Priority: Moderate
Encryption: Full
Destination: Boadicea, Kansas + NTBS Belisarius, Kansas
Source: NTF Captain Robert Crompton
Subject: Report
Good day,
Admittedly this report is rather late in arrival, but I digress. The patrol began with an encounter with one a Colonial mining group in the Tuttle Creek cloud, the Atlas class transport Dacia and two escorting fighters of the Colonial 41st Battlegroup, callsigns Sturmvogel and Scarlet. During our discussion the Colonials mentioned that they want to begin the colonisation of Wichita relatively soon, including terraforming and arcologies planet-side. Afterwards I returned to Boadicea temporarily.
When I returned I picked up a distress call from another vessel in the system. The risk of an ambush was far too great, however, so I waited for backup, namely Lieutenant Commander Vayrn Wyard, who was returning to Kansas after having some weapons replaced in Coronado. We then received reports of a Bounty Hunter bomber, which managed to elude us and leave the system.
A few hours later, the Lieutenant Commander and I ran into something completely unexpected: Rheinland Military, identifying as Katrina Mitzi and Sven Rainer. They *he chuckles* mistook Kansas for California. It appears that Chancellor Rheinhardt decided to censor the Cassus Belli incident and the Neo Terran Front, the pilots had never heard of us before. As I was explaining to them who we were, along with the childishly crazy pilot of a nearby Barghest, the infamous Joker showed up, in a Tridente that would put many disco light effects to shame. The incident was tense... we thought he was going to destroy the Rheinlanders for his 'amusement.' Rather, there was some banter between him and the Military, and then he turned around and left.
The Rheinlanders were running low on fuel, so I organised for Roger Bakewell to haul some H-Fuel over in the Comet. The Comet arrived on scene with the H-Fuel, to see yet another visitor to Kansas: a Scylla under the command of a Junker, the Maelstrom. After the Comet returned to Boadicea having refuelled the Rheinlander's ships, I arrived in time to see the Maelstrom and the two Rheinlanders flying off into the sunset. I mean, the direction of the Humboldt jumphole. Lieutenant Commander Wyard and I made an attempted pursuit, but they had gained enough distance that we hadn't a hope of catching them. It's possible that they went to Puerto Rico, but knowing how protective they are of that system... *he sighs* We did a quick patrol of Humboldt before we returned to Kansas. At that point I returned to Junction for the night.
On another note, I would like to place a request for four A30 Hellflurry Mk V Tachyon cannons. The current, outdated weapons are ineffective in combat and seem more like prototypes for a Gunboat or a Transport weapon, and help me ward off enemies of the front as much as a Mini Razor will disrupt an Advanced Train.
Incoming Transmission
Location: Nearby the Magellan Jump hole, Kansas system, Liberty Border worlds
ID: Alan Gresham
[color=lightgreen]Had another incident with the SMI. Bloody friggin' idiots parked a Corvo inside Kansas. Vayrn was able to get there before me, since I was returning from shaking down the miners. He apparently said some really ludicrous things, like that he wanted to speak to the Executive Commander.
The Executive Commander refused to see this "=SMI="Great.Fox". Mister Fox could not seem to comprehend this news, repeatedly saying things like, "I will wait for Rossini to meet me himself" despite the fact that I was telling him that Rossini was telling ME that he would not be seen. Eventually, another =SMI= appeared, bearing the callsign "Fallen". Fallen possessed less intelligence than Fox.
They went to the Freeport, where the Perihilion instantly responded and shooed them off. Zoner Defense Forces have contacted me and informed me that the situation is contained, and that Fox should not bother us. HOWEVER, should Fox appear in Kansas again, we are permitted to open fire.
*Slight static is problematic throughout the transmission, cause unknown*
This is Drake Ave..*static* ...porting in.
I received an emergency signal from several outnumbered Hellfire pil... *static* ...aving a problem with the Liberty Navy.
Attempted to assist them, but my Wasupu took major damage, still I'm en-route to hom..... *static*....ould be in Magellan sometime over the next day or s....*static*
At least I managed to salvage my sen....*static*.....d most of the major systems.. She will need major work though, when I make dock.
Heh, life support also seems stead...*static*...to get back home
Greetings. This is a brief recap of today's turbulent events. I'll just cut down to the important bits:
DSM, or Dark Star Mining, brought Two (2) Hydra IMG gunboats into Kansas for the point of hunting pirates. They have been warned to not do so again.
