NCC Gunship Custodian Commander Lieutenant Alfred Nolan
*The man on screen is bleeding profusely from a cut on his forehead, which he tries to cover with a cloth. The blood has stained his uniform red. He appears to be gesturing with fury to someone outside the frame of the image.*
I said I'll go to the infirmary when I report to command, damn it!!
*The man looks with indescribable anger at his invisible interlocutor for a few more seconds, out of shot, and then looks back at the camera. He is startled to see that he is already recording, and immediately stands at attention.*
Oh... Field Maestre... I'm so sorry, there's a damn doctor trying to take me to the med bay right now, it seems he doesn't understand the urgency of this report...
I apologize for my disastrous condition, sir, and because of the state of my uniform. We were just attacked next to Freeport 11, here in Delta. My crew and I were aboard the gunship Custodian, stationed next to the Freeport on a routine patrol operation. We had information about Nomad xenomorphs sightings near the base, so I decided to directly place a security checkpoint next to it. For several hours everything has been quiet. Merchants coming and going, some Core ships going about their business... It didn't seem like the day was going to give us any scares.
About one hour ago, our scanner detected a presence, under the callsign Dezember-609, which it identified as hostile, approaching at full speed towards the Freeport. At that moment we also had a kusari civil exploration ship Ahoudori-class, on the scanner, under the callsign RV-Pennybrooke, which was approaching from another direction. I have opened communication with the Ahoudori and I've warned it of the danger, telling it to take cover in the docks of the base, but although it approached it hasn't docked.
I haven't given it much importance, because at that moment I was more worried about the hostile entity that that continued to get closer. Finally it has stopped about 4.5K from our position next to the Freeport, and the scanner has revealed that it was a Scorpion-class drone, which is commonly used by the Nomad monsters that the Codex Machina classifies as Aberratio Incubi, and which are commonly called Wild. However, he was not at a suitable distance to examine the contents of the drone, and he wanted to clear up any doubts before making any decisions.
I've opened communications with him and asked to indicate his intentions, and I've received a response, indicating that his intention was cautious and that he was on an exploration. I've told him that it appeared hostile in our scans, and his response was that we consider recalibrating them. My idea was to try to maintain a conversation with the entity while I approached it at a sufficient distance to scan its interior, to verify if there were human life forms inside and in what state they were.
However, it hasn't been possible for me to do anything, since at that moment a Nephilim-class colony ship that was docked in Freeport 11, has undocked and has begun the attack against the hostile entity. I've tried to contact the commander to stop the attack until we were sure what we were dealing with, but I haven't gotten a response. The shooting has started between the Nephilim and the Scorpion, and we've taken the opportunity to approach from the side to scan the interior of the drone. At that moment we were able to clearly see on the screen that there was no human figure piloting that ship, but rather that the entire content was overflowing with traces of that semi-organic material that usually invades the drones that the Aberratio Incubi use.
We've activated our weapons and have begun the attack against the hostile entity. It was moving very fast, but thanks to the fire support of the colony ship we managed to get some hits against it and begin to reduce its shields. Suddenly we've started to receive fire from behind. The alarms began to beep, our shields decreased, and when I looked at the screens I realized that the shots came from the civilian Ahoudori under the call sign RV-Pennybrooke. He was helping the Nomad aberration! At first I thought it was friendly fire, but there was no doubt his cannons were clearly directing their fire at us.
The helmsman tried to evade the shots and missiles that both enemy ships were launching at us while we returned the fire, but it was impossible. The Custodian has suffered critical damage, causing the loss of the main engine, which has caught fire causing some explosions, and several shots have opened holes in the hull that have reached the core of the main generator, damaging it and shutting it down. We have had to abandon the ship in the escape capsules, and fortunately our enemies have not attacked us, once we were no longer a threat, but have focused on the colony ship. My 29 crew members and I were picked up by a Freeport 11 shuttle that, thanks to Deux, was very close.
While we were heading to the base on the shuttle we were able to feel several waves of explosions coming from the Nephilim, whose fate I currently don't know. From what we've been told since, from the radar control of Freeport 11, it must have been seriously damaged, if not destroyed, before the attackers left, and the emergency services are now trying to access the ship to attend the survivors.
On the other hand, the Custodian appears to be repairable. It will need to seal the holes in the hull, repressurize, replace the main engine, and fit a new power plant, which will cost a lot of money, but at least we will save the ship. I will contact our banking services as soon as the ship is in the Freeport 11 drydock and the engineers tell me what the final state of the damage is.
What worries me most, sir, is that the attack by the Ahoudori-class scout ship, that RV-Pennybrooke guy, has clearly been deliberate. The ship has been scanned by us prior to the battle, and those who crewed it seemed to be humans, so they were probably either heretics worshiping the Nomad spawn, or humans corrupted by the Aberratio Incubi, Deux damn them. Taking into account that the hostile ship was a drone of a model that we already know widely is used by the Incubi, I'm more inclined towards the latter option. This means, sir, that the Nomad infestation that we have been seeing for some time in Delta is much greater than we expected. Not only do we have to face xenomorphs, some of them with very respectable sizes, but also operations with humans controlled by the Aberratio Incubi, whose apparition always usually means infiltrations into human communities.
I fear we're overwhelmed, sir, if you allow me to speak freely. We don't lack courage and faith, I assure you that, and morale is high. Those things just beat us up, and my men and I already want to get back into the fight, more eagerly than ever, but we really have very little strength to secure this area. We only have two gunships to patrol all of Delta, ours and the Militant Lance of Lieutenant Kerensky, and we usually have to spread out to cover more space, which makes us much weaker.
I'm sorry to break it to you, sir, and I apologize for it, but we need reinforcements to be able to maintain this operation in Delta effectively. I know very well that right now we are not even remotely at full capacity and personnel, not to mention our means... but in my respectful opinion, it's a strategic reality that we cannot deal with this alone, for the moment. However, all of us are here to serve, and die for the Sacred Mandate of Deux if necessary. We are waiting for your orders, and whatever you command will be fulfilled.
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