It's been a while since we last had an encounter with the Red Hessian Army, the miners whose fighting skills never fail to impress me. Despite that, they are nowhere near the glorious Rheinwehr, we managed to be victorious over superior numbers.
Our ships were scrambled to respond to a call issued by the Altenburg in Dresden. The commander of the battleship notified us of several Hessian ships flying around the sector, probably massing for a larger attack on the ship or one of the nearby mining operations. The operation was led by Major Westerman, me, Hauptfeldwebel Weissman and Hauptgefreiter Drum were his wingmen. Upon our arrival to Dresden, we were ordered to commence a search for the enemy vessels, fortunately it was no difficulty locating them, taking into account that they were hiding in the vulcanic asteroid field near the Altenburg.
Hauptgefreiter Drum approached the enemy first, the Saale, Major Westerman's gunboat and the rest of us followed. Our initial contacts were a Cruiser, the Aurora accompanied by the Derzky gunboat and two smaller craft, the Hoenir and the Molotov. They were told to lower their arms and surrender, however the subject soon drifted to a debate about the false communist ideology these miners followed. In the meantime, more and more Hessian ships kept pulling in, even members of the Red Hessian Army started to show up. Soon we found ourselves outnumbered, the Sharp_Eye, some rookie Hessian and four Red Hessian Army soldiers, Hans Becker, Adolf Hessler, Erich Heimdall and the Komet arrived to the scene. Major Westerman ordered us to back up torwards to Altenburg, while we called for reinforcements.
The Hessians didn't really take notice of the reason for our "tactical retreat". With the independent members as cannon fooder in the first line, they approached us and started shooting at our vessels, with the Saale in their priority. The Altenburg quickly finished off the Molotov, even before the rest of the Hessians charged their weapons. The Sharp_Eye was our next victim, either because of mere luck or because the pilot was inexperienced, our forces have made short work of him. The good beginning however was followed by a really misfortunate event, the Saale was destroyed by the Hessian forces.
After a short confusion, we managed to set the leadership back up, which was then divided between me and Hauptfeldwebel Weissman. We were heavily outnumbered, but thankfully our calls for backup weren't left unanswered. Flieger Sophi Keiste, the cruiser RNC-Dresden and the RNC-Sturmvolk battleship arrived to aid us, at least temporarily evening the odds a little. With the help of the Dresden, the Aurora was dispatched and the Derzky gunboat damaged. We soon lost the Dresden and the Heimdall-class ship started to flee with Hauptgefreiter Drum and me in pursuit, the two of us successfully took the gunship down eventually.
Unfortunately, the Derzky lured us too far out. We were late to return and help Flieger Keiste, who got her ship destroyed but ejected in time. I don't know how, but there were only four enemy ships left when we arrived to the scene. The RNC Sturmvolk had to stand down due to the danger of hitting us with the all those big guns, so me and Drum were were alone against the Hessians for a few minutes. I don't know where Weissman was, he probably got lured away just like we did, but he returned just in time. We blew up the Hoenir, with that evening the odds to three of our ships against three bearing RHA designations. After a brief firefight and the destrucion of Eric Heimdall's vessel, an LWB ship piloted by a strange acting man, Udo Ackermann arrived on scene and somehow blew up Weissman's slightly damaged ship. He seemed to be... rather emotional and regretting about that act, although that is no excuse for an act of terror.
Well, only two Hessians and the LWB ship remained against me and Herr Drum, Hans Becker weilding a bomber was the next one to go down. The firefight continued, but our last target, Adolf Hessler left off after running out of nanobots. We were exhausted to pursue. I wanted to confront Ackermann, the LWB pilot to understand his motives, but Herr Drum's razor was faster. The area was once again clear of hostiles.
It was an exhausting fight, we had to face immeasurable odds with only a small force available. The Kanzler's forces were again victorious against all those miners, even though the Hessian Army soldiers really put up a fight. I landed on the Altenburg to file this report, along with Herr Drum. Unfortunately, only us survived with our ships intact.
Quote:Here's a complete list of participants in the action:
![[Image: RM-Avatar.png]](http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm144/zombie2279/RM-Avatar.png){kind=avatar}