The same group, DSM, has admitted to pirating non-IMG miners in Magellan and other systems. If they attempt it in Kansas, severe ramifications will be enacted.
A Corsair Cruiser, the HAF-Tiger_Claw, appeared IN MAGELLAN, as the Perihilion, Interceptor and I, were questioning the pair of DSM Hydras. NTF and DSM forces temporarily aligned to destroy the Praefect.
The reason the Corsair gave for being there was that "The Joker attacked his trader so now he was getting payback." Photo evidence below.
A draft of the conversation between NTF, IMG and DSM has been sent to the Executive Commander and the Senior Commodore .
I did not know that the Corsairs approved such expeditions of revenge. I will keep a look out for the next wave. If it ever comes. Until then, Lieutenant Commander Alan Gresham signing off.
Priority: Moderate
Encryption: Full
Destination: Boadicea, Kansas + NTBS Belisarius, Kansas
Source: NTF Captain Robert Crompton
Subject: Report
Well, today was action packed. Firstly, Gresham found two DSM Hydras with plenty of conflicting opinions. By the time I arrived the Captain of the Perihelion and Gresham were questioning them, mostly about taxing some miners in the area.
The questioning was interrupted by the sudden, random appearance of a Corsair Praefect Cruiser, bearing the HAF tag. Apparantley a vendetta against the Joker justifies Corsairs bringing Cruisers as far as the southwestern Independent Worlds around Liberty. Not good enough justification for us, and most of us were sick of these random invasions by Corsair Capital ships, so we fried it.
And of course, destroying it resulted in the captain going into a frothing rage about entire Corsair fleets with battleships and impending doom for us all. Considering how easily he went down, it wasn't really that scary.
With the quick scrap over and done with, we began questioning the DSM Hydras again, as well as thwarting their attempts to flee the investigation. At around this time the Executive Commander appeared on the scene and the situation was resolved... for that moment.
I failed to mention this earlier, but here it is. Of special note during these proceedings was the presence of an Armoured Transport, the CS-E4[The Wave]. While you may be wondering why an Armoured Transport is so special, this is why: It is one of the only known vessels to have entered the Unknown Object in Kansas, and returned. It was recorded as doing such by the Hinton's scanners, which also recorded a transmission before it disappeared: "Beyond the barrier in space unseen, past the stars of blue and green, within the cloud that hides the light, trust not your sensors, only your sight." Disclosed is an image of the vessel as it was moored at Freeport 4.
Gresham, the Executive Commander and I proceeded on a more normal patrol into Kansas. Far from normal (or are our patrols so abnormal that abnormality is normal now?) We first picked up a Liberty Navy gunboat with a Captain who believed that his hunk of junk was all-powerful, giving him the godlike ability to take on anything. Boy did we prove him wrong, by tearing up his hull and letting him limp back to Magellan with minimal hull integrity.
Leading the patrol at this point, we proceeded into the cloud where we discovered the CS-E4[The Wave] within the depths of the cloud. It came across as a normal miner, but all it took was the magic words of the poem. This is what happened afterwards:
The detonation fried the communications systems of both the Executive Commander's Fighter and my own Bomber. Only a few K from Boadicea and the engines on board the Executive Commander's fighter exploded spectacularly, while my radio systems fried out completely.
Gresham towed the Executive Commander's ship back to Boadicea, while I managed to crash land on one of the few fighter bays. At that point a massive EMP shockwave blasted out from the Tuttle Creek Cloud, putting us in complete darkness for a few minutes.
Once our systems came back online I immediately hooked up my recordings to the Hinton's database and downloaded them. Further analysis of the two shockwaves revealed that what caused this was no ordinary EMP bomb; it had much more in common with that of a different kind of artifact or Power Cell, after referencing with the scans of a Power Cell I once had in my posession.
We could be on to a major discovery here, if we act quickly and can record the residual effects of the detonations before they disappear completely. I plan to return with the Hinton to conduct proper scans before it is too late.
Priority: Moderate
Encryption: Full
Destination: Boadicea, Kansas + NTBS Belisarius, Kansas
Source: NTF Captain Robert Crompton
Subject: Report
Our recon mission began in Kansas. From there, Commodore Matthews and I flew north, through Magellan and Cortez and up the Barrier Pass to the Taus. Our mission was put on hold in Tau-23, between Java and the Tau-37 jumphole, as the Commodore had to deal with a priority transmission. During this time we had a conversation with the Colonials and IMG. There was a major Junker presence, counting at least four Junker transports taking scrap metal Guncam Shots[/url]through the Tau-37 jumphole, and then returning - empty. Where the scrap is going is a mystery to me.
