From: Chief Freeman, Highland Security
To: Highland Security Public Broadcast
There was a good deal of company business today, but I've only one important announcement I'd like to make.
Seems like Felix has been watching the kill roster and doesn't have any intention to let us catch up. Earlier today, he handed me some guncam shots and said they were of a Slaver he'd taken down - I told him 'good job' and made a mental note to register a report on it later.
Well, I've just gone through the pics, where I realised he'd decided to take on two liners by himself, taking one down and chasing the other one, heavily damaging it, before it reached the No Fire Zone of [color=#FFFF66]Freeport 10. Furthermore, I asked him to clarify the multiple contacts I was seeing in the records. Turns out he sure earned this one; a member of the 101st responded to the convoy's distress calls, and Felix kept working those slavers all the way to Freeport under OC fire.
I don't mean to make a big fuss out of a guy doing his job, but there's a reason for this public praise. I wanted to foreshadow Jenkin's promotion to leader of our first official combat team, callsign Felis. He's been showing a lot of initiative and dedication lately and this latest sortie made up my mind.
Highland pilots, I'll be contacting you each privately to discuss your assignment and position within the team. In the meantime, keep yourselves and the smugglers busy.
Oh, and before I forget - better put in the official part of the report for him, now.
ACTION REPORT - 1505 SMT
CLASSIFICATION: Interdiction POINT OF CONTACT: Tau-37, South Cloud END OF CONTACT: Tau-37, Freeport 10
ACTION REPORT
From: Chairman Ender of Highland Security
CLASSIFICATION: General Combat POINT OF CONTACT: Northern Cloud, Tau-37 END OF CONTACT: Planet Malta, Omicron Alpha, then again at the Northern Cloud in Tau-37.
INVOLVEMENT:
Friendlies
HS.|Ender-Memphis.Belle (Jefferson Ender, Chairman) - Roc
HS.|CZarZBombcat (Felix Jenkins, Felis 1) - Waran
HS.|Super-Enine (Slip Ford, Felis 4) - Virage
HS.|SpaceCat (Marc Nolan, Felis 2) - Stinger
HS.|Alan_13th (Alandria Soit Kale, Felis 3) - Raven's Talon Hostiles
ArgoLiner (Freelancer?) - Advanced Train (Slaver)
Hector_Savage (Outcast) - Sabre
Vultur-Griphus (Outcast) - Sabre
Padre (Outcast) - Sabre [color=#CC0000]Destroyed
Susa.Ibn.Sina (Outcast) - Tridente Gunboat
Nightlord (Outcast) - Sabre
Kiranu_Yamato (Outcast) - Sabre Destroyed
[RA]Mr.Garrison (Outcast) - Sabre
Jarek_z.h.l (Unknown) - Unknown Destroyed COMBAT DETAILS:
Well, this was an interesting one. During a routine patrol in two small two-ship groups through Tau-37, myself and Felix Jenkins came upon an Outcast Sabre (Hector_Savage). After a little chat, we engaged. He fled immediately and we pursued, passing into Omicron Alpha as Slip Ford and Marc Nolan caught up with us. Once in Omicron Alpha, we chased the Sabre all the way to Malta. The Sabre docked and two more joined the melee (Padre and Vultur-Griphus) but they quickly fled and docked as well. We moved out of Omicron Alpha in pursuit of a report of a slaver, but as we reformed outside the jumphole, the Outcast fleet descended upon us. The Outcasts had something in the area of eight ships with them, almost all Sabre's and a Gunboat, but this may not be entirely accurate. It was a bit hectic, to say the least. We stood our ground and fought. Three enemy ships were destroyed, though guncam images are not available for one of them. Two of our own ships were lost in the melee. The fight moved too close to the Freeport, and I ordered Highland to withdraw instead of bringing a battle near the Zoner station.
SUPPORTING IMAGES
The chase into Omicron Alpha:
Some of the melee in Tau-37, showing a strange kill message:
An Outcast Sabre being forced to run into his own mine:
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The kill that is not pictures should be assigned to Alandria Soit Kale, who entered the fight a bit late, but on his first assignment, earned a kill. Well done, sorry we couldn't get a picture for you.
