I had my first full-time patrol as an Ensign of the Liberty Navy today. It could be said relatively uneventful, compared to what we usually have to face. Even as that might be so, we did get to deal with several troublesome issues.
As I was en route to [color=#FFCC00][font=Century Gothic]<span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%]Virginia to get a BDR-804 from the [color=#FFCC00]Petersburg hangars, I encountered a large strike group of secondary fleet capital ships, which seemed to be assembling to strike Rheinland. Their task force was consistant mainly of capital-class vessels with the usual lack of fighter support, so Commodore Robinson brought the operation to a halt before the secondary fleet started, in light of the fact that the lack of fighter support could have meant a huge advantage to the Rheinland Kriegsmarine in the combat that was about to come.
While the Commodore was dealing with the difficult-to-reach reservists, I exchanged my flight keys for a BDR-804 and took it back to the field. As I was going back to Norfolk, I ran accross a Smuggler transport, designated as Jarek.Smuggler. My scans indicated the vessel was housing tons of Cardamine, so I instructed him to cut his engines and prepare to submit his hold for confiscation. Needless to say, he didn't comply. I reported the event to Commodore Robinson who told me to chase the Smuggler down at all costs. So I did.
The vessel fired at me as I disrupted its engines, I immediately retaliated. The smuggler fled torwards a jump hole, where Commodore Robinson was already waiting, in a well-placed ambush. We took the Pirate train out, its cargo hold of poison perished in space and in the explosion.
We returned to Manhattan to do repairs and offload the samples we collected, then we were called to respond to a threat forwarded by the agents of the Hellfire Legion. A patrol consistant of pilots Hood and Reed were already engaged by the threat, being successful at bringing one of the enemy vessels to destruction, a lower ranking one. Reinforcements came from both sides, two other Legionnaires and several other Liberty Navy vessels arrived to contribute to the situation's outcome.
As smoothly as the operation began, as rapidly did it collapse by the interference of a disobedient reserve fleet Battlecruiser, leading our forces to be pulled out to the airspace of Fort Bush.