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Hello again. It's time for an update on recent events, one that you might have been waiting for simply because there haven't been any for some time, from me especially.

After a quick breakfast in the undesirable environment of Padua base, I've spent the morning ransacking unsuspecting ships on the Galileo - Denver Lane in Colorado. Quick peek along the Galileo lanes didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary. Contacted by Moriarty, we met in Colorado and later on created some ruckus in the Fort Bush area, where, joined by another lane hacker - Ramirez, we severely damaged the |Ageira|Engrela| container transport. Unfortunately it couldn't be extorted propely due to the negligent engineers that built it. A cascade failure struck the ship and as a result it disintegrated.

Later on, when we arrived at Planet Pittsburgh for reasons I won't be mentioning here, we were followed by a Liberty Cruiser and a bomber. Contradicting itself, the cruiser captain stopped us in the debris fields and consequently asked us to leave. We did. After scrapping the cruiser and lighting up the bomber, of course.

[Image: th_03390b59.jpg] [Image: th_ba730efb.jpg]

Before we could get to our previous mission, we were disturbed again. This time by some mix of ships that just kept stacking up. In the end, it was 2 bombers, 3 fighters and a Kusari Explorer. The gunboat and two fighters were freelancers. Moriarty took advantage of the newly developed remote control, however the responses weren't as great. After the RC'd transport lost its turrets, we left the bait in there and got away. I bet they won't be happy that they killed one of their own Cruiser Captains, planted in the cockpit.

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My ship has been floating through space now for longer than I care to think. My terminal was unable to connect to any of our relay stations and I was beginning to wonder if... well, no matter. A Zoner with a salvage rig is lending me his time to get this derelict ship to Mactan, repairs will likely take time and even if I might be expected to, I doubt I will be able to reassume my logistical duties. I plan to requisition a lighter ship that I might use for the time being, but I will have to account for my credit balance first.

Understandably, I have been out of the loop for quite some time. I hope to be brought up to speed sooner or later.

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Romping with Rogues is what we did, not too long ago. Dominic, Phate, and I joined forces with Eddie.Cassidy and one of his friends -- whose name is evading me, unfortunately.

The highlight of the day was our hunt for a gang of Ageira delusionaries. Truthfully, it was not so much as a hunt as a chicken-shoot although I have never seen chickens as incompetent as these. As we first came into range, they docked at Pueblo. We accosted them for some time and they smugly described their cunning plan: "We have called for backup." Sure enough, I was witness to what must be the only smoothly executed plan ever to be devised by Ageira. The backup in question took the form of a heavy fighter of some sort, Raven's Claw if I'm not mistaken.

It should be noted that I did not pay much attention to what they were flying, I was polishing my instrument panel at the time. All I know is that there was a big cube of a ship trying to hit something several hundred meters behind me. There were two smaller ships as well, one of them being the so-called backup, but one of them was vaporized too quickly to be of any consequence.

Dom and Phate had flown off by now, to take care of of some traders I believe, so I was left with our friends the Rogues to toy with the chickens. And we did. Eventually I tired, turned my Hellflurries up and poking the Raven's Claw with it. He fled in several different directions at once -- quite the feat -- as my companion Rogue sighed that I had ended the fun. He then annihilated the cube ship.
[Image: ageiragunnerdeadzlk7.jpg]

In the aftermath as we were surveying the spoils I was given quite the shock. I knew them Ageiras weren't the brightest bunch, but what I was staring at demonstrated incompetence of a magnitude I was unaware existed this side of Sirius. I tractored the parcel and flew to rejoin Dom and Phate as we prepared to streak the Liberty "authorities" eating coffee and drinking donuts around Manhattan.

The streak was successful except for the minor mishap of Dom running headfirst into a dreadnaught, he wasn't hurt and likely confused the admiral enough to collide with Manhattan -- so perhaps not much more confused than normal, I suppose.

After washing all traces of socioeconomic delusionment from it, I deposited the Armor Upgrade VIII with our logistics unit at America. I am just now getting past my amazement.


After a well deserved night's sleep, business as usual again today.

