Here's the latest after-action report from my end, regarding the recent events in Stuttgart, for those who haven't heard already.
Approximately four hours ago Major Hessler received word of Rheinland Military ships somewhere around Omega-11 and seeing as he wasn't doing anything in particular other than playing strip-poker with a barmaid - and losing at that - he decided to save that kind of fun for later and then went out with me to check the situation.
Unfortunately for us we didn't even get near the Omegas at that point because as soon as we launched we received a distress call from Leutnant Kirill Yanovski. Our comrade had gotten himself between a rock and a hard place, rock being the Rheinland Military Cruiser, designation "Proteus", and the hard place being the Solaris firestorm it was dishing out.
We rushed off to the scene, roughly ten clicks off the Omega-7 gate in Stuttgart, and on the way Major Hessler called in for support. By the time I arrived at Yanovski's location I found him - to my surprise - in the process of kindly asking the captain of a Bowex Shire for a donation.
Once Major Hessler and I joined the Leutnant's persuasive effort the captain was quickly convinced and handed a generous sum of credits over to Yanovski. Afterwards our three fighters, no match for a heavily armored Cruiser with that armament, were reinforced by Major Amsel.
Amsel made his appearance with the Cruiser "Hessen", along with Flieger Walter Steiner and a comrade named "Achterath" who had come from Omega-7. The comrade Major had the gunnery crews put the Hessen's artillery to destructive use immediately. Combined with our four fighters' fire the ship didn't last long, and the result was as shiny as the Hessen's arrival must've been unexpected for the capitano of the Proteus.
Afterwards Major Amsel had Yanovski's ship restocked. It was severely low on supplies after having pinned down the Cruiser for what must've seemed like an eternity to comrade Kirill. Eitherway, once that was done Major Amsel launched from the Hessen in his own fighter, ordering the ship out to hide in Omega-7 for the time being if I recall correctly. It didn't take long however and we had an odd visitor stumble upon our group.
The ship you can see in the attached shot, "The_Red_Phoenix", happened to be a Liberty Gunboat. We were pretty surprised to see that kind of ship here. What was even more odd about it was that it wasn't showing any IFF signature and all that I could pick up was a generic Freelancer transponder beacon aboard. Unfortunately for the captain and crew we spotted Hessian escape pods aboard, which wasn't something we could tolerate. Took all of two minutes and we had them rescued, with the ship of their captors reduced to burning debris.
Amigos, that's pretty much how we got to the more major part I'll comment on below. I'm sure you remember the Bowex ship? Said ship's captain must've sent a distress call to the Rheinland Military after we had been so kind to him and so welcoming of his donation, and it doesn't take a wizard to figure out who showed up next.
When the Rheinland Military arrived on the scene I surprisingly heard none of Major Hessler's famous introductions, nor any of the usual chitchat, and I can safely say I was impressed by the aura of mutual respect emanating from that confrontation. Except for comrade Yanovski, who proved that he had cojones at least equal to Hessler's by doing what he - from what I've heard - does best.
In the above shot, if you look closely, you can spot two Transports in the distance - the "Hiperion.II" and "Midnight.Tokio.Express". Under the Military's nose, right in their faces, Leutnant Yanovski let his charms work and asked the captains of those ships for a couple donations. And he got them.
Not even a minute afterwards space heated up abruptly as Major Amsel - being tired of waiting - ordered the assault on the Military forces in the area. As the people in Liberty say, things quickly took a turn for the awesome and the show was on. Our forces against the Military's, presumably led by Vizeadmiral Weissman, with odds being pretty even. We went to work immediately, focusing on designated targets, and the other side did the same. Command was passed on to Leutnant Yanovski, seeing as both Majors Amsel and Hessler were too likely to be focused upon. It didn't take long for the first Military fighter to get fried, courtesy of comrade Hessler.
Afterwards things got rougher, with Military reinforcements arriving and more underway. The fighting was tense and I lost oversight quickly in the mess, focusing my own attention on whatever target Yanovski marked and doing what I could to buy our side more time, trying to get the more major threats on the enemy side away from our heavy-hitters together with Yanovski. Most notably I'd like to mention the Military's Valkyrie Wing pilot Felicia Drum and the regular Flieger Engelhard Sulzer. The former must've taken some kind of liking to me, judging by her behavior in the furball. By that I mean "judging by her trying to get me into a duel and her sitting on my rear-end". The latter on the other hand seemed less agressive by far and I couldn't really make out what it was that he was trying to do. We ended up in one-on-one situations here and there, but only for seconds, orders taking a higher priority to dueling.
