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Opening recent reports...
Opening report #1 by Ensign Daniel Arthur Haynes, dated March 16th, 818 A.S.

First day on the job, started out with a shiny new Templar in Salisbury. By "shiny and new" I mean "patched up from the last time it broke in the war", of course, but I'm still proud of it. Got a call from Lieutenant Commander Jay Clark about Das Wilde sightings in Omega-3. By the time I got to Cambridge, though, we had reports of Gaians harassing miners in Dublin, so I was sent as recon while the others searched for the aliens. Which were apparently doing nothing. Didn't seem like worth the effort to me, but that's not my call...

When I arrived, it did not take long to locate the Gaians. A pack of three Nature's Last Hope members as well as another Gaian were well within the Graves Asteroid Field, and I shortly found myself staring down two Claymore gunboats... at which point I promptly started pleading for mercy and requesting backup from the forces in Omega-3. They had lost the Wild, and said they had picked up a few strays to tag along.

When they arrived, it was not anything like what I expected... there were a few more of our friendlies than I had thought, and the Gaians turned tail in a hurry. However, amongst our friendlies was Austin Goodman, the fugitive... as he was in our same comm channel, I could not question my superior about his presence. I would have attempted to find a way around this, but then my scanners picked up an enormous energy reading the likes of which I have never seen before.

Phsyically, it was a BHG light fighter- a Sea Serpent. But power radiated from it enough to make my scanners nearly useless. What I did pick up was that it came from two separate sources- one I could not identify, and one consistent with the readings that come off of derelict Nomad power cells. But this one was active.

Communicating with it was difficult... but eventually we got it to recognize us, to some extent. It said something to the effect of wondering if we were its mother... I asked the commander of a nearby destroyer if he had any families aboard, but before he could respond Austin Goodman told the energy source that it's mother was dead. I tried to shut him up, fearing the retribution of such a force, but it was too late- a single volley from its weapons and Goodman's ship evaporated from under him. Such power I have not seen even from our battleships' most deadly weapons...

It seemed to mature significantly after that point, and we attempted to barter with it for the Nomad power cell. However, it simply told us that there would be a contest soon, on April 1st, and that we might acquire such a "toy" should we survive... then it vanished before our eyes without so much as a spatial disruption.

If there are gods in this universe, I think I found one on my first day.

Ensign Daniel Arthur Haynes, signing off.

Report ends.
Closing report file...
Closing recent reports folder...
Dismissing interface...
Goodbye, secretary.

... Incoming transmission ...
Source: Lieutenant Commander Jay Clark
Subject: Patrol Report

Sirs, in explanation of Haynes's report, I will add details of what happened while he first found the Gaians. I was in Omega-3 along with HMS-Vesper and Ens. Keevan, waiting at Freeport 1 for any word on the Wilde movement. Long range scanners reported that they were still in the system, so we were waiting for any distress calls from traders or anything to give us their positions.

While we waited at FP1, we were very surprised to find Mr. Goodmen and Deneth Aleski exit the trade lane in front of us. Seeing as we were all in front of the freeport, and the two seemed to be on peaceful terms, I did some quick thinking and decided that the Gaians might be of use to us. By this time Haynes was providing intel about the Gaians, and we heard that they had two VHFs and two Claymores, which compared to our two ensigns in Templars, myself in a Templar, and the Vesper (gunboat), was not quite good enough odds to make me feel completely comfortable about not losing one of our pilots. I told Keevan and the Vesper the situation over local comms, and Mr. Goodmen volunteered to help out against the Gaians. I assured him that I had never questioned his loyalty to the Crown, and that assistance against Her enemies was always appreciated. This plan seemed like a great idea to me - We could get him back into core space without any suspicions being raised, send him out in front to the gaians, and kill two birds with one stone - he's more than able to take on a gunship, and the Gaians would weaken him enough for us to take him into custody without risking our ensigns' lives.

Unfortunately he still has quite the reputation, and upon our arrival the 4 Gaians rabbited even before the gunboat and one of the ensigns arrived, clearly scared of us. As I thought about springing the trap anyway, we noticed the massive energy signature nearby as Haynes reported. The following actions have already been told, so I don't need to say any more about it.

