Name:Caleb Oh Rank:Private First Class Subject:Nomad Incursion in Omicron Delta
Report Begins
Yesterday at around 1605 MST (Manhattan Standard Time), a battlegroup of ours based around the HFB Pandion and HFB Praxis was gathering at Hesperia for a strike on the Republic's naval assets, when we received a Sirius-wide distress call from Freeport 11 in the Omicron Delta system.
The distress call included a set of jump coordinates and rudimentary info about a Nomad incursion. As such, I flew Beta 1 to provide bomber support, while Steve Athanas also joined in as fighter escort.
The Pandion's jump drive malfunctioned and dumped us deep in Outcast space, but well outside patrol range. We had more than enough time and leeway to fix the system in the field, allowing us to properly jump to the outskirts of Omicron Delta. A Rheinland intelligence pilot and a Zoner met us at the Freeport and guided us towards the fighting. Surprisingly, despite only being in the Omicrons on short notice, we were one of the more powerful contingents present, as the various Rim-worlder forces (mainly Core, Order, and Zoners with a sprinkling of Corsairs, Gammu AI, and a few Rheinlanders) were scattered and comprised mostly of mid-size vessels. The Zoners' heavy capital ships Persephone, Unity and Ashira were the core of the ad-hoc defense force, though a few other heavy warships were also present.
The centerpiece of the Nomad incursion looked at first like a Marduk-class battleship, but it was easily two orders of magnitude more durable -- my antimatter gun barely scratched the thing, and an NEMP fired off by one of the defenders was utterly ineffective. When we did finally manage to inflict significant damage on its hull, it sent out some sort of charged psychic attack that wiped out a number of ships in close proximity, and dealt serious damage to the Praxis. Estimates are that the radius of the attack was roughly 10 klicks. Fortunately, it took about a minute to build up to full strength, allowing many friendly vessels time to cruise away and escape the brunt of the attack.
I'll also note that the Nomad dreadnought had a large number of escorting strike craft which were stronger and more agile than the usual Labraid and Rabisu variants we're familiar with. These craft were very difficult to nail down, and had powerful long-ranged weaponry. These craft employed effective swarm tactics; I saw numerous Rimworlder pilots brought down by salvos of these beam weapons.
I'm not sure how or why all of these ships were so noticeably superior to the baseline Nomads that have been encountered since they woke up twenty-odd years ago; I'd hypothesize that the extremely high psychic strength of the dreadnought might have something to do with it, but in the absence of substantial data (my bomber's sensors were fried by the dreadnought's point-defense beams, and the aforementioned NEMP fired off by one of the defenders) this is just conjecture on my part.
More Zoner and Core ships (and an odd Bundschuh) arrived to assist, and the Praxis finished their field repairs and rejoined the fight as well. With this added firepower, the Nomad dreadnought was worn down and eventually destroyed. A few of the smaller Nomad craft were swiftly destroyed before the rest fled. I and a few others attempted to pursue them, but they were too far away to cruise-disrupt, and we were all in need of repairs anyway.
From the wreckage of the Nomad dreadnought, the Praxis managed to get a hold of some sensitive cargo. After the Pandion jumped us back to friendly territory -- along with the vessel Sakura Blaze which hitched a ride -- I oversaw transfer of this sensitive cargo from the Praxis' hold to a secure transport in Vespucci. I'm told we have the crew of the Sunrise to thank for calculating the return jump coordinates so quickly.
The Waran I piloted is currently under repair on Monterrey due to heavy damage from the Nomad point-defense beams and the friendly NEMP. I'll fly it back to Hesperia when repairs are complete.