From illegal miners to a nomad invasion, the Rheinwehr had to deal with a lot of threats all around the Vaterland and so it did with the uthmost success. Oberfeldwebel Voss and I stood our ground and drew back every single hostile we encountered.
The day began as a regular patrol. I met Oberfeldwebel Maximilian Voss in Planet New Berlin's orbit. We did a quick patrol circle around the lanes of the system, but didn't have to encounter anything but a large amount of traders and their escorts manouvering goods through Berlin. Since everything was clear, we continued our patrol in the Dresden system.
We first checked out one of the Kruger diamond mining fields, where several traders were reported to be mining illegally. The system-wide broadcasting frequencies were full of Hessian communication signals, but they silenced as soon as they heard of our presence. Since they went silent, Herr Voss and I headed into the field to check the miners. Our first target was a Zoner Advanced Train, designated as Hueco_Mundo.Co.[T] and its escort, an Eagle class very heavy fighter, designated as Hunterlord. We scanned for ID cards and licenses, but they didn't have the needed ones, so Herr Voss informed them that they were mining in a private area and instructed them to leave. They didn't resist, they engaged their cruise engines and left the area at once.
One more signal was still coming from deeper into the field. Herr Voss ordered us to power up and check it out. We were surprised to find a Kusari Train, belonging to the Gas Miners Guild, bearing the designation Mine.Corp.Ari&Eldar not only violating the Sigma-13 pact, but also stealing diamonds from Kruger's property. We informed the Gas Miner that he was breaking multiple Rheinland laws and was to drop the stolen diamonds and leave Rheinland immediately or measures were to be taken. We had to reason with the captain of the Kusari Train for a while, he wanted us to shoot him at first, but eventually we made him drop his cargo and leave. We returned the cargo to Bautzen station.
In the meantime, a reserve battleship, designated as RNC_Stormholm joined us. While we were dealing with the unauthorised miners, we picked up multiple contacts on our short-range scanners belonging to the Red Hessians, namingly Moredan Kantose and Maksim Volkov. We couldn't acquire a closer reading on them until we dealt with the miners, as both of them was avoiding our patrol. The Stormholm was positioned to guard the New Berlin jump gate while me and Oberfeldwebel Voss searched for the communist rogue-miners. Our search was triggered by an explosion we picked up on sensors, close to our position. All signs indicated that the ship going down was the Mine.Corp.Ari&Eldar, the GMG Train we escorted out earlier. We immediately started searching for the terrorists who blew up the ship, since we didn't want to be blamed for the sabotage of the GMG vessel. Before we left Kruger's asteroid-nebula, I suddenly lost Herr Voss' signal and I spotted a Hessian, designated as Moredan Kantose just as I left it. I didn't want to engage the terrorist alone, so I did some basic scans and waited for Herr Voss to show up. As soon as he was on scope again, I ordered the Hessian to stand down and prepare to be escorted to Vierlande. He immediately powered his cruise engine up and started running from our prosecution. I started pursuing him, but I lost sight of Herr Voss again. The Hessian entered a nebula and I broke off, since he almost obviously wanted to lure me into an ambush. As soon as Herr Voss was on sensors again, we returned to Bautzen, where we instructed another freighter to stay away from Kruger's mining area (I also warned him of the terrorist activity) and he left immediately.
Since the Hessians wanted to play hide and seek, Herr Voss and I left Dresden with leaving the Stormholm to cover our rear flank. We did a quick circle around New Berlin, but Herr Voss recieved a distress signal from Stuttgart, claiming that three Corsairs were present. We were quicky and were standing by at the gate while I tried summoning reinforcements from the Rheinwehr barracks. Contact was quickly made, the pirates arrived through the trade lane chasing some kind of transporter and I immediately activated my weapon. An Imperator gunboat designated as Antonio~, a Pretorian designated as ShadowDancer and a Freelancer pirate in an IMG Spatial designated as -Vasqes- entered the area. Herr Voss ordered them to go back where they came from. Their communicator was really messed up as they were transmitting segments of static all the time. Even though they wanted to leave, the arrival of the Stormholm made them forget even the slightest thought to turn around and engage us. They only abused the occasion to taunt us as soon as they were out of range. I told Herr Voss that we should have drowned the Corsair worms into their own blood, but they managed to flee.