Transmission Edit:
I forgot to include another short engagement later in the night. Let me preface it with this:
I saw this coming, and after a short chat with our good friend 'Jake' onboard the Cassus Belli, retreated to Tau-23. Once in Tau-23, myself and Felix Jenkins in the HS.|CZarZBombcat moved to Java Station. The Cassus Belli saw fit to shell Java Station, and after a bit of back and forth with the Outcast forces, myself and Felix Jenkins elected to risk our lives to take the pressure off of Java Station and attack the overwhelming numbers of the Outcast fleet. Once again, this was a hectic fight, and there may have been more hostiles (infact, I know there were more, but I have no evidence to prove this). I am quite proud of the way myself and Jenkins fought. We lasted a great deal of time against overwhelming firepower, dealt a great deal of damage, before being forced to retreat by a electronics error in Jenkin's ship (//disconnected). I made it safely to Java Station, while my Eagle was on fire. After docking, the Super-Enine piloted by Slip Ford entered the fray, dealing a great deal of damage in a short period of time. Unfortunately, we were unable to claim any kills. INVOLVEMENT:
Friendlies
HS.|Ender-Chuck.Yeager (Jefferson Ender, Chairman) - Eagle.
HS.|CZarZBombcat (Felix Jenkins, Felis 1) - Waran
HS.|Super-Enine (Slip Ford, Felis 4) - Gunboat
Of interesting note during this was the IMG mining ship MS-Chanticleer, who attempted to aid the Outcasts. Though he did not fire, he verbally berated us, tried to shut us out from Java Station, and claimed that he had a brother who trades in Slaves.
Jefferson Ender
Chairman, Highland Security [font=Lucida Console]
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Subject: Work Inquiry
From: Jack "Ransom" Arsen, Unallied Pilot
Greetings, Highland Security.
At the beginning allow me to say I am impressed by your stand up against slavery, though mainly in Taus it I praise your actions!
After following the current open Neuralnet thread and seeing how smugglers and slavers groups react into your moves, I decided to offer my services.
If you find my offer useful, please feel free to contact me and arrange a meeting to discuss details.
My Spatial is at your service.
Kindest regards,
Jack "Ransom" Arsen [font=Lucida Console]
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' Wrote:yeah my spell and such sucks but i what ever
(...)
From: Chief Freeman, Highland Security
To: Highland Security Public Broadcast
First off - Mr. Arsen, let me tell you what a pleasure it is to hear from someone else who shares our views on slavers! I would love to discuss further details with you and have replied to your private communications with such.
As you can see we're currently operating predominantly in Tau space - if you'd like to make the trip up here to Tau-23 or Tau-37 in your Spatial, we'll be happy to get you up to speed! It will be a pleasure to welcome you on board.
Now, to deal with the day's usual business... I'll admit I'm dealing with a teensy bit of a backlog here, so I'll be blazing through this one as fast and as informally as I can!
To start off, a couple of days ago I was moored outside Manhattan in the Freerunner (Christened by a couple of pirates as 'the party yacht'), with Jeff beside me in his Wasupu. Some sinister fellow under the name [color=#FFCC66]Barracouda suddenly appeared on the scanners and gave Jeff an ultimatum - either participate in a duel with the guy, or he could stand by and watch as toxic waste was released into Manhattan orbit. Jeff being the nice guy he is, of course, went and scrapped that nasty piece of work. Chalk one up for the big boss!
Next up for confirmation is a slaver we picked up the next day back in Tau-37 - name was Agent56. We caught him popping out of the 23 Jumphole, and get this - instead of running for the Freeport, he just ran away from the system. And ran, and ran... around 110 klicks out. Eventually he realised I wasn't giving up, turned, and faced the music. It was a pain to haul those poor guys all the way back to Freeport, let me tell you...
