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Stardate 30416-2237
There’s a word I’ve been using a lot lately to describe our shifts. Chaotic. Normally I blame this on Xavier not being around to keep everyone in line. This time, that excuse doesn’t fit, not wholly. After all, we’re still AWOL and hiding in Hjordan territory. I think my headspace was a little mucked up this time around. That probably contributes to the vibe I was getting.
To start it all off, the first comment I heard as we all gathered was that someone had been drinking heavily before the shift. Now, I’ve already mentioned that coming to shift hung over is a bad idea. Stars around, I blasted that same message over the CommsNet multiple times. It looks like those words had been misremembered. When a recording of me was pulled out, I was proven right, and could do nothing but smirk. Don’t challenge me on what I said, people.
I will destroy you.Both adding and taking away from my annoyance was the Raven’s crew situation. As usual, not all of our regulars were on board. I wonder if Tygra was left back at command. I haven’t seen her in a few shifts. Wade was quickly pulled away by the Dauntless, who needed more higher ranked officers. Then there was our backup. The first extra assignment was Lt. Cmd. Zelreich. I won’t lie, it bothers me whenever a different senior officer is sent to the ship. One more person with higher authority that doesn’t know her like the rest of us do. We were also sent a cadet by the name of Ignis to work weapons.
Last on the ship was Zephyr. Back before he took a leave of absence, he was in charge of engineering on the Raven. When it comes to knowing how the old bird works, I trust few more than him. It was good to have him back, even though it was only temporary.
It turns out that the Hjordan systems don’t seem to get along with our own. I don’t know how the other stations were performing during our first sim, but my science console was unusable. There was an unbearable amount of lag. Often causing what I was seeing to be a full minute behind what was actually happening. I timed it! This is how little use I was on the bridge. Especially with Zelrich taking my usual XO role when Gebbens has command.
All that was eventually sorted out, only to replaced by a new problem. No one would stop talking. I’ve gone on at this point about bridge chatter, and that it should never go past a certain point. That point was far exceeded this time around. It eventually got bad enough that I was having trouble focusing on the task at hand. I tried my best to cut it down, but without any real authority, I was ignored. I could tell Gebbens felt the same way from the looks we passed at each other, but he didn’t have any more luck then I did.
Fate decided to be merciful. The Montgomery requested a replacement helmsman. As out of character of me it sounds, I quickly volunteered and was out of the Raven faster than could be imagined. Something must have happened with Matsiyan, as he seemed distracted when he passed off the helm controls to me. Leonard and Chuck didn’t have any details forthcoming, so I shrugged and sat down.
Only adding to my sense of foreboding, Cmd. Jemel apologized in advance for if he became snappy. He’s apparently had a bit of a rough time. Not that I made it any easier. While defending against attacking Skaarans, there was a moment where we had lost more of our front shields, yet Jemel still wanted to press the attack. It turns out that orders tend to be given more specifically on the Raven than on other ships. If fancier flying is called for, the captain will say what needs to be done. This is not how Jemel operates. So despite my repeated reminders that we had low shields, I brought us in for attack.
The dreadnought was then rocked so hard, we momentarily lost power on the bridge. While systems slowly came back online, Jemel and Leonard took the chance to rip me a new one for my “tactics.” It turns out that they were expecting to fly around our opponent and hit him with our side arc, rather than just rushing forward. I knew as soon as they left my mouth that my excuses were complete crap, and
I wish that I hadn’t said themonly embarrassed me further. At least Jemel had already apologized?We would find out later it wasn’t the Skaarans that had taken us out. The Eagle had launched a nuke at our target without announcing, and I had gotten us caught in the blast. I’m tired of getting nuked. Especially while I’m the one flying the fucking ship. I should see if I can make some “incoming nuke” alarms. It’d be nice to get some warning for once.