The only troubling thing is that I don't know what happened to Goodmen's escape pod, I wasn't able to pick it up on scanners after he disappeared. It's possible that the powerful being that removed him actually transported his full ship to some other location, and did not in fact destroy it, but I'm not a scientist. It's also possible, being in the Graves field, that he was able to hide on an asteroid, but I thought our standard issue scanners would be able to see through that. My only other guess was that it was retrieved by Aleski, but I couldn't get a positive ID from any of the pods in his hold (there were others which came up as Corsair and general Pirate, maybe Goodmen learned how to cloak the ID), I didn't think it likely enough to demand all of his cargo.

That is all for today's report.
Lieutenant Commander Jay Clark

... Transmission Ends ...

While helping the recent recruit finish setting up her vessel's transponder. Myself and Ensign Jack O'neal ran across a Corsair Cruiser, being tailed by a Bounty Hunter, Mister Rivera.

The fight was brief, and the Invictus took very little hull damage while the enemy cruiser attempted to flee. Of course it never escaped the clutches of the Invictus and her crew.

Corsair Cruiser

Ensign Rose McBride has everything ready for combat. Of course we'll have to see how she does in the coming months, I've given her access to the Emergency channel, as well as this one.

Signed,

Lieutenant Roger R. Hans

Interface initiated
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Opening recent reports...
Opening report #2 by Ensign Daniel Arthur Haynes, dated March 18th, 818 A.S.

Today was not so glorious as my first day. Rather than meeting what can best be described as a deity's avatar, I was called to service against several Corsair fighters in New London. Myself, Ensign Rose McBride, Ensign Jack O'Neal, and Lieutenant Martin Bridge arrived to find two Benitez and a Luis something or other. They asked Rose for a little dance, shortly followed by some discussion of our various "moves". Before long the Lieutenant had charged into them and we started "dancing" in a manner involving somewhat more firepower than your average chorus line.

Ensign O'Neal crumpled under their fire, but I was able to save him just in time with a transfer of nanobots. Following that, the enemies turned their fire to Ensign McBride, and picked her apart. They then turned to me, but before long I finished dismantling one of the Benitez. I then proceeded to trade fire with Luis, almost wiping him out in a single chain of explosions from a vast group of mines around him. However, while informing reinforcements of our situation, my hull took a mini razor. Without any friendlies able to repair me, all their fire came towards me and before long I was destroyed by a mine.

I will note that there was great inefficiency in the command of this engagement. I had to remind Lieutenant Bridge to call a target, and later to pick a target that they could actually hit. Transfer of repair resources under fire could use a little work too, but most striking was the lack of coordination. The other ensigns appeared not to know to dodge when taking fire rather than trying to get a few extra hits in... nor even that a cruise disruptor could be used to detonate mines. I can hardly believe it even now.

I've read many patrol reports and detailed engagement logs. I may not be a tactician by trade, but I have analyzed a lot of data and may be able to help the other ensigns learn to work better as a team in group engagements. However, it is not normally the place of an Ensign to do such training.

Ensign Daniel Arthur Haynes, signing off.

Report ends.
Closing report file...
Closing recent reports folder...
Dismissing interface...
Goodbye, secretary.

[incoming transmission]
[source......................Lt Martin Bridge]
[downloading..............done]
[noise filtering............done]
[opening message]

Greetings officer,

I agree with Haynes' report, adding the lack for discipline since I deny having ever issued the engagement notice. It worth stressing that the final death toll reached the impressive rate of 12 to 1 including, along the aforementioned ensigns the Lieutenant Hans, Blair and myself, a mandalorian, and a full bowex escort wing. I therefore support the need for more trainings sessions, especially for recruits. Hmm, and Lieutenants too.

Regards,
Lieutenant Martin Bridge.

[End of transmission]

(Co-written with cshake)


Jay sees a message pop up on his pager - "Report to Captain Hunter's Office Immediately". He sighs, "I knew this was coming". He walks down the hallways from the flight deck and knocks on the door. "You wanted to see me?"

Inside the room, Captain Evyn Hunter pressed a small button on the terminal built into her desk. The door slid open to reveal an apprehensive-looking officer standing outside. Evyn shot him a glare that she had developed over two long years of dealing with the Armed Force's miscreants. "Come in Commander."

