Bretonian Armed Forces Defense Intelligence Staff (DIS) (iRP) (AO)

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Transmission source: Lieutenant James Arland, 2nd Fleet

Location: Planet Leeds HQ

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Another combat op today. I was woken up to begin my shift early by the damned Gauls attacking having somehow bypassed Leeds' defenses and making trouble in system New London.

Rather infuriating, I must admit.

So, I scrambled to my templar and launched, rendezvousing with my commander - Vice Admiral Davis - and the rest of our attending pilots to give the RSF what for.

The sorry bastards never made it further than just beyond the gate. In my haste to assist, I neglected to activate my guncam recorder, but one Gaul fighter went down in a blaze of fire and the rest of them made a fighting retreat to Leeds, somehow managing to override the lockdown on the Jump Gate that Vice Admiral Davis had set up.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, I'd say. Planet leeds is a like a bloody fortress at this point.

We gave pursuit, making contact and exchanging fire with the remaining RSF pilots at several points until they decided they'd taken enough of a beating and scampered off to Edinburgh.

At this point, Admiral Davis called off the alert and commanded us to stand down, returning to planet Leeds itself while Ensign Barnes and I resumed regular duties.

I ordered a continued sweep of the Leeds system trade lanes just to make sure we really were all in the clear, then we headed to Newcastle for a regular overview. I realize Newcastle might not see much action, but I reasoned we should look after our commercial interests there.

Our patrol was, however, cut short when Admiral Davis got back on the comms and reported a full fighter wing of Corsairs in Cambridge, at which we made for the system as fast as we could, forgoing the trade lane route through New London in favour of the Jump Hole in Leeds.

Upon our arrival, Admiral Davis divided us into two patrol wings to search for our targets, with Wing 1 commanded by Lieutenant Barnes, and Wing 2 with Davis in the lead and myself as CD support.

We didn't have to search long. Wing 1 reported encountering the Corsairs just off of Cardiff Mining Facility whilst Wing 2 had just arrived at Planet Cambridge. As the Corsairs seemed intent on reaching New London, we pursued and accosted them just beyond the New London Jump hole... Grid coordinates G-5, if my memory serves me. Both sides took their stand in two stationary groups as we - mostly Admiral Davis - spoke with the Corsairs.

As expected, this didn't work out - the four corsairs staged a retreat back to Cambridge, and we gave chase.

At the other side of the jump hole, the Corsairs decided to stop running and take their stand against us.

The fighting was ferocious - seeing fighters nimbly maneuver around asteroids, tightly packed and shooting at one another is quite a sight. I suppose it is a credit to the pilots on both sides of the conflict that nobody died from crashing headlong into one of the many, many floating space rocks.

The outcome of the fight wasn't entirely certain, but it was tilted in our favour.

One of the Corsairs were taken out in the struggle, strangely enough by friendly fire.

The fighting dragged on for quite some time, and some of us were running low on nanobots. In particular, poor Ensign Barnes, whose evasive maneuvers training hadn't entirely settled in yet.

Admiral Piett himself had shown up to take command of the engagement, not a minute after. He ordered Ensign Barnes to disengage, and took his place in the engagement.

Damnably, however, the Corsairs - one in particular - seemed hell-bent on taking the beleaguered Ensign down. We tried to come to his aid, tried to dispense some nanobots so that he might make it out of there - but we were not fast enough. Ensign Barnes was shot down toward the end of the engagement.

Ion storms made nav and targeting systems intolerable, and in the end we were simply forced to break off the attack and let the remaining Corsairs egress from Cambridge, back into the Omegas.

We headed back to Planet New London after a recovery crew had been dispatched to look for the Ensign's escape pod. With some luck, he will have made it.

Other than a small hunt for a GRN gunboat that had been spotted lurking around Leeds, the rest of my shift was uneventful and ended promptly at the bar on Planet Leeds HQ.

Arland out.

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