Myself and Lt. Commander Voronov attempted to hunt down the AW gunboat Denicalus in Theta, but were engaged by it in 41. We were wearing it down rather respectably, and we then had a TBH gunboat, the Mantis, turn up. Funnily enough, our foe fled after getting hit by its turrets and my Novas.
We pursued into Omega-5...
To find that he had called backup. Hellfire and Impaler backup. They entered the fight in drips and drabs. The Silverfire, the Taurvi and the Impaler ship 'Weston' all entering at some point or other. Orome, the AW fighter ace also showed up.
Thankfully, we also had help from Lt. Varnava as well as the timely arrival of our new Osiris-class, the RACS-Karl.Marx who had just finished taking care of the Hellfire Cruiser Renegade.
Eventually, all of the gunboats, including the alien Nomad vessel, the Taurvi, were dealt with. This took some time, and the Marx had to leave mid-fight after successfully testing its armaments.
Just before Orome wisely left (and no dishonour to him... he fought well), realising that he was hopelessly outgunned, we were engaged by an SSO gunboat, the Yamato. We blasted it and it retreated to Cambridge.
It then returned, before we could rearm, with help from another SSO gunboat, the Decimator. They managed to take the Mantis out of the fight, puncturing his hull severely.
At this point, I ordered Voronov to join me back in Gamma. We had taken too much punishment to bother wasting time and Coalition supplies in a hopeless fight against a pair of gunboats that don't even matter.
Anyway, I declare today the Coalition's. For the people!
-Ares out
P.S
The Brotherhood pilot, Montoya, of the Mantis (who flew beautifully... a potential recruit?) may have images of the conflict to pass to us at some point. Command may want to review them.
Oh, and Zehn? Don't worry. I'm only keeping the Omegas nice and warm for you. They're all yours, chief.