After a short patrol in the Omegas, we met up with Marninenachrichtendienst Agent Christian Stein, who informed us that there were sighting of Keepers all around New Berlin. Herr Voss and I headed there immediately to clear the area of civilians and secure Rheinland space from the alien invaders. We unfortunately couldn't find one single alien before they destroyed a civilian vessel who was in space despite our warning and escaped to Hamburg. Herr Stein informed us that the xenomorphs left the system and ordered us to follow them while he went back to wherever the MND base is.
The nomads in Hamburg were hard to miss. Two "Wild Dragon" cruisers, designated as RNC Bergheim and RNC Wilhelmshaven and a reserve gunboat, designated as Vyzz were already engaging three alien ships of some sort. The debris around indicated that a Rheinland capital ship and a nomad fighter was already destroyed. Me and Herr Voss thought at first that three capital ships were supposed to handle the situation, but with the destruction of the Bergheim, we were forced to interfere. The nomad with some transmitter indicating the name Enki was our first target. The alien morph was quite hard to hit, the organical creature seemed to be quite a 'skilled' pilot or ship or whatever it was. It managed to evade quite well, while the Rheinland reserve pilots that joined the fight (Alexander Wald, Wild Dragon Kai Skirata and the gunboat Vyzz) were quickly shot down. Somehow, the nomad ship designated as Zalktis somehow managed to take me out of of the fight, while the rest of the aliens were targetting Herr Voss' bomber. I managed to cause sufficient damage to Zalktis, leading the nomad ship to withdraw from the fight. Only Enki and Zakar were left, so we denied the request of even more reserve pilots to join the fight. Something must have been misunderstood, since all the reserve pilots that were present powered down to standby mode, while another nomad, designated as Ishkur joined, all of them having Herr Voss under fire. The fight was very vicious, I had to give some of the reserve pilots to join the fight, which unfortunately led them *all* to join the fight at the same time (someone should really teach these reserve pilots to follow clear orders). Either way, we almost destroyed Enki when the nomad attack wing disengaged and retreated to the nearby asteroid field to find cover. The Wild Dragon cruiser designated as Wilhelmshaven continued to pursue them, but he was ordered to keep away from the asteroid field. The captain of the ship was obviously raging because the loss of his comrades. More and more reserve pilots and eventually even an RFP Polizist, Herr Niberlung joined us. As soon as the aliens were out of range, we returned to Hamburg to reload our ships with Herr Voss.
Just as I was about to fetch some strudels, Herr Voss stood in front of me and told me that we still have some business to conduct. The two Hessians we met earlier in Dresden, Maksim Volkov and Moredan Kantose, showed up in Hamburg to pirate on the traffic going through Alster and the Planet. I jumped back into my Wraith and took off. We met the Hessians at the reported location. The communists, as soon as they saw us, started to run into the asteroid field. The Oberfeldwebel ordered us to intercept the terrorists and we successfully disrupted them before they fled. They took the fight up to us eventually, but Kantose was hit by Herr Voss' SNAC, resulting in the immediate destruction of his ship. The other one, Maksim Volkov attempted to run, and we could not catch him before he left through the Frankfurt jump gate even though some reserve pilots joined the chase.
Rheinland was once again clear of hostiles, we landed on Alster shipyard to file the report and fetch some strudels.