While I resumed work on my space-kitchen, Dom transfered my Bounty Hunter prisoners for interrogation. I am considering getting a self-cleaning cargo-hold, or some maintenance robot. I can't stand the stink in my hold.

>At least our interrogaters are used to it<

Dom and I then did some pirating. We were given 700k from a Boron trader. We also took some Boron.

A bit later were forced to vaporize an ungrateful shipment of water.
[Image: ungratefuljosiahss1.jpg]

After some rest I went searching for more donaters. I chased IonTichy from the California jumpgate and eventually pulled him to a stop some KMs from the Manchester jumpgate. After a curse or two he obliged and relinquished 1.5 million credits. Phate came in a gunship to oversee the transaction.
[Image: iongifqb2.jpg]

Now it is time for me to get back to my duties. Until next time, then.

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The last days Phate, Alec Trevelyan and me were doing some pirating and fighting together as Alec already has described. We had a lot of fun fighting and taunting against those corporate lackeys The only thing Id like to amend is my transfer of 44 pilots to our Interrogation vessel at Leiden.

Pilots transferred

Today I decided to look for possible targets alone for the first time. After finding nothing than small fish in Magellan and Cortez I finally was lucky in the California system: after a short wait in the middle between Mojave and the New York jumpgate I successfully hacked a trade lane and met the trader Theta_Sigma travelling in a Whale. Without having to fire a single gun he was happy to support the Lane Hackers goals with 2.000.000 credits.

Payment

On my way home to Mactan I met Daniel_Oste, a pilot on rank 32 in a Dromedary not showing any kind of identification at all, and stopped him about 15k away from our base. I asked him for a small donation, but he pretended to be pirating the lane between Freeport 4 and the Manchester system. The Lane Hackers however saw him as a hostile target: they attacked and disgronified him while he was haggling over a little bit of money. As if money would be worth more than his life

Final words

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Eventful but lonely day today.

I woke up this morning and checked my terminal for news, communiqu?s, manifests, Ageira logs, the works. There was little of interest except for a puzzling message from someone by the name of Bob Jackson on Ouray in Colorado. Apparently he and a group of his "buddies" needed help driving out "some no good Junkers" who were enroaching on their "turf. I was 'opin' y'all could help."

I headed off to Colorado after a shower and a (generous) dose of Cardamine. As I approached Ouray I was hailed and I responded with the question: "Die." They didn't take to kindly and began lobbing gobs of ionized silver (or whatever it is their weapons do, it's not effective that's for true) at me. One Xeno by the name of Wodan took my question personally, and rightly so. Shortly thereafter he complied.
[Image: wodandiewg8.png]

After the Ouray went into some sort of lockdown, perhaps to prevent any more of their ships from being destroyed, I flew off to find patrols. I found only lone Starfliers, not enough to make them realize I wasn't there friend. I had several cunning schemes to bait them, I even tried mining silver (which I gave to some miner in the hopes that he might one day become worth pirating).

Eventually I gave up and decided to head home. Having lacked the excitement I had hoped for, I decided to fly past Manhattan. Before I got there I recieved a mayday from a Junker train in Texas heading towards the jumphole to New York. He was carrying Cardamine and under attack from the Liberty Navy. I told my engines to "engage that way," and they did.

I flew past West Point and picked up some nosy pilots who thought that killing me was an act for the greater good. Mr Andromeda, Johny Leroy, Alexis something, and a handfull more insignificants. Annoyed that I might lose out on a hold-full of Cardamine, I let loose on my pigtails -- navytails? -- with a sigh. And my Hellflurries. After some time what must have been some sort of mercenary came buy and told me he would assist me for half a million credits. Then he assisted me, despite that I politely ignored him. In the purple haze I couldn't quite make out if any other philanthropists were helping me as well, and I suppose there was because soon thereafter two ships (including the mercenary's) were destroyed.

There was Rogue chatter nearby, but they seemed occupied. They might have peeled off one or two of my... prey, but from then on it was me against Mr Andromeda and Mr Leroy, flying a Havok MKII and Guardian respectively. I focused on the clumsier of the two -- Mr Andromeda in his Havoc -- and we danced for a while. The dancing was quite one-sided -- unfortunately so for Mr Andromeda -- and the two eventually executed a tactical retreat on thrusters to West Point.

