'Stulingen' Mission Center

[Heuschrecke]

SENDER: Soldat Gunter Schwarz
RECIPIENT: Special Unit ‘Stulingen’, MND
LOCATION: RNC-Fenrir
SUBJECT: Rheinland Patrol

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Guten Tag Kameraden,

My formal report of the Failed interception of the Corsairs fleet, and subsequent patrol of Hamburg and Cologne on 20th September, is as follows. Scrutiny of my actions during this day fall to my Superiors, as I myself also suffered to perform adequately in time for our Great House. It was shameful that such a sizeable force slipped right through the heart of Rheinland, without so much as a speeding ticket issued!

The vessel assigned was in servicing when the Intercom called me to action. A contingent of Corsairs had been sighted in the borders, between us and Gallia. Rather than dismiss the crews, I allowed them to continue servicing the vessel. I felt that if this was complete, I would stand more of a chance to intercept, rather than risk faulty systems hindering my attempt. At 19:37 hours, Twenty-two minutes late to the scene, I arrived in Hudson, alongside another agent but recently deployed. We both were late to the border, the Corsairs managing to depart into Liberty.

Superiors were already on-site, and this was not a welcome sight. It seemed even they had also missed the tail-end of the convoy. Otto and I took up position nearby Manitoba. I gave my apologies to them, and the reason for my delay. It seemed it fell short during the conversation, so I remained silent while I awaited instructions. Command would not be happy with this slip-up of our forces, least of all that we all seemed to fall short in a time where swift action was desired. The comms chatter between the RNC-Bietigheim, KKS-Luebeck and other Military units did not sound so good for us, but the highlighting of every deployed unit's failure likely softened the blow a bit for all of us.

Some more discussion upon which other weaknesses in our defences now became our concern. With a large portion of our active personnel situated within the confines of Hudson, there would be no knowing of any other potential attacks within the area. Just shy of 20:00 hours, instruction to begin patrol of first Hamburg, then Cologne was given. I was to take point, with Operativ-01 and a wing of fighters as company. As patrol wing leader, I decided our route would be best taken away from the lanes, to observe and report upon the places where eyes do not normally reach.

From the Hudson gate in Hamburg, we navigated through the Nordheide to the Bering gate, of which there was no activity. Before we breached the asteroids, a flash of contact upon sensors. The flash was too brief to make out what the transponder of the vessel even was, but if my eyes did not deceive me, the momentary IFF identifier read as if it was an Order vessel, that passed straight in towards Hudson behind us. We had our orders, we did not pursue. Patrol observed no disturbance around the gate when we arrived, nothing unusual on sensors. We continued onwards, around Planet Hamburg, where another fighter escort was assigned to our formation. Although I was not expecting any combat, nor much action at all, the extra support was welcome. Passing by Alster, there was the occasional Unioner vessel darting away. Nothing that would not be handled by local Polizei. Patrol halted at the New Berlin gate and I awaited the escorts that had begun to fall behind. When all craft were in formation once more, we moved out, reporting no activity from the jump gate. So far, rather an uneventful flight of Hamburg. This continued through the Sudheide asteroid field and around the Planet Hannover. Patrol formation halted some way into Kielfeld, and took some time to observe the area. There was nothing.

As patrol wing moved onwards, towards Cologne, I reported in that our sweep of Hamburg was complete with minimal activity. The report was affirmed and instructions were to continue as intended. Our first motions were towards the Stuttgart jump hole. At first, it looked about as uneventful as the previous system of patrol. Then, a disturbance. An active anomaly, one not previously noted before. It looked newly formed, but not as a gateway, more as a single link from A to B. The readings seemed to correlate that Cologne was point B of this tunnel. Could this be what the Corsairs used to bypass our defences so easily? This exit point was a mere five klicks from Stuttgart jump hole! It was conveniently around this time where my vessel's comms relay malfunctioned, where I found myself unable to talk to neither my escorts nor commanding officer aboard the Bietigheim. It would do us no good to continue without patrol lead able to communicate, so I remained exactly where I was. Manual temporary repairs inside gave me enough time to fix the fault, but not before our Unit commander was reassigned, leaving me on-point.

Fylgja joined us shortly after more scans of the anomaly were performed, as both Eta-0 and Konrad Bergman were reassigned to Thuringia and Bering respectively. They also brought news that the Bietigheim had moored with Hamburg at around 20:42 hours, to monitor from the surface and file their report on the ongoing situation. One can only hope we do not see a repeat of such an event. Zurich gate was as quiet as the rest of them which, while once more a welcome sight, did not shed us any light. The remaining nebulae and asteroid fields were then also scouted. The Stuttgart gate became our last stop and the point where our paths mostly split.

While dismissing everyone, it came to my attention that one of the accompanying escorts had kept mostly on the ball throughout the patrol. Otto had also malfunctioning equipment, and needed to return to our post in Thuringia, of which he suggested a joint return flight together. It was on this flight I asked him his thoughts about the anomaly we saw, and what he thought about it himself. He stated his observations, and also did not like how "convenient and coincidental" it was, coinciding with the day that Corsairs escaped our grasp. We could be looking at the answer to how we were breached with little warning or ability to respond, but it could very well be exactly a coincidence, and nothing more. It may be advisable for command to dedicate a unit to the patrolling of Rheinland and its borders, with these rifts the priority to locate and monitor with the utmost speed. It could well be that this happens again, and such an opening would humiliate our Great House once more.

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