Quote:Here's a complete list of participants in the action:
This report is existent to introduce you the happenings that took place between 15.10.917 and 13.10.917
12th October
I began my duty in the afternoon originally with Major Bjorn Chezberger, but Oberfeldwebel Maxilimian Voss quickly joined us in space. Herr Chezberger gave us orders to establish a blockade near Planet Hamburg to supervise the trade going through the area. Two reserve pilots, Mr. Dom and Andrey Volkenstein joined us aswell, Herr Chezberger gave them seperate orders, namingly to patrol the Vaterland while we were to supervise the embargo.
The first vessel to pass through was a Freelancer trader with an LPI transmitter, designated as Kilroy Jones. His cargo hold contained Consumer goods, so we allowed him passage, even though Herr Chezberger was later concerned that the goods were possibly tapped since the trader attempted to leave the area before we allowed him to do so. An armored transport tried to pass next time, designated as Dan Vega. The ship had neon on board, which is rather hard to be turned into a weapon so we granted him passage.
The next ship however, was an interesting sight to encounter. A Junker Salvage Frigate, designated as Vivian del Los Santos attempted to move Copper into Liberty and wanted to commit who knows what other acts of sabotage the captain had in mind. As soon as the ship arrived to Hamburg using a trade lane, we ordered the captain to stop for a cargo hold examination. She didn't resist, so we ran the scans without disturbance. The results indicated 3110 units of copper stuffed into the cargo hold, but there were possibly other things hidden by the interference of the metal. Herr Chezberger already had a suspicion, so he asked the trader what her destination was. When Los Santos told us that she was heading to the Bremen, the Major informed her that the system is off-limits to civilians, because of it's current dangerous status. The junker kept being persistent, and she told us eventually that she was carrying the Copper to the Westphalia, to supply our troops. That's basically what gave her away. The Herr Major ordered me to charge my weapons as soon as it turned out that the Junker was aware of the location of a classified military position while I contacted the Westphalia asking if it had a disguised supply ship incoming, which could have been the Vivian del Los Santos. The communications officer informed me that Copper is basically the last thing they'd need to the front and they aren't aware of any classified transports heading their way, especially not one disguised as a Salvage Frigate. After recieving permission from the Major, I contacted a friend of mine who works with barter business. He told me that the Junker couldn't sell her cargo to anyone in Bremen, since no traders are insane enough to operate in a warzone. However, he also informed me that there is a huge demand for Copper on the Libertonian market, with Planet Denver housing the hugest demand currently known to Sirius markets. I informed Herr Chezberger on the issue, who immediately told the trader to drop her cargo and pay a million Rheinland credits for her crimes of stealing Daumann resources, attempting to break the embargo and lying to a Military Flag Officer. The Junker dropped the contents of the Frigate's cargo and left off without paying the compensation. Me and Herr Chezberger began pursuit, but she got to Alster and docked the station. Somehow, she gained access to one of the Alster terminals and started disrespecting us and the Military on the system broadcast channel, calling us pirates and thieves. It was most possible that the captain is actually a stolen ship, flown by an amateur spy with a sabotage mission in the Bremen system. We contacted the Shipyard's command deck and they sent down a squad of security officers to arrest the spy and her ship.
Afterwards, Herr Chezberger gave orders to return to our previous location and continue the supervision of the embargo. Oberfeldwebel Voss and the two reserve pilots also joined us along with a reserve gunboat, designated as ]~WD~[Kal-Skirata for the time being. Our first contact was the armored transport we met earlier, designated as Dan Vega. The captain of the ship tried passing the blockade once again, but this time, he had 800 units of diamonds on board. We ordered him to cut his engines, but the ship attempted to flee. We disrupted the trade lane, yet he was persistent at running. Me, Herr Chezberger and the reserve gunboat starting chasing the ship, which simply said "jerks" on the communication channel. A well-placed SNAC projectile of Herr Chezberger finished him off.
