***incoming transmission***
Sender: Lieutenant Henry Matthews, NTBS Belisarius, Kansas
Target: All NTF vessels
Subject: The Order
Rescued pilots
Seems one Outcast we shot down had six members of the Order in his hold. Captain Crompton and I saw an opportunity there to show some goodwill towards the Order, so we set course for the Edge Worlds - the Captain in command of the Hinton and myself in an Eagle.
The route taken was as follows: Magellan, Leeds, Dublin, Omega-49, Omega-47, Omega-41, Omicron Theta, Omicron-74, Omicron Kappa, Omicron Delta. The journey was uneventful and very quiet; only one miner from the Molly Republic even queried our presence. The only trouble we had was about fifteen klicks out from Freeport 11, where some Nomads (//NPCs) appeared. They were dispatched and we quickly continued to the Freeport, which turned out to be guarded by a huge Zoner warship.
While there, the Captain managed to establish contact with, not just a member of the Order, but the Fleet Admiral of the Primary Fleet, Tovig Kelt. A cruiser was brought out to retrieve the six rescued pilots. It also took on board the Nomad remains we had picked up. The Admiral inquired as to our goals, and about Kansas; he was told the usual, and additionally that small Nomads can sometimes be seen passing through, and about the gate.
We returned by a shorter route: Omicron Kappa, Omicron-74, Omicron Theta, Omega-41, Omega-11, Omega-5, Omega-3, Cambridge, Leeds, Magellan.
The Order's visit to Kansas
A considerable number of Order ships - largely fighters, with a gunboat - later entered Kansas. The bulk of them proceeded to the Tuttle Creek cloud, with the gunboat, designated OCV-Gugnir, remaining in Kansas. The Executive Commander and I went to investigate the cloud, though anomalies and a sudden increase of the gate's gravity well prompted us to depart. As we were passing between the stars, the EMP wave that had struck caused the Commander's engines to give out, and his comm systems had messed up just before that. A system-wide broadcast was made, and the Captain of the Order gunboat, one Kell Tainer, responded to it. The gunboat came and deployed tow cables, and the Commander's Broadsword was brought back to Boadicea, and there it landed on the Belisarius.
Mister Tainer filled us in as to the situation, but he had lost contact with the Order fighters, which had seemingly jumped through the gate. They had reported radiation, and a station, on the far side, and had gone to land on the station, from which point there was no further contact. The Order vessel's Captain was then told about the NTF, though this was interrupted by the arrival of a repair ship to perform maintenance on the Belisarius, shortly after which contact was re-established with the Order fighters. We shall hopefully receive details of their mission in that system.
They jumped out of it, and found themselves in Pennsylvania. They proceeded from there to Zone 21, Alaska, and finally Omicron Minor. The OCV Gugnir was still in Kansas. The NTSV Hinton and NTF Suralin - Executive Commander and Commodore respectively - along with myself provided it with escort to Zone 21, with the only issue arising being a lone Guardian that tailed the Commodore for a time in California. We cleared the Zone and made it to Omicron Minor. There, some issue arose with pilots referring to us as 'pirates', despite Mister Tainer's words to the contrary. We departed, and returned to Kansas, using gate and lane codes provided to us by the Order.
It is my understanding that the Order wishes to deploy a wing of fighters to Kansas. I expect we shall hear more from them soon.
