Gallic Royal Navy Transmission Center (iRP) (FO)

Exploratory Vessel Dea Matrona, [Location Redacted]
13. Septembre, 737 AGS

Sender: Agent Supérieur Marius Duval.
Recipient: Gallic Royal Navy, Internal Transmission Center.
Topic: ONI Report: Southern Tau cluster exploration.

Pilots of the Royal Navy; intelligence operatives,

The following is my report on yesterday's scouting operation that is to mark the beginning of a series of operations, through which the Office of Naval Intelligence will expand and improve its star-charts and other intelligence databases.

ONI operatives Morgana, Nantosuelta and Sirona accompanied the Dea Matrona, the research and exploration vessel under my command that has been assigned to this series of operations.

I will now document notable events that occurred prior to, during and after our charting of the Baffin system - the first of many systems we are to explore more thoroughly than we have in the past. It is worth noting that the priority of charting Baffin was increased after the ONI was informed of a planned meeting between the BDM and GRN officials that is to take place there¹.

On our way to Baffin, we encountered a Kusari Naval Forces patrol of initially four and later five men and women at Freeport Six in Tau-29. An incidental encounter that quickly proved fruitful, as I was able to acquire permission from the naval officers to, in the coming few days, pass through Kusari territory on our way to the Sigma cluster - a cluster that, too, requires further exploration. The audio log supplied below should provide more detail, if required.

Spoiler

Of course, we proceeded to our destination immediately after this run-in with Kusari's Naval Forces. This panoramic image was captured immediately after our passage into the system. A trail marked by buoys grabbed our attention, and led us straight to a - so far unexplored - jump anomaly within a large ice nebula.

Luckily, a Zoner vessel - a yacht of sorts - callsigned The Gremlyn jumped through the anomaly moments later. We took this opportunity to gather more information on the system, and interviewed the Zoner. Despite his odd and, at times, incomprehensible accent, we were able to acquire sufficient information - such as nav-map coordinates of notable planets and man-made structures - to plan out the rest of our operation. Again, I will supply a full audio log below.

Spoiler

We then set off to the coordinates supplied to us by the Zoner. Little of interest was found within the nebula - now identified as the Barrier Nebula - as we passed through it. At the coordinates, however, we found a somewhat atypical station. While it resembled a Freeport, it was larger than the ones we have found so far. It was either unaware of our presence or lacked weaponry, as we took no fire from the station gunners. The Temporary Autonomous Zoners, allegedly, base out of the installation. According to our Zoner source, the installation is nicknamed "Shasta". No further information is available on it at this time.

Operative Nantosuelta then spotted another trail of buoys which was, of course, promptly investigated by us. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide a substantial amount of information about our findings at the end of the marked trail. It led us, once again, into the Barrier Nebula. There, we found another installation. The gunners aboard this station, however, did not welcome our presence, and opened fire on the Dea Matrona as soon as we came into weapons range. As such, all I can provide is this low-quality guncam shot of the installation's silhouette. Within this nebula, and at a range of five clicks, we unfortunately couldn't capture a clearer image.

Knowing there was little to be gained by staying near this installation - which, given its hostile response to our presence likely alerted the organizations that inhabit the Baffin system - we chose to return to the station we previously discovered.

On our way back, operative Nantosuelta alerted us to the presence of what appeared to be a TAZ security vessel. The vessel - later identified by Nantosuelta to be of the gunboat class - rapidly approached the Dea Matrona. While we certainly had sufficient forces present to deal with the potential threat, we deemed a direct conflict so close to the Zoners' own installations unbeneficial.

The following guncam shots were taken during our encounter with the TAZ vessel:

As such, my team aboard the Dea Matrona spooled up our cloaking device. Operatives Nantosuelta and Sirona docked with our ship, after which the device was activated, rendering us invisible. This marked the end of our operation, and we made our way back to the Tau-29.

The following audio log covers all communications that occurred after our encounter with The Gremlyn up until the end of the operation:

Spoiler

This concludes my report,

Marius Duval
Agent Supérieur of the Office of Naval Intelligence

¹Refer to this neural-net link for more information. Access restricted to senior officer ranks and above.

Transmission End