23/05/828 - After we were forced to withdraw after our damage sustained in the Tau 37 against Gallic forces, we fled through Kusari to Sigma 19 to take our route back to Omicron Beta. We encountered some hostiles in Honshu, so we were forced to take detour through Okinawa System and sneak through it to Sigma 59 where we can hopefully sneak past our pursuers to Sigma 19. With my damaged vessels I was not risking another enounters until it's fully repaired again.
At 2100 - When we were sneaking through dark Aniva Nebula and navigating in slow speed to avoid all those large rocks - we have detected an installation floating near planet Toyohara. As we haven't got any base in here in our databases - I've sounded red alert and prepared damaged cruiser for last stand.
Fortunately for us, station wasn't sending any locking signals at us and there were no signs of powering up shields or weapons. I immediately withdrew cruiser back into the clouds and waited, powering off all unnecessary systems down and just listening to our passive sensors while hiding within dark clouds.
After roughly half an hour of waiting, I've decided to launch a probe towards the base and get readings on what is happening. First probe was lost in the Ania Nebula, second one managed to home on station, take some readings and return back. From what we've learned - station was seemingly abandoned, not responding to the presence of our probe and not transmitting any hails. From few recordings we've recorded - base was damaged.
At 2135 - I've ordered Amalfi to slowly approach the station. Even while we are damaged and not operating at full capacity - I decided to investigate this deserted facility for any useful information we might find.
From its automated transmitters - it's name was Yaese Research Station. I've sent a request to our database and there are no records of such installation in our files. Maybe other Maltese factions know about it, but we are unable to reach out to NeuroNET through the nebula.
Base suffered damage from some unknown cause - our sensors aren't precise enough to tell whether it was caused by gunfire or onboard accident. We also had issues scanning the base as our scanners weren't able to pierce through its shielded hull. Power was running low and life support looked compromised at several decks, but installation looked structuraly sound enough to be worth investigating.
At 2141 - We've sent request to dock - which was approved, but as we maneuvered our cruiser at the mooring point and its mechanism was not responding. As we are not fitted with any snubfighters - we don't have a docking bays to launch and recover them - there was not an option of using them to get some small team aboard the station.
At 2155 - As we were discussing our options, few men volunteered for an EVA operation to get into the station. Conditions were dangerous - a lot of charged debris was floating through this nebula along with increased radiation levels, but they were not discouraged. Our course of action was to carefully monitor patters of floating debris and launch our EVA operation when there were no debris inbound. Using our guns to intercept rocky debris was not an option.
At 2332 - Our EVA team finally managed to get aboard the installation. We've almost lost one man who only closely managed to evade one of those charged flying rocks and we have to recall them two times, but we were eventually successful. Thick plating of the facility prevented us from communicating with our team, so all we could do is to wish them luck as they entered darkened space hulk.
In the meantime - I've assembled another two squads of marines to sweep through the facility once we've managed to activate mooring mechanism from inside.
At 0000, 24/05/828 - After a long and tense waiting - mooring mechanism finally activated and our vessel was secured. As the airlock doors opened my marines were greeted by our EVA team - all were good and healthy. Two squads of marines proceeded to sweep the abandoned facility while our heroes were took into the medbay to received treatment for all those rads they've received as they were floating in the nebula.
At 0400 - Yaese Research Station was searched by my men. Station is abandoned and there are no signs of previous crew. All the computer systems are either locked or erased, which meant that we had no clue about what happened in here. Their portable scanners haven't found any life signs aboard the station. There is a slight problem, however.
We will have to stay here a little longer as two of our marines - A. Sanchez and J. Picani have not returned. Their squad members weren't aware of their disappearance until it was too late. Attempts with contacting them through radio wasn't successful and our ship scanners weren't able to find them either. The only option is to send another men in there. I don't really like this, but as our vessel is not in imminent danger - there is no excuse for not trying to find them. Besides, no Maltese will be ever left behind.
I've set a watch at the airlock and gave my marines a four hours rest before we assemble our seach parties again.