Nothing remarkable besides an independent Royal liner, designated as Queen Elizabeth II passing through with its escort and a few Junker Congress ships moving around the area happened afterwards. Herr Chezberger took the reserve pilots for a little training, I'm not exactly aware of the results as I was dealing with the Royal Liner during that time. A few minutes after Herr Chezberger returned, the Vivian del Los Santos arrived from the trade lane, I asked the Major if I should escort the ship to Vierlande or execute her on spot, Herr Chezberger ordered the latter. The ship was destroyed, the pilot's remains were not found. I went off-duty after the incident.
The standard patrol duty turned into hell quite quickly. I took off from Planet Hamburg with my bomber, where I landed previously and have been performing planetary security duties ever since. As soon as I took off, my sensors indicated energy signatures and unknown ships 6 clicks away from Planet Hamburg. I engaged my cruise engines and flew to the source. What I found was... shocking. A Unioner Arbeiter-class fighter, designated as Union was fighting Herr Oberfeldweber Gunter Weissman, while a Hessian gunboat designated as ave was standing idly with charged weapons. The energy signatures originated from the Unioner fighter's missile fire, the ship was using them rather commonly. Both the Unioner's and Herr Weissman's ships were heavily damaged, but Herr Weissman had to eject when his reactore core started buring up. The Oberfeldwebel's drifting ship was destroyed in the planet's atmosphere.
I was outraged by the act of terror these pirates committed. I was too late to help Herr Weissman, but I could take the two ships out. My finger was itching on the trigger of the SNAC aimed on the gunboat, but no matter how much I wanted to pull it, I gave him the chance to surrender himself and his crew and prepare to be escorted to Vierlande. The ship didn't really react anything besides saying something like "egaging RM" as I recall and opened fire with all its guns targetting my vessel. My SNAC was already charged and I emptied the antimatter tube into the ship's hull. I managed to bring the gunboat down without suffering too much damage. The Unioner Arbeiter was destroyed by an RFP recruit patrol wing and a Battleship patrol in the meantime.
Luckily enough, Herr Weissman was recovered without a scratch and he was quickly given a new ship while I switched to my Wraith. Since we recieved reports of several unidentified contacts moving through the Dresden system, we proceeded to the system and began a search for anything suspicious. Our first contact was the weirdest and most surprising one. A cruiser-class vessel of some... alien design was positioned near the trade lane at Bautzen station. It wasn't similar to the so-called "Nomad" aliens I met during my previous patrol, but it didn't really resemble any human construction I was aware of. The ship's transmitter indicated a designation as Schulc and it had an Order Guard ID according to my scans, but I'm quite certain that the ship ripped the IFF off an Order cruiser it encountered or was simply jamming our scanners. Either way, I was certain to keep my finger on the trigger, although the ship's combat capabilities were unknown. Surprisingly enough, it understood Herr Weissman ordering him to leave Rheinland and did accordingly. I'm clueless regarding this situation.
We continued our patrol to Leipzig, where we encountered another two hostile contacts on scope. I wasn't sure at first what the source of the signals were, so we proceeded a bit deeper into the nebula, without leaving the juristiction of Leipzig station. My sensors picked up a Hessian and a Corsair ship, their rapid movements indicated that the ships were fighting each other. Despite that, the corsair's presence was never confirmed, it could have been another Hessian ship, only my sensors were faulty. Either way, our attention was diverted by a Liberty Police transport, designated as Head_Hunter. We ordered the ship to halt and our scans indicated that the ship was indeed belonging to the Libertonian security firm. We attempted to guide the ship out of Rheinland, but it docked to Leipzig. As soon as that, our sensors indicated an explosion, coming from deeper into the field. Since miners could have been threathened, we had to investigate the source. I yet again recieved a reading on a Hessian ship, designated as Maksim Volkov as we got in deeper. The contact attempted to flee, as we got out of the field and my sensors were online once again, they determined that the Hessian ship was very heavily damaged. It was too fast to be caught and we didn't pursue as it entered another nebula.
