Hellfire Legion Message Dump (AO)

[Echo 7-7]

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Lord, it's been a tough day. The Legion has been fighting all the way from Bering to Colorado.

Operations began with the deployment of Legion Captial ships to lock down the Bering system and eliminate Liberty Navy vessels. This is an easy task for the Legion ever since we secured passage through Unioner-controlled Duesseldorf. The Abaddon and Ven'Gyr are shown here moving into position.

The first major kill of the day went to the Cruiser Damocles, torching the LNS-Memphis in the Tanner Asteroid Belt, with the bomber Abaton flying cover.

Any other Navy vessels that might have been in the area did not take the bait, or were deployed elsewhere, so Grand Admiral Calder aboard the Incursus ordered my gunbship, the Icebrand, and the Damocles, captained by Fleet Captain Kapell up into the Texas system. Resistance was light, but we took a circuitous route around Planet Houston just to be safe, and then jumped to the New York system.

We proceeded cautiously towards Norfolk Shipyard. The Icebrand was tasked to scout, so we scanned the base at a distance. Registering both Naval and Corporate vessels in the vicinity, we pulled back to regroup and plan our next course of action. Calder had by then transferred over to the Last Sunrise, and Kapell to the Abaddon, in order to deal with different configurations of hostile vessels. We were also joined by the bomber Borgir.

To our surprise, we discovered a BDM gunboat that had infiltrated Liberty space. Undoubtably here on a spying mission, the Admiral ordered its immediate capture. We surrounded the ship and disrupted its cruise engines, demanding that the Rheinlandic vessel comply or be destroyed. Initially, it seemed the gunboat had given in to demands, but as we were on our way across New York, the gunboat diverted and dived for the New York sun's corona.

We relentlessly chased the gunboat into the corona, unsure if they were attempting to commit suicide and take their secrets to the grave, or whether they were attempting a risky manoeuvre to throw off our pursuit. Pounded by the sun's intense rays, the BDM gunboat crumpled underneath the combined fire of the Icebrand, the Abaddon and the Last Sunrise. It is unclear whether the captain's last words were ones of rage or defiance.

After some emergency repairs in deep space, Task Force Gladius returned to Norfolk Shipyard. A Navy Siege Cruiser launched to counter our assault, but soon learned the error of his ways, and we burned the ship in the fires of Hell.

Unfortunately, the Icebrand's data recorders were knocked offline by stray cannonfire from Norfolk's defence grid. The Navy began deploying a number of bomber class vessels in an attempt to destroy our Capital ships, but the Admiral ordered a tactical retreat, and we made a fighting withdrawal across New York to the Jersey Debris Field. We narrowly escaped being caught by the Cloverfield, a Primary Fleet Dreadnought. Naval ships hot on our six, we jumped to the Colorado system.

At this stage the Task Force was nearly overwhelmed, so we called for backup from other Legion assets. A massive brawl erupted erupted on the Colorado side of the New York Jump Hole, with Legion interceptors attacking Navy bombers who were in turn targeting Legion Capitals, my gunboat included. Amongst our fighters were the Razordancer and Star Colonel Dagon.

The Iblis cruised in from our staging point near Ouray, supporting the fight at a distance. The Razordancer was shot down by Battleship Missiles from the LNS-Prosecutor. Taking heavy fire, the Iblis was crippled and had to withdraw. The Ven'Gyr, commanded by Voss, was approaching, as was the fighter Wainwright and the bomber Beta 3.

We directed our fire against the gunboat LNS-Montreal, to little avail. The number of bombers was more than our fighters could handle, and incoming torpedoes caused the Icebrand to lose power, drifting off into the asteroid field with failing engines. The Legion's last act of vengeance was to terminate the Prosecutor. The Ven'Gyr's heavy batteries left the Liberty Dreadnought a flaming wreck, buying enough time for our remaining vessels to escape.

We lost many good Legionnaires this day. I know their sacrifice was not in vain, as we managed to strike a blow to the heart of the Liberty Navy.

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