Report from: Ran Takahashi Location: Ainu Depot, Hokkaido
"Today was quite eventful...
We met up with Shine-yume outside of Malta in Omnicron Alpha and set out to return to Kusari. The journey went relatively peaceful until we reached New Tokyo, where we encountered a stubborn Samura, this.. 'Yoshimura Kurosaki', who decided to give chase to me and Shine." Ran looks more serious than usual. "We decided to avoid conflict until we reach a more.. familiar location, Ainu. We managed to return to Hokkaido, where another sister greeted and joined us. The foolish Samura pilot decided to retreat after we reached Ainu, but to no avail. Shine-yume appeared behind him and disrupted his cruise, after which the Samura started to engage. Our sister and I engaged in combat to assist Shine." She pauses for a bit, thinking. "While I don't really approve of these one-sided encounters, I have to admit, the pilot was very skilled and it would likely end very badly if we did not do so." Ran's face lightens up a bit. "After a bit of fighting, we managed to shatter his hull with a well-placed mine and some quick firing before he had the time to react accordingly, sending his ship home into pieces. Here is a guncam shot provided by Shine-yume: [x]"
"After that scenario was over, we went to Ainu to repair and restock. Then we set out to Kepler and later to the Taus through Ontario. We met a few liners along the way, but we found no reason to disturb them so far out in Liberty and independent systems. Reaching Tau-29, we found nothing and moved towards Tau-23." She smiles slightly. "After a bit of searching, we managed to find an IMG "Hegemon" miner as well as an Orbital Spa & Cruise Liner that was contracting it for Niobium Ore. Yes.. an OS&C Liner getting ore from IMG." Her smile widens. "The liner captain was quite a comedian, cracking jokes about a deadly serious matter of supplying our foes. He claimed that they were going to ship it to Coro.. err.. Colorado! We found that hardly convincing, and he soon no longer denied that he is fueling the enemies of a free and tolerant society of Kusari. We had thought about removing yet another ship from their ranks, but the pilots seemed inexperienced, so we demanded them to drop their ore and leave immediately instead. They complied, and we all left in our respective directions. On the way back to Kusari, we also encountered an Outcast, we told him he was quite late and continued on our way. Though, for better or for worse, if the Outcast had come sooner, the outcome would have probably been dramatically different." She sighs. "We decided to call it a day and head back to Ainu, whereas Shine went back to Omnicron Alpha for other business."