"Thank you Captain." Jay walks in, keeping his chin up. He thinks to himself, Hey, it's not like I helped him, I'd hate to see what Aleski has to answer to over this...

Evyn felt a sense of irritation rising in her. Practically in a whisper she said, "Attention."

Jay stands up straight, looking ahead, hand up in a salute. "Captain."

Evyn returned the salute, but did not motion for the Commander to sit down on the room's spare chair, which was tossed into the corner. Instead she opened a drawer on her desk and pulled out two small pieces of paper. "I assume you know why you're here Commander." She swept a hand towards the two reports placed in the middle of the desk. "I would like to know just what you were thinking when you made the decision to neglect your duties."

"Yes, it is true that I did not immediately arrest Goodmen when I first saw him, there's no denying that." "The decision was made because I did not feel that I had the force to take him into custody when he came into range, so I attempted to gather reinforcements to assure a clean arrest, while trying not to let him figure it out."

"When he first arrived in scanner range, outside Freeport 1, I had Ensign Keevan next to me, and HMS-Vesper was standing by as well. I had never interacted with HMS-Vesper before, I assume he is from the TA, and as such I did not fully trust where his loyalties were."

"Goodmen exited the trade lane in his Templar in formation with Deneth Aleski, who I immediately recognized as an ensign that had flown with me previously, but had gone missing along with Goodmen. He was not wearing his uniform, and was missing his tag, so I assumed he would put up a fight on Goodmen's behalf if we tried to make an arrest."

"I talked to Aleski over local comms, addressing him as 'former ensign Aleski', to which he seemed to take issue and told me that 'former' was a harsh word to use. This made me think he still had ties within BAF, but was obviously working with Goodmen, lending more suspicion to the involvement of the Vesper. I had never seen it before, and it was just waiting there with Keevan when the fugitive (and apparent accomplice) returned." "Also, ma'am, I forgot to mention that Aleski was flying a fully armed and armored Eagle."

"This all made me uncomfortable trying to make an arrest just then, and the only other backup I knew I had was Ens. Haynes in Dublin who was reconning the Gaian situation there. I knew that his loyalties were true after so long working behind the scenes for us, and that coupled with 4 Gaians who were sure to be hostile to Goodmen, it seemed like a much safer plan than possibly finding myself outgunned. I know Goodmen's skill in his Templar, it is above mine, and while I trust Keevan, it is above his as well."

"I informed our assembled party over local comms the situation in Dublin - Vesper and Keevan already knew from squadron comms - this was for Aleski and Goodmen. Goodmen seemed to suggest that he was always willing to defend the Crown, and Aleski seemed to think he would fight as an Ensign in his current ship, so I told them to follow the 3 of us to Dublin to meet up with Haynes.

This was exactly what I had hoped, albeit Aleski's company was not required. We flew to Dublin, hearing intel from Haynes as we approached, and I created a battle plan that involved Goodmen and Aleski targeting the gunboat that was carrying Cerbs and Razors, so the fighters and the Solaris-carrying Claymore to do the most damage to them while the rest of us were to target the other gunboat so we could destroy it within time to leave Goodmen damaged but not destroyed, perfectly weakened so he couldn't put up a fight for the arrest."

"Unfortunately, when we arrived, either our reputation preceeded us, or the Gaians knew they were outgunned, so they fled as soon as we got within scanner range. At this point I was about ready to tell Keevan and Haynes to assist me in arresting Goodmen, and would have told the Vesper the plan as we acted, to allow for him to assist but without the risk of him possibly warning Goodmen and Aleski.

The plan to make the arrest was cut short however, as we discovered an immensely powerful energy signature above Graves station, where we were, which upon scanning appeared to be one of the inert nomad power cores that we've seen smugglers carrying, except it was active, and was adding massive power to the attached ship's guns and shield. We looked on in surprise for a few seconds, then heard it speak in local comms, something about 'Momma', to which Goodmen started replying and talking to it."

"The rest of us talked among ourselves wondering what was happening, and suddenly another being appeared out of nowhere, not as powerful but just as unexpected. At this point the foolish Goodmen said 'No momma, your momma is dead!', and the being unleashed a short but intensely powerful beam from the front of it, and suddenly Goodmen's ship was gone, leaving behind some ammunition and nanobots."

