The Blood Dragons Communication Relay

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The Blood Dragons Communication Relay

ddogg

08-06-2019, 09:24 PM, (This post was last modified: 08-10-2019, 05:13 AM by ddogg.)

#42

Member

Posts: 28
Threads: 2
Joined: Jun 2019

Identification: Cpt. Tatsuo Kumahata, Kagutsuchi-class Hamamatsu, Nakai Clan

Subject: Encounter

Aisatsu, Dragons. Nakai Clan's investigation into Mr. Alexander Lafferentz and the missing O'Rhu operatives has seen substantial progress.

I was extremely resistant to the idea of dispatching my ship, the Hamamatsu, to assist a gaikokujin. Our support of Dragon assault-wings in Nagano and our assistance in defending the Nampo Cloud against the Aoi Iseijin pouring out from the Tohoku Planetary Arch have been invaluable to the Blood Dragons, and shifting such a tactically important vessel seemed to be a dubious, at best, use of our time. Nevertheless, the Order are our allies, and I understand we are honorbound to assist if they are faced with existential crises. I have seen the results of Mr. Lafferentz' tests: he is no alien, and certainly not a Kempetai after his assistance in striking Yukawa. And I take Shizumo at his word.

Dragon Shizumo, though he is still too young and too idealistic for my tastes, is a professional and committed member to our cause, and he has sworn on his honor that Mr. Lafferentz is telling the truth. Rest assured, if Shizumo is wrong in this, I will see to his hanging myself. But after what happened today, I am sure that won't be necessary.

The Hamamatsu rendezvoused with Mr. Lafferentz' Katana-class loan-fighter at Outpost Ryuku, and it was... amusing... to watch even an experienced Order pilot struggle to grasp the controls of a Blood Dragon fighter. He was ill-prepared for the substantial thrust of our engine and thruster designs, but I know Order pilots to be quick learners. After letting him get in a brief shake-down flight through the Nampo Cloud, we set off on our mission: to find any traces of the missing O'Rhu convoy in Sigma-13.

As many of you know, Minamoto Clan has been working on advanced scanner designs capable of penetrating nebulae. Though the designs are still in the early prototype stage, and primarily designed for our Hachiman-class gunboats, some bare-bones components have been adapted for use on the Hamamatsu. My second-in-command and chief navigator, Lieutenant-Commander Kiwami, brought all of these new systems online to aid in our search.

We were intercepted by some Bounty Hunters in Okinawa, and stumbled upon a dangerous pocket of volatile gasses, but our flight to Sigma-13 was largely uneventful. We moored ourselves at Gas Miner Naha to refuel and prepare for our search, and I suggested that Mr. Lafferentz seek out rumors and information on the Freelancer-hideout, Newport.

Our refueling was interrupted however, by a wing of Kishiro fighters that came through the trade lane in attack formation! In perfect synchronization, the turrets on the Naha opened fire on us, likely as the result of some Kishiro bribery. Unfortunately some of the crew of the Hamamatsu were onboard the Naha at the time taking care of some errands, assuming they were safe on the base of a friend. GMG's partnership with Kishiro, however, presents a potential danger for any Dragons venturing through GMG sovereign space. We were forced away from the miner by the Naha's turret battery, and regrouped in empty space to come up with a plan. I was concerned about the crew we left behind, but I knew the GMG would not permit them to be captured. Turrets firing can be dismissed as a computer error, but capturing Blood Dragons would be inexcusable. I knew my crewmen could hide out aboard the station. Lieutenant-Commander Kiwami was furious, rightfully, though I reminded her of the resourcefulness of our crewmates, and the importance of our mission. Despite my advanced age and high rank, I find myself having to continually earn her respect. As long as she does not openly disobey me or threaten my authority, I will permit her borderline subordination-- her sharpness keeps me on my toes, constantly analyzing. My mind remains clear thanks to her.

Mr. Lafferentz had a better idea than my seek-out-a-rumor-on-Newport idea... he remembered the convoy route O'Rhu ships would take from Frankfurt through Sigma-13 to Sigma-17. It was a slightly variable route; the inclination was randomly changed to avoid predictability, a wise precaution. The Order certainly share our talents for staying hidden when it suits them. The Hamamatsu followed him to the old jump hole into Rheinland, which Kiwami identified as leading to Frankfurt. Itachi received a communication that Dragon Shizumo would be able to safely retrieve our crewmen from the Naha after a changing of the guard. Lieutenant Itachi, my communications officer, later informed me that he was successful.

Mr. Lafferentz led the Hamamatsu along every possible route between Sigma-13's various anomalies, and aside from encountering a Corsair base (which thankfully did not mobilize larger ships to engage us), our hunt for any trace of the Ma'at or its escort, the Sakir'har, was peaceful. Mr. Lafferentz' sense of where to go combined with Kiwami's excellent ability to read what is shrouded in the complex ebbs and flows of a nebula to finally produce what we had searched for... we found something.

Lieutenant-Commander Kiwami found MOX-fuel burnoff byproducts, which Mr. Lafferentz informed us are commonly produced by O'Rhu engine designs. The patterns were decayed, roughly two or three months old, but following one of the convoy's paths brought us to a small piece of wreckage. The Hamamatsu followed Mr. Lafferentz in to examine the object we found, which was identified as an O'Rhu escape pod from the gunboat Sakir'har. That ship was escorting the Ma'at when the O'Rhu operatives went missing. Lieutenant-Commanader Kiwami and Lieutenant Itachi worked to restore the pod's power, and the Hamamatsu gunnery crew held off Corsair fighters while Mr. Lafferentz performed an EVA-boarding of the surprisingly intact escape craft. After a tense battle, Mr. Lafferentz was successful in interfacing with the O'Rhu's interface system, TAVIA, restoring shielding and beginning the data retrieval process. The Hamamatsu pulled the escape pod into its cargo bay under heavy guard, and Lieutenant Itachi took charge of towing Mr. Lafferentz' Katana. We returned with haste to Tohoku, eager to be free of the system's foreboding murk and numerous volatile pockets. We put into moor, took our crewmen back aboard, and offloaded the escape pod to a secure cargo bay on Outpost Ryuku.

I brought Mr. Lafferentz into my ready room for a brief chat before permitting him to depart, asking him to debrief me on what he had learned from interfacing with TAVIA. Unfortunately, the investigation is not yet complete. The pod's long-range communication system is currently offline and needs to be repaired; without it there is no way to easily locate the Ma'at, Sakir'har, or any other missing O'Rhu ship. Additionally, the local database had been partially corrupted with numerous errors in the memory cache. I will seek out capable engineers to assist Mr. Lafferentz, and I have also contacted Dragons Shizumo and Hayashi to provide further assistance to Mr. Lafferentz. The Hamamatsu is well suited for deep-space recon, however it lacks the subtlety of our snub craft and we attracted attention that I do not wish to bring upon Nakai Clan's crucial assets.

Be it known: At least part of Mr. Lafferentz story has now been confirmed beyond any shadow of a doubt: He has an intimate knowledge of O'Rhu systems that only belong to a true operative. An O'Rhu convoy was indeed lost in Sigma-13, and at least one escape pod was launched from the escort gunship. We won't need to hang Shizumo for dishonor. For now.

Attached: Moored at the Naha, Discovery of the Escape Pod, and Moored at Ryuku X

Attached communication logs: