Well, yesterday was interesting to say the least. The day started off with a myriad of pirates, and then the rest of my shift was taken up by smugglers seemingly coming out of every faucet of Liberty.
My shift started abruptly with a Code 5 alert: Several pirates were attacking a Liberty cruiser near Manhatten. I launched my bomber, but due to technical difficulties, was unable to launch for 5 minutes. I was glued to the Holovision: Watching the battle unfold from a Liberty news ship that was filming the battle. My heart sunk when i heard the Liberty cruiser commander ordered to abandon ship. Luckily all crew managed to get clear of the blast radius before the cruiser went up in a fireball. By the time i had successfully undocked from Manhatten, the pirates had fled back into deep recess of space. Minutes later, another officer reported an Outcast fleet at planet Mojave, in the California system. He requested backup, and i promptly responded.
On approach to Mojave, my jaw dropped as i saw an Outcast RM-1 Destroyer class vessel, with a compliment of two or three gunboats guarding it. I dropped out of the tradelane, as i had ascertained the other officer had managed to evade the fleet. Unfortunately the fleet saw me too. They all started to head towards my position. Knowing i had no chance, i attempted to start my cruise engines, with no success; it seems the technical difficulties my ship was suffering on Manhatten still weren't completely fixed. I thrustered away from them, making my way around Planet Mojave back to the tradelanes. I got my chance and i took it, i took the tradelane to California Minor to call for backup. There were no available officers. The officer in California contacted me with the news that the outcast destroyer and one of the gunboats had left. That left only one gunboat and one fighter (who appeared out of no-where). Myself and the other officer engaged the targets with no success; they destroyed both our ships.
Suffice to say no visual evidence of the battle survived the explosion of my ship.
After my backup ship had been launched from Manhatten, Navy command had authorised the use of a Dreadnaught-class Liberty battleship to try and get rid of these persistant pirates. Myself, the LNS-Milwaukee and officer Epsilon found two pirates: Jim.Black and Jim.White, piloting a Gunboat and Destroyer respectively. The commander of the Milwaukee order to engage all visible threats, and we engaged in battle. Jim.White was soon destroyed, but Jim.Black managed to escape. We pursued the gunboat, but the skilled pirate pilot managed to dodge all of our incoming fire. Things quickly went downhill when two more pirate gunboats engaged us, and we were soon fighting a losing battle. Officer Epsilon managed to escape the marauding pirates, as the Milwaukee order a retreat command. In the confusion, my ship was left behind to face 3 Gunboats alone. I managed to last a few minutes before the enevitable occured: My ship was once again destroyed.
After a tertiary backup ship was launched, and an apparent promotion by the commander of the LNS-Milwaukee to "a rank that allows be to have a gunboat!" (although i am fairly certain this statement was made in jest), i then started a patrol of Texas. After starting in Texas, i rarely left as the smugglers came at me from all directions.
One lane hacker gunship by the name of 'Gambit' was a minor annoyance until i showed him the power of my supernova. He hastily made his escape.
SunDog was the first smuggler to be caught, however he continued to flee back to Bering and attempt to get back into Texas through Hudson. Each time he was stopped, but managed to flee back to Bering/Hudson and repair his ship. I'm confident he will be caught one day.
Scarecrow was the next idiotic smuggler to try and sell some Cardamine on planet Housten. After refusing to give drop the drugs and pay the fine, he engaged my bomber. My bomber took a serious beating, but Scarecrow was destroyed and all the drugs vaporised.
Another smuggler named Weedalot had somehow got past the officer stationed outside Housten, LNS-Lightfin, and managed to make his way to the Bering jumpgate, where i was already arresting SunDog. Whilst engaging SunDog, i managed to scan Weedalot's cargo bay: it contained thousands of poor slaves. By the time i realised what he had on board, it was too late, Weedalot had already gone to Bering.
Luckily before he escaped through to Bering, i had placed a transponder on Weedalot's ship, and telemetry showed he was headed for a return trip to Texas. I suspected he was hauling Cardamine, and wouldn't you know it, he was. After refusing to drop the Cardamine and pay the fine, he was destroyed.
Day Summary:
Pirate Assault on Manhatten --ALL LAWFUL SHIPS DESTROYED, MY SHIP LAUNCHED TOO LATE FOR BATTLE--
Engaged at Mojave by Outcast Fleet --SHIP DESTROYED--
Engaged at Manhatten by pirate fleet --ONE ENEMY DESTROYER DOWN, MY SHIP WAS DESTROYED--
Gambit --LANE HACKER-- --ESCAPED--
SunDog --SMUGGLER-- --ESCAPED; $4MIL FINE OUTSTANDING--
Scarecrow --SMUGGLER-- --DESTROYED--
Weedalot --SMUGGLER-- --ESCAPED ONCE, THEN DESTROYED--
A day filled with smugglers, as usual, however the pirate fleet that decimated our forces at the start of the day worried me greatly...I'm sure High Command has a battle strategy ready for the next time it happens.