Zdravstvuytie. Prepare yourself for a long one, comrades.
After reading Comissar-Commander's Katz report and recommendation regarding the Hispania, I took off and flown all the way to Alpha to see and lay my hand on Hispania myself too. I didn't knew what all was I going to experience there.
The first obstacle, the huge minefield in Eta, was quite easy to beat. I've found a narrow passage trough the field, and flown trough easily. I documented this and marked it on the navmap, in case someone doesn't know where it is. It might be handy in the future.
After entering Alpha, I was lucky at first. No one noticed me, they had a bounty hunter to shoot, and whole Alpha was hunting for him. I took the ship straight for the Hispania. Well, not straight. I've flown under standard radar range and approached from below. Then my luck left me. Unfortunately, the hunter and the outcasts were fighting just near the Hispania, which didn't allow any silent approach to the target. Rushing in in a Partisan wouldn't end up well, so I had to wait a while.
After a few minutes, I tried my luck. It seemed like that the space around the wreck is clear now. But as I approached closer, scanners started showing contacts and I had to withdraw. The photo shows how close I got.
The Outcasts who detected me alerted all their forces, and knowing our previous visit, they started guarding the area around Hispania. I quickly ran away, and started my secondary goal - mapping the system and it's defenses as much as possible.
This was in the very end before my leave. Wondering what is that Omicron 82 hole? Da, that's the most important and most interesting part, I'll get to that point soon.
I tried my luck and contacted the Outcasts over system comms, asking for any jumphole out. More different ways for retreating can be useful, and I wasn't sure if I have them all. One of the Outcasts, D.Jameson, recommended a certain sector - E2.
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I knew it could be a trap, but I carefully travelled there regardless. I found nothing at first, but after coming closer, my scanners detected a slightly unstable jumphole. I took a deep breath and jumped trough.
The first thing I noticed was energy weapon fire landing on my shield from various directions so I've gone evasive. Those Weapon Platforms were bearing signal very similar to Phantom one. This caught my attention. As soon as I was out of their range, I started exploring the deep, dark space. The radiation, asteroids and nebula wasn't very nice to my scanners and guncam - That's why the shots are quite bad quality.
The nasty radiation nearly convinced me to turn around the ship which was getting damaged, when I stumbled upon something big. One huge rock, deep in the dark, surrounded by many weapon platforms.
It wasn't just a rock though, there was a huge base of unknown origin inside. Because of the defenses, I didn't dare to go closer. Many Phantom Weapon platforms around suggest that the base might be theirs. If we are to make ourselves sure, I suggest a few more organized Recon wing missions into the system. There was no Phantom ship activity in the system at the time, the base might have been just abandoned with automatic defenses left online.
As soon as I left the hellish place, I've set course for the nearest jumphole out of Alpha. Confused by what I've seen just a while back, I didn't pay enough attention and one Outcast noticed me. He got too close and I couldn't escape from his range. Surprisingly, he didn't want to shoot me - He gave me suggestion to exchange information. I took the chance, and tried to make him tell me more than I told him, which I think I succeeded at.
He seems to know a lot about Phantoms, and suggested giving us some info. They are apparently neighboring with them, which again, proves my theory that Omicron 82 is Phantom-controlled. I don't know how much he can be trusted, but he certainly knows something.
I continued on conversation with him. It was very, very long. I've recorded most of it, and chosen a few parts of his speech which I thought are interesting. If anyone of the higher command wants full version, I'm ready to send you the whole huge amount of data.
In the end, he gave me something that I could call a "gift". He claimed it might be useful for our scientists to gather more information about Phantoms. I honestly don't know if that is true - but the package wasn't rigged by any cameras or spy systems, so I took it to our labs.
The way back was quite calm. He even didn't stop me from leaving. Either he's totally stupid, or has some motives I don't understand. Either way, this concludes my report. I hope the information provided will be useful.
Oh, and I swear I'll finish my touch-the-Hispania mission later, really.