Liberty Police, Inc. Reporting Office

[Senshi]

Comm ID: Officer Cho Sprinks
Subject: Patrol Report
Date: 06.06.818 20:00-22:00 SMT
Location: New York, California, Pennsylvania

After Action Report:
At 20:15 SMT I mounted my Liberator in reply to recent intelligence reports of a large scale smuggling transport in California. At 20:20 I arrived at our supposed deployment area near California Minor, where Officer Sinclair was already wating. However, it soon became apparent that the intel was off this time and the expected smugglers wouldn't appear. We decided to abort the mission at 20:30 and go on regular lane patrol instead. We started covering the California system, but things were peace and calm, nothing sinister or suspicious going on. At 20:37 we had covered all lanes and moved on to the New York system.

Here we scored quickly: Just along the California Jumpgate -> West Point Academy Tradelane, there were two Hackers waiting along the lane at 20:40
Sybreed, in a Sabre VHF
Ibsilon, in a Bayonet HF
And Violet.Roses, a suspected Rogue who fled the scene the very moment we arrived.

Situation was messy, as there were already two secondary fleet gunboats on scene, as well as several civilians and freelancers.
Gladly, the hackers were rather cooperative, and after a prisoner exchange (2 Lane Hacker pilots against 6 Liberty Police pilots), they agreed to leave the system immediately. We had not caught them doing any crimes on the spot, but the reports of the Secondary Fleet captains and the behavior of this kind is well known and surely unwanted in New York. Scene was closed and dissolved at 20:46. We continued our patrol of the New York system.

The whole system was calm and quiet, a nice change for once! Many traders and civilians going on about their business, and no baddies to annoy them. At 21:00 we finished with our patrol and several cargo scans of suspicious, but ultimately clear vessels, and proceeded to Pennsylvania.

Well, what to say. Even Penns was completely clear, many traders and miners, nothing sinister going on. We returned to New York at 21:10. But when we arrived at West Point, we noticed that the Liberty navy vessels from before were still present at the Lanes, apparently in dispute with a Mercenary lady in the Sabre "Copernicus".
Simultaneously, we got a message from our new recruit officer Monorov who was asking for a small rundown on the setup process of his vessel. We invited him to join us at West Point for now, because we both had our hands full with keeping these guys from each others throats.

As we did not have a clear knowledge about how the whole scene started, and both sides accused the other party of harassing, threatening and disruptions, things were difficult to resolve.

15 minutes later officer Sinclair had to break off and return to Fort Bush for an emergency comm, so I continued alone, with RO Monorov as backup. At 20:28, my patience was at an end and - for the sake of peace - I ordered the mercenary to cease all communication with the Secondary Fleet captains, except in case of an emergency. I also asked the Secondary Fleet captains to refrain from any communication with Copernicus. As both parties agreed and silence was set, we finally could leave these "grownups" and I could take care of Monorov. If somebody is interested in the complete chatlog, please contact me so I can forward the respective logfile.

After asking him some questions about his experience and awareness of Liberty laws (which he all answered excellently!), we moved to Planet Houston to get him a fresh and shiny Liberator from maintenance. As his accounts didn't allow him to place the required deposit for the vessel, I forwarded 6.000.000 from my own accounts to him so he could set up a proper vessel. After making sure he received a proper LPI badge, a Liberator and a basic weapon outfit, I set him on registering with the LPI Guard departement, so he can finalize his outfit in Illinois.

We finished at 21:50 and Recruit officer Monorov docked at Planet Houston to finalize his paper stuff.

I used the time for a short rest here and scanned and interrogated passing traffic. After only 4 minutes, a suspicious vessel called "Ironic.Gentleman" carrying Luxury Consumer goods approached from New York. Asking where he intended to take that, he made some lame evasive answers and finally stated "Freeport 2". Hard to believe that the zoners there developed such an aquired taste they are in need of multiple thousand boxes of Luxury consumer goods, but I did not manage to make him slip up. I gave him a final and very direct warning that NOT dropping off the cargo at Freeport 2 and continuing into Rheinland would not go unnoticed. As Bering sadly is out of my jurisdiction, I contacted a covert agent to follow the suspect without attracting attention and make sure the cargo gets dropped off at Freeport 2.
At 22:00, I had to send Ironic.Gentleman on his way again. At the same time, another vessel, "Captn.Azbestos" approached from the Hudson Jump Gate. A quick scan showed he was carrying quite a load of engine components. I immediately called him to stop his engines right now and submit to a cargo scan, but he already had approached the tradelane and managed to slip through. I went on pursuit and once I reached New York, I asked all Law enforcers to interdict the vessel and/or inform me if they crossed path the vessel right now.
At 22:09 Captn Azbestos contacted me on the system channel, excusing his lack of response with faulty comm systems. I asked him nicely to meet with me at Fort Bush so our departement there could do an extensive cargo scan to make sure the engine components are not sabotaged, but he stated he already had them dropped off. I had just asked him to at least send me the shipping box numbers so I could forward them to Baltimore and Norfolk Shipyard, when suddenly all lights went out. Not only in my ship, but all lighting of shipyars, all comm channels, engine management, everything. Apparently an intense Ion storm had just struck out of nowhere, putting all of New York on freeze.

As I was in the immediate vicinity of Fort Bush the station used manual mechanic controls to grab my vessel and haul me into the safety of their docking bay. Because it was unclear when the Ion storm would end, I ended my patrol right there at 22:12. Later I was informed by my contact that he was struck shortly before he and the suspect arrived at Freeport 2 and thus was unable to verify a cargo transfer, as all his imaging equipment was damaged by the Ion Spike.

Total results:
-= Removed from System=-
1x VHF, Rogue
1x VHF, Lane Hacker
1x Bomber, Lane Hacker
-=Losses=-
None

As usual, all communications were logged with timestamps and can serve as evidence if required.