To: 5th Fleet | From: Christopher Edwards

[Akhetaten]

INCOMING TRANSMISSION

---

SENDER: Christopher Edwards
RECIPIENT: 5th Fleet
LOCATION: Norfolk Shipyard, New York system
PRIORITY: High
ENCRYPTION: Advanced

---

VIDEO UPLINK: ONLINE

Greetings,

I am pleased to come into contact with you again after all this time. At the time we speak I am the Captain in command of the Akhetaten, an Osiris-class Liberty Navy vessel. Allow me to remind you of the past events that triggered this communication towards you; The Akhetaten's last mission, as commanded, was to take place in Manchester along with soon-arriving Liberty Forces, reinforcing this strategic position, thus disallowing the Gallic fleet to move towards Cortez and inevitably California. The reinforcements that were supposed to be waiting for us weren't there on time, and the result was catastrophic. The few fighters on our escort wing were shot down like flies, and the Akhetaten was heavily damaged, suffering multiple casualties and losing most of her crew in the process. The ship's captain along with most of the crew were dead by the time our presumable backup arrived, however I had the luck to survive the crash along with a few other crew members.

My injuries left me scarred and in a deep coma for two years. Upon waking up I was told the events that followed after that day and a few weeks later it was announced that as I was the highest-ranking officer aboard the ship to have survived, I am to be promoted to the rank of Captain and assume command of the Akhetaten. Seeing the ship again in Norfolk Shipyard's dry docks was painful, the ship's condition was horrible. I assume the Akhetaten was left on those dry docks for those two years, pending repairs that never came.

That finally brings me to the reason that I am contacting you. As you know, the Akhetaten was an intelligence-gathering vessel operating, most of the time, in secrecy. I hereby request that the ship's purpose be changed to a Liberty Naval Ship, under the ranks of the Liberty Navy Second Fleet. The ship is to remain in Liberty space and serve the rest of it's time there. Should the need arise for the ship to serve an intelligence-gathering purpose, the terms and conditions will be discussed on the spot.

Being an outdated vessel, the Akhetaten of course requires a variety of optimization and tuning to be done on it's systems so as to properly function with today's technology smoothly. Field testing the ship has been unsuccessful until now due to those issues not being addressed. However, after having my request approved I will arrange that the ship gets fully outfitted and commence the field testing sequence, with the support of the Liberty Navy First Fleet and the Liberty Security Force.

Glad to be back in action, Edwards out.

---

TRANSMISSION TERMINATED