Evangeline Anastasia McDowell

[Bazza]

Entry#: 053
Date: 20 - 12 - 817 AS @ 18:53 SUT
Title: Woah.

What a day that was. I caught up with Jimmy, Tanya and Air again. Every time I hang out with this lot, labelled "The Black Widows", I get myself in trouble. Seems every man and his dog jumps on the KILL DEM XENOS DEYS R BAD HYUCK HYUCK ALL WEPONS when we show up. Navy and LPI especially, even if we've done no actual wrong worth being hunted for.

Going to the beginning, I was coming back from a trip to the Barrier Gate to see an old mate of mine when I ran into Air half way down the tradelane linking Manhattan orbit to West Point. I dropped out of the lane and we had some cordial small-talk before a Zoner gunboat and a Navy Defender appeared on the scene and ordered us to leave.

What? A friggen' Zoner, telling people to leave a place he has no control over? Nah. Ain't gonna happen. Air took the Navy lad on in a duel whilst I made sure the gunboat didn't get wise. The Defender went down after a short joust and our attention turned to the gunboat. He was still ranting on about us Xenos, so we just blasted him. Took a Nova up the clacker and was dusted pretty quickly.

Some time during the fight Tanya and Jimmy showed up. I was too busy fighting the Zoner nutcase but after the fight a scanner sweep showed two extra friendlies.

After all that excitement we moved out to the Pittsburgh debris field to clear out a group of Liberty Rogues a little birdie told us about. Of course, the information little birdies give out should be taken with a grain of salt. We got to the location and we found nothing. We quickly gave up and headed back towards Fort Bush.

That was where things got interesting. At Fort Bush we found the LNS Enterprise, a Navy Dreadnought. We had no intentions of getting into more trouble at that point, but the commander was spitting over the broadcast channels that he was after me personally; saying that he was the commander of the LNS Valiant. I think I can vaguely recall blasting a ship by that name a long time ago...

Anyway, he gets shooty shooty with me and the others right outside Fort Bush, so we get shooty back. Any commander worth the scrap metal he's flying knows not to pick a fight without escorts to back him up. This one was all by his lonesome without a single military craft anywhere nearby.

We all happily dodged the mortars, ack-acks and AA missiles the Dreadnought was trying in vain to hit us with. Those things are all designed for taking out other capital ships you nimrod. Absolutely hopeless against nimble, microscopic target profiles as our Eagles present.

About half way through our little combat training, the LNS Calgary, a gunboat, showed up along with a couple fighters. He was despatched in a matter of minutes thanks to the ludicrous skills of the Black Widows. Never even stood a chance. The very second the others get his shields disabled, in comes a couple of torpedoes to finish the job. All I have to keep out the sights of the fighter support.

It took a while to eat away at its' armour, but we thoroughly humbled the Enterprise after a thrilling 30 minute battle. That captain, assuming he even survived, won't be chasing me down for a while. He did manage to put a few scuffs in my hull though, lucky shots that I just couldn't avoid. I have some bruises and I think a broken rib from smashing around the cockpit like a pinball when I got whacked by a flak cannon.

At some point during the above fight we were joined by a group of pirates consisting of a gunboat, bomber and at least one fighter. I suppose they wanted a piece of the action, a chance to easily remove some big Navy gear from the playing field.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before re-enforcements showed up. They took the form of the LNS Aurora, an Assault Battleship showed up with a full compliment of fighter craft.

We knew we were out-gunned. Not a chance. We all legged it leaving the Aurora to deal with the pirate gang.

So, at the end of the day, the tally is:

3x Liberty Navy Defender fighters
1x Mercenary Zoner Conference Gunboat
1x Liberty Navy Dreadnought
1x Liberty Navy Gunboat

I was so incredibly awesome out there I even had time to take some happy snaps of the action. I know deep down, Misaka, that watching my studly, hairy-chested combat abilities gets you all hot and bothered, so I'll upload them here for you.

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Now, I know you'll read this as soon as it reaches the Alsatia. I'm coming home now sweetheart. You can patch me up once I get back. My ribs are killing me and I suspect I have a black eye.

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