Aside from the usual traders attempting to sneak past the trade embargo to Bretonia there were a couple significant events.
The first was a Blood Dragon bomber in the Tau 29 system. I arrived on the scene shortly after a firefight hand begun between the BD bomber and a Gaian bomber that had been in the area. The Gaian seemed to have the situation under control so I monitored it from a short distance. The Gaian did finally succeed in destroying the BD, though his ship was heavily damaged. I made sure that he reached a nearby base safely before continuing my patrol
I later met up with a warrior from the KNF-K Bomber Wing; Daii Hajime Hiroito piloting the Sakabatou. After conducting a few joint operations and monitoring some suspicious traders I conducted another patrol through the Tau 29 system.
It was mostly quiet and I decided to take the long way back to Kyushu and map out some of the Jump Holes used by smugglers these days. Entering the Tau 23 systems scanners detected a possible hostile vessel cruising hard towards the Kyushu JH. Not responding to my hails I switched on my cruise engines and attempted to cut him off before he reached the JH, but he had too much of a head start and had already made the jump before I was in scanner range. However I did manage to pickup his IFF, which was broadcasting "Junker" loud and clear.
I sent out an alert to Hiroito-san who had previously been in Kyushu, unfortunately he was otherwise occupied at the time. Making the jump to Kyushu it seemed that he'd had some trouble restarting his cruise engines and I was almost on top of him. He quickly jumped into the trade lanes and I followed hard on his heels. As he dropped out of the trade lane, and I right behind him, he was finally in full scanner range and the reasons for his silent run became obvious; a cargo hold full of premium cardi.
Not yet ready to give up he attempted to re-enter the trade lane, fortunately I was able to deactivate it before he was pulled in. At this point he had ignored numerous hails and orders to stop and had traveled half way across Kyushu on a direct course for New Tokyo. I decided that it was time for a slightly more firm message and opened fire. He immediately began dropping mines and returning fire with more ferocity than expected.
I'd failed to reload my Nuclear mines after my previous engagement and did not have the firepower to do more than generally dent his hull before my shield batteries were completely expended. Fortunately Hiroito-san returned to the system at this point and I immediately requested assistance. Within a few short minutes he was on the scene with his bomber and we made quick work of the smuggler.
Seeing that his end was near the smuggler deactivated his weapons and called a cease fire, agreeing to have the cardi destroyed and pay a fine for the damages caused and attempted murder of KNF warriors. The destruction of cargo and transfer went smoothly and he was permitted to limp onward. I docked at planet Kyushu for repairs and to finally reload those nuclear mines.