During the whole ordeal I didn't really get to see much of our side other than Yanovski who was mostly working together with me, but as explosions started to flash and hostile radar signatures began to disappear I knew we were slowly gaining the upper hand. Or at least it seemed that way. - I might add here that I didn't get to capture all explosive or "special" events on guncam either, what with having been too busy with doing my part, so the few shots you will see in this report are just representative and don't cover everything.
Given that more Military reinforcements were arriving on the scene we were forced to push on harder, with every single shot counting as both sides were desperately trying to gain the upper hand. Unfortunately for us Recruit Daniel Link couldn't cope with the extreme pressure from the Military's side and his ship got shredded apart by massed Tachyon fire at some point. Luckily Major Hessler got his pod and I hope that comrade Link is safe and sound aboard... well, wherever Hessler took him later. Given the immense pressure I say that Link did a very fine job at staying alive for as long as he did, seeing as the Military's pilots aren't exactly bad shots, and I'm talking from experience here, what with my last trip with Hessler in New Berlin ending with me watching from the sideline after nearly getting torn apart in a matter of less than five minutes.
Anyhow, the fight kept going and reinforcements began to show up like I said. In the middle of it all, somehow a Heimdall appeared, captained by comrade Shaf Hauzen. The Majors did their best to call it off, telling Hauzen to vacate the area, knowing that his Heimdall would become the center of the Military's attention as soon as it opened fire. Given the odds it obviously wouldn't have lasted.
Unfortunately for our side comrade Hauzen got provoked by the earlier-mentioned Flieger Sulzer, and as soon as Hauzen returned fire the foreseeable happened. Miraculously however Hauzen managed to keep his Heimdall together steady for a rather long while, buying us valuable time to keep wearing the enemy fighters down, and so his sacrifice was not in vain.
Several minutes of fighting later, with more reinforcements on the horizon, Amsel or Yanovski, I don't remember, but either one asked Major Hessler to call in for more support on our end so we wouldn't get overwhelmed. I lost track of things happening at that point, and I only remember the Valkyrie Drum breaking off somewhere in the middle of it before the Military's Vizeadmiral himself set his eyes on my behind, relentlessly chasing me as I was doing my best to keep on the pressure.
Before our support arrived, led by Major Hoerst himself, we managed to have the odds turn in our favor however, downing another Military fighter and then quickly switching our focus to Vizeadmiral Weissman. Somewhere then Hoerst showed up, merely watching and commenting that at this point the reinforcements were unnecessary. Case in point, with Weissman having become our center of attention it took us only a few minutes until he turned tail and ran for the nearby Freiburg Station, making an emergency landing with his ship badly damaged and Nanobot supplies empty.
In the following minutes the action quickly quieted down, with the Military forces flying evasive-only under Freiburg's protection and withdrawing one after another.
Once it was clear the battle was over I took the liberty of heading back to Vogtland while some of our pilots headed for other nearby bases and approximately half of us formed a raiding party under command of Major Hoerst. Said group set course for Omega-7 immediately, eager to pay the Daumann Miners in there a visit now that they wouldn't have to deal with interfering Military patrols for the end of the day. And that's about it from my end.
[color=#999966]-(Transmission terminated
Quote:
-(For Major Gunther Hoerst only
[color=#FFFFFF]Major, as it's you and your hospitality that make my prolonged stay in Hessian territory possible in the first place I've to inform you of something you might very well not like and disagree with. During the events outlined above two pilots of the Military's Valkyrie wing took part, Felicia Drum and Diana Ritter. Wasn't the first time I was on the Hessian side and encountered those, but the Valkyries and I have some short history, short enough to not even be called history. The point is however I've fought with the Valks against Liberty's forces on multiple occasions in the past and, simply put, I'm not going to shoot them unless if I can avoid it or they shoot me first. Drum being the exception, as it's too late for that one and she seemed rather keen on getting at my throat earlier. But I'm not going to be the first one shooting the Ritters and the others, especially not Diana. We both know I'm just a guest here, not directly one of your men, and I plain don't have any hostility against the Valkyries. You're hearing this 'cause you should know, and I'm hoping you understand that I'd rather not fight someone whom I'd call my personal comrade, regardless of how brief and situational the comradeship might've been, and regardless of whether it's over now or not.