After loading up and undocking from Bonn Station, my long-range scanners picked up a known Hessian gunboat in Omega-7. Flieger Helga Stainder was in the area, and together with RNC Kuun Lan we grouped and headed to the Omega-7 Jumpgate in Stuttgart. Unfortunately for us, the Hessian continued on to Omega-3, out of our jurisdiction.
While we entered Omega-7, however a pirate Captain.Kidd destroyed a trader, ID'd at Pythios[M]. To try and track the pirate down, we patrolled all of the mining regions in Omega-7 as well as the tradelanes, but there was no sign of him. We decided to return to inner Rheinland space.
It was while we were returning to New Berlin that our long range scanners picked up the presence of two LSF members in Hamburg. We immediately pursued, and our battlegroup was joined by RNC Admiral Auztin Engels. Together we secured their escape route to Bering and Hudson, and Flieger Stainder and I actually found them. Unfortunately, we asked permission to fire, and when it came, they'd already began to run, taking the recon data they'd gathered with them. After chasing them to just shy of Texas, we turned around and headed home to Hamburg.
At this point we were joined by Gefreiter Emily Hermundt and Flieger Sonja Hermundt. As the highest ranking enlisted member, Gefreiter Emily Hermundt took command, and ordered us into Hudson, as our long-range scanners indicated Liberty forces were beginning to mass in Texas.
We took the tradelane toward the nearest planetary body in Hudson and set up a line of fire. When the Liberty forces arrived, it was with a Dreadnought, a Battleship, several bombers and six gunboats. Gefreiter Hermundt ordered me, as the only bomber, to go for the battleship, the fighters to attack the gunboats, and for our cruiser and battleship to turn around and fire behind them as we headed to the Hamburg gate again.
Those plans soon changed, however, and we were ordered into a full attack. During the battle, the Gefreiter changed targets often, ordering a hard switch, but the intensity of the firefight made it difficult for the fighters to comply.
The LSF ships took off, leaving the Liberty Navy to fend for itself, and the Liberty Dreadnought left as well, apparently believing adequate strength to deal with us remained. The first ship to be taken out was by our battleship, commanded by Admiral Auztin Engels, destroying the ship ID'd as Kesowa. As ordered, I lined up my bombing run on the battleship, but was tailed by a gunboat, designation Spear.
As I was lining up my bombing run, he managed to take out my shields twice, and the second time as I passed by my battleship target, designated BlackSun. My third torpedo was a direct hit, as were the previous two, but the resulting blast tore my ship apart, and I barely had time to eject in the pod.
As I floated away from the fight, I continued to take notes on the battle. Gefreiter Hermundt ordered a hard switch in targets approximately eight times, but her orders went largely unheeded in the fierce fight. Most of the fighters were struggling to avoid the multiple gunboats' fire. They managed to take out {TLG}Rednes, but then RNC Admiral Auztin Engels and the cruiser, RNC Kuun Lan went down nearly side by side by hostile vessels and the gunboat Joseph.Smith. Flieger Helga Stainder managed to gun down Sarge126, but at this point I was too far to see the make of the ship.
It was at this point, with just the fighters left, that Gefreiter Hermundt ordered a general retreat. I eventually made planetfall back in Hamburg and headed toward Braunschweig to buy and refit a new Snubby. It it from there that this report is being filed.
