Busy day, mostly uneventful, but a lot of civilians ran over our scanners. I'll also note that Rheinland is being literally swarmed with Tridente-class Outcast gunships lately. We met about the 10th in the past three days.
Outcast gunships attacking Hamburg
I began my patrol early this afternoon. Our Kampfgruppe has just finished off a Tridente gunship when I hopped into my Wraith. From Luebeck border station, I moved to Planet Hamburg. Near Altona, I spotted another two Tridentes, designated as Grave Digger and Pitbull moving torwards the Planet. I ordered them to disengage their engines, but since neither of them responded, I shot cruise disruptors at them. As soon as my third cruise disruptor hit them, the vessel Grave Digger opened fire at my Wraith. Of course, the other one immediately came back and also opened fire, I quickly found myself alone against the two Outcast gunships. Most forunately, the returning Rheinwehr group arrived to assist, as soon as the Outcasts noticed the incoming allied backup, they left off torwards Bering.
They passed the Hamburg blockade and left to Bering, but we were ordered to pursue them. We eventually caught up with the two ships near Freeport 2, they both opened fire at our group without a warning. The battle that followed was fierce and was not entirely in our favour. We lost three ships until we took one of them down, Admiral Malte, Major Westerman and Flieger Stiglitz had to be taken to hospital. I'd personally remark that our biggest disadvantage was that we arrived in waves, since we had to take quick action. Eventually, only me and Vizeadmiral Von Speer was left standing, until reserve pilot Albrecht Von Schmitz arrived and the three of us took out the already heavily damaged Grave Digger. Pitbull, the other gunboat docked with the Freeport.
The situation was not yet clear, while the battle lasted, the Infinity, an LSF bomber arrived. Herr Von Speer tried to tell the Libertonian to leave off, while the Heimkehr, our repair ship arrived to treat our damage. Following a heated debate, the Libertonian left off. We went back to Hamburg, the Heimkehr collected the escape pods and offloaded them at the Westfalen.
I began embargo supervision duties, will attach the scanner log later on.
Incursion of two Libertonian spies
A weird situation I had to encounter today. Two Libertonian Executioner-class Heavy fighters under a civilian registration code entered Hamburg in order to pass further into Rheinland. The ships designated as Neandor and Lance White never stated the reason for their presence. At first, I thought it was another two-men Liberty attack, but soon they stated they did not want to fight. At first, I wanted to throw them out, but the Stosswelle, a reserve ship noted the mixture of Rheinwehr, Libertonian and Unioner weapons they had equipped. I ordered them to relinquish their weapons. They got as far as unmounting them, but never gave them to us. The pilots were acting in a most strange way. They admitted having bribed the Quartermaster of the Westfalen storage to get the weapons, but they never seemed to understand that there was a war between Rheinland and Liberty and that they were not allowed to use such a ship setup.
Eventually, they started saying totally outrageous things. They kept disrespecting my authority and demanded to speak to my superiors. I warned them that I was way too diplomatic and that they were better off with me being present. They kept pushing it.
Major General Rall arrived.
Ten minutes later, their weapons, including a Mark V Vengeance-class Liberty cannon were resting on the Moselle again.
Zoner capital ships in Rheinland space
Two Zoner capital ships were granted admission to Rheinland today. Both failed to ask for entry permission in advance, but they were eventually granted permission to pass through Rheinland under Military escort.
The first one, a Jinkusu-class Zoner Juggernaut designated as Cassiopeia was quite a terrifying sight to encounter. The massive left off the lane from Bering unannounced, the checkpoint was not prepared for its arrival. We immediately halted him, the crew complied. I explained the situation to them that admittance was only possible with the Admirality's permission, luckily Admiral Malte was available. Me and reserve pilot Stosswelle escorted the Junkusu through Rheinland, neglecting the usage of trade lanes and not going even remotely close to populated areas despite the jump gates. Another tridente (the fourth today) tried stopping us, but it quickly realised his chances were dwarfed by the Zoner Juggernaut. Eventually, the Cassiopeia reached the Sigma-13 Jump Gate and left off, thanking us for our escort.
The second one to enter was a Corvo Exploration Cruiser, designated as Marco Cabulb, claiming to be only loosely affiliated with the Zoners and otherwise operating as an independent explorer. Major General Rall authroised the ship's entry, we had to keep a 10 clicks distance from any inhabited planets while we escorted the ship to the Sigmas aswell.
