X3TC goner plot question. possable spoiler.

[SirCharles]

I am doing the part of the goner plot involving the truelight seeker. I amat the part where I need to follow the ship thru 3 sectors. I made it to the point of getting ready to jump thru the gate into the "unknown sector" west of Maelstrom. as soon as I get thru the gate, I get jump by a huge amount of hostile pirate ships, which include some heavey duty guys
( capitol ships etc ).
I have tried sending as many as 3 fully loaded pythons in a group to clear out the enemy, long story short, they get pawned after just a few minutes, which tells what kind of enemy firepower they are running into.
I have tried a few different variations of the same tactic, jumping in the pythons, then getting them out when their shields get below 50%. jumping them back in after the shields recharge, etc. No matter what, I cant get past the gate, let alone get far across the sector.
I forgot to check my fighting rank, but I know it is several levels below the highest one. I do not know why I am running into such a problem. I understand some missions getting harder with higher ranks, but this is nuts.
I remember there was another mission that I did a while back before I took a break. That mission was eventually fixed due to the lvl getting to hard to be finnished by most players. I think it involved the unknown sector by M148.
As it is, it looks like I cannot finnish the gonor mission due to being unable to get thru the unknown sector unless there is something other then looseing several pythons trying. please tell me there is another way.
Thanks in advance for any and all help given.

[cmdnenad]

Instead of bringing your entire fleet, I'd suggest a fast M6. I did it in Springblossom and managed to evade all the Carracks, Brigantines and whatnot . A few fighters that jumped me where easily dealt with.

[tbowen]

I may be wrong about this, but my understanding is that the pirates you will find during this mission aren't necessarily generated by the mission itself. Those sectors are heavily pirate infested independently of the mission. I've done those missions 2 or 3 times now and have had radically different encounters with pirates during my tailing of the syndicate ship.

In any case, cmdnenad suggests the best strategy--though it is difficult. Unless you have a fast enough M7 or M2 to follow the M3 and take on the pirates your best bet is evasion (springy is a solid choice). The difficulty is to evade while at the same time remaining within the mission critical distance of the syndicate ship.

What I have done is follow from high above or far below the regular space lanes--it has kept me out of trouble.

[SirCharles]

Thanks to both of you guys for the fast responses. I will use the advice and try again. now that I have a different way of thinking about it. I am starting to feel better about being able to finnishe the plot. I am hopeing to knock this off quick before the PHQ mission pops up. I just finnished the hub and want to do the PHQ and the player owned sector deal.

[PLX]

Flak-less (and at the same time PSG-less) capitals should be expected to perform poorly against fighters. In test I conducted, 10 Eclipses ate one Carrack for breakfast and then a second Carrack for a lunch (both had no Flaks) without a break (time to recharge shields). With only 1 Eclipse shields dropped to about 40%, no losses. Although pirate fighters you encounter aren't as mean as 8+1 front guns installed and 200 MJ shisld, they are waaaaay more spammy then 10 ships, right?
Also, considering how masterful AI is at not evading capital ships fire, heavier shielded M2s would perform better, then Pythons with only 6 GJ each.
So, If you are going to do that mission by steamrolling Pirates, you have options to try. Not to mention, your fleet in not limited to M2s.
And thanks for a good idea - I've done GO and Terran plots several times without epic battles, now want to do with them. And now I see, where they can happen.

[Triaxx2]

Jumping the Pythons in? IS, or OOS?

Either way, it's probably better to use a fast M7M. Enough fire power to take out the pirates, and enough speed to stay with the target. I think an Ares, or Cobra are the best bets.

[_Zap_]

mh. i rushed through with an m5 both times i did the plot.

[Freeholder]

I simply did a bunch of missions to build pirate rep beforehand. Most of the pirates I encountered in that "follow the blastclaw" mission were blue. The few red ones either turned blue when scanned or ate PAC fire from my rear turret until they couldn't keep up with me due to hull being below 5%.

[SirCharles]

More great info. Thanks to everyone for takeing the time to give some help with this situation. I am going to put a few more ideas I have gathered from the reponses towards makeing it thru the mission.
The fellow players that make up the community is what helps make these games so great.
Thanks to everyone for the quick reponses. I greatly appreciate them.