Third in tonight's show, a smuggler who christened his ship Accidental_Suicide was disabled on purpose by Jeff in his bomber. Nothing to see here - the guy had the gear, and he didn't want to drop it. Moving along!
Fourth in the countdown is something I'm very happy to report - Highland Security's first registered kill on a Capital-class vessel! We were stationed in Tau-23 on regular patrol when a very aggressive destroyer registered as Hostile-Intent.ProjectX told us to leave. Whether or not we would've retreated out of Tau space, we'll never know, because retreat wasn't an option - our favourite rival, MNS-Cassus.Belli was coming up from behind, too. So, when you can't retreat, advance, right?
We high-tailed it through Tau-37 and 'retreated' into Omicron Alpha. Okay, seems a bit backwards, but desperate times call for desperate tactics. Well, they'd followed us in and we were about to leave, when someone had the crazy idea of taking on this destroyer. And so we did.
The Belli seemed to have some trouble training his guns on us, and without a wall of flak to drown us out we took out the offending destroyer in short order. It lost hull-integrity next to Planet Malta, just as some backup started to arrive - which is when we decided to get out of there.
Not long after, our fifth guest in tonight's lineup appeared - the smuggler U72. The Belli was still hot on our heels, and we were hounded by his now fully-functioning weapons systems the whole way to Cali base, where the smuggler docked. But, feeling brave with an apparent battleship escort, he undocked again and tried to make it out to Tau-29.
I am pleased to report that we caned him as the Belli vaporized every bit of space around us with overwhelming firepower that just couldn't quite come to bear on our agile ships. Remind me to write a thank-you letter to the makers of the Roc.
And that, folks, is the extent of what I have to report from the past couple of days! I apologize for the more casual format but I've been on a 36-hour shift and right now, protocol can go jump off a bridge if it gets me to my quarters faster.
Exhausted Chief of Ops, signing off.
John Freeman
Chief of Operations, Highland Security [font=Lucida Console]
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ACTION REPORT
From: Chairman Ender of Highland Security
CLASSIFICATION: Combat Patrol POINT OF CONTACT: California System, Trade Lanes Between New York Gate and Planet Mojave END OF CONTACT: California System, Open Space beyond Planet Mojave
Combat Patrol DETAILS:
The one was pretty straightforward. Traders asked us to intervene and stop some pirates in California. We rolled in, a fight ensued. Three pirates were quickly dispatched, and the rest fled.
SUPPORTING IMAGES
Marc Nolan's kill on the Silver.2
My kill, and Nolan's second kill. Well done, Marc.
CLASSIFICATION: Combat Patrol POINT OF CONTACT: New York System, Planet Pittsburg END OF CONTACT: New York System, Planet Pittsburg
INVOLVEMENT:
Friendlies
HS.|Jefferson (Jefferson Ender) - Stinger
HS.|Alan_13th (Alandria Soit Kale) - Raven's Talon
HS.|SpaceCat (Marc Nolan) - Stinger
Combat Patrol DETAILS:
Pretty simple. More traders requested we intervene, and knowing of the bounties placed on pirates in Liberty systems, and the fact that Guadalupe was involved, we charged right in. Guadalupe fought a duel against a Spatial, and I elected to wait. We warned the Outcast to leave, and when the offer was refused, we engaged. The Lane Hacker jumped in, and we destroyed it. Guadalupe escaped due to Dark Matter interference.
SUPPORTING IMAGES
My kill on the Lane Hacker who attacked us.
Jefferson Ender
Chairman, Highland Security [font=Lucida Console]
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From: Chief Freeman, Highland Security
Subject: Further reports from the Taus
Another day, another batch of reports for perusal by authorized bodies. We've also had a couple of engagements with Corsair gunboats lately, which strikes me as odd; I'd have assumed they'd be more interested in fighting the Outcasts if they'd come all the way up there..
In other news, we finished negotiations for the purchase of several Explorer class gunboats to supplement our firepower. These boats will be used to further enforce the mandate of our contracts, and should prove to be an interesting new part of our tactics! We've already had one success in the liberation of a load of slaves from a smuggler, by the Sail South with Jenkins presiding on the helm during its operation.
