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[Vogel]

Getriebe Zu: Rheinland Militar Oberkommando
Von: Flieger Xander Vogel
An: Patrouillenbericht #5

Initialisieren...

Flieger Xander Vogel reporting in.

Today's series of events were varied and interesting to say the least. I was just finishing up a run in the Eisenkreuz when I got a message from a reservist bomber pilot (Military-Bergelmir) that a Liberty Navy ship had penetrated Hamburg space. The LNS sobriquet the ship's IFF was sporting would indicate a capital ship of some sort, but that was apparently some naive ploy since it was only a fighter, and a rather poorly equipped one at that. The reservist tracked the Libertonian, who flew around the system aimlessly, saw the bomber following him, and made a break for the Hudson gate. By the time I'd arrived at that gate, they had both already jumped to that system, but as it were, after moving a bit into the nearby asteroid field, the Liberty pilot stopped and a standoff ensued. The Liberty ship seemed to have been in the middle of destroying sensor data, as it ejected a flight recorder just as I arrived. The reservist, however, not quite aware of the importance of such a development 'shot and destroyed it'. In any case, I showed up in time to take matters into more official hands.

The Liberty pilot was flying a poorly equipped but properly ID'd and IFF'd Guardian fighter. From the looks of it, my Wraith would have stomped him flat if I so much as sneezed and pulled the trigger, but apparently this poor soul was too green to realize that. I went through proper protocol, making known his violation of our space and our state of war, and demanded his immediate surrender. At first he seemed to warm up to the idea of saving himself (and as such I inquired of Gefreiter Fessel what protocol was required in terms of accepting surrendering ships, as I have never before been in command in such a situation). However, yet again, this poor pilot's naivete showed in spades: he refused to surrender on the grounds that he "could not let Liberty technology fall into Rheinland hands", not that his ship was by any means top-of-the-line material. With such a declaration made, I had no choice but to engage. The fight only lasted at most two minutes, maybe less. I hardly had to fly at all, just turn and fire while my far superior Wraith absorbed his shots, while his downtrodden Guardian took salvo after salvo of Tachyon beams. The reservist offered to help but by then the pilot was already space debris. There was no escape pod; I do not know whether or not the pilot chose not to use it, given the ample opportunity I gave him in the last few seconds. This fight left me a little disturbed; why were totally green pilots being allowed to gallivant into Rheinland space, alone, and in such unworthy ships? Is this a sign of desperation on the Liberty front, or is this some new kind of heinous psychological warfare tactic? Or perhaps simply a naive pilot who thought he could take on Rheinland by himself? The implications of any are mind boggling. Nevertheless, I thanked the reservist for his service and set off to return to the Strausburg.

In any case, this marks my third confirmed kill with the Rheinland Militar; the first shared with the Gunboat Lausitz, the second shared with meine kameraden during the battle in Bremen, and now this rather.. bittersweet victory.

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On my way back, however, I struck up a correspondence with an aspiring military pilot, and, remembering my tender rookie days, decided to briefly take him under my wing and assist him. It would be a tad challenging; just like me he had been working for the Libertonians up until this point, yet he had managed to procure a Valkyrie fighter, rendering him a Rheinland fighter pilot recruit with a Liberty Navy IFF transponder. I took him over to the RNC Regensburg, my old stomping ground, and introduced him to Dietrich and all of the other fellows I came to know during my stay there. We set off on a few missions, got his transponder working properly, and I even went out of my way to buy him some more advanced equipment for the Wraith he promptly purchased, such was the enthusiasm and willingness to learn I found in this new pilot. When I met him he was just as green as the Libertonian I'd smashed in Hudson, but by the end of the day he was a military pilot flying a full-blown Wraith with the proper ID and IFF. Perhaps this was a way of soothing my guilty conscience...

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On one last note, our good old little rat of an SCRA agent Luka was spotted again multiple times throughout the day. But between his blithering propaganda and nonsense about some master plan to save Commissar Katz, I did happen to run into an interesting little situation. I was going on a brief mapping excursion to find the jump hole from Neu Berlin to Hamburg and plug its coordinates into my computer for later reference. On the way there I ran into none other than Luka, his ship idling by Kreuzberg Depot, which is what I can only assume to be some Unioner or LWB forward base. I quickly pulled away before I was detected and went on with my mission, knowing that it was inappropriate to engage targets in such an environment as the Ruhrfeld. But after I had found the jump hole, I made my way back over in that direction and discovered Luka staring down a pair of what appeared to be Junker freighters. I stayed to observe, some ten klicks above their current plane, and for a good minute or two they simply sat there. I intercepted no transmissions so if they were indeed conversing, it was by private chat, and very clandestine. Then both groups left simultaneously, in opposite directions. I attempted to track Luka, staying at ten clicks, but he eventually caught wind of my presence and ran back to the Depot. Just an interesting little series of events; Luka, although genuinely hostile, has not proven himself to be much of a threat as of yet. But it's my conviction something was going on here; I only wish I knew what.

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