Highland Security Public Channel

[Brother_Ender]

[font=Lucida Console]| Incoming Transmission...
| Reticulating Splines...
| Display [color=#33CC00]ON...

From: Chairman Ender of Highland Security
To: All Highland Security Employees

This will be my first public report, so I apologize if it seems a bit disjointed or runs a bit long.

Allow me to get directly to the point. A few days ago we moved a small number of civilian fighters and bombers to the Tau's after receiving a contract. The goal of our operation in the Tau's has been as such:

Primary Objective - Intercept and generally disrupt the smuggling of cardamine and trade of slaves in the systems of Tau-23 and Tau-37.
Secondary Objective - Reduce the presence of the Outcasts in the Tau systems.

It is common knowledge that the Outcasts are a fairly large group, capable of floating an impressive fleet of ships of all sizes, including capital-class ships. As a result, it has been our policy thus far, assuming we will always be outnumbered, to engage in what are commonly known as "hit-and-run" tactics when engaging in the open space of either Tau-37 or Omicron-Alpha. Tau-23 allows us to take a much more aggresive and traditional stance, as the asteroid field prevents most capital ships from entering battle there.

Early efforts against shipping was met with marked success; the slavers and smugglers seemed to not expect trouble so close to Outcast space. Unfortunately, during this early time very few of our gun-cam shots are available, due to our cameras not being rated for the level of radiation in the Tau's. Three such intercepts are available from my gun-cam footage, however.


The ship known as the Eduardo was spotted moving through Tau-23. I was patrolling alone (something we rarely do) and ordered the Eduardo to halt for a routine scan. The Eduardo chose to ignore the commands, but I was able to make up ground and catch him. After the scan revealed that he was running slaves, I hit him with a Cruise Disruptor and offered him the chance of taking the slaves to the nearest Freeport and letting them go. He responded by opening fire and attempting to flee, so I was forced to take him down with combined SNAC, mine, and gun fire.


During this encounter I was lucky enough to have another Highland Security ship on my wing, a pilot known by the call sign "Bombcat". Once again we were patrolling Tau-23, when the Transporter was spotted entering the system from Tau-37. Scans revealed a hold full of Cardamine, and once again, this ship tried to flee. The end result was obvious.


This was an interesting encounter with the well known slave-running ship known as the Solar_Eclipse. We intercepted the ship in Tau-37, and after refusing to free his slaves at the Freeport, like many others he attempted to flee. He was destroyed quickly by combined fire from myself aboard the Memphis.Belle, and the bombers Dachsund and Bombcat.

Another well known slave-runner known as the Midnight.Express was encountered later, and turned back to the Freeport. The ensuing discussion due to an un-cloaking Juggernaut was well documented here:
http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42914

We have had varied encounters with Outcast ships. They often arrive in overwhelming numbers, forcing us to retreat, or when we do have a numerical advantage, they quickly call in capital ship class reinforcements. I am not complaining; there is no such thing as a fair fight. I was able to score a solid kill against an Outcast fighter while piloting my bomber, the only one I have gun-cam footage of.


I do have a gun-cam kill of a battle unrelated to the Outcasts. Apparently some Nomad-infested individual thought I was a threat, for some reason, and snuck into New York to try to kill me.


Highland Security also engages in a fair bit of escort duty, but I will not go into detail here; there is no need to expose the names of our clients, nor is there anything particularly interesting to tell.

I will leave you all with an image taken from my gun-cam of a recent melee in Tau-23. Operations have gotten fairly intense.



Jefferson Ender
Chairman, Highland Security
[font=Lucida Console]
| Segment [color=#CC0000]END...

---