Xeno Alliance communications (iRP) (FO)

[Karst]

Milk here.

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I'm delivering a report on the initial flights of the new CT-49X class transport White Sands, formerly the USI ship Millbrook, recently acquired courtesy of Universal Shipping's generous support.
Maintenance has proven to be no issue at all, although obviously she hasn't been in service long. CT spare parts are cheap and easily available on the open market; the only one we've needed so far, a spare coupling for the posterior cargo pod, was obtained and installed by Ouray's teams in less than twenty-four hours. It helps that the ship is a relatively new model, manufactured in 821.
Handling-wise she is remarkably agile, honestly not much slower than some of the slower bombers our pilots might be familiar with, making maneuvering through asteroid fields and other tight flying an absolute breeze.

The first substantial journey I undertook with the new vessel was one of the deliveries for Milford, delivering Copper from the IMG in the Omegas. I won't go into detail here, since I'll be reporting the journey separately on the contracts board anyhow. Suffice to say it went without issue.

The next was a more substantial task: Finally towing the old Alabama wreck to Fort Ramsay. For this purpose, I had the cargo pods substituted with magnetic clamps. The White Sands on the starboard and the Mojave on the port side of the wreck stabilized its towing trajectory, while the heavy Sonoran provided most of the thrust from the bow.

Though we remained undisturbed by outside forces, the towing process was lengthy and not without issue. Structural damage, presumably from asteroid impacts, that hadn't been revealed by our preliminary scans, had weakened the starboard armor plating, and the magnetic clamp caused a tear approximately twenty meters in length at the White Sands' attachment port, forcing me to reattach on the starboard-center hangar plating and hoping it hadn't been similarly compromised.
All-in-all, it took around nine hours to move the wreck, but aside from some superficial damage the ship made it to port intact.

We didn't get much of a respite though, as our little trio of transports set out to a mission into the Omicrons to cultivate our trade contacts with the Corsair Empire. Naturally we flew cautiously through Kusari space, and were not spotted by any law enforcement or civilian traffic.
Some day, I'd like to see more of Crete than the foreigner's space port, but I'll need to find time for that. The return journey was uneventful as well and our cargo reached Ouray unmolested.

Milk out.

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