As we pulled ourselves back to working order, a singularity opened up in the corner of the sector. Rather than Caltrons, a single ship of strange make came out. The Rolling Thunder was it’s designation, and its message was just as powerful. Captain Evans on the Eagle opened up comms to it, and at first,
the conversation was one-sidedwe were only able to hear the Captain. The phrase “welcome back” shed light on the situation.Xavier was alive. And in a Ximni ship. Called it.
Cheering whoops were heard all over fleet comms as we docked with Hjordan. Once in our makeshift briefing room, Xavier laid down a few facts. One, if we hadn’t taken so long getting the Montgomery from its hiding space, then we might have actually gotten to him in time during our failed rescue attempt. Two, a Ximni ship had shown up and done our job for us. Thinking back on it, I did see a Ximni ship briefly on sensors. But I ignored it, believing it to be a glitch. Now I just feel like an idiot.
Almost as if to postpone our inevitable celebration, we were sent back to to our ships for some extra practice. As the Raven was still fully staffed, I again took up the stick on the Montgomery. Mundy came over as a last minute addition, freeing up Jemel from SciComms.
I’ve got two more points to get out before I set down this pen and get back to work. The first is that I’m going to put in a recommendation that we start training all officers so that they have experience under different Captains and ships. Part of this idea is because of my blunder earlier. The other is from Mundy’s comment once she got on board the Montgomery. Since her normal position on the Eagle has her not worrying about shield frequencies (its a missile cruiser), it took her a second to realize that they were now a factor. Now imagine if a cadet or ensign were in the same situation. It might take them longer to come to the same realization. And it might cause an issue during combat. I’d rather tackle this before it can cause one.
My other thought is about the Raven’s big cannon. It normally packs a good punch. But now it’s a monster. It can now strip the shields away from just about anything in one hit. At first, we were all flabbergasted by it’s new power. Now I’m finding out that Blaze did something to make it more like what the Dauntless packs. I’m fine with the results, but it’s the lack of knowledge about it that’s bothering me. How come no one tells me anything?
// Bravo! This was such fun to read. Told with panache by a curmudgeon 🙂
Matsiyan arrived at the last minute due to shuttle repairs and had to leave the bridge before Xavier was recovered so there is lots of new information here not to mention perspectives. Sorry if I was taciturn, I am still developing my Helm secondary and while I have been improving, Montgomery is a whole new challenge, even with able assistance from Engineering. I was feeling that I could have done better.
//I enjoyed reading this!
And I agree about training on different ships and with different captains. It’s comfortable to settle into a ship and crew we know, but we should be effective wherever we are.// @matsiyan Thank you, as always! I like to think Eric is the surliest non-engineer in the fleet. He just hides it by making jokes constantly.
I totally get what you’re saying. The Montgomery is a slow beast of a ship, and would be pretty infuriating when you’re used to something more nimble like the Lancer. Nothing to be sorry about, though. My comment was mainly me coming up with an IC reason for you needing to leave early.
// @mundy I’m really looking forward to the sims where crews get mixed up. There are plenty of people I only interact with in the Galley. It’ll be neat to see what they’re like on a bridge.
//As someone who had to leave before Xavier’s return. I’m glad to get your version of these events. Without your log or Mundy’s log, I’d have no idea about what is going on.
// @feil *dramatic bow* Glad to hear you’re finding it useful.
//Expertly written, as always.
//Btw, I hope you do know that what I wrote in the bar topic, about Blaze fixing up the weapons, is not “approved” by higher ups. If one of them changed the way something works, I’ve no idea about it. I just saw the opportunity for RP and seized it.
well,I have now added GM keys to damage ship systems. Since you have been ‘experimenting’ with the weapon systems, I’d cross your fingers that it doesn’t blow out the whole of the weapon system nodes and kill half your dam con teams because your overloadig the system 😉
//Oh, @Aramond, I won’t mind! As long as it fits the characters, all RP is welcome. 😀
//Blaze, whether it is recognised or not it’s irrelevant, as Aramond’s character seems to believe you.
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