Liberty Forces Message dump

[The_Broker]

CommID: Duke Howards
TO: LN HC
RE: 18/8 Patrol Report

High Command,

Hello again, this is Duke Howards. I'm reporting in on my patrol activity today.

The day began like most others, I undocked in my freshly touched up Guardian and went out to see who else was on duty at the moment. As I flew down the lane toward Fort Bush I started receiving alerts of a Nomad presence in the area and followed the directions supplied to reach the reported sighting location. A small battle ensued, with several Fighter class vessels engaging the single "Assassin" class Nomad ship. After a short time he seemingly gave up and proceeded to dodge and feint toward the sun's corona. We were all wondering what he could possibly be doing, all while landing several critical hits and even smacking his backside with a torpedo at one point.

As we neared the corona we realized that this was a Keeper sent on a suicide mission--fight to the death or take them down into the sun with you. The combat group pulled back and the nomad proceeded deeper into the sun. He was quickly eaten away by the radiation and heat and his ship blew apart in no time. This apparently sparked a sector wide ion storm from the sun and we were all taken down for roughly fifteen minutes.

When the storm subsided I returned to my duties, though with Joe at my side now. We sat in front of Manhattan for a while and conducted business as usual until I noticed a smuggler by the name of Niktuku taking in cardamine to Manhattan. Having no Cruise Disruptor, I could not prevent his docking:

http://www.snapdrive.net/files/425680/Fact.../screen1296.BMP

After this I talked with him for some time trying to coax him out of the atmosphere so I could impose a proper fine on him and warned that I would fire on his vessel if he attempted to escape, and was greeted with threats from Clous and Tenaka. They both appeared to be friends of this Niktuku and said that if I fired on him they would both shoot at me as well. This all taking place in front of Manhattan, I might add:

http://www.snapdrive.net/files/425680/Fact.../screen1301.BMP

This continued on, among a few other issues I was dealing with at the time when Clous, in a rather large vessel fitted with Nomad and Corsair weaponry opened fire on a Bounty Hunter light fighter and myself. He took my shields down, whether accidental or purposeful, and I retaliated by removing a portion of his own shields. He clearly did not see this as the warning that it was intended to be and proceeded to attack me full force.

We went at it for some time before others realized that I was being attacked and came to my aid, but by this time I had landed many torpedo hits to his weapons and hull and he had nigh a gun left attached to him. I somehow destroyed my own Guardian in the blast of one of my torpedoes, but severely damaged Clous in the process. Shortly after my escape pod was ejected and rapidly retrieved by Manhattan space control he was destroyed. His escape pod was unaccounted for, but we cannot be certain it wasn't picked up by a passing ship.

An eventful day to say the least, I think.

Howards signing out.