I informed the High Command, Admiral Malte personally of the increasing presence of both the Zoner capital ships and the swarm of heavily armed and armored Tridentes that repeatedly try to sabotage Rheinwehr operations.
Embargo supervision
During my duties, I returned three times to supervise the trade embargo at the Hamburg checkpoint. He's a detailed scanner log on the ships I've scanned, with detailed notes and the action taken.
--Uploading scanner history--
Alhambra:
Ship designation: HS|Alhambra Ship class: CT-37 "Stork" Advanced Train IFF transmitter alignment: Ageira Technologies Registration code: Ageira Technologies Cargo: Engine components (4200 units.) Shipment origin: Oder Shipyard, New Berlin Shipment destination: Planet Erie, Pennsylvania Military action taken: Permission to leave Rheinland denied.
Notes: The usual unaware trader. Turned back to take his cargo elsewhere. Didn't pester him about his Libertonian origins. -Lt. Alec Voelkel
Notes: Another trader who failed to run his pre-launch checks properly. This time, it was his IFF transmitter. I asked him how he got the LPI transmitter, he told me he wasn't even aware of its existence. Common mistake inexperienced traders tend to make. I ordered him to re-align it at the next station he meets. He was probably double-crossed on the black market. -Lt. Alec Voelkel
Notes: Another embargo runner turned around. -Lt. Alec Voelkel
NTT Venture:
Ship designation: ]NTF[-NTT-Venture Ship class: Series "DL" Border Wolds Transport IFF transmitter alignment: Outlaw Registration code: Neo-Terran Front Cargo: H-Fuel (3590 units.) Oil (5 units) Shipment origin: Unknown Shipment destination: Kansas system Military action taken: Permission to move through Rheinland granted.
Notes: The Venture and her escort, the NTF-Tycho showed up around Hamburg, all unannounced. I have no idea where they came from, but they tried passing behind the planet. I caught them about 10 clicks off the planet. I have no idea what the Neo-Terran Front is, they claimed to be another group of revolutionaries fighting to get to another galaxy or something. They said they had an agreement with Rheinland that they can get their fuel through Rheinland. Since they could name whom they made the agreement with (that being Admiral Malte), I didn't question them any further. They disappeared as suddenly as they showed up.-Lt. Alec Voelkel
Outrageous Fortune:
Ship designation: Outrageous.Fortune Ship class: "Shire" Bretonia container transport IFF transmitter alignment: Bretonia Mining and Metals Registration code: Bretonia Mining and Metals Cargo: Nothing Shipment origin: Cold bay depot, Hudson Shipment destination: New Berlin Military action taken: Entry to Rheinland granted.
Notes: The ship's nav systems were malfunctioning, it almost flew into the athmosphere of Planet Hamburg The captain managed to bring the ship to a stall a few meters above the athmosphere. -Lt. Alec Voelkel
Blue Ridge:
Ship designation: Ageira|Blue.Ridge Ship class: CT-37 "Crane" Large Train IFF transmitter alignment: Civilian Registration code: Ageira Technologies Cargo: Nothing Shipment origin: Unknown Shipment destination: Oder Shipyard, New Berlin Military action taken: Entry to Rheinland granted.
Notes: The ship and her escort, the Rudolf were having a meeting with some business associates. They said it was regarding trade lane reparations, so I've let them pass. -Lt. Alec Voelkel
Notes: The ship's captain was drunk. He kept talking about "tax" while wishing merry Christmas to us. I couldn't risk loosing the valuable shipment, I told him at first to return the diamonds to Bautzen, but since he obviously wasn't capable to fly a ship of that magnitude through Rheinland, I ordered him to land on Hamburg and leave his ship for tomorrow. So he did.-Lt. Alec Voelkel
Naquad:
Ship designation: Naquad Ship class: EL-HiL51 "Mammoth" Liberty Transport IFF transmitter alignment: Junker Registration code: Junker Cargo: Luxury Consumer Goods (2200 units.) Shipment origin: Planet Manhattan, New York Shipment destination: Planet Baden Baden, Stuttgart Military action taken: Shipment inspected, permission to enter Rheinland granted.
Notes: Ran in, got checked, left off. -Lt. Alec Voelkel
--Link disengaged--
Leutnant Voelkel signing off.
Powering down transmitter...
Cutting comm link...
Closing visual data...
------------------End of Transmission-----------------