SOURCE: Planet New Berlin, New Berlin System. ENCRYPTION: Medium, port RM-AE-12-VPR-SN2
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SUBMITTER:Gefreiter Adrian Wiesen RECIPIENT:Rheinwehr Secured Comm-Link SUBJECT:Patrol Report [10]
I joined Leutnant Sittlingen for a regular patrol today, which turned out to be more than an everyday lane sweeping. We were supposed to rendezvous at Hamburg jumphole and start the patrol from there, but we picked up a Zoner capital vessel right next to Essen, with no response from its captain. I did as ordered by the Leutnant and moved back to Planet New Berlin and switched to my bomber in case things got out of hand. After returning to the location of the capital vessel and firing a few warning shots, the captain finally responded and pretending to be unaware of the laws regarding foreign capital ships within Rheinland space, he finally agreed to being escorted out of Rheinland territory.
However, despite looking cooperative at first, captain of the capital vessel started arguing and refusing orders once we reached Frankfurt jumpgate. So, after an actually unneeded argument we decided to escort the vessel to Sigma-13 jumphole on the captain's persistence. No more than 10 klicks from the jumphole though, with no previous sign of malfunction, the vessel starts dropping out of cruise over and over, as a fighter class Zoner vessel closes by.
The fighter, who claimed to be the captain's brother, was the one who started the actual disagreement with Leutnant Sittlingen, and even resorted to insults despite clearly knowing the law said capital vessel was violating. As the last straw, with clearly hostile intentions, he ordered the capital ship to return to Essen and open fire if the Military tries to stop it. Disobeying an official order given out by a Military officer however, is sure isn't a bright move, and as we had no other choice but to use force against the violators, the fighter vessel was destroyed within seconds and the cruiser started shooting back.
Sadly, during an engine malfunction Leutnant Sittlingen's ship was destroyed, but I managed to tractor in the escape pod and he's in perfect shape, and with the help of RNC-Pinneberg who answered to our distress call, moving in to the combat zone under cloak, we managed to catch the Zoner capital ship by surprise and the ship was destroyed before having another chance to flee.
After making sure the area was clear, I returned to New Berlin and ended the patrol.