Commodore Matthew's Priority Transmission had finished, so we went north, first to Freeport 10 where we found a lone Outcast shooting ice outside the Freeport. After resupplying we pushed further north, into Omicron Alpha itself. The system was deserted, giving the guncam some time to take some pictures. On the way to Omicron Beta an artificial satellite was detected orbiting Planet Mallorca. It is undetermined what it may be.
We left Omicron Alpha and spotted another Junker in Omicron Beta, who was also heading for the Sigmas like we were. As it happened the Shadow Outcast Brigade had noticed us in Omicron Alpha and warned us not to return. In Sigma-13 we stopped at Yanagi, then searched for the infamous New Berlin jumphole.
We arrived in New Berlin, under attack by Wilde. We managed to bring him down when an entire wing of them decloaked and began a dogged pursuit, luckily we escaped. From there we returned to Kansas through Hamburg, the Independent Worlds and Liberty.
Looks like we'll need to be more careful on these recon missions so we -don't- get spotted. Easier said than done with the way our resources are, though.
Incoming transmission
Source and Encryption level: Rochester Station / High
Subject: Major battle successful
Lieutenant Commander Alan Gresham here. My Bayonet's test flight turned out to be much more drastic than I had planned. I met up with [HF]-Shia along the way, and we set course for New York. Along the way, we encountered a pair of Hackers, and an argument over the morality of piracy broke out. Everything was put on hold when a Liberty Navy BATTLEGROUP appeared, consisting of four fighters, a gunboat and a Battlecruiser arrived.
Verbal fighting occured, with the LNS-Artemis, the battlecruiser, sounding like a complete moron, as most Navy capital ships. We were at a "Mexican Standoff" as one of the hackers put it, neither side initiating combat. Everything changed when a Liberty Assault CARRIER arrived to the scene, and Commodore Suralin ordered the attack.
The battle itself it recorded on film. We lost the Hacker gunship, which is no matter, if he died that quickly. During the fight, we destroyed one enemy fighter, one fled at the end of the battle, and the other two simply.. Disappeared.
All three capital ships were completely decimated. This will hopefully give us some breathing space in Kansas, as three of their capital vessels are no longer fit to operate in Kansas for a while. We are currently resting on Rochester, but will return to Kansas shortly.
Greg here. I took a solo patrol from Liberty into the northern Independent Worlds yesterday, starting off from Rochester and heading into Galileo.
I didn't expect what I found when I entered the system, though. I had heard Galileo was off the beaten track, which is why I was kind of surprised when a Rogue ship known as the PLR-Black.Paladin informed me Galileo was being patrolled (and supposedly controlled) by the Pixel Liberty Rogues.
I was ordered to dock on Padua by the gunboat to prove I wasn't a Navy agent. Hell of a laughable idea. It wasn't too hard to convince them I had nothing to do with the Navy -- the Broadsword I was flying helped with that -- and I wound up finding out a fair amount about them in return.
Apparently the Pixel Liberty Rogues aren't your typical thugs. Or they don't think of themselves that way, at least. Their spiritual leader's name was Pixel, so they stuck with that name after his death. I kinda think of them as what would have happened if the Hellfire Legion's founders had been on the wrong side of the law their whole lives. The PLR is also heavily anti-Navy, apparently; I showed them the recorded battle from the other day, and they cheered like crazy when the Sacramento blew up.
The whole reason I headed up that way, though, was to pick up a scientist who I believe will be important to our cause: Dr. Kyoko Shima, an expert in terraforming and ecosystem creation. She left the University of Kyushu and Kusari in general, because the other (male) Samura scientists constantly took credit for her work.
The PLR ship decided to tag along, and we headed down to Ontario. I don't trust Rogues with the location of our base, even semi-friendly ones, so I dropped off Dr. Shima at Cochrane Base and ordered Marcos to come retrieve her in the Grall.
However, while the enemy of my enemy might not be a friend, per se, they can still be... useful. The Black.Paladin decided to attempt a raid on California. I went along with it so as to try to lure out a Navy capital ship or two, but the raid was unsuccessful in any case. Within five minutes there was a general ion storm warning, so we both sought shelter here at Alcatraz.
I'm not sure if these Pixel Rogues can be trusted or not, but at least we now know about them. If nothing else, we can take advantage of their raids and their contestment of Galileo to distract and spread out the Navy.
