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Incoming Transmission Liberty Navy, First Fleet
LIBERTY NAVY PATROL REPORT
Lieutenant Darren Barnes
DEPARTMENT RECEIVING: LIBERTY NAVY PATROL ARCHIVE
-- Begin Report --
There's an age-old adage - "Be careful what you wish for" - and I should've been careful what I wished for. Today the Colorado patrol was back on the books, "Fantastic" I thought, finally some time out of the New York sector and out into the backalley of Liberty that is Colorado. The start of the patrol was peaceful, I visited the major waypoints on the assigned route, checked in with some local police forces at each of the main stations and there wasn't much going on, almost too quiet, or so I thought.
I had contact with some of the other Navy ships in New York, explaining to them about my relief being assigned a patrol outside of the usual areas, when there was a report that there were some hostile capital vessels that had just come up on scanners in Colorado, at the New York jumpgate. At first I thought it was a false report, I had just been there and saw nothing of interest and was now past Planet Denver, with again no substantial activity to report back on. I immediately turned around and made a beeline back to the New York gate, almost expecting to find nothing.
To my surprise, I would find myself quite mistaken. I cut the tradelane about 15 clicks from the gate, immediately noticing 3 large hostile contacts repeating on the scanner, I checked the IFF return, Outcast vessels, and not fighters either, these contacts consisted of one Gunboat class and two Battlecruiser class vessels. In my very heavy fighter, I didn't like the look of this situation. I noticed the Gunboat took note of my presence, and started to approach my location with speed, so I kept distance and observed the vessels from about 10 clicks out, reporting the information up the chain of command to nearby Liberty Navy capital vessels which were already responding to the reports in the New York system.
The Liberty Navy response fleet was gathering at the Colorado jumpgate in New York, so I ran the gauntlet managing to slip past the hostile capitals, back into New York to the reassuring sight of Navy capital vessels awaiting my attendance. I gave them the updated intel, and as the final ships gathered I was commanded to take point. I obliged, being first into the Colorado system once again, met with the same sight I had just flew past to regroup.
Things started fast, with the Navy ships getting stuck into the fight right away, I kept my distance observing the battle unfold, feeling less than useful in my heavy fighter watching these behemoth vessels exchange blows. The next period of time feels like a blur, I hardly had time to notice what ship was where amongst my own strafing runs of Outcast capital ships and exploding blue novas of light. After noticing several of these explosions, I noticed new hostiles on the scanner. Liberty Rogue destroyers had noticed the confrontation and decided to join the fray, this was not good for us after all. I was bought back to reality when I witnessed a 46th fleet prototype capital ship explode in a blinding blue light, I got some distance to protect myself from the explosion but it was little use, the damage was done to my morale and the ship was the least of my concerns.
One by one, our Navy capitals faltered under the immense firepower, outmanouvered by the Rogue destroyers that came in to assist. The scanner now read an overwhemling amount of hostile contacts, and the remaining Navy capitals were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. I managed to get some distance, and reluctantly disengaged with another Navy vessel - a gunboat class. We managed to get to the New York jump gate and got ourselves safe, both of us feeling defeated and demoralized from what we had just seen unfold before us.
I returned to Battleship Missouri, and immediately began uploading this report, partially shaken by the entire ordeal I had witnessed. All in all, lessons must be learned from this confrontation so that Liberty's enemies are not victorious once again.
-- End of Report --
Lieutenant Darren Barnes
DARREN BARNES
LT, 1FLT
Liberty Navy
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