NEURAL NET ID: Leon, Emeric H. SECURITY CLEARANCE: Rookie ENCRYPTION LEVEL:HIGH PRIORITY:Low FREQUENCY: EIDO DELAY: N/A TOPIC: Stirring up the Northern Taus
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A foreword: This report is overdue, and is going to contain logs and recordings from several different flights that have occured within the past few days.
Three other fighter units (Euphoria, Basilisk 4 and Arae 1) and myself were sent out on a probing mission to the northern Taus in order to...hmm, see what was out there. Primarily it was intended to be a mission against the Maltese, and it was one in which we succeeded beyond any expectations I personally had.
Our first contact was a smuggler belonging to some new subgroup of the Outcasts, identifying itself as D.I.E. Appropiate, since while he tried to buy his life back from us he was unsuccessful. The smuggler himself was unremarkable, but his cargo was not; a sample of this so-named 'military salvage' was delivered to Barrier Gate aboard my vessel, and can be picked up by our logistics units from storage there. The salvage appears to be similar to the scrap sourced from Texas junkers, though little else could be gleaned from a simple visual inspection.
The smuggler was able to call for help before his ship was reduced to its component atoms, however - as we entered Tau037 our flight was intercepted by another D.I.E. ship, this time a snubcraft, who was attempting to race to the aid of his transport. This fighter was engaged in a duel by Euphoria, who dispatched the attacker in short order. That recording image, provided by Basilisk, also captures an ambush by one of the D.I.E. dreadnaughts which de-cloaked on our group while his snub escort was being destroyed. It did not immediately open fire; perhaps a sign of a power plant failure or other technical fault that occured onboard? Readings were inconclusive, and the ship was driven off by combined antimatter and plasma bombing with no losses suffered. Oddly the vessel only fired back sporadically, barely managing to damage my shields before his guns went silent again.
With the threat answered forcefully, and Vertigo added to the wing, the flight continued deeper into Outcast space, entering Omicron Tau and flying towards their Genoa Base in a search pattern. There we encountered another dreadnaught, this one without armament and carrying what appeared to be refugees or wounded personel. A quick query determined this was some kind of hospital ship, and we departed without attacking it. Relevant excerpt from the logs is included here:
Code:
[21.04.2018 20:37:35] A/)-Vertigo: Hostile spotted.
[21.04.2018 20:37:46] A/)-Arae.1: B: Copy that. Arming warheads.
[21.04.2018 20:37:51] A/)-Basilisk.4: Locking arms.
[21.04.2018 20:37:56] A/)-Basilisk.4: Torpedo ready.
[21.04.2018 20:38:12] A/)-Vertigo: Powering up the AN-3. Vertigo, combat check complete. Moving in.
[21.04.2018 20:38:16] MNS-St.Alda: ?: This is the MNS-St.Alda, do not fire, I repeat do not fire!
[21.04.2018 20:38:21] A/)-Smokestack: We're ready here.
[21.04.2018 20:38:29] A/)-Basilisk.4: Why not?
[21.04.2018 20:38:36] A/)-Arae.1: B: Give us a good reason.
[21.04.2018 20:39:20] A/)-Vertigo: Check your scanners. Target is unarmed.
[21.04.2018 20:39:20] A/)-Arae.1: B: ...where are your turrets?
[21.04.2018 20:39:22] MNS-St.Alda: ?: This is Captain Elisabetta Cerra, this vessel does not have any weapons, not capable of attacking or defending itself. -
[21.04.2018 20:39:44] Tip: Armor Upgrades are permanent items which, when mounted, multiply your ship's base hitpoints. It is an essential item on any ship.
[21.04.2018 20:39:56] MNS-St.Alda: Elisabetta: This is a hospital ship with more than 600 injured onboard.
[21.04.2018 20:40:18] A/)-Arae.1: B: Damnation.
[21.04.2018 20:40:20] A/)-Vertigo: Talk about a well-armored hospital.
[21.04.2018 20:40:47] A/)-Arae.1: B: We can't do this, can we?
[21.04.2018 20:41:03] A/)-Vertigo: It's not like it's going to be charging into battle against us.
[21.04.2018 20:41:11] A/)-Vertigo: Let's go.
[21.04.2018 20:41:15] A/)-Arae.1: B: Copy that.
[21.04.2018 20:41:16] A/)-Basilisk.4: Copy.
[21.04.2018 20:41:24] A/)-Vertigo: Farewell, Captain.
[21.04.2018 20:41:26] A/)-Smokestack: Complie. Moving off.
[21.04.2018 20:41:35] MNS-St.Alda: Elisabetta: Thank you for your understanding and safe travels.
The incursion continued, into Omicron Alpha. Some silliness occured inside the wreck of the Hispania, and then while flying towards the northern asteroid field we intercepted and chased yet another dreadnaught back to Malta itself, this one with a group identifier of 'Eta'. Little was gained as we traded insults, opened fire, and forced it away as well with moderate damage. Having accomplished this task our patrol moved on, and with no further contacts returned to quarters on Barrier Gate and Inverness.
The following day Star Sentinel and I returned to the northern Taus to attempt a repeat performance of that first excursion; we were not successful at all, I am afraid, though recon photos of a Zoner Aquilon in Kusari named God.Particle were obtained here and here and we moved on, finally returning with new maps through Kusari, the upper Sigmas, and then into Omicron Beta and out to the Taus again through Outcast space, this time mostly unchallenged. On the way to the Omicron Beta jump anomaly in Sigma 19 we encountered this nestled between the twinned planets in the nebula there, hiding from naval patrols; no other noteworthy objects or incidents recorded.