Without further ado, the nuts and bolts of today's sweat and tears:
ACTION REPORTS
John Freeman
Chief of Operations, Highland Security [font=Lucida Console]
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It's been a very busy week for the Highlanders; with the Colonial-Outcast treaty dissolved, the Taus have been hotter than hell lately. There's so much to cover that I don't know where to begin; instead, I want to briefly describe some of our more interesting encounters and leave the rest to the reports section.
First in our line-up of big encounters this week was yet another attempt on the lives of Java Station's crew by yet another massive Outcast battleship. The [color=#FFCC66]Prometheus[Harvester24] showed a bold streak of programming and launched a solo offensive on the IMG station; sick of sitting by and watching massive ships pound the place, the few of us that were available lead a hasty defense of the station.
Suprisingly, it didn't take much supernova persuasion to see this big brute running for the thirty-seven jumphole. Must have been an error in the courage applet. We let the scrapheap run and headed back towards Java to try and help out in the damage control.
The same day, yet another Outcast Battleship, the [RA]ATOM, tried the exact same trick. With not much more bravery than the last, we chased him all the way back to Alpha. When he found he couldn't even hide there, we kept whaling on him as he fled into the Outcast Guard system. The fire got pretty thick in there, so we called it a day and headed home for another round of putting out fires and guarding the repair crews.
Only the next day, we were patrolling Tau-37 for smugglers when we were ambushed by an entire battlegroup! The above shot is the fiery demise we wrought upon their destroyer, MNS|The.Harri.Karri, as it stubbornly fought to bring us down.
The OC were understandably upset by this, and despite our withdrawl into Tau-23 they chased us the whole way home. Gritting our teeth and preparing for the inevitable onslaught, the common sight of a rag-tag Outcast space-horde rumbled towards our line.
The boys fought bravely, and we took down our fair share of zerglings, but most of our team was wrecked in the melee. The rest of us picked up our pods and beat a hasty retreat from the angry mob.
After almost non-stop action, I was flying home from a patrol in 37 when I noticed a Colonial transport being bombed by a Falcatta. I raced to the scene but was too late to do anything but curse as Giovanni.Leoni cruised away from the wreckage. Luckily for me, Leoni appeared to be a very lax pirate, leaving the wrecked transport's entire shipment of Neon intact.
As I made preperations for a train to salvage as much of the shipment as we could carry, two members of the Cartel turned up with Leoni, who was now determined to destroy the cargo, having guessed my plans to salvage it. What happened next is a humorous little tale of some very trusting criminals meeting some very shameless Freelancers; and, if you're interested, below lies the communication records from the event.
I guess next time those guys will consider the fine print; I mean, technically they truly did get just as much money out of it as we did. Hope the credits made it to you safely, Giarmakya, and hopefully next time I won't be late!
That about wraps up most all of our business for this past week or so. I'll finish with the straight stats of our work, in the form of some bulk action reports for perusal.
INTERDICTION REPORTS
ENGAGEMENT REPORTS
OTHER KILLS
John Freeman
Chief of Operations, Highland Security [font=Lucida Console]
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From: Chief Freeman, Highland Security
Subject: Official Contract
Highlanders, I'm pleased to direct your attention to this channel.
We've been working clandestine for some time now, but we've officially signed a contract with the Colonial Remnant. This means our momentary cease-fire in the drug war is over, and you don't have to listen to any smuggler argue their rights a second longer.
Cardi-hunting season is open again, boys. Protocol to be resumed as standard.
Good hunting.
John Freeman
Chief of Operations, Highland Security [font=Lucida Console]
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I would like to notice the players that were is says _Iceman_ was killed... well thats not true, since the pilot of the Slaver vessel directed his ship agains the sun, and killing one of the HS in the effect since he has been pursuited...
So dont report kills by one of yours, unless one of your pilots actually do it...:rtfm:
<span style="font-family:Comic Sans Ms"> Being in NY sistem all the time, means you are a lolwutt...</span>
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