Bowex InfoNet (inRP)

[Thunderer]

- Incoming Transmission -

-= High Encryption =-

Priority: High
To: Bowex Info Net
From: William Richard Hall
Location: Planet New London, New London System
Subject: Convoy Report

William is seen bashing the camera with his fist. Actually... not William, but his belly, his beard, and of course, his fist. But that makes most of his body mass, so we can say it was William, without being too wrong. He takes the camera, turns it around, bashes it a bit more, and finally realizes it actually works, and that it's actually working right now. What is really a wonder after so much bashing. He puts it a bit higher, so it can record his face.

"Oh... Eh... Hello, chaps!"

He smiles slightly twice. His cheeks redden.

"Well... eh... We had a convoy yesterday."

"Well... eh...", although meaning absolutely nothing profound, was immensely significant for William. It made the faulty part of his brain concentrated at speaking nonsense, while other parts could devote themselves to reunification with each other.

"It was composed of three Shires, the Churchill, the Montford, and the Lipton, captained by myself. We were escorted by an Eagle from the ExSec. The two waited for me in New London, while I was coming from Omega-3. Not to go empty, I loaded my Shire with 3880 units of robotics, leaving 5 empty units in my cargo hold, and departed for King's Cross. We met there. I loaded my ship with beryllium ore and departed to New Berlin. All went smooth until there, and a bit later, under the condition the chaps didn't find my Omicron stories too frightening or disgusting. We loaded our ships with basic alloy, sold it in Munich, and loaded them with cigars there.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depends from what angle you look at it, the chaps liked smoking, and have already spend at least a half of their loads when we met some Gateway ships in Omega-3. We wished them a good day and proceeded, but we were prevented, since they disrupted the trade lane lane and demanded the cigars. Caring for the Bretonians' strong wish to get lung cancer, we denied the demand. The Gateway bomber and their freighter started shooting at us. There was also a freelancer Ahoudori, who I tried to hire, but I got no reply. The captain said "Oh, I better get paid for this engaging...", and engaged us. It seemed he prefered Gateway money over our.
The ExSec pilot told us to shoot at the gunboat, and that's what most of us did. The Montford, however, seemed to be too busy with the results of their choice of economy over armor. My own ship was really heavily affected by the Omicrons' ion storms in her old APM days, and her electrical systems tend to be choosing themselves when to shut down and when to turn on. They were offline for around a minute, right after a Nova hit. When they turned on again, the Lipton had somehow managed to get to about 5 clicks away from the battle, but I was sure we could survive helping our chaps. Fortunately, the repairs I activated during the jam worked. It seems only my cameras and guns were offline.
So, we closed in again, and unleashed all 12 type fours at the gunboat, which quickly fell. Unfortunately, so did the Montford. The Churchill was now under fire by the bomber and the freighter, with most of her guns probably disabled by the second, or the third Nova hit. We closed in for nanobot sharing, but a supernova cannon appeared to be faster. The Churchill exploded and we picked all the survivors up, same as we did with the Montford. Nice to leave some cargo space empty, isn't it?
The bomber was now out of nanobots and rendered out of batteries by combined fire of the Lipton and the ExSec pilot. It was quickly downed. The freighter had no choice, but to dock on Aland. I docked the Lipton there as well, after we evaluated the situation at the end. The Lipton had 500 batteries and 404 nanobots left, our hull damage was light, but our turrets were heavily damaged by the Nova. Total repair cost was a bit more than 300,000 credits. I tried to find the Gateway pilot and face him eye to eye... or fist to face, rather! But the coward hid somewhere, and I couldn't find him. So, I departed to planet New London and delivered those 3880 units of cigars, along with the disabled Shires' crews. We were escorted by mister Frost, but it seems the escort was unneeded, since all flowed safely and quietly.
If any proof about what has happened is required, it is stored on Lipton's memory, and I am copying it to my computer on New London right now."

- Transmission Over -

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