Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska - HMS Minotaur/HMS Tiger

[Erremnart]

| Ship Log #5 - 26/4/828 |

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Sender ID: Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska
Recipient ID: HMS Minotaur
Subject: Ship Log #5 - 'False Beacon in Newcastle'
Location: HMS Minotaur
Priority: Low

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Ship log, entry #5:

26/04/828, Newcastle System - After the 'Skirmish near the Cambridge's fields', our vessel is still damaged. Our damage control crew and engineers are working day and night to make our hangar bays operational again.

At 1100, our engineers managed to make our weapon systems operational again. A patchwork job, I must add, but that will be solved after our vessel will receive routine maintenance at Portsmouth. With our performance severely reduced and repairs still underway, I've requested patrol duty through much calmer systems.

We began our patrol at 1200 and we have been monitoring situation in the Newcastle System. At 1453, we've received a strange system wide transmission from contact named as Planetary. It was calling on civilian emergency frequencies, so I've sounded yellow alert and moved to investigate. Its signal was coming from Northumberland Ice Field, an infamous staging point used by Gaians. Despite unfavorable navigational hazards posed by ice rocks, we've moved in at half impulse with all power in shields.
What we have believed to be a civilian vessel in distress, was Corsair bomber, luring us into the trap. As soon as we approached, he stated his intentions to destroy us and opened fire. With severely limited maneuvering options, we've been forced to slowboat of there while our gunners kept him at bay. Several torpedoes impacted our shields, knocked out lights in several compartments and send powersurges through non-critical systems, but weren't able to pierce them.
At 1555, our primary batteries managed to hit Corsair bomber and destroyed it. With our vessel safe, we moved out and returned to Carlisle's orbit to calm down a bit and run full systems diagnostics.

At 2151, when we were stationed above New London's orbit, we encountered Corsair capital vessel CNS Triunfante with clearly hostile intentions. We issued formal request to leave Bretonia peacefully, but they refused. With no other options at hand, I ordered helm to get us closer and gunners to fire at will. We have been supported by destroyer HMS Campbeltown from reserve fleet, whose captain clearly knew his job. He managed to take full brunt of Triunfante's firepower without taking too severe damage. Few minutes afterwards, near Cornwall Asteroid Field, we inflicted enough damage to force corsair vessel to withdraw deeper into the fields and disappeared within some gravitational anomaly. Without taking any serious or critical damage, both HMS Minotaur and HMS Campbeltown returned to New London's orbit shortly afterwards.

At 2257, when were were checking ships entering and leaving Bretonia in orbit above Planet Leeds, we have found Corsair vessel CNS Triunfante again, seemingly repaired and ready for combat again. Its captain was probably in a good mood, as he was threatening us to board our ships to get a way more cooks for Corsair burrito kitchens. I ordered helm to get us in and gunners to open fire.
This time, however, we were clearly missed support of HMS Campbeltown. Without such small and agile support vessel as that destroyer was, Triunfante focused all its firepower on us and while we exchanging fire almost equally, my gunners overloaded our power relays and we lost our heavy and primary battery power. Having only point defense weapons operational against large capital vessel, we've been forced to withdraw into the Leeds' smog clouds and hide from our pursuer in order to avoid destruction or capture. We powered off our vessel's systems and drifted silently while damage control teams were repair our vessel.
Two hours later, while our systems have been restored, CNS Triunfante was nowhere to be seen. We returned to the Thames Station at 0301 next day.

Our combat experiences so far revealed several weaknesses on our vessel.
Firstly - it's is our "Harvey"-type armor plating, which is inferior when compared to the rest of BAF vessels. I understand that our vessel was launched as cheaply as possible, but we will have to fill out request for proper armor plating in the future. Probably when we will be accepted into Auxiliary BAF fleet.
Secondly - it's our lack of long range weaponry. While HMS Minotaur has sufficient firepower up close, shortages in 'Cryogenic Anti-matter Projectors' means, that our ship was launched without one. Refitting our vessel with one of these would give us some long range abilities.

I'll post my requests when we've proven ourselves to my commander.

Anna Kwiatkowska,
CO of the HMS Minotaur,
Signing off.

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| END |

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Captain Virginia Belle
Task Force Phoenix
Battlecruiser Roanoke
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