As someone who spent some time on Lancer, fear not. If it was a case of sabotage and not the result of the system updates derping out, it wasn’t a very bright fellow. Lancer has to engage from the front and has no torpedo tubes, so mines are out of the question, and the only shields to ever take an actual pounding are the front ones, except on very specific circumstances that read as “we’d be fucked either way, so let’s get this over with”. And, for that matter, her shields are so low that, while nice to have, we don’t get the chance to rely on them a lot and usually end up fighting without shields.
Take the exam at your own time, Blaze. You’re doing good, and you manage to avoid the most common mistake of weapons officers: failure to remember the existance of shields before and after combat. Still, as much as I appreciate having you on Hydra, I’d seriously recommend you to join the company of Raven or Lancer for a session or two. Beam havy ships are different challenges for a weapons guy, and you could learn something important there. I took three months before stepping up for the exam (proposing research papers as a cadet was starting to turn into an annoyance, so I prefered to just get my comission once and for all), and it was back when the exam system was being reformed. I was on the first or second batch that used the new system that remained operational even a year ago, but I’m not sure it’s still online. Left the training department some time ago.
About the surrendered ships, it’s not the first time we scuttle an USF vessel. This group in particular was the first idiotic enough not to launch lifepods -which, to be honest, I would have ordered to be kept tethered by a tractor beam rather than bringing them aboard after what happened the last time someone fired lifepods near us. If you’ll excuse my sociopathic tendencies, think of the chase as target practise with the rear tubes. But I must say, I just love high speed combat.
Nice work with the fighter! Keep making our ship proud.