By now the Cardamine Junker was long gone, I cursed as I wiffed another dose of the wonderstuff. Speaking of wonderstuff, I should get an air-cardifier and hang it over my instrument panel.

At West Point there was a battle going on between a number of Rogues and a ragged assortment of LSF and Navy. Unfortunately, the Rogues were losing as I got there. Defeats, however, should always be viewed with the appropriate perspective:
[Image: howincompetentarewebb7.png]

[Image: flyingovationfo8.png]

With a smile on my face I headed for California and Magellan. I had not flown a thousand meters when I picked up two traders going the same direction I was. Unfortunately they were quite far ahead of me, but I pursued nonetheless.

One of them peeled off and docked someplace, but the other -- Nerelag was his callsign -- kept going. For some reason he headed off into the Sierra field and flew back towards the New York jumpgate. Perplexed as always I folloed a few thousand meters behind. We passed across the jumpgate tradelane and continued toward Alcatraz. Nerelag then broke off towards that icy and droll planet, Californa Minor is it? If I remember correctly I was now slightly less than two thousand meters behind. A bit too far to risk firing a cruise-disrupter, in my opinion.

I caught him near the Magellan jumpgate and we started dancing. It was little more than a line-dance for the Turanic Freighter, though. We went at it for I don't know how long. After my earlier prolonged fight with the Liberties, I had quite few mines, nanobots, and shield batteries left. Nevertheless Nerelag rarely hit me with anything but his Debilitators, so I was in no real danger. Unfortunately, he managed to place a mine that I didn't dodge -- call it luck -- which took out my counter measures and two of my Hellflurries.

My middle name is Persistence, and though I might not be as persistent as someone who's first name is Persistence, I'm quite persistent. I kept up the Viennese Waltz until Nerelag saught the refuge of Battleship Yukon.

With the mutual respect we seemed to have developed, we interchanged some secure coms with wishes of reunion and such. After Nerelag sent me one million credits, and after I sent them back, I finally made it to our very own ice field.

Mr Big was there, and we joined up.

I went to America to repair my ship. The fatigue hit me then and I decided to sit down here and write this before I collapse. On the bed. Over there.

I need to put a bed in my Slipstream...

s[oyfhGD&ao,

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Ive been hanging around in the Colorado system the last few days looking for unlucky traders and persuading the Xenos that Im not their friend. Never ever I have worked for or together with that group of terrorists but it seems they are holding up the word: the enemy of my enemies is my friend However: since I have been blocking the delivery of supplies to their home base Ouray that will be different in the future!

Additionally I met Raynor-Shipping, a trader flying a Camara Heavy Freighter. While I was approaching him he didnt react for a while. Perhaps didnt know what to do when encountering a Lane Hacker or his eyes were only glazing on the silver he mined in the Silverton Field. Only after some persuading with my Hellflurries he finally accepted my generous offer to donate to the sum of 175.000 credits to our cause.

Donation

|Ageira|Gunner heared my conversation with Raynor-Shipping and repeatedly told me to leave the system under the protection of Ageira, but apparently he was too lazy to actively look for me. So it was me who approached him near Pueblo Station, got a scan of his Ravens Claw and charged my cruise engines for Mactan without being persued.

Today I decided to test the performance of the Slipstream instead of the Scimitar, equipped it with Hellflurries and started the mission Ive been preparing for a long time: I wanted to find an Archangel Codename weapon to donate it to our R & D vessel. For a long time now I have searched for the secret jump holes leading to Illinois and to Oita, where according to rumours some Archangels have been found before. I also have improved my evasion techniques and with the help of Phate the use of countermeasures. And that was extremely necessary: in Illinois I came under heavy fire from a few police ships and defensive platforms but managed to jump to Oita without any damages to my ships hull.

