TARGET ID: Liberty Navy Reporting Center
SUBJECT: PR 05/03/823
This is Cadet Reed Icarus.
Within 10 minutes of undocking from West Point for my first patrol after my recruitment meeting, my lane to california was interrupted by a bandit (callsign snake.fist) in a Bayonet carrying an Outcast ID. I told him to surrender, but he declined, and suggested that it was time for me to die, instead. A navy dreadnought (callsign Aether.Fang) and an LSF fighter pilot (callsign blu.srbeam) offered their assistance, which I declined. Just before I broke the bandit's hull, he ate one of his own mines about 6 minutes into the encounter.
I resupplied and continued my patrol.
I came across the LSF pilot who offered his assistance earlier and we discussed pirate activity in the system, which was light. I spent the next half an hour in the Texas system patrolling without any encounters.
On my way back to New York, as I approached Norfolk I spotted Lt. Reeves. A Bowex Bretonian train (callsign Werner.Hopfner) went by hauling Rheinbier, and shortly afterward Lt. Reeves instructed me to follow him for escort duty. We met up with the ship at Planet Manhattan, which is when I noticed he was carrying an excessive number of Business Delegates in his hold. I informed the captain of the Bowex vessel that the legal limit in a transport ship is 650 passengers, and after a brief discussion he returned the unhappy businessmen to the planet's surface. He filled his hold with Liberty Ale and returned to space, but his pilot had apparently gotten into the cargo and drunkenly piloted the ship back into the atmosphere. Fortunately, the captain was able to take control and we escorted him to the edge of Rheinland space. He seemed concerned about the operational capacity of the Hudson>Hamburg jump gate, but I assured him that it had passed inspection and was safe for usage.
On our way back through Texas, I spotted a pirate in a Roc (callsign mr.nobody) camping next to the trade lane. After a brief exchange of words he literally tried to extort us for $2.000.000 credits, at which point Lt. Reeves gave the order to engage. Within 5 minutes we vaporized the Roc, with Lt. Reeves scoring the kill.
Lt. Reeves received another request for an escort and we returned to Hudson for the rendezvous. While we waited, we discussed our ship equipment and weapons loadouts. Once the dromedary (callsign VWA|WTS-Spartacus) arrived with a hold full of <UNABLE TO RETREIVE DATA, ERROR CODE 403 - FORBIDDEN>, we escorted him to the New York system. I spotted mr.nobody beside the lane between the Texas gate and Norfolk, and we sent Spartacus ahead to <UNABLE TO RETREIVE DATA, ERROR CODE 403 - FORBIDDEN> alone, turned back and engaged the pirate Roc. After another 5-minute engagement, I scored my first kill.
After resupplying on Norfolk, I noticed a Mammoth (callsign -FTS-Dolphin) with an unsafe number of passengers heading for Rheinland space. Once I informed him of the legal passenger limitations for transport ships, he cooperated and we escorted him back to Planet Manhattan. He then allowed the required number of business delegates to disembark, at which point I cleared him for travel.
Once the Dolphin was on its way, I thanked Lt. Reeves for showing me the ropes and ended my 2.75 hour shift at West Point.