After the news of the recent astral storm that opened and closed some jumpholes in the Sigmas and Kusari, myself and [Envy] conducted a small reconnaissance mission through those new anomalies. We also had a look at some of the new installations of our allies in that new region.
After passing through the outer edge of Chugoku, we entered Hiroshima[1]. The system seems to have been mostly incorporated for civilian and miliary use, with new tradelanes leading from New Tokyo gate to Renzu Shipyards. There's also a strong presence of the Naval Forces and State Police from Osumi and Matsue bases respectively. The newly constructed jump gate in the eastern part of the system leads to Okinawa. We discovered the location of Okinawa jump hole in the system, but no other ones. Undoubtedly, there are some, but the long-range readings aren't clear.
After going through Okinawa without many problems, we entered the Sigma-59[2] system. We checked the most important sight of the system - the Niigata Star City. The GMG project seems really ambitious and hopefully takes away as much attention from the Republican forces in Kusari not to deliver too much supplies and fuel to them. We also saw a new Bounty Hunters Guild station in the system, however we decided against coming too close. Nothing else of interest was found, save a jumphole to our next destination - Sigma-21.
Once there, we decided to perform a more thorough investigation of the system. Our first stop was at the newly acquired Farmers Alliance ship - the Battleship Kumamoto[3], where we refueled our ships. We haven't heard any news regarding their plans in the region, but they will most likely assist Hogosha and Samura in harassing the GMG operations in the area. Also they can appreciate the remarkably beautiful sight of Planet Hanoi. We also checked the more habitable planet in the system - Saigon. We don't have access to the precise data regarding its conditions, however at first glace it seems suitable for colonization. If that's the case then we might witness another hotspot for the hostilities between Samura and GMG.
We discovered four jump holes in the system, leading to Honshu, Sigma-59, Sigma-17 and a new system which revealed to be Sigma-15. After seeing that it looked rather uninteresting and too far from our zone of influence, we went back home through main Kusari space. We flew past the site of unfortunate demise of Osaka[4] and after that, returned to Tottori normally.
As for the conclusions. I believe that opening communication lines between us and Samura as well as Farmers Alliance might be important. If we could move several Zenith squadrons from Kyushu all the way to the Republican back lines, this might deal some fatal blows to their army and having a base from which we could resupply and attack might be very helpful.