After that incident, we headed to the Hamburg system to continue our patrol, but we were interrupted by a distress signal coming from a Kruger security ship located in Dresden, claiming to have been under attack by a Hessian ship. I was ordered to investigate while Herr Weissman proceeded to Hamburg. As soon as I got there and the Hessian ship, piloted by Maksim Volkov noticed my presence, it started to flee. Since Herr Weber, the Kruger security officer was out of disruptors and I was too far to launch one, the terrorist got away. Herr Weber thanked me for my assistance and gave me permission to resupply and repair at Bautzen.
I was sitting in the cantine reading the recent news when Herr Oberfeldwebel Gunter Weissman called me to duty. I took my flight uniform and took off with my Bomber from Planet Hamburg. Herr Weissman briefed me in space while I was on my way to the rendezvous point at Dortmund Station. We were to hit two Hessian gunboats and a fighter pirating on traffic between the Dortmund-Bonn trade lane. By the time we got there, their numbers have increased by another Very Heavy Fighter and we caught them red handed while attempting to pirate some sort of Junker vessel (probably a Werewolf) commandeered by Rusty Bobez.
We tried to flank the enemy vessels and get as close as possible to their gunboats as possible. They probably noticed our attempt, because they started shooting cruise disruptors at us while we were in motion. They opened fire at us before we managed to outflank them, but regardless our first target was easy to take down. The gunboat designated as Johann von Krusenstern didn't have an armor upgrade, so a few of our well-placed SNAC shots managed to take its shields down and another one to breach the ship's hull. The other gunboat, designated as Bronevik was armored, but it wasn't too much harder than its comrade. The only hardship was the fact that both gunboats and the fighters focused fire on me and during that did I have to also place proper SNAC shots at the enemy vessels, which I did with success. Just as we were about to bring the Bronevik down, Herr Hauptgefreiter Heinrik Drum arrived and helped us finish the job, the Junker vessel which they attempted to pirate also opened fire. The two fighters would have offered more trouble against the two of us bombers, but thanks to Herr Drum's interference, Eric Hartmann and Yevgeny Volgin were dispatched with ease. Herr Oberfeldwebel Maximilian Voss arrived to help us aswell, but he didn't have to interfere as we had the situation handled. I landed on the Strausberg to have the necessary reparations handled.
My ship was repaired to as if it was new in a few hours, right on time for another assignment against another two Hessian gunboats, bearing the same designation that the two ships we took down earlier did. I recieved an emergency distress call from Obergefreiter Kreuzchen that he was under attack by two Hessian gunboats while he was piloting a single Wraith while being on patrol in the Hamburg system so I immediately took off. I contacted our main barracks for reinforcements, Major Chezberger, Oberfeldwebel Voss and Oberfeldwebel Drum took off to help Kreuzchen. They were at the battlefield faster than I was and they neutralised the two gunboats with relative ease.
That battle was done, but it wasn't the last one that day. We all reported our status to Herr Chezberger, who eventually determined that enough Kriegsmarinen were on duty to begin a full scale Texas assault. We gathered around Hamburg under the command of the Major, a reserve bomber, the RN Bergemir and two reserve capital ships, the cruiser RNC Oderschvank and the battleship RNC Bananhej joined our ranks. As soon as the battleship arrived, we proceeded forward to Bering.
The fighters and bombers quickly made it through to Texas, while the capital ships lagged behind. That made them able to detect a Libertonian cruiser, the LNS Denver heading torwards our direction. The Major ordered us to scramble around the gate and arm our weapons to set up an ambush for the arriving ship. Our anticipations proved to be correct, the ship entered the system shortly after the arrival of the Bananhej. The ship attempted to flee, noticing the fact that we outnumbered it, but it couldn't evade a whole battlefleet. As soon as its engines were disrupted, we ran scans on the vessel. It indeed seemed to be a commissioned Navy Cruiser with a Guard ID on board, but strangely enough, the IFF still displayed neutral. The cruiser was also nothing but an unarmed hull. Herr Chezberger ordered the commander of the ship to surrender the craft, but he refused to comply so we were to open fire. The ship attempted to warn the Libertonians of our presence, but I don't think the transmissions got through before its destruction.
