The day's patrols began like any other, I took off from Planet Hamburg and since the trader traffic was remarkably low, I decided to patrol Rheinland space. I patrolled New Berlin, but didn't spot anything remarkable until I reached the Frankfurt gate with the intention to continue the patrol in Frankfurt.
As soon as I reached the gate, my sensors detected a smaller energy anomaly from within the system, although the signal was faint, I was quite sure it was indicating a ship blowing up. A few seconds afterwards, another followed, so I decided to check it out. I turned around to patrol the system again with all jump gates included, a reserve pilot, Fridrich Heinz joined me on my route.
Our target, a Hessian bomber piloted by Frank Mueller was spotted near the Dresden gate. Debris were drifting around the area, my quick scans indicated that at least one of the vessels destroyed was a Rheinwehr Wraith class. The pilot admitted destroying a Military ship and he was intending to do the same to me, with weapons powered up, he started shooting at me, while reserve pilot Heinz continued his patrol to Dresden.
The Hessian was obviously some kind of officer or ace. He was already damaged by the ships he destroyed earlier and I quickly drained his remaining nanobots and shield batteries, but then the situation was getting dire. He managed to both shoot and evade well, his combat performence was remarkable. Fortunately enough, none of his SNAC projectiles hit me, that was because of my evasion skills rather than his disablity to aim.
The fight lasted for about 30-40 minutes and we both grew tired, not to mention a slight ion storm that erupted in the meantime. I managed to burn his ship up, while he shot one of my Hornvipers off, making him even a tougher one to damage. Right before my final shot, the terrorist rammed the RNC Leverkusen, a reserve gunboat standing idly to watch the fight and the Thor was perished in the crash. In the meantime, reserve pilot Heinz destroyed some Outcast, I didn't pay attention to the details.
Unfortunately enough, I couldn't return to the barracks to have some rest. Just as I landed, Heinz called me again informing me that he spotted seven rebel ships at the Bonn-Stuttgart trade lane. They were probably trying to avenge their lost ace. I took my bomber, in hopes of catching some bigger-class Hessian ships, but the contrary was in effect when we got there. Hessian and Unioner bombers and fighters were pirating the lane traffic, they were negotiating with some mercenaries just as I got there. Reserve Pilot Fridrich Heinz and the RNC Leverkusen could summon a Bounty Hunter gunboat, the Luis von Graal to our aid, but we were still outnumbered by the hostiles.
The traitors blew the mercenaries apart and came into range as soon as that. I attempted to commence negotiations with them, but the Luis von Graal opened fire at the hostiles without my autherisations. I was forced to order everyone else to open fire too to save the heavy support. Against five bombers in the enemy ranks, I was sure to see the gunboats go down first, but after loosing the RNC Leverkusen, we stood our ground. The two enemy fighters, an Arbeiter and an Odin caught my tail, they hardened my ability to aim properly.
The first enemy to go down was Abweichung, a Thor-class bomber that was hit by the Hunter gunboat. Quickly enough, Vladimir Lenin followed, since his shields were down, I used the occasion to introduce him the taste of a good old Braunschweig-style SNAC. I ordered the men to concentrate their fire on Jahr Gulden, he was quickly crippled and as he realised that, he attempted to flee by jettisoning mines to evade pursuit, I launched a cruise disruptor to make him regret his decision, so his ship was blown to pieced by his own mine. The next target I issued was Markus Vogel, we managed to heavily damage him, but the fighters that were on me switched targets to reserve pilot Heinz and since I was trying to SNAC Hoenir, Vogel used the opportunity to escape. Only one bomber and two fighters were left, I ordered to focus on Hoenir, the last Thor, one which was heavily damaged and destroyed by me and the Hunter gunboat. In the meantime, the two fighters took reserve pilot Heinz down (although one of them fled in the meantime), so only Leo Troczky was left. The miner quickly realised that he couldn't anymore count on his comrades and after a few shots fired, he decided to retreat into the asteroid field, so he did with success.
The Rheinwehr was yet again utterly victorious against superior numbers with minimal losses. After the assignment, I returned to Strausberg to repair the minimal damage I took and file this report. My bomber should be ready for service already.
Quote:Here's a complete list of participants in the action:
![[Image: RM-Avatar.png]](http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm144/zombie2279/RM-Avatar.png){kind=avatar}