Anyway, I'll be returning to Kansas fairly soon. I don't like this place at all.
Priority: High
Encryption: Full
Destination: Boadicea, Kansas + NTBS Belisarius, Kansas
Source: NTF Captain Robert Crompton
Location: Freeport 1, Omega-3
Subject: Report
Robert appears on screen. Strangely, he's in the bar of Freeport 1, with a view of Sprague and the Walker Nebula behind him. Next to him is a half empty glass with 'Freeshock 1' embossed on it.
Good day, you're probably wondering what I'm doing out here, reporting to you from the bar of Freeport 1, but I'll get to that in a moment.
He takes a sip from the glass before continuing.
The Patrol began as usual from Mactan, greeting a friendly Vagrant Raider, before intercepting an Iridium miner called 'Lolz' who had just left Kansas, not enough for me to not stop him, however. After a short discussion, he 'agreed' to pay. Suddenly, in the midst of the transfer of credits, he opened fire on me! An outrage! Dirty tactics didn't help him either way when it came to abandoning ship.
Not wanting to risk Mactan or Boadicea's security, I took the advice of the Legionnaire and flew off here. No doubt at some point he had someone shoot a tracking device onto my ship. Freeport 1 in Omega-3 fit the bill nicely of a place where you'd go to get some work after your organisation crashes down around you, so here I am. The technicians here are cleaning up my ship completely... enough to wash off any spy bugs.
I'll probably be here overnight, so it's likely I won't be returning to Boadicea until at least tomorrow. The fact we fooled that Captain into believing we're completely destroyed will probably pay for that, though.
*Drake scratches his head and mutters slightly before realizing it's recording: *
I guess I've got two things to report, I'll put them in chronological order.
I'd just resupplied at Mactan, and was en-route to Kansas when I bumped into a Vagrant Raider. He mentioned that he had pressing business, and I offered my aid, as an ally and such.
We ended up heading toward Manhattan, where there was a large fight between the Navy, and several Raiders. After losing a few of our pilots fell, we managed to take out their pilots with our superior co-ordination. I even managed to land the shot that took out their Gunboat.
When their capital ship backup opened fire, we returned fire, and along with the Gryphon brothers, managed to beat it back to manhatten with its tail between it's legs.
I regret the lack of Guncam shots, but it was malfunctioning, with my Wasupu's parts hard to come by I tend to spend more time on more important systems....
As always, any action that keeps the Navy in a repair yard, and away from Kansas is a success in my eyes.
And on to the second report:
*he sighs, and shakes his head*
I had returned from Mactan after a resupply to run a standard patrol of Kansas. After meeting with the Belisarius, Vayrn, and Suralin, we all picked up a strange reading on our scopes.
To our amazement, it was Liberty Navy vessel, an Assault Carrier no less! She was an odd color scheme, and seemed to use turrets of a make I am unfamiliar with. We've reason to believe she was a proto-type of some sort... Her name was the LNS-Glorious and she was captained by one Captain Abrams.
While I myself am unfamiliar with this individual, the rest of the pilots present seemed to know him.
Captain Abrams made a mad dash out of the asteroid field, where he could bring his full might to bear down on us... Unfortunately, he made it out, and prepared to send us to our makers.
I am afraid I didn't get many Guncam shots, in the beginning seeing as how I was dodging for my life. But the perseverance of out Bombers, and the true aim of the Belisarius's gunner brought this formidable vessel down is swift order The Belisarius suffered some damages, but as far as I know our snub craft were mostly unharmed.
I DID however manage to get some guncam shots once I was no longer a target for the Glorious:
Naturally, we began picking up the Escape pods, and shuttles. Leaving people to die in space is not the way of the NTF.
Once the Hinton arrived,and we'd began rescue operations, we encountered several Junkers flying the {ST} Flag. I'm not familiar with this particular branch of the Junkers, but I am not terribly familiar with Junkers as a whole anyway.. Either way, a Miss Suzume seemed to be in charge and after much conversation, it was decided to let them remove the wreck, since several of her powercore casings were damaged, and she was leaking heavy radiation.
Thankfully, they managed to remove the Main core with detonating it, and remove it from the system.
This is all I have to report right now, I'll pass along more as I gather it.
![[Image: 16106_s.gif]](http://signavatar.com/16106_s.gif)
![[Image: NTFBanner-1.png]](http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb317/Tyrkeyz/NTFBanner-1.png)
![[Image: Omega-3-2.png]](http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz49/Xalrok/Omega-3-2.png)