gate into Dark Gateway. The
combat coordinator on duty informed him that no vessels were within 10K
of the gate. Ikeprof tensed slightly as he always did when jumping into
a known combat sector and was relieved at the lack of shield flaring
that indicated incoming fire.
Pitching quickly away from the mess of red and blue dots appearing on
his scope Ikeprof aimed his ship away from the battle and into deep
space in the sector. At 100K from the Primus Point gate, Ikeprof
pitched 90 degrees upward and continued on another 100K in case any
enemy ships noticed his original vector and was patiently waiting off
scope to follow him out. Thoughtlessly he flipped his ship and braked
it in a practiced motion. His hands moved quickly across his control
panel as he systematically shut most of his ships subsystems down.
Shields, ships radar, weapons systems all went dark as he activated his
cloaking modx. Satisfied he would present minimal energy emissions, he
notified the combat coordinator on duty that he was in position and
ready to assume control of the squads forces. The departing CC officer
had little to say, most likely due to his being under qualified for the
position. Ikeprof was fine with that as most of the time he found his
tactics clashed with those of other CC’s and he knew the men would
respond as they always did when he took control.
Activating his ships CC modx system, his entire hud exploded into one
huge 3d radar scope of brilliant colors and motion. The three on duty
squad scout craft with their powerful radars and electronic systems fed
massive torrents of information to his ship real time, allowing him to
have a perfect tactical view of the entire battlefield within the 50K
radar range of each scout in addition to the information provided by
the lesser radars of the other squad combat and cargo craft in the
sector. Ikeprof was pleased that at least the departing CC had placed
the Griffens in a nice triangle surrounding the bulk of the battle
action. Having gotten used to operating with only 2 scout craft,
Ikeprof was even more comfortable with the additional information
provided by the third scout. Each enemy blue dot on the scope carried a
pilot name, squad tags, ship type, shield and armor status, velocity,
and current vector indicated by the pointy end of the arrow attached to
each dot. Each friendly squad pilots red dot also showed him current
number of missiles and afterburner and flashfire counters. The fact
that this display filled the screen prevented him from flying at all,
but he knew that his job was as important as any other pilots job in
this battle.
Having proven long ago that voice communications were inefficient in
the milliseconds between life and death battles of the time, the
Venture class command coordinator craft were developed by Octavian
engineers. Only in conjunction with a scout craft did the ship realize
it’s potential. The oversized radars of the scouts were useful in their
own, but having the ability to transmit that information to a command
ship allowed the larger squads to truly coordinate their efforts as a
team. For years the scout craft was dismissed as an ineffective and
useless craft in combat, but after the Venture class ship went into
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