In Oita I finally found what I was looking for: an Archangel mounted on a wreck called Uwajima but it seems I was not the only one looking for this weapon. A Raven Claw and a trader vessel appeared suddenly next to me (I would like to know what technology they are using) but I was faster, tractored the Archangel in and retreated under heavy fire. After jumping back to Illinois I nearly got destroyed by perhaps a dozen (I was unable to count them) of police vessels there, but managed to finally dock at Padua a little bit later for repairs. The W.H.A.C.K. manoeuvre would have been extremely useful here because it was pure luck that I survived.

Transfer of Archangel

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28th of January

I was doing my daily assignments by the Headquarters of Mactan. I managed to capture some pest pilots for interrogation and earned a decent salary for the day. However, what happened afterwards when i was patrolling Magellan was this. I encountered an obviously affluent trader, who was carrying quite a load. About 5000 units of cargo space full. His name is Lindforce. As the general guideline proclaims i threatened him to pay 500 credits for each cargo unit full, while i disrupted the trade lane he was headed for, which for the record was California. After a few minutes silence, the trader agreed to pay the fine, however he turned out to be quite a generous one and offered 3 million credits, which i gladly took over.

29th of January

Today i decided to go for a intelligence mission. I discovered about 6 Jump Holes and a few Bases unknown until now to me. After the break i took in Mactan, i got a message from Alan.Moore(a rookie Lane Hacker) that there are police and Ageira members gathered in California. I immediately reacted and put my thrusters to full speed headed for the Californian jump gate. There i met with a few Liberty Rogue members and Alan of course. We decided that it would be best if we group. Then cleared the system from most of the incoming insolent Ageira pilots, and after that we took care of the Police as well. On the way back though, our way crossed with the one of a trader, who seemed innocent and easy to take on at first. We tried to threaten him by lowering his shield energy, however we took on a bigger fish than we could handle. Respectively, his blasters turned out to be of Class 8 or higher, as Alan died by 3 hits at the most, and i barely got out of the system on time.

Finally at home just before Mactan, an Outcast ally requested permission to dock on Mactan for some repairs. As a measure for safety i decided to scan his cargo hold - nothing strange there. Just a bit of the daily dose Cardamine. I started:

- Eh, i haven't tried that Cardamine for quite some time now. I would gladly have a dose.

After that statement of mine he turned out to be quite generous seeing me with a bare Dagger ship, and what's more i was damaged from the fight with the trader. He gave me some Cardamine and even a generous amount of credits to equip myself with a new ship, when i finish my promotion criteria. He must have been told about my doings in Alpha in my early years, when i was with the Maltanian Air-force.

"Cannonball" out.

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Yesterday while on a search for the ARCHANGEL I recieved a message from Deputy Director Phate requesting assistance against a group of Mandalorian Mercenaries. I scouted as I arrived and we shortly engaged three of the wretched scum. If my memory serves me well, Auric and an independent Hacker by the name of Joe was there in addition to Phate and myself. Auric's and Joe's ships were destroyed (by Phate's mines, according to me systems which are obviously malfunctioning) and eventually all the mercenaries were destroyed or fleeing.

Shortly thereafter two Bounty Hunter gunships closed on us. Phate quickly hopped into a bomber and we were joined by another ship also bent on vanquishing the Bounty Hunters. We -- Phate -- soon destroyed the ships.

The coffee on Leiden is nice. Washes away the foul taste of... such people.

Oh and before I forget, there was an alien scout craft observing our scuffle with the mercenaries.
>Scout-[Tundra] Scan Readout<

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While waiting for some Junker kid to fix my IFF transponder on Rochester, I threw transmissions at New York from a terminal in the bar. It was a bit glitchy, but I managed to salvage most of the log.

>Last words of a Junker terminal<

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Hello Fellow Hackers, when I left Mactan Ugo asked me to come to his position helping him hacking the tradelanes. After a whil ea Bounty hunter showed up, in a bomber.
[Image: Asassin.jpg]
afterwards Ugo ended his shift and headed back to Mactan. I continued disrupting the lane traffic, until a transport showed up accompanied by an escort, which I killed
[Image: MrBen.jpg]
Mr Big out
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