"Not wanting to have this happen to anyone else, I ordered a full retreat back to New London post-haste, and headed here to Derby to file my report."

"I do realize that I should have arrested Aleski, but when the rest of us cruised back to the NL gate, he must have taken a different route, and did not follow us. I didn't want to risk coming into contact with the apparently now-angered being that had simply removed Goodmen, so I felt it unsafe to turn around and make chase."

"That is all I have to say about this, and I hope you can see that I was not intentionally letting him go."

He took a deep breath and a step back, looking down at Evyn's desk, wondering what was going to happen to him.

Evyn let him stand there a few moments while she methodically tapped her fingernail on the desk, making a rythmic tap marking the passage of time.

"What an exceptionally droll reiteration of the report which I have already read Commander. If I wish to die of motonous dialogue, I'll be sure to call you for it."

"Unfortunately, none of it has solved this problem. The base facts here are that you had contact with a Bretonian fugitive within Bretonia sovereignty and acted in a manner that allowed him to escape arrest or death, both of which his desertion has justified."

"The other is that you had evidence, circumstantial but significant, of an Armed Forces Ensign colluding with a deserter, using unauthorized equipment, and neglecting his duties in the arrest of a fugitive. Ensign Haynes, while scouting several hostile forces, was not in immediate danger, and capable to falling back from his current position and either grouping up with ships from the Essex' force or allowing it to handle the threat while he rendezvoused with you in Omega-3."

"Considering the Gaian threat will be there regardless, and that we have forces that could deal with, or at least delay, those threats long enough for you to handle them later, the most prudent action would have been to attempt to apprehend Mr. Goodmen. While I recognize his piloting abilities are beyond those of most of our lower-ranked pilots, it is why he was made a Commander afterall, it isn't sufficient to stop two Templars and a Gunboat. While you have expressed suspicion on the Vesper's loyalty, you had no evidence to support that view, and thus, no legitimate excuse in not utilizing the ship's power towards your duties."

"As a result of these ill-thought out decisions, the Gaians escaped, Goodmen escaped, and Ensign Aleski vanished to God knows where, preventing us from finding out the truth of his actions. Your taskforce was then in danger of being destroyed by what I assume to be a Nomad-controlled Sea Serpent and forced to retreat from Dublin."

"Am I correct in how things turned out Commander?"

"Well, when... yes, you are correct." Jay's posture visibly sags, but he remains in place.

"I acted and thought wrongly in this situation."

Evyn leaned back in her chair and laid her forearms on the armrests. "And what do you think should be done about this situation?"

"I ... am not quite sure. I understand the severity of the situation, but feel that what happened was primarily a result of bad tactical decisions - incorrectly assessing the strengths and usefulness of the assembled ships, and what I see as the largest error, assessing the aid of civilians against Gaians to be of significant importance to stop an all-out effort to apprehend the fugitive."

"I feel that I would have acted differently if I had been given the information about the nomad energy signature before deciding to move to Dublin. As I found out later that it had been there before we arrived and Haynes neglected to mention it in his intel, so once we were in Dublin I feel that I did do the right thing given the circumstances."

"I am prepared to be reassigned to a position of, shall we say, less responsibility, if that is what you wish, or other punishments you deem appropriate, but I do not feel that what I did was quite worthy of a firing squad."

Evyn closed her eyes and thought for a minute. Making a decision, she opened them and began speaking.

"What you did was foolish and dangerous, both to yourself and those you were leading. I cannot simply allow you to go unpunished. Which fleet were you assigned to Commander?"

I was assigned to the Suffolk Fleet by Commander Cromwell when I joined, ma'am.

Evyn nodded. "You will be transfered to the Derby Great Fleet, the 7th, under Admiral Hobart. You will be placed within my taskforce of the 7th Fleet. You will be under my command, and Admiral Hobart's, should he have direct orders for you. I will be watching you until I decide if you should be allowed to keep your current rank. Return to the Suffolk and gather your things. You'll be transfered a few hours from now. Dismissed."

Jay salutes, "Thank you ma'am, you have been kinder than I expected. Good day." He turns on his heel and leaves to begin transferring his belongings to the Derby.

