The S/D Agency Files

[Agmen of Eladesor]

Incoming transmission

TO: The Director
From: Special Agent DeVirgo
Priority: Normal

Subject: Patrol Report

SGT Limbaugh and I had brought the Surma back from Bering and docked her at Sheffield, as per your orders. We then caught a ride on the APM-Sagittarius to Cambridge, where the Athena's Memory was docked.

Just to make sure that all the repair work on the Memory was done, we took her up for a spin of the Cambridge system. We were contacted by Esther Carson regarding training, but I told her that we were only running a quick patrol, and didn't have time to train.

Well, so much for the quick patrol...

First we encountered a pilot from the RA in a recon ship. He was ... rude, to be nice about it. There were no shots exchanged between he and I, I simply made sure that he knew I knew he was there, and we left it at that.

"Rush" saw that three ships that had been in Omega 5 entered the Cambridge system. Using our new scanners, he noted that they were a freighter, a Titan, and a Corsair Gunboat. Since there were no other S/D pilots available, I attempted to gather as much information as I could, while SGT Limbaugh was warning the civilians that Corsairs were loose in Cambridge.

We started running the trade lanes to find them, and trying to contact other S/D pilots for back-up. About the time I got a reply from the S/D Swordfish, I noticed that they had jumped into New London. I ran to the planet first in case this was an assault there, and was relieved to note that it was clean. The Memory then headed for Leeds - and "Rush" saw that they had jumped into Manchester. We immediately headed that way. In communication with the Swordfish, Special Agent LaRouche opined that they were headed for New York.

He was right.

California, here I come...

I chased them through Manchester and Magellan, briefly engaging them in Magellan (no where near any bases). Rush caught sensor scans of all their vehicles - they were escorting a freighter loaded with artifacts. They disengaged and jumped into California. During this engagement, I was able to rescue two other guild pilots from Barracudas that were destroyed by the Corsairs. I was able to contact an LSF officer, Mike Edwards, on comms to warn him of their approach.

Upon entering California, I saw them on my scans briefly, at 13K distance. I thought they'd taken a trade lane, and immediately headed for Cali Minor, Mojave, and the JG. Rush and I set up an interdiction of the JG to NY, remaining in contact with the LSF the whole time. Finally the LSF made it to California, and we could STILL see these craft on system scans, but no where close to us. We quickly checked the trade lanes again to Los Angeles and Cali Minor - the LSF officer was ready to give up.

About that time I headed back to the JG and saw them forming to jump into NY. They'd flown through normal space, avoiding the trade lanes. In pursuit, I followed them into New York, with the LSF officer behind me a bit too far. Once I got into NY, I was able to maintain sensor lock as they headed through normal space towards Manhattan. The LSF officer took the trade lanes to head them off. Unfortunately, he got entangled with Solari near West Point.

As we approached the junk field, I was able to get clear scans of all three ships. The gunboat Albator and fighter 'lost_children' then turned and engaged me while the freighter 'the_french' continued on to Manhattan. During the ensuing combat, my computer received damage, and I lost the other two scans, but was able to keep this computer record of the gunboat and her ID - in New York...

After doing some serious damage to the gunboat, I was out of bats and bots and had to retreat from the combat. We docked at West Point, where the Liberty techs said that it would be a couple of days before we could get our ship repaired and spaceworthy again. Something about that hole in the side where the oxygen tanks used to be causing them problems.

Unfortunately, the Swordfish was too far away to make it to the combat - otherwise things might have turned out differently.

While we're waiting for the Liberty repair techs to get our ship done, Rush and I will engage the two rescued pilots in a long series of double pinochle games - for money. We figure they owe us at least $50,000 credits each for saving them from the Corsair (one of the destroyed scans showed she had 14 other BH guild pilots on board). I'll give them a chance to win it back - and of course, pump them for any and all intelligence information I can about their home systems (one of them is from Planet Kurile, in Sigma 17 - the other from a Freeport in Omicron Delta).

Special Agent DeVirgo, out

End Transmission

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.