We were then to proceed forward to planet Houston. We didn't encounter any resistance until we got to the planet, where we spotted a Liberty Assault Battlecruiser, the LNS Columbia and a two fighters, Alexander Casero and a reserve pilot, called Peter Storm. Our battleship, the Bananhej opened fire on the Battleship Mississippi after Herr Chezberger's orders. The Battleship took the Heavy mortar fire quite well, but I'm confident it suffered heavy damage after a while. Before we could hit the Libertonians, a very heavy ion storm hit the area, rendering most of our sensors and comm systems offline. The Libertonians abused the occasion to get reinforcements into the area. The LNS Osborne, an Assault carrier and two gunboats, the Zorg The Borg and the Paulsurfer entered the area. They were quickly followed by the regular Liberty Navy, led by Admiral David Hale. Hank Kapinos, Alexander Casero, Ryan MacTavish, Andy Doggett, Tom Preager and an LPI SWAT officer, Ryan Cooper were the names I could get, there were probably more of them. Luckily enough, two Unioner ships, Sandra Bachmeier and an Arbeiter designated as Ween decided to put aside their treachery and assist their homeland against the foreign, common enemy.
The battle began when the LNS Columbia, confident by the support of his comrades and the ion storm that caught us, started launching missiles at our fighters, targetting Herr Drum with them. As soon as a heavier ion wave hit us and my sensors were rendered offline, the Columbia charged the Oderschvank, opening fire with all batteries at the unsuspecting cruiser. I was really surprised to see that the Columbia dared attacking during an ion storm, so we were forced to defend our ships with blinded sensors and failing communications. The Columbia took heavy damage and started retreating torwards the Mississippi, but luckily for us, the ion storm started to easen up (even though it didn't disappear until the fight was over) and we started to pursue the battlecruiser. That inspired all the Libertonians to commence their attack to save their ship. They all began to attack the Bananhej first. The ship's overheated mortars were to target the Osborne carrier, but they didn't succeed in causing remarkable damage, while the enemy's concentrated bombardment breached the hull of the Bananhej. Despite that, we didn't break our attack of the Columbia. The enemy battlecruiser managed to evade for long enough to give time to the Libertonian bomber craft and the Osborne to destroy the Oderschvank aswell, which concentrated its energy on weapons rather than keeping its shield up, so it suffered a hull breach shortly before the Columbia did.
Our next target was the Osborne. The Assault Carrier was bombarding our ships successfully from a distance and we were to reinforce our bombers targetting that specific ship, but it was somehow drifted away by a wave of the ion storm so fast that we were unable to follow. In the meantime, the RNC Nagold arrived, providing another huge and easy-to-hit target for the Libertonian forces, who lived with the chance and destroyed our last reserve cruiser. We were then ordered to focus our fire on the Paulsurfer gunboat, but I was personally rendered useless as about six Libertonian fighters started focusing their fire on my ship, so I had to focus on evasion. The Zorg The Borg, the Paulsurfer, Peter Storm and SWAT Officer Ryan Cooper were brought down while I was trying to loose my pursuers, but the LNS Okichoni and the LNS Buzzkill reinforced the enemy.
I fought to the end and was jettisoned to space when my hull breached. I almost froze to death, but a Junker transport picked me up. I paid the captain to ferry me to New Berlin instead of handing me over to the Libertonian authorities. The captain did so as he couldn't resist the money I offered, I'm now in the central hospital under medical treatment. I hope I'll be able to perform my duties soon. I don't know how the battle ended, but one of the Unioners and the LNS Buzzkill was destroyed while I was still drifting in space. I hope we were eventually victorious, as Major General Engels was on his way with don't know who else to reinforce us.
Quote:Here's a complete list of participants in the action:
Note: It may be missing some of the participants, as I got disrupted before it ended.