Comm Channel: Open

Sir,
A brief report on action in Leeds today.
As soon as i launched from the Derby it was brought to my attention that an IMG battlecruiser was in the system. As my guncam was out of action i hope that the other BAF pilots there took some images for you.
I asked his intentions and he replied that he was heading for O3. As no permissions were given for the vessel to be in Bretonian space i denied his passage and informed him to seek permission from MI5 before attempting this again. As it happened he eventually refused to leave and he engaged us. He was destroyed thanks mostly to the Invictus being on station. I would think a stern memo to the IMG about this be arranged.
Secondly, straight after this happened some KNF fighters decided it would be a good laugh to head for Leeds. A bad mistake on thier part. One of those fighters had a serious engine malfunction half way through the fight and was destroyed. A brave pilot that one was. the rest where driven off.
One other thing to note. I saw a vessel with BAF IFF with the name of 89th Omega one or something like that. I told him to identify himself and why he had a BAF Iff. He refused and said that he was some special squadron set up by Admiral Hobart. I have not heard of this so advised him he would be arrested if i got my hands on him. He docked on the Derby.
If this is indeed Admiral Hobarts new squadron it would help if senior command was advised of this to avoid misunderstandings.

Cdre Jack Frost

Comm Channel: Closed

... Incoming Transmission ...
Source: Ensign Rose McBride
Subject: Training Excercises

So far in my service to the Armed Forces I have encountered: a formation of Corsairs; a Freelancer flying an Eagle; a pair of Molly gunboats; an Outcast Battlecruiser; and the damnable Ein, on several occassions. In none of these combats did I acquit myself very well. The level of skill and the technology available to the enemies I have been facing far surpasses those of the criminals I hunted in the BPA - if I had encountered such foes then, I would have called in the BAF. Now that I AM the BAF, I need to get better. A lot better.

In light of this, I must give thanks to Lieutenant Bridge, who conducted a training session in Salsbury last night for the benefit of myself and Ensign Xylon, latter assisted by Ensign O'Neil. The Lieutenant provided me with detailed descriptions of the various manouvers I will need to improve my combat capabilities, including correct use of thrusters and engine kill for both offensive positioning and evasion. In a short space of time, I feel my skills as a pilot improved significantly, though I'm am keen to test this theory in combat proper. Lieutenant Bridge is to be commended for his training technique, and I would recommend that all green recruits such as myself be provided with similar tutalage.

Ensign McBride out.

... Transmission Ends ...

Comm ID: Penrod , Albert
Rank: Dr
Patient: Adama,Lee
rank of patient: Lt
Subject: medical report
time:13:00 SMT
receiver: Bretonia high command

Good day,
sirs I have a grave duty to report about an incident that happened in Leeds today. At 10:00SMT Lt Lee Adama was ambushed by a kusari destroyer his ship was systematically shut-down and he was bordered and captured by kusari naval forces. he then was taken prisoner by them and when the destroyer. Approached the Nagasaki the battleship opened fire on the destroyer destroying it when a metal strut fell cutting Lt Adama left leg almost in half . By the time junkers had towed the wreckage Lt Adama was unconsciousness and his leg had to be completely removed and replaced with the new bionic leg. All reports are clear and he is fit for duty

yours
faithfully

Dr Albert Penrod

---Incoming Transmission---
Sender ID: Ensign Michael Clay
Subject: Report

Yesterday I was on guard duty at the Leeds blockade and the day was one of the busier ones. Here is summary of all incidents:
Three blockade runners:
Nadia_Sternschnuppen - Ignored warnings, cruised around me and I ran out of CDs. Luckily there were two of our men near Stokes, but Nadia docked with the station in front of them. (ooc: and then he undocked, saw that we are still there and docked again. We left him alone.)

Black.Pearl - Liberty Rogue gunboat, stopped, interrogated and escorted out of Bretonian space. He was just "passing through" from Liberty to Omicrons, no cargo, no pirating. Here is the shot of him being escorted out to Magellan.


I forgot the name of the third one, he was a miner who wanted to pass to Kusari. He was stopped and turned back.

We also had a pirate visit, Lane Hacker named Jarek_70. He refused to leave, so we had to destroy him.


Traders going to LD-14 were escorted as usual.

Three other reserve BAF ships were on duty, gunboat Sunray, cruiser HMS Perilous and bomber Sir.Lancelot. All of them did a perfect job.

Ensign Clay out.

---End of Transmision---