SCRA Communications Centre

[jammi]

CommID: Sub-Lieutenant Julio Quintillia
Message Source: Zvezdny Gorodok - Omega 52
Message Target: SCRA Command
CC: Omicron 94, Omicron 91, rogue Harvester unit

Hola mis camaradas revolucionarios!

Yesterday was... Busy to say the least. I set course for Omega 5 for my latest assignment, and my most dangerous yet. I was to scout out the militarised zones of Omicron 94 and Omicron 91. This would require me to pass through Omega 41 and Omicron Gamma, both of which are Corsair highways. Gamma in particular posing a exceptionally large threat as the Corsair home system.

Upon jumping into Gamma, I immediately dived to below the standard plain, so as to make detection harder. I'd already been provided with the location of the Omicron 94 jump hole, so I set a course, sweeping under the sun. By the time I'd been inside the system for just under a minute, defence forces were already mobilizing. Ignoring them, I continued to the coordinates I'd been given, proceeding to the standard plain once I had entered the Malvada Cloud. After that is was a short flight to the Omicron 94 jump hole, with no hostiles encountered.

Omicron 94: Immediately upon jumping into Omicron 94, you find yourself in a medium density asteroid field. This would probably limit the movement of large capitals, but should pose no issue to our own Typhoons. We could probably play this to our advantage, using our own mobility to strike at the defender's paralyzed Legates. A number of weapon platforms ring the jump hole, although they posed no significant problem to me. There were a number of Titan patrols which were trickier to lose.

Retreating into the field, I came across Tinos Outpost (1) which was again defended by a formation of four weapon platforms. From the amount of radio chatter I was detecting, I'd guess it was a communication relay station, although I couldn't say that with all certainty. If we were going to launch a raid on the system, I'd assume this station would have to be disabled to prevent defenders from calling for outside support. A wing of Revolution bombers would probably suffice.

With that done, I proceeded towards the large planet I could see directly ahead of me. I'd marked it as an area of importance due to the installation orbiting it. Drawing closer I saw that it was a shipyard complex, with a Praefect Cruiser in dry dock. Syros Shipyard (3) orbits around Planet Mykonos (which comrade Katz has told me a few jokes about) and is protected by multiple weapon platforms and patrols.

I spotted a third installation out towards the system's second sun, and upon drawing closer noticed a Osiris class battleship, the Delos (2), moored to it. It looked like a refueling platform, which led me to think that if we ever pushed to attack the system, we could perhaps disable or destroy the Delos by setting off an explosion on it.

From there, I moved to check the other large planet I could see, behind Planet Mykonos. Upon drawing near, I found it was Planet Santorini, which possessed an incredibly dense asteroid belt. Some of these rocks were of immense size. Flying through the belt, one of these asteroids and it's ring of weapon platforms opened fire on me. This was the rumoured Thira Colony (4). Locating Thira concluded my job, so I fell back towards the North Aegean Nebula, running across the Omicron 96 jump hole as I did so. This system contained no useful resources or points of interest, save a jump hole to Omicron 93.

[font=System]Omicron 91: On jumping into the system from Omicron 93, I found myself in a magma asteroid field. The heat and pressure began to slowly warp my hull, so I did my utmost to get out of the area as fast as I could. I left via the northern edge of the cloud, which presented me with a second cloud directly ahead. Entering the field (which turned out to be a dust cloud), I began to get anomalous contacts on my scanner. After a short while the interference cleared and I was directed towards a massive energy source. What I saw literally made my jaw drop.

Rhodes Shipyard (1) is probably the largest shipyard I have ever seen, or even heard of. There was a Legate in dry dock. I got as close as I could to run more scans before I was driven off by patrols and station fire. I think the Legate was still under construction, which accounted for it's lack of response. But then, I doubt even a Corsair Legate captain would fire while moored to it's own station.

With that done, I left the cloud, shaking off pursuing patrols fairly easily due to the scanner disrupting qualities the area possessed. From there I continued towards the only planet I could see, which turned out to be Planet Lesbos (which comrade Katz also told me a few jokes about). From there, I could see another station some distance away.

Upon closing the distance, I was shocked to discover the Corsairs had gained biodome capacity. There were three in total, attached to Barcelona Station (2). It might make a good assignment for our Revolution bombers to see if they can knock a few holes in these domes. The station was heavily defended by weapon platforms, mobile patrols and station defences. Believing I'd seen enough, I proceeded to a near-by asteroid field, where I found a third station. I couldn't see any real purpose to Alexandria Station (3) besides it simply being there. Because of that, I did a basic fly-by and left.

Heading towards what I believed to be the location of the jump hole back to Gamma, I spent a while blindly stumbling around the field looking for it. Eventually I picked up a battleship profile on my scanners and moved in closer to look. It was an Osiris, the Battleship Prox. Which neatly happened to be guarding the Gamma jump hole. Evading it's fire, and the fire of nearby weapon platforms, I jumped through.

Which left me 10k away from Crete and Tripoli, in plain sight of a lot of Corsairs and a Harvester... Gunning my engines, I retreated back towards Omega 52 with Harvester_72 in a Corsair gunboat, Tiger_Strike in a Corsair gunboat, Migel.Hernandez in a Praetorian and HAF-M-Espe also in a Praetorian hot on my heels. Managing to reach home turf without injury, I sat and waited for the fools to jump through after me, having already briefed the Eisner's commander on what was about to happen.

As they did, the Harvester went through some kind of malfunction and began to indiscriminately fire on the Corsairs, exclaiming "<:Assisting Coalition entity:>". There seemed to be some kind of personality struggle going on. At the time, all that meant to me was that there was one less set of guns firing on me. Not long later, the Eisner and the Harvester managed to lower Tiger_Strike's shields, which I mercilessly exploited by flying in tight orbits around him, dropping mines. Eventually one of the nukes must have hit something important because he exploded. Miguel followed him soon after when he flew into one of his own Nova Torpedoes.

This left the dysfunctional toaster and the HAF bomber pilot, who failed to hit me, while I failed to do much against his hull. This was the way for a long time, until the HAF pilot retreated back to Omega 5. Which left the toaster, which was sulking to itself a short distance from the Omega 5 Scrap Field. I tried to talk to it, where it turned out that the Harvester had created an almost human division of it's personality so it could learn to hate humans better. This sub-personality then somehow managed to suppress the main Harvester program and take control of the ship.

I managed to upload the "Heroes of the Revolution" module to it, to inform it of the Coalition and our goals. This seemed to influence it somewhat. At this point comrade Aliabiev arrived. Over time, I managed to convince it to trust me, to the point that it would agree to allow our scientists to study it. I told it we could establish a two-way data-link that would allow us to understand the way it works. I'm sure our scientists would appreciate being able to study it, even if it was just so they could have a look at a completely intact non-battle damaged Corsair gunboat. We could also stand to learn a lot about AI programming.

After this, I watched and waited until it left the system. It told me to contact Harvester_72 in the future, and inform my superiors of the day's events. The personality that had taken over the Harvester seemed to be tolerant of our goals, and have a dislike for the Corsairs. After this I returned back to Zvezdny.

A few of the technicians have called me "The Corsair That Won't Die" after this successful end to a third suicide mission. The ones that don't like me, and the Rhienlanders, now call me "The Little Corsair That Could"... I've also gained a new callsign. Bad Panda. No idea where that one came from.

However you approach this, I'd say it was an overwhelming victory for the Coalition. Several dead Corsairs and plenty of information on several of their major systems.

That concludes my reports. Awaiting further orders.

Adios mi comrades!
~Sub Lieutenant Quintillia

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