Casualties: .:FTU:.James.Parcker(M) - (Killed after we escaped our 2nd pirate encounter.)
Manager Notes:
"To begin, this was by far the most exciting, frightening, and hilarious convoy I have led in my short time with USI, and the following report will clearly show all of it in the finest of details."
"Our flight to Dublin was interrupted by Space.Wolf at the jumpgate to Cortez space. The hilarity of his convoy began here, as this pirate had the audacity to try and pirate us, right in plain sight of an LPI Sargent, LPI-D.Dusentrieb[S]! Needless to say, we moved into Cortez space with Space.Wolf pursuing us, and with both [*USI*]G.Allen[R] and LPI-D.Dusentrieb[S] hot on his tail. I decided to act as a plasma magnet for his weapons fire, while the two snubs, plus some supporting fires from [*USI*]Chicago[S] guns. I was able to run at full impulse with thrusters all the way to Planet Curacao, Space.Wolf eventually broke off his attack, and he ran into Coronado space. We continued onward to Planet New London, where I patched up my ship and replaced 5 cargo pods that were destroyed in the attack."
"The exchanges of ore and monies went really smooth in Dublin compared to most of my past experiences with ore mining operations. The FTU lads had already mined approximately 15k units of Gold Ore, and were all ready for transfers from their storage vessels when we arrived. The total time to fly in, exchange, and fly out was less than five minutes. Kudos to the FTU for having a well-oiled operation there in Dublin!"
"As we were making our journey out of Bretonian space, we happened upon Andrew.Carter just past Planet Leeds. While he "wished to talk with us", his true intent was extortion like most other pirates we've encountered in the past. The "tax" as it was demanded was 3 million SC, but rather than pay it, we decided to allow the pirate to "gamble" with his prospective "tax" monies via some coin tosses. While this was occurring, we made contact with .:FTU:.James.Parcker(M) and requested the FTU Escort Wing to provide us with some assistance with this pirate. During the whole exchange with Andrew.Carter, he managed to be "in the hole" owing us 6 million SC at one point before breaking even on subsequent coin tosses. As he was trying to "win" back his "tax" monies, and with the FTU Escort Wing distracting him with some non-aggressive flight maneuvers, we crept away at a slow drift towards the Magellan jumphole. On a pre-arranged signal, the FTU commenced bombardment of the pirate with CD's, and we hit our cruise engines to full power and jumped into Magellan space without him pursuing us. We appreciate the FTU Escort Wing for allowing us some latitude in "stringin that boy" along until the proper moment came along for us to book it out of there!
"As we were in the process of jumping into New York space, I spotted BDM|U-66 approaching the jumpgate to head into Cali space. I warned both [*USI*]Chicago[S] and [*USI*]Santa.Fe[S] to effect the "scatter and run" plan, and both made a successful end-around into Ontario space, where I rejoined with them at the jumphole into Colorado space. From there, it was smooth sailing to our delivery point at Detroit Munitions, and well appreciated after all we had gone through to ensure a successful convoy."
"As a gesture to both [*USI*]Chicago[S] and [*USI*]Santa.Fe[S] for their cool heads and determination under multiple instances of extreme duress, I waived their CEO fees for the convoy, and placed that burden solely on me. I also doubled the escort fee for [*USI*]G.Allen[R], and paid .:FTU:.James.Parcker(M) 5 million SC for their greatly appreciative services in Leeds, and for the repairs to his ship which was lost in combat during our transit through Colorado space."
"With this convoy, we set the bar pretty high for 'wild', and we will gladly do it again, just so we make sure we didn't miss anything the last time around!"