Liberty Forces Message dump

[Sonja]

Transmission; Start
Identification: Commodore Christina Robinson
Location: Texas system, Battleship Mississippi

Reconnaisance in Rheinland:

Today, I took the Liberty of organising a scout group to assess the defences of the first Rheinland controlled system in our path, Hamburg.

Putting together the task force was immediately more difficult than expected, with a lack of pilots answering the call to arms. Admiral Hale responded on the [LN]-LNS-Cape.Horn, a gunboat class vessel, but was intercepted and severely damaged by a swarm of local pirates. Seeing this, however, myself, ensign Stevenson and lieutenant commander Malrone intercepted the group, which promptly scattered. We did however, pursue a Rogue gunboat to the Badlands, where it was disabled and left to drift. Our scanners also picked up a sizable mass, possibly a large rock, but we were already occupied in preparing the upcoming mission. Luckily, quick repairs were applied to the Cape Horn, and it was able to join us for the mission ahead.

Our forces, once gathered, totalled five ships; the aforementioned gunboat and four strike craft. Later on during the mission, lieutenant commander Corraine joined us, meeting ensign Stevenson at Alster Shipyard. But, that's getting ahead of myself.

We left for Rheinland, traversing the Bering system with relative ease. We managed to slip past the regular patrols with, it has to be said, some difficulty, and proceeded into Hamburg.

The mission objective was to assess the defensive capability of our Rheinland foes by scanning their installations for their weapons loadouts and the status of their internal systems. This information was required as suprisingly, our information on the Hamburg system itself was quite outdated. A confrontation was not to be sought, though that part didn't go quite to plan as the Rheinlanders took great offense to our baiting.

Reaching a location directly below planet Hamburg, one strike craft pilotted by commander Casero was assigned to perform scans on the facilities in orbit above the planet. Without recieving so much as a nod from a passing 'agent' of Rheinland, Alex managed to gather all the required data. Returning to the pack below Hamburg, our task force proceeded to its next target, Alster Shipyard. We arrived below the waypoint without incident, and this time, ensign Stevenson went to gather the required scans. I also asked him to provide data on the productive capacity of the shipyard. On a small note, I ordered Ralph to destroy the storage depots around Alster, which may provide a small delay in their production line.

It was then that things became tense. The Rheinland agent from earlier reappeared whilst Ralph was gathering his data, and initiated her vicious attack. However, this was not a problem, as ensign Stevenson had the situation under control. In fact, he would have managed to incapacitate the vessel were it not for a Rheinland gunboat that arrived in the nick of time. At this point, things were certainly not under control. Our wing, which had been standing by out of range at the time, moved to intercept and relieve the ensign, which we did in short order. However, not before more Rheinland reinforcements arrived, causing a cut-throat skirmish to break out.

Fortunately, the skill and discipline of our pilots was more than enough to carry the day, only lieutenant commander Malrone having to retreat due to technical difficulties with his ship. The Rheinland response force was unequivocably smashed, with only two pilots left, the agent from earlier and a Rheinland Military pilot who was insistant on using Alster shipyard as his shield whenever his real sheilds fell.

It should be noted that due to the damage that the Cape Horn had sustained earlier in the day, it's battlerazor batteries were frequently overheating. This meant that it could participate in sporadic parts of the skirmish, but not throughout the battle as a whole.

Leaving the self-confessed smart Rheinland Military pilot to his own devices around Alster, we proceeded to our third and fourth waypoints without incident. As a result, we now have up to date information on all of the major Rheinland installations in Hamburg; Altona station, Alster shipyard, Vierlande prison station and Battleship Westfalen.

Here is the tactical data for the four installations.

Altona Station:

• Four small civilian station turrets
  
  
• Two large station turrets
  
  
• Two small EMP turrets
  

Alster Shipyard:

• Two small station turrets
  
  
• Two small EMP turrets
  

Vierlande Prison Station:

• Ten large station turrets
  
  
• Two small EMP turrets
  

Six additional heavy weapons platforms, facing outwards in a horizontal perimeter around the station.

Battleship Westfalen:

• Four Battleship Battlerazors
  
  
• Four Battleship EMP cannons
  
  
• Four Solaris Battleship cannons
  
  
• Four Battleship Defense turrets
  
  
• Six Battleship Secondary turrets
  

Additional Information:

Alster Shipyard appears to be producing ships at 110% it's regular peacetime rate, owing to the state of war between our nations.

The heavy battle platforms around Vierlande Prison Station output a high volume of relatively weak plasma projectiles which individually do little damage, but in their configuration are a force to be reckoned with.

Battleship Westfalen in orbit above planet Kiel is, in stark contrast to its peacetime state of disrepair, in perfect condition for war.

I would like to congratulate:

• Admiral Hale
  
  
• Commander Casero
  
  
• Lieutenant Commander Corraine
  
  
• Lieutenant Commander Malrone
  
  
• and Ensign Stevenson
  

for their great performances deep in enemy territory. We really proved today that we can go in and accomplish our mission, even in adverse circumstances.

Transmission Terminated