Submitter: Leutnant Alec Voelkel, Rheinland Military. Recipient: Members of the Rheinland Military High Command. Subject: Outcasts moving in (Report #30)
Following the destruction of two other Outcast Tridente-class gunships yesterday, I decided to inform the whole of the High Command regarding my assumptions. With the approval of Major General Rall (who also participated in the destruction of three [!] Tridente gunships yesterday), I gathered the visual data I have acquired in this week's operations.
I also have the ship designation of two additional Tridente gunships, however I don't have guncam footage on them, since both were dealt with by Major General Rall. Those two baring the registration codes of Crazy and |Slayer|, the former is still wanted for attempted piracy and firing upon a Military officer, the latter has been already destroyed.
As it is rather obvious, the Outcasts have begun their operations in Rheinland again. Even though the ships we had to encounter were all piloted by small-time, rookie pirates, probably not even real Outcasts, it became apparent that we have something they began to show interest in. Originally, I thought they were after the corporate miners we often have to protect in the Omegas (yes, we had to take out several of them in the Omegas already) and are fighting the Corsair competition, but yesterday's events changed my stance on things.
I was called to duty by Major General Rall, him and Gefreiter Schubert Shetland were in pursuit of several unidentified pirates, turned out to be Outcast Tridentes, as they do so commonly lately. The ship, designated as Curry was scoping around the Westerwald Nebula, where several sensitive Military secrets are kept hidden. The gunship ran for it as soon as it saw us, judging by its light armor plating, it was the scout vessel gathering data about the military secrets located in Westerwald nebula. Major General Rall ordered a pursuit, while he attempted to catch up with his bomber while me and the Gefreiter kept the Curry under fire. The gunship covered its extraction with rear turrets, so it was not that easy to deal damage to it before it departed to Frankfurt via a hidden jump hole.
After recieving orders to pursue and taking the hole, me and the Gefreiter found ourselves in what should have been a textbook ambush, if not for the lack of professionalism the pirates showed. The pilot of the Werewolf-class fighter that should have covered the escape of the Outcasts, designated as Double Trouble was ASLEEP when our pursuit wing arrived. Thus, the Curry and another Tridente, the Destroyer ended up covering their own escort fighter instead of extracting the valuable data the Curry collected. That gave time for the Major General in his Snubnose to close up and deliver some heavy artillery support. The lightly armored recon vessel was dispatched with remarkable ease, the data he collected burned up in the explosion, obviously. After loosing their point man, the opposing force realised there was no point in their presence, the Double Trouble escort fighter, whose pilot was since awaken by the noise produced by the battle, fled in the direction of Planet Hamburg, while the Destroyer attempted to flee back to Frankfurt, probably to attempt the recollection of the lost data with a heavier armored gunship.
Herr Rall ordered us to follow the Destroyer, which attempted to penetrate the minefield guarding the outskirts of the nebula with sensitive Military data in the middle in the meantime. The ship demanded that we don't follow him, but of course we couldn't allow him to leave. After a brief chase through the minefield and the pockets of heavy radiation, he attempted to jump back to Hamburg, but the Major General's SNAC finished the job.
The presence of the Outcast ships near the Westerwald nebula made it clear that it's not just a few rookie pirates going after Kruger miners. These guys are after something big, something else even I don't know about. Thus, I would recommend the esdeemed High Command to take the necessary course of action, which would be obviously the beginning of the investigation trying to determine what is that they are after. I entrust this matter to the judgement of yourselves and am standing by for instructions regarding the subject.
Leutnant Voelkel signing off.
Powering down transmitter...
Cutting comm link...
Closing visual data...
------------------End of Transmission-----------------
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