I missed commanding the Douglas so I decided to put my Guardian aside and called back the crew from ship leave. When launching from Norfolk, there was a group of ships, mainly Liberty Navy ships, chasing what appears to be a Nova torpedo launched from a Junker's ship. I warned them that someone might get hurt and it turned out that someone did get his ship destroyed. The Junker wasn't aware that the torpedo was actually going to hit a ship. Luckily the pilot ejected just in time. I reprimanded the Junker, "Mr Hatcher, you are in violation of destroying a Liberty Navy ship. You must pay for the destroyed Guardian." He eventually paid for it.
After awhile the navy men got bored, I called for another raid into Hamburg. This time we are going to disrupt the flow of their goods. The navy men immediately agreed to the raid. We proceeded to Houston afterward to form the fleet. A Gunboat, LNS-Lincoln, responded to the call. We took the trade lane to Bering. As with the previous raid, I said the same thing to these men. Once into Bering, we performed a standby operation around Hamburg Jump Gate. There we were ambushed by a group of Republican and Unioner ships, both where immediately taken care of. I took first jump into Hamburg.
At once, a Rheinland Cruiser patrol picked us up. They knew we where coming. Without question I ordered weapons free on them. Within minutes, the patrol was no more. We captured a Cruiser Commander, 2 Gunboat Captains, and several pilots. They were later dropped off at Battleship Missouri for questioning. We explored further into Hamburg. Within 20 kilometers of Hamburg, we dropped lane. There we saw the |Bismarck|, a Rheinland Battleship, it seems that the Cruiser we encountered earlier sent off a transmission before exploding. Without hesitation, I ordered the fleet to head to Bering Jump Hole. The Bismarck alerted the whole system. We had withdrawn without any casualties.
As always we expected a counter attack, we rallied several more ships: a bomber, Kiss;a dreadnought, LNS-Oblivion; a siege cruiser, LNS-Octicron.. I asked the fleet if they wanted to strike the enemy first before they do. They agreed but I had to make a perfect plan. I sent 2 scouts, Deciple and Williams, to spy on the enemy's movements. After a while, I formed a defensive formation about 6 kilometers from Freeport 2. The scouts reported the Bismarck blocking the jump gate accompanied by a Gunboat and 2 cruisers. They insisted that we strike from the Jump Gate. I told them to wait at the asteroid field. We would strike from it.
It was a daring maneuver but we had to stop them from gaining the first strike. With the fleet ready, we proceed to the Bering Jump Hole. There was a lot of confusion from the start. The LNS-Oblivion had trouble going through the asteroid fields. Then the 2 scouts were under attack by a Rheinland Gunboat. It was weird that the Gunboat was identified by the ID scanners as Spa and Cruise. It fled towards the direction of the Jump Gate as soon as he saw the fleet. We chased it to the Jump Gate and found an astonishing site. There was not one but two Rheinland Battleships now, aside from the |Bismarck| there was the RNC-Munster. Two other Rheinland Cruisers appeared, one particularly familiar, RNC-Nassau. The Nassau provided us a easy target. It was positioned far from the 2 Battleship. The Oblivion would get the attention of the 2 Battleships and we would singled the Nassau out.
The battle went smoothly although the LNS-Octicron was destroyed immediately, it had not been equipped with a specialized armor. The Oblivion did her job well. She led the 2 Battleships into the field followed by the 2 other cruisers. The Nassau was hard to shoot. It dodged our fire extremely well but I managed to hit it near the engines with the Forward Gun, I practiced a lot during my free time. As soon as the Nassau went down, I ordered a General Retreat from the system. We retreated without further casualties but the battle would go on later.
As the retreat progressed, the Rheinlanders tried to block us at the Freeport. Luckily they were moving at impulse speed. We regrouped at Planet Houston. On the way, the fighters cut the trade lanes in the hopes of stalling the advance of the Rheinland Fleet. It ironic that they consisted of mostly capital ships while we were mostly fighters and bombers. We rallied all available ships of any size to Texas. The LNS-Tumwater and LNS-Providence responded, 2 dreadnoughts. We cheered as we had even the match. The Tumwater defended our rear, Captain Micheal stationed it near the New York jump gate. The Providence was added to our fleet at Houston. A Bounty Hunter named BadWolf offered his assistance, he was a capable fighter pilot. I decided to give him the command of the fighter squadron. Although it was not fit for a Bounty Hunter to command the squadron, there was no capable leader among the Navy fighter pilots.
We awaited the Rheinlander's assault. It took us some time to figure out that they too adopted my previous plan. They evaded our strong defense at Houston and assaulted our rearguard, the LNS-Tumwater. Captain Micheal called for help but it was too late. We responded as soon as we can but when we tried to counter-attack, our ships were already scattered. The Rheinlanders picked us off one by one. The Douglas was heavily damaged during the battle, I engaged cruise to escape but as I look backed the 2 dreadnoughts, LNS-Oblivion and LNS-Providence, fell. I thought it was foolish of me to just run like that. Before the crew and I ejected, I made a command to the computer inside the ship. "<<<<<< Automatic fire on the Foward Gun, Dive into RNC-Munster>>>>>>" With that, I ordered another General Retreat and asked a fighter pilot to pick us up. The computer took a last image before it doved into the Battleship.