[color=#CCCCCC]On 1430 hours I drafted Lieutenant Tazingo, Junior Lieutenant Lang and the Scouts Myagotin and Petrov for patrol duty of the Omega-50 system. Two contacts had been reported in the area, designations [UF]-Nate and [UF]-Jarvan. As we made way into 50 I requested them to state their business and affiliation, but received no response. Pondering what kind of people those two might be, Lang remarked that they plain and simply were "utterly f'd up". Given the outlook at this time, that was certainly fitting, as after numerous tries to get a response out of them I designated them as hostile.
According to protocol, our flight did a routine sweep of the system, and after a short while we found them in the vicinity of the Omega-49 jumphole. Judging by the conversation that followed afterwards they hadn't known that I had been talking to them, which I thought a shabby excuse at first. However upon closer inspection both vessels appeared to have Civilian transponders, identifying them as such. After a more friendly reminder of Omega-50 being Coalition space - and not Zoner and Corsair space, as they believed - and that they should, in the future, not keep our men waiting by being silent and state their business right off the bat, we let them continue their journey to Omega-49.
At this point we encountered two Freelancers emerging from the aforementioned jumphole, designations "FL|Nick.Manheim" and "FL|Vladimir.Manheim". After making clear that they were treading in Coalition territory the conversation revealed that, according to them, they wanted to "get out of here". Considering that all the words they spouted made not much sense together with them being in Omega-50, I decided to play it safe.
Well, not safe for them. I ordered them exterminated, and our men promptly complied, Junior Lieutenant Lang and Scout Petrov vaporizing Nick's ship on the spot. We then proceeded to Omega-49, giving chase to the other Freelancer, Vladimir Manheim.
Upon a closer look I realized he didn't pose a significant threat and I let the Scouts handle him. They did so rather well and earned themselves their first pat on the back, so to speak.
After that I surveyed the long range scanners and decided, with no further contacts inside 50 or in its immediate vicinity, that I would give the Scouts another taste of real warfare. Unfortunately at this time Junior Lieutenant Lang was being recalled to Gorodok. To be honest, his recent promotion went unnoticed by him and he had to report for immediate reassignment, as he is no longer part of the Militsya fleet. As this was my first experience flying alongside Lang, what little impression I gathered of him tells me that he most likely deserved the promotion, as he had acted professionally throughout the entire patrol.
To continue, with no contacts in the area I chose to proceed to Dublin. Given the recent Rebel activity and the rather target-rich environment it was a good way to both extend our patrol and introduce the Scouts to some more "entertaining" bits of space.
As we arrived in Dublin we barely managed to power up our cruise engines before Lieutenant Tazingo reported a hostile contact. Identified as "Maximus", it was an Outcast Tridente-class Gunship.
I designated it a priority target and we immediately set course for its location. I asked the Scouts if they had ever faced Gunships before, and much to my liking they responded that they had not. I ordered the Outcast's destruction, and I have to note here that regardless of the Scouts' lack of "verbal discipline" and combat experience, they actually performed rather admirably against the threat.
However the other locals, especially the stray IMG pilots flying around the area, did not take kindly to our presence, some of them not hesitating to open fire on us. They posed no threat however and we worked steadily on destroying the Gunship.
I personally think that it is rather hilarious that the apparent lead pilot of the IMG present, a particular "John.Bartlett", commented on us going to "backstab" them after I said he should be thankful for us exterminating the Outcast pest for him, seeing as what he did was no different afterall.
Regardless of that, once the Gunship was taken care of we proceeded to work on the other hostiles. I have to note here that, to my dismay, before we could complete the Gunship's metamorphosis into a fireball, it made for Arranmore and proceeded to do a crash-landing on the station just as its hull was reaching critical status. Unfortunately a few moments after Myagotin's ships suffered from a lock-up in its control systems and his Loki ended up beng introduced to the plethora of gunfire coming from the nearby hostile Molly patrols.
At this point things began to heat up a little more, and I stressed that my comrades should utilize evasive tactics and focus on attacks of opportunity only - a necessity at the time, as a hostile Scylla-class Destroyer, designation "Bobby_Drake", had made its appearance on the battlefield.
I had expected Lieutenant Tazingo to comply easily, but I have to admit that seeing Scout Petrov do the same was a welcome surprise. With coordination we managed to avoid most incoming fire and to whittle down the hostile strikecraft in the area. The first to fall before our guns was the IMG pilot "Alice.Fox", apparently the winglady of the aforementioned John Bartlett. After finding the weakness in her flying we quickly exploited it and none other than Petrov landed the final blow.
The next minutes were filled with intense fighting, with the Scylla trying to snipe us in-between volleys of suppressive fire, which made maneuvering difficult, considering that we were fighting inside Arranmore's minefield.
But the next kill eventually came as I filled an Eagle, designation "IMG|Jack_Henderson[D]" with tachyon-charged antimatter and then blew up the Nuclear mine he had just dropped. With the remaining hostile strikecraft not presenting much of a threat, we decided to focus our fire on the Scylla. However we were lacking in our shield-busting capability and so were forced to switch targets while I called for support. Having to wait for our comrades to arrive we went back to swat another fly out of the sky, a Molly fighter, designation "Liam.O'.Hlomhair". The credit for the final blow goes to comrade Tazingo. In the middle of that all, we were also engaged by a hostile AI-controlled Cruiser, designation "Malkuth", but we were already used to dodging the firestorm from the Scylla so that additional capital ship's weaponry didn't pose that much of an issue.
We simply worked on the next hostile, "IMG|Captin_Sheridan[D]" while dodging the hail thrown at us, and just as his ship was slowly approaching critical status, reinforcements arrived in the shape of none other than Saracen, who promptly sealed Sheridan's fate.
With another Straw Dogs pilot on the way and about to arrive, namely Janissary, and even Hashishin to come after him, we switched our focus to the AI-Cruiser. Now that we had sufficient shield-busting capability we were able to whittle it down steadily and effortlessly.
The area quickly cleared up during our combined assault on the capital ships, with, as expected, that spineless opportunist Bartlett having already vacated the area minutes ago. Personally I think that were we ever to get our hands on that gentleman, he would make a really fine SCUD, but that's for another time to discuss. It is also worth noting that a Civilian was present during the whole ordeal, and by what I have gathered, he seemed to have outright enjoyed our glorious display of might. A particular Molly, "Sean.Mac.Ateer" had also been watching the happenings, but for some reason he didn't help out his comrades despite requests made, refusing to land on Arranmore as well until the onslaught was over.
To finally conclude this report, with the area clear of hostile elements and us having successfully displayed the might of the Volkhan on the battlefield, I ordered my flight to return to Gorodok.
On a related note, I would like to commend Scout Petrov for both his flying during the whole Dublin engagement and for his discipline. Despite his young age and childish demeanor he followed all given orders to the letter and managed to outperform all expectations, not only bringing his Insurgent back to Gorodok in one piece, but also keeping the pressure on the enemy as much as possible at all times. Just as Lieutenant Tazingo, Petrov played a key role in this engagement, and while I don't want to jump the gun here I am confident that Petrov might grow to be more than just a fine addition to the Fighter Corps one day.
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